An early Halloween painting

hi friends, I'm making an effort to be more consistent with blogging, we shall see how it goes, lol!
As I write, the winds are howling outside my window, and it gets dark much earlier. .My favorite time of year!
Makes me want to drink coffee all day long, And I just noticed on the calendar that our Thanksgiving is on Oct 8th??? WHAT? that's pretty early, normally it's mid October. Oh well, that means I get to enjoy pumpkin pie earlier, and there's nothing wrong with that :-)

I finished 2 Halloween paintings on the weekend, including the one above. I like the other one too, but the scan is crappy so I don't want to show it until I can figure out why my computer doesn't like my camera's memory thingy. It's very liberating to paint looser than I am used to. I love folk art, but normally am too controlling...this time I let things get messy. Hey! what the heck is that 3-eyed thing doing at the bottom of my painting???
just kidding, it's a sticker, lol! I love stickers, and other fun embellishments, they add an extra bit of whimsy to your art. You can't tell, but there are lots of various papers underneath. Normally I do lots of layering before I paint the main image, but I think I overdid the paint bit, because you can't really see the papers anymore. Next time, I will make sure I add some acrylic glazing liquid to the paint, to make it more sheer, so that you can see the backgrounds. So the viewer may not see all the layering, but the artist knows it's there, and that makes me happy :-)

That's it for now, I'm going to watch the Voice, one of my favorite tv shows. Hope you are all doing well.
thanks for reading.

Must see Documentary - GMO's, and a Smoothie recipe

 I thought I'd send off a quick blog post to let you know that there is a documentary which I feel is very important for people to see. It is free to watch right now, until Sept 22nd, so here is the link:
http://geneticroulettemovie.com/

A few months ago we were having dinner with my cousins, and I was shocked when one of them asked 'what are Gmo's?'. I assumed everyone knew about genetically modified organisms.  It's funny but many years ago, when this was new technology, I started taking some university courses in science, with the idea of moving towards genetics, but at that time, with a full time job, it became difficult to continue.  Now, I've been reading much information over the years of the dangers and concerns, and feel this is something people should educate themselves about.
I could talk for a long time about this topic, but this documentary covers all my concerns very well.

Before I go, I must tell you about a simple, and delicious smoothie I made this morning.  I didn't feel like running outside to the garden to grab some kale leaves, so I made a fruit smoothie rather than my usual greens moothie. Very simple:

1 - 2 ripe frozen bananas
1TB carob powder (has lots of calcium and is caffeine free
about a cup of coconut water (or water, or almond milk)
approx 1/4 cup of coconut creme (or coconut milk)
Big Tablespoon organic peanut butter
1TB of hemp seeds - for protein
1TB maca powder (optional- for energy)

Blend in a blender. How easy is that? and you end up with a banana peanut butter smoothie, that is out of this world. I myself don't measure my ingredients, but feel free to adjust as you wish.
 everything mentioned is available at a health food store, or the health food section of your supermarket.
Enjoy!

Happy Fall!

Hello friends, did you think I fell off the face of the earth? Well it sure felt like it! I took a bit of time away from my blog over the last few months. I don't do much art over the summer, as the weather beckons me outside. This year was super busy, we went to  Greece, where I enjoyed the sunshine and beach for a couple of weeks, then once home, I had to look after my parents' garden and dog for 6 weeks while they enjoyed a nice vacation too. The weather gods kept me busy, they thought it would be fun to give us a drought, which meant frequent watering, and of course, the dog can't miss his walkies!

As well, I've been in kind of an art funk. Haven't felt like creating anything for months, once again my muse decided to vanish without warning....however, I'm feeling in the mood again, and the last week, created 2 new mixed media paintings, the witch you see above (sold), and the angel below. As much as I love summer, I'm always happy to see the weather turn cooler, because it means more time indoors, and this is when I'm at my best. 

To welcome fall, I decided just yesterday, to put everything in my Etsy store 20% off. It's a good time to do a little clearing out, and making way for new art. If you are interested in anything, please use the coupon code 'Pink20' at checkout, and it will automatically take off your discount.

This has been a year of technical difficulties as well. My crappy printer decided it will no longer print black - which means I can't add new prints to my shop, and now my computer won't recognize my camera stick, so I can't take photos of my art to upload to my computer. How frustrating! Looks like I will be buying a new printer soon. I'd be happy to hear some suggestions...I'm leaning towards an Epson, but haven't done any homework yet.

That's it for now, don't want to bore you with a novel. I look forward to getting caught up on my blog reading. One of my joys for the fall and winter is to make a nice cup of coffee, sit down and read my favorite blogs. Hope you all are doing well, I missed you all!