500 fans on Facebook! I feel like we should do something to celebrate... any ideas?

For those who haven't been reading my twitter feed (can't really bring myself to say "tweets"), here's the scoop. I've been sick, exhausted, and physically incapable of scanning and posting anything for the past few days, but I did make an effort to slap the paint around.

So.... what I think I'm going to try to do now that I'm on the mend, is to do one big post with everything in it so far that's in my sketchbook that didn't make it onscreen yet. And then, hopefully, we'll be back on track with the whole painting/posting thing.

Keep painting, people!

As promised, I'm posting my Twitter background as a thank you to everyone! Take the one on the left, or continue the color wash onto 2 monitors and download 'em both. They measure 1600 x 1200 pix. Enjoy!

Click each link to download each to your own computer. These graphics are for personal use on a home computer only and are not meant for anyone's website or business. These are the only graphics you may use from this site without written permission.

Main screen background
Right screen background

I have a longer, more introspective post coming, but I noticed this morning that my Facebook page is hovering around 300. While it completely astonishes me that almost 300 people (who can't possibly all be my mother) want to know more about my work, it's inspiring to know that, and it helps push me to create more, and share it.

So.

When I get to 300 fans, I'll post a new wallpaper to download! I'll also post one for people who use two monitors, like me. (For those who want a peek, it's my new Twitter background.)

</shameless self-promotion>

Ever wanted to hear what I sound like? Or learn how to make a custom fan page on Facebook for your artwork or your company? Kill two birds with one stone and check out my first foray into the world of video! :)

This is for our blog at PRI, but if I was going to do an instructional FTG video, what would you want to see? Watercolour techniques? Packing school lunches? Sewing? Leave me some ideas in the comments.

Holey moley, has it been….. SIX MONTHS?! Wow. I’ve never taken that long of a break before. But it was a much-needed one. I apologize for disappearing off the face of the earth for some of you, and I’m grateful for the emails and tweets of concerned people asking what the heck happened to me.

The short answer: Life happened. A big dose of life whacking me upside the head and knocking me for a big emotional rollercoaster of a loop.

The long(er) answer: This summer, after a long illness, my dear mother-in-law died. I still really am having a hard time believing it. Her passing affected all of us deeply, and I’m realizing that while she is thankfully at rest, there is still a lot for the rest of us to deal with, day to day life things. Life goes on, and there are still lunches to be made and bills to take care of and all those mundane things that need to be done. And we miss her very, very much.

For those who have been long-time readers of the site, I’ll also just say that the way I felt in 2004 was the way I spent the majority of the summer. Things are better, and I’m learning how better to deal with things that stress me. One of the main reasons I haven’t posted is that I didn’t have anything AT ALL to show – I haven’t painted in months and months and months. For me, not painting is like not breathing. It’s something I’m slowly working back to.

So… I’m trying again, to post, and share, and to paint, and to allow myself to do awful art, and share that too. And I’m setting myself the challenge to post something nice every day this week, sort of a catch-up of things I want to share with anyone who is still around to hear it.

See you tomorrow. :)

The new layout's here! (And yes, the new layout looks an awful lot like the old layout, which was what I wanted - I don't have time for a sitewide redesign right now.) While I still have a lot of tweaking to do, the blog is functional. And though I didn't appreciate being forced to do it (I find it difficult to believe that the almighty Google can't handle FTP service to their blog clients), I'm happy about some new additions I was able to make to the site. There are many features I've wanted to add but didn't have the time/ability to do it before but they're here now.

So here's what's new:

• The address of the blog. Not something I wanted to change, but had to. So please kindly point your links to blog.frenchtoastgirl.com.

• Related posts. This is something I've wanted to do for ages! Now at the bottom of each post, you'll see four links to other posts with an accompanying thumbnail for each. So on an Illustration Friday post, you'll see four others that also feature Illustration Friday entries, or a post about making homemade ice cream cake might have links to other recipes, watercolours, or family posts. I've been writing this blog for almost 9 years, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes up after each post because it has an element of randomness I rather like about it.

• Twitter feed. Tweet! These are the kind of things you'd be used to hearing about from me - links and thoughts about design, painting, art, family, music... I generally don't post about what I ate or if I'm going to the movies. :) Feel free to subscribe if you wish.

• Tag cloud. All the labels I use for tagging posts are arranged alphabetically to the side - you can now see what I write the most about (art, as it's the largest sized font) and how many posts I've written about paintings done with coffee (11).

• Expanded archives. Instead of clicking on the month and having to scroll down to look for a particular link on the left, you now can open the month in the sidebar, read all the post titles, and choose the one you want to read. Or you can still click and read the whole month if you like.

• Friendconnect. You can "follow" the blog - it's another way to get the feed and to know when I've posted something new. I'm still not really sure how this one works, but I'm willing to try it out.

Things I know are still wonky:

• The links to the rest of the site aren't showing up in IE. I'm trying to figure out a workaround to that, in the meantime, you can get there from here: frenchtoastgirl.com.

• My old comments are not synched up yet. I have to make a request to the service I use (it's not Blogger) and get them ported over, though new commenting should work just fine, so please feel free to say hi!

I'm looking forward to an evening not spent staring at code! Who knows, I might even.... paint!

So here's what I've been doing: blogger's decided that they will no longer support FTP publishing, which is how I've done this blog for almost the past 9 years. So.... instead of painting? I'm coding, just to try to get the blog to stay mostly the same for now, because what I don't have time for right now is a site-wide redesign. And the address of the site has to change as well - so the blog will now be at blog.frenchtoastgirl.com, and it has to happen by May 1.

Sigh.

I've finally gone and started a Twitter account. If you want to hear the bits and comments that are too small for a post, I'd love it if you'd join me!

Here goes: http://twitter.com/frenchtoastgirl. (Easy enough to remember, right?)

And - if you have an account and want me to follow you, leave a comment and introduce yourself! I am especially interested in following other artists, parents, musicians, and those who are generally creative. :)

I wrote recently about being overwhelmed, and thank you so much to the other mama/artists who wrote me. I've been considering hiring a (gulp, again, can't believe I'm saying this) Personal Assistant as a helper a few times a month to help me get out prints and do mailings. I am currently weighing the pros and cons of this, and part of it is the whole question of if I am important enough to require that kind of help, and if I am comfortable with asking for help in that way. Laundry help - easy! Filling orders, I'm not certain yet. I need to figure out how to have more time to do what I really love. Are any of you artists out there grappling with the same kind of thing? I would love to have more insight.

p.s. ~ about this time last year I started a Fan page on Facebook, which to me seems to be the height of egotism, but isn't a blog sometimes as well? :) My motivation for doing it was to keep in touch with people I only knew online and focusing on FTG news, rather than on Elena news, even though many times it's much the same... In any case, I've finally posted a "Fan me!" button over there on the right, and feel free to sign up if you'd like.

The biggest prints EVER! For the first time, Tree/bird/heart (with Angela, top) and Storytime (with Peter, below) are now available in 16" x 20" size. Printed on thick, high-quality photographic stock. Enlargements show great detail of the creative process - see pencil lines, brush strokes, and coffee splashes close up! Perfect for children's rooms or just those young at heart.

♥ $30 (+$5 USPS). Email me for orders. :) ♥

:)

If you're reading this, it means we still don't have a router, darnit! I don't mind taking a break from the internet, but I do mind not having a choice about it. :)

Some of you know that I'm on facebook now, and holy moley, is it addictive! I'm really enjoying getting back in touch with old friends, and keeping up-to-date with others. Right now I'm only linking up to people I know personally (as opposed to people I know online). But since I am an all-inclusive kind of girl, I was trying to think of a way around it...

So I made a fan page! Anyone (who's a member of facebook) can become a fan and get updates, news, and even read blog entries right there.

And yes, it seems mighty surreal to me to say "Fan Page" in conjunction with myself. :)

View my profile on NaBloPoMo




Hey kids! It's NaBloPoMo time again! I've done it since (I think?) year one, and it's lots of fun. Every day in the month of November, I will post something new. This year I'm going to have a theme; The Month of Magical Thinking. As in this post, I will be concentrating on making what's usually a pretty hectic month a magical and joy-filled one as I make a conscious decision to make the most succulent choice every time. Friend me up and I will link right back to you, I would love to hear how your journey is going. :)

And this year, I'm going to give a prize! Just sign up at NaBloPoMo headquarters and post every day to qualify.

ps ~ This isn't this month's badge, but it's my favorite one. :)

Things have been ca-razy busy here, and I apologize for not posting more. I've been working on new illustrations I can't show yet, knitting and crocheting just because it's fun, working on the kids' Halloween costumes, and oh yes, there's that day job. I'm also getting into gear for NaBloPoMo in November, are you?

I do have some new posts up at Miomarmo (where we'll also be doing NaBloPoMo, which should be really fun!). In case you missed them there, some recent ones are...

♥ Turn an old shirt into a new skirt. Creative recycling! As shown above
♥ Do you walk enough?
♥ Proposition 2 (or, 67 Square Inches). Proposition 2 "stops cruel and inhumane treatment of animals, ending the practice of cramming farm animals into cages so small the animals can't even turn around, lie down or extend their limbs."

I'm trying something new - my first ever poll!

While it's partly because I just like to try new things, it's also prompted in a part by a spate of image-grabbing that I'd like to put a stop to. I'm thinking of blocking all of my images from Google's image search, but not if that's how most of you found me! So, cast your memory back there, lord, and see if you can remember how you got here. Please select one of the buttons below. Thanks!

Congratulations to all of you who knew that this painting of Persephone was done with juice from a pomegranate! I actually was worried I was beating you all over the head with it, but I guess not. :) (Please read the above links if you didn't get it, they're fascinating.) This was so much fun, I think I'm going to do contests on a regular basis!

Our winners, pulled randomly out of a hat by my three lovely assistants are:

♥ Kim K. in Western PA
♥ Robyn
♥ Stephanie B.

Please email me if you are one of the lucky three so that I know where to send your print!

In other news, we had a sick chick here last week (not me, Angela) which seriously put the kibosh on any free time I had planned. So if you've ordered prints from me, I completely apologize! Your prints have been all packed up and delivered to the post office today, and you should be receiving them soon. Sophielicious was off from school today and wanted to help, so you'll be seeing her handiwork in your package as well.



Doesn't she look so professional? I think I should give her a raise.

I'm going to submit work for my local art association's member show this October. I can submit two paintings, and I (thankfully!) don't have to sell them. They might not use both, depending on space. There are awards to shoot for, but I mostly just really want to see my paintings up on the wall, eat cheese and crackers, and mingle with like-minded art lovers. Soooooooooo:

Suggestions! What should I send in? I have till maybe over the weekend to figure this out (gotta get framing!) Thanks!

♥ This just in: The incomparable Martha Stewart has a new blog. This is a Good Thing.

I've been exhibited at Gawker Artists!

Gawker Artists promotes the works of artists of all mediums. Participating artists receive free profile pages and a select group have their images published on Gawker Media titles. When you spot one of these images, click on it to read about the artist or browse our collection by artist name, medium or location.

Go click on the page and spread some love - maybe I'll move on up to the homepage, or just maybe someday you'll see my paintings on your favorite Gawker Media site (mine is Jezebel).