Hair New Era

It has been over a week since I last posted on my blog. This is quite unusual for me.

Since I started this space in July 2010 I have enjoyed it so very much. Sure, sometimes I didn't quite know what to write about, but that lasted for about a day or two and then the ideas were flowing again. Nothing to worry about.

The best part of blogging is connecting with other bloggers. I've found so many kindred spirits here that I have hardly found in "real" life. There is inspiration galore, opportunities to learn, to take part in challenges - the list is endless. In short, blogland has been a great place.

However, I have felt a weird tiredness over the past few weeks. I used to blog so often, and currently I write one or two posts a week. This week, I haven't written anything. I wonder what is going on, whether I just need a little break. Is this only temporarily? Or is it something bigger?

There is a lot going on in my life at the moment . First of all, the Geek had surgery last Thursday and that was on my mind a lot in all the weeks before. It went well and he is very perky, recovering from the three hours surgery surprisingly fast. He still is in pain, but for that we have those lovely pills...

January was very busy in my Etsy shop, and I am thankful for that. I had several custom orders and sold lots of Valentine's cards. It caught me by surprise, I have to say, I had thought that after Christmas things would be very slow, but I actually was way more busy than before Christmas. It's good to see that people want to show their love for other people, no matter how. February was exceptionally slow, and currently it's picking up again with custom orders for St. Patrick's Day. I'm doing a happy dance here.

There is a lot more going on, but I don't want to bore you with all the details. The outcome, however, of all of this is that I've lost my mojo for writing my blog. It's not that I don't have ideas - I actually do, and I know that I will put them in here one day, but just not yet. I want my blog posts to come from my heart and be honest, and at the moment I feel I can't do that. Everything is just blah, and to write only for the sake of creating another post to keep this blog going without my heart in it? No, I'd rather not.

So I think I might take a little break from my blog - but as soon as something crosses my mind that I want to share with you, I will. I know that I will be back, I just need to get rid of that pressure that I am putting on myself for no reason at all.

But please tell me - do you ever feel like that, and what do you do if you're blog tired?
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As usual I am late for Photo Art Friday (yes, I know it's Sunday), but better late than never. For this week, Bonnie asked us to share a piece of photo art where we use one of her textures and then use a layer mask to finesse the texture application. It was quite a challenge, but I think I managed not too bad.


I used Bonnie's texture "desert canvas" in blending mode soft light at 100% and then used a layer mask in PSE to remove most of the texture from the tulips and their leaves. After that the tulips received some of the texture back, but lighter than before. It wasn't that difficult after all, it just takes some time and I had a harder time to decide when I was actually finished.

Bonnie's challenges help me to learn using PSE more and more efficiently, and I am very happy about that. Recently I have also taken more "still life" photos which is new to me and I haven't practiced very often. It actually also helps me to take better product pictures of the items for my Etsy store which is important to me.

I am also linking this to Life in Pictures at Coston Comba Photography, a photo blog I have just discovered.
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After weeks and weeks of no painting at all, I finally picked up the paint brushes again and started a new mixed media painting that I finished two days ago. It feels so good! This time I tried to be less messy, "cleaner", actually paint a little scene. I'm not quite sure whether I really succeeded in it, but I do like the result. It's on an 8x8 stretched canvas.


Oh, and you bet - it will be in my Etsy shop very soon.

This, however, is not my first "The Owl and the Girl" painting - a few weeks ago I created another mixed media painting featuring a girl and an owl. I did make it for the swap with Donna who sent me her wonderfully altered book.


Yes, the owl is a photo of "my" Mama Owl. I hope I will see her again next year.

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Well, it's already the sixth day of November, but I have decided it's still okay to join Art Every Day Month (AEDM). I have absolutely no idea whether I will be able to post some art here every day, but at least I will try.

Today I can show you a journal that I made out of a regular composition book. During back-to-school, composition books are always on sale and I stock up on them at that time. They're just ideal to get altered into a journal or notebook.


I like the little bird - it's a template I created some time ago and that I use over and over again. The paper is from a paper pack by Daisy D's, and on the back and the inside are coordinating papers of this same pack. You might have already guessed it - the journal is in my Etsy shop now.

Do you have those days too? When you feel heavy, your legs are like lead and it's just exhausting to go through the day? I have a day like this today, and it drives me nuts. It reminds me very much of the time before my surgery, and I really don't want to go there again. I'm just plain tired, and I think I will give in and hang out in the hammock for 30 minutes. Hopefully, my energy will come back then. Not very exciting things on the horizon though - have to pick up Kaefer from school and then it's straight to the dentist for her appointment. Which for me means waiting... What do you usually do when you have to wait somewhere? I read a lot, and I hope I can do that this afternoon.

I want to share a Halloween card with you that I recently listed in my Etsy shop:


Usually I'm not a big fan of skulls and skeletons, but when I saw some scrapbook paper covered with these goofy looking skulls I couldn't resist. Making the card was mega-easy, and I don't know why exactly I like this one so very much. Perhaps because the skulls look so goofy and funny, not a bit scary. I was glad that I had this small wooden coffin and the skeletal hand to use as photo props - I enjoy putting some "spice" into my pictures like this. Taking photos of my items for Etsy is a completely new thing for me, and I enjoy learning about how to take pictures of my items to get people wanting to look at them. Thrift stores and yard sales are perfect places for finding photo props.

Okay, I'm going to the hammock now, hoping that Geeda hangs out there already and keeps me company.

In January I created this mixed media canvas for an Inspiration Avenue challenge. Today, I've put it in my Etsy shop for sale. It is still one of my favorite works - I just love the warm colors of autumn (I really don't know why I prefer the word "autumn" over "fall", perhaps it is more poetic. Is there a difference between the two words?).

I'm quite excited about the season change. Many trees in my neighborhood are turning leaves, it looks beautiful. The two crape myrtle in front of my house are glowing in a deep pink, it's marvelous. I simply love this stunning display of bold color.

I hope all of you - at least in the Northern hemisphere - enjoy the earthy colorful season.

Hello dear WOYWWers, yes, it's me, obviously not a regular anymore. I haven't been here for the last few weeks (two? three? even more?). The reason is simple - I've set up and opened my Etsy shop and that obviously took all my energy. It's a quite fascinating adventure, pretty much work is involved, but I expected that and really like it. However, I did not expect to sell anything in the first few months, and I already sold a mixed media painting and one of the small journals! That came as a surprise - I am very happy about and deeply thankful for it.

But you're not here to hear me ramble but to see what's on my worktable - it's this:


I'm working on another girl, a little Halloween witch this time. She will get green hair and a typical witch's hat. Somehow I want to include a cat and perhaps an owl - or a crow. I'm thinking of working more on the background and to make it a little more "halloweenish".

Do you want to see what's on other worktables? Just visit Julia's Stamping Ground and find the "guide".

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Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love its quirkiness, the craziness, of course the ORANGE, the bats, spiders and ghosts. This is the first time that I attempted a Halloween themed mixed media painting. I was thinking of glittery ghosts who dance in the night. The glitter is really hard to see in this scan, but anyway, here it is - finished in a couple of days:


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A few days ago I read some of the letters again that my mom wrote to me when I was 18 years old. Her letters are so beautiful and while I read them I remembered everything we did at that time - it was 1978. Although it brought tears to my eyes, it also painted a huge smile on my face.

My mom passed away four years ago, and those letters (I've kept them all) are the biggest treasure I have from her. I can hear her voice when I read them - she wrote the way she spoke, so completely her. She was a wonderful letter writer and I am forever thankful that I grew up in an era when people would still write letters - something you can keep.

It inspired me to create another girl - "The Daughter".


It is a 6x12 canvas, a size I have never worked with before. I discovered that I really like this size, it's perfect for the girls.

Beneath the acrylic paint you can see some written words peeking through - this is a copy of one of those letters from my mom that I adhered to the canvas first. It's a piece of my heart, so to speak, something very personal of myself that I worked into this painting. The words say "She kept her mom forever in her heart". It is still not quite finished, but very close. She will be available in my Etsy shop.

This is also my contribution to this week's Paint Party Friday and Sneak Peek Friday. Please come and visit these talented artists - there is so much inspiration you can get and just some real honest eye candy.

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A week ago I opened my Etsy shop. That was a really big leap for me, something I was scared of and excited about at the same time.

I had been dreaming about my Etsy shop for quite some time - way too long, actually, before I finally started to make it happen. Even before Kelly Rae's "Flying Lessons" did I know that I wanted my shop, my own little space where I hoped to sell the pieces I created.

Why did it take so long? In the end, it certainly was fear. But I think it also was being sick for such a long time without knowing it. When your body isn't healthy, it lets you feel that without you realizing it. You're tired all the time. Your energy level is extremely low. Your optimism shrinks quite a bit. There are times, sometimes several days in a row that you feel downright depressed. You're the worst company you can imagine.

Since my surgery almost three months ago I do feel like a new person - just as my surgeon had promised. I feel healthy, energetic, optimistic. These days I have more energy than I had for a very long time - I've almost forgotten what it feels like to be healthy. I will never ever again take that for granted.

With this new energetic me I've felt confident enough to deal with my fears and see them as a challenge. I told myself that opening my own Etsy shop really does not carry a big risk - I can't lose anything, but I can gain a lot instead. So why not try it? In the worst case I am not selling anything. That would hurt, of course, but it is nothing that would ruin me. And I can tell myself that I tried and it didn't work out. Still better than not trying at all because I'm scared.

With these thoughts on my mind I set up my shop and finally opened it last week. I only told a handful of people. Of course I feel like a complete newbie which I am, but everyone at Etsy once was a newbie. I'm slowly making my way, finding connections, building up my "circle" and just getting familiar with the Etsy environment.

Yes, it is scary. It is also exciting and exhilarating. It's discovering new things every day.

It makes me feel ALIVE !!!

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