A Stay in my PJs Day

It's already close to 11 am and I'm still at the computer, in my pajamas. Therefore, I'm going to, right this minute, declare this a "Stay in my PJs Day" and then I won't feel guilty.

Since my daughter and I decided to close our "physical shop", and concentrate on our website, I've been emotionally and physically worn out, mostly as a result of becoming frustrated when joining and setting other websites to enhance our main one... such as Etsy, But It Handmade, etc., and all the research necessary to make sure you're doing everything as right as possible (read that as, what you can actually afford!).

Add to all of the above that we just had a large section of "this old house" renovated and are still trying to put it all back together after boxing up things and moving furniture to get it all out of the way... and after having an unsuccessful yard sale to try and get rid of things we didn't want anymore.

Well, let's just get honest and list everything that's got me overwhelmed:

• Dealing with the tail end of a huge advertising campaign to bring in buyers before we actually close the home based shop;
• Trying to train a hyperactive puppy after just turning 68 the other day;
• Dealing with having to groom daily that same hyperactive puppy who is having claw problems (a whole other story) because I don't want her to get hurt by a groomer;
• Trying to finish painting a serving tray of exotic aquarium fish that, even after researching the actual colors of the fish, still has me baffled;
• Needing the time to work on a fundraising calendar for one of the preservation groups I'm heavily involved in;
• Needing to find the time to reorganize the attic so that I can properly store the items from the shop when they're no longer in our front room;
• Needing, desperately to really clean this 13 room house before Christmas is actually here;
• Dealing with a stray mother cat and her 3 kittens who were born under our house;
• Needing to take down and clean all the stupid miniblinds in the house that haven't been cleaned in over 2 years;
• Needing to decide what we're going to do with the display furniture that we've been using in the shop and don't want to just give away;
• Needing to hang the new drapes in my bedroom;
• Needing to finish making the curtain rod and hang the curtains on the front staircase landing;
• Needing to remember to feed the wild birds everyday;
• Needing to take pictures of the latest items I've painted for the shop and get them in the shop before our sale ends and on our website;
• Needing to set up an appointment to see a physical therapist about a bad shoulder;
• Needing to begin seeing my chiropractor again, regularly;
• Do yard work that is desperately needed but can't because of my shoulder and back;
• Needing to be able to sleep throughut an entire night without worrying about any of the above.

This is turning into a major whine fest and I apologize. But I know I'm not the only person out there who is overwhelmed with having a huge list of things that have just to get done and need prioritizing.

So... I think I'll take a shower, get into some clean PJs and read a few chapters of Pillars of the Earth that I recently downloaded to my Kindle. I'm sure I'll feel better about my list after that.

Eco Friendly Granddaughter

One of my two daughters had an old wooden jewelry box that she didn't use anymore and being a recycle queen myself, I decided to paint something special on it and offer it to my 10 year old granddaughter.

When asked what she would like painted on it, this eco-friendly little girl said, " A sea turtle."

Well, that was a big order as I have to work extra hard at painting anything that has a face, arms, legs, etc.

But I couldn't let my granddaughter down as she's one who thinks that Nana can fix anything, so I searched for sea turtles online to come up with their natural coloring, and I searched my patterns to see if there was anything I could use.

It took me a couple of weeks but I was really pleased with the results. This picture is a bit dark but the loggerhead really pops in person.

I decided the box needed to be a nice blue, since that is also one of my granddaughter's favorite colors, and to match the turtle's coloring, I brushed bronze leafing paste on the handles and painted a small frame around the turtle in the same color.

My granddaughter was super happy when she saw the jewelry box and it now resides proudly on her bedroom dresser.

What we do for our grandchildren!

Glass Painting Challenges

Okay, I confess, most of the time, I use purchased patterns when painting an item such as a keepsake box, a sign, a flower pot, etc. But then, I decided I wanted to paint on glass.

Since I'm a self taught decorative artist, I began researching glass painting and soon discovered that I needed all new paints and all new brushes.

For transparency, I settled on Paebo's brand because the viscosity is great and when fired, the paints are dishwasher safe in the top drawer. For opacity, I choose Delta's Enamel paints because there's a huge variety of colors, including metalllics, and like Paebo, it's water based; an added boost is it's also nontoxic.

Then I began my research on something which I could use to transfer a pattern to the glass surface, most of which is rounded, and in the case of others like vases, a lot of different rounded surfaces on the same item! I tried a type of carbon or graphite paper, but it left a blue mark that wasn't easy to get rid of; I tried china pencils which left a worse, black mark that was impossible to erase. I tried cutting the transfer image to fit onto the surface but this was way too time consuming and most often wasn't calculated correctly so it didn't fit properly.

I realized, after a lot more research, that most glass artists painted free style and that just scared me to death. I had never taken any drawing courses so didn't have a lot of confidence in my abilities. And I've always been kind of a "tight" painter in that I wanted every line to be exact, etc.

The first glass objects I painted were only Christmas ornaments, most of which had a sort of "flat" round surface, so it wasn't too hard to look at the image and freehand it onto the ornament, but I also wanted to paint vases and bottles and these were definitely my biggest challenge... to let go and just paint.

Herein are some examples of what I came up with. Hope you enjoy and would love some constructive criticism!

Christmas ornaments

Have been super busy over the past couple of months painting new Christmas ornaments for our internet store. Since I wanted to paint something different to add to our collection, I researched the Pennsylvania Dutch folkart designs that my daughter and I saw on the barns and storefronts when we visited the area a couple of years ago.

I wasn't too sure about this at first, as these colorful designs are known as Hex signs and that sounds a bit dark... but my research revealed that these signs are intended to welcome people to your home; wish for prosperity, good health and happiness; and generally, are signs of warmth, love and friendliness.

The colors and designs each have their own meanings, so used a bit of artist license to create my own interpretations. I just love the distelfink birds and have painted them on several ornaments. Shown here are a couple of my favorites... I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed painting them.