Lost a bid on an ACEO painting today of a chickadee from an artist whose work I admire so I decided to paint my own

and you can bid on it here
I also did a little Italian scene with lavender fields similar to ones I've done before.

I'm actually looking forward to getting out and working tomorrow, I feel guilty when I'm sitting for too long, even when I'm working on my painting.  I may hate that I'm cleaning again to make ends meet but it is great exercise.

Introducing Helpouts by Google

Sales of the little paintings are going well and steady and there's a bid on the larger 16"x 20" Pear painting too

which I'm very happy about.  I'm not making $743 a painting like this one just sold for

but I guess anyone who can get that much detail into a tiny 2.5"x3.5" painting should be rewarded.  Several of Kathy Manuel's paintings have sold in the hundreds.  She must have young eyes or a great magnifying glass.

I've also been commissioned to do a 24"x 36" Pear painting.......what fun, the larger the better :-)
I did this 4'x5' one on wood several years ago......

The mandatory Christmas cookies have been made

 and I'm looking forward to a couple of extra days off.  It'll be a quiet Christmas, my son and his family are down in sunny Florida for the holidays, but then that's where they spend Christmas every year.  I think I need to find somewhere to volunteer my time this year, I'll look into it.

Is my blog getting boring?  My blog is getting boring.  It seems I've settled into a pretty boring routine.........gotta do something about that.

Have a great holiday everyone.

I'm home yesterday and today albeit not by choice.  Yesterday I went out to a job, one of my regular clients, and could not get my car up their steep ice covered driveway and with no where to park I had to turn around and go home. This was on top of my car stalling twice on my way over there which is why I'm home today.......the car is back in the shop.   So with two days of lost income (plus an unexpected expense) I've decided I need to paint and list enough paintings that will hopefully sell and make up for that loss.
Here are some new additions to the ebay listings .

New post new paintings on ebay.....

I've got some new paintings on ebay, some ACEO's and one larger painting.

This ACEO painting sold yesterday for $32, the highest price I've gotten for one yet.  That's why you see another new PB&J one above :-)

And this is the larger pear painting I have for sale.

It measures 16"x 20"

Our first snowfall this year........

Just a bit of inspiration. Something I need to read over and over and over again.

Remember my $90 sofa bed find?

And how perfectly an Ikea basic sofa bed slipcover fit?

Well I finally had the money to order a new mattress for it today.  Here's a shopping tip....the least expensive sofa bed mattress I could find after looking at several websites was one at Sleepy's, a memory foam one for $235, more than I was hoping to spend but I resigned myself to having to save a bit longer so I could purchase it.  Fortunately I decided to check Amazon and what do you know, there it was, the exact same mattress being sold by several others for way less and I was able to order one for $119 with free shipping.  I can't wait to get it and finally get a good nights sleep.

I dropped the car off at the mechanics today to get the rear brakes replaced this time (did the front ones a couple weeks ago) and when I went to pick it up I noticed a building two doors down with a few pieces of furniture out on the sidewalk.  I peeked in the door, my jaw dropped and I giggled out loud.  Totally unassuming on the outside but inside.......a three story warehouse filled to the brim with antiques and collectibles.  This is only half the width of the room.......

I only had my cell phone camera but I wasn't leaving without pictures.....most are blurry (sorry), I think I was shaking with excitement......I couldn't wait to go exploring!

Check out these chairs!

One of the employees told me he thinks they came out of an old Girard Bank years ago.
The owner told me this chandelier was from the 60's which surprised me, the thing just sparkled brilliantly in person....$275

For you locals its on Queen Lane between Greene St and Germantown Ave next to Master Tech mechanics.....I asked the name but I've forgotten it.....I don't think there's a sign on it anyway.
The place is only open on Saturdays or by appointment and I can't wait to go back, there was just way too much to see in one visit.  I know where I'm doing my Christmas shopping this year.

I feel like I'm channeling someones grandmother lately.....I scored these Guardian Service pieces at the local Salvation Army Thrift Shop in the last couple of days, two triangle pots (one never used) and a griddle. 

Then today I spent the afternoon chopping, blanching and freezing vegetables.......I never do that lol.....maybe its cause I'm growing out my gray hair....lol. 
Seriously though I'm just tire of the increasingly higher prices at the grocery store and being a single person.......wasting food.  I try to buy fresh food to eat healthier but I swear I throw more of it away than I eat because it goes bad so quickly so I'm trying a new tactic...buying fresh and freezing it. Maybe I should learn more about preserving too.  I needed to go to the Dollar Tree store today to pick up some photo mailers (2 for $1) for my ACEO cards and I always walk the isles to look for other
bargains and spotted four boxes of mac and cheese for $1!  Ok....I know its not the healthiest but I won't eat it every day and you just can't beat 25¢ a box!  Leaving there I passed a produce market and saw Jersey tomatoes $3 for 3lbs, compared to Super Market prices ($2.99 a lb) that's a good price and its the first time I've seen Jersey tomatoes sold anywhere in my area.....I may have to go back for some.

A new ACEO fig painting...I wasn't happy with the one I posted earlier.

Just posted a new ACEO painting on ebay

Or how about a pumpkin

I noticed the other day a fellow artist had posted some information on facebook about the camera lucida.  I unfortunately at the time didn't take the time to read it, if I had I would have saved myself some delay in discovering this...an iphone/ipad app that acts like a camera lucida!

What happened instead was I got a call yesterday regarding an ad I had placed on Craigslist selling a projector that I never use anymore.  And while I was retrieving that from the closet I saw my stored away camera lucida and decided to pull it out and play around with it.

I went online to the makers website to see about replacing one of the two mirrors that are in the head....something sticky got on the outer most half silvered mirror and I can't get it off for the life of me.  I discovered they didn't offer mirror replacements but they do sell replacement heads for $60+, not bad when the complete camera lucida is around $200.  Anyway while I was googling for information is when I saw the iphone app for $4.99.  I swear sometimes I feel like I've been living under a rock!  I downloaded the app and of course couldn't figure out how to use it so I had to do a bit more googling and found some info here......

I've been down with a nasty cold that seems to be hitting everyone and because of that I've missed a couple of work days........not good for the already struggling self employed.  
I have managed though to at least get started on the silly animal paintings that were commissioned from my decorator friend in Florida who's opening a new restaurant.

Make the girls sexy were my instructions and I find this really difficult.  I'd much rather be painting a still life than silly animals but I guess its good to step out of your comfort zone now and then.  I'm still putting some finishing touches on her.  I still have a monkey, giraffe, hippo and zebra to go, then a larger painting with a monkey couple.
You can see I've relisted some small paintings on ebay and have started with lower starting bids hoping to get things moving.....my new car fund is not growing :-(
I got a couple of books that I was able to read while trying to recover from this cold......Craft Business Power by Jason and Cinnamon Miles......its about starting an online business and there's a lot of focus on ebay.  The other book is called Etsypreneurship and deals with Etsy (of course) and is really about the 'business' of starting a business, taxes, business plans, marketing etc.  Both pretty quick reads but I'm not sure there was anything in them that I didn't already know, it seems to me the most important thing about trying to sell online is consistency and reaching out via social networking, and those are the things I need to get better at.

What the heck is 'metal clay' I asked myself?  Can't remember how I landed on this website Craftcast.com but land there I did.  Its a website that offers recorded and live craft lessons and while there were no current live classes listed there was quite an extensive list of downloadable recorded lessons that could be purchased, the majority having to do with working with 'metal clay'........I'd never heard of it?  Not surprising though since I don't create jewelry or even wear it much but.....I'm intrigued.

So I got the first painting started

I even got it further than this but I hated it.  I'm just not comfortable or good at doing ridiculous characters, so she'll get scrapped and I'll start again.  Yes it was so awful I can't bring myself to show it.

I went out to clean this morning and on my way home I stopped at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop and found this, what looked to be a well used vintage chamber pot for $5.  She cleaned up well but I'm going to feel dirty for at least a week.......yuck.

I'm still waiting to hear back from my landlady about the cost to rent the room across the hall from my apartment for a studio.

Today was spent relaxing :-)  A friend and I went thrift shopping this morning and I was able to find three old chairs for my dining table, one at http://www.phantasticphinds.com/ 
for $17

and two others by shear chance at a shop further up the street.

I'm going to try and restore the old cane seats in these two.

I say by chance because we were walking out of the shop not seeing anything I liked when the owner came out and asked what I was looking for.  He instructed us to come to the back of the building via a narrow alley and there they were two charming little chairs circa 1930/40, perfect for what I was looking for.......the pair for $30.
On my way home I stopped at a local thrift shop and found this fabulous bowl for $3.

Got home and made some amazing peanut butter fudge, then indulged and had nachos for supper........good thing it'll soon be time for winter clothing, I can hide my badness ;-)

I'm entertaining yet another option regarding moving or staying put.  I've asked my landlady about a room that is across the hall from my apartment, its just a large single room that she's currently using to store some of her things, I asked her about the possibility of renting it as studio space.  She did tell me that it would be possible, that she had rented it out to other artists in the past.  Now I'm just waiting to hear back from her about how much she would want for it.
I'm still vacillating between staying here (in the Germantown section of Philly) or moving back to the suburb of Narberth.......the quaint little town that I adore (but that is oh so expensive).

Tomorrow I start my sketches for the Florida restaurant job and I'll post photos as I go along.

Well.....looks like its on to plan B.  I got quite a lift to my ego when my little ACEO paintings would sell quickly on ebay but that appears to have stopped.  I will just keep them listed for sale here on my blog and move on to working on larger pieces that I will hope to sell through the DailyPaintWorks site.......and of course I have the restaurant paintings to focus on.
I continue to be dazzled by mother nature since my return to the northeast.  This tree is at a home I work in and it was simply gorgeous this summer covered in these white flowers.

But those flowers have now been replaced with what I'm assuming are the trees seeds.  I have never seen a tree like this before, does anyone know what it is?  The seeds(or fruit?) look like prickly cherries.

Fascinating.