No new paintings to show, I've got moving on my mind and its hard to focus.
Yesterday there were two appointments to show my current apartment, I don't know the results.  This apartment is a hard sell, its very small, two rooms and a tiny bathroom, but fingers crossed someone will be swept away by the beautiful architecture of the place.
Anyway......when there is a showing here I leave the property and head around the corner to the local thrift shop and yesterday was my lucky day!  I loved my old red curtains that I had in the apartment I'll be returning to...

and thought I'd never find panels wide enough or long enough to get that look again (that I could afford).....But.....I did, well sort of.  I found three ikea curtain panels for a total of $8.95.  They're brown not red but they are wide and long (57"x 118" each) and will look great with my current furniture.

I'm still waiting for measurements from Florida so I can begin the paintings for the restaurant there.  I'm guessing the renovations are presenting more pressing concerns for the new owners. 
Perhaps I'll work on some ebay paintings today, I confess its getting harder to get motivated to do them.  Even though they sell consistently I'm not seeing their value increase significantly and with the ebay fees, supply costs, postage, etc, well its frustrating spending hours on a painting and seeing a return of just a couple of dollars......the joy of painting starts to fade.

A couple of more paintings for ebay

I'm still waiting for measurements to begin the paintings for the Florida restaurant and there are no takers on my current apartment yet......waiting, waiting, waiting........sigh.

Today I sign the lease on my old apartment, it got moved up a day......AND :-).......my current landlord is showing my apartment tomorrow afternoon, fingers are crossed!  I stayed home yesterday to avoid the snowy morning commute and spent the day staging my apartment....shampooed the carpet, shined up the wood floor, removed and put away as much 'stuff' as I could to make the place less cluttered, etc.  One thing I like about Philly, if you don't want something anymore you can just put it out on the street and it'll be gone in seconds!
Since I'll be scrambling for extra money the next few weeks I got back in touch with the decorator in Florida, the one who had me doing the silly animal portraits, and the one who was trying to open a new restaurant.

I learned she finally got a place (third try) and its under renovation.  The theme will be sort of old rustic fishing shack kind of stuff and we're talking about me doing some paintings, and I don't think it will involve animals in hats :-) I'm waiting for pictures of the place and any ideas she may have for the paintings.
I've got a couple of new paintings up on ebay, one being another peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

A long day today, yesterdays job and todays and a lease signing........off I go.

Love this room, it reminds me most of when I was in the apartment I'm moving back into.  Of course I have different furniture now.....wish I still had those gorgeous red curtains.....and I think I have enough pieces to closely replicate the design below.  I've been looking at studio apartment decorating ideas online. I'll sign my lease next Wednesday and then panic for the following six weeks trying to get all of the move-in costs together. I'll be losing my deposit on my current apartment because I'm leaving early, something I didn't anticipate so the pressures on......but I'll get it done :-)

Here's some others that caught my eye.........

Yeah!....today I put a deposit on my old studio apartment, I'm sooooo looking forward to the move, move in will be the end of April.
I spent most of the afternoon looking online for new ideas decorating small spaces although I pretty much have it planned out already having lived there before.
I did find something new that I'm excited about using because if I remember correctly there's a bit of  linoleum flooring in the kitchen that is pretty boring and could use some help.  I happened on a Youtube video about putting down a temporary linoleum floor with double sided tape.  The company is Modularity Tiles .

Of course these can be applied permanently but whats neat is they sell a double sided tape ($65) to use for a temporary application and this tape leaves no residue when removed, the tiles are $3.25 a piece........LOVE IT!

Anyone remember my first studio apartment in Narberth? 

Where I painted my window screens.....

Ok it was a few years ago, I really liked that apartment but at the time it was getting too expensive for my budget so I gave it up.  Well, I just learned its become available again and just at the time I'm apartment hunting.  My one hesitation.....its now even more pricey at $960 a month.  I have a feeling though that I won't have to struggle deciding whether to take it or not.......I don't have the money to secure it and it'll probably get snapped up before I do (have the money).  Better news........I'm looking at another apartment in Narberth today that's two hundred dollars less and has a bedroom and washer and dryer.  True I still don't have 'holding' money but maybe I can strike a deal?.......... probably not, Narberth has no problem finding new residents.  We'll see.  I need to learn to be more positive.

So exciting all my ebay ACEO paintings have bids on them.  I did these peaches over the weekend to add to the apple and the two landscapes.

New on ebay

I can not believe this!  They are predicting another 6-12 inches of snow starting tomorrow and guess what that means........possibly another two days of missed work.  I've been struggling to figure out how to move into a larger apartment since I can't afford to move back to Florida and now its beginning to look like I can't even afford to move to just another part of town!  This is just frigging ridiculous.

On a brighter note the landscape painting in the previous post sold for $20.49, I finally broke through the $8.50 starting bid :-) that everythings been selling at.
I have been painting all day and will probably spend the next few days doing the same.  I did another small (ACEO) mini landscape.  I hope those look like cows to everyone, painting cows that small was tricky.

I look up old landscape paintings online and borrow bits and pieces from them and compose my own scene.  The bits of money I make from these is becoming more and more important.....right now I've got about $40 in the bank and with missing more work this coming week its going to be rough.  But the rents paid and there's plenty of brown rice and dried beans in the cupboard :-).  And I should say out loud how happy I am that I started collecting social security early because if I hadn't I'd be in deep(er) trouble having missed so much work these past several weeks.......I am grateful.

Well, after some careful thought and number crunching I've come to accept the fact that I can't afford to move back to Florida, not unless I could earn as much painting as I do cleaning and it doesn't look like that'll ever happen. I couldn't afford to take my things with me and to get there with no job prospects would be pretty foolish.  So the new plan is to try and move back to Narberth, the little town I was living (and happy) in before I moved to the Germantown area.  I've talked about Narberth before, the perfect little town with everything you could possibly need within a four block area......grocery, pharmacy, bank, hardware, train station, movie theater, restaurants, bars, laundry, coffee shop, specialty shops, etc etc.  And now that I'm collecting social security I'll be better able to afford the pricey rents (the reason I left there)......ha :-) at least that's the current plan but if you follow this blog you know that could change on a dime ......damn ADHD.

Meanwhile there are two new paintings on ebay.

No painting today.  I spent the morning making another free website on Weebly just for my ACEO paintings http://aceopaintings.net .  You can get to my eBay auctions from it and also buy prints. I started to add a 'store' page on the site but after I had posted 5 products I was informed I had to upgrade and pay if I wanted to add more so I removed it for now and just ask people to contact me if they want to purchase a print.  I'll upgrade the site to add the store once I get some work under my belt, the bank account is pretty low right now with all the missed work from the snow.

I've been wanting to turn some of my ACEO images into small note cards to sell but hadn't been able to find a small size that I thought would be small enough ..... imperfections start to show if the image is enlarged too much.  I think I finally found some that might work and also not break the bank at
this site.  Just some simple matte finish white cards that measure 3 1/2 x 4 7/8 and they're $9.37 for a box of 50!

And a box of 50 envelopes is $10.93.....perfect.  I think $20 for 50 cards/envelopes beats $1+ a piece printers charge, and I'm sure I won't be using $30 worth of ink.

Now all I would need is the confidence to print them myself.  This will be my project for this week.

Ut-O..........looks like I'd better keep looking!   I just found 50 cards for $4.50 HERE
And a box of 250 HERE for $17.97

Ok......I think I've reached my limit.....more snow tomorrow, that's three separate snow events in one week!  I'm starting to check out apartments back in Florida.  Here's three places I've found so far with really reasonable rents:
http://www.lexingtonclubatverobeach.com/
http://www.indianrunstuart.com/
http://www.sandsatstlucie.com/
The Sands has two bedroom/two baths starting at $599

The Lexington has two bedroom/one baths starting at $660 which is what I'm paying here for a two room efficiency!

And The Crossings at Indian Run Apartments has one bedrooms starting at $581, two bedrooms at $681. 

I'm leaning towards the Lexington so far I think.

No work again today because of road conditions......did you hear about the multi, multi car
accident /pile up on the PA turnpike?  Thank goodness no one was seriously hurt.
So.......I did a lot of snow shoveling in the parking area this morning,

(we're running out of places to put the snow) and then settled in to some painting.

Two more paintings done :-)

Roads looked a bit dicey this morning so I pushed a job to tomorrow and finished off another ACEO card for ebay, this one Degas inspired.

Then I went out and cleared some of the new snow off the parking area so my car won't slip around when it all freezes tonight.
Got an errand to run and then more painting.

I landed on this Pinterest page yesterday while looking for examples of canvas murals and felt so inspired to immerse myself in art.  While scrolling through the gorgeous work I was reminded of what a fantastic superior artist Pascal Amblard is (look for his panels).......he is simply amazing, not to mention adorably cute. I first learned about him when I use to lurk on the fauxforum.com site.

Wow, I wonder what else I've missed!  How bloody convenient, I just saw these.

I love doing smaller hanging 'murals' and I adore painting screens.....

ready made canvas screens, who knew!   It use to be such a hassle looking for old screens to redo or buying those hollow core bifold doors to paint.  Its about time someone thought to do this.

Speaking of hanging murals, I've decide to try and get back in the game.  I just spent all day on Weebly.com building a quick and simple website for children's canvas murals, I'm sure I'll go back and make changes, I always do ;-) but I wanted to get it up quickly, and quickly means some tidying up will be needed.....maybe even a facelift (template change), I really want a more sophisticated look.  I'm only charging $15 a square foot plus the cost of the canvas and shipping. I'd be thrilled if I could just do a few of these a month and give up the cleaning jobs. Its getting harder and harder to go out and clean up after other people, its not how I want to spend my time.  So with crossed fingers......

Let me just say........I'M SO OVER WINTER!!...... and there's more snow predicted for this coming week...sigh.  I'm already having to pay this months rent in installments because of the work I missed from the snow we've had the last few weeks and frigid temperatures playing havoc with my car's ability to start in the morning.  Not only did I loose income but I also had to put out for a new battery.
Some don't seem to mind the weather though, this neighborhood hawk spent the night in the tree outside my window.....it was 12 degrees with minus 0 wind chills.  This picture is just before he/she left in the morning.

As you can see in the side bars I got some paintings done today for ebay and will most likely do the same tomorrow.
I want to share with you where I got 75 5"x7" ACEO matte kits (matte, backing, clear bag) for $10 plus $8 and change for shipping.  Of course there are other offerings/sizes you can find HERE too.
I have to say too that they arrived quickly and so carefully packaged.