Just thought I would update...

 Just needs a few finishing touches.  Shells and maybe some trees in the distance.  I also want to fix up the island a little.

Everything is a Process of Trial and Error

Today, as planned, I worked on the beach painting and FINALLY do not hate it.  I just needed to approach it from another direction with a different mind set.  I still am not sure if I like it 100% but for now, this is what I am happy with.  Happy enough to share my progress and laugh at just how far I have come just from take three to take four.  This was take three...Horrible.  Just didn't look right or like water and I couldn't get that one wave to not look disastrous.  Favorite part?  There are still those who say OH its beautiful.  Um its not...and there are those who are honest and say it doesn't look like water.  Of course after awhile hearing all the negative still gets you aggravated and down because you've redid it three times already and it seems more and more apparent that you just cant do any better.

Until you open your mind and approach it from another direction...

 I still think I need to change the placement of their names in the sand.  It is the most important part but I am torn between making it too big and it looking too cheesy or fake and making it too small which it clearly is now.  Before I redo it I want to make sure I know where I want it, and maybe get more opinions

 I really feel like the shore is what makes it actually look like water now.  It is my favorite part

BUT that stupid wave still just doesn't look perfect....

I am going to put it away for today so that I do not burn myself out, I am happy with today's progress and plan to move on to finishing the 7x14 replication of my table in the previous blog post.

The New Year is Here!

So we were supposed to get this big snow storm, 6-12 inches high winds blah blah. OK the winds are here but there is still grass outside.  Dumb weathermen.  Wondering when we are actually going to start getting snow, because if its snowing in April because we had no snow Nov, Dec and Jan I will be very upset.

January means I'm getting closer and closer to closing season at the club.  I'm hoping it also means new year, new budget in Iowa and the City Administrator will give approval to hire.  I really need a big kid job, and I really really need it to be in my field of study before I go insane.  Nothing like paying back student loans that got you nowhere but working at the same place you worked in High School.  I guess on the bright side, unemployment means I get to work on my painting and doing things I want more.

My goal for my shop in 2012 was to add more crochet items to my shop as well as more paintings.  I have added two mittens and have a varigated pair half done that I hope to finish tomorrow.  I have been working on my 7x14 version of the table which I hope to finish tomorrow as well.

I also have been working on my newest custom order and think I have finally figured out what I have been doing wrong!  Tomorrow I plan to fix the water and work on getting a little bit closer to finishing it.  If I am happy with the water by the end of tomorrow I will be a happy camper...maybe I will even post its progress!

Finally I have also been working on a special secret gift...that is taking up so so so much time.  What stinks is since its a secret I cant post about it here, but I am not the best secret keeper...well at least for extended amounts of time...and especially when I am this excited about it and its turning out so good!

I really hate being a perfectionist...

I have been working on a painting for a friend of mine's Mom and its really starting to erk me.  When I was younger I never understood how writers and artists didn't want to show people their works in progress etc.  But  this painting is the first one that is really starting to make me understand.  The painting is a beach painting.  And I have done many of these before...but this one is different.  I must somehow have higher standards for it or something, I'm not sure how to explain it.  I have painted the ocean three times already and have not decided whether or not I will be painting it for a fourth time.  The only thing I love about it is the clouds I did.  I'm not sure if I am being too hard on myself or what.  Its like one of those things that you have some sort of idea or outcome in your head and no matter what you do its just not perfect.  The funniest part?  She told me to use my own judgement and didnt give me a certain picture to base it off of like my friend Christine has...so in all honesty if it doesn't look exactly like this picture I found it really doesn't matter.  Ive tried putting it away for a few days too...maybe I should just work on another painting for Etsy since I haven't added any artwork for over a month and I have a whole bunch of ideas that I still want to do.  Especially since I received a lot of joanns and AC Moore gift cards for Christmas :)

Cleaning House and Giving Back

My Senior year of highschool, I changed my homeroom to the art room so I could paint and do what I want since I rarely had any homework to do during then.  I was a part of the Art Club and Scenery Crew and in being so I was asked to paint a table to sell at the auction during intermission of the school musical.  The proceeds from the auction went to pay for the scenery.  I loved painting the tables.  Junior year I painted a chair, and senior year I painted a table.  I wish I could find the pictures of them...

 But anyways, I loved painting tables so I continued to paint tables for fun during homeroom.  I would go garage saling and buy every reasonably priced table I could.  I painted a coffee table and have been in love with it since day one.  It unfortunately never sold, and I have no use for it.  Still living at home, I do not have an area to put it and the family has been tripping over it basically for four years.  Its time to go.

I have decided to donate it to the school for this year's auction during intermission!

 Since I do still love the picture, I plan to recreate it on a 7x14 canvas and eventually add it to my Etsy shop.

ONE DAY I will find a happy medium....

I've done it again, I have went from not wanting to paint or do anything to wanting to do it all.  Of course this comes right in the middle of the two busiest weeks at work.  But at least the sabres game next week with Joe is official, which will be fun as well as shopping in Erie with my best friend :).  So there went my days off to work on things :(
In the mean time I have found countless patterns -- half of them I likely will not even get around to until almost summer because there are so many!  Cute little animals, scarfs, baby booties that are actually cute (Ive learned to look at the pattern picture much closer haha)  And if all goes well, I want to add them to my shop online and see what happens!
Another bright side to hopefully getting a shot at the job in Iowa---knowing nobody because I'm 15 hrs from home give me lots of free time to work on projects.  Yeah, Yeah if I get the job I should be out making friends etc, etc. but I'm not too sure that would really be possible...I would likely be working second shift and all other normal people work 9-5.  And how do I know that the person I said hi to, as a girl that would be all alone in another state, isnt a creeper/rapist/serial killer/pyscho? 

Time Flies...

Been crazy busy lately.  I crocheted a few more things and found tons of patterns I would like to do.  I made baby mittens and booties.  The booties I don't really like the pattern and didnt realize that was how they were until after they were made.  So I found another pattern I would like to do sometime.

I also finished a scarf that is a Christmas gift, and have a few paintings I have do to for Christmas orders still.  I just finally drove out to amherst to buy coasters from A.C. Moore since the one in Hamburg still hadn't gotten a new stock of them.  Turned out they had way more sets than I have ever seen in Hamburg but they also were just as crappy.  I had to play mix and match just to find six coasters that weren't warped or cracked.  I couldnt believe that a store would even keep them on the shelves like that.  But Hamburg's store did too, so why was I surprised?  My boyfriend Joe brought it to my attention that they were probably there all summer and when the store went from AC to heat, they got ruined...makes sense.  So anyways, I have the coasters stained and now I have to coat them with gesso before I can begin to put butterflies on them.  I still have the grape light covers that need polyurethane before I can put them on Etsy too.

I have no idea when I'm going to do any of this since I work all week and then Monday I am going to Erie with my best friend Randi for a little Christmas Shopping  (Maybe AC Moore down there will have more things... and no sales tax!)  Tuesday I have to work..which is definitely a change, and then I may be going  to a Sabres game against Ottawa with Joe.  Between all of this and all of the other things I need to do, I have to find time to hang out with my friend Ashley since we are going to crochet queen size blankets.  (Shopping for yarn for that was a whole nother story, two trips to two stores and a headache later we finally have what we need, just need the time to do it!)