I made an Etsy

I finally did it, I opened up an Etsy Shop.  I have been wanting to for quite some time, but never seemed to get around to it.  Whew, there is a bit more involved in it than I would've thought.  But I did it and I am excited to share it.

This is why I haven't posted as many art posts lately, I've been busy trying to get this up and running.  I only have a few items on there, so far.  Please feel free to take a look.

Little Red Henry Etsy Shop

Thank you friends.  Hope you are all having a wonderful week!

I also wanted to let you know, starting next Monday in lieu of Fall, I am going to do a series of posts called Falling In Love With Art.  In this, I plan to highlight my favorite artist and works of art, past and present.  Including many of my very talented blog friends.  Happy Fall!

Silent Sundays: Playing Dress Up!

Fall is here and it is time to start planning and making Halloween costumes.  This is the time when we pull out our costume boxes and dig thru to see what we have.  Every year we add to these boxes.  But dressing up isn't just for Halloween, we love any excuse to do it.  I went through some pics and picked out a few to share with you.  Hopefully they will inspire some ideas and thoughts for this upcoming magical day.  They range from corny to creepy.  And of course, we love cheesy.  Enjoy!!  :)

Mobster and Miss Kitty at our annual Halloween Party

Super Heroes party

May Day, time to take May baskets and put them on doors.

Epic Halloween

Pennies From Heaven...1940's theme.

Thrift Store Prom 

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

1980's Theme Party...yes, that is my son, his girlfriend dressed him up.

Ren-Fest

Hiking on a foggy night

Halloween, last year, it was a bit more gruesome than usual.

An Alice Party, Tweedle Dee Dum

Tim Burton Potluck

Super Hero Potluck, Plastic Man and Bag Lady

The Renaissance Faire

Video Game Potluck,  Link likes Nachos

C.O.D.  Video Game Potluck

B.A. Potluck, my son dressed as Abraham Lincoln, the ultimate B.A.

Flash....Ahh aah!  Super Hero Potluck

Make up and thrift store clothing go a long way to making really great costumes.
Now it's time to figure out who we will be this Halloween.

Silent Sundays: Friends, Food, Fun....

A hidden trail, buried behind the blackberry bushes.

An odd find.

The Headless Horseman lives in there.

A tunnel of trees

Waiting for the tide to go out.

I love fog

My boys...I think they'll someday join The Polar Bear Club.

I can't believe they got in, it was so cold.

One of my all time favorite bands...Eisley.  They were shopping for Ray Bradbury books too.  

The boys and our besties.

Birthday dinner  for my husband, with our best of friends.

What have you been up to this past couple of weeks?

Total Alignment: Balance!!

Balance is the second part of The Total Alignment workshop and painting "Fearlessly".  This is what came to me for balance.  I didn't think about it at all, just let the paint brush flow across the page.  

I had a bit of paint left over and I always hate to waste it, so I painted a smaller picture, again without thinking about it...

The past few days, I have had a bit more inspiration and desire to just create and draw and paint, just for the fun of it.  These few pictures are what I've spent time on and have enjoyed creating.  No boundaries, no over thinking, just enjoying the process.

A drawing for the fun of it.

I'm excited for Halloween!  Ms. Kitty.

Fall is coming.  The Harvest

Stopped to chat.  Late For Tea!

This last picture, I had started painting a picture of woman and didn't like it, so painted over it with the remaining blue and black paint, then decided I couldn't waste a good piece of paper, so this came out of it. 

Hope you are having a splendid week.  It's beginning to feel like Fall....

Hallelujah!!

Total Alignment: Inspired!

Total Alignment

If you read my last post, you probably saw that I'm feeling rather uninspired lately.  Every time I want to draw/paint, I feel as if I am trying way too hard to be creative and so I'm not coming up with much.  

A good blog friend of mine, Robin at raszart 

posted about this free online workshop to help open up your creative side.  

"In Total Alignment we will address five common blockages that keep Artists feeling stuck, uninspired, and out of alignment with creative source:

1.  Heaviness Around The Heart Center

2.  A Struggle With Inner Balance

3.  Loss Of Energy

4.  Suppression of Full Self Expression

5.  Lack of Stillness and Feeling Grounded"

The first workshop video talks about 

Opening The Heart Center

and painting fearlessly.

Which means to paint without judgment, straight from the heart, not your head.

This is the result of fearless painting.  I'm not totally in love with it, but that's okay, because that's not what it is about.  

If you are feeling less than creative and need a boost, I recommend

checking this out.  She has a wonderful soothing way about her and I very much enjoyed her video and painting freely, without feeling like I need to do it for some purpose.  I didn't realize how much time I spend worrying about how it's going to come out and judging myself.  Breathe deeply, enjoy the process.  

Thank you, Robin so much for introducing this to all of us.  

It is a wonderful experience.  :)

Waiting....

This is me lately.....waiting!  I'm not sure what I am waiting for, but I seem to want a

bolt of inspiration to strike and it doesn't seem to be happening.  I drew this particular picture a few days ago, hoping that if I cleared my mind and just sat down and drew something, I'd get some moment of brilliance.  I don't know why, but it feels like I'm trying too hard. 

This picture came about today.  We just visited the sea and it was very relaxing and enjoyable.  I wanted to try painting a bit and this was all I could pull together.  

I had higher hopes, but it's okay, I know if I keep at it, I'll get there.

In the meantime.....

I got my art space set up, hooray!!  And I found this groovy old painting I did, back in the day....I was a sophomore in high school.  Good golly, that was a long time ago.  This has been buried in a closet for some time now, so I cleaned it and put it up.

Another shot of my art space and an old painting, which I didn't finish for some reason. Oh well, it's kind of fun to see these again.  I'd forgotten about them entirely. 

What inspires you, especially when you are feeling like your creativity is lacking??
Happy weekend to you! :)

Silent Sundays: Silent, but Deadly!

Normally my Silent Sundays are photos, with very little to no wordiness from me.  But today's rather late post of pics, has a bit of an interesting story to go with it.
Hope you don't mind.

The boys and I decided to go out for a jolly jaunt this week.  There is a rather gorgeous walking park only a few miles from where we live, which we'd yet to explore, so we decided today would be the day.

Zade felt the need to "dress" for the occasion.  If only he'd had a pipe!

All was going well, we found an enchanted trail through the blackberry bushes, then ran across a sign that warned us that a Cougar had been spotted the week before, so we started watching out for hot mom's and didn't see any.  Then we ran across this sign, which made us chuckle a bit...No Break Dancing!!
So, we journeyed onward until.......
We walked to a dead end path and encountered some nervous bees, who apparently thought we were honey thieves.  They fiercely came after us and stung those of us who were wearing purple.  I guess honey thieves are purple wearers.  (The other two were wearing brown)  I escaped with only two bee stings, but my son.....

He was stung 16 times.  Yikes!!  Fortunately, he is not allergic and is terribly brave.
We made our way home quickly and applied sliced potatoes (an old home remedy) to his bee stings.  We were both feeling much better after a yummy bowl of potato soup....I used fresh potatoes for that.  :)
Needless to say, it was quite an adventure.

Have a happy and lovely Labor Day!  :)