Unexpected Bliss

Hello, lovelies! I hope you all had a wonderful week. Mine had been a mix of rush, surprises and as always a dash of chaos in the home area. So I'm definitely eager to unwind this weekend. Other than the unexpected (blessed, blessed) rain than suddenly came drizzling upon us after months of long drought, I also had another surprise that put a very wide smile on my face!

A few months ago, I was approached and invited by La Marelle Editions to join their exceptionally brilliant group of artists to make my work available as their products. If you aren't familiar with them already, La Marelle Editions is an amazingly creative French based company that sells whimsical artistic merchandises for children and the childlike at heart. Once I clicked the link to their site, I knew I wanted in right away! :)

So, voila! There I am now, smacked in the middle among so many artists I have admired for so long, including my all time favorite, Nicoletta Ceccoli! You just can't imagine how over the moon I was when I found out. I guess when you work so hard to find your dream, sometimes you just don't expect to see a glimpse of it until someone comes along and show it to you. :)

To celebrate...

My Etsy shop is just two sales away from 100. So, I will be giving away an 8x10 inches fine art print of your choice with the next 5 sales that come along! You can choose the print yourself at my shop's print section or at my new Society6 shop.

Anyway, I'm glad I could share this wonderful news and celebrate with all of you my bloggy friends and followers. This blog has been such a huge part of my quest to happily ever after, and I must say that I'm truly, truly blessed to have your friendships and support.

Many hugs to you,

Setting My Priorities Straight

My. That sounds like a seerrioouusss title, doesn't it? Well, it's pretty much true. After my recent confusion with priorities, I finally took some time to think about them and what's most important to me right now. Of course, family always comes first, no questions about that. It's work that desperately needs some organizing. And thanks to the tips some of you gave me on my last post, I think I can now see things more clearly, from refreshed angles and perspectives.

First of all, creating art is my top priority. I don't know about you, but sometimes I get so distracted and sidetracked in the midst of my chaotic life, that eventually I'd find myself lost with no clue on how to get back on track. This I think is a red alert for us working in the creative field because once you're lost, you tend to slip away from your creativity zone, leading you to a blank wall which you can't seem to fill in with art no matter what you do. Sounds familiar? I find it much harder to get back to the creating rhythm once this happens, so it's really best to watch for signs. Whenever you feel like you're getting sidetracked, then it's time for you to stop and evaluate. Good thing I found my way back, otherwise these new girls and their cats would probably still be hidden in my head, waiting for me to discover them! :)

One of the hardest things about working independently as an artist is not being able to balance the needs to create and promoting your work. Both are equally crucial, especially when most of your opportunities come from networking online. Maintaining your social circles is hard work and it's not something you can gain overnight. However, it's such a pain when you get carried away and wake up one morning to realize that you've been spending more hours socializing whilst your drawing table is gathering dust in the studio! That would be a huge setback to your productivity and unfortunately something I'm still experiencing until now.

So anyway, after much thoughts, here are a few things I've decided to do to help simplify things in the work area and hopefully my life in general...

♠ My Etsy shop will be a place where I sell my original art and illustrations only. As much as I love selling handmade prints and paper goods, it's just way too time consuming. Therefore, I'm having a special promotion on the prints still available in the shop... you get TWO EXTRA prints of your choice for each TWO prints purchased. Sounds good? :)
♠ I will be making prints of my work available in my new Society6 shop, which by the way provides beautiful high quality prints in a variety of sizes and options. You can even purchase bags, t-shirts and iPhone cases with my work too!
♠ My blog will remain the center of my online activities. It's the one place where I can really be honest with myself and communicate with friends more personally. I'm sure many of you bloggers out there would agree...

Okay. Pheww. That was quite a long post, wasn't it? Well, I hope it helped open up a few windows in your head and as always I love feedbacks...so fire away! :)

Hugs,

Sponsor Love ♥ Art and Nature

Hi everyone! I've been meaning to show off the art of this lovely sponsor and a very special friend of mine, Tammie Lee. For those of you who are already familiar with her beautiful photography, you should also know that she's a wonderful and naturally talented artist...

Beautyflows

What I love about Tammie's work is the peaceful soothing effect it seems to send out, and how each element within the art seems to flow harmoniously with one another. I think living so close to nature not only has given her the ability to understand all of its wonders, but also helps her to capture its spirit in a very positive and beautiful way. Each of her goddesses and whimsical ladies shines with feminine beauty and whispers comforting melodies to your soul...

Come visit Tammie at her enchanting blog or lovely shop to take a bigger peek into her world!

Links: Blog ♥ Shop

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I'm sure you all enjoyed seeing all those comforting pieces of art...and here are a few more to replenish your soul for the day...

As usual... clicking the image will lead to its link. Here's wishing you a peaceful and lovely day!

Hugs,

Send me an e-mail for more details

Something Personal, at Last...

Hello. How's life treating you these days? I have been busy sorting out and reorganizing my agenda for the last couple of days, and yesterday it hit me that my To Do List has been terrifyingly growing longer each day! Seriously, I've added at least one task to my list every other day and I seem to take more time crossing things off. That can't be good, right? At the end I realized that I have been working too much on commissions, marketing and technicality, spending less and less time to create my personal art... something that's actually very important to me and crucial to my own personal growth as an artist.

I know it's probably getting old, but balance is such a slippery little devil, isn't it? What I want to do is to keep it nice and steady in my hand, but all it seems to be doing is slipping right off! I guess I might have a much better grasp if I had less to focus on. Maybe it's yet another time for me to set my priorities straight...

Well anyway, on the other hand, I'm glad I managed to force myself to work on this idea I've had for some time. I can't tell you how satisfying it was to actually do something that was purely me, without any brief to follow or audience to please. If you've ever experienced anything like this before, please feel free to share...I'm sure we could all use some tips! (^_^)

Have a lovely day, everyone!

It's Never Too Early for Halloween

That's right! I know that it's still a month away from Halloween, but it is always such a highly anticipated event of the year, so there's no reason why we can't spice up our dwellings and get ready for the Spooks to come out! :)

Don't you just love Halloween? :)

Spider kisses,

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Each image leads to its link with a click, except number 1 and 2

A Little Detour Goes a Long Way

Hey there! Have you been busy? Well I sure have! Ever since my unwanted guest came to visit, I have been trying a lot of things to get my creativity mood back in shape. Making sketches, stalking art sites, watching movies (although usually only half way through), and even sorting out my portfolio cases which are now beautifully organized, by the way. Strangely enough, after all that I still found myself sitting in front of a blank paper with an idle hand. But then I took a detour...

...and I had an absolute blast! I've forgotten what it's like to create something just for the fun of it, without thinking too much, analyzing this and that only because I'm used to doing things in certain ways. Yes, now I know that I've been so terribly bored and desperate for a change of scene. After making these Halloween ornaments, I went on the next day and got a little carried away some more...

It just felt surprisingly good to create something very different. Now I can feel that creativity juice brewing and bubbling nicely inside, ready for the next challenge! Isn't it incredible how our mind and emotions could work harmoniously together when we really know the key? I have been pushing myself too hard in the wrong direction, forgetting that my imagination is not a machine that can simply reboot whenever I need it too. I may have used different templates and mediums for these little creations, but they still reflect myself in each of them. And that's what really matters. :)

See you soon!


Love,



***All of these Halloween goodies are now happily frolicking in my shop. :)

Sponsor Love ♥ An Ode to the Creepy Cute

Hello friends! I hope your day is wonderful! I'm back for another feature of my wonderful sponsor... Get ready to feast your eyes upon these sweet, creepy-cute lovelies. They're just so adorable, I even had a hard time choosing which ones to include here! :)

Little Nore

Meet the cute characters of Little Nore, an online shop created by UK based artist and illustrator, Heidi M. She loves to create wide eyed, pouty-mouthed beauties with a tad of cute and creepy edge through a variety of mixed media techniques. With a passion for story telling, Heidi loves to convey a story in each painting she creates, bringing her characters to life in their own unique way. If you're interested to follow Heidi's artistic journey and inspirations, hop on over to her fantastic blog and watch how she creates each of her work with plenty of love.

Links: Blog ♥ Shop ♥ Facebook Page ♥ Twitter

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And here are some more creepy cuties I found while wandering on Etsy.com, just click on the image to visit the link....

  

Have fun browsing! :)

Send me an e-mail for more details

A Healthy Diet for Imagination

Hey everyone! So the week finally ends. I hope you had a joyful and productive one. I have been working hard, trying to catch up with commissioned works. What with the creativity rut I'm stuck in, that's probably just about the only thing I can do (yep, it's still there, just hanging around casually like an unwanted guest). These two drawings were ordered last month and I've been working on them along with my other projects. I guess it's just a good thing that I'm already in the finishing stages, so there's not too much creativity demanded. Otherwise I would be going insane about now. :)

Some people recommend doing more sketches, creating simple things, or even staying out of the studio and just do whatever that really pleases me before finally going back to work. So many remedies to try and all I can think of is how much easier it would be if I could have prevented it in the first place. Like a good diet to keep the body healthy, I'm sure there's a way to keep the creativity level safe and stable. Wouldn't you agree? Now what exactly do you feed imagination for it to stay in tip top condition? Well, here are some of the things off the top of my head that I will be trying...

Read a book (start to finish!)
Watch a movie (preferably with a magical or whimsical theme)
Update my music playlist 
Take a walk and enjoy nature
Spend time on sites that show inspirations (Pinterest, craftgawker, etsy...any suggestions?)
Make a date with my sketchbook
Play with paints and make some mess
Have a day off from work and take oodles of naps! :))

What do you reckon? Do you think that would help? Here's hoping... Anyway, I hope you find some peace and happiness this weekend. Big hugs to everyone!

Sponsor Love ♥ Art in a Touch

A couple of days ago I received a message from one of my friends asking if I had an Instagram account he could follow. I said I don't, and he asked why. I asked him why I should, and he said most people today do, so he just assumed that I would. To that, I could only laugh and told him that he obviously doesn't know me that well. I've never been one of those people who did things just because others did. Some may say that I'm uncool for not keeping up with the popular social hypes, but unless I really need to or find some joy in them, then I tend to just keep walking (which should explain why my Twitter account lasted only for a couple of months. LOL!).

However, to some people, I can see how Instagram is quite an important necessity. Especially to someone like my friend (and sponsor), Geri Centonze. She's an artist, blogger, geek (so she claims to be!) and most of all an iPhoneographer, shooting and manipulating digital images through the touch of her iPhone.

What I love most about her work, is that she uses ordinary daily life images and turn them into amazingly artistic pieces by using various applications in her iPhone. Her abstract works can start from a simple photo of flowers to something as plain as a lock. Definitely things you'd least expect to be the base form of an artwork! So if you're a curious cat like my friend Geri, I'm sure you will love spending time at her blog, iArt Chronicles, which is dedicated to this ever evolving form of art. Be sure to check it out!

Links: Blog ♥ Instagram

And here are some works of other fantastic iPhoneographers, recommended by Geri...

Kimberly Post Rowe

Karen L. Messick

Rad A. Drew

So the next time you see something that catch your eye, don't hesitate to press the camera button on your mobile phone...it might just end up as a masterpiece! :)

Happy photo hunting, everyone!

Send me an e-mail for more details