Not too long ago, Nicole over at The Girl Next Door ordered up some custom blog artwork from E.Webscapes. Well since I’m the resident artist for ‘em, I got to work on sketching out her request! She chose a book cover that she really loved and wanted me to do something like it.

After a long while of you thinking I was over here twiddling my thumbs every day and not being creative at all, I finished her artwork and turned it over to Lisa (EW Bosswoman) and she whipped up this sweet three-column design to match! See? Even when it doesn’t look like I’m painting, I really am! (I just wait for the design to go live before I show ya!)

So do me a favor, click, and go visit Nicole and let her know how you like her new digs! She’s excited, I’m excited, it’s all good!

If you’d like to see my other design (I’m new to EW, so I’ve just got two under my belt so far), click on the “E.Webscapes” category and you’ll see the screen shot to my last one. And if you want one? You gotta order it through EW, she’s the boss’a me on these!

P.S. Does anyone know where Blogrolling went?! CRUUUUUDDDDD……

When Mark left for Iraq, I kept pretty busy. Not only did I paint a whole bunch of paintings, I painted almost every room in our house! I redecorated, ripped out walls, rebuilt things and replaced things (major things)!

We bought this house about 9 years and 5 months ago. I was pregnant with Caitlin so all I could do when we moved in was pick the colors. Everyone else painted my house! I remember how I chose the color scheme for her room, it was based on the box of a pair of shoes I bought at Payless. Lavender, purple and green. Mark thought I was nuts of course, but I went along and marked what should be painted which color and left for fresher air. He trusted me (like a good man should!) and loved how her room turned out.

For 9 years and 5 months, it’s the only room in the house that never changed. Personally, I think it has a lot to do with not wanting to let the girls grow up, especially now that both the girls are in the same room.

This week though, things have changed. Our baby girl turned 9. Then our littlest one decided that she was finally ready to grow up a little more too, fully potty training herself. New white mates beds were delivered (for free! I like free!), bunk beds came down, and now they are getting a young girls room. Sigh. They picked the color. Okay, sortof. They sortof picked the color. Okay I PICKED THE COLOR. You got me. I just let them think they picked the color. So, ssssh. It’s our little secret.

Today we’ll finish painting, and we’ll build beds, and we’ll decorate, and it will be pretty by bedtime tonight, even if bedtime ends up being midnight. Again.

It’s a great color, and they do love it. I’m not going to go spoiling the before and after pics, so I’ll show you this, which is precious anyway, because she will not take no for an answer to “Mommy can I have the brush please?” and “Mommy can you put more paint on my brush?”

Awww….

Okay so I’m looking at the little gosling, and I’m thinking, I don’t hear anything! Argh! I just see cute, fuzzy, sweet, awwww I wanna take him home and let him live in my bathtub! So maybe he’s not “captionable”. I can live with that.

It is Friday, so “awwwww” is a good way to start the weekend, I say!

I just finished, so this is wet paint (glare). I deepened her nose, painted her whiskers and most importantly, gave it my own “seal of approval” signature! Hey did you know I have that same signature on my ankle? Yep, I’ve been signing my paintings this way since, uh, a long time ago. I got the tattoo in 1990!

For those of you here from Michele’s today, HEY! Hi there! Nice to see you!

Details forthcoming, once the paint is dry I will varnish, then I will scan and post the final images and detail shots. That’ll happen some time this weekend. This is a 10×10 Oil painting on gallerywrapped canvas. :)

Lucy’s portrait is in her final stages now. What’s left, you ask? Whiskers! She’s off to her mom for proof approval, so this tortie is almost finished. :grin:

She’s starting to grow fur now! This is the second layer, and she’ll receive about 2 more coats of fine little hairs before she gets her whiskers. I’ll detail her nose tomorrow as well. Yes, in case you’re wondering, I paint each hair one at a time. That’s how they grow, right? :wink:

Here’s where I left off on Lucy’s portait. I’ve got her back and both paws nearly completed, they have about 4 layers on them now (they’re meant to be somewhat “blurry”, since her face is the focal point). They’ll get one more coat of very fine light reflective fur before they’re finished. I also deepened and began lightening her chin. This afternoon I’ll be working on the next layer on her face, I’ll post another work in progress when I get finished up provided I still have some daylight in the studio to get a good pic. I am planning on completing this portrait some time tomorrow.

(Click “works in progress” category to view Lucy’s painting as it has progressed!)

We’re back!

We spent the weekend at Wasserbahn, which is basically a Holiday Inn with an indoor waterpark, restaurants and bar. It was FUN! It truly felt like we were on an expensive’ish vacation for a couple of days. We are waterlogged after spending about 20+ hours or something over the whole weekend submerged in pools, fountains, waterslides, a hot tub and our own sweat!

200+ photos later, these are my weekend pics that I want to share:

Birthday Girl with her face in a fountain

My baby turned 9 today! Yes, nine. NINE. Jeez, she’s almost in the double digits. She chose a very fun thing to do for her birthday weekend so we’ve been celebrating since yesterday morning and won’t be through until tomorrow! I’ll tell you all about it, for now I just wanted to share her sparkly candle moment. Make a wish!

(I am hoping this pic turned out okay, I can’t really tell on hubby’s laptop!)