Giveaway winner!

The winner of my notepad giveaway is......

Frannie of Thoughtful Hearts

Thanks to all who entered, and be sure to go check out Frannie's lovely blog.

Didn't win? My notepads are available for purchase.

If you have an Etsy account, you can find them here.

Otherwise, you can find them at ArtFire.

Thou shalt not covet...

... but how about if it's for sale?

With spring arriving, I'm itching to get outside and take photos, and I'm seriously wishing for two photography-related items - a camera strap that clips on and off easily and a larger (and cuter) bag so I can carry more than just my camera in it.

Here's what I've coveting right now:

This gorgeous bag from Xcessrize on Etsy:

Look at all those pockets! I could easily keep my camera, strap, extra memory cards and batteries plus maybe some snacks if I'm taking a super long photo trek. And someday, when I can upgrade to a DSLR, I'll have room for that too.

This awesome strap from MadebyMeegz on Etsy:

I almost can't believe this is a completely different seller - it coordinates with the bag so perfectly! It also has quick-relase snaps, so you can take off the strap and have just a small carrying handle left on your camera - I'm quickly discovering that this is a necessity for me since I get myself into some situations where I'm paranoid of dropping my camera (holding it out over rushing water) and I want the neck strap for security, but then there's other situations (shooting straight down taking photos of my art) where I just want the strap to go away. With this, I'd have the best of both worlds, and it looks great too!

Any special items you're coveting today?

Reminder: There's still a few days left to win one of my notepads, and there's not many entries yet, so you've got a good chance of winning! Go check out this post to enter!

Sewing

I've got something exciting coming up with my art, but so I don't jinx it, I don't want to talk about it until it actually happens. In the meantime, I'm starting a new sewing project. I hit the jackpot at JoAnn Fabrics a few weeks back - I got four yards of patterned satiny fabric, a new set of patterns for some fun summery tops, and the notions for $25!

Cutting the pattern.

 (I made the quilt underneath, isn't it pretty? My second quilt ever, and it's still my favorite!)

Close up of the photo of the top I'm making.

Cutting out the fabric pieces. Love, love, LOVE this fabric!

Starting to sew.

I love my sewing machine! My grandma bought it when my dad was young, she taught me to quilt on it, and when she wasn't able to get to the basement anymore to use it, she gave it to me.

Close up of my super-impressive stitching. :)

Since I learned to quilt first and the stitches don't show with that, I'm having to learn to be more careful about my stitches, especially on projects like this where the thread is going to show on at least some of the colors.

I'm aiming to photograph this project all the way through, so you'll be seeing more of this in the future. :)

Reminder: I have a giveaway going on this week. Go here to enter.

Giveaway

That's right. I told myself that when I hit 25 followers, I'd have my first giveaway! Nothing big, but we've all got to start somewhere, right? Here it is:

I'll be giving away one of these lovely little notepads that have my signature drawing "Expression" printed on each sheet.

Rather than having the typical "Count me in" responses, I want to do something fun. In order to enter, you must leave me a comment here with a question - it can be anything about me, my art, drawing/art in general, anything you want to know - provided it's something I'd know the answer to :). I'll do a post (or a few) later on with responses to the questions. 

You can get an additional entry for each time you mention this giveaway - just leave another comment with the link to wherever you mentioned it. Also, be sure to leave your email address, so I can contact you if you win.

Edit to add: I've got a Facebook page now too, and you can get another entry by "liking" me there and posting here that you did so.

This giveaway will be open for entries through Monday, April 11. I'll randomly choose and post the winner on April 12.

Enjoy! :)

New line of cards

I haven't done anything with my stationery line for quite some time, so it's about time to do something new. I'm very excited to announce that my "Rear View" cowboy drawing is now available on blank note cards.

It's available here. I hope to have it listed in my ArtFire shop soon as well.

Anyone need a dose of cute? :)

I promised calf photos, and it just so happens that we had a set of twins yesterday!

Here's twin #1, a little heifer (girl). While she's small, she's stronger than her brother. Twin calves are notoriously small and weak, and often the mother only accepts one of them, rejecting the other. Here, she's all cozy in the barn, waiting for her mother and brother to come join her.

Twin #2 - a BIG bull calf! I really can't believe this guy is a twin, and I feel sorry for his poor mama as she's not a very big cow! Despite his size, he's quite weak, and he's got a little bit of a problem with his front legs - they roll over, and he walks on the fronts of his ankles. We didn't think he'd make it, but we caught his mother, and my husband got some milk out of her. I dipped my fingers in it and let the little guy suck the milk off my fingers. He got quite pushy - I guess I wasn't dipping my fingers fast enough for him - so he decided to get up and do something about it! We got him over to his mama, and he managed to suck for a little while. He was too tired and weak to stay up very long, but that first milk is vitally important, so we're feeling hopeful for him even though he's not out of danger yet. 

This is the best photo I could get - Mama was still pretty protective of him and didn't want me to come around the other side of the hay feeder (you can see her feet right behind him, she was guarding pretty close).

Here's my favorite calf this year (or he was before the twins came along) - he was born on Valentine's Day and had a "brother" (different mother) born the same day that looked exactly like him, even down to the funny markings you can see in his ears. Sadly, the brother died - we think one of the cows laid/fell down on him. :(

And last, here's our Brown Swiss calves we get from a dairy. They're a few months old now, but I just love their coloring and cute faces.

In an art funk

I don't know what it's been the last month, but I have not been able to get myself motivated to draw (hence the lack of blogging).

I continued with the daily sketches until mid-February when I tired of my model. I've been on the lookout for new ideas for daily sketches, but nothing seems inspiring.

Also, around that same time, I got a letter from the Art Instruction Schools telling me that since I had taken too long on their course, I'd have to pay the difference between the tuition I paid and the current tuition if I wanted to continue. It took me 45 minutes of looking through all the original paperwork to find one place where it mentioned any time limit - ONE sentence, buried in the middle of a 4-page document of legal jargon. I was under the impression that it was a work-at-your-own-pace course, and I would've appreciated some sort of "reminder" that I was nearing the end of the limit.

Can you sense a little bitterness here?

I was really looking forward to the figure drawing segments that were coming up since my drawing of people can really use some work, but since the tuition difference is $900, it's not going to be happening. Needless to say, this school will not be getting any more glowing recommendations from me!

Anyway, I think that really put a damper on my artistic desire.

I haven't been completely useless lately though. I picked up my oil paints again and have been having a great time experimenting with them. I've been painting on scraps of matboard since canvas costs money, and I've got a million squares of matboard in a box that I saved from cutting mats for my artwork. I've been hoping to find some use for them.

I've also been busy around the house and farm with getting bookwork done for taxes (farm taxes are due March 1 instead of April 15), and taking care of cows/calves - we're now up to 11 little baby calves! I promise I'll take some photos soon - it's supposed to actually be pretty warm this weekend, so if there's enough sunshine, I'm planning to get some photos. Though we also got a new computer, and since we switched from a PC to a Mac, I have no photo editing software, so you'll only be getting raw photos - I usually do very minimal editing anyway, so shouldn't be too much change.

I'm hoping getting outside and getting some sunshine will spike my creativity again!

What do you do to overcome an art funk?