I’m going to be trying something new this weekend & selling my work at an art show hosted by a trendy children’s shop in Surrey, BC. This should be quite a different crowd than the craft shows I’ve done in the past & it’ll be interesting to see how my work is received. I don’t paint specifically for children in mind, though I am definitely influenced by the great storybooks I grew up reading. I’m in a weird sort of gray (pink?)  area between cute, but not quite the super child-friendly cute that kids are used to seeing. Should be a fun experiment anyway!

If you’re a local, here are all the details:

An eclectic mix of modern kids artworks will be featured during this fun day. Meet and mingle with select local artisans – this is an opportunity for you to purchase hand-made high quality unique items for your little loved ones playrooms, bedrooms or jewelry boxes.

Come and see the great works with children in mind from local artists:

Goodness! While I’ve been busy painting up a storm over here, Vickie & the lovely folks of the Etsy Twitter Team have named Cagey Bee the Shop of the Week! You can check out my interview here >

Meanwhile in Cagey Bee land, I’m packaging up orders, trying to finishing paintings for my show (which need to be hung in 4 days!) & otherwise running around like a chicken with her head cut off. My reward for such a crazy couple of weeks is coming though. I snagged an extra ticket to the Neko Case show on Craigslist & am meeting the girl tonight to pick it up. It’s just a single ticket & I’m kind of excited to be going with someone other than the mister (who doesn’t love Neko like I do. He likes her music, but I kind of want someone who knows all the words to go with. hehe).

I’ve had a few people comment lately that they don’t find Vancouver a friendly city & that it’s tough to meet people. I don’t see it that way because I’m usually out & about with the pug who is an instant conversation starter. To me, it feels like the entire city is full of smiles & cuddles! But those brief chats on the sidewalk never translate into coffee or a movie or things that friends do. That part is tougher, especially when you’re a work-at-home type. So who knows? Maybe my new concert pal will become an actual pal!

Part of my self-induced stress as of late is that I decided to change horses in the middle of the stream. I’m hanging work for my first Vancouver gallery show on May 31st & last week I decided to totally switch directions & scrap the paintings I’d been working on. Well, not scrap completely. I’ll still put them up in my shop & will definitely be doing prints, but I decided to go with a different concept for my group show.

Since the theme is “concepts of home”, I originally jumped straight to the literal and decided to paint some fun ocean themes with our Vancouver sea life. I started a killer whale, an octopus and have a pile of sketches with ideas for playful scenes with sea otters, starfish and maybe a monster or two. And then? The more work I did, the more ideas flowed & I came up with new sketches that I thought would look perfect on these gorgeous beechwood blocks I picked up last week. And so, many hours of painting later, I’m…way way behind! lol

But here’s a sneak preview of my home in the forest series:

Two more small ones (6″x6″) to go and then the big one (16″x20″). Let’s pray to the painting gods that all goes smoothly & I somehow manage to finish all 4 pieces!

Tonight (May 24th) at midnight PST the big Etsy Canada group giveaway comes to a close, so get clicking & commenting if you want a chance to win one of 5 awesome prize packs!

Check out the official blog for more details:

http://etsycanada.blogspot.com/

The cutest puppy evah is on his way! My sister is coming up to Vancouver for a couple of days to celebrate my nephew’s birthday. I’m thrilled because we haven’t been able to see them much lately & after our car window got smashed this week, our plans were foiled again. But they are on their way, cute puppy in tow! And once they arrive, most of their time will look like this:

My sister’s tiny pup, Meeka Pika, runs the pug ragged nipping at him. The pug doesn’t seem to have any clue how BIG he is & so just runs away, jumps on mom’s lap, tries to escape. It’s quite funny at first and then after a few hours I become flabbergasted & try to explain to the pug that he’s so money & he doesn’t even know it. You’ve got these claws, pug! You’ve got these claws & fangs & you don’t know what to do with them!

Off to squeeze in a few hours of painting before the whole gang arrives.

Don’t forget you still have until Sunday at midnight to enter the Etsy Canada Giveaway!