Izzy b review!

Yesterday my business was reviewed by Izzy b designs!  Sometimes it might not feel like "free" work is paying off, but you can'¨t beat exposure like this.  She has over 33 000 fans on Facebook and probably just as many followers on her blog. 

http://izzybblog.com/2012/01/29/swedeart-review/

Les Miserables!

Last night I had the pleasure of attenting "Les Miserables" at the Naples Philharmonic theatre.  It was a truly amazing experience.  Granted, I'm a stay at home mom, any time I get to go out to dinner and have a couple of glasses of wine I will probably say that it was amazing haha. 
All joking aside, a little over two years ago me and my family moved from The washington DC area to South Florida.  Moving here was somehting that we really wanted to do and every day we enjoy the sun and the blue skies, but I never realized what a cultural wasteland it would be...
Not only is there close to NO culture here so last night when I got to enjoy the musical I felt like someone who had been very thirsty for a long time and finally I got to drink a glass of refreshing ice cold water...
It made me long for the days that I used to travel the world...see a show whenever I wanted, and see the shows at amazing venues such as London, Paris, New York City...ahhh those were the days :)

Here is a picture from last night, I'm the blond giant :). 

New projects!

After my last post some poeple asked if I'm ok and absolutely I'm ok!!  Like I said I'll keep doing what I'm doing no matter what!
The past week me and my husband have spent some time talking about a couple of home improvement things that we want to do.  I have been painting the laundry room.  Here is a before picture:

I hope that I can show you the "after" picture soon :). 

Dealing with negativity...

I recently joined a group on Facebook that conists of "aspiring" artists like myself.  Regardless of the artform we have chosen we all seem to struggle with the negative people around us who keep saying "it's never going to work" or "why don't you get a real job?" or "Who do you think you are?".  Some people refer to the those people as "haters", others call them "losers" I like to call mine "friends and family".  Yeah, suck on that for a minute.  It's not strangers that come up to me and question what "the heck" I'm doing, it's those that are closest to me...
I'm not sure what it is about chosing an alternate route to provide for your family that seems so incredibly threatening to some people.  I do realize that for a person who has had/has dreams but never had a chance to make their dreams come true it stings a little watch someone succeed, but really, peope themselves are usually their own worst enemy. 
People are usually full of excuses.  "I could do what you do IF only I had the time/money/energy" etc etc etc. 
First of all, I DO NOT have the time for this.  I MAKE time.  I work when other people are sleeping/hanging out with family/socializing/drinking beer WHATEVER.  I have 3 kids.  I DO NOT have TIME to spend 10 hours on painting Dora on a pot. 
But I do because I WANT to, because this is what makes me happy and because this is what I like to do. 
I don't have "the money" to do this, I do it anyways, I use coupons and do it and hope I'll make a couple of bucks when I sell it. 
I definitely do not "have the enegery" for it.  Not always anyways, sometimes I just do it because, again, it makes me happy. 

It might sound like I'm bitter, and I'm really not, I do what I love and I love what I do.  But I get irritated when people have to "put me down".
Trust me I have had 32 years of being "different", I've learned to live with it. 
I do what I do.  And I will keep doing what I do because I love it.  And it makes me happy.  And because I can. 

First and foremost I'm a mother.  My family comes first.  Painting keeps me sane.  And oh, did I mention I love it??!!! 

I definitely am not looking for anyoone's approval, but what IS UP with the negativity? and the putting down??? 

And the asking of "how much money I make?".  Ma bizaniz is none of YO bizaniz :). 

I find comfort in knowing that I'm not alone in this, but it saddens me that a lot of people feel like it's ok to put other people down just because they are  different or have different or unconventional dreams.  I can see people question it if my family was suffering, if I was depending on this to put food on the table for my family, then yes, I would get a "real" job.
I would do what I had to do. 

There was a time when art literally saved my life.  More on that later.

To all of those who do wholeheartedly support me, a big thank you!! 
I do appreciate all the kind words and I know not everyone is out to "ruin the fun". 
Heck, some people have even believed in me when even I didn't believe in myself.  And some people supported me when my ideas/dreams were a bit ehum CRAZY :)
And I was dying (and I'm not being dramatic here, these a stone cold facts) and and told me "draw what you feel" and I did.  And I felt A LOT.  And I lived.  And I kept painting. 
And I will kepp doing it.  No matter what. 

Me, a Mom-ster...

I'¨m not proud of it but this is what I looked like this morning (actually, I probably also had smoke coming out of my ears...).  Almost daily I keep finding my kids' clean clothes in their hamper (and spread all around the house too for that matter).  And it drives me INSANE.  Especially since I have talked to them about it and explained nicely why clean clothes need to stay in the closet/drawers etc.  It doesnt seem to register...so today i found more pieces all over their room (a room, and I went bananas...
I don't like to be yelling at them but sometimes it seems to be the only way to get their attention...
I could use a Super Hero right now, or maybe I just need the Super Nanny...