Journaling at Lunch

Went to the Kahuna in Goleta for lunch on Thursday. It felt so good to finally get a bit of time to myself and relax.


I even got to pull out my journal and play a little with some of the Seattle pictures I printed out.


The Kahuna used to have a beautiful salt water tank, but it has been pretty sick looking fir a long time now. Gotta love the huge tikis though!


After lunch I noticed the Farmer's Market was all set up so I decided to take a stroll. I got some beautiful and inspiring renecullas (spelling?) I love their color and shape. So sweet.


The clouds have been odd all day. See... Off in the distance are some very sci fi looking formations. Never seen formations like that on dark, thick rain clouds. Hmm


All in all it was a super nice, all be it too long, lunch break.

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Yay! I Started Some New Journals

I am so happy I found some art time this 3 day weekend! And I was very productive. I started 2 new journals that I will be adding to my Etsy site.


These 2 are more like the one I am carrying with me right now. The pages are 4 by 6 inches. I like the size because it is just big enough to add photos and leaves a small bit of room to


Add text. I made the two pretty similar.


I used a lot of the paper I decorated myself and there are some real juicy pages at that.


At the end of my art time I have the insides of 1 book (2 signatures) finished, sewn and ready for a cover, and another 2 signatures ready to sew. Now I just need a day to finish the signatures and make 2 covers. Woot! When they are done I will post a ton of pictures in my Flickr and add them to my shop. Sure felt nice to get that much done. I plan on making more paper clay tags too. I just need to grab my box of handmade stamps from the old old studio.

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Happy New Year!

Here is to the new year! May we all start awesome new projects and finish most, if not all, our old projects hehe!


I hope someday to have, go to, or dabble in a New Year Cocktail party. I hope to finish this journal soon and love it and start 2 or 3 more. I hope to get back into my artist's life, but not sacrifice the wonderful time I get to be with my baby. I hope to be able to fill my new Etsy store with art and works that boosts my art self-esteem and to gain fans at a steady pace. I hope to paint this year ( I think I did no paintings in 2010 bummer). I hope to find an amazing balance in work, life, momness, art, friends and Internet. Hehe. I have many more hopes and dreams, but I feel overwhelmed already.

Success to all of us, whatever we decide to devote our priceless time and energies to! ( even if it is getting a load of laundry folded and put away)

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Seattle Drink of the Day Vacation Recap

1st drink of the day was tue after our awesome day at the Artfest Annex. We went to a very nice sushi joint down the street. I got s lychee martini.


The next night it was a Canadian street car I think. The word Canada was in it for sure. It was very good and had vernor's in it.


Notice that LE used our cups from the cruise ship where the drink of the day originated.


Day 3 was a super special drink made from orange juice and HAND MADE gin by my sister. It was like Christmas in a glass. The spices she infused in the gin was they key.


The last night was a type of mudslide made with bootstrap brandy (I think) it was strong but perfect. It was chocolate liquor perfection.


Wish I had a drink of the day every day!

Maxine's Singing Birds

Singing so sweetly.

Maxine's in Seattle

Maxine's is the definition of eye candy. The decorations of large, exotic paper flowers just dripping down from the ceiling are so rich and beautiful!





When lit up at night it is really something with all the bright pink lights.





The wreaths are just beautiful. One of this shop's real specialties are the flower arrangements. They really do it right. It is hard to look at anything else once you see their flowery works of art.





To top it all off they have canaries singing in the back of the store. As you can see, they are gorgeous! I will post a video of them later.





http://maxinesfloral.com/

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The Blue Saucer

Super yummy coffee not too far from LE's place. It's one of her favorites and, of course, super good coffee.


Real good stuff!


Nice holiday message board too.


http://bluesaucer.com/Home_Page.html

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At the Annex

I am in Seattle with the family and got to go to the Annex! So awesome!


Working on journal. It has been a while since I have had the time.


Maddie helped me finish the McCutcheon Girls journals.


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Nice Party

Totally delicious smoked tomato soup. Yum yum!


Great specialty drinks. Also yum yum!


I ran out of batteries fir dinner and desert. All of it was yummy. It was a fun and lively party. Now I am all about getting ready for Seattle. I am excited, but nervous. I hope to get one more project ready before I leave Monday afternoon. I cannot wait to post some fun times to come. Happy holidays Y'all!!!

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Martha Stewart has Nothing to Worry About

These truffles may be nothing much, but when you consider that Daughter has woke up every 15 min or so and how super sleepy I am: these are gourmet! LOL


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I am Making Truffles

Yay me!


Stage one done. Now I need to try and finish them tonight and do laundry and pack for Seattle!

Odd thing happened with my Etsy site. My PayPal account was not allowing people to purchase my stuff!!!?! OMG! I wonder if people have been trying to purchase this whole time? I am so sad! At least it is fixed now thanks to a gentleman's e-mail saying he wanted to buy and could not. I sure hope he comes back and gets it. Sigh! A whole month of postings and now it is too close to Christmas. Super sad about it. Nothing I can do now.
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New Tags added to Etsy

I love the way these paper clay tags turned out.

 I think its a great way to feature the stamps I have hand carved.

If these get a good response in my Etsy Shop I should make more.  Afterall: I have a ton of stamps I have carved.

Bird Themed Tags Started

Better late than never.











Phase one complete now 4 more phases to go or so.... I like them but I wanted to have them completed weeks ago. Such is art and momhood. Hehe I love it though. Baby steps back to the art world. Baby steps.

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Gathering a Few Supplies

Grabbing a few things to bring back home for some projects I have in the works.


Wish I had a whole art day today.


I don't want to wait hehe. I just want to dig in and make some stuff right now. Baby has her agendas today too and her's trump mine. Oh well.

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Scary! I started a Face Book Page

I'm not even sure how to link my Face Book info yet. I put some sort of link here in my "some places I like..." link place hehe. I need to research more on how all this stuff is supposed to integrate.


As for my next thing to do... I need to work on those tags darn it! And need these journals with new entries for my trip to Seattle. I am so tired out from my regular 8 to 5 gig Uggh! Time to reignite the fires this weekend and go go go!


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More for Etsy Yay!

Uggh! Adding stuff to Etsy really takes it out of me. I have 20 items in my little Etsy shop now.


Here is the pile of goods:


Took like 2 hours to put up the last 7 items. I sure hope it gets easier. Now I want to work on gift tags to sell. I have a great idea in my head but I am finding trouble getting it out of my head and onto paper. I have the paper all prepped but not sure what step is next. It is like I had a cool dream and I am trying to explain it and I find I am lacking some important details. Back to my 9 to 5 tomorrow and I am so so so not ready to go back. Such is life.

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Not Getting Much Accomplished

There are so many things on my to do list and no time left to do any of it.


Here I am at my favorite staging ground again the Corner Coffee after dropping baby off at day care. I have till 11:30 to do anything and there are like 5 hours worth of things I want to do. Relaxing and doing something artsy just for me (ie my journal) is important too. So me time here then Etsy or jewelry or tags next. After that I need to pack ip for the feast at day care and pick up my mom for some good times.

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Show is Over and it is Time to get Organized

Here I am again at my official staging area: the Corner Coffee Shop.


I stayed ip to post my bracelets on Etsy last night. I still have 3 pairs of earrings, a few necklaces and the ROD like journals to add. I am pretty excited at the offer my sister made to help me rework my shop when I am in Seattle for Christmas. Today I took a day off work and brought baby to daycare so I can work like a mad woman on my apartment. I am dubbing this my day to "repurpose" the place/space. My storage situation is so inefficient! I always clean and think I will get to the organizing at the end, bit never, ever get there. So today I will organize first. Ha ha! Wish me luck! If I achieve this goal (although doubtful) I will be so happy and recharged to get to my crazy to do lists. The show is over but there are still orders to be made and gifts to be found.

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Day 1 of the Art Show

It was the show opening tonight. It felt good to see my work out on display. I still know how to make stuff yay!


My little assistant was asleep on the job. So so sweet.


I sure hope to be able to see everyone tomorrow, assistant willing hehe
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Tomorrow's the Day!

Last minute dash working on my lunch. Pant pant pant.


These were a hold up at ever corner, but I really like the way they turned out.


Here are those bracelets I finished up. Hehe only took a year or so lol.


Here are those tags again. Yummy! I will post more after the show and add all the stragglers to my Etsy site

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Journals are Done!

Weee! Almost finished up my jewelry projects too!  I will have to post those pics later.  I started up my shop and added 2 items to etsy!!  Now I just need to figure out how to make links from my blog n stuff.  My Etsy shop is: http://www.etsy.com/shop/mcjillicutty  so go there an get stuff! Hehe.  I will be putting all the stuff I did not sell at the Queen of Arts show in my etsy sight.  Those will probably get there in the middle of November.  I am already thinking ahead to wantng to make some super special items for Imagine Gallery.  I have one trailer needing a quick fix and a house that needs a lot more work.  And cannot forget the Christmas cards...... Okay I wore myself out at the thought of it.  Night night!

Just About Finished

With the journals at least. That will make it a total of 5 journals for the Queen of Arts.


All I need to do is sew in the signatures on the last 2 and add a little something to the ties.


Now o just need to finish up the jewelry.

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