Needlepoint designs a hit!

The weekend of January 11-13 my needlepoint designs made their debut at the TNNA(The National NeedleArts Association) Trade Show in Long Beach, California. They were a hit! My sales were great according to the company representing my designs! I debuted with 9 designs and had a few that sold really well. So, now I'm busy working on more new designs. If you are interested in seeing/buying any of my fine art needlepoint canvases, you will need to contact Lynda with Dreamhouse Ventures. I don't think she has my designs up on her website just yet, but I plan to post a page of my currently available designs with a link to her website until then. I will try to get all the images posted by this evening. It is so exciting to think about my designs going out into the world! My goal is to have at least 50 designs by the end of this year. I have 9 so far, so I guess I'd better get busy.

I also have a new section planned for my etsy shop. Recycled, handpainted tables. These are mainly the small, round, decorator tables. I have saved several from the landfill by taking them off people's hands on Freecycle. Freecycle is a great site, if you have never heard of it before, please follow the link and sign up! It is a national site, with smaller member groups around the country. Basically, people post listings of things they are trying to get rid of or things they want and other people respond to take things off your hands or to give you things you want, and it's all FREE! It's a great way to keep things out of the landfill and you would be surprised what people will take! It is so true that one man's trash is another man's treasure. I plan to put up the tables on my etsy site sometime this week. The cool thing about these tables is that they can be used as a table or hung on the wall like a piece of art. Plus, they're recycled!

I've been having a hard time deciding what to blog about. I have visited so many cool artist blogs and they all seem so much more interesting than mine! So, anyone out there, give me your ideas for what you want me to blog about. Is there any burning questions on your mind? What do you want to know? Do you like the blogs with nothing but images? Should I talk more about the art? Help me out people, I need ideas! :)

Another table and record

Positive Energy, acrylic on recycled vinyl LP record

Purple flower handpainted table

Finished this table yesterday and painted another record this morning. Another busy day, no time to write more, but I hope you enjoy the new pics!

Recycled LP Records

Centered, acrylics on recycled LP vinyl record

This idea is not a new one, but a great one! I have to share a little history about myself here so you can understand my connection to vinyl.

My dad is a record collector, has been since, I don't know, the 1950s? Anyway, he has over 25,000 records! 33s, 45s and 78s! I grew up hanging out with him in his "record room", which at one point was nothing more than a big closet. I have fond memories of him introducing me to all kinds of music during the 70s and 80s. He has the top 100 Billboard hits from the 40s thru the early 90s!

I almost feel a little guilty defacing these records after having my dad pound into my head the "correct" way to handle them! However, I've told him my plans and I think he approves. Thanks to my dad for the doubles he had to spare! Hope you like them, dad!

Music has always been a huge thing in my life. I can't remember a time when I didn't listen to music every minute of the day. My brother is a musician. I even married a musician!

So, when I first started seeing recycled vinyl everywhere, I thought what a great idea for my paintings! I have wanted to paint in a round format and the records are perfect for this. They also have a built in hanger with the hole in the middle! This is available in my Etsy shop.

Another busy day

Overshadowed (click to buy)

Royal Sun (click to buy)

Eclipse (click to buy)

Night Sky (click to buy)

Thank goodness I'm finally coming out of the funk, now if we could just come out of winter!

Anyway, today I painted one 8 inch square H2O oil on recycled canvas board and three ACEOs. They are all available in my Etsy shop.

Back in the groove!

Everything Will Be OK (click to buy)

Calm Down (click to buy)

Sunflower ACEO SOLD

Today's daily paintings, yes, I accomplished a few things today! Finally starting to feel like I'm getting back into the groove. The top two paintings are H2O oils on my handmade recycled canvas boards, 8 inches square. The bottom painting is an H2O oils ACEO (2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches) on acid free matboard. They are available in my Etsy shop.

I'm getting started on a totally new project today, recycling an old guitar as a painting surface. It will be nothing but decorative as the guitar is unplayable. My husband saved it from the trash for me. I sanded it down over the weekend and applied a coat of gesso today. I hope to start painting it tomorrow. I will post some progress photos once I get going. Not sure yet if it will be available for sale, depends on whether my hubby likes it or not! I do have another recycled guitar to paint after this one though.

It's starting to warm up here finally! Although we are supposed to be getting hit with another cold front this weekend. Spring needs to hurry up and get here already!!!

Painting again

"Pure Emotion" Click HERE to Buy

"Spokes of the Sun" Click HERE to Buy

Today is the first day I've painted since our furnace died. So, I dove right in and painted two daily size paintings. These are both 8 x 8 inches, H2O Oils on recycled, handmade canvas board. I made the boards using scrap matboard, raw canvas and gesso. I also made custom backing paper for them! I started out with 12 boards for now. That gives me a couple weeks without having to make more, unless I paint two a day! I also have a 10 inch square canvas prepared and ready to paint! Time is getting short for my show in March, so I'm trying to finish as many as possible.


Today I'm going to a meeting at my community center about a proposed mural on a wall that overlooks the neighborhood park and the city of Albuquerque. The neighborhood association asked me to be on the committee and help with the process. I'm excited but at the same time a little unsure as there will be a lot of city politics involved I'm sure. I would like to involve the high school art students and any other neighborhood kids that are interested. I think it will happen as this is supposed to be a community project because of the funding being used. We shall see!