Chase's portrait!

I painted this dog portrait as a Christmas gift for a family friend. It's a surprise, but I know he and his family are going to love it! (It was painted in acryla gouache.)

Holidaze...

We put the last of the decorations up this past weekend. Now all I need is more Seattle snow!

It's December already!?!

I'm not sure what exactly happened to November other than snow here in the Seattle area, Thanksgiving feasting as well as a busy full-time job schedule. Even with the hectic pace of the month, I did manage to create and submit another recipe to They Draw & Cook. This time it was for the Holiday contest. My previous one made it to the blog on November 10th (this one), so we'll see if my little snowman makes it as well! It's not "traditional holiday", as in directly Christmas related, but it means holiday to me with the bright colors of all the Christmas lights and the snowman reminding me of cold days spent playing outside in the snow and then coming inside to warm up with a hot drink. Good times...

Happy Halloween!!!

It's my favorite holiday today! Here's one of the many spooky scenes I set up in my yard this year!

My boys...

Pics of Gryphon and Buzz taken on the iPhone 4 Hipstamatic App.

Oldie but goodie...

Here's on old art school project I painted in oils. The assignment was "create a painting that incorporates at least three eggs somehow". I've always liked this piece. Maybe this is when my obsession with chickens started?

My "They Draw & Cook" blog recipe submission...

I've been a fan of the They Draw & Cook blog for some time now and so I decided to send a submission to them. It turns out some recipes from the blog will actually be published in an upcoming book, so hopefully mine makes it to the blog AND the book! Fingers crossed!

Check out the blog here.

October is the best month...

HALLOWEEN!!! Need I say more?

Here's a few of the pumpkins I've carved for previous Halloweens...

The witch pumpkin!

I started with a witch hat, a green pumpkin, a gourd for her nose, toothpicks for her teeth, crocosmia leaves from my flowerbeds for her hair and two eggshells. After Halloween I took off her hat and placed her in the compost pile!

A white pumpkin, two glass beads for eyes, pumpkin seeds for teeth and some medical gauze created this mummy pumpkin.

I wonder what I'll create for this Halloween. Hmmm...

Happy Autumnal Equinox Everyone!

Monday always arrives too soon...

I had a relaxing weekend catching up with many friends I hadn't seen in a while. I didn't really cross anything off my to-do list, but I guess that's okay. Sometimes a calm weekend full of nothing but fun gives you a new perspective on things...

Summertime...

This summer is really flying by! I've been working on major landscaping projects in my garden and will share some pictures soon. In the meantime, here's one of many little friends who live in my garden...

Voodoo's Cottage...

Here's a pic of a small cottage my mom and I built from recycled fence boards a few years back. My cat Voodoo would lounge in it in the summer. Vood was mostly an indoor cat but he had a cat door where he was allowed to explore our fully-fenced back yard during the day. At 15 years old, he passed away February 2009 and I still miss him dearly.

Muppet Rawk 2...

I participated in an art show in May 2009 entitled "Muppet Rawk 2" at Ouch My Eye Gallery in Seattle. The idea was to take existing rock album covers and re-imagine them using Muppets in a 12" x 12" format. My painting was "Blizzard of Fozz", based on Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Oz. It's painted in Holbein Acryla Gouache. Just looking through old artwork and thought I'd share...

Artwork for Ripple Blog...

Here's four pieces of art I'm donating to the Ripple blog. Check out the project Kelly Light organized where you can get a piece of art when you donate $10 to either of two non-profits helping the animal victims of the Gulf Oil Spill.

Details here:

http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/

I'm thinking about also offering these as prints on my Etsy shop and I'd donate some % of the sales to the National Wildlife Federation. If interested in seeing these there for purchase, please leave a comment below. If I get enough comments, I'll figure out the details and make all four available.

Animal Planters...

Here's a couple of planters I put together last summer. I thought it would be fun to set up tiny environments for the animals. I'll have to do this again this year.

Crazy Busy...

Life's been a bit hectic for quite some time now. I'm going to try to post something on here at least once a week though. Fingers crossed...

For now, here's an illustration I did some time ago.