Happy New Year!

Unicorn ACEO

Wishing everyone a new year filled with magic, love, bliss, abundance, happiness and light.
2009 is going to be great!
Much love,
Kathleen

Handmade dog collars and art that I am loving...

Here is Cloud wearing his new handmade collar from Camille's Studio that I found on Etsy. I bought some as gifts so I got him one too. He's a little pirate. (Arrrrrrrr, avast!) It's so cute, and comfortable for Cloud. Camille has so many styles to choose from and is a super nice person too. If you're a dog lover you will want to visit her blog - comfycollars.com (She even blogged about Cloud!)
Thanks again Camille, we love the collar! :-)

My favorite thing about Etsy and Artfire is all the wonderful artists I've found and friendships I've made. I'm having a lot of fun collecting art that inspires me and makes me happy. Here are some recent goodies that I love:

This magical winter tree pendant from Gypsy Mare Studios (Jennifer MacNeill-Traylor):


This card from Diane Clancy:

This sweet winter painting from Marnie Vollenhals:

These gorgeous prints and bookmarks from Julia Guthrie:



And my newest addition, these wonderful cards from illustrator Rachael Smith. You can't help but be happy when you look at teacher cat and the kittens!


Thanks to you all! I just love surrounding myself with happy and beautiful things and am so honored to own these works of art!

Scrabble tile pendants

After seeing fellow blogger Marcia Furman's cute scrabble tile pendants I had to try making some of my own. I think they turned out really nice. They are tiny, about three quarters of an inch square - mini wearable art!

You can see them all in my Etsy shop, I made them from ten different prints (even Cloud, heehee.) There are doubles of a few, but most of them, that is only the one. I ran out of supplies but if one you want is sold out I'll be happy to make more. :-)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Cloud and I hope the season brings you an abundance of peace, love and joy. Thanks again for taking the time to visit my blog, and much love to friends old and new.

As a side note, Cloud gets almost three times as many Christmas cards as I do. Seriously. This year he got 14 and I got 5. Should I be embarrassed? Oh well, just look at him, I mean come on, no one can compete with that!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Love and blessings,
Kat and Cloud

Happy Solstice!

In the darkness and cold of winter, the promise of longer days and natures renewal rises with the sun.




I want to thank everyone who reads my blog for visiting. I love your comments and the friendships I've made, and I look forward to sharing a wonderful 2009 with you.

Wishing love and blessings to everyone this holiday season,
Kathleen

Sneak peak...

I started sketching out my first set of original ACEOs today, just drawing whatever came to mind. I'm finding it challenging but a lot of fun to work this small (2.5 x 3.5 inches) and I'm really loving the smiley sun and baby dragon!

Favorite charities

The weather has been brutally cold here lately, and on top of that we had an ice storm last night. I'm sitting in my warm house right now and thinking about the people to whom a warm house would be a luxury. So I thought I'd pass on the word about the Link Center Foundation. They are a volunteer run foundation that has a heating assistance fund for the Elders and disabled living on the Lakota reservations in South Dakota. Average income on the Oglala Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation is about $3,500.00 per YEAR. Elders have died of hypothermia during the winters, and many resort to burning their furniture to try to stay warm. This link has some photos of the reservations in winter and here is their home page if you'd like more information: Link Center Foundation

Please feel free to share your favorite charities in the comments. There are so many worthy causes out there (for people, animals, environment, etc.) I would like to know about and I'm sure others would too.

Love and blessings,
Kathleen

Wordless Wednesday

Dragons, dragons!

You may remember this post had inspired me to draw dragons after a long absence. So the last few evenings I've been practicing and working on my dragon drawing technique. Having a lot of fun is more like it! I'm thinking about a series of fantasy ACEO originals just for something different. I used to draw a lot of unicorns, too. Oh, the possibilities... :-)


This one reminds me of illustrations in childrens books. Something about the colors I guess.


This creature is surly, ill-tempered and not very bright. He is a minion to an evil overlord.


This dragon looks intelligent, kindly and has friends and alligences with heros and heroines who, if they ask nicely, may get to ride on his back.

Fun stuff! :-)

Animated GIF - WIP from a few years ago

I was going through some files and found this animated GIF I made a few years ago from work-in-progress photos of one of my commissioned pet portraits. This is Ginger, she is a Chow-Golden Retriever mix. I should make more of these, they're kind of fun to watch.

Handmade for the holidays

One of the reasons for this post is because so many people that I talk to have never heard of Etsy. If Etsy is new to you, it is a place to buy hand crafted items, ranging from art, jewelery, clothing, pottery, soaps, toys and much more. I'm continually amazed at the quality of work every time I browse, and find so many beautiful things.

Artfire is another site for buying and selling handmade goods. It's still in beta testing, but it looks very promising so I set up a storefront there as well.

Since becoming a fan and supporter of "slow food" and supporting local and family farmers, I'm finding it natural to transition into supporting handmade goods. Etsy even has a feature where you can search for artisans in your area. So if you're looking for something unique, want to support the handmade movement, or even just don't want to stand in long lines this holiday season, check out Etsy and ArtFire for a gift made with love by hand. :-)

Here's some favorites I found this morning while browsing treasurys on Etsy:

Spiraling thru the Earth and Sky treasury

Vanilla Sky treasury

Myth and Magic of Christmas

And the winner is...

How exciting, today is the drawing for the set of little ACEO's...

I copied and cut out everyone's name (twice if you left a comment) and put them in a hat. I asked Benny if he would like to do the honors.


He wasn't sure what I wanted him to do. It smells like paper, not food, therefore it's not interesting. This is his "grouchy old man" look - at 14 years old, he's earned it!

I ask Cloud if he wants to help pick the winner. He looks at Benny as if to say, "what's going on???"


"Seriously mom, I don't know what you want me to do here..."


Ok, I guess I'll have to do it myself...


And the winner is:


Congrats Jennifer, I hope you enjoy them!!! Shoot me an email (in my profile) with where to send them.

Thanks everyone for playing, this was a lot of fun. I'll be having more giveaways in the future for sure. :-)