Welcome to my Night Mare

It's the name of my newest Etsy treasury. Here is a screen shot but you have to click here to see the actual treasury. The more clicks we get the better our standing so please click away!



PS. If anyone wants to buy me any of this gorgeous artwork I will email you my snail mail:)
Jen

Christmas in Lancaster

We went to Lancaster tonight for the mayor's tree lighting ceremony. My favorite thing to do is check out all the pretty store window displays. Thought I would share a few since I had my camera with me. What's the deal with the upside down tree? I will have to google that. I saw it in a few shops. Most of the shops are pretty upscale so I just ooooo and ahhh over everything I want and can not afford.
Don't you love the black and white tree? It's so chic!






I painted several pendants today. I know, I know, I promised some new christmas signs. I just haven't been in the mood for something that takes that long. I have them started. Hopefully I will get to them this week. I also snagged my first etsy treasury today. A treasury is very hard to get because Etsy only allows for a few hundred on at a time. In honor of my studio name I called my treasury Gypsy Spirit. Please check it out if you have the chance. It will only be up for a day or two and then it expires. I already have some ideas for the next treasuries!

Let us give thanks!

I hope all of my readers, friends, family and dear customers have a wonderful Thanksgiving today. I am thankful for so many things. My home, health, family and the ability to create with my hands and my heart.
Thank you so much to everyone who has purchase artwork from me. It's been almost 10 years now since I started selling on the internet. Definately a dream come true!


A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. ~Cicero

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New pendants for Etsy. My favorite is the zebra!

While the cats away...

My husband took our daughter and left for the day so I can get lots done. I'm sitting here listening to the new Killers album (makes me want to dance) and figuring out what I'm going to paint. I have three signs started, just getting the backgrounds painted. I think I will paint a unicorn, a Paint horse and maybe an Appaloosa. I also have five more pendants started which are going to be a zebra, elephant, giraffe, grey horse & a Paint horse.
I added three new pendants to Etsy yesterday: a cardinal for Christmas and a buckskin and a bay. Big thanks to everyone who has purchased something from my Etsy store. I like it so much better than Ebay. The fees are a lot lower. Be careful with Etsy though, you can get addicted. And what a great place to go Christmas shopping, you don't have to even change out of your pajamas. Your money is going to help artists and not to some huge billion dollar corporation like Walmart - bleck!




Almost forgot to write about what a great time I had at the Rasputina concert on Sunday. It took me all of Monday to recouperate!
If you're a fan of the cello and alternative rock, I've made a playlist of some of their songs. The lead singer, Melora, was so nice. She even came out to say hello at the end and I got my picture taken with her. I'd share it with you but I can't stand photos of myself! The club owner, Bam Margera (from Jackass & MTV fame) was also surprisingly nice and allowed us to take some pictures.

More Goodies

I finished 6, yeah 6, pendants today! Yipee!
Here they are. I'm in the process of putting them on Etsy. I think my favorite is the white Arabian. The last ones flew out of my store. I think people are finally getting into Christmas shopping and these pendants make great gifts for any animal lover.
Jen

Glorious Day!

I awoke this morning to our first snow! Yipeeeee! I love snow - at least the first couple of times. Ask me in February and I will probably be sick of it.
I'm also excited because for the first time my husband took our daughter to her Gram's house this morning on his way to work. That means I have the whole day to myself (happy dance, happy dance). So while drinking my pumpkin spice coffee I watched the last True Blood. Then I ran around in the snow like a kid, filled the bird feeders and cleaned out and filled the bird bath. Now I am posting this quick blog, listening to Rasputina (an awesome band [with cellos] I may go see on Sunday night at Bam Margera's new club in West Chester) and then I'm going to paint. I can't wait! The whole day with no interruptions. Maybe I'll even have a glass of wine with my lunch - do I dare??

When you have the chance, please check out the lovely horse art treasury on etsy that Danielle has made. I want them all! Thanks for adding me Danielle!

Tagged Again!

Ouch, I've been tagged again this time by the amazing Akiko Watanabe. You have to check out her work, it is breath taking! Okay, so I'll play along. Aren't you people getting sick of hearing about me? Someone post a comment with an interesting fact about themselves. The stranger the better.
Here we go (again).

1. My first concert was when I was 14/15. It was Sugarcubes, P.I.L & New Order at The Mann Music Center in Philly. I had to bribe a friend of my mom's with a free ticket so she would take me. I didn't have any friends that drove and listened to that kind of music then. That show opened up a whole new world to me.

2. My husband and I got married in Vegas 10 years ago at the Silver Bells Chapel (as seen in the movie Lost in America). We both wore black suits. Ah, and they said it wouldn't last... ;-P

3. My favorite instrument is the cello. I wanted to play it so badly when I was growing up. My grandfather gave me a framed photo of Yo Yo Ma standing under autumn yellow trees holding his cello, it hung in my bedroom for years. The sound of a cello fills me with so much emotion, I want to weep.

4. A distant relative is General Stephen Moylan. My grandfather was named after him.

5. I had to hitch a ride to my first horse show. I had a feisty appaloosa gelding (free) that liked to throw me. No one in my family came to see me. My first class was novice horse and rider. There were about 18 people in the class and we took 2nd place. I was around 13 years old and never had a riding lesson in my life.

6. In my thinner, younger days I posed nude for an artist friend. It was only embarrassing when I went to the opening reception and had to face her parents that I had known for several years. I still have one of the pieces she made. My husband likes it ;)

7. Before we bought our first house last year, we lived in a barn for 8 years. I cared for around 25 thoroughbred horses in exchange for apartment rent, electricity and horse board.

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I received another blog award today - The Marie Antoinette Award!
Thank you Diane Mac. Be sure to check out her (and her husbands) amazing work.

Okay, it's past midnight and I am finally getting sleepy. Off to bed!

Pendants

I finished 5 pendants today with one more (a raven) still drying. I think they turned out really nice but if you check them out on Etsy, beware, they look huge. I couldn't figure out how to make the pictures smaller. Something that small and detailed doesn't show up well when it is blown up.



I love winter. If you want to hear some great music that is very wintery, check out my playlist on the right-->.
I turned the autoplay off so you will have to click on play. I love to listen to this playlist while I'm painting.
Yippee, I saw snow flurries today!!!

Sneak Peeks

I'm sick as a dog but busy as a bee! I know it sounds crazy but my painting hand has been taken over by the Christmas Spirit even though I can't breathe and feel like I've been hit by a freight train. I thought I would share a sneak peek at three of my newly painted Holiday signs. I will be listing them on Ebay tonight or tomorrow so please check back. I am also working on 5 handpainted pendants for Etsy. They should be ready by the end of the week. I only have the painting completed on a palomino pendant but I plan on making a raven (maybe a white one) and a snowy owl. Not sure what the other 2 will be yet.

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Thank you Fairy Jane for bestowing upon my blog the Uber Amazing Blog award!
Please check out her blog to see her wonderful fairy artwork!

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Finally, I have been tagged by Danielle Barlow ! Now I need to think up 7 interesting and unknown facts about myself. Not my favorite subject but I'll give it a go...

1. I had a riding lesson when I was around 18 from the first lady to ride in the Olympics for the US, Marjorie Gill. I met her by accident one day on the trail. I was riding a lovely little Arabian named Amir. She introduced herself and told me that if I ever would like a lesson to ride by her farm. That was such a long time ago I don't really remember any of the details but she was a very nice lady.

2.I have no formal art training but my great grandfather & grandmother were artists and I have several members of my family that are very artistic. When I was around 18 I met one of the neatest artists at a show, Sandra Severson. She gave me a free lesson in her studio. I'll always remember how nice that was. She had such a beautiful studio!

3. I hate tomatoes but love sauce. I just about gag when I'm preparing tomatoes to make sauce. Blek!

4. I love the sound of a cat sneeze.

5. I want to live in Europe when I'm older. Even if it's just for a year or two.

6. I've driven from Southern PA to Maine just to see a band (if you must know it was Phish). Don't listen to them much anymore.

7. I have a tatoo on the back of my neck. It comes from a design I saw on a flag in the Lord of the Rings movies. It's a horse, of course! I love the artwork from those movies. I have all the Art of LotRs books and a bunch of the jewelry too like Arwen's necklace and the leaf brooch.

Christmas is coming...

...the chickadees are getting fat! I have a birdfeeder outside of our dining room window. Nothing make me happier that watching them at the feeder while I'm eating breakfast or lunch. This little guy peeked in the window to say hello this morning.
Of course nothing is more frustrating than squirrels getting my expensive sunflower seed. I have a corn cob feeder for them on my maple out back. It is a constant battle to keep them out of my bird seed!


Here are two new signs added to Ebay. My first Christmas signs for the season.





Looking for some fun gifts to give your horse loving friends for the holidays?
Check out my Cafepress shop! I just added a 12 month calendar.

Peace Signs

As promised, I've finished some new "Peace on Earth" signs including one with a snowy owl.
I have the Gypsy Vanner on ebay but may wait a few days to list the owl.

Also I've taken autostart off of my music player so if you'd like to hear some tunes, you have to hit the play button. I like to listen to it while I paint but realize others may not share my taste in music;-)

Thanks for visiting! Jen


Snowy Owl sign has been sold. Look for more in the future!

The Four Seasons

As I work out in the yard today I am reminded of the four seasons even though it's autumn. I'm planting bulbs to enjoy in the spring. The leaves on the ground are a glorious fall yellow. A few flowers in my garden are clinging to the last vestiges of summer. And finally, I'm thinking about winter and what to paint next.








Here is my first winter piece of the season. I thought it was a very fitting message. It's on Ebay if anyone's interested.
I am currently working on 3 other wintery signs including one with a snowy owl!

A dream come true.

"Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' "
Martin Luther King Jr.
Speech at Civil Rights March on Washington, August 28, 1963

Don't forget to...

Whoa

I am a member of a juried group of Ebay horse artists and I started a charity sketchbook project earlier this year. Back in April I asked for members to sign up and take turns adding original equine art to an 80 page blank book. We have had members add work from as far as Great Britian. Each artist has up to 5 pages to do whatever they would like.
Last week I finally chose a charity to receive the proceeds from the sale of the sketchbook and I am happy to annouce this charity is Angel Acres Horse Haven Rescue. Please check out their website when you have the chance! Also click HERE to see the sketchbook blog. I post pictures of the art as it is completed. We hope to have the book finished and on ebay around Christmas.
Two of the artists involved in the project are also wonderful bloggers. Check out
Notes from the Rookery and
The Briar Rose Gate.