a. t. whim

I love my bunny so much! I’m obsessed. I can’t wait to get home and hug and squeeze her. She makes me so happy.
ahem… anyway, I painted a picture of some bunny lovin’; probably won’t be the last either. It’ll be like my yellow coat. One thing I love about winter is that I get to wear my yellow coat (if you couldn’t tell). I’m going to make a set of cards of the yellow coat paintings I’ve done.
I should explain my love for my yellow coat. It’s not just a beautiful coat, there’s a good reason why I love it so. My yellow coat was a gift from my mama last year. I got it when I didn’t really need a coat, so it went into the closet and was soon forgotten. Then late summer and the chill in the air was getting worse, and I thought, “damn, I need to go buy a coat.” Now, I’m not like most girls I know. I don’t like shopping for clothes. Don’t get me wrong, I love pretty clothes, but I HATE shopping for them. I just want them to come to me. I hate the shops, I hate seeing racks of identical pieces of clothing, I hate looking through racks while other people are looking through the same racks. The whole experience is unpleasent for me. Anyway… I was dreading looking for a new coat. But one day in August, while I was packing my stuff to move into our new house, I found my beautiful yellow coat. It was just patiently hanging there in my closet, looking of honey and warm toast, waiting for me. Now I love it dearly.

So there is the story of my beloved coat. It saved me from having to go shopping, and that is a splendid thing indeed! I hope you all have a lovely coat too! xoxo

The lack of sunlight is getting me down. I can’t seem to get myself together and paint! So I’m busying myself with making cards and other things that don’t require too much thought. I’m also going to have a booth at the Handmade Bazaar next month, so I’m try to up my stock of sellable items. If you’re in Portland, you should stop by! I hope I do well, because I’m feeling rather broke these days. Which is another Winter pattern I’ve noticed, I always seem to have no mulah right around this time. Which is no good, because these are the days when August is giving me his mile long list of holiday gifts. Well, I always manage somehow!Anyway, I don’t have much to speak of at the moment…. another Winter symptom, I’ll start talking more again when the birds fly back, the plants begin to sprout and the sun seeps into my skin!

I should not be allowed to go to pet stores or animal shelters. It’s really an addiction I have. I am a zoo keeper here in my little home. I think I should open it up to the public! My new addition is this adorable, so sweet it hurts, bunny I picked up yesterday. And I have to tell you, there is NOTHING cuter than having a bunny hopping around your house.

I’ve been working hard to stock up my shop preparing for etsy’s grand start up. (I’m very excited to see it’s new look live!) I’ve got a few large magnets going in. A couple of new paintings, and hopefully some new purses soon. Until those wonderful people at Etsy get the site working in perfect order, here’s a look at the new pieces I’ve done. The first is of my yellow coat again, and the other 2 play on my love of manga.

I made new business cards! Not too exciting, but I really like them. So now when you buy something, you’ll get one of these little beauties.

I’m done working for the day, so now I’m just twiddling my thumbs until Etsy comes back up. Hopefully you all aren’t wind swept and soaked to the bone like us babes in the woods.

Last night I was craving cupcakes. I haven’t had one in awhile. So I painted Cupcake Love. They’re yummy.

I put prints in my shop. I still haven’t gotten my cupcake, but they look sweet don’t they?

Also in my shop I put up the “Twelve Months of Art”. Once a month I’ll send out a print to whoever “subscribes” for a year. That is if you like my little pieces enough to want one once a month! I’m hoping to create a new piece every month just for this. We’ll see how it goes.

Love to all. xoxo

It’s pouring out there! I think I’m going to have to get a boat to pick up August from school. I saved all my plants from the flood and moved them inside for the winter. I few of them did drown before I reached them…. hopefully they’ll recover.

Today I went out and bought some card stock and started making holiday cards for my shop. They’re rounded squares with an eyelet and twine for hanging. Here’s the first design I finished…

(click on the thumbnail)

Aren’t they sweet? I think I’ve always wanted a warm bear suit.

and I painted a little blue bird to commemorate Spring that seems so far away right now.

Now I’m off to make some small simple prints mounted on black card stock, I’ll put them in the shop soon! Speaking of my shop, I’m so excited about the new etsy layout. Instead of weeding through a long list of things for sale, I’ll be able to catagorize them! Which is excellent for me since I’ve got a zillion things going. Anyway, back to work! hugs to all!

I’ve got magnets! I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out, and I hope you do too! I sold 2 of them already. I think they look real pretty lined up on my refridgerator. Just think of how they’ll look when I get a fridge that doesn’t have duct tape holding it together!

I started another painting today, but it’s back to the book store tomorrow, which means it probably won’t get done until my next weekend. I hate it when work gets in the way of painting, but the painting isn’t sustaining me & Augs….. yet.

More magnets tomorrow, and then off to shelve books! xoxo

Whew, this last week kept me far far away from my easel. Now that Halloween is over and all my October obligations are done, it’s back to painting! I’ve decided that since I have an obsession with children’s books that I’m going to do a few paintings with classic children’s book characters. Of course I had to start with Alice and the White Rabbit. I’m very happy with the way it turned out! I’ll probably put it in my store tomorrow and I’m so excited to get working on the next one too!

Speaking of Children’s books. I had to empty out my stash at work because of the move, so I brought a lot of goodies home with me the other day. Here’s a peek of an ADORABLE book called The Three Hedgehogs. It’s really sweet. I love the way the book is laid out in “Acts” like a play.

Then I found a copy of the fairy tale book I had when I was a youngin’. I remember pouring over the illustrations then, and I still do now. So pretty!

This is the first illustration for the frog prince.

Aside from books and painting, I have some sort of rodent living in my kitchen. I want to believe it’s a mouse, but I think it’s actually a rat. I’m avoiding that area like the plague. I very cautiously peek around every dark corner, so that it doesn’t jump out and make me scream. I’m very nervous when I’m in there, and unfortunately that’s where I do all my painting and sewing. I can’t even come downstairs when it’s dark because I think it’s going to bite my toes. Makes me shiver.

Now some things that make me happy and not shiver…. I got a new pair of glasses last week, and they are so friggin’ cute I can’t stand it. My little tortoise Buster is growing out of his big water dish. I found a yummy pizza place that delivers to my house (so no more pizza hut! YAY!) AND they have jalapeno poppers (double YUM!). I made August the best Halloween costume ever! And I have a whole box of fudge. Life is yummy.