Blog

New Piece: Be Still

Painting

This piece was heartbreaking to create.

A few years ago, I had done basically this exact painting and it was by far my favorite painting I’d ever done. Every time I took it to festivals, I hoped it wouldn’t sell because I loved it so much. Whenever anyone would favorite it on Etsy, I apprehensively awaited that glorious cash register noise, telling me it had sold and would be leaving me forever.

Why I didn’t just keep the piece for myself, I don’t know.

Well, unfortunately the piece was damaged beyond repair in our move a few years ago. I’d kept it just because I couldn’t bear to part with it. I tried fixing it just to keep it for myself, but it didn’t work out. I finally convinced myself to let it go, but I had to recreate it first…and that’s how this piece came to be!

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Happy Accidents

Behind the Scenes, Painting, Watercolors

A couple weeks ago we were on our way home from church and along our journey I saw this beautiful sky. There were big, fluffy white and purple clouds along the horizon, the blue of the sky played so well with the colors of the bare trees and farm field, and there was one, lonely cloud up high in the sky. I knew I had to paint it, so I took a picture really quick and put it on the back burner for later.

Later came really quickly as I was able to get started on the piece a few days later, and it was turning out BEAUTIFULLY. The clouds were staying white where I wanted them to, the purple was making them look fluffy, it was just going exactly the way I wanted it to, if not better.

I finished the painting in record time, and I was ECSTATIC. I waited for it to dry, and then plopped it into a mat for framing….and then it all went downhill really, really quickly.

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Boathouse Misses the Boat Easter Eggs & Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes, Illustrations

If you haven’t heard yet, the fourth book in the The Adventures of Boathouse Mouse is now available!!!! I have the honor and privilege of illustrating this book series with my friend and talented author, RV Hodge.

You may have noticed this book took a really, really long time to come out. In the four years since book three, I sold and bought a new house, had to completely remodel my new house’s basement to create a studio, and well…the world shut down and so did I for quite awhile. But here we are, and we are so, so excited to have this book completed!

If you’ve been around awhile, you know that I love including Easter Eggs in my books. I didn’t do it with book one, but two on? Full of them, and this book is no exception!

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I’m a Hobbit!

Sale

My birthday is THIS WEEK!!!

So just like I tend to do, I’m pretending I’m a Hobbit and am doing a birthday sale on my Etsy shop. From Sunday, December 26th through Tuesday, December 28th, everything is 20% off!!!

However, because I love my blog readers, I’m sweetening the deal for you guys: use the coupon code BIRTHDAY and get an additional 10% off your order! No minimum purchase needed, shipping is always free.

The only thing is that with the way shipping is going these days, I’m only shipping to the United States right now. I hope to open back up someday soon, so stay tuned for updates on that!

New Piece Alert: Autumnal Equinox

Mixed Media, Watercolors

My husband and I just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary in October. We have a tradition where we go away over Columbus Day weekend as it’s a long weekend (he’s a teacher and can’t always take time off), and as we weren’t sure what the world would be like, we decided to stay close to home and visit Ithaca, NY. While I was a little bummed we couldn’t do something bigger (we like to do bigger trips every 5 years), it ended up being an amazing weekend. We visited one of our favorite college students, ate so much delicious food, and visited a few waterfalls. The leaves were starting to change colors, so it was STUNNING.

One of the falls we visited had a huge, long, difficult trail that I especially was not prepped for. I almost quit multiple times going up, but with some encouragement from my husband and other hikers along the route, I did it! On the way back down, there was a spot along the path where the light on the newly colored leaves felt magical, and it inspired this piece…

Title: Autumnal Equinox

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Planning Ahead // Goals for 2022

Update

2021 is starting to wind down, and while I’m wrapping up some projects before the year ends, I’m starting to think ahead to the new year. I’m working on some plans and goals, and here are a few that I have set already:

Create 30 originals. Ever since rebranding I’ve tried to make 3-4 originals a month, and while that’s been happening, I want to leave some wiggle room for life and other projects coming up!

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New Piece Alert: Harry

Drawing, Painting, Watercolors

Just as a warning, there might be a theme for some of these newer pieces. When I started relaunching my business, we happened to have our annual Apps family vacation fall smack dab right in the middle of it. And when we stayed on a beautiful river and as an artist I am obsessed with clouds, sunrises/sunsets, and all things landscape and of nature, we can just say that there were a lot of photos taken as inspiration for future pieces (including Serenity Bay!).

While we were on vacation, I was asking some of our family members what kinds of things they’d like to see me do. The #1 response? Another blue heron…

Title: Harry

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New Piece Alert: Serenity Bay

Painting

This summer we took our annual Apps family vacation to Virginia and stayed on a river. This was a big change for us as we typically go to the ocean or maybe a lake, but a river? Definitely new.

It was such an amazing vacation, though. We watched herons, we kayaked and swam, and even saw dolphins on our last full day there.

The weather was absolutely beautiful, but we did have one day of rain. The way the clouds rolled over the river were absolutely stunning, and inspired this piece:

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