FRIDAY FINDS

Years ago, I stumbled across a wonderful book filled with gorgeous animal art and funny sayings. For whatever reason, I put the book back on the shelf and did not purchase it that day. A week or two later, I went back to the store, hoping to purchase it, but couldn't find it and like a knucklehead, I hadn't written down the name of the artist, or the title of the book!

I thought about this wonderful artist on and off through the years, and recently set an intention to find her and her book. Would you believe a good friend of mine sent me an email forward yesterday and there was this woman's art??? Not only that, but her name was right across the top of the email! Now usually when you get an email forward that contains photos or artwork, it doesn't normally contain the name of the artist. But there it was, plain as day!! After all these years, it took three days after I set my intention to find this artist. :-) So let me introduce her to you.

Her name is Jane Seabrook and she works in watercolors. Her books depict realistic portraits of birds, and assorted animals whose expressions or poses fit the funny or thought-provoking quotes that accompany them.

Doesn't this gorgeous owl look like he could be saying, "DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE?" LOL Check out her work. It's phenomenal!



Owl copyright - Jane Seabrook.

LOOKING FORWARD TO A NEW YEAR

~ The Old Year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months! ~

Edward Payson Powell

~We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. ~ 
Edith Lovejoy Pierce

The old year is gone, its triumphs celebrated and its disappointments mourned. Time to move on to the exciting possibilities of a new year. Just like a brand new journal filled with blank pages, the new year is waiting for us to write our dreams upon it. 

I don't believe in making resolutions, but I do believe in writing down my intentions for this new year. When I do that, it's always amazing to look back and see how many things actually do come to pass. 

Here's wishing you all an abundance of love, health, happiness, and success in everything you do in the new year. :o) xo 

FRIDAY FINDS

The holidays made it pretty much impossible for me to stick to the posting schedule I set for myself, but hopefully things have now simmered down enough that I will be able to do so.

Usually around the holidays, I'm so busy with last minute orders and trying to get stuff up on ebay etc. that the holidays all but fly by, and it takes a real effort not to miss out on the enjoyment of them all together. It's all I can do to get my house reasonably clean, get my tree up, get the shopping done, and throw in a little baking.

I'm always amazed when I come across somebody who not only manages to celebrate the holidays with incredible style and grace, but manages to live that way year around. One such person is Jenny B. Harris. Her blog, All Sorts, is one that I've enjoyed for the past several years. It is an absolute feast for the eyes. I can only dream of my house looking as gorgeous, festive, and inviting around the holidays as Jenny's house looks! Here's a few pics from Jenny's blog showing her lovely home decked out for the holidays:

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Someday, I aspire to celebrate the holidays in such lovely style myself. (probably will never happen, but it's definitely something worth aspiring for!)

I highly recommend Jenny's gorgeous blog. :o)

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 
Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope your day is filled with family and friends and lots of love. I also wish you all a very happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

On my worktable today is a repeat of the holiday scene below that I am doing for a customer.  The original was created on an 8x8 glass block and was sold on ebay. I'm creating the new version as a wall hanging.



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Also this week I've been working on little Christmas scenes which are now available on ebay. Here's the little Bichon Frise one:


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Back to the clay table I go! :o) Hope everyone isn't going crazy with last minute Christmas shopping! It's been a busy week for me!

FRIDAY FINDS

Well, I already missed a day on my intended weekly schedule. There was no Worktable Wednesday post. The reason being that I wrenched my back out of alignment two weeks ago and I haven't been doing any clay work since then. Until yesterday that is. So, I will have pics to post, but they'll have to wait till next Wednesday.

Every Friday I hope to share something or someone I've found that I really like or think might be interesting to readers (and from my stats I see there still ARE some of you out there! :o) ).

This week my find is the Flying Lessons ebooks by Kelly Rae Roberts. Kelly Rae wrote the very popular book, "Taking Flight: Inspiration & Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings" which is a best-selling book that covers all aspects of living a creative life. Kelly has had phenomenal success considering the relatively short time span that she's been a full time working artist. Besides her first book, she's also been published in several mixed media books by other artists, has had numerous articles published in magazines, and her art is now licensed and can be found in stores nationwide.

Kelly has created a series of creative business related ebooks under the "Flying Lessons: Tips & Tricks to Help Your Creative Business Soar" title. She sells them in three parts, each of which is devoted to certain aspects of running a successful creative business. These retail for $55.00 each. Or you can get the whole shebang (that's what she calls it LOL) which is $140.00.  Each comes to you as a pdf document.

These ebooks may seem pricey. They did to me. But I have to say, you get quite a bit of value in return. About a month and a half ago, I took the leap and invested in the whole shebang myself. I have a lot of business goals I still want to achieve and I was feeling the need to take things a little deeper. The book contains 205 pages and a wealth of very practical information from an artist who's been there, and done that. ;o) I don't regret the investment at all. This ebook is really a comprehensive course in running an art or craft business successfully.

FYI, I don't get any kickbacks for recommending Ms. Roberts work. LOL I don't know her and she doesn't know me. I was just very pleased with her book and thought I would pass on the info. If you're wanting to take your business to the next level, I can definitely recommend you check out her ebooks. Very helpful information indeed and it is presented beautifully. :o)

Kelly Rae Roberts Flying Lessons

MISSING LINKS

Unfortunately, I used Blog Roll to keep track of the links to other websites I wanted to share and they closed down recently without notice. So all of my links went >>Poof<<. :o( It will take me some time to add back all those links and I do apologize to everyone I exchanged links with.