Longing for spring!

I can't believe I am sick, again...or, still! But now it is worse, I have a fever and a sore throat. Wah! I got this little painting done somehow this weekend-even though it was a very busy weekend. Isabel had a birthday party, which was a pool party, and now she is sick as ever. Not a good idea I guess!

100 books

I found this on another blog(thanks Anna) and I couldn't resist.
Look at the list of (100) books below. Bold the ones you’ve read. Italicize the ones you want to read. Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. (Movies don’t count.)

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner(Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91.The Skin of the Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

This was fun! I actually read more books on this list than I thought. I used to work in a bookstore, and I read a lot more contemporary fiction then. Now I read a lot of classic literature.

Oil Pastels and Etsy

I ordered a set of oil pastels the other day. The idea of working with them by blending with mineral spirits really intrigues me. Aswexpress has a wonderful sale going on until tomorrow, I simply could not resist. I ordered the Sennelier brand, which are the ones Picasso helped to develop. I hope they get here soon!


I worked on this watercolor today. This is an exercise where you make a sketch and then do a multi-color wash over it. Then after it dries a little you come in and paint the negative space behind the subject using the same wash colors. Its really cool to see the subject begin to pop out as you paint the negative space behind it. This was fun!

Also, I gathered up my courage and listed some of my paintings at my Etsy shop. I heard that Etsy is going to be featured on Martha Stewert tomorrow. I hope I get to watch it, but I probably will forget. My youngest has a half day of school tomorrow, so I probably won't remember. Grr!! As I said in a previous post, my kids never have a full week of school!

It's a major award!

Oops! Not that one!



Renea was kind enough to give me 2 awards! The art award, above, and the Make my Day award, below.

Thank you SO Much Renea, I am truly honored. And the best thing about these awards is, I get to present them to someone else! I love that!

Art Journal

I recently got this really cool book called Art Escapes. It is a book about keeping an art journal and trying to work in it every day. The idea is to keep your self fresh and having fun, and to record new ideas etc. You are supposed to do it just for yourself and without the intent to show it to anyone.
The lady who wrote the book is mostly a watercolorist. Perusing through her pages I was really inspired to get out my watercolors. Now I have virtually no experience with watercolors, but being the extreme art stasher that I am, of course I have a watercolor set tucked away somewhere. It was in the basement.

So I pulled it out. (Oh and by the way, I also have a gorgeous hardcover watercolor journal just sitting around here too. If hubby only knew!) I intended to just play around a little bit, but instead got carried away, and well, it turns out that this watercolor is all I am getting done today! The kids will be home in about an hour and its time to figure out dinner. I don't think spending all day on one "doodle" was the intention of the art journal. But man I had fun! :)

I've been tagged!

ooo I feel so a "part" of bloglandia now! I was tagged by the gorgeous and amazing doll artist Nina Mason of Nina Mason Dolls.
Thank you Nina, I'm so honored!


Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

OK, here are my 6 things.

1. I write 3 pages of long hand journaling every morning before I begin to work. I find this really helps me clear out all of the extraneous thoughts and "stuff" rolling around in my head and helps me have room to create. It also helps me focus on what I need to do that day. These writings make no sense and are complete ramblings.
2. I live in the same town I was born in, barely a mile from my childhood home, where my mother still lives. Its a small town and we are part of a traditional catholic community where my kids go to the same school where my brother, a catholic priest, is the principal .
3. I am a shy person-uncomfortable in large groups, but great one-on-one.
4. I love to make soup from scratch. It takes me all day and the whole house smells wonderful!
5. I make my kids look at my newest painting every day first thing when they come home from school! ha! ha!
6. I always read at night before going to sleep. I have a huge and unruly pile of books and magazines on the floor next to my bed at all times. I read everything, and the kids often have to look through my pile to finds their favorite books.

ok. I know its supposed to be 6 things, but I have 1 more thing to share. Probably because this is on my mind this morning as my dh was just teasing me about it yesterday.

7. I never, ever get caught up on laundry. And the things that are not clothes, like rugs and extra blankets get thrown on a pile and I never get around to washing them. My husband calls this the "do not wash" pile!

OK now I have 6 people to tag, so here goes:
Michelle at The Blackberry Briar
Jenn at Noodle and Lou
Monique at Inside Number Twenty
Renea at Pocket Full of Pretties
Sandy Mastroni
Sylvia Anderson

More Snow!!

Snow Queen

Wow!

I cannot believe we are getting another foot of snow! This is clearly the longest winter that will never end! My kids are expecting yet another snow day tomorrow. I do believe there is a conspiracy out there to make sure that kids are NEVER in school an entire week. My 3 youngest kids attend 2 different schools, and at least one of them has a day off or a half day every single week. Or there is a snow day. Or one of them is sick. I love my kids-don't get me wrong-but it is very hard to create art with constant neediness surrounding you.

I am bittersweet about this subject. I am getting to the point where I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. In less than 5 years I will only have 1 teen left at home. And you realize I have been at this parenting thing for over 20 years. I am ready to play artist full time and mommy part time. But I know I will miss them terribly.

OK, enough venting. I will go back to my sunny self. Lets see..ok. Ahem.

"Oh joy! Rapture! a snow day tomorrow! Yippee!"