Big Year

I haven't posted in a long time for a good reason. I have been BUSY.

Let me break down the crazy into a timeline:

* In March my best girlfriend and roommate told me she was pregnant and moving out in June.

* In April/May I got several portrait commissions. (It's always flood or drought in this business)

* Also in May started looking for places to rent and found a PERFECT trailer with a storm shelter and 6 acres--meaning I could keep my horse right in my own back yard.

* Then the landlord said the lease was for a year--minimum.

* Then my boyfriend told me to not sign a year lease somewhere

* In June my boyfriend proposed to me (and I said yes)

We are getting married in September (59 days from today to be exact) Which means all the major wedding planning stuff has had to be done immediately. Which hasn't really been difficult, it's just been busy. Oh, and I'm still supposed to be out of my house by the end of July (7 days from today to be exact.)
The boyfriend fiance and I haven't found a house yet.
Since I'm not the live-together-before-being-married type, I will have to put everything in storage and stay at my parents for the last 52 days before I get married. So I have been busy wedding planning, painting portraits, packing everything I own (and trying to sell some of it on craigslist.) And wouldn't you know it, my Etsy page is doing booming business this month! Now my Etsy store isn't huge so "booming" for me means 13 sales so far. But those are orders that have to be made and shipped while still doing my regular job and all this other stuff.

I'm too happy and excited and eager for September to get here to be TOO stressed though :)

Season of Change

I have several portrait orders lined up right now, which is sooo great. I had a bit of a dry spell last year after I stopped really promoting myself. I got a bit burnt out to be honest and wanted to have longer in between portraits and I got it. I went from having done 30+ portraits in a year to, oh..10 or less? But I also had plenty of time to paint my own paintings and experiment with my style a little. Now I have a lot of paintings, and a several prints, and a bunch of ready-to-ship pillow pets sitting around. Oh ya, and I'm moving. Where to...I don't know. This is not an unhappy move, but it's come at a slightly bad time. And since I HATE moving stuff. especially stuff that I realize (when I'm packing it) I haven't used for years, I'm going to be having my first ever garage sale. Soon. I have stuff listed on Craigslist and will surely end up donating lots of stuff to the Luther Service Center. But on top of all that I would like to just sell a lot of my inventory of pillow pets and prints. So. I'm having a huge sale in my Etsy shop right now (Coupon code HAPPYCUSTOMER gets you 50% off.) I have deactivated several listings, things like paintings I'm not willing to part with for less than the original price, and custom portraits. But will probably be adding more prints as I figure out my inventory.

Now please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I try and pick where to live and for how long. One option is a trailer (that I like. with a tornado shelter) with 2.5 acres (Having Stormy outside my front door?! Yes please!) but he wants a longer lease than I want to sign. And the other options...well I don't really like them....

Hoke Process

Wordless Wednesday: Stormy

So Far Monday

I am a little behind posting to the blog because I'm getting ready for the Downtown Edmond Arts Festival. Here's a tiny piece for the fest.

Thought it was finished here, ^ 

But after taking a picture, and looking at it for a minute, I thought it needed a tiny bit more work:

Finished This

Not Saturday Yet

This one is 2'x3'. I forgot how much I love painting on a larger canvas.