Great New Etsian: Bloominesque!

I found this great new Etsy shop and just had to buy from it! I love my Cosmo necklace (pictured to the left) so much that I wanted to share her shop with you too! Her shop is called Bloominesque. She has a love for flowers, as do I, and she makes these beautiful jewelry pieces that are just stunning! Her work really caught my eye because it is different than anything I have seen before. I wish her the best of luck, make sure to check out her Etsy shop!

100th Sale on Etsy!

I made my 100th sale on Etsy a couple of weeks ago, I'm so excited!!! I started out hoping to sell one or two a month and here I am! I feel so fortunate for my success! A big thanks to all my supporters out there who have bought my work, shared my work with others, or just been encouraging, you're all great! I am very excited for this summer, I have big plans! I want to start looking into prints and maybe even some merchandise that I can sell with my work on it. I will also be able to start putting in more new pieces of work too. Right now, most of my listings are for commission work because I haven't had time to do anything new with work and all. I can't wait!!!

Good Morning

Hello everyone! I have been at home this week from work due to the appendectomy I had to have last Saturday :0( I'm starting to feel more "normal" now. The worst part is not getting very good sleep because I am so uncomfortable and I have been having pretty bad shoulder pain from the surgery. Perks of having the surgery, Albert completely cleaned the house, washed the bed sheets, cooked, and was my personal assistant for a few days...I could get used to that!

I had to take a small break from my painting, but got to resume a couple of days ago. I finished these three portraits of lost pets from a very sweet customer I met on Etsy. I have met so many nice people on Etsy! I sometimes wish I could meet more of them in person! I have a couple more pet portraits I am going to be working on today to get done this weekend and then I will be taking a small break until next weekend which also happens to be my birthday!!!

I'm Back!

Hello all,
I can't help but feel a bit guilty for being absent from my blog so long. I want to give a huge THANK YOU!!! To all of my buyers who have been keeping me so very busy ! I had no idea what to expect with my first Christmas season on Etsy and was so pleasantly surprised with the amount of business my shop pulled in...Wow!

Things have started to wind down now and I am back to doing most of my painting on my weekends off, rather than every spare second that I am not at work and still awake :0) I hope to start adding new items in my shop in the near future. Come this summer, watch out...I am going to be a painting machine, I can't wait!

Talk to you all again soon!

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.