Happy Memorial Day

What a beautiful weekend. I spent a great day in the studio, finishing up some projects and playing around with new techniques and this is one that I liked (I noodled around with chalk pastels and they were way too messy). I like it.

Although I didn't spend a lot of time on the drawing, I like the direction it was headed and the technique. I drew the picture in pencil, then applied watercolor. After the watercolor dried I went over the color with colored pencil and then a thin black pen. It's cool and added a new dimension to my "usual" illustrations which are typically done in black and white, or colored pencil. The drawing would definitely need more detail, but again, I liked the technique.

Next time I'm going to do the watercolor on top of the colored pencil to see how that looks/feels.

Happy Friday!

Coast Guard Academy

My nephew is interested in going to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, so my sister and her family came up this weekend to take a tour and I was lucky enough to go along. What an amazing opportunity! First of all WOW what a great experience for any young person. You are taught leadership sills, get a fantastic education AND get a career upon graduation not to mention the fantastic opportunity to travel the world and do things most humans do not get to do. I wish him well and hope if this is what he wishes, that he gets it. but mostly, I was VERY happy my Federal Tax dollars go to something like this. Awesome stuff. For more info www.cga.edu

Happy New Year!

Goodwill And Discount Shopping

Although it is in my genes, this economy is helping with the ol discount shopping. Lately my cousin and I are hitting all of the discount shops. Our favorite place to go is Goodwill. Not only can you find really great stuff, your purchases help a great cause.

We are lucky, we have quite a few Goodwill stores in close proximity to where we live, we also have a few "Goodwill Boutiques" to go to as well. WOW. So this weekend we were out and about and I was looking for a chair for the CHAIRish the Arts fundraiser, I didn't find a chair for that but I totally scored some chairs for our house. $40 a piece, including the ottomans. Unheard of! They do have to be reupholstered, but still what a score. I am learning though, that you need to buy it when you see it, cuz the good stuff doesn't last. I recently lost out on a great $50 table and chair set cuz I wanted to "sleep on it" - they were gone the next day.

Another great place to shop is Ocean State Job Lot, but you have to be careful because some of their stuff is overpriced. BUT this weekend they had slipcovers on sale for $25 versus the $150 you'd have to pay at Target/Walmart etc. So yes, I did go out and splurge on a few slip covers for the house, mainly for the new (free - thanks peter and Terry!) couch we got for our basement last week. Here are a few pictures, including a shot of some $1.00 baskets I bought to decorate our wall in the basement. And by the way, the slipcover has been jump tested by my 3 year old, that's why it looks so lumpy.

Spring has Sprung!

Got to love Photoshop and family members!

Chuckles Saw Her Shadow

6 more weeks of winter - BLAHHHHHH. But That's OK, I kinda like snow.

Happy Birthday

I'm working on some images for a birthday collection. I had a bit of time this morning and I noodled around with coloring my drawing in photoshop. Not my style, but it was fun and I think the images look pretty good.

By the way, the candles are singing "happy birthday to you . . . " if you didn't notice.

Get Jiggy With It!

I was looking through the archives, this is a fun one perfect for this time of year!

So - Get jiggy with it this Halloween!

Nice Horoscope, Huh?

This is from Rob Bresney's Free Will Astrology (www.freewillastrology.com), I love his horoscopes and passionate ramblings. Sometimes they are so spot on it's creepy.

This has been a great year for me in terms of focusing on what I want to do for the rest of my life (art!!) and I've made some giant steps (attending Surtex, kicking ass in the studio, picking up jobs etc.). I'm still trying to find some balance (working full time outside of the art world, being a mom, wife, getting fifishead out into the world etc.) but I don't think that's going to happen for a while (maybe it never happens and it's just a myth the "finding balance myth" ha, ha, ha).

Thank GOD I have a fantastic support network of family and friends. Cuz ya know, with out them none of this would be possible.

I think you should all go to www.freewillastrology.com and check out your horoscopes!

ARIES (March 21-April 19): We're halfway through 2008. It's a perfect moment to take inventory of how well you're capitalizing on this year's unique opportunities. So let me ask you, Aries: Are you working your ass off in order to stoke the fire in your belly? In other words, are you doing everything you can think of to get more motivated? Are you trying hard to supercharge your ambitions and refine your passions? If so, this will be the year when you finally figure out how to do what you love to do a majority of the time -- and how to get rewarded by the world for doing it. It's high time to answer your highest calling.

fifi has landed!

We are here! Set up began at 8:00 this morning. We were one of the first teams to show up and had everything set up and ready to go by 11:30. We are super excited! 

The show begins tomorrow at 9:00 am. This is a picture of the booth and of Suzie in front of the marquee. The other artists in our row are super nice (and talented) and are also first time exhibitors too. Stay tuned!

Aileen

Meeting At Headquarters

I'm hoping to get together with my circle of very talented friends so they can help me develop my strategy for Surtex. We are looking to get together 2/23 to discuss the industry, where fifi fits in, we'll discuss our sales strategy as well as booth design and fifis portfolio.

I am very lucky to have such talented and successful friends. They are also a ton of fun and provide all the encouragement a girl could want. I'll post the outcome of the meeting as well as some pictures, cuz you know there will be some dancing going on!!

I continue to work on "stuff". I'm focusing on filling out my "Inspirational" line with some computer generated images for some of the things I've written. These would be perfect for calendars, cards and card decks. I'll post some of them later
.

Web site

My new and improved web site is about ready to roll. It's pretty simple, but was created to be updated as I learn more about the industry. One of the things that's really hard is to figure out which pieces of art to showcase, so I just went with my gut and will bring everything to Surtex :)

Now that the web site is done, I can focus on the other Marketing opportunities Surtex offers. Got to get the word out about fifi!

Here we go!

After walking the floor at Surtex the past two years, Suzie and I decided that this was the year for Fifi! We have created this blog to capture the fear and excitement of being first time exhibitors at Surtex, we are also hoping this can serve as a resource for those of you who are contemplating Surtex. Ya just got to do it!

Please feel free to post comments on the site, we need some support and encouragement! (ha, ha,ha). Really, we do!