Closing my Etsyshop

Another week has flown by. With again not much time for art. I try to do little snippets in between, so I have a lot of half-finished projects. Managed to finish another doodle:

It has cost me a bit of night work, but I also managed to finish the wooden heart box for my daughter’s birthday. She thought I had forgotten all about it, so she was really pleased and surprised with it :-) 

Here are some more drawings for my year diary:

And now it’s almost October! Can’t believe it….. Since we are flying out on the 26^th of October, the whole month will pretty much be full with packing and doing last minute stuff. So I decided to close my Etsyshop on the 1^st of October. And for those last few days I have a 10% discount on everything in my shop, as long as you buy for a minimum amount of $10. So if you want to stock up on Christmas- and New Years’ cards, or some small presents (prints, mini-paintings, poetrybook) for the holidays, you better do it now, since my shop will only open up again somewhere in January. And to be honest, I’m not even sure I’ll open it again. I’m not so happy with Etsy and I will be looking into some other venues to sell my art. But that’ll be something to sort out later.

If you want to take advantage of the discount, you need to use the following couponcode: MOVE2014 (all capitals, no blank spaces). If you're not sure how to use couponcodes, you can find more information here.

Here are some examples of cards in my shop:

And some pages of my poetrybook:

 

 

And for those of you who live in the area (Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia): it’s only a few more days that my work is on show in the gallery in Redcliffe. On Tuesday I’ll be working my last day there, and will take everything that’s left home with me, to pack it all up and ready for the container. It’ll be the end of the year before I see my stuff again (hopefully!!).

Here’s this weeks’ funny ;-)

Well, that’s it for this week! Linking this as always to Paint Party Friday, the weekly blogparty! Do take a look there if you don’t know it already, there are some real treasures to see.

Thanks so much for being here, and thanks for leaving your uplifting comments :-)

I hope your day has been going well, and that your weekend will bring peace and rest (or excitement for those of you who want that). I’ll be back next week! ♥ ♥ ♥

Calendar 2015 and other bits and pieces

I seem to be unable to paint lately. I hardly get a drawing done. And I could do it if I wanted to. I mean, I cannot keep making phonecalls and keep packing, isn't it? I need a rest of that once in a while. But I have found that when there's unrest in my head or in my house, I can't paint. The only thing I feel like doing when I'm giving myself some time off is relax in the couch and start reading....

So it's a good thing that my daughter and I still have the habit to sit together on her bed every evening before she goes to sleep, because that's when I manage to get these little drawings done.

I'm still planning on making a year planner for 2015, but I figured I don't need to finish it before I move to Belgium. When I'm there, it's still 2 months before the year's over. So in between I'm making these little drawings that I want to use somewhere in the planner. I enjoy making them :-)

Meanwhile, my calendar is finished and available for sale! I received my calendar less than a week after I ordered it, and I've looked it over to see whether there are no mistakes, and luckely there aren't so I put it up for sale!

This is the cover, and I'll show you every page that's in there. Although you can also see a preview on Lulu, but it's just more fun to show it here too ;-)

And here a view of what it looks like inside:

Do you remember my small poetrybooks?

I put some for sale in my Etsyshop this week. There are only 4 left, so if you want to grab one don't wait too long :-)

Oh yes, there's one thing I'm painting right now: a wooden box for my daughter, who will be 12 next Thursday!

A few years ago, I found these wooden heart-shaped boxes in a store and bought about 4 of them (I know, I should've bought many more, can't find them anymore now). And every time I finished one for a market, my daughter saw it and made me promise she could have it if it didn't sell. And every time this box was one of the first ones to sell ...

So now I only had one left, and yesterday I suddenly remembered, so now I have to hurry to get it ready in time. Which will be hard because today is the last day of school for the kids (at least here in Australia) so after today I have to work on it when she can't see it ...

Okay, that's it for now. Thanks so much for visiting!  I'm linking this as always to Paint Party Friday. Looking forward to seeing all the incredible work shared over there :-)

Oh yes, here's my funny for this week :-)

 lol

Hope you're having a fantastic day, and something fun to look forward to in the weekend! See you next week! ♥ ♥ ♥

sketching again

Discovered my sketchbook again :-) It's so easy to take with you everywhere, I really should do it more often ....

Will play a bit with the background of this one in Photoshop. Some time when I can find the time ... ;-)

The last few days I've been finishing some small rocks that I wanted to give as a present to some dear friends of mine. In the gallery where I have my work, there's another artist who used to be a buddhist monk, and who leads buddhist groups in his home. He invited me to one of those last year, so I did, and I met the most wonderful people there.

Look how small they are ....

I am not religious. I was brought up a Catholic, but I gave up religion when I was in my twenties. I couldn't justify all the bloodshed and hate between people because of difference in religions, I couldn't stand people trying to force their ideas onto others thinking they were somehow better or wiser. If you want to believe in a God, go ahead, I have no problems with that, but don't go around condemning other people when they don't believe in the same things. The only religion, if you can even call it that, I think it's more a way of life, that I feel a bit close to is Buddhism. And being in those groups confirmed that for me. So since I'm moving back to Belgium, and I'm not sure I will be able to go to the meeting in October (I will probably be up to my ears in packing ...), I took these rocks as a going away present for the other people in the group.

Usually the rocks I paint are much larger, but last time I was at the beach I found these cute small rocks and took some home with me. And I really like making them. I might even start selling them online, since they don't weigh much and the shipping costs wouldn't be ridiculous.

This week Dawn DeVries Sokol mentioned on Facebook that her new book about Art Journals will be released in April 2015. And I'm very honoured that she asked me to be in it! Here's the cover, so you can drool over it (I know I do!) until it comes out in April next year :-)

And last but not least: There is a promo again in my Society6-shop: free worldwide shipping and $5 off iphone-cases, to celebrate the launch of iphone6-cases! But only if you use this link!

Since last week they also have long-sleeved shirts. I don't have that many shirts in my shop yet, but I'm working on it :-) Here are some examples:

To end this post, here's another "funny" from Pinterest or Facebook, don't even remember where I got it :-)

haha, love it!

Thanks so much for your visit! I hope you're having a beautiful day, and a relaxing weekend full of warmth. I'm linking this as always to the wonderful ladies at Paint Party Friday!
See you next week! ♥ ♥ ♥

Food for the soul

I am really excited to tell you that I will be teaching in SOUL FOOD 2015! 

Yes! I will be part of an amazing group of artists who generously and "soulfully" share their secrets, and I will even be sharing one of my favorite recipes with you :-)  Looking forward to next Spring, and I do hope you will join us!

Here's a little bit about SOUL FOOD 2015
A brand new Soul Food class will run at Community Thrive, from February 1 through April 30, 2015.
You can expect:

• 3 Head Chefs: The amazingly talented Mystele Kirkeeng, Heather Santos and Jeanette House
• 17 Sous-Chefs (myself included)
• 2 video instruction mixed media lessons per week for 3 months
• Each artist’s favourite comfort food cooking recipe
• All downloadable videos
• Classroom access through Dec 31, 2015
• Access to a private Soul Food community group on Facebook

Registration will open on January 1, 2015, and you will need to be a member at Community Thrive in order to purchase and participate in Soul Food.

The community is free to join and you can register here. When your registration is approved, you’ll find the Soul Food purchase link here (from January 1, 2015).

The purchase price for SF 2015 is $65 USD.

• 10% discount available to our SF 2014 alumni

Everyone who purchases SF 2015 can also take advantage of:

• 10% discount on Slimline SF 2014 [featuring the head Chefs’ 17 lessons]
• 10% discount on a new class that we’ll be announcing on April 1, 2015!

In the meantime, there’s lots happening at Community Thrive to keep you playing: themed art challenges, free mini classes, and other online classes are all available now; and a new round of Mystele’s popular Gut Art class will open in October 2014.

Follow this link to meet the Soul Food class of 2015 Faculty and take a look at the amazing artists that have gathered just waiting to inspire you!

Visit Community Thrive and take a look!

I have been practicing with using a videocamera to record my introduction to you. Oh my, still have a lot to learn ;-) But it'll get ready. I just need to learn not to talk too much, because once I get going it's hard to shut me up ...

Meanwhile. I've been busy with the move, but managed to start painting some more rocks, as a surprise for friends here in Australia. These are really small rocks, and I really like painting them too. Until now most rocks I used were about the palm of my hand.

Here are the rocks that I finished last week and didn't show you yet:

My calendar for 2015 is finished and I just ordered one! I haven't publised it yet on Lulu because I always want to get one for myself first to check whether I didn't make a mistake somewhere. It'll be available within a few weeks, when I've received mine :-)

Here are some more pages from my calendar:

That's it for now, haven't been able to do much more. One would think I would've packed up the whole house by now, but nothing could be further from the truth. I didn't even pack one single box yet. I just don't know where the time goes. There are so many urgent things that pop up during the days that I can be happy if I manage to do some phonecalls. I am starting to get really annoyed by answering machines though. Or "put-on-hold"- machines, whatever you call it.  Have you noticed that there's not a single one that has decent, calming music on there? My stresslevels shoot through the roof after listening to them for 10 minutes. Aaarrgghhh!

So to end this with a smile, here's another Pinterest-find:

hahaha

Okay, that's it for this week. Linking this to Paint Party Friday, as always. Hope you're having a wonderful day, and wishing you a weekend full of fun and warmth. Thanks so much for visiting! I'll be back next Friday ♥ ♥ ♥