Holidays with Heart

Holidays with Heart

Saturday, Dec. 1 | 10 a.m.-4 p.m. | Animal Friends562 Camp Horne Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15237Find the perfect gift this holiday season at Holidays with Heart. Our campus will transform into a fun marketplace packed with the most unique and talented local crafters and vendors and plenty of giveaways, raffles, fun and adoptable animals. With a wide variety of items including pottery, jewelry and photography – just to name a few – you will surely find something for everyone on your holiday shopping list while supporting Animal Friends and local crafters.


COME BY AND SEE ME!


Yep.  I'll be there!  I still can't believe I'm doing my first craft show at the place that I adopted my little fur babies and then named my shop after them!  It feels so right!

I am crafting like crazy lately to get ready for the show and to be honest I feel like everything else is falling apart and there are so many things that need to get done- I'm about to go nuts.  Flickr...the site that I have shared photos on for years and years is doing a huge change to free accounts - I pay for my account but I have another account that I save my personal photos on and they not only upped the charge for the 2 year plan but they are offering a discount to people to stay but not to me since I have been a member for so long.  Then on top of that they charged my card that was labeled "expired" (the date was expired) without me giving the okay!  I reached out to them about it and they wrote back and told me to "make the most educated decision possible about staying with Flickr" and that they wouldn't refund me or give me the deal they are offering. 

I'm seeing red right about now.  So I will live out the two years on my art account that I have now paid for, not by choice and then move all my other photos on my free account out.  Once the time has gone by - I am leaving the site that I once loved so much.  I have until January to move my free account photos.  I get so upset because I take time to organized and back up my photos online like a responsible person and then they rip the carpet out from under me while I am trying to get ready for the Holidays and my craft show... ugh.  Okay- rant over- moving on.

Lol.

So I have been doodling a lot on my iPad.  I love it.  I truly love it.  Here are some of my latest pieces of work:

 

I'm going to do a whole series and I will be selling some at the show!

I have also been working on a planner/activity book.  It's taking way longer than expected and I just finally found a printer willing to work with me and is in my price range that does really nice quality work.  I have to make a few more edits to do after they kindly made a sample for me and I then I will get them printed (hopefully in time for the show) and then put them on my Etsy shop too!

I cannot wait until 2019 though.  I decided yesterday to meditate and do a short spell to banish negative energies.  I am trying to finish out this year with as little bad news as possible.  This year has been one of the hardest years of my life.  I can't wait to count down to the new year- it will be a serious celebration for me! 

In the meantime, my husband and I are trying to stay focused on getting outdoors as much as possible before it gets too cold and too dark to do it.  We took a nice long walk around Heartwood Acres the other day and it was just the right temperature and the sky was SO BLUE!

 

(this house was so cool- looks like a vampire lives there!)

 

 

I also treated myself to get my hair done.  I am going lighter and towards blonde again and it feels so good and it feels like me! :)

 

 

So - onward! 

Come visit me at the show on December 1st:) Come see my things that I make!

 

Thanks for reading!

The Fall Season

This year has been a hard year.  I feel like every bend I turn ends up with some more bad news about something.  They aren't small life things either- they are life changing, stressful things...

It's amazing what happens in these times of darkness.  The feelings, the people, the situations... it's all very eye opening.  I won't get into detail about what is actually go on for now but I will say that Music and Art have always been the way that I vent. 

So on that note I have been listening to a lot of Radiohead, At the Drive In, Eden, Crywolf and, of course, Twenty One Pilots.

I have been working on Etsy store and posting a lot of new creations.  I am excited because since I have gotten the iPad, I have been creating many prints on it. 
I have found that these drawings reflect on how I am really feeling.  Check out a few below:

So. ya. you can kind of tell how I have been feeling lately. 

 So on another note, there have been some really wonderful times as well:

I got to play in a whole pile of puppies at my friends house.  She has the absolute cutest doggies (except for mine of course...sorry Julie :) )

It's fall- my favorite time of the year...

I still have Chance... my love.  Thankfully things have been going pretty good with his health.  He was one of the main concerns this year... He has had some pretty horrible stomach issues that I thought were going to take him from me too soon.  I think we are on a good path right now... I hope it stays that way. 

I dressed up as a Twenty One Pilot Bandito. I just love the band so much so this year I didn't really do my costume for anyone else but myself.  I kind of felt a little guilty for not going all out like I always do... but I enjoyed the costume so very much so that's what matters!

Also, if you read up about the new album, Trench, and the album Blurryface... you will see that there is a really cool story line behind it... :) Hence the costume... it all goes along with the story :) 

I switched it up for the trick or treaters though- stuck my vampire teeth in and retrieved my handy cape (we had 9 this year- that's more than the last two years!)

I love the fall colors, the leaves, the crisp air.

I got together with my friend Amy and met some of her friends.  She held a craft-ernoon at her house and it was an absolute blast!  She had everything so beautifully set up and organized and we had so much fun!  It truly was a bright spot in my poop year. 

(one of our crafts)

I also got to hang out with my dear friends Nikki and Matt.  We pulled our spirit animal cards and had some drinks as we played games- that is another bright spot- friends can be such a cure for the lost soul.

I hope to get some of those prints up in the shop pretty soon and make some more things before the holiday season.  I am also working on a planner to release on the shop. So hopefully that will be done rather soon as well! 

I will keep updates coming on the blog as best as I can and I hope you all are excited for the upcoming holidays :) Thanks for reading!

Twenty One Pilots and some Art

Oh hey there!

I'm so excited because Twenty One Pilots released their new album Trench and it's so incredible and amazing!  I have been counting down for it and have had my headphones in the entire day so far.  Twenty One Pilots is quite popular which is out of the norm for me to listen to... I don't really enjoy most mainstream music... and I hate to say it but they are kinda mainstream. 

Tyler, the lead singer, is an incredible writer and his lyrics just hit me (and so many people).  He has some amazing things to say in his music and it's just so refreshing.  The music is so different too- there has not been a band that I have listened to like this.  Honestly, I put in any of their albums and I can listen to every. single. song. on it and I love each one of them (except the overplayed radio songs- they are a little old now).  If you know me, you know that music plays a huge part in my life and always has.  My dad loved music and raised me on so many good musicians.  I feel very lucky that I have the appreciation for it that I do. 
If you decide to listen to it- Chlorine and Pet Cheetah are my favorites so far!
So. Yeah. Totally excited!! :) :) :)


I also bit the bullet and bought myself an iPad and the Apple Pencil.  I downloaded procreate promptly and started playing around.  I decided to recreate a painting I did a little while ago and was really happy with how it turned out.   I can't wait to keep practicing with it. 

I actually feel very inspired by the new music I have been consistently streaming into my ears all day so I am excited to get to drawing some more.  

Catch up post

So.  This summer has pretty much flown by and I'm not truly ready to let it go- though- I LOVE Autumn.  Mabon is on Saturday and that is the official start to the season.  It's the balance between light and dark, equal day and night.  It should be a time to honor the dark as without it, we have no light :)

 

So- We may do a bonfire this weekend, go pick some apples or celebrate with some wine and truly enjoy the balance before the winter comes in and takes over.

 

In the meantime here are some things we have been up to.

 

I am currently painting our dining room furniture and I'm super proud of this piece as it was a real bitch to paint...

The set was handed down to us by my mother-in-law and it just needed a little love: 

 

I have also been exploring some trails close to my work that I can explore on my lunch break- I found one about 15 mins away so it gives me 30 mins to check out the trails :)

Oh and My husband and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary! YAY - we actually had very heavy rains and were pretty much cleaning up the flooding basement but hey- marriage lol!

And my girlfriends at work even celebrated :) I am very lucky to have them!

And as always, just crafting away.  I don't know where I'm trying to get with it all as I haven't been posting on Etsy but I do want to do a few craft shows in the near future so I guess I'm stocking up! Here's something I found on Pinterest that I just wanted to do for myself:

 

I also have been working on a pretty big project for a while and I have part of it completed and coming on the 28th!  I want to film a short video about it, my process and show you how to get the final product so stayed tuned, be excited- cause I am- and I can't wait to show you!  

Is that you fall?

 

 

Is that you fall? 

 

There is something so calming about you arriving.  Things seem slower and cozier and it's so nice after all the rush and to dos. 

 

May I have a cup of coffee with you and ask you where you have been and what you have seen?

 

I am so glad you're here again! Let's sit and talk and enjoy all the things that you have to offer.

A pretty difficult week, hike with the pups and more miles on the Rachel Carson Trail!

I don't even know where to start with this post.   This year has been an extra tough one in the personal life area and last week I was supposed to have a vacation at Conneaut Lake like we do every year.  My grandfather built the cottage when my Mom was born and she grew up there and then I grew up there in the summers.  So I packed the car and was so excited to spend some relaxing family time up there.  I haven't really gotten to relax with the family as my sister just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and things have just been a tab busy. 

So we get to the lake and Chance started to not feel well immediately... to make a long story short I had to rush him home the next morning for an emergency appointment because he was allergic to something in the cottage.  He had a rash all over his skin, he couldn't stop shaking his head because his ears were bothering him and his eyes were red and swollen.  I drove home on literally 2 hours of sleep and then sat at the vets office for 2 hours after the 2 hour drive home.  They gave him a shot and did some x-rays since he also had been throwing up to rule out obstructions and they came back with the news that his quality of life should be questioned because his irritable bowel disorder is not resolving and his intestines looked horrible. 

Welp- I just about lost it.  She asked that I talk to the specialist at our appointment the following Monday (a week away) to see if there were any other options for treatment or to really think about his quality of life... We have been working with the specialist all year to help with his irritable bowel and thought we had everything under control.  I couldn't wait a whole week to get this news, I had to call today so after I came home and then had to go back to the vet because he was allergic to the allergy shot they gave him I then called the specialist to see if we could be seen sooner.  She said come on in tonight - we have an opening.  I jotted down everything I wanted to say and laid with my Chance until the appointment.  My husband and I went and told them all what happened.  He was already coming down off of his allergy attack and was feeling a little better.  She looked at the x-rays and did an ultrasound and it turns out his intestine are okay- he just had a lot of stool present.

 

Poop. 

 

He had a lot of poop.  Needless to say I was upset about the misdiagnosis at our first vet and so frustrated and angry but at least I wasn't going to have to lose my dog.  BEST NEWS EVER. I cried happy tears!  She checked him over and we left.  It was an expensive day. I can't believe how much vet bills can add up like that so quickly but honestly, I'd do as much as possible for him- he's my bestie!

So - we can't go back to the lake - all we could do was have our vacation at home- we took the pups on a long hike and cuddled and played in the yard. Those dogs mean so so so much to my husband and I. 

 

So on a good note, we got in 2.45 miles on the Rachel Carson trail towards our trail challenge of 100 miles in a year. We opted to not do the 15 mile race we were going to sign up for because Chance would have to go to Conneaut so my parents could babysit him and we can't have him there anymore.  But we will plan some other fun things in the meantime. 

 

This week has been a hard one.  I have cried several times and not just over Chance.  I feel like I need to find a new way to vent, a new vice.  I thought my art would be enough but it's not.  I need to exercise more and focus more on the little things in life... I have posted some photos of the hike with the pups and the hike on the Rachel Carson Trail along with the bench I got at goodwill for 20$ - not sure what I'm going to do with it exactly yet but I have ideas! I hope this next year will be a good one- it needs to be.  2018 has not been kind- but good news- I still have my family and my friends and that's what matters the most- the other stuff will fade away in time :)

 

"I feel the icy grip of depression creeping up on me just as winter creeps up on Autumn taking the last of the colorful leaves from the trees.  I feel bare, weak and vulnerable. Time will give me the strength to bloom again but for now my feelings are changing just as the seasons do..."