Sale Time!

I've been away for awhile.

Little winter fox.

To be honest, I've been having a bit of trouble balancing all things life. Work, art, friends, running, holidays. It's been challenging trying to keep up with it all, so my little blog.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. Ours was small and quiet and perfect. We have lots of leftovers, which I'm kind of excited about! I'm treating myself to some pumpkin pie and coffee for breakfast as I type. :)

Along with Thanksgiving comes one of my only two sales of the year, which I'm also kind of excited about. Right now I'm offering 25% off my entire Etsy shop, and I'm also offering free world wide shipping. Use the coupon code POPPYTALK12 at checkout.

The sale ends on Tuesday, so don't wait too long.

I'm going to support handmade and small business this year. I suppose most years I have done this. It means so much more to me knowing my money is going to sellers like me, and back to my community. Besides, shopping in my cozy house online vs. going out and fighting crowds seems much more appealing to me. I can drink coffee and hang out with my dog too. So awesome.

There are some really spectacular sales going on this weekend by some truly beautiful shops.
You can see a wonderful selection over at the Poppytalk Blog. :)

Little by little our garden shapes up.

Little by little our garden shapes up.
Originally uploaded by michele_maule
Hello!

It was a busy day spent in our back yard, yesterday. We erected a trellis for our clematis to grow on and planted a lilac bush. We also planted a red Dahlia plant and another bush of which I can't remember the name.

I'm really happy with how it's coming along. I can't wait for it to start filling out!

We still need to get some fill dirt for our silver troughs. Our plan in to fill it with clumping bamboo or lavender. We haven't quite decided. The bamboo is expensive and I'm afraid the troughs will get too hot and burn the roots. I know lavender is pretty tough, so I think it will be tolerant.
Plus, it smells so nice.

We're still debating...

In other news, my table is all set up on Poppytalk again! I really like working with Jan and Earl who run the site, so I try to advertise with them whenever I get a chance.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend :)

Rainy May

It's been a very rainy day here in the Rose City.

I spent the day running errands, taking Chloe for walk in the park, putting finishing touches on my paintings, and cleaning.

It's been a great, productive day.

also! My illustration was part of an apartment therapy post! yay! They didn't mention my name, directly, but it was there. I saw it. You can see it here!

also, if you haven't checked out the Poppytalk Handmade blog, you should! there are some great artists there, including myself!

I'm going to get started on my Ristretto Roasters show soon, and I'm also working on a new project. I don't want to say what it is right now, but I'll show you when it's all done!

It's been a very slow, hard month, and I'm so looking forward to June and all the new ideas I have.

In other news, I've been listening to Emily Wells on repeat all day. One of my favorites is this one...

Fast Forward Please

Time, please fast forward until you reach May. Thanks.

It's still February and it doesn't seem like it's ever going to end.
Blerg.

I had a good weekend.
Not much work got done, but I spent several hours painting today, so hopefully it made up for it.
We took Chloe to the Boston Terrier meet up and came to the conclusion that she just doesn't do well in a room full of crazy Bostons. Hehe. She got sick, and we had to leave a bit early. Oh well.
There's a photo of her where she looks pretty frightened. But who can blame her? Bostons can be pretty intense, and she is pretty mellow compared to them.

We also went to see the movie Coraline which was pretty good. The little girl, Coraline, moves from Pontiac, Michigan to Ashland, Oregon...I thought that was really amusing.

In other news I'm officially on the Poppy Talk Affordable Art site!
So far I haven't really noticed any change in views or sales, so we shall see.

Well, I hope you all are having a good Monday!

February

I knew that February was going to be a tough month.
So far my theory has been correct!

It's just that it's so cold, and we are getting so close to moving, but not close enough...
Yuck. I just want to this to go by faster.

I think that if I can just get through February things will go by so quickly. I have a lot of things coming up this Spring, and time is going to fly by. Then we'll be in the home stretch!

I added some photos of our porch in the summer time just to remind me that the snow won't last forever :)

One exciting thing that I am looking forward to is the Poppytalk Handmade shop.
They invited me to participate in this months affordable online art exhibit!!
Yay! So I am really looking forward to doing that. I am really curious to see what happens.

Well, I did get some little 5x5" panels prepped today, so now all I have to do is think of something to paint on them...I should get started on that.

Have a good Wednesday everyone!