New Art Cards In The Store AND A Story: The Gift

Just as I had hoped, I have now made art Note Cards for my shop BelleSouth Studio! Original Art! And yes, One Of A Kind! They would make great gifts! And they come with envelopes! Can you tell I'm excited? 

Yes, yes!

(click for details)

These are watercolor and have paper tape down the side, with some stamping on two of them.

(click for details)

These are acrylic and have numbered Gaffer tape on the side.

(click for details)

And they have paint on the back as well as the front!

Visit my store!

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The Gift

(63rd in The Story Series)

Yesterday I heard a loud THUMP against one of the windows and thought a bird had flown into it. As I rose from the bed, I noticed Rochester, my golden kitty, frantically slapping his paws around in several places as he stood on his hind legs. After a few minutes, he seemed to have success in whatever he was after, and dropped to the floor. As he trotted toward me, he was mewing softly and urgently and I realized I was about to be given something.

As he came to my feet, he stopped and lowering his head, he gently placed a...... FLY before me. The Fly, realizing after a couple of seconds that he was free, took off, no doubt grateful he had escaped this furry creature. Rochester looked confused when it flew away, but received my thanks gratefully, purring loudly as I petted him and congratulated him on being the Mighty Hunter.

Later, as I was once again resting on the bed, he was at the same window, staring upward fixedly. I realized The Fly was probably there again, looking longingly at the freedom outside. Suddenly Rochester lunged, pummeling the windowpane with his paws again, and once more claimed victory by dropping to his feet and trotting toward my bed. This time he hopped up beside me to offer his gift, and the poor Fly was too injured to do anything but try to crawl madly away. Rochester kept pinning him down, taking him into his mouth and bringing him back to me. Finally a tissue dispatched The Fly and again there was confusion as to where his trophy had gone. But after he had received affection and soft words, he was happy and curled up to take a nap.

I know that is a habit of cats to bring back their kills. Our outside cat has left us mice, shrews, birds, and recently a baby bunny (I know, that was sad. He had the cutest little ears....) I'm just thankful that the inside cat has nothing bigger than the size of a fly to find in the house!

PS-I know it looks like I have no readers because I receive so few comments, but the truth is several people simply comment on Facebook. That's fine and all, I would just love to see some comments on the actual blog for others to read. (Hint, Hint)

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Added Two More Paintings To My Store!

Today I added two more of my original art works to my Etsy shop, Bellesouth Studio!

JUMP FOR JOY

 Mo-Ku-Hsien, TAOIST FAIRY 

Please visit my store by clicking on the link above; not only is there 12x12 canvas art works, there are inexpensive prints, original postcards (make great gifts!) and some items I am selling to destash my studio.

Hope to see you there!

Click on the photo to see anything closer.

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Three Leaves and a Heart

Another painting to go into my Etsy store, BelleSouth Studio. I think this got a bit too dark, but I am going to post it anyway. 

Three Leaves and a Heart

(click for details)

It is another mixed media on wrapped canvas, including acrylic paint, oil pastels and collage. I tore a strip off of a collaged piece of Tyvek, which is on the right side and put a bit of it on the left upper corner. In the lower right corner, I attached a piece of torn heavy tissue which I wrinkled first before attaching. It is mostly done with oil pastels. Ready to hang with no framing necessary!

So, at least I am being able to do some art, for which I am extremely grateful!

And on the home front, we have 2 bluebird nests with 5 eggs in each of them already! They were laying them even though the weather was going down into the low 30's every night and there was frozen water the next day. I was amazed when I found them on a windy blustery day! Bluebirds are pretty hearty. The is the slowest Spring I can remember since we moved up here. And we still have some cool weather to come. I hope I remember this when it becomes really hot!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Ta-Daaa!!

I have been wanting to make some prints of some of my art work to put in my Etsy store and I finally was able to finish 4. I actually did 3 earlier, and learned an awful lot, it's not as easy as it may seem! So we kept those bird prints, and I made another set of them and also one other thing. I'm still learning!

These are on boards, with black trim so that they are ready to hang. It takes time to prepare the cradlewood boards for painting - the back needs to be taped off with painters tape so it won't spatter onto other areas, a layer of gesso has to go on and dry, then you paint the black on. The print is made on a special paper and adhered so that there is a line  of black showing around the edges. They are ready to hang, no framing needed!

I have them for sale now in my Etsy Art Store. We are hanging the original set of bird prints in John's office. Nothing's really moving in the Art Store yet, but I don't have a whole lot in it and that's OK. It will get there. I'm pleased to be able to have this part done, and plan to make more prints. I hope and pray to be able to paint more in the days ahead!

Click on any photo to see it closer.

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Well Hello World!

So it's been two months since I posted, and it was a pleasure to hear from some folks that they wondered what happened, and was hoping I'd be back. I'll try to sum up what's been going on for me in the past two months.

January was a pretty good month for me health wise, comparatively. For some time I had been considering opening a store on Etsy so that I could begin to get rid of the things that I still had left from my antiques business. When I had to close it in 2008, I tried to get rid of as much stuff as I could, but there is still enough lying around to warrant trying to sell it off. With my daughter's help, I opened BelleSouth Mercantile, and began to add items to the store.  After some urging from some of my friends to sell my art, I also opened a shop for just that - BelleSouth Studio. I have been blessed with actually selling some things from the first store, but I have not had the time to really put much on the second one, or to do anything really new except for a couple of things. Those who have read my blog before know about the Spoon situation, but those that don't can read about it here. To put it simply, I was using up all of the spoons I had available everyday, and that is not a good thing. So in February, my body laid me out with a relapse, and although I still was able to do some things, I had to take it easier with myself than I had before.

Now it is March, and I am still not back to where I was in January. I am doing a little bit, and marshaling my time better. I even tried some new things with art, going in a different direction that I had before. Here is what I've done:

I call these the Worldly Birds. (You have to go to my art store to see why!) They are done on 6 x 8 flat canvases. It was hard to get a really good shot of them, but they are for sale. I have enlarged them and made prints mounted on wood, and they turned out pretty cool, but I haven't taken shots of them yet. Some of my other pieces will also be for sale and I plan to do some new ones as I have the strength. I also am selling postcards!

           

I also have some on there that were experiments that I couldn't let go to waste, and so I'm selling them as a grab bag. These pictured here were close ups of my texture piece called The Old Mine. And I have a variety of others I will be selling. 

So, I really hope to be back blogging on a much more regular basis, and I would be thrilled if you go to my stores, and "follow" and "favorite" my stores. And hey, if you want to buy something I would not mind that at all!! :) And of you have an constructive comments, please let me know!

Glad to be back!!

Click on any photo to see it closer.

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!