DJ's Cool Cool Class!!

Blogger is being a bit buggy....Here are some pics I took of the book I made in DJ Pettitt's "the layered view" class. I really liked the techniques and was super stoaked to come out of the class with a pretty complete book. I do plan to add a bunch more, especially to the insde.

All in all it was a great class!! It felt so good to be able to do some art again! It has been so hard to find the time to do anything lately.

A Card I Made for a Shower

This card was the inspiration for the onsies I made the the art show. I am on a birdnest kick. I thought I had posted these before, but I guess I forgot.

Queen of Arts Show

Baby has kept me happily preoccupied and away from the "doin art" scene, but I was able to make 9 onsies for the show and sell a few things left over from last year. I made a stamp of a nest and but a cut out of flanel for the egg. This image would not load right.I put a heart on the rear of them all, cause baby butts are just THE cutest!!

I think they went over well. To se a picture of what they look like on a super cute baby... go to my baby's blog: pinktomatoe.blogspot.com and look at the entry titled "Baby Model"

B

Working ATCs for March

I only made 4 of these and only one is done. I made Valentine ATCs for our last trade, but I did not get pictures. I had all these great ideas for those, but ran out of time and the technique I wanted to do did not work right. Now I need to come up with some more ideas for more cards for next trade. 4 will not be enough hehe. Last trade there was like 20 people and I only had 12 cards. I need to make 20 for each time now...wow. I need to decide what the other 16 are going to be. This one is a little complex, but maybe I will make at least a few more.

The is a party at the Art Clinic on leap day...February 29th. I think there will be an ATC thing there too. I should make some Year of the Rat ATCs to trade. We'll see how lazy I am this weekend...I got a lot of ideas of stuff I want to finish this 3-day weekend, but odds are that I need some rest and to do tax work and clean and those things will consume the weekend. I will prob be lucky to make a journal entry lol.

I did get, AND FINISH, a special order for a crow necklace for Imagine Gallery for Valentine's Day. That seemed huge to me. I got a few jewelry pieces in the works, but they are kinda low priority. HAPPY 3-DAY WEEKEND!! for all that get one!!

Flowers From My Valentine

mmmmm mmmm mmmm someone really loves me :D

Finished ATCs

New ATCs for January trade. I actually made time to do some real work on them. Made 12 of them and traded 10. Saving a couple out for a special journal. These are to celebrate a new baby girl due in April. I got a cool idea for next month's trade...lets hope I find the time.

ATCs in Progress

Working on the ATCs for the January trade. Feels good to get some paint on my hands.



Here is the finished True Colors II Journal for Blue and Ochre. This might be the last one in the trade...not sure though.

Here are some thank You cards I made for some really sweet and thoughtful gifts that were given to me. Thank You!!!!!

My New Year "Party"?

Yes..you guessed it....I was playing WOW again for New years. This is my nifty drink I made to try and make my night special. I had a horrible cold this time. The drink is tropical sherbert, pinapple, and gingerale with some whipped cream on top....super yummy! No skinny dipping this year hehe. I sure wonder what next year will bring.

Working at My Desk

Working on some thank yous. Feels good to be working...It will feel even better to get them done.

I am working on ATCs for next week too. I will post those later. I am almost half done with them. It has been a while since I have found some actual time to put real work into them...lets hope it shows. I already have my idea for next month too. I also hope to post my latest True Color II Journal. It is Blue and Ochre, just like the theme colors I had for the ARTBAR True Colors event. I have hopes to work on jewelry next weekend....maybe. Cross your fingers for me.

Journal is Finished

My old red journal is now finished. I started it 8/11/06 and the last entry was 12/24/2007.

Here is the cover, some of the last entries, and the inside cover. The next journal I started when I was at LE and Jon's house in Seattle. I have already finished like 5 or 6 pages in it. The new journal is shorter, so I bet it will bwe done before the end of the year, at least I hope so.

New Sketchbook

New sketchbook started. Quick watercolor sketch done while driving through Yreka area I-5 way north California.

Dec ATC Trade cont..

Sometimes the backs are more exciting than the front.

December Santa Barbara ATC Trade

These are my ATCs for the December SB trade. This is the fronts with blue paint and I stamped it with a snowflake stamp with white ink (not sure if you can see them in this photo). I then cut out design with xacto knife. I will ost the backs next.

New Charm Made

charm made for my sister's birthday. It is a ginko leaf, one of her favorites. I want to make more leaf shapes for my chain bracelets.

ATCs for Nov

ATCs for the SB tade day the second Wed of evey month...these were for November. It has been a long time since I have had time to really do mine right. I have not been able to make more than like 7 for each one.

WORK WORK WORK

This was my workbench a few weeks before the show. I found it real hard this year to work after I got off work. I used to stay in the garage till like 10 or 11 at night after working all day and driving home. I always get that feeling tho that "this is where I want to be" and I enjoy the work usually. The main difference is how tired I get now. It has been a little hard to focus too, understandably. I have a few other pieces almost done I hope to be posting too.

Photos from Queen of Arts

It has been a Long Long Time...

It sure has been a while since I have done any real entries into my blog. I am going to try and be good again. My life has changed A LOT since July. I am doing very well and won't go into crazy details. Important thing is that I am happy and I am healthy. The 2007 Queen of Atrs show is now over and I just have a few stragling orders to take care of. I am goin to Colorado for Thanks Giving and I am VERY excited. I only wish I had more time. There seems to never be enough of that. LE and Jon will be comming to Colorado too which will be awesome. I really miss Mano and Pana and all the Brock gang! I will go to a Thanks Giving dinner next weekend with the McNutts. MMMMMMMmmMMMm 2X the turkey ...yay yay! It will be good to see everyone. And speaking of everyone... it was so nice to see all the artists and patrons at the show. I often forget what it is like to be with so many people with like intrests who really care about eachother. So many great people with so many great things to share. I wish we could all get to gether more often. Maybe the Art Clinic will be a good forum for that. I always have such large hopes and expectations after those shows. If only I could just keep up on production better. SIGH I am still trying to figure out how to make my life work right hehehe. I guess that is a constant for everyone. Anyway...I am going to load and post some photos of my work from this years show. I am considering starting a new blog that is all about my art....but maybe I just add more art to thisone. Hehehe, after all, drinking fun drinks is gonna be out for a bit lol.

mai tai

hanging out with Shaunna in SLO

Sketch 3

This is from a jazz gig in Mount Shasta. Quick sketches of the musicians. It is fun to draw moving targets sometimes.

Sketch 2

Another doodle from my book...Leviathan

Sketchbook 1

From my sketch book I carry. Just some doodles

BEER

Old school Solvang steins at the blue windmill with Shaunna. Then we got our nails done. Very fun day!

Mom's Day

Went to Cambria and Morro Bay for mom's belated Birthday. Had a lot of fun liesurly shopping some of her favorite spots. We topped it off with a trip to Haufbraus (spelling?) for some killer french-dip sandwiches..mmmMmm...so good!!! When we got home at around 7 PM I went to bed and did not get up till 10 AM. I guess I needed some sleep.

My 5 min Work Break

This is my work station at work today. Notice my favorite photo of Donny and my cat next to the screen. On the screen are scans of a patient's joints. I will be doing this all day. Lets hope I can stay awake. Donny is comming here today so the day is lagging. I took tomorrow off to hang out with him. This is my attempt to try and use my phone to blog more. It is nice to have a better camera on my phone and a keypad too. I hope to post more journal photos. Too bad Ican only send one photo at a time....Later!

Test Test....

Here is a page from one of my current journals. I am testing my new phone out.

WoW Hardware store music video (music by Wierd Al) world of warcraft

This is a very funny music video of the hardware store song, Its all "filmed" in WoW and made by Slegg and Maere on Stormrage Eu server.

January

I forgot that the photos I wanted to post are on my laptop and here I am on my regular PC...oops. My cell phone is having trouble keeping a charge so I think I am going to get a new phone this weekend. Maybe one with a better camera so I can post better photos when I am on the go. Maybe even one with a key pad so I can do whole entries...that would be cool. Blow by blow ...Jill's life...what a blog should be ... right? Oh and it has to be no more than like 100 bucks. We will see. I am hoping to go out to the movies today, but it might have to be tomorrow. I have so much to accomplish this weekend (of course that is why I am blogging now). Finish a jewelry special order, finish a portrait, phone calls, work on a painting, journals, finish a gift for Anna... Again I have way too much on my plate. Of course you cannot forget the WOW. Need to get Meetoo to level fifty-something soon so I can get the new Burning Crusade part. There are already random demon bosses roaming around as a sign of the new black portal opening up. OOooOoo scary. Heard some REAL funny jokes about one insident in Booty Bay with a big monster named Kruul or something. I would try and explain but you really had to be there. It was something about him wanting cookies and not getting the right kind then going berserk. I was told to go to google video and enter "wow hardware store" and "wow big blue dress". I have not gone yet but plan to tonight. It is sad how much I truely love that game. Non-gammers discount me a lot for it, but it is really not what they think it is. It is not just some mind sucking game, it is not nintendo it is a whole community, a world in itself. There are real people there communicating and helping eachother out and making eachother laugh. It reminds me of the old days when the internet chat room was young and everyone was on being social and clever...then a bunch of crazy sex starved people wrecked it for everyone. The main thing is time management. You need to make sure to take care of real life too and not spend every free moment there and there alone. Moderation in everthing. I make a lot more lists now with time restrictions on them. True I play almost every day, but where regular people watch 2 hours of TV...I watch little to no TV and play instead for an end of the day escape from reality. We all do something to escape that is a total waste of time and this is just what I choose to do. I will post some WOW pics from New Years Eve tonight or tomorrow. Later!

I Got a New Laptop!!

LE and Jonathan always call theirs their "lappies" so I found myself calling mine that as well....at first. Then I started carrying it around and stuff, now I call it Lapzilla. It is a 17in screen and weighs almost 9lbs. I have taken it to work a couple times and played a bit of WOW. Very dangerous.

Christmas was fun. LE and Jon came up and Donn came down. Donn was here for 10 days! It was nice, but there is just no room in my room or bed for 2. More exciting than my laptop is the gift Donn got me. He bought me a beautiful diamond ring that fits perfectly against my engagement ring. When I get it back from sizing I will post a picture. The sweetest thing is that he said "this is the ring I would have gotten you when we got married if I had had the money" Awhhh. That was so great! We all went to the movies which was fun. Donn and I went to the Spyglass Inn the Friday before Christmas which was very relaxing. The sun was just setting in the ocean when we arrived ...very pretty. The next day we went to the Pelican Bar and Grill for lunch. The pelicans flew so close you could make out all their markings. That was very cool and the food was delicious!! All in all it was a great holiday!

Today is the last day of 2006. I have no plans except to maybe play some WOW all night and hope to see Donn there for some virtual celebration. LE and Jon got us headphone things so we can talk over the internet as we play. I cannot wait to try it out. I downloaded all the stuff today and I am just waiting for Donn to do the same.

I am hoping to blog more now that I have Lapzilla. I guess I should start thinking of new years resolutions, but I want to nap first'

Later

Thanks to LE!!

Here is my new mount!! An early Christmas gift from my Sister! He is so cute!! And fast...no more running everywhere on foot for me! Ha Ha I got to level 40 just in time! Donn will be here Wed night. It should be nice to have a man again :) I better get to sleep...it is late and I have to work early.

I am a Zombie

The christmas show is over and I am drained. I went to Shasta for over a week for Thanksgiving and just took it easy. I had all these little projects I wanted to do, but got to none of it. Now with all the Christmas errands, I come home drained of all enthusiasm to get anything done. I am still enjoyng WOW as a way to escape. Meetoo is only 3 levels away from getting a mount. I will get a big cat to ride that looks like Willy! I am hoppng to get there by January, but I am sure I will not make it. Donn will be comming here for the end of Dec.! He will probably keep me from playing that whole time due to him wanting to play his own charactor. His 2 main toons are named after beer...HA HA HA. I guess it is better than the toon I made named Troiee. His are Spaten and Peroni. I have been craving drawing and I have the True Color II Journal due, but I am so drained that nothing comes out right. I think I need a little more of a break. Speaking of which...I am exhausted.
Nite!

Snow in Shasta

��

Thanksgiving break in Shasta BRRRRRR.

Nurse Jill

Happy Halloween!

Oh Man!

Only one more month before the show and I do not have enough started. I got some stuff started today and looked at what I had half done from before. This show will be a touch skimpy as far as my work is concerned. I was hoping to get some journals made, but I think I should get the jewelry done first.

This was the green and copper True Colors 2 journal I had a while back. A bad self portrait and my cat Willy. I have not seen the next journal in over a month. I do not even know what color it will be. I did get my second 1001 Journals journal and just sent that out today after having it for a week. Nothing worth posting here...it just looks like my regular journal with lots of writting and doodles. I have to finish some ATCs this weekend for our trade. I will be doing white ink on black cards of skulls for a Halloween theme.



These are two of three necklaces that Immagine Gallery bought. I have two more in the works and two that are little song birds. The song birds will go into the show. I better go so I can get some game playing in.

Alright..Here We Go..

I got a little set back by the trip and a migraine yesterday, but I need to get going. I have Kick Boxing tonight, dinner, then I need to FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS!!! I should start by cleaning off my desk and getting an order together. Only if I finish will I go onto WOW, otherwise I will have to punish myself by not allowing myself to go onto the site. I also need to scan a bunch of stuff and put some stuff on my blog and some on my groups. I better go get some lunch so I will have enough energy to do that workout. You will know if I did well by what I post next and when. My head hurts again with all the pressure.

Okay, Back to Reality...Mostly

It is now time (past time really) to start on some major projects for the Christmas show coming up in November. I am finding it hard to get ideas. I will try and start by finishing up some old projects and doing some sketches. It is hard because working on the old stuff makes me a bit frustrated. I am not as excited about the old stuff and it always feels like a step in the wrong direction. I need to go through some of my idea books and notes too. I sat down last night to draw some ideas, but nothing came out. I need to order some new tools with my gift certificate. Maybe I will think of some new stuff while ordering. Some doming plates will be good. I will have to take an hour or two away from World of Warcraft time. I have not done that many sketches lately either and I know it would cheer me up to set some time aside for that. Some quality Studio time would not hurt either. I need to pick up the pace. I am off to Sac this weekend so that kind of kills the momentum, but hopefully I will get it back.
Back to work now, lunch is over.

World of Warcraft Breakdown

Cyrruss is my first World of Warcraft Character (a warior) that I started at Le and Jon's place in August. We are a little cow unit in Tanaris. Jon is a cow named Ah and LE is a cow named Oh. They are both majic users. This got me soooo hooked I could barely wait to get back home and start an account.




Then there is the Ork, Rumpljillski. It was going to be Rumpljillskin (one of Donn's nicknames for me from a long time ago) but it was too long. She is established in Anvilmar where Donn was an Ork as well named Deermountain. We try to group up together to level up faster, but he is such a nubie that it has taken forever. He also does not usually play at the same time I do so it has been real slow with those two. It should work well because he is a warior and I am a hunter. Oh well...To pick up the slack I created a few more characters.




Meetoo was originally created so I could communicate with LE and Jon and their regular group of characters, the most of which are in Cenarius, but now he is at level 17! That is my highest level guy. Another warior and my only "good guy" because he is a Knight Elf. I paired up with a few people I bumped into there on Labor day weekend and we kicked some ass! Jon has a rogue in that area that is level 19 that helped me out a lot as well. So much fun! I will work on him some more tonight. I have some sirens to kill and some mushrooms to pick with that guy.




Last, but not least is my Troll Hunter Kittsky. She is level 12 right now and has a pet boar named the boarinator. I would rather a tiger, but he was the highest level beast in the area at the time. I would dismiss him, but after a couple battles together, I have grown a bit attached. I have revived him 2-3 times already. I mean..how can I dismiss an animal that has given his life for me a few times already? Sure he is old and splotchy and smelly, But at least he doesn't attract flies, like those nasty centars.

As you can see I am getting seriously obsessed. I find it so saticfying tho and it really makes a crapy day at work just disappear. I better get some jewelry work done now so I can justify another night of W.O.W..
LLLLLAAaAAterRRrR!!!!!!!!!....