Ringing in the New Year... Hello February!

So I indulged myself with a gift... The gift of January! It was the first time in such a long time that I didn't have to worry about deadlines, or registering for classes, or grades, or buying my textbooks... I was TOTAL BLISS.

Now, I didn't sit on my ass and do nothing... I did a whole lot of spring cleaning, and organizing, and COOKING! I was able to get in touch with my inner housewife again ;)

The husband just got a fabulous new job, which requires a lot of fancy dinners... Which means I get to buy new fancy dresses! Here I am all gussied up for an awards dinner last week:



I obviously did not clean that bathroom mirror during the cleaning binge... But it's clean now, I swear!!

Oooh, we also put all-new carpet in the house... The cats approve:


Always have to fight over the sunny spots... And the carpet is so soft and squishy!

I'm counting my blessings right now... I'll get back to you soon.

Merry Christmas Eve!

This is how it looked outside a few days ago:


SO PRETTY! But it's all melty now. Boo. It's actually sunny today, but it's still VERY COLD outside!

I let the boys open a Christmas Even present this morning...


They always strategize and then open... They're pretty entertaining :)



I'm just starting to feel caught up on everything... I'm making my TO DO list for 2012, and January is going to be pretty exciting...

UPDATE...

I know I am the biggest nerd, but how great is this:


Because I finished my last semester with STRAIGHT A+, I bumped my final cumulative GPA to a 4.18!! Hooray! I'm just tickled. And I'm so glad to be done!!

At least for a little while... I do still have plans to get my Master's degree. But for now, a well-earned break from school!

I've also got our tree up and decorated, and all of the presents are wrapped...


And Shane & I went to the squadron Christmas party...


It was at the Aquarium this year, and it was so much fun!

We even got the boys to go to the squadron Thanksgiving party, and as we were leaving, I made them pose by one of the Ospreys in the hangar...


It's so awkward trying to get teenage boys to pose for a picture...


Awkward.


Seriously?

Then we had Shane's birthday celebration - he's 40 now! I can't believe it... It seems like only yesterday that we were 17 and in high school... Le sigh.


Tully is super into all things military now (he's wearing a leather bomber jacket & AF hat with his pajamas)... He wants to study engineering in college, but he also wants to go into the Air Force. We shall see...


Shane had a great birthday :)

I still make the boys hand-make cards, and they usually turn out pretty hilarious. Here is Stone's card for his dad:


That's Shane in a helicopter, and our chihuahua Tallulah flying next to him with a rotor blade attached to her head.

And then the heartfelt message inside:


:)

Hooray For Me!

Pretty excited that I made this happen (three months before my 40th birthday!)...


Supergeek! But I'm happily nerdly. Graduating at the tippy-top of my class...

summa cum laude Departmental Honors for my outstanding artwork...

summa cum laude Baccalaureate Honors for my G.P.A. (4.17)...

All while being a fabulous wife and fabulous mother and HECK YES, I'm FABULOUS!!

I'm so excited to just be able to work on my art without having to stress out about readings, or studying for tests, or writing papers, or any of that! It's just ME now!

I'm still hoping to have some exciting news soon... Stay tuned... :)

Stranger Factory Winter Salon Goodness...

So last night was the opening reception for The Stranger Factory's Winter Salon... Of course I had to go... But I didn't anticipate the FREEZING COLD STORM that blustered through with 80 mph wind gusts!! I think I got a wee bit o' frost bite in my fingers...

Everything was awesome as usual...


I get super self-conscious when I'm in there... I think just being in close proximity to Kathie & Brandt makes me all starstruck. SO I just used my dumb iphone to take pictures, so my pictures are kind of le suck... Sorry.

I need to get over my photography stage fright, you know??


I was glad that I got to see the le fabulous of Jon MacNair! Your work is amazing, sir...


But there was 'professional dude with camera' filming your stuff the whole time I was there, so I couldn't get any prime shots...


I'm thinking he was working on a video for the show... Stranger Factory has a new Youtube Channel that everyone should subscribe to... There's going to be some good stuff on there, I guarantee it.



I'm bummed that this next picture is all blurry-yuck:


They're made by a guy named Ryan Friant aka Illworx and I think he lives in ABQ, but I could be wrong... His website says he lives in Philadelphia, and he hasn't updated his blog for the past year, but he has a Facebook account that says he's in Albuquerque... Hmmm...

I am such a fucking stalker.

ANYWHO, I love his work.


Super-enjoyable.

As was everything else...











This little pink Skelve really wanted to come home with me...


All of the creatures from last month's show were still hanging out, so they were fun to peek at again. There are some more items that are going to be in the show but they're arriving next week... So I GUESS I'll have to head down there again. Poor me :)

I ended up buying about $50 worth of goodies for the boys' Christmas stockings...

Only the cool moms buy vinyl toys for their kiddos.

Only the Coolest People...

I'm giving myself a little break from the 20-page research paper I'm writing to update about the Stranger Factory show that I went to last week... There is a fantastic article over at Circus Posterus that sums it up better than I could even attempt to, and there is a fantastic gallery of images that yours truly just so happens to be mixed into...


Just chewing on my lip as I study the genius...

Amanda Louise Spayd and Chris Ryniak are basically just AWESOME PEOPLE, along with Kathy Olivas and Brandt Peters. Swoon. Below you can see me talking to Amanda as her sweet husband and Nora and Sara chill on the bench...


They are pretty much the nicest group of artists I've ever met. Nora and Sara were from out of town, and were lucky enough to have purchased some of the work in the show... Amanda and Chris (et al) are just my kinda peeps...


LOVE.

But seriously - what is the deal with my mouth??


I just look goofy.

Chilling in the gallery...


I ended up talking with Amanda for about 45 minutes - Thankfully it wasn't very busy so I could bogart some extra talk time :)


The Stranger Factory is having another opening this Thursday - it's their "Annual Winter Salon Exhibition" and there is no way that I'll miss it!!


I'm hoping to be able to schmooze with some more fabulous people without looking like a TOTAL STALKER... But come on, how can you not love a face like this?


Back to work... I'll have to make some serious headway on this paper if I'm going to make it to the show opening!!

Spot the Sister

Can you see my wee sister?


My sister, Kippy, at the San Felipe de Neri church in Old Town, Albuquerque, New Mexico... Right after this, we went to Pro's Ranch Market so she could experience what 'Burque is really all about :)

More deliveries tomorrow! I'm such a busy bee, but I'm almost done... I'm glad I sold so much work, but delivery is a bear!! I have four commissions to finish as well... A busy artist is a happy artist!

My positive boot affirmation of the day came from a lady and her son on the elevator of the parking garage today... I was wearing my pair of over-the-knee black leather Ralph Lauren boots (3" heel) and the woman exclaims how lucky I am to be so tall to be able to wear those boots, and that they look fantastic on me! I must admit, they're definitely "power boots"... I feel pretty kickass when I wear them! Her son just stared at my boots... lol...

Best of all, I'm going to the Chris Ryniak/Amanda Louise Spayd show at the Stranger Factory on Friday... So excited!!

Picture of the Day

This photo is just TOO GOOD not to share... I give you Brown University's Taxidermy class of 1875:

(Click image to see larger)

Today was an excellent day... I caught up on about a million errands, did some Christmas shopping, watched some painting critiques (and gave my 2 cents, as I always do), got compliments on my hair (was told my color was gorgeous and asked "Who does your hair?" - I love it when I say ME!), and I was also complimented by 2 different women on my fabulous red Anthropologie riding boots (they just seem to get better with age)...

I also delivered 4 more of my pieces to their new owners... Such fun. Class tomorrow, only a few classes left til GRADUATION!!!!!

600 Posts and Still Truckin'

According to Blogger, this is my 600th post... Not bad. Could be better. But I'm still here!!

Here are a slew of fabulous pictures... I have so many that are keeping me in my HAPPY PLACE, I could blog for days... This is the first November in years that I haven't done the Nablopomo business - it's just been one of those CRAZY months, you know? Maybe I'll try for it in December... We'll see...

Here is an example of the joy that my sister and her visit brought me:


With Tully being a freshman in high school, not much makes him genuinely laugh... But you better believe that Auntie Kippy does!!


My sister has the best hair. LOVE.


She's good at keeping my nutty boys in line.


And she was the perfect house guest!! We shopped, and ate green chile, and experience New Mexico.


On a side note, apparently handing my Canon Rebel camera to my husband turns him into a International Fashion Photographer. The following photo is me telling him to STOP PRESSING THE SHUTTER LIKE A MADMAN.


Then I could pose like a madwoman.


I MISS MY SISTER but thankfully we talk on the phone almost every day. AND she's adept with Skype now as well! Yeay.

Here are a few more of my creature...


All of these are sold. I am so incredibly happy that they'll be hanging in the homes of the BEST people!!


Kris Mills bought this guy:


When I deliver him next week, I'm going to see if we can possibly maybe do some sort of trade... I love her work, and I'm so pleased that she loves mine, too!

This is one of the last pieces I completed for the show:


I need to photograph it better - these don't do it justice.

Oh, and speaking of photos, I had brought my humble camera setup to the gallery last week to photograph the exhibition, and I was doing an okay-ish job... But with only one semester of photography under my belt, I was absolutely out of my league.

Enter Rachel Cox, who is a grad student in photography at UNM - she just happened to wander into the gallery as I awkwardly documented my show.

"Um, what kind of setup you got there?" she said (with a twinkle in her eye). I said "I know, I know - I'm trying!" Rachel then suggested that she could come back in a couple of hours with her complete (amazing) setup and do a professional shoot - if you click on the link to her website, you can see that in addition to her own amazing artwork, Rachel does freelance work for artists (which is completely lucrative - most painters/sculptors/artists cannot document their own work - it's harder than it looks to do it RIGHT!)

Rachel shot for an hour and a half, took over 100 photographs, AND DID IT FOR TRADE!! YEAY!! Holy cow, I was so relieved.

I also made a video, but that's going to take me a bit to post-process. I'm good with iMovie, but since I don't personally own a Mac, I'll have to figure out the movie program on my trusty little Toshiba. It'll happen, just give me time...


This next little guy was another super popular one:


I've already ordered the supplies to make some more - they'll probably be a bit different, but along the same lines... My mind is constantly swirling.




SOLD! SOLD! SOLD!!!

The reaction to my work has just been unbelievable. I am still riding high!! I took the show down yesterday, and there were still people filtering in the whole time - one guy came in and exclaimed "NOOOOOOOOOOO! Don't take them down!!"

I just am so tickled by the way people have fallen in love with it. My book is full of over 20 solid pages of people positively raving about the work. Seriously? Not a single negative or critical of bad thing anywhere in there.

Here are a few pictures from my reception that Shane took:


The gorgeous Lea Anderson and her fabulous daughter Korie! They bought 5 pieces and have VERY good taste, if I do say so myself ;)


Some of my old CNM peeps (who are now UNM peeps): my sweet friend Tim, one of my favorite instructors and friends Lynn, Hadassah's boyfriend (I think his name is Pepe?), fabulous Hadassah (who is ridic gorgeous), and ME!


Kippy talking with Nancy's husband Darrin.

These make me giggle:


Stone and his best friends Michael, looking quite dapper! :)


Yep.


My boys seriously love their Auntie Kippy.


Oh, and I just noticed that my committee members Michael Cook and Scott Anderson are in the back of that shot, having a chat. I just adore them so immensely!

So Shane was in charge of getting the boys to the show after school - Kippy and I had arrived early to set up food and get ready for my talk. My only instruction to Shane was to make sure the boys didn't look grungy - This is how they dressed themselves!


Shane had also got me a box of See's chocolates and a gorgeous bunch of flowers from Trader Joe's - the night couldn't have been more perfect!


LOVE Lynn... She bought 3 pieces! Extra love!!

Even though my eyes are closed in this picture, I love it - Ariane is so very fabulous...


RAAARGH hands! And you can see the antlers I was wearing in my hair all night - I really really enjoyed them, and might have to start wearing them on a regular basis...