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I got a book of postcards from work full of illustrations by William Heath Robinson. I just LOVE it. It’s called City Living, and it’s just full of *creative* living solutions when living in a small flat. I was so inspired by the above picture that I painted my own version….

I may do another in acrylics this time. It’s been so long since I’ve used my acrylics. I wish it would warm up in my studio already!

I wanted to show you those Arthur Rackham silhouettes I’ve been gushing over. But now I’ve misplaced my book. It happens fairly often when you live in a house with 2 bibliophiles and piles of books everywhere. One day my house will be a library, that or an animal shelter. So anyway, maybe next time.

Tomorrow is the first day of March, my favorite month of the year! Only 22 more days till my birthday. I can’t believe how quickly it came. I’m still figuring out what to do that day. 30 is kind of a milestone right? Am I officially an adult now? I don’t feel like a grown up. I’m still awkward and clumsy, like I’m still growing into this body.

The year of the rat has officially kicked my butt!  I’ve never had a new year begin with so much turmoil.  But I’m happy to report that life is getting back to normal, and things are settling down.

I’m still having fun doing silhouettes, and I picked up a copy of Arthur Rackham’s  Sleeping Beauty which is completely illustrated with his amazing silhouettes.  I’ll have to show you some in my next blog.

It’s quiet around here.  Yesterday it was actually sunny, so I spent all day in the yard racking up HUGE piles of leaves and shooing the chickens away from my poor little plants they’ve been uprooting.  I got a fancy new fridge (I know it’s exciting!).  The freezer in the old one would decide to freeze one day, and not the next.  I’m happy that I can finally have ice cream again!  I’ll spare you a picture of it.  Though it’s the highlight of my week I’m sure you have better things to look at than my fridge!  Then last night August and I went to see Spiderwick, which was fun.  I haven’t read the books yet, but right afterwards we went to the bookstore and August picked up the entire series.

I haven’t been doing as much painting as I should be.  I’ve been catching up on some reading, which I’ve neglected for a year now!  And thinking about what I want my yard to look like this spring.  Next month I’m going to turn 30.  THIRTY.  I’ve decided to give up fast food and smoking, but as the deadline gets nearer…. I’m a little panicked.  I’ve got a whole month to come to terms with my decision.  It’s going to happen.  I should wean myself now so the shock isn’t so great.

Outside it’s hailing.  My toes are very very cold walking around on the hardwood floors.  I think I need more rugs.

Chinese new year is coming up very soon, and my house is a complete disaster!  So as soon as I’m done here, I’m going to start cleaning from top to bottom.  But first I was looking through my studio and online in my shop and I started my new year’s cleaning there.  First I retired many older (and not so old) prints.  Sorry if you had your eye on one.  I can still make a special posting for you if there’s one you absolutely must have and I’ve gone and deleted the listing.  I don’t like having TOO many listings in my shop, it gets overwhelming.

I then went through my stacks of originals and marked some down for the SALE SALE SALE section of my shop, and deleted other listings to just give away to my peeps.  Purging feels good!

I don’t know if I’ll finish cleaning before the new year.  Really, this place is a pig sty, it’s so embarrassing!

Take care everyone, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!  (year of the rat, if you were wondering… not usually good for us horses)

As I was re-alphabetizing the Fairytale section of the Kids’ room at Powell’s today, I (of course) had to stop and flip through all the Arthur Rackham books. The man was truly an amazing artist. I especially LOVE his silhouettes. So inspired by him, I did a couple of silhouettes myself today.

I’ll Lend My Heart to You

Tree Tattoo

I’ve also been wistfully thinking about the many tattoos I want. Like a tree above and the mermaid tail below…

But unfortunately I have too many practical things that eat up my money.

And tonight, as I was watching a Frida documentary, I was thinking how nice it would be to visit Mexico. Visit Frida’s home, take in some sights, and add more little goodies to my Dia de los Muertos shrine. It’s probably been about a million years since I’ve taken a real vacation! Just for fun I’ve been looking at travel books, checking flights, you know…. pretending I’m fabulously rich and can take a vacation whenever!
Perhaps one day… But for now, I’ll just draw myself with prospective tattoos and stare at books of Mexico.

Oh yeah, and the illustrations above will be in my shop sometime this weekend. Have a good one!