Chloe!

Hope everyone is having a good week. Can you believe November is right around the corner?! Yikes!

This is Chloe today. She still has her stitches in. They come out Tuesday.
I really hope this is the last time we do this for a very long time. I did find a small bump last week, it's still there, but it seems like it might be going away. I really hope that it is only a bug bite...

I don't know why she's getting these tumors. I know it's not my fault but I wish there was something that I could do to prevent it. I'm currently looking into a grain free diet for her. I've been reading that it has some very positive results...

Well, in other news, it's a beautiful, chilly day here in Portland. The sun is out, the leaves are changing color, and there is a chilly breeze in the air. I've been making a lot of progress on my little paintings, but I'm not ready to share them quite yet!

In Between Things

 Sunday my friends, Nate, and I had a chance to head to Sauvie's Island. We picked out pumpkins, drank some hot cider and ate caramel apples. It was fun. Very fun. Sauvie's Island is about a 20 minute drive from Portland. It's a small island that has nothing but farms on it. In the summer there is lots of berry picking and in the fall it's all pumpkins, hay rides, and corn mazes :)

 In other news, Chloe had surgery to remove her tumor on Tuesday. I came down with a cold the same day, so it's been a sleepy, sick, weekend for us.

She's doing well. I most likely will hear about what stage the tumor is later today. Fingers are crossed that it's only a stage one, in which all of the cancer cells have been removed.

Between taking care of her and myself I haven't gotten much of anything done art wise these past few days. I did manage to get some painting done and I came really close to getting some sketches done!

Next week will have to be much more productive. The images for the show at Tilde are due!

Hope everyone is having a good week so far!

Fall

Well, the official first day of Fall is about a week away, and it's already feeling very Fall like today.

Grey skies, cool air, and I even saw some leaves changing color on my walk with Chloe this morning. Where did Summer go? I feel like it had just gotten here last week. Oh well, that's Summer in Oregon. Gone in a blink of an eye.

I've already started prepping myself for the long winter. I'm envisioning lots of tea and cozy blankets. all I'm missing right now is a new winter coat and some new rain boots. My blue boots have giant holes in them... I guess they don't make rubber boots like they used to...

In other news, I got so much work accomplished today! I organized over 300 greeting cards and got some new paintings listed in my Etsy shop. The upside to not selling a lot at a show is that you're able to add all of that hard work to your Etsy shop when it's over. Now, hopefully people will enjoy them there! Maybe enough to purchase one ;)

Silver linings exist everywhere.

Fall is in the air

Hey!

The last few days have really felt like Fall. I love it!

The leaves are turning and it's been much cooler outside.

You can always tell it's getting closer to Fall when you start seeing spiders everywhere.
Every year these spiders come out and make webs on anything and everything they can.
Some of them are smallish, and some of them get pretty large.

They make walking around my neighborhood a bit scary sometimes. Especially, in the morning. Several times I've been running and run right into the webs that hang over sidewalks.

I run in the street now...

Well, it just started raining and I'm hunkering down with a cup of tea.
Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday.

Fall and Loving it

It was a lovely fall day today.
I love it.

Not a whole lot of news. Just getting work done. It took me a long time to get motivated today.

This song helped.



Thanksgiving is next week and I find that so unbelievable. Really? Is it really that soon?
Wow, and then Christmas...

wow!
Ok.

Time to get back to work!

Sleepy Time

It's fall in my neighborhood and I am thoroughly enjoying the colors and the cooler, rainy, weather. These are some of the trees I captured on my morning walk last week.

Fall has to be one of my favorite times of year.
The colors, and the smells, and the rain, are my absolute favorite things.

I'm getting back into my studio after being on a hiatus for awhile. I have a couple of new ideas for paintings, and I'm hoping to get started on them tomorrow.

I was recently asked to have my art be in a film that's coming out next fall. Of course I said yes! How cool. It's called "The Town" and my work will be in in the room of the main characters girlfriend's apartment :) So cool!

Well, I hope everyone has a good week!

Fall is On the Way

Okay, I know there are probably a few more hot days in store for us in Portland, but I can certainly tell that Fall is on the way. One of the signs of fall here are very large spiders making appearances in bushes and trees throughout the neighborhoods.

I found this one this morning while taking Chloe for her morning. Eeks!! So creepy! I don't mind them too much if they are outside. However, if I had seen this guy in my house I probably would have totally freaked out. Like calling Mike at work asking him to come home to kill it for me freaked out. Yeah...gross.

I'm really looking forward to Fall. It's one of my favorite times of year.
Hope everyone is having a good week so far :)

Wow!

Thanks for all those awesome music suggestions!
It made my day today! :)

So...today was another wonderfully sunny fall day.
I am so use to Oregon. It's weird to me that it's not raining more.
It's sunny. Everyday. Weird.
Oh! But...I heard that it's supposed to snow on Monday.
Poop.

I like the snow. I just don't like to drive in it.
Especially since they don't really plow here.
They'll plow. Maybe. Once.

I also don't like when there is snow on the ground for more than 3 days.
It get's really old. Really fast.

Anyway, Chloe and I went on a hunt for more of the brain balls, or gall stone balls. or whatever you'd like to call them :) But I couldn't find any more, and Chloe was too busy trying to catch squirrels. So, she wasn't much of a help.

I thought that because it was so close to Halloween I'd post some pictures of the house that is on the same property as our apartment. I swear it's haunted. It's really creepy. The creepy factor doubled when I noticed that the curtains in the top left window are tattered and torn. Hello! Torn curtains = haunted house. Automatically.

Our landlord owns this house as well as our apartment house. There is one girl, a Cranbrook grad, who lives in it. I think there is also a guy...but I don't know what his story is. Anyway, she lives there and works there. When she moved in all of the original furniture was still there, and it's her job to photograph and organize it all. I think she also has to research the furniture, or something. I don't know. Weird. It sounds like a job my mom would love.

Anyway, it's creepy.

So that's it!
Tomorrow is Friday. yay!
Remember to check out Megan Chapman's blog :)
She writes a new, helpful, informative, blog every Friday!
Yay Megan!

Lovely Fall Day

It's a beautiful Fall day and I have been more than productive.

I can't believe it's almost November.
Another month closer to home.

Home.

I can't wait...

If sales pick up just a little more, I can go home in January...but until then...7.5 months...

Hope everyone is have a great Tuesday :)

Tuesday is Much Better!

Yes.
Today has been going so much better!
It was such a lovely morning. It really felt like Fall. I am not getting my hopes up...I know it's still August and there is a lot of warm weather to be had...but it was really nice.

Oh! And then I realized that my friend Nate is going to come by and visit us! So I am really excited about seeing a familiar face from home :)
I think he might bring us some Stumptown coffee too!

Um...I actually did get a lot of work done yesterday. I think I just get so hard on myself that I overlook the things that I did accomplish, however small they maybe. So I think that from now in I am going to try and be a little more like Pollyanna and see the good in all of my work :) Haha! Really. I should try harder though.

In other news, Chloe has found a new sleeping spot. She likes to make a little nest out of the pillows that we have on our bed. I found her hiding in them this morning. She sleeps here until the sun comes out on our little walkway, where she goes to spend the rest of the afternoon napping. She has such a tough little life...and yes that is her little baloney tongue hanging out.