Promotion and a Contest!

SOLD

I've decided to run a February promotion/contest! What, you say? It's still January? Yeah, yeah. I'm starting early, hoping maybe spring will get the same idea.

In honor of our shortest month, I'll be posting a small pen & ink & watercolor painting each day. Each will be only $28. (Affordable art! Get yourself something nice, or stock up the gift closet!)

Also, on the last day of February, I'll take the names of everyone who comments on my blog during February, put them in a hat, and have my daughter draw one. The winner will get to choose any one of the paintings I paint this month. (It will be matted but unframed.)

So keep checking back, and tell your friends!

Symptom of Parenthood

I abhor sewing, and yet I just spent the last two hours sewing teeny-tiny finger puppets. A unicorn and a shark. My fingers bear the bloody stab marks to prove it.

And yet the giggles of my daughter adding eyes and glitter and jewels make it all worth it.

Though I have to admit this is the first jeweled, finger-puppet shark I've ever seen.

New Web Site

As promised, I unveil the new web site today.

Though there was some question about it, as today is a snow day. And there's nothing quite like trying to meet a deadline when school has been cancelled. The snow is supposed to continue through today and tonight, which means school may also be out tomorrow. Oh, joy.

But the web site is up. Red Eft Studio.

Please take a look, and tell me what you think. I'll be adding new artwork all the time, so keep checking back!

Catching Up

I can't believe I'm just now catching up from Christmas.

On December 23rd, we sent Zoe down with her aunt and uncle to visit her grandparents a day ahead of us. Then, on Christmas Eve morning, we woke up to a dead furnace and a cold house. There was much delay, but we finally got someone out to fix it. The igniter was replaced, the house started to warm up, and we could safely leave the cats to the pet sitter.

Christmas Day was pleasant chaos.

The day after, still at Zoe's grandparents, we woke up to a dead furnace and a cold house. Again. After a few hours, they got someone to come take a look. They needed to replace the igniter.

It was decided that we carried a furnace virus, and were gently discouraged from visiting anyone else's house. Ha.

Here's this year's Zoe and Santa picture. This was taken at Bass Pro Shop. We waited for at least an hour, after giving up on the 2 1/2 hour wait the day before.

The taxidermy reindeer are a nice touch, if a tad morbid. And if you look closely, it seems Santa should have been more careful with the band saw in the toy factory.

A (small but important) Lesson Learned

Don't buy off-brand packing tape. Buy the good stuff. Otherwise, once you let it stick to itself, you'll spend the next hour sounding like a bad-tempered pirate while attempting to get it going again.

Trust me, it's worth the extra dollar.

Chaos Begets Blogging?

I haven't blogged since May. So why now, when everything is chaos, am I suddenly moved to blog? (Note that during that sentence I had to get up twice - once to get my daughter a new spoon, and the next moment to clean lime yogurt off her feet.)

I think everyone suffers chaos in December. There's too much to do, too little money, too little time. And seven unexpected things that go wrong. Expensive car repairs. Relatives coming in from the same city on two different flights that land hours apart on the same day. Two colds in a row. Worry about the norovirus shutting down schools. Doctor's appointments. Cats attacking the Christmas tree. Artic weather.

And yet I'm painting every day. I finally joined the local artists group, and will volunteer with their auction in the new year. I'm hopeful that I'll meet some artists, as I don't know any here yet. (Though that will be about when D gets a new job in Seattle or San Fran, most likely. His current contract ends in May, and that seems to be where the offers are coming from.)

It's funny - we look forward to Christmas all year, and then - some of us, at least - look forward to New Year's and the chance to relax, at least a little.