Spellbound Wings Elegant Art & Gifts by Melissa Dawn fairy art prints jewelry compact mirrors Fairy Art, Cat Art, Fairy Mermaid Art, Angel Art and accompanying gifts including framed prints, lockets, necklaces, compact mirrors and magnets.

Melissa's Blog

   Welcome to Melissa's blog, where she'll journal about current WIPs, fairs and festivals, upcoming products, and anything else that comes to mind!

March 17, 2010

          I just realized that my entries yesterday were dated with today's date. Not sure what's up with that!

          Today was a mix of good and bad-- Augustus finally started eating a lot more hay, so *hopefully* he will continue to get better. My printer worked long enough for me to finish filling orders, then decided to stop recognizing the ink cartridges. I will have to see if Fry's has my warrenty on file, otherwise it's time for a Plan B!

          Despite things being busy, I squeezed in some painting time-- the new fairy kitty is coming along nicely. I spent tonight turning him into a long haired cat. His fur was sleek like Strider's before, but I really wanted a fluffy kitten-- actually, I think this whole series will have fluffy kittens-- so I fixed that. Hopefully I can get this one done this weekend, then start redoing the website and working on one of my new Muchness fairies (no clue what to call them, must think up a clever name). Can't wait to show y'all everything!
March 16, 2010

          None of the problems from earlier have really been fixed (bunny is nibbling but not eating, and more ink arrives tomorrow), but I do have good news.

          I think I found my fairy much-ness.

          Ever since I started painting fairies, I've been searching for a style & theme I could call my own. There are so many fairy artists out there, that each time you think you've come up with an original idea, you find out ten artists have already done it. But last night, when I was trying to sleep, I started thinking about fairies, and mushrooms, and all the sudden... I got my muchness.

          While I was not a fan of the new Alice in Wonderland, there were some things I really liked about the movie. I love the discussion & how the actors delivered it when talking about how Alice has lost her muchness. I feel like I haven't really had any fairy muchness... until now. Fairy cats, yes. Fairies... still searching for it. So, once this idea popped into my head, eight others immediately followed. It was crazy! I just sketched out the first two, and it came so easily, and got a big thumbs up from Tim (one of my yardsticks!), so I am extremely excited. They have a surrealistic, Alice in Wonderland feel. I may do only one fairy cat this month and try to release one of these fairies too... but we'll see! I'm also tempted to release several of them at once...

          So stay tuned, because with the new fairy cat series, website look, and new fairies... things will be changing a lot here! Not in a bad, too-different way-- it will still be me, but with lots more muchness :)
March 16, 2010

          The past couple of days have been rough. We had an awesome time at my parent's this weekend-- corned beef & cabbage for dinner, cookie making, etc. And my mom and I played with jewelry supplies, which is always too fun!

          Then yesterday, all our stuff started breaking. By stuff I mean me, my printer and our bunny. The printer says it's out of ink, so I put in a new cartridge, and it prints one print then says it's out of ink in that color. Not good! It's happened twice now, and so far the best solution seems to be throwing more ink cartridges at it until you get one that works right. Not literally, though if it keeps happening, I may start chucking the ink at it!

          Then Augustus, our little Napolean bunny, refused to eat last night. He is the biggest pig and always digs into his food with gusto, but last night he ignored our attempts to give him veggies and pellets. In the past he's had episodes like this where he gets really sick and won't eat for days, so we were afraid that was happening again. However, I did coax him to eat some lettuce this morning, so hopefully it won't be too dire!

          So all that adds up to too much excitement, when I just want to work & paint! I did figure out the color scheme for my new website design, and Tim loves it, so hopefully that will be good. I made a ton of progress on the painting for it, so if all goes well the new website design will go up in the next month or two.
March 12, 2010

          For some reason I totally forgot to publish the journal entry below this one, which I wrote two days ago. What was I thinking??

          I did finally manage to triumph over Facebook, and have a brand new page up! I am having way too much fun with it now, and I haven't even gotten to do everything I want yet! I plan to post WIP pictures, new listings on Etsy, and other misc. fun stuff on there. Here's a nifty preview of my page (click on it and you can go there and friend me):

Melissa Dawn Art | Create Your Badge


          Yay! I finished that yesterday. I've been feeling really overworked and rundown, so I took today off. By that I mean I filled orders all morning and then did the layout for one of my new kitty series :) Luckily Tim and I are going to my parent's tomorrow for a St. Patrick's Day celebration, so I will be forced to actually literally take a day off! The irony is that we're not Irish... just Irish at heart. I can't wait! Tonight I'm working a little more on orders, answering some emails, and then watching a movie with Tim.

          So all in all it's been a good day... I watched 9 Friends episodes while I worked, and had a fantastic time finally finalizing the layout for that new fairy kitty series. I am extremely excited about it, and can't wait to debut one of the cats next month. If only I could decide which one to paint first...
March 10, 2010

          Facebook is EVIL!!! I have been getting nagged about starting a Fan Page on there, so I decided yesterday to try it... and have since had to start over THREE times. Augh! The thing that keeps throwing me off is that a fan page is not actually a profile, so you can't friend anyone, plus there's this big "Create your profile" link at the top, but when you fill that out it then makes a personal page on there that the fan page is connected to or sometimes not even connected to. I have used facebook for about 5 years, so you would think it would be easy... but nope!

          Anyway, I'm glad you guys seem to be enjoying the new paintings. It seems like everyone is ready for spring! I'm already at work on my next two fairy cat paintings, which should hopefully both be done by next month. One of them will become the new image on my website & business cards, assuming I can paint it like I see it in my head!

I was super excited today when a package of new jewelry supplies arrived-- it's silly how happy I get when they arrive. However, I was bummed to discover that one of the new jewelry elements I ordered does not match the colors or shapes it had online, so I will have to send them back and re-order different ones. It's a good thing I don't need them until the end of the month!
March 6, 2010

          Done! That was definitely a record. "Fragile Spring," what I think I'm calling the new fairy bunny, is finished. It was so fun to paint my little Tinkerbell! I love all bunnies, but there's something about Hotots has have always captivated me-- maybe because my first bunny was a hotot, or maybe because they always have such distinct personalities. Now I have two more!

          Besides finishing the fairy bunny, I also worked at the library and went to the movies today. I was REALLY excited to see the new "Alice in Wonderland," as I am a huge Tim Burton fan. The visuals were great, and I liked the Cheshire Cat, but other than that I really didn't enjoy the movie. I was so surprised, and disappointed! In one of the episodes of Babylon 5 that Tim and I just watched, a comedy duo comes to the space station and everyone is cracking up, loving it, except Captain Lockley. That's how I felt today at the movie-- Tim and I were quiet while everyone else chuckled. Well, maybe I'll see it again at some point and like it better!

          So, I am happily on schedule to release both new paintings towards the middle of this week. I actually finished Fragile Spring a whole day early-- that means I can do the website update and maybe even get it out Monday or Tuesday.
March 4, 2010

          I have an eight hour shift today at the library. I can't even put into words how much I don't want to!!! Four hours is a long time with our job, but eight is killer. I just want to stay home and paint!!!

However, I'm happy to say I did indeed finish "Aquamarine Cat," the March birthstone cat, last night. Here's a sneak preview (the painting should be released by the middle of next week):

MarchCat
March 3, 2010

          Almost done! Almost done! Despite my procrastination earlier, things are going really well. Background, flowers, jewels & wings are done, so all that's left is to touch up the cat's face, and it's finished! I will post a sneak preview tomorrow :)

March 3, 2010

          Today I have an awesome day off from the library, so I am supposed to be spending it finishing the March Cat, However, so far I have managed to update DeviantArt, watch a tv show with the hubby, and procrastinate online... none of which involves finishing this painting!

          While I was in Washington I met with Kathi & Cindy (crafty friends! yay!) and we have a new project that we'll be unveiling at some point hopefully this summer. It's not art, but rather handmade little creatures by us... should be really fun! Unfortunately I will probably, once again, need to clone myself to get everything done. That's just the way it goes!

          I need to go mail orders that way I can get to work on finishing the March cat. Finishing up a painting and doing all the polishing and last minute touches is always the hardest for me, and seems to take forever! It's hard because in my mind I'm already two paintings ahead and ready to go work on them. I will hopefully finish "Aquamarine Cat" tonight, and the fairy bunny this weekend, and have a big update for y'all by the middle of next week. Onward and upward!

March 1, 2010

          Augh! Did I just write March 1?! This year is flying by! Which is really okay with me... the sooner we can move up to Washington and get things sorted, the better! I am missing it big time today.

          A package was waiting for me when we got back last night... new business cards! I tried a different company this time, and got extra pretty ones. It's probably something only a business owner would get excited about, but I'm so happy with them. The front image is darker than I would have liked, but the back is super gorgeous. Anyway, these will start going out with all orders, so if you're one of the folks with a pending order, you will get to see these in person soon!

          Today I'm working on orders before I head off to library work, then probably doing more orders when I get home. I'm hoping to squeeze in some painting time tonight. While we were up in WA, I really did get on a much earlier schedule than my norm, which means that we got up at 10:40 this morning. Considering we usually get up around 1 PM, that was awesome! The downside is that we're going to bed a lot earlier, so I don't know how much time I'll have after I get home from work before I crash. I'm working on a huge website update for when I get these new paintings finished-- I will be posting the clocks I have in stock, offering a new commission option, and adding fairy bunny & cat paintings. I am shooting for early next week, but with all this stuff, it could be almost two weeks, so stay tuned!

February 28, 2010

          Hi everyone!!! We're back! And boy does it feel like we were gone longer than 8 days! I have so much catching up to do.

          We had an amazing time in Washington and did a whole lot of things-- I spent a ton of time with my dearest friends Kathi and Greg, and at their store Browser's Books, got to see my friends Jeff & Sherri Haynie (Jeff is an incredible fellow cat artist), got to finally give a flying monkey to Amy (Brown) and have dinner with her family, and actually saw a lot of Washington in the process. We've picked out some areas we'll look at moving to, which feels really exciting.

          I re-stocked my kitty art at Browser's Books, so if you're in the Seattle, WA area, go to 315 W. Meeker St. in Kent, WA and check them out! I guarentee you won't leave empty-handed; the store is an amazing treasure trove of books, art, and gifts.

          So now I have to get to work-- I have lots of orders to fill, emails to write, work to do on my thesis... not to mention the two new paintings I hope to release in the next week or week and a half!!! Guess I better get started :)

February 19, 2010

          Craziness! Ran around like a chicken with my head cut off today-- have to get up in 6 hours to catch the flight too. Augh!

Small Charmed Cameos are now sold out. I will be updating the website in approximately two weeks, including two new paintings, so please stay tuned! I am off to Washington-- again, please feel free to order like normal, but know that orders will begin shipping out on 2/28/2010! Thanks guys!

February 17, 2010

          My shift at the library was almost twice as long as usual today, so I am super tired tonight. I'm trying to get all caught up on orders, since I'll be out of town Feb. 20-27. You will still be able to order like normal during that time, I just won't mail out your order until I return!

          Tonight I discovered I only have 5 30x22mm glass cabs left. It is ridiculously hard to get 30x22mm cabs-- these were specially made for another artist who was kind enough to sell extras to me. After these five go, I will not be replacing them. That means I will be discontinuing the small Charmed Cameos (just the small-- the large ones won't be affected). So, if you have your sights set on one of them, please order it soon!

          I've been so busy with work and orders and preparing to go out of town that I haven't gotten to paint in a few days :( I am determined to get the March cat and new fairy bunny paintings done by the end of the first week of March, so hopefully I'll be able to concentrate on that when I return from Washington. Nothing else new here-- I'm off to watch an episode of Babylon 5 with Tim, then to bed!

February 15, 2010

          Today is one of those beautiful, lazy spring/summer days when you just want to curl up on a hammock and read and nap! I guess it's a bit cold to feel like summer, but it sure feels like spring!

          I've been lazing around in the sun room for most of the afternoon, take a much-needed break, but now I'm off to work on my thesis, the March cat, emails, and orders. Less than a week til we head off to Washington!

          PS-- Today I sketched out a new painting, which will be a companion piece to Gossamer Spring. The new piece features Tinkerbell, my little hotot/lionhead bunny! I will be waiting to release the March cat until this fairy bunny piece is finished, but that should be the first week of March.

February 14, 2010

          Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope, whatever your situation, your Valentine's Day is filled with love.

          I'm most excited about today because it's Tim & my third anniversary of getting engaged. Three Valentine's ago we went to Disneyland and he proposed to me in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle :) It was the most incredible proposal a girl could ask for, and it's strange and exciting to think that's it's already been three years since that night!

          Today is also my lil sister-in-law's birthday, so tonight we're doing a dinner celebration for her, and then Tim and I might go to the movies. Or just stay in and have a Babylon 5 marathon! In the meantime, I'm designing a new business card and working more on the March cat. I'm thrilled with the progress I made on it last night!

February 13, 2010

          Hi all! Just got back from my parent's. It was a terrific visit-- my dad and I watched Harry Potter 3, and in response to my new obsession with pearls, my mom generously gave me one of her pearl bracelets & necklaces. Good stuff!

          Now I'm trying to figure out what to do tonight... I have the March cat open, so I will hopefully make a bunch of progress on that. I'm super tired for some reason, so really all I want to do right now is go to bed! And it's about 5-6 hours before my normal bedtime. Maybe I'll take a quick nap and then get to work.

February 10, 2010

          How is it already February 10??? I swear, I blink and three days go by!

          Nothing too interesting here, just working on the March birthstone fairy cat and getting ready to unexpectedly go to my parent's for the next few days. Good thing I have a four day weekend! When I get back, I will be finishing up the March cat and getting ready to go to Washington for the week (yay!).

          Originally my plan was to release the March cat and another painting when I got back from WA, but since I probably won't finish the other painting in time, I may just release "Aquamarine Cat" before I leave. Anyway, here's a WIP shot; the wings, cat & background aren't done at all, but I figured what the heck :) I love the colors! They definitely get me in the mood for spring.

MarchCatPreview

February 6, 2010

          Not really having much of a weekend... I have to work at the library both Saturday & Sunday, and before/after work I'm trying to get orders done, the March cat painted, and get pictures done so I can put the Timepiece Cameos up on Etsy. I did make a lot of progress with the last one; please vist the  Timepiece Cameos gallery to see some of the new pictures! Hopefully they give you an even better idea of what these beauties look like in person.

          The March cat, on the other hand, is being a pain. I may have decided to go with pale blue tulips for the painting after all (it's what I originally planned on but I changed my mind), so we'll see if it comes together in the next few days. We leave for Washington in exactly two weeks, so I want to have all the loose ends tied up by then!

          Okay, I'm off to read for a few then to bed... night everyone!

February 4, 2010

          The awesome thing about working at a library? You can always find 10 new books to bring home.

          The sucky thing about working at a library? You can always find 10 new books to bring home!

          My whole shift I was excited to go home and paint. Tim's out bowling with the boys, so I knew I'd have 4 hours of uninterrupted painting time. However, I was so tired when I got home (and in my defense, my shift ended at 9 PM), that I put on my pj's, crawled into bed, and began reading Tori Spelling's latest autobiography.

          Now it's four hours later, I've finished the book, and I've painted nothing! Not only that, but I've discovered celebrity autobiographies are apparently a guilty pleasure. I'd say secret guilty pleasure, but I just ruined that. As long as Tim doesn't know, that's all that matters!

... and on that note, it sounds like he just got home!

February 3, 2010

          Today was a good day! Once again I got a lot done, and even made some progress on the March kitty. I sat down to work on it again a few mintues ago, and instead found myself opening up this fairy painting I started last May. I love the colors and the fairy but I didn't like some of the painting's other elements, so I found myself playing around with an idea I had. Before I knew it I not only had a good layout for this painting, but for a companion piece that's been floating around in my head for the last month. Now they're both ready for painting to start in earnest!

          I didn't want to say anything in case I didn't have time to finish it, but I've been thinking about doing a piece in relation to Amy & Jessica's "Enchanted Visions." They have this new thing where they come up with the title for a painting, and without consulting each other, create a painting that they think of when they consider the title. Another artist set up a site where any artist can submit their own interpretation, so I'm thinking about submitting the companion piece I mentioned above for the next one, which is "Shades of Blue." I don't know if I can have her done by March since I'm going up to Washington for the last week in February, but I think I'm going to try!

February 2, 2010

          Despite feeling lazy and unfocused earlier today, I actually ended up accomplishing quite a bit. I finally got a lot of Chapter 1 of my thesis written (yay!!), got orders out, answered a ton of customer emails, updated DeviantArt, and finalized the sketch for my March cat. It's only 10:30 PM, so I'm thinking about starting the underpainting for the March kitty. Or I could work on the orders I need to send out tomorrow. Or both... (yes, this is why I typically go to bed at 2 AM!)

          Also, on a random side note, I bought a package of Parmesean Goldfish crackers the other day, and totally devoured them, so tonight I am fishy-less! Much sadness ensues. :(

February 2, 2010

          Today is my day off from the library, so I'm supposed to be accomplishing all sorts of things. Instead, Tim really pissed me off, which means that I can't concentrate on anything. I wish I was one of those artists who was fueled by anger and dark thoughts! Instead, I have to be in a happy place to paint and write.

January 31, 2010

          The website has been updated! I hope you enjoy the new kitten and my new Timepiece Cameos. I am so excited about them! As far as I know no other artist has created any similar products, and the fact that they're also really practical is a great bonus.

          Tim and I visited my parents this weekend, which was both fun & relaxing. We played a lot of Uno! Now I'm catching up on orders and trying to get to bed at a decent time.

January 27, 2010

          Victory was had last night, as I finished Amethyst Cat! It is an extremely purple painting, which I had the best time with since lavender is one of my favorite colors. I can't wait to release it! However, since it's supposed to be for my February newsletter, and since I will be adjusting the prices of my jewelry and such when I release it, I will probably wait until late Saturday night to update the website.

          I spent today taking pictures of it on all the products, which is actually my favorite aspect of finishing a painting. I like prints, but it's way more fun to see how paintings look in cameos and mirror compacts! Sometimes paintings make great prints but it's hard to put them on products (Angel Hearts is the epitomy of this dilemma), but I was pleased to find that Amethyst Cat seemed to look beautiful with all the products yet make a good print.

          Originally when I began the birthstone series I considered making the same style of wings for all the cats, but I'm having more fun doing different wings for each cat. What ties the different Birthstone Fairy Cats together is the fact that they all have birthstone jewels on their wings, which is an idea I'm quite proud of! As far as I know no one's done that with a birthstone series yet. Amethyst Cat has lovely lavender wings, and if you look closely (or not too closely depending on the size of the print!), you can see sparklie fairy dust on her wings!

January 24, 2010

          It is taking every ounce of my self-control to put down my pen and stop working on Amethyst Cat! I spent a ton of time working on the wings today, as they did not come together as easily as the previous jeweled wings did. Now they're done and I like them, but I won't be able to finish the kitty tonight. However, I do have a sneak preview for you!

Amethyst Cat Preview

January 23, 2010

          Today was a good day. Got a lot accomplished on my thesis, then spent about five hours on the February cat painting. It was my idea of the ideal Saturday night! I know, I know, my life is too exciting ;) While I painted I watched Friends and then switched over to Harry Potter 6. Now I'm tired so I'm off to read and then to bed! Tomorrow I have emails to respond to, a few orders to fill, and then *maybe* I'll finish the new kitty!

January 22, 2010

          Happy Friday! I absolutely love having three day weekends, since I can get lots of stuff done on Friday and still have a whole weekend to look forward to. Of course tomorrow I'm going to my alma mater to do research for my thesis, but it will hopefully be fun.

          Among other things, today I worked a lot on the February cat and watched the movie Love Actually. I haven't seen that movie in a few years, so I forgot just how funny and enjoyable it is. And it has one of my favorite actors (maybe my favorite!!) in it-- Liam Neeson. I didn't make as much progress on the painting as I'd like since I was distracted by the movie, but I did give the kitten adorable luna moth style wings!

January 21, 2010

          Yesterday was just one of those days where you wish you'd just slept through it... hopefully today will be better! It's my last day of work at the library this week (yay!), so this weekend will be full of art business work and writing my thesis.

          I'm also working on the February birthstone cat, and I think I may have turned the corner with it. A lot of times paintings will have a stage where they're ugly and just not at all what you'd envisioned, so it's hard to want to work on it when it's looking so bad! However, I think I've finally gotten the painting worked out to where the colors mesh nicely, and I'm really excited about it. Folks who like the color purple should love this one! I also figured out that the kitten needed a white star on the forhead and some white on the body. I'd give you a sneak peek but it's not ready yet... maybe tomorrow!

          I'm also working on a new jewelry line. These designs are super unique (and practical!), so I'm really looking forward to debuting them. I was hoping to have it all ready for the February newsletter, but I'm still waiting on a few jewelry pieces so I may debut them but only have them for sale in my Etsy shop until the rest of the pieces come in since I have a really limited supply right now. At some point this year I'll also start designing earrings... so, lots to look forward to!

January 18, 2010

          It's hard to believe my four day weekend is almost over!!! Boo! Tim and I went to my parent's on Friday and just got back last night. It was so fun-- and my dad's cooking is to die for! Today I'm trying to catch up on emails, orders, and other random work. I ran out of the gold keys I was using for small lockets and such, so I've replaced the pictures with the new ones I have.

          Unfortunately I've made no painting progress what-so-ever. I started the March cat and a new fairy painting that I'm super excited about, but I haven't made much progress on either. And when I made my mom cookies last night, I totally tweaked my wrist, so I have to be super careful and wear a wrist brace for a bit or I won't be painting at all!

January 13, 2010

          Sooo tired. I had a headache all night that totally wiped me out. As I didn't feel up to doing anything, I ended up actually updating my Deviant Art account (it's a website where you can submit your artwork and network with other budding artists and established artists). I used to be on DA ten times a day, but things have been so crazy for the past year that I haven't even signed on. So, it will be nice to chat with all my friends on there again. Now it's time to go read with Tim and go to bed! Of course, the one night I'm ready to go to sleep early is the one night he decides to make Mac 'N Cheese... which I can't resist and have to go eat even though it's 2 AM!

January 10, 2010

          Yesterday was supposed to be a very work-filled day, but instead Tim and I went over to my sister & her boyfriend's for an evening of Fundue. That's like Fondue, but with extra fun! It was a night of melted cheese, funny/weird videos, and a lot of laughing. I'm really going to miss living so close to my sister when we move. I'm simultaneously dying to get up to Washington and not wanting to leave my family. If anyone knows how to grab Washington and pull it down 'til it's in Northern California, I could really use your help.

          I've also made a little progress on the February birthstone cat. Painting grey cats is hard! I want to get this one and the March birthstone cat done by the end of the month so I can release both of them in my February newsletter. After that I may work on more birthstone cats or start this other cat series I have planned. And I really should paint a fairy somewhere in here!

          I have some necklace-gluing to do tonight, and I really need to get holiday cards & gifts finished off. Both would be easier to do if it wasn't so cold in here!!

January 7, 2010

          Well, I am mostly back to being human. After I released Garnet Cat, my cold got really bad and I spent next few days feeling miserable and sitting on the bed doing nothing. So, yesterday was the first day where I actually felt mostly back to normal, and today, I think I'm all better. Which is nice, considering I think I already paid my sick dues this year with that cold I had a month ago! I'm still not used to it being 2010, so I'm really not sure how we're now an entire week into the New Year.

          I came across the cutest picture of a calico kitten last night, and now I have a tremendous urge to paint an adorable calico. Either August (peridot) or November (topaz) were going to be a calico kitty, but I also want to paint one in this other cat series I'm going to start, so I haven't quite decided what I'll do. I planned out the birthstone series with a different colored cat each month, but I keep changing them around.

          I have been working on the February birthstone cat, and the matching amethyst jewels. I painted a Russian Blue-type kitten, but with lavender eyes to match the jewels. For some reason, I think I have a thing for purple cat eyes... with Key of Enchantment & Key of Stars, this makes the third painting where I've made the eyes purple. There's another cat coming up with purple eyes as well... it's a strange habit, but apparently one I plan to keep. Hmm.

          I feel like this post isn't making any sense... it's not even midnight and I'm getting really sleepy. Tim's out with friends for the night, so I guess I'm going to read and go to bed early. I know, I know, exciting!

January 3, 2010

          All done! Garnet Cat is done, the website is updated, and I'm still sick! I'm happy about the first two ;)

          I hope you guys like the new kitty, and the new galleries. I figured it just made more sense to have a Fairy Cat gallery instead of just an Animals gallery when I will always paint many more cats than anything else.

          No new products this month, but I have a new jewelry/accessories line that I may be debuting next time I finish a painting. It's really fun, and as far as I know, I'll be the only fantasy artist with anything like it! So hopefully that will work out and y'all will get to see it soon.

          Other than that, I'm just trying to take it easy and get better quickly. I'm watching Season 7 of Friends right now, which is one of my favorites. I think I had something else I wanted to write, but I'm still really out of it and keep forgetting what I'm thinking!

January 2, 2010

          Ugh. I am fabulously sick today. I slept on & off until 4 PM! Now I'm trying to take it easy. For me, that means finishing up the painting while watching something ;)

          As I am seriously out of it, I put in Harry Potter 4 because I couldn't find HP 6, then when it came on, forgot it was HP 4 and got confused. Then I found HP 6 right on top right next to me! Sigh. Now I've put HP 6 in, and am settled in to finish Garnet Cat. While normally my cats don't have a specific gender in my mind, for some reason this one really strikes both me and Tim as a male cat. I didn't like the wings I did last night, and Tim said "No, give him manly wings!" Uh huh. So now the wings are different than I expected, but hopefully pretty cool.

          So, that's what's one the agenda tonight... if it goes well, I should have him done in the next hour or two, and I can start working on product pics with him (my favorite part!). I probably won't update the website until tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll be more coherent then! Until then, here's a sneak peek of "Birthstone Faery Cats: Garnet":

GarnetWIP

January 1, 2010

          Happy New Year, everyone!!! I wish us all health, happiness, and a much better 2010 ;)

          Tim and I rang in the new year with my parents, which was really fun, relaxing... and fun again! Unfortunately, my cold has gotten a lot worse, and it looks like my dad got it as well, so we were really just a bunch of sickies (and Tim!). Now we're back, and I'll be hopefully working very hard and finishing the new cat and website update at the end of the weekend. I'm feeling so icky I thought about just going to bed, but I figure I'll try painting until I absolutely need to go rest. Otherwise I'll just lie there and think about painting!

          I can't really remember what my goals for 2009 were (I must have written them down somewhere!), but business-wise this was an amazing year, and I accomplished a lot, including doing several new festivals, getting licensed with HEAD, and starting to sell my work wholesale. I think I only completed 11 paintings-- 6 cats, a bunny, and 4 fairies (including a fairy mermaid). I wish I could have done twice that! However, I did almost double my fairy portfolio, and it really was the year of the cats! I even finished my first cat series and started another.

          So, it could have been better, but I'm happy with most of the paintings I managed to do. One of my biggest goals for 2010 is carving out painting time on a regular basis. I have about 50 paintings I'd like to do this year, but if I actually do 25 of them I will be happy. I will be painting a lot of cats, a bunch of new fairies, and a smattering of other creatures including another bunny and maybe even a fairy puppy! And on that note, I'm off to paint :)

December 30, 2009

          I think I figured out why I was feeling weird-- it looks like I'm coming down with the cold my mom got this past weekend.

          So far my solution has been to eat chocolate. A lot of Dove chocolate.

December 30, 2009

          Today feels funny! I have no idea why. It just feels weird. Maybe because it's actually sunny outside? I don't know, but I feel more awake and energetic than I have been, so it's awesome.

          Last night I had the best time finally getting some good painting in on the January cat! It just clicked, and now both the cat & the background are almost done. For some reason I always like painting the wings last, so that's the only big thing still left to do. I'm going to my parent's for New Years tomorrow, so I probably won't get a chance to finish the painting and update the website until this weekend. I was thinking about waiting to release it until I finished the Valentine's cat, but this one has red roses so it could already be considered Valentine-y. Plus, I am just no good at waiting!

          When I update the website, I will also be fixing the print prices from their sale price ($5 for a 5x7 and $10 for an 8x10) and putting them back to what will be their normal prices ($6 for a 5x7 and $12 for an 8x10). So, those of you who read my blog will have a chance to get whatever prints you would like at the sale price before I update it!

          On another note, I hope everyone had good holidays. Christmas was wonderful, with my family and my aunt/uncle/cousin-in-laws (Hi Katie & Debbie!!) coming over to Tim's parent's for the day. It was fun to visit with everyone and eat really good food! I felt really spoiled with all the amazing presents I got this year too. Almost everyone got me fairy-related items for some reason! Tim got me the brand new Tinkerbell movie (and his parents got me the first one), so I'm super excited to watch it.

          Aaand I thought maybe hell had frozen over because my parents got me a fairy figurine!!! My mom has been so adamant about not buying me fairy figurines (she doesn't really understand the whole fairy thing). So when I was opening up the wrapping, I was really confused, and even asked my sister if it was actually a present from her! (She's actually the one who started my fairy figurine collection) But nope, my mom finally caved and they got me a beautiful fairy princess. AND they got me a stirling silver key necklace!!! Do they know me or what?

          After Christmas I went back with my parents, and spent a fun & relaxing weekend with them. It was so nice to not have to worry about anything! Tim & I are heading back there tomorrow for our traditional New Year's with them. I think I've only celebrated one New Year's away from my parents, at a big, noisy party with my ex-boyfriend, which was so not fun that now I like spending New Year's at home, eating my dad's gourmet Potato Pancakes and Sauerbraten, watching a movie, and drinking champagne while watching the ball drop on tv.

SauerbratenOkay, now I'm really hungry thinking about those Potato Pancakes, so I'm off to make some lunch!

December 29, 2009

          Another night, another round of "what should I do with myself???" Last night I did indeed work (somewhat half-heartedly) on the January fairy cat while watching Tinkerbell. Then one of the cats completely toppled the Christmas tree, and after helping clean that up, I didn't really accomplish anything.

          Right now I'm deciding between doing more feedback on Etsy, working on holiday cards & gifts, and painting. Right now I'm thinking painting...

December 28, 2009

          I am currently trying to figure out what to do with what's left of my night. I woke up with a bad stomach ache this morning, so I read & napped in bed until I had to go to the library for work tonight. Now I'm home, and Tim's at a hockey game, so I'm trying to figure out what to do. Paint? Work on holiday cards & gifts? Answer emails? .... lie in bed and read/nap/watch a movie?

          You can bet what sounds the most appealing. I'm still trying to recuperate from the holiday rush and even painting sounds like sooo much work right now. I also need to write a post about Christmas and such, but again, too much work. This is what happens when I take a break from working-- laziness! Actually, if my laptop was working, I would probably be happy to curl up in bed and paint. Hmm, New Year's resoloution #1... get laptop fixed.

December 25, 2009

          Merry Christmas everyone! Wishing you and those you love much happiness! Thank you so much for your wonderful support here at Spellbound Wings-- I couldn't do it without you!

December 24, 2009

          It's only midnight, and I'm already dying to go to bed. I say "only" because during busy times, my bedtime is usually between 3-4 AM. Last night I had a lot on my mind and didn't fall asleep until 5 AM. I don't want to go to bed because The Plan was to accomplish much in the way of Christmas present-ness tonight. However, the only thing I really did tonight was spend quality time with my cats. Yep. That's it. And now I need to go accomplish something, or my night will be like this blog, short and pointless!

December 23, 2009

          I can't believe tomorrow is already Christmas Eve! Tim and I just got back from finishing our Christmas shopping. I think we spent a total of about 1.5 hours this year shopping for Christmas gifts-- which was awesome. Of course, that's because I am making a wide variety of gifts for people, so Tim's really the lucky one! It should be fun though.

          Last night I tried to relax and work on the January birthstone cat. I made some progress, but not nearly as much as I should have. I knew it would take me a bit to ease into painting again, but I'm so ready to release this cat plus the Valentine's one! Hopefully they'll go quickly once I get back into it.

          When we were at the store I saw the new Tinkerbell movie, and I'm just dying to see it! Each time I see the first one I like it even better. That was the top thing on my Christmas list this year!

          Though what I really want for Christmas is a better 2010... no more family funerals, car funerals, hospital stays for people & cats, and could somebody PLEASE get all these people who are ridiculously qualified jobs?? It's been a really rough year for our families, so we are all crossing our fingers for a better 2010. I know it's been a hard year on everyone, and I hope y'all have better years as well.

          Alright, I'm off to get ready to go work at the library. Oh-- and as you might have noticed, we are currently sold out of magnets. There was a big last-minute rush on them, so I am going to have to order more before I can make them available for purchase again. I'm having trouble deciding which magnets to order though-- I found these magnets that are similar to the ones I have, but with little stands on the back so you can stand them up as a tabletop frame as well! And I found them in black as well as clear. So, I'm still debating. If any of you have strong preferences where magnets are concerned, please feel free to share. I'd love to know what you guys think!

December 22, 2009

          Triumph! Never thought I would get here, but all orders placed by December 20th went out yesterday! Thank you to everyone for a terrific holiday season. Y'all certainly kept me on my toes ;)

          Now I'm trying to recuperate, and to remember exactly how one goes about relaxing. It's so automatic to get up and immediately start making jewelry! Today I got up, checked my email, and then sat down and read a book. Unbelievable! Now I'm trying to figure out what to do before work at the library tonight. I really want to get those two kitty paintings done-- I think that's what I'll go work on. I know it will take me a bit to get back into painting mode, but once I do, I should have two new paintings going up in the next two weeks. I hope!

          Of course now it's time to start working on holiday cards & presents for the families, so I guess I can't totally relax yet. I really should do that... but nope, I'm going to paint! And maybe listen to Christmas music... what I really want to do is eat one of the pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins my dad just made... too bad I ate all the ones he gave me already! Too yummy.

December 20, 2009

          It feels like Christmas! Yay! My parents really know how to do Christmas, so spending two days there was so neat. We even got to watch my favorite Christmas movie-- A Muppet Christmas Carol. We drove around and looked at Christmas displays, and I made cookies, and we all just had a great time. I got to see my sis a lot too, which is always nice!

          Right now I'm working on the last of the pre-Christmas orders. No orders placed in any of my shops will now go out before Christmas! You can still order from my website, but I won't be shipping orders until next week. I plan to use the next two weeks to relax (yeah right!) and hopefully get two more paintings done. I'm really looking forward to painting the Valentine's cat-- last night my mom helped me figure out a bunch of the painting's details. It was fantastic. No one expected me to become an artist, so it's taken a while to get everyone on board. Having my mom helping me with my new painting was like a dream come true :) Or one of the best Christmas presents ever!

December 17, 2009

          Despite it being close to the wire, I figured I'd post a quick entry. Ah, disguising procrastination by doing another form of "work"-- my favorite!

          I'm sad that it really doesn't seem like Christmas yet, despite it being a week away. This has been a very rough, stressful year for the family, and I think it's taken it's toll. Tim, being the big-hearted, adorable guy he is, tried to help. I came out of the room after a nap the other day, and found him wearing a Santa hat and putting up decorations. So cute :) He figured since everyone's working so much and we're all so stressed that it might help bring some cheer into the house. Yep, he's a keeper!

          Tomorrow I finsh a bunch of orders and send them out, and then we're heading over to my parent's house. We're going to get a Christmas tree and decorate it, and my dad's already decorated the heck out of their house, so hopefully it will really start feeling like Christmas! I'm really looking forward to it. I'm going to bake cookies & chocolates too. It never feels as much like Christmas as it does at my parent's house. I hope I can give that same gift to my children when I have them.

          Alright, I guess I better get back to work. I'm thinking about finding an internet radio station that plays Christmas music... that should help, right?!

          PS-- Saturday is the last day to place an order and have it go out by Christmas (assuming it's not like a 20 item order)! Unlike many artists I won't be shutting down for the next month, but I will only be mailing out orders once a week for the next few weeks.

December 16, 2009

          Crazy! Crazy, crazy, crazy! Did I say I was almost caught up on orders? I was for, like, an hour! I forgot just how insane the Christmas rush is. Which is good! Just crazy.

          I've worked on the January cat about 30 minutes more since I last wrote. Right now I'm just working, going to the post office, going to the library for work, and then coming home and working more. And then sleeping a little. Then it starts over again! We went to the post office once today, and we're going back tonight to use the automated machine again once I finish a bunch more orders. Hopefully this chocolate cake will give me a nice sugar rush!

          OH! I almost forgot! We got a car!!! My very first one :) It is roomy and drives beautifully and is a gorgeous blue color. Maybe I'll post pictures later. Shows will be SO much easier to do in this vehicle rather than a little compact. Can't wait!

          Other than that, not much new. Waiting for next Monday, when the last of the Christmas orders go out. December 19 is the last day to order and have me ship it for Christmas! If I'm still alive by then ;) I'm looking forward to not living at the post office next week, but I'd be more excited if I didn't have to work at the library Christmas eve until 5. I've actually never worked that close to Christmas before! I guess I'm lucky.

December 13, 2009

          Almost caught up on orders! I sent the last big batch out yesterday morning, so I've actually gotten to do other things this weekend. Yesterday we went over to my sister's new apartment, where her boyfriend cooked a delicious shish-ka-bob dinner. My parents came too, and we all had a lot of fun playing the game "Catch Phrase." That has become one of our favorite games! I realized when we got home that it was the first time this week I wasn't working or incredibly stressed. So that was nice :) We also found a car! Juggling finances and figuring out all the details for actually getting it has been really tough, but if all goes well we should have our new car by the middle of the week! It will be the first car I've ever owned, which I'm super excited about.

          I've also gotten a chance to work on the January birthstone cat! In fact, I'm working on it right now while watching the fifth Harry Potter. None of these movies do justice to the book, but in some ways I think this one is the worst. I'm excited to go get the sixth one, since it was hilarious and in most ways better than the previous five.

          I will be shipping orders until December 21, so all orders placed by December 20 should arrive by Christmas. I've changed the shipping on the website in the US to Priority Mail, which is only 2-3 day delivery. Don't forget that if you are still looking for Christmas presents, our gift tin necklace sets can be mailed directly to the recipient, already gift wrapped and with a little card! We gift wrap all the tins, so even if you want them sent to you you'll already have the work done for you :)

          Alright, I'm off to hopefully make some more progress on the January birthstone cat! I wish I didn't have to get up at 8 tomorrow because a nap sounds so good right now.

December 9, 2009

          Still up to my eyes in orders here, so while I am chomping at the bit to work on the January cat, I am still making oodles of necklaces and gift tins. Good thing I enjoy it! Hopefully tomorrow night I can take a break and paint.

          Hmm I thought I had something interesting to say but I guess not. After five 15+ hour workdays, my brain is pretty fried. I still have a few hours of orders left tonight, then I definitely need to relax a little. Maybe the new Ghost Hunter's Academy will be posted online and we can watch that! (Always the highlight of my week)

PS-- I'm thinking of doing a Valentine kitty since I haven't painted one yet. I think a Valentine kitty necklace and matching gift tin would be the purrfect Valentine's present, so I hope I can get it done! First, the January birthstone cat, then the Valentine cat, then the February birthstone cat...(and new fairies too!)

December 7, 2009

          Hey everyone! We are back from Tahoe. Despite being really sick, it was mostly an incredibly relaxing week-- all I really did was sit & read, play board games, and watch movies. So fun :) It's nice having the best in-laws in the world. Thankfully we have pretty similar taste in movies and such-- we even watched the three Lord of the Rings movies! I'm also borrowing this book series from my little sis-in-law called House of Night, about a "Vampyre Finishing School." I'm quite obsessed with the series and read the first three books up at Tahoe!

          However, Tahoe fun was tempered by bad news. The second night we were gone somebody smashed into my mom-in-law's car at home in the middle of the night, and of course they drove off without leaving any insurance information. So, as of right now, the car damage looks to be too expensive to repair, so the whole family is really upset. We're currently sharing 2 cars among 5 adults, which is tough. It's pretty unbelievable that our family has lost two cars this year to irresponsible strangers. I can't say it's done much for my faith in mankind.

          Anyway, we got back this weekend and I immediately dived into filling the 50-ish orders that piled up while we were gone. I'm almost halfway done now, which feels good. Gift tins have turned out to be so much fun to make, which is good because they are selling like hotcakes! The next few days will probably be spent catching up on orders, then hopefully I can do some January birthstone fairy cat painting.

          My painting self definitely recharged while we were gone-- I brainstormed some new paintings, and am more than ready to get started! I have three new fairy series that I'm going to try to focus on over the next year, with everything from mushrooms to moons to birthstones. I want to finish the faery cat birthstone series, and I have a couple other faery kitty series ready to paint as well. I want to do some other miscellaneous paintings next year as well-- fairy babies, and maybe some fairy puppies and more fairy bunnies too. As you can tell, I have lots of ideas-- if only I had the time to do it all! Well, next year should be interesting. I hope to get a lot of painting done and double my current portfolio, especially the fairies.

          Alright, I'm off to work a bit more on orders before collapsing. I'm still behind on email and other such things, but I think it'll have to keep til tomorrow because I'm just exhausted!

November 28, 2009

          Hi all! Hope everyone had good Thanksgivings with lots of family and fun! My parents were kind enough to host a Thanksgiving dinner for both Tim & my families, so it was a great holiday. I admit, it is still blurry to me, as I was either too dizzy or too doped up on cold medicine to follow things! Today I am a bit better, but still very ill. Since we are going to Tahoe for a few days I have had to put in an 11 hour workday anyway, despite the fuzzy head. See, being self-employed does have its downfalls!

          Anyway, I won't be updating here this week until we get back, but feel free to order as usual since I will be mailing orders out later this week. I will also be checking my email, so don't hesitate to email me either!

          Also, if everyone could please say a little kitty prayer... my Aunt's beloved kitty Leo passed away at 19 years old, and will be sorely missed. Leo was a big, beautiful orange fluffball with quite a personality! I'm very sad :(

November 25, 2009

          Sick. Sick, sick, sick. Orders will be delayed a day or two.

          I blame Tim.

November 24, 2009

          Whew! What an update! I think I got everything loaded and linked-- if you find any problems, please let me know! I will send out the newsletter when I get home from work.

November 23, 2009

          I'm done!!! Yay! Unfortunately, it is once again 3 AM, and I still have yet to take all the product pictures with her. Once again I will have to wait to get everything up! I will start working on it tomorrow when I get up, and hopefully I can get the pictures done, the website updated, and the newsletter out before I go to the library.

          In other news, my throat has not stopped hurting. That plus fuzzy-headedness is also why I am off to bed! I worked for 11 hours today...

November 23, 2009

          I was so close! I had almost finished the fairy last night, when I realized it was already 3 AM and by the time I got all the pics up and the newsletter out it would be easily past 6. So, I will finish her and post everything late tonight. I have work at the library until 9 PM, which stinks because I'm anxious to get this all done! I'm quite happy with how "December Wings" has turned out, and hope you will be as well. She's also the one I started TWO years ago, so I'm glad to have finally triumphed over the painting.

          Unfortunately, I woke up with a sore throat again today, and am feeling like I'm on the verge of getting sick again. With Thanksgiving and Tahoe mere days away, that would be a really, really icky thing. At least if it waited until we were at Tahoe, I could just sleep!

November 22, 2009

          It was so nice to get away and see Ash & Ian yesterday-- that was the first real break I've taken from work for a while (other than being sick!). When I got home I made a ton of progress on one of the winter fairy paintings, so if all goes well today, I will send out the newsletter late tonight and have everything posted on the website for everyone to see tomorrow morning! Originally I was figuring that I would be done Friday, so I would be so excited if it was all done today. Wish me luck!

          Not too much else going on... Tim's working on his Washington Bar application, and we're trying to figure out our plan for moving and such. At least we get to spend the holidays with our families, especially since who knows the next time we'll be able to spend so much time together. I normally get so excited about Christmas, but the year is flying by so quickly that I'm still not mentally caught up-- I think my internal calendar vaguely thinks it's still August or something.

          Okay, back to working on the winter fairy. Stay tuned for many new products and two new paintings (hopefully) late tonight or tomorrow!

November 21, 2009

          New ornaments are up on Etsy!!! I only have ten ornaments total, so if you want one, I would grab it now! I'm not sure if I'll be doing any more ornaments this year-- if I do, they won't be these exact ones (Tim bought me these last year!). I might try and keep one for myself-- they're really pretty! You can see them in my Etsy shop at SpellboundWings.Etsy.com. Gift tin sets, cameo rings and classic cameos will start appearing in my Etsy shop as well-- I will put them up here on the website at some point in the next week.

          This week has passed in a haze of business and tiredness-- Tim's been super sick this week, and I got sick as well-- luckily just a mild version of what he had. No ice skating for us tonight though! We're just going to spend some time with the sis & bf instead.

          I have been trying to get orders out, order supplies, and get all the pictures of the new products done. I'm making headway, but waaay more slowly than I'd like. I'm determined to get a winter fairy done & put all the new items up by the middle of next week. Greeting cards are set to arrive on Tuesday! More compact mirrors arrived today. Now, if only I could get some extra time sent to me as well....

P.S. We are sad to announce that Tim did not pass the California Bar (given the 36% February passage rate, I guess we shouldn't be so surprised), so we will be moving up to Washington next spring. Part of me is thrilled because I love WA and all my friends there, but we're both really sad that we have to leave our friends and families here in CA again.

November 17, 2009

          Today is one of those days where I have so much to do that instead of doing anything, I wander around and look at the different things I need to do lol. I completely forgot about the little ornament frames Tim bought me last year-- they're two inch silver square or circle frames with rhinestones. I need to figure out what paintings I want to put in each one, take photos, and get those up on Etsy. I only have 10 of them for now. I think I'll do that right before I send out my November newsletter, that way everyone has the same shot at them if they want it!

          I'm also working on gift tin sets-- I can't remember if I talked about them before, but they're these adorable 2 inch square tins, which I've topped with each painting (and a nifty border). They will be perfect for Chritmas gifts, because they come with either a small locket, large locket, or classic cameo, and I'm offering free gift wrapping for them as well. Of course, I completely forgot about bracelets and rings... now I'm trying to decide if I want to offer those with gift tins as well.

          Actually, I guess things are in good shape right now-- I just need to get the winter fairy done so I can send out the newsletter and add all of these items to the website. Last night I wasn't in a painting mood so instead I sketched out and played around with some different new paintings. I'm very excited about the January birthstone fairy cat! I'm hoping to get my laptop fixed before we leave for Tahoe, that way I can paint the kitty while we're up there. I can't wait for a whole week with no distractions! It's hard to believe it's coming up so quickly.

          (On a random note) It's really funny, my sister and I are completely different personality-wise, but we have a lot of similar mannerisms, and sometimes we're so much on the same wavelength that it's scary. Last night I called to find out if she and her boyfriend wanted to come out and go ice skating on Saturday... turns out she was going to call me and ask the same thing! Isn't that weird? I'm really looking forward to it. For three years Tim and I lived so far away that we never got to do stuff like this, so it's nice that we can now. That is definitely something I would miss if Tim and I end up moving out of state. Sales tax? Expensive everything? State in the toilet? Not so much. As of Friday, we'll know whether we're staying or going. Should be interesting!

November 16, 2009

          I knew I should have written this before my nap: now I can't remember what I was going to say!

Good things are in the works-- as we speak, the talented folks at Heaven and Earth Designs are turning my paintings into beautiful cross-stitch charts! For my fans who like to cross-stitch, HAED designs are considered the best in the fairy & fantasy market. I'm so thrilled to have signed with them, and will post links to my page on their site as soon as it's up!

Unfortunately I haven't had much time to paint, but I have been working on three new products to release when I finish my next painting. These winter fairies are tricky! Hopefully I can work on one tonight.

That may be difficult, because I now have an injured thumb on my painting hand. You know one reason why I will always be a cat person? Unlike certain animals, they don't chase cats and bark and wake everyone up! The family's stupid dog (no that's not an exaggeration, he is more than a few cards short of a deck!) decided to chase the cats and bark at the top of his lungs while I was napping today (I only got like 5 hours of sleep last night), and as a result I woke up, heart pounding, and as I reached for the door to open it, my thumbnail got caught & bent backwards. So, I now have a terrifically bruised thumb that is throbbing incessantly. I think I need to ice it while I make dinner. Not having to live with that dog is at the top of my list of things to look forward to when we move out! Tim's a total dog lover, and he can't wait too, if that tells you how darn annoying this dog is. Now if I lived with my sister's adorable pug who doesn't go crazy barking and who I adore, it would be different...

November 14, 2009

          For some reason today seems like the longest day ever. I had to re-read my journal entry from yesterday to remember what happened then lol. The bummer is that my weekend is over-- tomorrow I have to work at the library at noon. Thank goodness it's a short shift!

          I woke up this morning ready to work, but it turned out my sister-in-law was going shopping for a Winter Ball dress. Since one reason I wanted to move back here was so that I could do stuff like that with her, I put off working and joined the family at the mall. It was so fun, and Mom bought us chocolate! Always a way to make me happy.

          Since we got home I've been working hard; greeting cards have been ordered, and cameo ring pictures are finished and ready to be put up! If they print correctly, the greeting cards are going to be so awesome. They have a full-color front with the same design as my compact mirrors, a lighter, closer-up version of the cover on the top/side inside of the card, and my website and such on the back. I am getting EXTREMELY limited quantities because I don't know how they'll print or how popular they'll be. A lot of people have requested them, but you never know! I may put most of them on Etsy, but will let everyone know when they go up. They will be a pack of any 3 cards for $8, a pack of the four key kittens for $10, and a pack of any 10 cards for $20 (all packs come with envelopes). I ordered extra Christmas cat cards (and Snowflake Fairytail), so if you're interested in those, you can always email me and let me know so I can put them on hold for you :)

          Last night Tim and I watched the newest Ghost Hunters. We love that show! Tonight we'll watch some more of the Ghost Hunters marathon we taped on Halloween. I am supposed to be working on the winter fairy right now, but I got distracted by the internet. And I think someone just made popcorn...

November 13, 2009

          Good news! "Key of Feathers" is done! I've finished all the photos of it and have added them to the backend of the site, so they're ready to go whenever I update the website. I was hoping to work on the winter fairy tonight, but I have to finish designing & ordering greeting cards, then finish gathering images for my new licensing contract. So excited! Hopefully I can get this stuff done tonight and just paint all day tomorrow.

          Also, have I mentioned how much I love my husband? I had the best time tonight playing with the lightbox he made me. A lightbox is a box that has tracing paper or some other white material covering the top & sides-- you then shine a special light over it, and you can take the most crisp, beautiful pictures. I knew they improved product pics, but I had no idea just how much! I started grabbing random jewelry and products and took way too many pictures lol. I know it doesn't sound exciting but it will cut down on the time & effort it takes me to create accurate, vivid product pics! So, Tim gets another gold star. He's also been working on a Facebook page for the business, so if any of you have Facebook, I hope I'll see you on there once it goes live!

          Other than that, not too much new... I was up almost 24 hours yesterday so I've had a lovely headache all day today. I want to be lazy and work on all this tomorrow, but I know tomorrow I'll have wished I'd done it tonight. I'm thinking about sneaking some Oreo ice cream-- I made meatloaf for the family for dinner, so I'm still stuffed. What if I take some Advil and then go read and eat ice cream while I wait for it to kick in? That's reasonable, right? ;)

November 11, 2009

          Ugh. Today was the kind of day where if I'd been able to get up and wander into the kitchen for some water and slowly wake up, it probably would have been a good day. Instead I'm playing Limp Bizkit and wishing I lived in a cute cottage by myself (with my kitties of course!) somewhere deep in the Washington state forests.

          Anyway, I am in the process of finishing up the last key kitten, "Key of Feathers." I could probably have it done within the hour if I wasn't so... peturbed. I'm hoping if I take a long, hot shower maybe I'll feel better. I get really hyper and happy when I finish a painting, so I don't want to finish it when I'm annoyed and ruin that! If all goes well, it will be done today and I will start getting the photos of it ready to go on the website. The pictures of the new Classic Cameos are already done too! Oh, and I wore the new cameo rings all day yesterday... I love them. They are great! I can't wait to put them up on the site as well. I will try and hold out for an update once I finish the new fairy painting, but depending on how things go I will just put up the new kitten and add the fairy next week.

          Today is a day off but it just doesn't feel like one for some reason. Maybe Tim and I will watch "The Notebook"-- I've been wanting to watch it again for a while, but Tim hates "chick flicks." However, he surprised me the other day by picking me up from work, and The Notebook was sitting on the seat. He's so good at sweet surprises, it's so nice :) I must try to remember that the next time I want to throw something at him!

November 9, 2009

          Some days I feel like a hamster on a wheel, constantly running to catch up but never getting ahead! Last night I finished the bulk of my wholesale website, which is a HUGE checkmark off my list. However, I just realized that I need to have both the last key kitten and the blue mushroom fairy (gosh she needs a name!) done by Saturday so I can order greeting cards. It's a very good thing that Wednesday is a day off and the library is closed!

          I was so excited when I got home from the library tonight, the new classic cameos came in, as did the new cameo rings. They are so awesome!!! The ones I originally made were really time-consuming so I wanted to try pre-made rings. I will glue a cab to one tomorrow and start wearing it to make sure it is good enough quality. I hope it works out because these are so shiny and pretty! If all goes well, I will have classic cameos, cameo rings (which match the classic cameos!), and two new paintings to add to the site early next week. I'm also working on gift sets as well. Like I said, a hamster on a wheel!

          Off to do more work... orders, emails, and hopefully some painting. I'm still trying to figure out what breed to paint with the last key kitten... a lot of colors don't stand out well in front of a blue background.
November 8, 2009

          For some reason, Savannah likes to take her toys and put them in or under something before batting them around. I guess it makes it more interesting or something. Right now she has two paws in Tim's huge shoes... too cute!

          Yesterday we spent most of the day at the funeral & funeral reception, and when we got home I felt so darn icky that I didn't do much more than curl up on the bed and watch Friends until it was time to go to bed. So, today I am trying to make up for it. I need to make a ton of progress on my wholesale site, and get some more of the blue mushroom fairy painted. We also have the grandparents coming over before they head out of town, so it will be a busy day. I'm very excited about the day off from the library on Wednesday for Veteran's Day, but I have to work next Sunday so guess it evens out! Oh well.

November 6, 2009

          Today was a day of running errands and sending out orders. Sent out a huge batch, which leaves me feeling very satisfied and accomplished!

          I haven't had a chance to paint in the last few days, so I'm hoping to get at least a few hours in on the winter mushroom fairy tonight. Parents are getting home from work, and supposedly grandparents are coming over tonight, so we'll see if that happens! I have to get up 6 (SIX!!!) hours earlier than normal tomorrow to head out to the funeral, so no painting until 3 am like normal. At least, that's what I keep telling myself...


November 4, 2009

          Two posts in one day-- I must be feeling awfully chatty! 'Til it's time to return all those emails, anyway ;)

          Tim and I looked at the three winter fairy WIPS (I forgot there was one I started TWO years ago!) and picked the one I should focus on for now. It's the one with the blue mushrooms! So I'm excited. I will probably finish that two-year-old one next... she has a little tiara like in Velvet Spring so I'm looking forward to finishing that one as well. I wanted to paint when I got home tonight, but having already worked for almost 9 hours today, it's taken me a bit to unwind. I need to also glue a lot of necklaces and prepare more orders to ship tonight. Good thing I don't have to get up early tomorrow!

          I also ordered a bunch of new supplies tonight-- I've been playing around with the Classic Cameos, and finally went ahead and ordered the new cameo design I've been thinking about. They're a little smaller than the 30x22mm cameos, but there's still much bigger than the 18x13mm dainty lockets, and the new setting is very lightwight with a beautiful, ornate border. So, I will be taking pictures and adding them to the site in preparation for my next website update. I also ordered new cameo ring settings, which actually match the new Classic Cameos! Hmm, maybe I'll have to do some kind of package deal.

          I guess that's about it here... I'm glad tomorrow's Thursday & my last day of work at the library this week. Unfortunately we have to go to a funeral very (VERY!) early Saturday morning, so it won't be the ideal weekend. But, the sooner I can start getting this list of stuff done, the better! Also, Tim and I rented "The Proposal"... I saw it in theaters with his family and thought it was the funniest thing. He's not thrilled about watching it, but I am :) So at least there's that to look forward to this weekend!


November 4, 2009

          Just a quick update before I head off to the library for work!

           ... Aaand I can't remember the list of things I wanted to say. Figures. Anyway, I'm working on the winter fairy I talked about last time, as well a second one. We'll see which one wins and gets finished first. For some reason, both of them have blond hair. Since I haven't painted a blond-haired fairy in over a year, it's funny that I now have two at the same time! It's said that all artists unconciously put some of themselves in each painting, which I guess explains why I have so many dark haired fairies & angels. It's good to mix it up!

          Also, I'm in the process of signing a contract for some new & exciting licensing, so stay tuned for that! I've also been working on some Christmas gift sets, which I can hopefully add to the site very soon. I may hold off on the customized pet memorial necklaces until January, since things are so crazy right now. Oh! I may actually have greeting cards too. I bought the paper and envelopes a year ago and never got around to designing & printing them. I found a company that prints them though and think I may order some preliminary cards through them. So, you may see those appear on the site by the end of the month as well.

          Well, I'm off to get something to eat (seeing as how it's 4:30 and I haven't eaten yet today!). Hopefully I'll have a big update with new art, products & licensing in the next few weeks!


October 28, 2009

          So, Tim and I decided that today was definitely a burned eggroll kind of day. You know the days where nothing seems to go right and you look forward to something, and that something turns out to be... burned eggrolls?

          It's a long story. But let's just say, among other things, I will not be shopping at the Concord Fry's any time soon, if ever again.

          In between writing emails and filling orders I have been working on two new paintings. One is the last key cat, and the other is a winter fairy. I realized the other day I haven't painted any fairies with mushrooms, which, while the are quite common in the fantasy market, are still something I should probably paint. I discovered, much to my delight, that I love painting mushrooms! They can be any color you want, and at the moment, I have some lovely blue mushrooms. Hmm that sounds funny! Anyway, I have the painting basically sketched out, though I'm debating whether to dress my fairy in a long dress or a short skirt with thigh-high stockings.

          I want to get the fairy done ASAP, plus the last key kitten. That would mean that I finished a complete series in 2009! Though I was dying to paint the Ocotober, November, & December birthstone cats (the colors are so fun!), I will probably start with the January kitten after I finish these two paintings, that way I can get them done in plenty of time for people's birthdays, instead of finishing up at the end of the month. If I actually manage to finish the fairy & key kitten in the next two weeks I may do the December kitty, but with the start of the holiday shopping season it just may be too crazy. Either way, lots of new art-- soon!


October 25, 2009

          Hi all! Tim and I are back from our trip to Sonora. I was feeling so icky on Thursday that we almost ended up not going, but I'm really glad we did. We looked around downtown Sonora and Columbia and Angels Camp, but spent most of the weekend just relaxing at the resort. It sounds funny, but it was really hard for me, since I'm constantly working when I'm home. I mean, my idea of relaxing is watching a movie... while putting crystals and charms together or gluing necklaces or ordering supplies. Sitting down and doing nothing while watching a movie is something I rarely do.. and it takes practice haha.

          I think the weekend off was just what I needed, because I finally have the energy to face my epic to-do list. I also got to brainstorm paintings, so hopefully a couple of the new fairy series I came up with will turn out well. I have a ton of fairy WIPs but I've been feeling so uninspired by them lately that I haven't made much progress. Hopefully tonight I can get one of the new ideas sketched and started, so I will have my first-ever winter fairy done in plenty of time for the season!


October 21, 2009

          Hey guys, I finally managed to finish (mostly) everything and get the new site & painting up. What do you think? The website is still a work in progress, but I'm going to leave it alone for now and try and get some painting done after I catch up on orders. If you find any links that don't work on the site or anything, don't hesitate to email me and let me know. I try to double-check everything when I update the site but you can never be too sure!

          With the craziness of everything right now, plus trying not to succumb to the ten thousand illnesses going around right now, Tim and I decided not to vend at the All Hallows Eve Faire this weekend. We will still be up in Sonora and will go to the fair, it's just too much to sit outside for 12 hours on Saturday alone. We've been on the go non-stop lately so I'm looking foward to having a semi-vacation this weekend, especially since we'll get to spend some time together without all the usual stuff of everyday life.

          Well since I've been working at the library and on the business since 9 am this morning (it's now 11 PM), I am going to finish off business stuff for the night and hopefully get at least an hour of unwinding before I go to bed. Have to be at the library at 9 am again tomorrow- but that's it for the week! Yay.

October 18, 2009

          I actually blogged about a week ago then totally forgot to upload it-- just goes to show how crazy things are around here! We had an awesome time vending at Witchapalooza in Sacramento last weekend-- a big hi and thanks to everyone who visited us there! (Hi Amy :) ) Right now we're gearing up for our festival next weekend, at the All Hallows Eve Faire in Sonora, CA. There are all kinds of pumpkin activities and neat entertainers-- I'm really excited!

          Unfortunately, the downside of all this good busy-ness is me feeling super burned out. I've semi-recharged this weekend, which is good since I will be working both jobs without any days off for the next 11 days. Eek!

          However, I've managed to finish a new fairy cat painting; a much-anticipated orange kitten. For some reason it just flowed from my pen so smoothly and quickly, so I will be putting up merchandise for "Key of Leaves" in the next few days. I've taken this opportunity to rearrange things on the website as well-- the design isn't too different, I just wanted the website to feel less dark. I'm also retiring jewelry boxes and wreaths (online), as well as the two cat paintings "Snuggle Angels" and "Silver Cat Dreams." Those two paintings will be coming down in the next day or two so if you want anything with them, please order it now!

          Strider is sitting outside my door and whining as I type-- he can't come in our room because he always accidentally pulls out the wires and gets stuck under the bed, but he knows I'm in here so he likes to sit and cry at the door. Apparently visiting with his Dad isn't good enough haha.

          I'm trying to think what else is new around here... really, I've just been working 24/7 lately. I know it will be insane once shopping for the holidays starts in earnest, so I'm trying to get everything done now that I can. More than anything I'm looking forward to our family's trip to Tahoe next month... I can't imagine a whole week off!

September 30, 2009

          Right now I'm working on orders... I thought I'd take a short break to update here. I have no idea how tomorrow came to be the first of October; in my head, it's July or something! Though the past few days have been wonderfully cool and windy here, so it feels like fall has finally arrived. After a long summer of 100+ degrees constantly, I am thrilled about that!

          Anyway, I wanted to let everyone in the area know that I will be vending at the event "Witchapalooza" next weekend, October 10 & 11! I am so super excited about it. It's a fair featuring everything magical, from Harry Potter to fairies, at Sacramento Cal Expo. They have lots of neat guests and bands, not to mention rides and a Diagon Alley-like set up for vendors. So, all you Northern California folks should come out and visit us next weekend! You can find all the information on their website www.gotwitch.com (isn't that appropriate?!). Perfect to get us all in a Halloween mood!

          That was really the excitement for the day... other than working at the library and filling orders I haven't been doing much of anything this week. I'm experimenting with a new necklace cab material, so we'll see what happens with that. Tomorrow's my last day of work at the library this week, so hopefully I can get some painting done this weekend!


September 28, 2009

          As most of my friends and family know by now, when it comes to the art business I am a workaholic. In a past life (pre-art!), I was content to laze around and relax; nowadays I see a moment relaxing as a moment I could be accomplishing something art-business-wise. So, what it comes down to is this: if you want to see me in person, you have to (a) kidnap me (b) come over (c) have a very important event I can't get out of attending. Not that I'm encouraging anyone to actually do these things! That would mean I have to take a break from working :)

          So while I have been extraordinarily busy these past few weeks with work stuff, last week a, b & c happened (I use the term "kidnap" in jest) three nights in a row. I still worked all three days but it was nice to have somewhat of a break!

          Right now I am finishing custom orders, sending out regular orders, and preparing for two festivals (not to mention working at the library and dealing with usual Life stuff). Last night I had a momentary panic attack about all the things I need to do this month and decided not to do any festivals at all, but today sense prevailed. Or you could say last night I had a moment of clarity and today I'm back to crazy! I love doing festivals (!!!), but I'm not sure I'll be able to paint at all in October. That had me freaking out! Painting is something I have to do these days, or I get really restless and edgy.

          I'm still not sure what I'll work on next; when I was working at the library tonight I had an urge to work on the autumn fae painting, but now I'm thinking about the October birthstone cat. Or the next two key cats. Or a little black Halloween kitty with bat wings and candy corns? Wouldn't that be too cute?! Maybe I'll just paint instead of sleeping for the next few weeks!


September 21, 2009

     As a reward for getting so much done the last few days, I decided to take a little time to paint tonight. I'm so lucky that my version of relaxing is actually working! Anyway, I sat down an hour ago to look through my fairy WIPs or possibly start another fairy painting if nothing caught my eye.

An hour later, I am still trying to figure out what to paint. I love painting fairies (I really do!), but they take sooo long to paint compared to my faery kitties. That, combined with the fact that my fairy kitties are my passion, and sell so well, makes it hard to get motivated to actually finish one of my fairy paintings. Instead, I'm stitting here going blah... blah... blah ... can I paint the next birthstone cat yet???

Here are two tiny peeks at some of my fairy WIPs:

Fairy WIP          Fairy WIP

So, that is the question I will be agonizing over until I probably cave and start painting another cat. I need to do more fairies-- I REALLY do-- but I don't think it's going to happen tonight. Of course, I am so tired that I may end up just going to bed now and not painting at all!

PS-- If you have any thoughts as to what you'd like me to paint next, PLEASE email me and share!!! The autumn fae? Moonglow? (The pic to the right above) Another key cat? Birthstone cats? A dragon eating a pickle? [I can't guarentee that I will be in the mood to paint it, but hey, it doesn't hurt to ask ;) ]

September 20, 2009

     Whew! Done with the website update! I can't wait to streamline my site and use a new web program... I love hand-coding it but it just takes too much time!!

I hope y'all like the new kitty painting. I really was so close to just throwing it away at one point, but I think it turned out to be a very good thing that I didn't. Siamese cats are hard to paint!! For me, anyway. I've been trying to expand the breeds I'm painting, so this was a nice fat checkmark on the list. I REALLY need to paint an orange kitty... got lots of requests for one this summer at the shows. Plus they are so beautiful! I'm not sure if I'll work on an orange kitten (the next piece in my enchanted keys series), or the October birthstone kitty. Either way, I really need to get a fairy piece done next. Maybe I will sketch that out tonight!

Or I might actually relax a bit tonight... yesterday I put in a 12 hour work day between custom orders, finishing Sapphire, and working on the website. I have work at the library at 9 am tomorrow (yikes!), so hopefully I won't fall asleep at 4:30 am again tonight!


September 18, 2009

     So when I'm painting, each new piece usually goes through a number of distinct phases. The first stage is actually the most exciting-- the idea, since there's an unlimited amount of potential. After it's sketched out I'm also extremely excited about working on it. After it takes shape, it inevitably hits the ugly stage, where I feel like I suck at painting, and this piece sucks and I should just move on to the next painting already and give up. Then there's the post-ugly stage, where I work on it to the point where I'm happy I didn't give up.

     Right now I'm at the next stage with the new kitty painting... the I'm-almost-done-and-can't-get-motivated-to-finish-it-cuz-then-I'll-have-to-give-it-up stage. It is SO hard to declare a painting done. It's like it's your baby, and once it's finished you have to send it off to college. Silly analogy maybe, but you get the point :)

     Despite the fact I haven't been finishing the painting yet, I have been working on a myriad of other projects, including custom orders and designing my new mirror compacts. I am SO excited about them. I wanted them to stand out from the magents and framed prints so I've been designing a little border to go around each one. They are so awesome!!! I can't wait to debut them in person at my shows next month. They will go on the site once I finally finish the new fairy kitty, but for now here's a sneak peek:

Mirror Preview

     Okay, it's time for me to get back to work... and sleeping at some point would be nice too!


September 14, 2009

      I feel like I barely survived last week. Normally I hate Mondays, but I'm hoping this week will be much better so I'm happy it's Monday for once!

Strider stayed at the emergency vet's all last weekend, but the procedure they did appeared to fail, so Monday we went there, broken-heartedly expecting to put him down. Most of you know Strider from my painting "A Purrfect Autumn," which I painted from a picture I took of him the first night we got him two years ago. He's only 2.5 years old, and such a big sweetheart. I knew I loved him (duh!), but I didn't realize just how much until I thought we would never get to bring him home. I have never been so devastated in my life.

However, by some absolute miracle, when we arrived at the vets he managed to push through the blockage. So we got to take him home instead! I have spent much of the past week taking care of him since he needed a lot of medication and to be monitored almost constantly. He's doing much better, but he's still not totally back to normal. And he has to be on a different cat food, which he's stubbornly refusing to eat much of!

So Labor Day turned out to be a complete emotional rollercoaster, and I told my family that from now on I may just not do holidays. First our car was totaled on Easter, and now we almost lost our kitty on Labor Day... I wish Thanksgiving was a lot farther off! Hmm.

So anyway, all I really did last week was work at the library and take care of Strider... so this week I am playing catch up on everything, especially orders and all the errands I planned to do last weekend. Last night I needed a break and sat down and painted for a few hours, which was so nice. I am pretty close to being done with another fairy cat-- the first Siamese kitty I've painted. With blue. Lots and lots of blue! Here's a sneak peek:

FairyCatPreview

I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to finish this one... not before this weekend at least. I have a couple of custom orders I'm working on right now that really need to be finished.

     Last but not least, my new compact mirrors came in! It's ridiculous that I still haven't put my other pocket mirrors up on Etsy yet... I did scan them in though, so I will hopefully get a chance to do that at some point in the next few days. The new ones are a completely different design, and the picture in front is a nice large 2.5 by 3.5 inches-- slightly bigger than the magnets! I will work on getting those added to the site as well. Boy do I need some minions!!


September 5, 2009

      Plan: Paint all weekend, finishing new faery cat picture, and post some new products.

     Reality: Migraine all day Saturday, cat needs emergency trip to the vet Saturday night (estimated at $1500-2000 to fix), and work all day Sunday.

     Anyone want to trade places this weekend?


August 30, 2009

      Oops! Tim's been nagging telling me to blog for ages, but I didn't realize just how long it'd been since I wrote on here! Sorry about that! It's felt like a madhouse (though when does it not?!) this summer. July was one of the busiest months of the year between two out of state festivals, a family vacation, a new job, and a funeral. In August I went out of town again, so the past few weeks I've mostly been recuperating from July!

     I'm also keeping busy-- I have an awesome new part-time job at our local library, plus of course working on the business and painting. And I have been painting! I've got the longest to-paint list, but I finally decided on a plan for the rest of the year, which I will hopefully stick to. I've been needing to expand my fairy portfolio for a while, but I have so much fun doing faery cats (and they go over so well!) that I've been remiss. So, I'm working on an autumn-ish fairy, who I will hopefully have done very soon. It's quite different from my previous fairies, but hopefully that's a good thing :)

I'm also working on a new cat (of course!), for a new faery cat series I've planned. I also sketched out two more cats for the kitty-key series, so I'll be finishing those up at some point. I'd like to have 4 fairies and 4 or 5 more faery cats done by the end of the year, so we'll see if I can actually do that.

     Product-wise I've been a little behind-- I still haven't put up the pocket mirrors on Etsy, so I will be doing that soon. I may have really nice compact mirrors in time for Christmas too. Also, I'm planning on doing two local festivals in October, so I've ordered a bunch more clocks since the ones I ordered for the July festivals almost sold out! I may add the clocks to the website so you can buy them direct from me-- if you would be interested in that, feel free to contact me and let me know. You won't be held to anything, I'm just wondering if folks would be interested!

     I'm trying to think if there's anything else going on... I'll probably think of something right after I post this! I will try to update far more often this fall...

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

June 11, 2009

     Hello, all! I'm back from the abyss! I always forget what a huge pain moving is until we do it, then I swear I never want to move again. Moving to another state is the worst!!!

     Between moving and going back up to Oregon for Tim's graduation, I've been pretty busy general life stuff. However, I have been painting like crazy, so I have a new painting for you today and several more to come in the next few weeks!

     I am so very excited to be vending at Kent Cornucopia Days in Kent, WA this July (you can find out more on my Appearances page). I met Kathi, one of the owners of Browser's Books, last July at Faerieworlds. Tim and I adore Kathi and her husband Greg-- it was always a special treat to go up to Washington and visit them throughout the year! They were kind enough to let me set up shop in their booth at Cornucopia Days, so you can find me right outside Browser's Books at 315 W. Meeker Street. I can't wait!

     To prepare for Cornucopia Days (and then Faerieworlds a few weeks later) I am painting non-stop so that I can add a bunch of new faeries to my portfolio to replace all the ones I retired. I also have some really beautiful new products, such as cameo rings and charm bracelets, which I'm adding to the site as well. So, while it's been quiet around here, expect lots and lots of new paintings and goodies now! Don't forget, if you'd like to receive free items and first crack at new merchandise, you can join my newsletter at groups.yahoo.com/group/SpellboundWings

     Hope to see you at a festival this summer!

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

May 4, 2009

     It's been so sunny here lately that it felt odd when it rained today... where did almost-summer go? The sad thing was, I liked it! If I go too long without rain, I get antsy. Oh no-- I really have turned into an Oregonian! It's hard to believe we move away in half a week. The apartment is half-packed, but it still doesn't feel real.

     On the art front, I currently have a million WIPs I'm working on and trying to finish. It's weird to think that at this time last year I was only working on one at a time! I need to finish the latest faery kitty and add it plus the new products to the website. I was hoping to do that and send out the newsletter before we moved but it may not happen until next week. I do have some of the new products up in my Etsy store, so if you're curious, feel free to head over there and check them out at SpellboundWings.Etsy.com!

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

April 22, 2009

     I just realized it's been a bit since I updated here. I haven't really had much to say-- well, okay, I have lots to say, but it's all angry and depressing stuff! The car situation has been a ping-pong of we're-covered-no-we're-not-we're-getting-money-no-we're-not. Our car is totaled and it looks like we will not be getting money to get a new one. I could go on and on but I won't :) Let's just say it's really tough right now and I'm having trouble focusing on what I need to be doing, like orders, painting, and moving.

     On a good note, I have new products that I'm currently making and testing, so when I get a chance I will be posting those. Some new necklace designs and some completely new products. Hopefully I can do that before we move! It's less than 3 weeks away, so we'll see. I'm also working on several new faery cats on keys-- it turned into a series, and since I've already got the others sketched out, I should actually finish this one! I'm also working on my Dark Faery series as well as a whimsical faery series. So, lots of new art is on its way-- at some point!

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

April 13, 2009

     Well, I hope everyone ended up having much better and safer Easters than we did! Our day turned out quite the opposite of what we expected. A car ran a red light and slammed into us a block before the animal shelter Easter morning, so we didn't even make it to the shelter, and as you can imagine, the rest of the day was pretty much a bust. Luckily we're not really hurt, but it was a very scary experience, and definitely not a good holiday!

     Fortunately, today was a much better day. We finally made it to the animal shelter, where we fell in love with a hotot/lionhead mix who looks quite similar to our other bunny! There was no way we could leave her there, so after some deliberation, we decided to adopt her. She has been renamed Tinkerbell-- can you guess who picked that name?! ;) She is settling in wonderfully, and will hopefully become Augustus's wife once she is all healed from her spay. (They are both fixed, so we won't have baby bunnies running around!)

     I haven't been very productive the past few days [for good reason :) ], so I'm mostly filling orders at the moment and trying to catch up. Hopefully I will feel like painting soon, and you can bet you'll be seeing a painting with a little fairy bun who looks juuust like Tinkerbell! For now, here are two little pics of her (I'm hoping to have some better ones soon):

Tink

Tink

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

April 12, 2009

     Happy Easter everyone! I hope y'all have a great day of egg dying, egg hunts, and whatever other Easter traditions you enjoy.

     I should be sleeping right now, but I got up to get some water and thought I'd write a quick blog. Tim and I are going to the animal shelter early tomorrow morning, as his Easter present to me. No, that doesn't mean we get to adopt another bunny-- probably not, anyway :)

     Saturday was the last day of the Spring in the Country bazaar. It went very well, considering the economy! I always enjoy working there, as everyone is so nice. I'm so sad I won't be doing it again once we move.

     I also came to a decision yesterday. As you know, I mostly painting digitally, and have dabbled in watercolors, acrylics, colored pencils and graphite. While I will always do digital pieces, I've been wanting to use oils for quite some time, and at the urging of some good friends and my husband, I've decided to give them a try. I already ordered several painting animals with oils books, and am scoping out oil brands and brushes. I can't tell you how excited I am! I will probably start with faery kitties and work my way up to faeries and angels.

     I don't know the last time I've been this excited about something-- I'm ready to put some good, hard work in! It will still probably be several months at least before I release any oil paintings, but in the meantime I will still be releasing some digital pieces. I have a set of fairies and a set of kitties I want to finish in the next two and a half months.

     Oh! And I finally got in the new supplies I was waiting for, and am working on the coolest new product. At least I think it is :) Hopefully it will be ready to release in the next few weeks, after I test it a bunch.

     That's all for now! Happy Easter!

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

April 6, 2009

     I finally got a chance to update the site with the new fairy bunny tonight! Adding just the one painting and its items took me over three hours-- now you can see why it takes me so long to update when I have lots of new stuff! I'm almost out of glass pendant supplies, and I think I'll be replacing them with a new pendant style, so if you've been thinking about ordering one, now would be a good time :)

     I've also been working hard to set up two new shops, on Artfire and 1000 Markets. Like Etsy, they are online marketplaces for handmade goods. All three sites have very different looks, which makes it really fun. I'm also thinking about starting an actual blog on Blogspot or somewhere, would would be nice since people could comment. So if I'm trying to decide between two new products or something about a painting, it would be awesome to get some feedback from you guys! I'm not sure when I'll have time, but hopefully some point soon.

      While I don't have any new items today, I do have four or five new products that I'll be adding over the next two months. I am SUPER excited about one of the items, which I will be adding once I finish another painting. I haven't quite decided what to work on next-- Tim and I are moving in a month, so I have a lot of things I need to do over the next few weeks. Tomorrow is the first day of the Spring in the Country bazaar and I'm really looking forward to my shift. Between that and taxes, the rest of the week will be pretty busy! Hopefully I'll get a chance to work on a new painting soon.

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

April 2, 2009

     Wow! I had no idea that it had been so long since I updated here! Sorry about that. I'm not quite sure where March went, to be honest! It was a busy month between orders, going out of town, and working on new products and paintings, but I still feel like it disappeared awfully quickly.

     Tonight I finally finished the fairy bunny painting I have been working on; I'd hoped to have it finished last week but that didn't happen. The great news is that it's not an Easter bunny, so it can be hung or worn year round!

     Unfortunately, I won't have time to add it to the site right away-- I'm supposed to drop off all my merchandise in preparation for the Spring in the Country bazaar next week this Saturday, and (unsurprisingly) I still have tons of items to make. I will do my best to put it up ASAP! However, I will be putting some items in my Etsy store, so if you'd like to see it in the meantime, please come visit me at SpellboundWings.Etsy.com!

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

February 27, 2009

     YAY!

     I have been waiting for locket supplies that should have arrived a week ago, and they FINALLY came today!!! I have been very happily creating my new necklaces, which I will then take pictures of so I can get them on the new website. I will be doing that, finishing a kitty painting, and finishing the coding on the new website design... I am crossing my fingers for a Saturday night or Sunday release. I am so happy to be so close... though, of course, I wish it was already done and up for y'all to see!!

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

February 25, 2009

     Hi all,

     Strider is here helping me with this update :) Tim is doing much better, and things are somewhat getting back to normal. I am extremely tired from the ordeal, but I am doing my best to get my paintings done and the website updated as quickly as possible. I am also waiting on a necklace supply that was supposed to be here last week! Hopefully it will all come together and I'll be able to load the new site in a few days.

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

February 18, 2009

     Hi all,

     This is just an update on the situation I blogged about a few days ago. My poor Tim has been so sick he's been in the hospital twice, so needless to say I haven't had a chance to work on the website or the business. All new orders placed will be sent out next week, when he'll hopefully be better. The new website will launch then as well.

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

February 16, 2009                         Good News... and Bad News!

     The good news is that the website redesign is still plugging along wonderfully, and I'm even farther ahead than I thought I would be. The bad news is my darling husband decided to celebrate our 6 month wedding anniversary by coming down with a horrible case of the flu. This is the second time he's gotten it after flying on a plane in February, so I told him he is banned from flying in any more Februarys! Last time this happened he ended up giving me the flu, so I'm terrified that I will be getting it in a few days. I'm sure many of you have had experiences with the flu and know that it's completely dehabilitating and such a horrible, frustrating illness to have!

     I have my new locket designs finished and I'm taking pictures of them plus my other new necklace design, working on the website, and trying to finish 2-3 paintings, so that I can launch the new website design and these products this upcoming weekend. However, if I do get the flu, that is likely going to get pushed back a week. So, please, please cross your fingers and send some positive thoughts our way! And I hope everyone is avoiding the flu themselves :)

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

February 10, 2009                         More Good News!

     The website redesign is going really well! The hardest part for me is figuring out the color scheme and background, since getting them to match what I envision in my head is always tricky. But yesterday I figured it out, and my other half really liked it too, so now I can start the long process of fixing the background, header, menu, etc. on every single webpage. Tedious, but at the same time I love it :) Web coding is really relaxing to me, and something I could do 24/7. Though I may not feel that way by the time I get the website done! I'm just really happy since this version of the website is much closer to what I originally wanted when I decided to start my website a year ago. I can't wait to unveil it!!!

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

February 8, 2009                         Good News!

     The new fairy kitten is sooo close to being done! It's so cute and sweet, I totally adore this one. It's actually based off a picture of Savannah from when she was little, which is fun. Luckily my painting drought didn't last long the other night... now the new kitty is almost done, plus I have an absolutely adorable fairy bunny sketched out and started! Not to mention like 10 angel and fairy WIPs hehe. I haven't decided if I'm going to finish Belladona (the next Dark Faery) next or finish one of my spring fairies instead.

I'd like to have a kitty and a fairy painting done with the website redesign by this time next week... that's a massive goal, but it would be really awesome to have it all done. I'm sure y'all agree :) So, I will keep updating my progress here throughout the week, and hopefully by this time next week you'll be reading this blog on a new & improved webpage!

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

February 4, 2009                         Blech

     I'm having one of those nights where nothing I do is going well... I tried finishing the fairy kitten, then sketching some new kittens when that failed, and when that failed, tried working on the new website. When I struck out at that, I gave up! Thank goodness Tim is home to save me... I'm off to play monopoly and let the bunny out!

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

January 31, 2009                         Where does the time go?

     I can't believe it's going to be February tomorrow... I still feel like it's 2008!

     I hope y'all enjoyed the new painting. Every once in a while there's a painting that's dearer to your heart than the others; Nightshade joined Velvet Spring and Angel Hearts Break Too as one of those paintings for me. She had that inevitable stage of "Oh my gosh, I cannot paint this picture, I want to give up!" But I knew from the start I had to finish her, and now of course I'm happy I did.

     Angel and fairy paintings are good, hard work for me; right now I'm recharging by working on a few animal paintings. Fairy kittens, and soon, fairy bunnies! Kitty pictures are generally a joy to paint, and nothing's more adorable than a little bunny! Mine is being rather rambunctious at the moment, trying to figure out how to get past his new playpen.

     I'm also currently working on getting the new necklaces photographed and put up on the website. I'd like to get that done tomorrow so I can focus on the new paintings, and the website redesign. Not to mention my Master's thesis! There's just never enough time...

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

January 10, 2009                         Happy New Year!

     Hi all! I hope you all had wonderful holidays. Ours were quite different this year, but a great deal of fun. Aaand Tim got me FOUR fairy ornaments for Christmas!!!

     Unfortunately, 2009 is off to a rocky start computer-wise; I've had nothing but problems relating to my laptop, though *crosses fingers* hopefully now it's all fixed. I wanted to have the new site design & products and paintings up last week, but since I haven't been able to use my laptop it will still be a bit. Now that I've got it back, I will be working very hard to get it all done in the next week or two!

     Fairy hugs,
       Melissa

December 8, 2008                         Happy Holidays!

     Hello hello everyone! I hope your Decembers have started out well and you're all having fun getting ready for the holidays.

     We just uploaded our new Lockets-- I'm so excited about these! I've always been fascinated by lockets, so I was really excited to design a necklace combining lockets, keys (another one of my obsessions!), crystals, and of course, my paintings!

     Things have been so busy around here order-wise (which is good!) that I've hardly had a chance to do anything I planned to do this month, for the site and everything else. Every chance I get I'm working on finishing my newest paintings, which I absolutely can't wait to release.

     It took me a bit to get back into painting human anatomy after painting so many cats, but I've been having a great time designing my new fairies and angels. The one series of fairies, which I'll be releasing the first two paintings in soon, is actually based on specific Swarovski crystals, so the necklaces will match perfectly :)

     Well, that's all for now... I'm off to work on orders, then hopefully-- PAINT! Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope they're safe and fun :)

Fairy Dust & Angel Feathers,
Melissa

November 27, 2008                         Happy Thanksgiving!

      Hi everyone! I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings full of love & laughter-- for my non-American friends, I hope you're having great weeks ;)

      This Thanksgiving was rather special for me; Tim and I had been a couple for 3 Thanksgivings, but had never spent one together. So, this Thanksgiving was not only our first spent together, but our first as husband & wife. We're both very close to our families, and my parents hosted a combined Thanksgiving for both families, which was amazing. Now only Tim and I are awake, so I figured I'd write a bit in my blog.

     The Art Show last weekend was really fun & I was happy to learn I sold about half my pieces in the Art Show, as well as a bunch in the Print Show. The only downside was I didn't get to meet my customers! So, if you purchased any prints of mine at OryCon, thank you-- and please feel free to drop me an email and say hi :)

     I've been working on updating the website with the new products I mentioned-- bookmarks, greeting cards & such, but it's slow-going since I have to hand code each page and add pictures of everything. But, progress is being made, and I will keep working on that! I'm hoping to have all these pages live by next week.

     I'm also working on finishing a lot of new angel & fairy paintings. I have a new Dark Faeries series I'll be releasing when the first two are completely done, which should be sometime in the next few weeks (depending on how much I get to paint!). I thought I would release some gothic angels next too, but my new white-winged angels may beat them out and get released first! I guess we'll just have to see...

Fairy Dust & Angel Feathers,
Melissa

November 9, 2008                         Big Update on the Way!

     Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted on here-- October flew by, and I can't believe it's already the second week of November... I think my mind is trapped somewhere back around October 20 lol. I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

     Part of the reason I've been so quiet & late with my monthly update is that I am unexpectedly doing not one, but TWO shows this month! November 11-15 is the Country Christmas Bazaar in Canby, Oregon; the following week, November 21-23, I'm in the Art Show at OryCon 30 in Portland, Oregon. I have been so busy getting holiday paintings & merchandise done that I haven't been able to update this site, but I'm working on uploading all the new products as I type, so the website should be all updated in the next day or two.

     Unbelievably, I have not one, or two, but THREE new paintings! They are all holiday kitty paintings-- with wings, of course. I'm also finishing up a winter fairy, a few angels, and a bunch of other paintings that should make it onto the site in the next few weeks as well. I have some new necklace styles, as well as the promised greeting cards & giftcards. I'm also consolidating some of the necklace pages to make things easier on you, with new discounts as well!

     Finally, to celebrate the holidays, I'm offering a discount on all my prints-- 5x7" prints will be $5.99 instead of $6.99, and 8x10" prints will be $10.99 instead of $12.99. And, if you buy my new holiday kitten set, you'll get two 8x10" prints for $20! I'll be putting these new prices up when I get the website updated, so be sure to check back and take advantage of these sale prices! I know with the holidays coming up we can all use sales :)

     That's about all I can think of for now... I put in about 80 hours of work this past week, prepping for the bazaar, so I'm still trying to recuperate and catch up on my sleep. I'm thrilled to spend tomorrow up in Washington with Kathi & Greg of Browser's Books!! Hopefully I'll be a little more coherent then...

Fairy Dust & Angel Feathers,
Melissa

October 12, 2008                         A little note...

     ... just to say "hi" and briefly update you on what's going on here. Strider's here helping me! It's gotten really cold here the past few days, so the cats have been glued to me, using me as their own personal heater. The cold is bad since it makes me curl up in bed and not get anything done!

     Relatively speaking of course! Etsy is keeping me busier than ever, and I've been making enough cameo necklaces that I'm dreaming about them almost every night, no joke! I'm also working on a ton of new paintings in various stages of completion-- more than I've ever had in progress before. I used to start a painting and work on it obsessivly until I finished. This past year I've started working on several paintings at once, which is nice.

      I have a hugely diversified list right now; I actually have more than this, but among them are a winter fairy kitten (surprise surprise ;) ), another fairy kitten, a Christmas kitten, the winter fairy I started last year but never finished, a fallen angel, and another first for me-- a white winged angel!!! I'm experimenting with new color schemes and composition, so this group of paintings will hopefully shake things up a bit. I'm enjoying working on all of these paintings immensely, but the problem is... I worked on my Halloween painting in September, and I'm working on snowy paintings now, so by the time Halloween rolls around, I'll be ready for spring!

     I'm also working on new products... greeting cards are finally here, as are giftcards. I also have several new cameo settings-- yes, they are my favorite product to make :) Several other products are in the works, and may or may not make it into my late October newsletter. I haven't quite figured out my release schedule for all these new paintings, but I'd like to have several of them done in time for November, since fall kinda fades into winter then. I will most likely be posting my new necklaces and such on Etsy before they go up here, so please stop by and visit me there! SpellboundWings.Etsy.com.

Autumn Fairy Dust,
Melissa

September 29, 2008                         Website Updated!

     Hey folks! I hope your September ended well. I am in absolute shock that it's already October. Well, it will be in 40 minutes here ;)

     I've been watching The Nightmare Before Christmas over & over, so I'm REALLY in the mood for Halloween. And Christmas!

     I hope the website update made sense-- if you ever have any questions, no matter how small, please don't hesitate to send me an email. Plus then I get to procrastinate on what I'm supposed to be doing :) Website updates always take me 2 or 3 full days since I hand-code the updates myself, so it's a relief to have another one done. Now I can get my other sites updated, and then I get to paint!

     I'm applying to be part of the Art Show at OryCon 30 in Portland, Oregon-- I'd applied to the Dealer's Room, but it was already full. I'd love to be a part of the convention, so cross your fingers for me! I have a really exciting new painting that I'll have finished in time; it's one I thought of a few months ago but have been waiting to do. I'm really happy to be finally working on it!

     I think that's it for now... I have a lot to do before I get to sleep, so I'd better get started!

Autumn Fairy Dust,
Melissa

September 22, 2008                         The season of Change continues!

     Hello hello! Hard to believe September is almost over!!

     I'm trying to finish up two paintings and some new products to send out a new monthly newsletter next week. With my new Etsy shop (SpellboundWings.etsy.com)added to the list of things I'm always working on, I'm finding that there's waaay to few hours in the day! I'm currently updating all my necklace pages, and I'm adding a new section to the site which will be announce in the October newsletter :)

     I thought I'd show you a peek of one of my WIPs... this one is not too far along, with the background, leaves, and pumpkin being just placeholders for now.

Halloween Cat WIP

I hope you enjoyed that sneak peek!

Autumn Fairy Dust,
Melissa

September 15, 2008                         Autumn; the season of Change!

     Hi all! Hope your September has been enchanted so far! Things are busy as ever here, but in a good way :) I feel very autumn-y today, so I may start another autumn painting just for fun!

      I wanted to point out some changes here at Spellbound Wings. You may notice that some purchasing menus have become drop-down menus instead of radio buttons; I'm switching the whole site over to drop-down menus, a few pages at a time :) I've also decided to continue expanding my line of necklaces, so you will see more designs up soon. And good news-- I've found some new suppliers so prices on the necklaces are going to be reduced!!

     I've also got a couple new products in the works, which will be going up right before I send out my next newsletter-- either the very end of September of the beginning of October. I can't wait! I've also just opened up a new shop on the popular marketplace site Etsy: you can visit me at SpellboundWings.etsy.com-- and the new necklace prices are in effect there! Etsy is like Ebay without the bidding-- it's got a wonderful user interface, and the added benefit of being able to post multiple pictures of each item. I'm attempting to have something similar on the new Flash version of this website!

      I'm sure you're wondering what I've been painting-- I do have several new angels in the works, as well as several new animal paintings, and a couple new characters that I haven't painted before. I should have at least two new paintings to release with the new products, so definitely keep an eye out!

      I had decided a few weeks ago to forgo any further shows this year and concentrate on painting instead. Well... that may not happen! It turns out there's a sci-fi/fantasy convention in Portland, Oregon (OryCon 30), so I'm applying to do that November 21-23. I'm also working with my mother-in-law on a fundraiser-- she's part of the rescue organization 4Paws, and fosters kittens every year. That's actually where we got our first cat from! They do pictures with Santa every year, so we're hoping to turn that into a fundraiser with my art, the two weekends before Christmas. The director of her organization also wants to sell my animal art year-round, so I'm very excited to help raise money for them-- 50% of the profits will always go to 4Paws.

     I think that's it for now... that's a lot more updates than I thought! I need to get back to work-- this weekend we're going to a pirate festival (yay!!!) in Portland, and then up to Seattle the next weekend to visit Kathi and Cindy, who I met at Faerieworlds. So I need to chain myself to my computer until then!

Autumn Fairy Dust,
Melissa

September, 2008                         Update Complete!



     Whew! Talk about a massive update. I've been working on it for three days now, so it feels great to finally have it done. Now I can start painting! ... well, after I do everything else I've been neglecting, of course! Unfortunately, wedding thank you's won't write themselves :) Chores & thank you's will probably occupy my Sunday and maybe Monday, but I still may get a chance to start a new painting.

      What will that be, you ask? I've been debating what I want to paint next, since I have about ten must-paints right now. Tim put his vote in for one that we actually came up with together, and since I am really excited about it, I capitulated. So, you should be seeing another fallen angel in a few weeks... you will also be seeing a new website design at some point. Once I get it in my head I want to re-design it, it bother me until I do. However, I really want to add some Flash into the new site, so it may be a bit, seeing as how I've never used it before!

     I hope you enjoy all the new products and updates... I have some more exciting products to add next month, so make sure to sign up for my newsletter if you'd like to be notified once I add them-- groups.yahoo.com/group/SpellboundWings/!

Thanks for reading,
     Melissa

September, 2008                         Quick Note

     Just a quick note to let you know I haven't disappeared! The cats and I have been sick for a few days so I'm catching up with everything as quickly as possible. I have six embellished prints ready to be posted on the website, and several very exciting necklace designs that are almost ready to go. I was hoping to post all of this when I released A Purrfect Autumn, but obviously that didn't happen :) I hope to post the embellished prints tomorrow, and the necklaces the day after. I will send out a newsletter when all of these awesome new products have been posted. Thank you for your patience! I think you'll agree that the new products are worth the wait ;)

     After I work on these new products, I need to update several online galleries, and I'm in the process of opening up a shop on the popular site Etsy. So there's lots of behind-the-scenes activity right now at Spellbound Wings! I've also happily decided to extend my Master's degree one more semester, which means instead of hiding in the library and writing every day for the next two months, I should have time to work on new paintings and products. I'm in a kitten painting mood right now, but I have a Halloween-ish painting (or two!) that I'd like to do, as well as my big, special winter painting. Which may become the header for the new website design I plan to release this winter at some point...

     Until Next Time,
       Melissa

August 31, 2008                         "A Purrfect Autumn"

Sorry for the delay in posting! I went to bed so late and had so much trouble sleeping that I've been like a zombie today. Without further ado, I give you "A Purrfect Autumn"!

A Purrfect Autumn

I have several really exciting new products that I'll be adding to the website, along with the Purrfect Autumn merchandise, so keep an eye out for those later today and tomorrow! If you'd like to be notified when I've posted them, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter at groups.yahoo.com/group/SpellboundWings :)
Thanks for reading; I hope you found the WIP process interesting!

August 30, 2008                         Finished!

... it's done! Yay! I can't wait to print it out and hang it on the wall, it will definitely keep me in a magical fall mood. Haha it's still titleless... I want to bounce some titles off of my husband tomorrow morning, so I'll title it when I add all of the new merchandise. Which I can't wait to do!

So, I'm going to be a tease and post one more WIP shot below, then post the final one tomorrow when I update the site. Is that mean or what? :)

Fall Kitty WIP19

Here I finished the leaves, which turned out to be rather fun to do once I figured out where the shading should go. I had to make them sparklie :) I also started adding more highlights and shadows on the kitten.

Well it's 3 am where I am so I'm off to bed... when I wake up tomorrow I will post the finished piece with all the merchandise, and of course, some detail shots!

August 29, 2008                         Fall Kitty WIP5

Well it's not done, but it's close! I could stay up and work more, but since it's 2 am, I think I'll just pick it up tomorrow :)

Fall Kitty WIP15

So in this shot I'd worked on the tree branch; I love using the Impressionist brush in Painter for tree bark.

Fall Kitty WIP16

I decided it looked funny just showing the end of the tree branch, so I added the edge of the tree trunk. Both the branch and trunk still need their edges refined!

Fall Kitty WIP17

I can't remember what sparked me to do it, but I added a new layer in Photoshop and filled it with a bright orange color. I played around with the layer's style, and found that "soft light" at a 45% opacity gave the background a more vivid, autumn-y look. This is why I love painting digitally so much-- you don't run the risk of ruining the painting each time you want to experiement! I also started trying to paint the front leaves. I haven't painted many leaves before!

Fall Kitty WIP18

Here I fixed the front leaves until they looked more realistic, then painted the leaf under the kitten's head. That's my favorite one! The leaves, like the kitten, aren't perfectly realistic; I think my style is definitely more semi-realism.

    Well, that's it for tonight! Tomorrow I need to paint the floating leaves, fix the tree & branch edges, and highlight/shadow the kitten's fur one more time. And fix the big sparkles! I'm happy that I'll be done tomorrow night, which means it took me 9 days to paint this kitten. Animal paintings are still hard work, but compared to my angel and fairy paintings, they're relatively quick. If this was an angel/fairy painting, I'd still have two or three weeks of continuous painting left! And now I'm off to feed the model for this painting, as he's decided I've done enough on the computer and is now walking all over my lap lol.
August 28, 2008                         Fall Kitty WIP4

Lots of updates as promised tonight! Depending on how it goes, the painting could be finished tomorrow night. I'm thinking about calling it "Autumn Catnap," but we'll see :) Off to the pics!

Fall Kitty WIP11

So after I found the kitten look I wanted, I continued to refine it, and started to add some of the decorations I wanted in the background.

Fall Kitty WIP12

I continued to play with the background, and added more highlights to the kitten's face.

Fall Kitty WIP13

More highlights and refinement of the face; I also changed the size of the body and moved it closer to his face.

Fall Kitty WIP14

This is where it got fun! I'm still unsure what I want in the background. I originally thought the light cream colored background would make the black kitty stand out; but I felt it just looked blah. I decided to try red around the edges, which I ended up darkening until it was as you see right here. It's darker than I wanted, but I feel like it actually makes the kitten stand out the most. I also added some sparkly wings (well one wing, I need to add the other one!) and sparkles, which need to be highlighted. And the leaves need to be painted! So we'll see if I really get it done tomorrow... cross your fingers!

August 27, 2008                         Fall Kitty WIP3

Sorry for the delay between postings! I had been taking pics and was prepared to post every day, when I inevitably ran into my biggest problem: anatomy issues. I decided that the kitten wasn't looking young or cute enough, so I've spent the past few days adjusting the face and body. The first two pics below are from before I changed the anatomy; the third one is where I'm at now. What a difference!
Fall Kitty WIP6

Here I added eyes and scribbled in some pink fuzz for the inside of the ears.

Fall Kitty WIP7

I smoothed the ear fuzz the same way I'd been doing the fur. There's nothing too wrong with the kitten per se; I just looked at it and decided it didn't match the picture in my head closely enough.

Fall Kitty WIP8

... and here's the new little kitten.
The fur now needs more work, as do the closed eyes, but I'm generally happy with how it's coming along now. I'll also make the wing smaller than I originally drew it since the kitten's much smaller! I didn't take that many progress shots when I changed the kitten to make it younger, since it went through about four incarnations before I was satisfied. Hopefully I'll have a lot more progress shots to post tomorrow :)

August 22, 2008                         Fall Kitty WIP2

        Here's an update on the kitty's progress! I've put the latest WIP pics below, starting with the least finished. When the painting is finished, I'll combine all the WIP pics in one tutorial and post it on DA.

Fall Kitty WIP2

First, I took one of my hair brushes Hair Brush, and picking a very dark brown at about 82% opacity, scribbed in a base layer of fur. Ugly, isn't it? Lol. I was also playing around with a white star on the forehead to match his paw, but since I want this to be a portrait of Strider, I decided not to keep it.

Fall Kitty WIP2

Next I layed down some basic highlights and shadows using the hair brush. Basic highlights are a light yellow-gold color, and while you can't see them this far away, the base shadows are a deep purple. When I first began painting I used black where I saw black and white for highlights, but the colors are much richer and more accurate if you use other colors for both, especially complimentary colors.

Fall Kitty WIP2

Here, as you can see, I've started blending the highlights and shadows with the rest of the fur. There are many ways to simulate fur; here I'm using the hair brush smudge tool, at 80% strength, and brushing it back and forth to mix the colors and give it a hairlike texture. Right now I think he looks like a cross between a bat and a pig!

Fall Kitty WIP2

Here he is with the highlights and shadows pretty much blended. At the end of the painting I'll add some brighter highlights and deeper shadows, but for now his fur is in good shape. Onto his eyes and face, to hopefully make him look more like a kitty!

August 21, 2008                         Fall Kitty WIP

        Hi all! I hope you're having a good August. I'm back from my wedding and mini-honeymoon, which I promise to blog about once we've gotten pictures. Since things have been crazy, I haven't picked up my paintbrush in over a month, which has made me a little crazy! So, today I sat down and started a painting that will hopefully go well and quickly, so I can start on the complex Halloween-ish painting I have planned for an October 1 release. I thought it would be fun to show you the different stages my animal paintings go through; not a tutorial as much as a glimpse at my painting process. However, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at the address on my Contact page, and I'll do my best to answer any of your questions!

        So this painting doesn't have a title yet, but it will be a black kitten with fairy wings on a tree branch. There will be fall leaves and sparklies when it's done, but here's a rough sketch of the basic composition:

Fall Kitty WIP1

I don't always use reference photos, but this time I found the perfect pose in one of my first pics of our cat Strider, who we adopted a year ago. He's actually a kitten in this picture, though he's so big already it's hard to tell! I made the kitten in my sketch a little smaller and fluffier, since I'm going for a young kitten. Here's the pic of Strider (originally facing the other way but I flipped it horizontally):

Sleeping Strider

Stay tuned for more WIP pictures as the painting progresses!
August 5 2008                        Faerieworlds!

       Where to begin? Faerieworlds was crazy! Tim had to work all day Thursday, so we drove down to Eugene Friday morning. We drove right past the turnoff for Secret House Winery, where Faerieworlds was! The winery was off the beaten path on a long, dusty road. That is definitely one of the things I'll remember most about Faerieworlds-- the dust that seemed to be everywhere!

       So we found our booth spot and began setting up. I got so lucky and had the neatest vendor next to me! His name was John Nielson and he was selling the book he just wrote and self-published, called "Toe Jam and The Toenail Fairies." I bet you haven't heard of those fairies before! John was awesome and remained unflappable, even when he came back and found the wind had flipped his tent over and was practically on top of another tent! We all wish we'd gotten pictures, since the sight really was indescribable.

       Anyway, setting up was really tough because the wind was super strong and was knocking everything down-- even my huge, solid 11 x 14" frames. Tim went out to get sheets to hang on the backside of the tent, which mostly fixed the problem. Thank goodness we were facing away from the wind! Since we were towards the back of the venue, people didn't start meandering back there until late afternoon. The atmosphere was incredible-- bands played almost non-stop for the three days, there were fairies and angels everywhere, and the food from the food vendors smelled sooo good.

       I was privileged to be visited by a lot of awesome customers! My new friends Lisa and Jesse (and Sasha!) visited me every day, and had me sign a lot of prints :) I had so much fun visiting with them! I was also excited to discover that one of my customers, Autumn Rose (isn't that the best name?!), is actually a fellow DeviantArt member. I also enjoyed hanging out with the two artists manning The Fairy Court booth-- Nedda and Jacqueline. It was really neat to finally see their art in person! I also met a lot of other great artists, like Christi Brown and Carol Phillips. It's hard working your booth and not having enough time to spend looking at all the amazing art there!

       I also got to meet Amy Brown! Since her artwork was what I bought at that fair two years ago, which inspired me to try painting, meeting her had a lot of meaning for me. I bought several of her prints, including her fairy piece "Hope," which she signed for me.

       I had the best time talking to the two wonderful ladies who were running her booth-- Cindee and Kathi. Cindee runs an Ebay store for special Amy Brown items, and it turns out that's where Tim got my "Dusk" Amy Brown print last Christmas!! Cindee also does an amazing job creating porcelain doll costumes, and is working on making them for people as well. Kathi's an art representative and has a bookstore in Washington-- so of course Tim and I are now dying to make a trip up there to visit her soon! They were both so great to talk to, I'm very glad I got to meet them :)

       Hmm, what else? I know I'm forgetting a lot! I'm sure I'll remember once I've posted the blog. Overall Faerieworlds was incredible, and I'm really looking forward to vending there next year.
                                      

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