Time to get back to things!!

I've been a bit buried under life as of late and haven't been updating as I should! I'm about to remedy that over the next few weeks. My household is gearing up for the first ever preschool experience. We are overly excited (even though it's 3 weeks away) and not sleeping well at all. This all boils down to mom not sleeping well either, after working well into the wee hours of morning. Needless to say, exhaustion and crankiness has slipped in for this momma! I'm trying to get by, working as best I can to keep up with things. My friend Renmeleon and I have been working practically all year on a little project. We're hoping to launch a kickstarter for funding soon. It's been a bit of a challenge to keep up with this as I try to stay on top of real life, but I'm loving the artwork we're both creating! Currently there is a little sneak peek of something on the Once Upon a Cause blog and pretty soon it'll be a little bit of a contest. You see, we started out the year with four themes we were planning on attacking. First it was Unicorns,you can read why we choose unicorns here and have worked through gnomes and are now on robots! The site will be updated with gnomes soon as Ria and I get our bums in gear. Take a moment to pop on over To the Once Upon a Cause facebook page to follow along. Also stop in at the blog and look at the unicorn works!Here is just one of the many you can find there.

Oh so many fun and interesting things!

Well, my 2014 has been full of joy, creativity and interesting new projects. My "pay the bills" job has been keeping me hopping. Which is really nice due to the fact I work for a very small mom and pop business and we've been surviving the poor economy. That's a blessing! I count my lucky stars for all the work. It does run into my free time to keep up with my happy making creativity bit though. If I didn't do art on a daily basis, I'd be MISERABLE, and no one would want to live with me! My art and craft has been going along at a mind bending clip lately. I pumped out an afghan to donate for a friend's Fundraiser for their mission trip to Honduras this year. I'm currently in the process of a fun artful adventure with my friend Ana from Art For Cures. We've know each other for years, and in the past two or so, have been tossing unicorns at each other. When we first became friends, I told her I wasn't the "Everything on my end is sunshine and lolipops and unicorns farting rainbows". Well that unicorn farting rainbow comment has stuck with us. So for the last few years, we've been hurling unicorn posts at each other on facebook! That has now become our next artful adventure together. We're working on 4 sets of "fairy tale" themed cards. The first three months were unicorn themed of course! You can see our updates and progress on Once Upon A Cause Our goal is to get these cards turned into fun concentration/match style game cards and donate the decks to children's charities and children's hospitals. I'm thrilled at the thought of bringing a bit of happiness into some little's life, and look forward to the next rounds. We're currently on the Gnome round......unicorns, I had no problem with. Gnomes are giving me a bit of a fit!!! So we'll see how easily I can complete this round...hopefully I won't get too frustrated with it. After that, July starts robots, and October starts Yetis. I'm looking forward to the fun! So pop on over and check out Once Upon a Cause if you have some spare time. You'll see our progress, when we have time to load, and some other fun things will be happening over there as well.

A little fairy to make your day.

The custom fairy orders have been rolling in. I've been enjoying creating those one of a kind specialty pieces that make someone's day that much more special. This was a piece from a repeat customer. She had bought a single fairy and was so thrilled with it she came back for 4 more. It was so fun creating for her. This one was made with the word Milagros in mind. The little cross shield had a little metal heart attached to the back. I do love a good challenge. I've had a few this year. I've also been asked a few times this year to create boy fairies. I do create boy fairies, but tend to wait for that special order. I have posted some in my shop before and they just sit sadly alone, the little wall flowers that they are. I'll soon be preparing animal themed artwork and toys in the hopes to have quite a few things done in time for an event at the local Bottlebrush Gallery in Harmony PA. They host a fundraiser for the humane society. I missed donating last year because I found out about it too late..so I'm hoping to get a jump on things for this year. Don't forget! Now is the time to put your orders in for your custom Valentine's fairies! Don't wait until it's too late! My custom design blocks are booking up fast.

Bring on 2014!

Greetings little corner of the interwebs...I've been neglectful in updating my blog in response to trying to build a fan page on facebook. As it now stands, my limited followers rarely see my posts any more. So 2014 will bring more blog postings from me here. I'm going to breathe life into this little window into my life and try to update at least weekly, if not more. I'm looking to make a lot of changes in my life this year, and this is but a small part. We had a lovely Christmas holiday here. My 3.5 year old thrilled in Christmas this year. He spent nearly an hour collecting, and opening and ahhhing over his gifts. His faces were priceless, and his joy boundless. It was a real breath of unadulterated joy after a long, stressful work up to the holiday. My non art related job is one that is absolutely insane leading up to the week of Christmas. After that we get to enjoy the holiday and take a small break into the new year to recover from the end of October-November-December madness. So I leave you with a view to our living room. My husband is the amazing gift minder. Making sure gifts are purchased that will bring thrills and joy, without breaking the bank. I think nearly all of my son's presents this year were clearance purchases over the year by my husband. He's an AMAZING deal hunter.

So I've been noticing, when my life is in full swing, and I'm buried under the busy strain of my day job, I leave this blog by the wayside. This blog had been started with the intention of being a happy spot for me to place my latest creations and inspiring things I've found. So I plan to make a concentrated effort to post at least something, a little bit of happy, each day from here to the end of the year. If that happens, I'll be on my way to making this blog, and my search for happy things a priority for ME. For now I leave you with a little bit of my happy from a recent trip to the beach.

I swap with Swap-bot!

Are you a swap-bot swapper? Do you love sharpies??? This is a group swap for the Sharpie Artists Unite group. If you're so inclined please join us in swapping fun and our love of magical sharpies. 

more photos on etsy!

Since I'm hosting the giveaway on Aquariann's blog I've started listing a lot more of my photos. Don't forget to stop by and put in for your chance to win two photo prints and a custom fairy from me!

 I'm slowly rounding out my offerings with both  artfully edited,watercolor effect, images, and regular photo images.. It's been fun weeding through my archives and finding little lost treasures.  I'll be soon offering images not printed on metallic papers. I just love the depth and color saturation on the metallic. I realize however it's not for everyone.

I've also been working my fingers raw  on a large order of sheep for a customer. I was thrilled to get such a great order and have been working to fulfill it in record time. They're slowly coming together. I'll be offering new color options for my sheep soon. I'll be offering baby pinks and blues. They're so cute! So watch for that upcoming listing.