My dream car

Many of you know that the Corvette is my favorite car. When I get rich as a painter, I'm going to get one, just for fun. I've had trouble deciding on what color, until our trip to Granbury a few weekends ago, when I saw this:


I've decided it has to be a red Corvette. Previously, I thought that might be too ostentatious, but it's so beautiful.... And I've also decided to install massive amounts of lights in my garage, to get just this effect.

And yes, I'll take you for a ride, but no, you cannot borrow my dream car.

The fruits of my labor

Well, summertime is coming to a close (though it doesn't feel like it), and gardeners everywhere are picking the bountiful harvest of their summer vegetable gardens. Today, I collected the fruits of my labor from this summer's garden:


Yes, that's it. A pepper. One little, tiny pepper. According to the picture on the seed packet, it should have been about 4 inches long. This one's pushing an inch. Then again, if it had been 4 inches, it would have hit the ground, because the plant itself never made it much taller than that.

So I'm going to make a few amendments to my gardening plan next year. Because I did have success with the peppers (and yes, considering the rest of my vegetable garden, one pepper is a success, thank you), I'll plant those again, only earlier, and in more soil. Then I'm going to buy beautiful flowers like the ones my grandmother gave me in July--only I'll get them in March, so they'll have time to grow before Hades hits Texas.

Someday, I'm going to be a great gardener. :)

Okay, seriously, people!

Is it true that eyebrow waxing gets less painful the more you do it, or is that some horrible lie being passed around so more people will join in the misery? Because I just got my eyebrows waxed for the first time, and it stinkin' hurt. And now my eyebrows are about half the size they used to be.

I'm thinking this is a case of Misery Loves Company, and I'm not sure I'm joining after this.

On my way....

Well, I just got home from Home Depot with 64 feet of lumber for frames for my paintings! I've picked out four photos that follow the same basic style and are ones I'll enjoy painting, so I am really excited. If I get picked to be in the festival, I've decided that I'll make several more big paintings, and supplement with lots of small ones. We'll see how it goes! I'm on my way!! More postings later on the topic.

Oh, I also came home with a bump on my head. Jon put all the lumber in the back of the truck at Home Depot, and I was about to staple a red rag on the longest piece (it stuck out a few feet from the back of the truck). I had to get the staples from the cab of the truck, and in heading that way, I walked right into the end of a 1x4! I guess that's why it needed a bright red rag on it.

Jon took me to Granbury this weekend! We went to a bed & breakfast on Saturday night, and enjoyed an art museum, a nice restaurant with two guys singing requests, the lake, and a picnic! It was so great and relaxing. I just learned that I shouldn't ask the couple across from us at the breakfast table how long they've been married--just in case they aren't married at all. It was an honest mistake!

We have a new member of the blogging community. My mom has started a blog up called Carolyn's Chronicles, with some interesting commentary on working in a prison, and other things. Witty, yet poignant. :) I'll be putting her blog in the links section of this site.

Entrepreneurship

I think I have a streak of the entrepreneur in me. I have come up with about 18 different ideas on how to make money, have acted on about 3 of those, but never to the point of actually doing anything.

I just think there needs to be a way to make money doing what I love. As an artist, there seems a very obvious answer. However, it takes a whole lot of guts to create art. I'd almost rather a big money investment than to release my art to the public. And you know how much I hate spending money! So, it seems I have stage fright. I really enjoyed painting for John and Karen, and that's kind of gotten me thinking back to one of my ideas: putting together several paintings for the Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival that's held in downtown Fort Worth every year.

The first year I went to the festival, Jon and I wandered into a tent with beautiful, very realistic, acrylic paintings. There was a man in the tent, and we started a conversation with him. It turns out they were his wife's paintings, but she hated the "selling" part of the deal, and contented in making the paintings, and allowing her husband to do the PR. Jon and I decided that if I were ever to do paintings, we could probably work a deal like that. At the time, though, I wasn't really sure painting was my art form.

In a way, I feel unqualified. I know God has given me artistic talent, but it still has to be honed to be any good. I've only taken one acrylics class, and didn't feel like I understood what I was doing until the very end. It's hard for me to work hard at something that I'm not good at. It's hard for everybody. But, I would be dishonoring God to not perfect a gift He has given me.

So here it is. I'd like to start making paintings for the arts festival. I know, I know...I come up with a lot of hare-brained ideas, and I don't follow through with most of them. And I'll probably get discouraged and want to quit. So that's why I'm letting you know, so you'll encourage me, ask me how it's going, critique paintings I put up here, and above all, come to the festival if I make it in! :)

Here is the info: I have to submit photos of 5 paintings by October 31st. I already have one, and if I come to the end, I could use photos of the paintings I did in college. I would apply as an Emerging Artist, which is for people who don't have experience displaying or selling their work. If I'm selected, I would be provided a booth and electricity free of charge!

I'm letting you know all this so you'll keep me accountable! I already want to give up! How intimidating! But how exciting! Aaahh!!!