Tis the Season for Pet Portraits!

I have done more pet portraits over the last month, than I have done in the past year! I will be taking Christmas orders through December 5th. I can do them in a variety of sizes and even add multiple pets to one portrait if desired. Come visit my Etsy shop if interested :0)

Abstract Landscape 10/18/09

Here is my newest painting "Abstract Landscape". I wanted to do something different from what I have been working on and here it is! I love how vibrant the colors came out it this! It was a lot of fun to paint and nice to get something new into my shop. I have been busy doing custom pieces lately so I haven't been able to add much to my shop. Have a great weekend!

Today's Paintings 9/27/09

This was a nice weekend with not too much to do...it was great! I got to go to dinner with some girlfriends last night to celebrate one of their birthdays and today I got to stay home and paint! Here are the two paintings I completed today. The first is one of my new favorites "Autumn Aspen" this Triptych is inspired by all the beauty around me in Colorado right now. The second is a custom pet portrait commission.

Custom Pet Portraits

This week has been really busy! I had a lot of custom orders this week, three of them were for pet portraits. I really enjoy painting pets because each one is so different and I know how much they mean to their owners! Here are Butchie, Ruby, and Gus. P.S. My puppy Linnie is doing much better on her potty training Yeah!

I'm glad for the weekend, was feeling a bit under the weather, but now I'm better and ready to take a little time to relax!

Potty Training

As I posted earlier, we recently got a new puppy named Linnie. She is very sweet and cute, but unfortunately, she did not come potty trained. The last couple of weeks my home life has revolved around Linnie's "potty schedule". Oh well, she is still young, she will get it soon....I hope.

I have to show you the coolest collar I bought her on Etsy though! She was absolutely obsessive about her tag hanging from her collar to the point where she would do nothing else but try to rip it off. I found this great seller who makes these custom collars with the tag attached to it, no jangle! They are excellent quality and are only $17.00, you can't beat that! I got her's custom made with brown leather and clear rhinestones, she loves it! I call it her "bling bling". I had to order one for my other pup Lucy so she wouldn't be jealous :0) I can't wait to get it! Her shop is called PoochyCouture click here to check it out!

Kid's Say the Funniest Things

Well, this will be my fourth year teaching so I have heard many interesting things come out of my students' mouths. I keep saying that I need to write them down somewhere when I hear something really amusing. I haven't done that yet so I figure maybe I could start sharing some on my blog.

The other day a 4th grade boy came to ask me to go to the bathroom but he said "Ms. Dougherty, can I go drain the giant sea monster?"

Needless to say I was a little speechless. And even though, I asked him to please not say that in the future, inside I was laughing so hard!

Have a great weekend all!

Meet Linnie!

Hi everyone! My life has been so crazy busy between school, paintings, and our newest member of the family...Linnie. Linnie is a 4 month old Chihuahua, maybe a mix not sure. We got her from my boyfriends parents last Friday. They were not able to keep her since their older chihuahua was not getting along with her. We couldn't say no to this face and didn't want to see her go to a shelter :0( Sooooo with three dogs now, I am one step closer to being the "CRAZY DOG LADY", but that's ok.

Now, if we could just get potty training down, I will be sooooo happy!!!

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Hi everyone, it's been a very busy first week back to school so I haven't had time to post! The students came back to school on Thursday and Friday, it was great to see them again. I'm always amazed at how excited they are to come back each year! When I was a kid I remember being almost physically sick about the thought of going back after the summer :0) Anyway, I'm glad to say my rooms are finally set up and ready, here we go!

I got some very exciting news this morning! STITCHNMOMMA a fellow Etsian and blogger has chosen me to be her Etsy Shop of the Week!!! I am so excited, she has a great blog! If you haven't already, please go check her out! Click here to see my "Featured" Page! STITCHNMOMMA does beautiful cross stich items, and she also sells kits and patterns in her shop! I love this Sunflower pattern she has created, I may have to learn how to cross stich!

Tabletop Originals

Here are my newest creations, Tabletop Originals!!! I love these, they are perfect for a desk or that little spot in your home where you need something special! So Cute!!! See these and other creations in my Etsy Shop!

First Official Day Back

Today was my first official day back to work at my "real" job. For those of you who don't know, I am an elementary art teacher. I teach at two different schools so this time of the year is very busy between meetings and getting my rooms set up. This is my fourth year teaching. It is exciting to be at the point where I really feel like I know what I'm doing :0) I think back to my first year and how nervous I was (it didn't help that I got my job a week before school started!). I remember thinking wow, they are really trusting me with all these kids...all by myself! It was a bit overwhelming, but great! Things have gotten much easier over the years and I really love what I do! The vacations aren't bad either. The students don't come back until next Thursday, I'm sure I'll have some stories to share with you all about them soon!

A Very Productive Day!

I finally got my lawn mowed, pulled weeds, and raked up pine needles this morning. It was a long time coming. My yard look so nice now :0) Then I cleaned up the house, went to the post office and even had time to paint a couple more Birch Tree paintings! Only one more day off until I "officially" go back to work for the school year, I will miss my days full of painting! Here are the paintings I finished and listed today in my Etsy shop.

Today's Painting 8/3/09

I just got done with this Peony painting. I painted it for a fellow Etsy seller. Her mom's 60th birthday is coming up soon and Peonies are her favorite!!! Tomorrow I have to start work at my school again, summer break was nice, but as always very quick!

Time for a break!

Wow, I have been busy! Last week was the last week for summer school and I was so busy making sure all of the students' art projects were ready to go home. They did some wonderful things: clay birdhouses, pinatas, hemp jewelry, paintings, and many more! It was a lot of fun, but I'm glad to have a short break before going back to "real" school later this week. One of my principals asked me to be the mentor for a new teacher in our building so I will be going in on Tuesday to help her set up her room and such and then I start back "officially" on Friday.

Meanwhile, I have also been busy painting in any of my spare time. I did a very large Custom Tree Triptych, pictured below for a client as well as a custom Birch Tree painting. I am nearly finished with the custom Cherry Blossoms painting I am doing for one of my mom's best friend's birthday, I hope to take it over today.

Lastly, I am doing another trade with a wonderful Jeweler on Etsy. I have worked with her before and she really is wonderful! Check out her beautiful work here!

Have a great Sunday!!! Can you believe I am actually a little excited about cleaning my house today :0)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I love flowers, obviously so I wanted to create an Etsy Treasury dedicated to flowers! This is one of the paintings I included it is by basasik she paints with a pallete knife, beautiful! Here is a link to her shop http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5186021

Click here to see the rest of the treasury!

Today's Painting 7/27/09

Birch Trees on a Blue Green background sized 20"x 30". Select trees have real texture!

Click here to see other items in my shop!

Today's Paintings 7/26/09

I was feeling like some yellow today so I completed these two flower paintings with just that! The first one is Abstract Yellow Poppies and the second one is Yellow Cherry Blossoms. Today was a good day, I sold two paintings this morning and I have had a good productive day! Well, off to do some yard work before the sun goes down.

Gooooooo Rockies!!!

As I think I've mentioned earlier, I am teaching summer art classes at one of my schools. Each summer we try to take the kids on a field trip. Today, we took them to the Rockies game. The school I work at is full of underprivileged kids who do leave the perimeter of their town much so this a a big treat! Many of them had never been to a Rockies game before and a handful of them had never even been to Denver before (one student asked "why are the buildings so tall?) We got there safely with all our students and got settled in our seats. Then we began to fry like bacon in the sun. It was sooooo hot! Unfortunately, we were in the rock pile seats so there was no coverage from it whatsoever! We poured water on ourselves to stay as cool as we could. That aside, the kids really did have a good time and the Rockies won! Once all students were picked up, we headed home. Oh, a lukewarm shower never felt soooo good. Now its time to veg out a little and relax. Business has been slow this week so I've taken a couple of days off from painting. This weekend I will probably get back to work with that.

Sunday July 19th, 2009

Today was a nice day! I got to sleep in and do whatever I felt like today! That was welcome after yesterday being jam packed with obligations, which were fun, but I was exhausted by the end of the day! So I got some housework, yardwork, and laundry done. I know that doesn't sound like such a great day, but it just felt so good to have the time to do it! This evening, I even got to do a little painting. I completed this Iris painting. Ever since I was a little girl, I always loved Iris and especially the rusty orange colored ones like these. I hope everyone else out there had a great weekend! Back to work in the morning :0)

Today's Painting 7/15/09

Today's painting was a custom painting based on the smaller version of this Cherry Blossom Branch. This one is sized 30"x 30". It is very striking, I just love the colors!

Today's Painting 7/14/09

I completed this custom Birch Tree painting for a client today. She saw one in my shop that she really liked, but wanted a larger size. I think it will look beautiful in her room that she says has turquoise and taupe colors!

Today's Painting July 13th, 2009

Birch Trees on Sky Blue Background sized 24"x 28".

First Time for Everything!

Today, for the first time, I went kneeboarding! I was a little nervous since I've never done any kind on water sports like that before. I was givin a quick lesson from my boyfriend Albert, then I jumped right in. I'm not sure I'm big enough to balance the kneeboard under me very well, but I tried. Once the boat got started, I held on tight and flew through the water! I think my record was probably 20 seconds or so, but that's alright, hopefully I'll get better :0)I've got a couple of bruises to show off now too. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, unfortunatly the weather changed and we had to stop early. We'll have to do it again soon!

Happy Sunday!

I got to sleep in this morning which was a treat after waking up early all week for summer school. Last night my Mom and I went to see the play "All Shook Up" at the local Carousel Dinner Theater. It was a comedy about falling in love and the whole think was to Elvis music, it was a lot of fun! My boyfriend Albert and his friends went kneeboarding for the second time, I will be surprised if he can move today :0)

On my list for today is to clean the house and do some laundry. I might paint later, but I'm not sure yet. I started the background the other day for another Birch Tree painting. It is in tones of orange and a golden brown, very pretty. So maybe I'll work on that later, I don't know. That's the great thing about the weekend, it's up to me what I want to do! Yeah!

Today's Painting 7/11/09

I completed a large Cherry Blossoms Triptych this morning and listed it in my shop. It is sized 20"x 60", perfect size for a living room!

Today's Paintings July 9th 2009

I have been working on my little painting pendants and hadn't painted any large pieces for a while so today I was in the mood. I painted this Sunflower Sky which just makes me smile!


The other painting I did I can add to my Birch Tree Series. This one I used more of a denim blue background, I like the way it turned out!

http://kristend12.etsy.com

Great Fellow Etsyans!

Here are two great sellers I have found on Etsy. I have bought items from both and they make beautiful and unique work!

This purse was custom made for my by Bragdesignz. She worked with me throught the whole process and I got this adorable purse out of it! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6343562


This necklace is from ChrissyGemmillJewels I loved this because it reminds me of some of my poppy paintings. Check out her shop, there are lots of beautiful things! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5216892

Painting Pendants

Today I did some painting pendants (another experiment) and put them in my shop. They are mini paintings on canvas in a metal pendant frame.

Today's Painting July 6th, 2009

"Tippy" is a fun, little custom dog portrait I did for someone today. Today was also the first day of my summer classes, It's going to take a while to get used to waking up early again!

Happy Sunday

I had a very pleasant day today! First of all I got to sleep so peacefully last night without the racket of my boyfriend and his buddies playing rockband at alarming noise levels. And I didn't have any morning plans I needed to get up for, it was great! I went to lunch at P.F. Chang's with my Mom and some friends, it was delicious. Whenever I try to make Chinese food it never compares. We ended the day with a little shopping, something I rarely do, but really enjoyed!

*Oh, I took the Cherry Blossoms painting to my friends house last night. She loved it so much she cried! I'm so glad, it looks perfect in her kitchen too! Tomorrow I am starting to teach my summer art classes. It's only for four hours a day so it should be fun, but still leave me with enough time to work on my own things.

Good night for now :0)

Today's Painting July 3rd, 2009

I finally finished this Cherry Blossoms painting for my friend Rose. This is something different from what I've done before so it took me a little longer, but I think I like it now! I hope she likes it too! Have a very happy 4th of July tomorrow!!!

I'm in Treasury Heaven!!!

Wow, I created a complementary color scheme treasury and have since been put into two other treasuries!
One is called LemonAid and the other is called Summer Sunset I feel so honored! Yeah, happy dance!!!


http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=68223
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=68126
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=59594

Today's Paintings, July 1st, 2009

Here's what I was working on today. My back is hurting now, so that means it's time to stop for the :0) Violet Fields, Birch Trees on Light Blue, and Abstract Red and Black. http://kristend12.etsy.com

Custom Red Poppy Triptych

Good morning! My most recent painting is this custom piece I did for a customer. It is very similar to another one I have in my shop, but with a couple small color changes, it turned out really nice! Yesterday, we took the day to go up to Estes Park. The weather was beautiful and it was a perfect day! I ate waaaaaay to much junk food though. But you can't go up there without eating some good stuff! Well I think I will get back to painting again today, I might do a couple more free hanging pieces, we'll see. Have a fantastic day!!!

http://kristend12.etsy.com

Trying Something New

For a while now, I have had pieces of left over canvas laying around that is too small to stretch, but big enough that I just needed to find something useful to do with it. So today I experimented. I created this unstretched canvas painting and attached a wire to the top to hang. Pretty cute! I just put it in my shop, I'm interested to see what people think of it. I also created a treasury called Poppylicious check it out it will make you smile! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=67734

Today's Paintings, June 27, 2009

As I said, I did work some more on the cherry blossom painting I am working on for my friend. I am liking it better now, but it is still not finished. Hopefully in the next couple of days I will get it finished. I did complete and post two new paintings for my shop today, another Abstract Poppies painting like some others I have done and a very cheery Orange Poppy painting. I just love orange! It makes me smile.

http://kristend12.etsy.com

Featured on Patty Baker's Blog

A big thanks to fellow artist Patty Baker for featuring me on her blog! It's because of Patty's workshop that I learned all about this online selling business! I am honored! http://pattyabaker.blogspot.com/

Happy Saturday!

Don't you just love those wonderful, lazy, Saturday mornings drinking your coffee at a relaxing pace while contemplating what to do with your day? I'm so happy to say I don't have any real plans today, I can do whatever I feel like. Well, I do need to get dog food today or else my puppies won't be happy with me. I think, truly, finally I will try to finish a cherry blossom painting I'm doing for a best friend of mine. I started a couple of weeks ago, but wasn't liking the direction it was going, so I'm starting over. Luckily, I'm doing it as a gift so there's no real rush. Have a great day!

Check out my artwork that made it in today's beautiful treasury! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=67126

Sold on Etsy!

I just had good friend buy a piece of work from me on Etsy, very cool! The best part is that I can just take it to her, no need to wrap and ship! Thanks Brandi!
http://kristend12.etsy.com

Can't wait to sleep in tomorrow!

Love this!!!

MO 2196.jpg
Originally uploaded by moxieandoliver

I love these purses!!! They are made from seller moxieandoliver on etsy.com. I think I am going to need to buy one after a couple more paintings sell!

See me on Flickr

I just got my Flickr account set up with many pictures of current and previous paintings I have done. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristend12/

Really Good Low Carb Strawberry Daquiri

Here's a great recipe I found and tried today, you would never even know it's low carb, delicious!

8 Strawberries
6 Ice Cubes
3 Packets of Splenda
2 oz. Rum
1 oz. Lime Juice

Blend all together in a blender, delicious and guilt free!

Today's Painting Orange Calla Lillies

Orange Calla Lillies on yellow-green background sized 22"x 24" on 3/4" gallery wrapped canvas.

Today's Painting 6/22/09

Large Birch Trees on a golden brown background with real texture!

Monday, June 22nd

Hello all, this was a busy and fun past weekend, with my Mom's birthday on Saturday and Father's day on Suday, we were very busy! On Saturday, we went to Benihana, it was a lot of fun and the food was great! Sunday was pretty low key hanging with both our dad's and having a relaxing day. Today I washed one of my dogs who was in need of a good bath and I need to run to town for a couple of things. I want to try and get some painting done today, get some new things in my shop! My Cosmos, got put in another treasury!!! Here it is http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=66148

Happy Father's Day!

Hello, and Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there! Will be going to see my dad later today to hang out for a while. I am feeling guilty, I haven't painted for a few days. It has been a nice break, but I'm ready to start again! http://kristend12.etsy.com/

My "Tresured" Cosmos

Yeah my "Cosmos" just got put into a treasury!!! Maybe they will sell! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=65766

http://kristend12.etsy.com

Painting going to Canada!

I sold my first painting to someone outside the U.S.today. My Birch Trees are going to Canada! Now I think I will begin working on the Cherry Blossoms painting I promised to my good friend. I am going to her house tonight, I wonder if I can get it done in time!
http://kristend12.etsy.com/