A Lovely Thanksgiving Week-end

This is me

and

count them...ALL 1-2-3-4-5-6

of my kids!

And 7 of the 9 grandkids...

(the oldest 2 are actually 'step'-grandkids

who live with their dad)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving..

played some Balderdash...

laughed a lot..

had great culinary delights...

All in all...a great week-end...

but

now I'm ready

to get

back to business.

My daughter-in-law, Becky...

figured out how to use the timer

on my camera

(who knew I had a timer...)

and so we were all

able to get into the picture...without having to

grab someone off the street to come in and

snap the photo!

Great job Becky!!

Family Week-end!

I am MOSTLY taking the Week-end

to spend with my

children and grandchildren.

While 5 of my 6 children live

less than 10 minutes away...my oldest child

and his family...

live 12 hours away

so we don't get to see them as often.

At the 'last minute'

he decided that they would

come home for Thanksgiving.

It's been a year and a half...so

I'm taking the week-end to spend with

my family.

I am Thankful....

This Thanksgiving...

as with all Thanksgivings past..

I am most

thankful for..

the Blessings

of

Family!

The pictures upload so very small...

but

This is MY Family!

The 'gorgeous' couple in the top middle is

my husband and me...

and

we are personally responsible

for all of the pictures

that came after.

My children

and

my grandchildren.

Etsy Holiday Sale

I am having an

'Etsy Holiday Sale'

in my

Rustic Goth Shop.

On Everything....

Check it out!

We have ONE Show Left!

We had an 'excellent' show this past week-end...

what I particularly LOVED

was that our business was Steady!

This year we started with the smallest

of spaces...since we weren't sure how we would do.

Fortunately...we were able to

get a little extra space at all of the other

shows...

which gave us room to spread out a bit..

and not feel as 'claustrophobic'.

But, for this show..

we GOT exactly what we paid for...

a 10' x 10' space.

We discovered, we REALLY need a 10' x 15' space

to maximize our display...

so..next year...for MOST of the shows we opt to do...

we'll go with the 10x15...

then...if we end up with a 10x20

(as some of the local shows probably will)

I'm considering using the extra

5x10 space for something completely separate...

We'll see.

I just want us to get acclimated to a 10x15' space,

so we can get our display

EXACTLY how we want it for our future shows.

Our LAST show of this season

is December 5th and 6th!

Thanks to all of our new friends...collectors

and other artisans alike...

who have made my 'return' to "live shows" a most

wonderful experience!

I had quite forgotten how much I LOVE to interact

with people...and I intend to do

MUCH more of it...in 2010!

At The Show....

I'm ALL day at the show...

and

we have to tear down

afterwards..

A long day and late night..

for sure..

Maybe I'll just take the

WHOLE Day off tomorrow!

Jaime took some pictures of our booth...

I'll upload some when I get them

from her.

The "Plan" for This Week-end.

I listed a 'select your own'

Postcard/ Mini-Print Pack

in the Shop.

Just an F.Y.I.

The 'plan' for this week-end...

I am going to 'pull'

my jewelry..

mirrors..

and original paintings

for

(1) day only.

Since it is only a 1 day show...I want

to go ahead and pull

all of the (1) of a kind...

items.

(I know this doesn't apply to the mirrors...but, since

we have to order those in...don't want to end

up selling out at the show...and not be

able to fill any shop orders

until I order more.)

Besides...I have some new items

in the 'works'

that I want to put into the

Shop next week.

Getting ready for the week-end!

Got a one day show this Saturday...

that means...

we'll be spending today doing last minute

finish ups...

Got to do a bunch of varnishing...

and need to pack and get all orders shipped later today.

Wow...this is going to be a

crazy..busy...day!!

A couple of "LOST" paintings.

"Annalea and the Raven"

"Cicely"

I was going through a book today and ran acrossed a couple

of

"Original Small Works of Art"

paintings that I did a while back.

I did them on art paper...so I'm sure I put them there

to flatten them...and got busy with something else.

Anyway...I went ahead and listed them

so they are in the

shop.

Addition====It took me overnight to remember...

I actually did these two pieces

when I decided to get a site on Artfire...

they were intended to be Artfire exclusive...

yikes!!

I'm going to do a couple of digital pieces

and replace them on Etsy...

this is why I've started my 'Making It Work' blog...

I've got so darned much going on

that I'm losing track of what it is I'm actually doing!

Grigio Design

I have been the 'subject'

(or...rather..."my art" has been the subject)

of several blogs

over the past two years.

I've been rather shy about doing

something similar but...

I've decided...

Beginning with

"Grigio Design"...

I want to 'feature' a

'fellow' Etsy Seller

in my blog

every week.

The picture above...

MADE it to Etsy's FRONT page...

it is

'Dragonfly Samurai'

by Grigio Design.

She has created so many very cool

jewelry creations on her

site..

check out her shop

and see for yourself!

I "Heart" Hedgehogs!

As anyone who has seen more than one or

two of my paintings has probably figured out that...

I 'heart' hedgehogs.

These little 'cuties' appear in many of my

'creeper'

paintings...

(which brings me to another matter...

I don't know why I call them

'creepers'....and I really need to think of something

a little less 'creepy' to call them..)

but...anyway...

I have seen this video before...and maybe you have too...

but I thought I'd share

for anyone who also 'hearts' hedgehogs..

and may have missed it..

A Couple New Paintings...

'We Each Have One'

9" x 12" on

Acrylic Paper

"All That Matters"

on

5" x 7"

Wooden Plaque

Believe it or not...I do have canvas to paint on but...

I also have so many little wooden plaques...

and I just bought the pad of Acrylic Paper

(much like Watercolor Paper)

and had to give it a try.

Both of these will need to be framed...maybe

I'll see what I can find when I make my next run to

Hobby Lobby.

I'll probably list these pieces today (Saturday)

and then turn my attention to

finishing a bunch of new pieces that I'm doing

for the show next Saturday.

We're doing some different ornaments...

the older crowd aren't as crazy

about my 'art ornaments'...

so we'll do a few different kinds and see

what happens.

Heaven knows I have all kinds of materials

leftover from my 'crafting days'

that I could probably do something with.

Among them...about five or six unfinished bread boards...

I'm thinking...

Snow Scenes or something.

We'll have to figure out how to do a

'Christmas Corner'

so the new stuff doesn't 'clash' too bad with

our current styles.

Call me Crazy...

Call me 'crazy'...

I've started 'yet' another blog.

Why????

It's a long story..really.

I wrote my very first blog post

back in 2005...

without meaning to...these posts

became 'updates' for the doctors and nurses

caring for my husband.

With everything we had going on...it was hard to

keep track of what happened...when.

More than once I had to 'refer to my blog'

to answer those questions.

Since I do earn my living online...

I find that it has become necessary for

me to create something similar

to try to keep a record of

what I'm doing...and why...

and a blog seemed the logical solution.

It worked for me before...

so..

'fingers crossed...

maybe it will work again!

I Have Never Seen ... 'Nightmare Before Christmas'

At every show we've done...this year...I hear

over and over and OVER...

"your art reminds me

'The Nightmare Before Christmas'..."

and you know...

it really doesn't...

I am a Tim Burton fan...but I have never seen

'Nightmare Before Christmas'.

I've seen 'Edward Scissorhands'...'Beetlejuice'...

'The Legend of Sleepy Hallow'...

but...nothing more than a You Tube

clip of 'Nightmare..'

What I have gotten a 'kick' out of

are Tim Burton's other

characters...

'Stain Boy'

'Match Girl'

'Oyster Boy'

'Staring Girl'...

I think I've seen all of

'The Adventures of Stain-Boy'.

Nothing but the Best....

'Can U Fix It?'

by

Mike Best

'Dream Come True'

by

Jaime Zatloukal Best

I do the shows with my youngest daughter, Jaime...and her husband Mike.

Here is a sampling of their art...

They've got an Etsy Shop...

'Best Art Studios 2'

and they recently did an interview

with the

'Handmade Gift Guru'.

Jaime gives me far too much credit for

the (1) art lesson I gave her a few years ago...

she is pretty much

completely self taught..

and

not to be 'bragging'..

I think she has taught herself

quite well.

You can read the interview

here.

Say a Prayer....

I read a number of blogs on a regular basis...

today I read a post on one of these

blogs

asking for our prayers.

I 'refer' you to her post

so you can read about a most

amazing couple

and their need for our prayers.

Design by Magriet

I had a pretty full week-end...

even with a slow show...

and to top it all off..

I was one of the 'featured Etsy shops'

in

Magriet's "Lazy Sunday Etsy Finds"

She has an interesting blog...especially if you

like jewelry.

Go check her out!

Can we have a 'Do Over'.....?

Actually...I'm not sure I would

want to 'do-over' this

past week-end...

for us it wasn't our best show!

Oddly enough...we make our sales when the

crowds aren't as big as we experienced

on this past Saturday.

Even the other 'artisans' seemed to

feel bad that we were mostly just

'twiddling our thumbs'...

oh well...

it happens!

"Back in the 'day'...my husband and I did very well

with the 'crafting' side of the

Arts and Crafts Shows...

here's one of the egg ornaments we used

to make and sell.

We did very well with our 'eggs'....but, that was

"our" thing...so the folks who were hoping I would finally have

new egg ornaments (since it's been 5 years)

are going to be very disappointed:(

In the meantime though....I am going to have

to get my 'thinking cap' on and figure out how to

try to please those show goers looking for a 'bargain'...

and...I have less than two weeks to do it!

Pop Surrealism

I made this video and put it on You Tube
back in our 'eBay days'.
It features the art of myself, my son (Patrick),
my daughter (Jaime)

and my son-in-law (Mike).
The song is Radiohead's Creep...uncensored version...
so word of WARNING...the lyrics are explicit!

I've posted this video in the past...

but it's been awhile

so I thought I'd post it again!

It's been a few months since I put together a video

but...I do have a few on YouTube

featuring other artwork...

including some of my earliest 'eBay' pieces.

Several of the videos were made when

we still had our family group

"The ZOA Group"

intact.

Upon leaving eBay, we did all go our separate ways...

so I let the website go....

just a note to let you know that there is

no longer a ZOA Group...

I'm just not sure how to get the old website address

out of my videos

without re-doing the whole thing:(

For The Week-End

Our first November show is this week-end!

I am hoping this one will be really great!

I'd love to "sell out"....

I've never actually 'sold out' at any of the shows

we've done over the years...

but we've come close a time or two.

This time round I'm going to do things

a bit different...

instead of leaving the items I take

to the show in my Shop

I'm going to pull everything but the

prints.

I'll be pulling the items on Friday...

anything that doesn't sell at the show

will then be put back after the week-end!

The fine line between working and networking.

I'm neither 'working or networking'

in this photo...

we had some really SLOW times...

this was one of those.

But...it brings me to the point...

I worked my butt off (don't I wish:) getting ready

for this show...

and

I still have inventory left to take to the next show.

Someone once told me...

"I wish all I had to do was paint..."

WHAT???

Dear Lord...this 'uninformed' creature had apparently

NO exposure to the world of online

sales and marketing.

I WISHED ALL I had to do WAS paint!!!

Life would be so much easier...

wouldn't it??

I could paint and paint and paint...

each and every day...

and I'd wind up with a house full of unsold paintings.

There are so many things one has to do to become

a successful artist online...

and painting (or creating in any way) only accounts

for a small portion of those many things.

I think the hardest thing online artisans have to do...

is to network and market.

I can vaguely remember those days that I thought..

"all I'll need to do is to 'paint and list'"...

I wished it were that easy!

My New Facebook 'Fan Page'

Okay....so I've tried for weeks and weeks

to set up a Facebook Fan Page

for Rustic Goth.

I searched all over Facebook and couldn't figure out how to do

this.

Finally....I Googled 'how to set up a facebook fan page'

and found this.

Now...I still haven't figured out...other than by bookmarking it..

how to get 'back' into my Fan Page...

I'm sure there are folks that are real 'experts'...makes me

feel like I'm just taking 'baby steps'...

As you can see...

if you look at my

'Rustic Goth Fan Box'

I don't have ANY FANS!!

Hopefully someone will come and be a fan...

how horrifying would it be if no one did???!!!

So Much To Do...

I really have so much to do

with another show coming up this week-end...

you'd think I wouldn't have time to

work on new pieces...

but, I'm finding I'd rather

'experiment'

with new pieces like the one here.

(She's in the shop.)

I feel I fell into sort of a 'rut'...with all of the

'gold backgrounds' ... similar characters...etc...

so..I'm attempting to 'break out' of the norm...

at least, the 'norm for me',

and experiment with some new pieces.

We'll just have to wait and see how they do...

in the meantime..

I do suppose I'd better start getting ready for the

week-end.

Etsy Anniversary Print Sale

This is my newest 'digital collage' print

now in the shop.

"Evening Star" is a combination of a character

from one of my original paintings...photoshopped

into this digital original.

My Etsy 'anniversary' is coming up in a few days...

so I'm having a 50% off

all standard sized prints and print sets

in 'celebration'.

I've set my Print Section to

Print SALE

to make it easier to find

the sale prints.

The sale is only for my standard sized

5x7 and 8x10 prints

(with a few odd sized prints thrown in for good measure)

and doesn't include my postcard/ mini prints.