The new goodies I’ve been working on over the last couple of weeks are starting to roll in & I couldn’t be more excited for the big reveal at Sunday’s market – Portobello West. Starting with…new 1 inch buttons! Yay!

I can’t decide which one is my favorite, but the Royal Tenenbaums are definite front runners.

Also making an appearance, a bunch of new magnets with actual packaging (that I haven’t photographed yet, but am really loving), new postcards and new prints from some of the paintings I just completed for my solo show. The Amelie (with gnome) print turned out great!

I know, I know…saying this stuff without snapping pics = fail. I’m unfortunately running out of time again. (go figure!) The plan is to drive down to the border to pick up the last couple of packages I need from my US mailbox, then race back home, pack up the work I need to do before Portobello, then haul my cookies (& postcards & magnets & buttons) to the island to see my folks for a couple of days. I’ll be coming home on Saturday, so hopefully I’ll be able to enlist my mom to help me sort and package the postcards (& magnets & buttons) so that I don’t have to stay up all night when I get back. Thanks, Mom!

Also on my working holiday TO DO list? Put together 30 little treats for the Got Craft swag bags. People line up for HOURS before the doors open hoping to get a swag bag, so I don’t want to disappoint. Last year I tucked a bookmark into each bag & this year I think I’m going to do magnets. I had been thinking I’d go button, but I saw the super cute buttons another vendor is donating to the bags & don’t want it to be overkill, so. Magnets is the plan.

And now it’s just about 1 a.m. and I have to get up at 7 a.m. to drive to the USA. And I’m clearly babbling. Goodnight!

PS – my Etsy shop will also be getting a BIG update very soon! Starting Monday I’ll be adding new prints and assorted loveliness. Finally!

Alice and Dinah
8×10 print

After many late nights in the studio, my Alice in Wonderland series of paintings is, though not quite finished, coming along swimmingly. I’ve released all 3 of the portraits (in progress here) featuring Alice and Dinah, the Mad Hatter and the Duchess.

I do have one more to finish, but that will have to wait until after my trip. Did I mention the mister and I are going to Seattle? And then Portland? And then back up to Victoria? I’m super excited. Spring has sprung, the flowers are blooming and a road trip sounds perfectly in order. But before I go, I have to show off one more painting – a BIG one!

Alice in Wonderland
8×10 print

This is one of the two 16 x 20 canvases I’ve been working on & really loving. Painting that size means lots of room to play with backgrounds and add detail. I have to restrain myself a bit or I’m sure I could work on these for months! I’ve released one of the new big paintings as a print in my Etsy shop. The other one isn’t quite finished and it makes me a little sad to leave it in its unfinished state as I gallivant all over the PNW. Unfortunately painting + driving do not mix.

In case I can’t blog from the road (though I should definitely be able to Twitter), have a lovely week!

Zoe and her Skunk
11″ x 14″, acrylic on canvas
available in the shop

My new painting, Zoe and her Skunk, is now up for sale in my Etsy shop. I’ve been nabbing frames of various sizes when I see them on sale lately, so it was nice to be able to photograph it looking…finished. I don’t mind hanging canvas paintings without frames, as long as the edges are painted, but sometimes a frame helps a piece look a little more important, gives it a little more oomph. This is particularly true with the size of canvases I like to paint on. They can feel lost on a big blank wall without a frame to anchor them.

In other totally random, train of thought blogging, an audiobook recommendation – Stephen King’s Under the Dome. I’ve been listening to it over the past few weeks while I paint and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s definitely not an easy listen or read – there are some seriously disturbing scenes of violence against women – but it wouldn’t be considered “horror”. Think more Lord of the Flies for grown-ups. If you read (or listen to) the first chapter, you’ll be hooked until the very end, if for no other reason than to find out how the dome got there in the first place.

Now what should I listen to next?

I’ve been having so much fun turning my paintings into wearable art in the form of antique lockets and cameo pendants, but you probably wouldn’t know that if you weren’t able to make it out to any of my winter markets. Adding the new jewelery to my Etsy shop has been going at a snail-like pace. It seemed like as soon as I got a few of them photographed and edited and ready to go, they were sold! A good problem to be had, for sure.

There are now 6 fancy necklaces in the “Pendants” section of the shop, along with the usual group of Scrabble tile pendants. I’ve got a few more that will go up tomorrow and then I really need to get to work on creating more! Tracking down the lockets themselves has not been easy and the BIG ones I had at Christmas time are nowhere to be found. I’m kicking myself now for not holding onto one of them to wear myself. The hunt continues…

Have I mentioned how much fun I’ve been having making new fancy schmancy jewelry? I’ve been doing the Scrabble tile pendants for a little over a year now, and while they’ll always have a place in my heart (so light & cute & fun), I’m smitten with my newest creations.

Making jewelry is such a different skill set than painting, so it’s been fun to learn something new and experiment with being creative in a totally different way – which beads to use, which charms, antiquing & getting different patina effects…lots to play with!

The new pendants have been popular at my local craft shows, so I’m having trouble staying on top of what inventory I have and getting it photographed and up in my Etsy shop. Since I personally antique the brass setting and add different beads and charms, each one really is unique and needs its own listing. They’ve been selling too quickly, which is, of course, a wonderful thing!

I have 2 more days at Simon Fraser University this week, then Got Craft on the weekend and THEN I can get back to focusing on my Etsy shop – which is just about too late for Christmas shopping! The last few weeks have flown by. I’m looking forward to the craft show madness to slow down so I can turn my attention to getting my own house gussied up for the holidays. The mister’s parents are coming out to visit, so there’s a little extra pressure this year. I’m kind of looking forward to curling up with the December issues of Real Simple and Martha Stewart, plus my stand-by cookbooks to plan something special. Yes, I am a dork like that.

What’s your favorite holiday recipe?