It's The Little Things

What a wonderfully quiet and relaxing Christmas. My family had mutually decided last month to do a really low-key Christmas this year. No presents or last-minute shopping trips. No stressful extended family dinners. I must say, it was great. I had my mom over for a fondue dinner at my place, which was delicious *and* fun. Kinda perfect, if you ask me.

Though, my mom cheated a little on the "no gift" rule and bought me a gift anyway (sheesh!). I've been searching for a new painting desk for well over a year now. For the past four years, I've been painting in my living/dining room and while I've gotten by just fine, it was definitely high-time to move all painting operations into a separate room. Mainly so I could have a dining table again that isn't covered (and boy, do I mean covered) in paint and works-in-progress.

I gave up trying to find a simple, affordable, and chic desk months ago. But my mom found one on overstock.com for a bargain and snatched it up for me last month. I *love* it. Now I can paint in my studio and have a messy-free living/dining room again. Yay! Thanks, Mom!

Since the new year is almost upon us, I also took it upon myself to re-do the inspiration cork board.The biggest change? Black paint. Wow, am I glad I did that. Such a simple thing and yet it really does make a big difference. I just used a satin enamel black paint from the hardware store and it did the trick nicely. One layer on the cork was all it took (and any smudges that got on the laminate frame were easily wiped off with a rag).It's the last week of 2009! Wow!

Inspiration and an Emperor's Portrait

Hello, sweets.

Holy cats, how time does fly. This is shaping up to be a rather hectic (in a good way!) month, so I do apologize for the silence on my end. I've been painting painting painting, as well as contacting a lot of galleries and all sorts of boring but necessary promotional-artist-stuff.

The good news is the polar series is coming together so smoothly and is looking awesome...

"Emperor of Cold Lands"

acrylic on wood laminate tag

3.5 x 5"

{ Sold }

I'm still planning on having an online shop update soon to unveil the entire collection, so I'm busily cranking out more work and doing lots of all-night painting sessions.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd stroll through my "Inspiration" folder on my computer's desktop and share some recent images that have been sparking my creativity lately...Design*Sponge recently did an amazing little sneak peek into artist Ann Wood's apartment (do check it out if you haven't already--it's fab) and I was so taken with her space and the all-out mad-artist-genius feel of it. {above image from Design*Sponge}I love helter-skelter displays and collections of old things, and get so inspired by natural history objects from ages long past. {above images from Vintage French Interiors book}Yay for things in jars! {above image from Vintage Vavoom book} {above image from Easy Country Style book}{above image from Flea Market Style book}

Enough dreaming--back to work I must go. As always, thank you *so* much for your kind words, peeps. I hope you're all feeling inspired, happy, and at peace!