Squidoo Lens Reviews By Mimi

I got several mysterious emails today about my Sketching Lens on Squidoo. The first one from Jimmie said; "I'm amazed. You make it look easy! Beautiful and instructive lens. (I'm visiting from Mimi's blog where she reviewed your lens.)". Hugh, I thought, I wonder who Mimi is. Then I got another couple and this email from Joan Adams. She wrote; "I'm visiting from Squidoo Lens Reviews too! Congratulations on a great review and feature." So I emailed Joan and asked her "What's up?" She told me that Mimi had reviewed my "Six Steps To Sensational Sketches"on her blog, Squidoo Lens Reviews. Wow, Thanks Mimi! Thanks Joan and Jimmie and all you other great folks who take the time time to send me your thoughts and encouragement! I am honored. I swear, I meet the nicest peeps online!! :-D See Mimi's review of my lens here.

The King Of Rock 'N Roll

It was in the sixties here today in Southern NJ. It was a nice break from some pretty cold weather we've been having lately. I celebrated by posting three new paintings to my "Secret Life Of Snowmen" album on Facebook. I now have twenty snowman paintings posted with appropriate quotes to go with each one. If you are my friend on Facebook, you can view all eight of my albums on my profile page. If you are not on Facebook yet, by all means join. I would love to have you join me as a friend in my Facebook world! I have been a member since November first and I am really enjoying all the features, networking, links and friends I have found there. I also have a fan page on Facebook with two albums of available paintings which anyone can view. I invite you to become a fan, leave me a message and post your own fan photo to my page! I really would appreciate it! The more the merrier!

Here's one of the new snowman paintings that I added today!


The King of Snowmen is still rockin! "There have been a lotta tough guys. There have been pretenders. And there have been contenders. But there is only one king." ~ Bruce Springsteen

"It was like he came along and whispered some dream in everybody's ear, and somehow we all dreamed it. " ~ Bruce Springsteen

Original Watercolor AVAILABLE for Sale ~ 8" x 10" ~ dbl. matted and framed ~ $149.00

Tigger The Work Supervisor

Our cat, Tigger, has a routine of helping Jerry with his paperwork every night when he gets home from work. He is so happy to see his daddy! First thing he does is run in the office and jump up on the desk. His joyful attitude makes it very hard to turn him away. It takes Jerry much longer to do his work, but I think his little buddy's enthusiastic admiration more than makes up for all the detours and delays.

Opportunities and Goals

For the past week I have been concentrating on another goal for my art career. With the help of my friend, Nancy Louie, I've been learning the technical side of shooting and post processing high resolution digital photographs. My objective is to commercially license some of my artwork and possibly eventually even photos. Here is a picture of my big new (second hand) d2x. Although a very complicated piece of equipment and a huge technical challenge for me, I'm already falling in love with it.


Here's my favorite scenic shot so far. See more about my photography endeavors on my Spirit Art Blog. Also see this week's Inspiration Everyday quotes on GOALS.

A good goal is like a strenuous exercise, it makes you stretch." ~ Mary Kay Ash

Birthday Week

Birthday week is coming to an end today. It's been packed with well wishes, emails, phone calls, dinners, presents and greeting cards. I had to set up a folding table in the studio just to display all the cards. What a lucky girl I am! Having so many wonderful people in my life sure does make another trip around the sun a lot more fun and interesting! THANKS SO MUCH to all of you who touch my life in so many ways.

"The reason for living is to have great relationships, to have people you love and respect and who love and respect you." ~ Brian Tracy

Friends Are Treasures

"There is no wilderness like life without friends; friendship multiplies blessings and minimizes misfortunes. It is a unique remedy against adversity and it soothes the soul." ~ Baltasar Gracian

A Labor Of Love

My husband, Jerry, loves sweets. As a special surprise for Valentine's Day, I decided to make him his favorite homemade sugar cookies today. In fact, he loves them so much, we call them Jerry's Sugar Cookies.


I made a double batch. I've got plenty of trays, so I rolled and cut out all the cookies before I even turned on the oven. Here's a shot of the cookies all cut and decorated waiting to be baked.


TaDa...The finished product. I only encountered one casualty - a minor burn. And I over browned only one pan which happened when I decided to call my friend, Bobbie, and got distracted at the very end. This is definitely a labor of love as it took me the better part of the afternoon. No wonder so many of us remember our grammas with such respect and love!


HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYBODY! I hope it's sweet!

The Art Of Love

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!

Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln!

Today is the birthday of the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Regarded as one of the most popular presidents in history, I guess I'd have to say he was my favorite too.


Being a quote collector, I often come across things he said that really hits home. Like him, I am an Aquarius, the sign of people who are often misunderstood for being a bit ahead of their time.

Here are some of my favorite quotations by my man, Abraham Lincoln.:

"People are about as happy as they make up their mind to be."

"I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing."

"Whatever you are, be a good one."

Betsy and Rudy In Storybook Land

These are photos I took today of my soon to be 29 year old Paint, Rudy with my dear friend and riding buddy Betsy Hudson, aka; Ms. Sunshine.


I used a poster filter in Photoshop on them and just love the effect!


To me, they look like illustrations out of a storybook. What do you think?



Rudy is in heaven here. Betsy brought him a bucket of Stud Muffins for his birthday which is next week. He just loves them and goes into a state of utter ecstasy when eating them. It changes his whole appearance and he takes on the look of a horse half his age.

My Upcoming Drawing and Watercolor Workshops

I've been getting organized for a few workshops I have coming up. I'm posting them here, incase any of you local followers are interested.

I've already got a few people signed up, so if you are interested, dont' delay! You can see more information on my main web site or here under workshops.

Support The Arts

Two minutes is all it takes to tell congress to support the arts and arts education.

Chairville School Art Show And Demo

The Chairville School Art Show was a huge success! The school's new art teacher, Denise DeAngelis did a wonderful job of organizing it. It ran very smoothly. Despite the cold weather, people turned out in masses. Grouping all the paintings by artist worked out very well. I got quite a few remarks from artists that it was the best student/artist show ever! My Pencil And Watercolor Sketching Demo went very well. It was fun to connect with all the kids and adults with my interactive demonstration. I got a lot of great feedback. Next year I want to be further away from the music though, as I'm not used to shouting for such a long period of time.

Friend, student and fellow artist, Lee Gates' paintings were very popular with the kids.

The most popular paintings by far though, were these two paintings of the shark and the seal. I'm sure the shark was a big hit with all the boys!

It's No Snow Day, It's Show Day!

We got about four inches of snow yesterday and last night. I called the school this morning and was happy to hear that Medford schools were open and that the Chairville School Art Show will still go on as planned tonight. Sometimes here in NJ they call off school for just the threat of snow! I've got lots of things to accomplish this morning. My friend, Nancy Louie is coming over at lunch time and bringing another photographer friend to shoot. What fun!~ I took a short walk this morning in my "yard" while the snow was still clinging to the trees. Absolutely G E O R G E O U S ! Here's a couple of my shots. More to come later!!

Chairville School Art Show

Tomorrow, February 4th, is the Chairville School Art Show. I normally don't enter group art shows, because for me it is just more effort than it's worth. This show is different though. Original artwork is hung at the school for two weeks. During that time, the kids get to look at all the work and copy it or create something inspired by one of the pieces. Tomorrow there is a reception for the artists, kids, parents and general public. The children's art is hung next to the art they copied. It is so much fun to see what the kids come up with and to see which pieces were the most popular. The kids really make the artists feel like celebrities! I will be doing ongoing demonstrations of my pencil and watercolor technique from 6:30 - 8:00 pm. The show is free and open to the public, so if you are local, come on down! The address is: 36 Chairville Rd., Medford, NJ 08055 and the phone number is: 609.654.9610. Hope to see you there!