Blessed

I have a couple more photos to share. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law were having a garage sale last weekend and had a computer table/work station that they wanted to get rid of. Unfortunately, since I'm still in the "starving artist" stage, I couldn't afford to purchase it, but it was an "everything must go" sale and they were going to donate it somewhere if it didn't sell. I volunteered to be first on their charity list and fortunately, for me, the table was still there at the end of the day. So, two days later they showed up in a truck and hauled it into my house. In trade, they put my hubby to work today, helping haul rock in their land-scaping endeavors, but after that, they even fed us hamburgers, hot dogs, and all the picnic fixin's! It was very generous of them, and I got busy right away putting the work station to work! For now it is set up in half of my living room that goes unused, which puts me looking right out of my front window with my favorite view! I don't know yet whether I will transfer my computer into that room or not. I just love my new table so much though! It is so convenient having the "wrap around" on one side... it really makes my work easier by keeping more of my "stuff" within arm's reach. There's even room for my kitten!

You'll have to ignore my walls..the haphazard placement of art and photos and even the large frame hanging on point! I took all my art down to display at a coffee shop and now, I've just been throwing things up on the left-over thumb tacks and nails as I get them done - or just to get them out of my way!

I'm also posting a photo of the first art piece that I created at my new table. Using a real photo that I took of a sunflower that is in a pot on my front porch, I photo-shopped and cropped the flower, printed it twice so I could place one directely on top of the other and separated them with heavy duty chip board and foam squares for depth, and then, decoupaged my swirly sun, used acrylic paints and heavy acrylic mediums for texture - etched with a leaf-like pattern, for the greenish back-ground, added layers of ribbon for the stem, adorned the die-cut leaves with glass seed beads and used parts of a puzzle my mom sent me (as part of a collage-making goody package) for extra fun elements. This is a happy, whimsical piece...celebrating my love for the sun and for sun flowers! Oh, and the flower is of course, crowned with a decorated copper crown! Naming my art is one of the most fun parts of the process, but this one is tough for me. Currently, my two options are Daedalus Helianthus or Imperial Helianthus. Heliantus is the scientific name for sunflowers, and Daedalus is the name of the mythical boy who made wings of feathers and wax and flew too close to the sun...although, that's not a very happy tale :) Leave me a comment if you have a name preference or your own idea for this sunflower piece. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Well, that's the news for now. Hope you like the photos, and remember to leave me a comment!