Color Choice Contest--read on!

Sunday I stopped back at the shop that has several of my pieces down
town and took photos of my new pieces. My closeups featured in my post
down below actually represent the colors more accurately, but I thought
it was very cool to see them all featured together. I really wish I had
better walls/lighting in my little palace to take photos but I don't.

One of these days in fact, I wish I to OWN a house to feature my
work in among other things. It's been something I've wanted for so long,
perhaps why I'm fixated on the house and village theme lately. It seems
so far out of reach for me, I wonder how so many do it on their own. Not
that I'm down and out financially but I have had to start over more than
a couple of times for various reasons-relationships broken up, catastrophe
hitting, job changes, salary cuts, kids, another relationship about breaking
me financially up until recently--I could go on and on.

(a pic of a few prints I have featured, there's another grouping that I didn't
take a picture of down below this, but it had other artists on the table so I didn't want
to infringe upon their work).

Anyway, I'm finally making again salary wise what I was making 7 years ago
when I left my job in retail management. That's a long time, isn't it? During that
period of time, not only did I have to HUGELY change my way of living because of
the pay decrease, I also had a baby and split up with his father soon after our son
was born. Sounds crazy. That's my life. The long and short of it is, having to start over
and take a big pay cut (the trade off to the pay cut was I had my life back..anyone that's
has ever worked in retail management will understand what that means) had me living
pretty much paycheck to paycheck with not much in savings and never enough to
qualify for a down payment for a home.


Of course, I could have qualified for a first time home buyers
loan or a no down payment loan--but perhaps if I had, I would have
been part of the major mortgage crisis our country is in right now. I
knew all along that it wasn't something I could undertake at the time.
I couldn't see being house poor just to say I owned a home. I was already
poor..lol. I'm starting to come out of my poorness, little by little. My art business
is definitely helping in more ways than one. It's helping me earn a little more money
monthly (although most of it goes back into supplies right now), and it's helping
me come to peace with where I've been and where I'm going. That's important.
You need to come to terms with yourself and your situation and just make the most
of what you have. There are always those with less, those with more. You can't
drive yourself nutz over that which is not. Be at peace with what is, and continue
to strive to do better next time around. That's what I'm doing also in my artwork.
Not every piece is going to be a masterpiece, but with each and every creation, I learn
a little more, I try something a little different and I grow. I move further along and will
continue to do so until these ideas are exhausted, and even then, I will not stop-but
will move in a different direction. It takes a while to be okay with that notion. There's
a lot of self doubt in what I do. Not just in art, but in my job, in my role as a Mother and
just plain old self doubt in me. The doubt goes away the more I move along in the journey
because I've learned that my worst critic is probably myself and everyone else barely
notices the hiccups along the way. So it's okay. It'll be okay.



This weekend, the boys and I went to a company picnic. My area won a contest
this summer for the bank (when we had money I guess...lol) so the employees
chose to use the funds for a region wide picnic--scaled down version. It was a really
nice time. They had the blow up thingys for the kids, some carnival games, and plenty of
food. Nothing fancy (we aren't living the high life like the AIG guys at the spa), no, rather
we had hot dogs, hamburgers, slaw, and iced tea.
Some slidin' fun for the kids.


To save more money and to create some good old fashioned competition, they
decided to host a bake off. Everyone that wanted to enter could bring a dessert
which was then judged by our top leaders. The winners of each hub went on for the
grand prize, 100 dollar gift check--then we ate the goodies..lol. There were lots of treats
that's for darn sure. Although this cake won for the area, it wasn't the grand prize winner.
I thought it was the best of show though. It's a cake of our bank, with Wells Fargo horses
stomping over a Citifinancial emblem in the parking lot. Is this not the cutest cake?? The details
with the parking lot are to die for..lol. Love it. Very fitting for what's been going on!

***
This week I'm working on several new pieces for another venue that I was asked to submit work for--the deadline is November 7th so I'm under the gun to get the work done. I also am creating a new collection for a store downtown that I've been in for awhile, the cute and quaint hand made market and coffee shop, Swank, in Southern Pines, NC. I'm on the fence for what colors
to do next.

Anyone have any suggestions? I like to stay with 2 or 3 at the most primary colors so if you have a fav color combo--chime in!
I was thinking for one of my new collections I may do a gray/black/white with one other color (very limited) to pop but I need help on my second collection.....soooooo...

Contest on: If I pick your color combo, I will giveaway a new print of one of my most recent
collections. Leave me a comment and I will pick a winner Tuesday night..this is a quick contest because I need to get moving on my pieces.

(a pic of the print I am giving away for the contest...Breeze Avenue)
Thanks for your support!