Dinner at autentic Mexican Restaurant/ spring flowers in the garden

California is know for it's plentiful and diversified food. There are restaurants for hundreds of types of cuisine and it's relatively easy to find the authentic stuff. I took my parents, once again for a night out to eat (hey, I'm newly single, in a new town, so who else to hang out with than my cool parents.)

This time we had authentic Mexican cuisine, not to be confused with Tex Mex kinda stuff. This is a neighborhood shanty which gives you such incredibly large portions, we brought back home 3 huge doggie bags with us.

Spring is coming and pretty fast...

Our Japanese garden is full of colorful, bursting plum blossoms, tulips, and camilia.

New stuff for my artshop

I have received the most WONDERFUL ultra glossy pocket mirros with real glass mirrors on the reverse. I had a few done by etsy seller dbayou18 and the majority, by http://kittycrossbones.etsy.com who specializes in this type of thng.

They are so pretty and cute, I would like to keep them all! They are pocket mirrors for your purse, with images of my original paintings on them. I sell them for $9 each or two for $16 (a $2 savings) and each comes with its own pouch.

Here are some pics of the mirrors I offer. Hurry because a few are almost gone:

Commissioned work is egg-actly what I like

Do you all know and love fishbulb500, an etsy buyer who buys tons from many many sellers? Well, Angie has become a very good friend of mine ever since I sold her my original lil humpty dumpty painting. She's a little wacky and cracked, Angie is, even a tad egg-centric, and recently made a request.

"I want a family, my family, to be humptys"

"Um...what?"

"We are all very 'eggish' looking, so I think it would be swell to have a painting."

"Ah...alrighty."

Soooo, I have begun working on this egg-cellent project. After sketching it out, I have outlined it with my speedball pen and india ink. Here's how it looks so far:

I will post later after I paint it with watered acrylics. Have an eggs-tra nice day, y'all!

Well, here's the finished painting. I have to see what fishbulb500 says!

New Work

I really enjoy pen and ink, but it was time to get back into my acrylics on stretched canvas work, especially since a long time ebay customer commissioned another of my garden ladies. She owns about 7 or 8 of my voluptuous ladies with fruit.

This one is for her neice. They are quite fun to paint, but I have to be in the mood, as they require tons of blending with no outlines.

Because she will now have the original, I will be offering prints of "Garden Lady with Peaches" in my etsy shop.

I got so enthusiastic, I did another painting, one very similar to another I sold to her a while back. It's an original and will also go into my etsy shop. "Garden lady with Limes", a pretty Hispanic woman with fruit.

In the next coming days, I plan to expand my trunkt portfolio, by adding all my originals, prints, puppets, and cards.

My Dog Learns to Run Alongside my Bike

I play fetch every day with my golden retriever not only because he loves his tennis balls, but also because he adores running, as all big dogs do. I needed to start exercising, since I haven't really done much of anything since my major surgery, in order to make my body strong again and Sam always wants to go anywhere to try new things. A bike is low stress on the body, so I thought maybe he could learn to run alongside the bike. My dad graciously volunteered to join us, since it would take two of us to teach Sam. So we hopped into the truck and drove over to a nice bike pathway.

At first, my dad, Al had to run between me on the bike, and Sam attached to his leash, since he kept jumping in front of the bike, so excited! plus, he has a funny habit of grabbing the leash in his mouth so it looks like he is walking you.

After only a few practice runs, Al let go of the leash, and Sam was sailing along side of me, galloping like a miniature but chubby horse! He learned so fast and I was exremely proud.

It doesn't appear like he is running in these pics, but he was cantering with joy! Tomorrow we'll go again and practice.

It was great to be on a bike again (used to be one of my favorite things to do) and I forgot all about my troubles, to hear the wind rushing by my ears, feel it hitting my face as I dipped and curved in the bumps and crevices on the paved road. I seriously felt alive again.

Afterward, Al and I did something bad--we went to IHOP. Normally, all of us eat organic and very healthy homestyle Japanese food, but a decadent treat of pancakes and eggs and more seemed to be in order.

2 Posts tonite! Accepted by Trunkt (yay!)/ feature about jabon soap seller

I got accepted by trunkt for my artwork! Trunkt is a juried art/ handmade online site that is visited by wholesalers, and boutique and gallery owners. The competition is pretty fierce and it really helps small businesses get their start. So I am just thrilled.

I still haven't figured out the ins and outs to the site yet, or added all my info, but I can be found at http://www.trunkt.org/rtisan2

Here are the 3 paintings (prints) I submitted for my portfolio:

A Great Soap Seller on Etsy!

I did a trade a few days ago ( a pair of my sterling silver, Czech glass leaves, and freshwater pearl earrings)

For some soaps and lip balm from http://jabon.etsy.com/. WOW! What a treat her packaging is!

A guest bar of lemon mint and lip balm came in this adorable embroidered kelly green strawbag. The three bars of soap, dulce de leche, tropical escape, and lavender oatmeal almond came with a nice wooden soap dish, all wrapped up in bright red jute. The package arrived by priority in just two days!

Jabon, in Spanish means "soap", but it is also the name of this seller's fictional chracter in a story she wrote, who survives the civil war in a Latin American country, buy selling her soap wares. Each of her products is made with peace and healing to pass along.

There is a sea of soap sellers on etsy and it's hard to pin down just one. So, if you are looking for a treat for your eyes, and cheery packaging, but also soaps that smell so really good, give her shop a go. I can't wait to try them!

Birthday Celebration

Not for me of course, since I am a May baby, but it was for my brother, mom, and sister-in-law, many Feb. birthdays. We have a huge family of 8 siblings, but only 3 of us could make it. It was Japanese food again, and yes, we do eat other cuisines, but my mom chose her favorite Japanese restaurant. Because she loves Sama-san, the sushi chef who buys the freshest fish and likes to experiment with fushion type food ( a mixing of east meets west kinda thing.This is Sama-san. Sushi chefs are thought of with very high distinction and must pass many rigorous tests, be extremely talented and innovative and possess years of training to make it.

Here are pics of some sashimi in the display case, all fresh that day. One is octopus, then salmon, and lastly, my favorite tuna (maguro).




And this is my family:

My old hippies (my mom justed turned 71).


One older brother (his birthday), his German wive and their two boys, and younger brother and his French wife (her birthday.)





It was a GREAT night, with too much sake, lots of laughing and eating, and a bill of ...over $700!

New Naughty Dog Puppet

Doesn't my dog, Sam, look positively guilty? He should...he was naughty yesterday. We had a visitor and Sam was a little too "friendly"with this man. This inspired me to make a naughty dog puppet! I even had to label it as "mature" in my listing. I won't devulge or show a picture of this puppet's naughtiness--you'll just have to look at picture #3 on my listing in my artshop. This is the link: rtisan2.


Here are two pics I will show of my new puppet set:







For my listing, I wrote


"He piddles, he poos.
and fetches balls, he even chews.
He will root thru' your garbage, and eat your shoes.
"Hump-hrey" also does what naught dogs do. Oh, Mrs. Cleaver disapproves!"

I was on the forums yesterday and received a ton of suggestions from other etsy sellers about my artshop and many new ideas for puppets. Etsy sellers are the VERY BEST and niciest people I have ever met. They are all so helpful and generous. Thanks everyone!