Has it really been...2 years? :(

Oh my...it has been almost two years! I am trying so hard to get back on the ball but I don't know what I should start on first!

So many things to tell about!

1. The basement studio is still not done, some progress made.

2. The game room is no longer a game room, details to come.

3. I have a new last name.

4. Have shamefully forgot to pay a friend for some wonderful gifts she sent, hopefully will get out to her this month.

5. Lost a member of the family, and gained another.

6. Trying to lose some weight as recent events have netted me 60 lbs.

Thats the short of it. My goal is to get blogging again as a source of motivation to get everything else going too. So more details of my recent 2 year hiatus to come.

But for now here is a hint :)

June 12, 2010

AND

Saiyah
 Born December 30, 2010
3 months old in this picture

So thats whats been going on. Getting back to it now!

One picture... More to come!

I wanted to try out the new blog post builder/creator thing and see if it helped my spacing/pictures not getting bigger when you click on them problem that I have had with blogger since I started working on blogger, so I looked around and found one of the pictures I was going to post. (The others are on my laptop at home)

Ok so here goes nothing (crossing fingers)

Here is Joe and I at the Halloween party as She Ra and Skeletor.

Hmm??? It worked but I am not sure why? I guess to enlarge the picture you need it to have a link and some of my pictures don't have links even though they were downloaded the same way from the same camera and even some of them taken at the same time?????? Uhhh I am so confused!!! If anyone knows the problem...Please Help! lol!

Where has all the motivation gone?

It has been too long since my last post! For those of you that have stopped by only to see nothing... I am very sorry :(

My life has been very busy. In May I took a trip to Reno to bowl in the Women's Nationals Tournament with my Mom and Dad and the boyfriend Joe. I didn't do very good but it was a very fun trip. I got to see Lake Tahoe and it was my very first time flying on an airplane at age 24. We stayed at the Silver Legacy Hotel and Casino and Joe and I won $450 at the black jack tables! Woohoo!

All the while the city had been working on the sewers in front of the house and today mid-December it is not done. It has been a long, painful, and annoying process!!! Most of the time from April to now we had not even been able to park on our street and we have no garage or alley access so it was a bit of a hassle.

Over the summer I did not get as much done as I had wanted. I slowly but surely worked on the basement but it is still not done :( . Although it is better. In September it was my birthday and Joe got me a drum set! I have been wanting to play drums since I was five years old, but my parents said no (they didn't want to deal with the noise). So when I got the drum set I had to make room for them. This gave me a push to get going in the studio. The drum set is now set up and I can still get to my studio so things are looking up. Although taking up another hobby is the last thing I need right now lol! The good thing is Joe is very supportive of my drumming and said he doesn't care how much noise I make as long as I am down there practicing.

In October I got really sick for almost 3 weeks. I had just gotten better by the time Halloween rolled around. It was a good thing I decided to buy my costume this year. I was She Ra Princess of Power and Joe went as Skeletor. This was a popular 80's cartoon for those who are lost :). We ended up making Joe's costume the night of our friends huge party and went home with best couple!!!

After Halloween and being sick was over I hardly had time to recover before it was Thanksgiving and now way to close to Christmas!!!! I will be posting some pictures from my adventures soon but in closing I would like to make a list of my goals for the coming year.

1. Get studio cleaned and organized once and for all..
2. Start the projects that I have been planning for so long.
3. Get my etsy store up and running.
4. Get more ebay done.
5. Post more regularly on blog.
6. Learn how to post on youtube.
7. Take more pictures of life.

I know those are for the most part pretty vague and seem super easy but sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed and think something is wrong with me and I ask myself where has all the motivation gone? I think that motivation is a funny thing because sometimes it sneaks up on you out of nowhere but sometime you have to go looking for it.

Next Project...Art Studio

A quick post for today with pictures of the next organizing project. The Art Studio. I feel so frustrated that I can't find any of my supplies and don't even know what I have anymore.

So, to remind you of what it looks like now...

And it gets worse...

And worse...

And worse...

And worse...

And to end on a better note... these are the beautiful watercolor prints sent by my friend Rita from up in Fargo, North Dakota. They are framed and ready to be hung up after a fresh coat of paint goes on the walls. Aren't they great!

Flowers

Leaves

Pretty!

The Clay Studio is cleaned and organized!

Yes! It is really done. I worked on it over the weekend. Here are the pictures.

First I would like to remind you what it looked like before...

This is the ware/storage shelf I built. As you can see it is full. There is no room for any "wares" to dry.

Next we have the wedge table and glaze shelf. The two boxes on the right of the table are full of the glazes I got recently. I have no more room on the glaze shelf for them. Also, you can see that the wedge table now has the canvas on it but it is so covered with glaze to be put away that it can not be used.

Last picture shows the potterey wheel that was uncovered since the last photo taken of it and then covered again with something else. It is really under there somewhere, I think.

Next, the new pictures. Wow, I can not believe how much better I feel that this side is done. I still have lots to do on the Art Studio side of the basement but 2 out of 3 spaces completely transformed isn't bad...is it?

Okay drum roll please............... The ware/supply shelf now has the top two shelves cleaned off and ready to be used for drying projects.

The wedge table has been cleared of all the extra glaze and is ready to be worked on and the bottom has been arranged somewhat. Doesn't it look so inviting?

The glaze shelf is full and will get organized further when I do the little "ID" tags. The extra glaze was moved to the supply shelf. And last the kiln has been hooked up to the vent and with some further reading on how to use the kiln sitter I will be ready to fire! There you go. Next up...hmmm....hopefully some work in the pottery studio. Need to get working on the "ID" tags for the glaze and have a special secret project idea for my friend Rita up in Fargo who sent me some wonderful prints of her watercolor painting which are framed and ready to be displayed in the house. And so many other project ideas I want to try. If you ever see something you like, let me know and I can make something for you. I hope to be selling some of my work in my etsy store soon. Until next time.

Gameroom/Office Done!

Ok, here are the after pictures. Can you believe it? It feels good to have it done. Yes, I was very very sore as I did this all in about 20 hours straight. Now all that awaits is the basement studio. The clay side is actually in pretty good shape but the other side is a mess. When I get going on that project I will be sure to keep you updated with pictures. I hope to be getting started on my ceramics at the same time.
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I am getting there anyways! I hope you all like :)

What I have been up to this week!

I haven't posted in awhile. This is what I have been working on. A makeover and complete reorganization of my gameroom/office. It had to be done first because I could not actually get any ebay done with the space so cluttered. Therefore no artwork time either :( I bought some smaller pieces of furniture that will fit better in the small room. My dad helped me get the huge corner desk and sleeper sofa out! (They were soooo heavy) Thanks Dad! Joe (the boyfriend) spent Valentine's day helping me put together the new shelves and moving things around, Thanks Joe! I pretty much got the whole thing done in 1 day (20 hours of almost nonstop working for me) with the help. Not bad for a weekend, eh? So, here are the before pictures of this crazy mess. Yeah, I know, you would think I just moved in but we have lived here for 4 years! This is mostly a result of too big furniture and too much ebay to sell in one small space. There really isn't any room to even walk around. I mean I almost died getting these pictures for you! So, please enjoy! The after pictures are coming soon! Then, hopefully back to some art related posts and pictures! :)

More pictures....Finally!

Finally got some more pictures to post for you. These are all pieces that my mom has received for various holiday gifts. I would consider these my best pieces from my high school years. Hope you enjoy! More to come soon as my studio is pretty much finished now. Just need to give it a quick cleanup and it is done. Time to start some new work!

Oh yeah, got some new glazes in the mail yesterday! Pictures of those coming soon too :) I need to make little clay tags for all my glazes. It helps when choosing colors for different pieces. I like to carve one side with the name and number of the glaze and if it is lead free and/or dinnerware safe and then paint some glaze on the other side (half textured, half smooth) and fire it, so I can have a visual of how the piece I am working on might look when fired with that glaze. It will be my first project in my kiln and won't be too overwhelming if it doesn't come out. Having a beautiful pot blow up on my first firing would be just a little discouraging, lol!

A few old pieces and uhh my "studio"

So I finally got all my digital photos organized so now I can actually post some pictures for you! I found a few pictures of some of the artwork I did in high school. Sadly, I have not done much since then and that was about 6 or 7 years ago. Instead I worked full time and went to college and then after college I got a "big girl" job before I even graduated! I think now is the time to get organized and start doing some more art work! Here are a few pieces that I have done that I could find pictures of. There are a few of my better pieces at my parents house. I need to go and photograph them soon. My mom always got the best ones for gifts. So look for those soon.

This is a batik print I did my freshman year in high school. Almost 10 years ago! It went to an art show but it didn't win anything. Batik prints are time consuming but so fun. I plan on doing more of them.

This is a ceramic wall hanging I did my sophomore year. It is a representation on my dog Sheba. The picture was taken in 2007 but the piece was made in 2001 or 2002.This is another ceramic piece done in 2001 or 2002. Hamburger and potatoe wedges. Mmmmm.

This is my first piece ever thrown on a wheel. Nothing great, just a cup. This was also made in 2001 or 2002.

Now I would like to show you the reason I have not created anything in awhile. My "studio". Ever since I bought my house when I was 20 (almost 5 years ago) I have been trying to turn the basement into a studio. It is a small and damp place so I keep running out of room. I have so many different artistic interests so that means I also have alot of different supplies. I also have a bad case of BEAS (Buys Excessive Art Supplies). Yes, Kathleen you are not alone! LOL! Also since it gets damp down in the basement I have to keep everything in plastic boxes to protect it. So, without delay here it is. My "studio" as of today. I hope to be getting it finished soon with the shame of posting for all to see and some encouragement.

Yes, there is an Amaco pottery wheel under there somewhere. My Skutt kiln. It is mostly hooked up and ready to go.

Shelf I built to hold all my ceramic supplies and pieces. It is not organized yet.

Wedge table I made. It is almost finished. I still need to put the canvas on the top.

Shelf I made to hold all my Amaco glaze. It sits above my wedge table.

The rest of the pictures are from the other part of my studio that hold my supplies for everything but ceramics. It is messier than the pictures show. It has been semi clean a few times but it always gets messy again, even when I haven't been working down there. I feel there is so many supplies and so little space I am overwhelmed!

So there you have it. I am planning on working on it as much as possible and will try to take pictures as I go. I am sure I am not the only one out there who has been here before and if I can do it anyone can.