....and it felt so good!! For the last month, I've been getting up a little past six, stumbling over to the Beast (also known as an exercise machine) and exercising the very first thing most every morning for 20-30 minutes. No coffee, no breakfast, just water. This morning, I decided to forgo the Beast and went to the studio instead.

Oh, my, how I've missed this! I worked on a journal I'm building and then I switched to the Snowman...

Mr. Vert Snowman

Here he is in his FUZZY red jacket! And here's his brother....

Original Sunflower Watercolor Painting

I have just added two new sets of notecards to my online store Painted Thoughts!
The second set is also a set of four (4) notecards of the sweet little nest found in a friend's neighbor's yard in North Carolina:

These are the Easter cards I mentioned earlier in the week - I finally managed to get a decent photo of them and I will be adding them to Etsy! The cards are blank on the inside so that you can send your own personal greeting.

These cards are printed on premium, bright white card stock and are accompanied by matching envelopes. The folded card size is 5.5" by 4.25". The back gives the title and artist name as well as all the copyright information.

Pink Tulip Original Watercolor ACEO
$24.00 + $1.50 Shipping

It is a wonderful feeling to be able to get so much done and get organized until you realize two days have gone by and you haven't created any art! Still, I'm glad to have gotten caught up on some of this stuff and I have more to do, but I think a little each day will get me there. A few more tweaks to the web site and it will be caught up. My business cards are now up to date with my new blog and Etsy addresses added. I have updated Flickr and Etsy with the latest links. And I have identified a number of other things that need doing but are not so pressing that everything else has to stop until they're done.

Last night I was digging around looking for acetate envelopes in some old storage boxes when I ran across this sweet little ACEO. I took some pink tulips into work one morning to put on my desk. One of the tulips just would not stand up. The floppy tulip was right in my site line whenever I glanced at my phone. It seemed to be begging to be painted and I just couldn't resist - isn't it sweet?! I remember setting the painting aside after I painted it with the intention of putting a background on it because it just looked unfinished to me. That was 2007. Fast forward to April 1st, 2009, and I finally put a background on it. Geez, where does the time go?! Anyway, I'm offering it here and then will move it over to Etsy in a few days.

Do you ever feel that way after you've spent a morning doing "chores"? Things that have to be done like scanning and labeling artwork for various tasks (hi-res for printing, low-res for the web); organizing computer files; doing paperwork, etc. I got an early start today but here it is noon, and I'm just now getting to a stopping spot. Not finished, mind you, but stopping. I don't think you ever get finished with this kind of "stuff"!

I finally got back to work on the Hyacinth series in my sketchbook and have completed the painting of the bulb. Again, I'm not really happy with the scan as there are a lot of colors in the bulb area that the scanner is not picking up. Not sure if it's the low resolution or a color issue.  

Finally, I have a small bit of progress to show! Below is a photo of the first piece of Word Art that I have added to my Etsy shop:

A new blog and a new Etsy store! You can find the new store at http://PaintedThoughts.Etsy.com! I do hope that you'll come by and visit!