Monday, July 24, 2006

Diversion


I'm taking on some extra writing work for a while, and today's my first day, so I don't know how my schedule will be in the coming weeks, but I give you this as a snack... it's really just a sketch painting, done on a piece of throwaway illustration board in about 30 minutes one day, but ooooh, it makes me smile.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Step Right Up and Get Yer Paintings!

I am delighted to announce the launch of my Etsy shop at paintandink.etsy.com!

Among others, you will find the following paintings for sale:

Circus Tents, 8" x 10", acrylic on canvas panel


Daisies, 8" x 10", acrylic on canvas panel


Little Fish, 8" x 10", acrylic on canvas panel


All of my paintings are backed with cardstock and have ribbon hangers attached so that you can either frame them or hang them directly on the wall.

And don't forget my Cafe Press shop at www.cafepress.com/paintandink, where you can also find printed products featuring my photography and other artwork.

Please stop in and look around, and feel free to let me know what you think at paintandink @ gmail . com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Project File Cabinet

So I got a little fed up this week and decided we needed a file cabinet NOW, pronto, immediately. But file cabinets are ridiculously expensive and I didn't want to spend $70 for something made of chipboard. I checked the Salvation Army closest to our house, but they had none, and I had no patience to wait until the next day and go to other stores, so I went to KMart across the street and found a nice particle board file cabinet for $36.99. Okay, well, not nice and still more than it was worth, even with the solid wood trim, but desperation was taking hold.


So I brought it home, assembled it incorrectly a few times (no, I don't do directions well... I'm a trial and error person, myself) and then finally got it together.

And then, even though it actually looked nicer in reality than on the box, I promptly sanded it down, because I never can leave well enough alone, and started plastering it all over with gold wrapping paper, followed by these Maxfield Parrish calendar pages I've had lying around for five years. Finally, a chance to use them!


But then I realized, uh, uh-oh, didn't check the placement of the handles on the drawings before I so blithely plastered (and varnished) everything down.


So I had to improvise, and used picture hanging wire to make my own handles.


That has its own problems. This drawer (above) is okay, but now on the top drawer (see below), it seems as if the girl on the left is chained by the neck to the lamppost on the right. But, ah, there's not much I can do for her at this point, and at least she still has a head. After all, she could have been decapitated by the stock handle.

I won't post a closeup, because, really, I don't want to traumatize anyone.

But here's the final product:


Overall, I'm pretty pleased. I think it looks darn good in reality, even with the, um, unfortunate fate of the girl on the left. If I didn't need the cabinet to be functional so quickly, I would add more trim and decoration, perhaps a little paint, but I'll take it as it is.

Friday, July 14, 2006

The delight is in the giving...

I left my camera's battery charger in California, and just received it in the mail today (thanks Mom and Aunt Joan!), but the battery is not yet charged, so I've scanned these in instead.

This is the card to go with the gift I mentioned here...


and this card will be going to another birthday girl...

along with this:

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

A Must See Site

Be Jackson Pollock. Go on. Check it out. It's fabulous. Great for destressing.

Found through StumbleUpon, which is either one of the greatest things I've ever downloaded or one of the worst (for concentration, that is). Either way, it's one of the most entertaining, sometimes exhilarating and often overwhelming, but always delightful, things I've ever downloaded.