New Year with New Items...

Happy New Year!!!  Thank you all for reading my blog in 2011 and supporting Maria Rose: A Prime  Collection!  It was a year that brought 23 sales (15 on Etsy, 5 on CafePress, and 3 at Koch and Company Gallery).  I'm very grateful for each sale and each person who has "like-d," "favorite-d," "heart-ed," and visited my website, Facebook page, Etsy shop, CafePress shop, and Society6 shop.  I am very excited to see what's going to come around this year!

I have a few new items to share with you on this New Year's day of 2012.  I finally got around to resizing photos to create iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Laptop skins for the photographs in my Society6 shop. 

iPhone Cases (for all models)- more styles in my shop

iPhone and iPod Skins (for all models)- more styles in my shop

Laptop and iPad skins

I have also been working on my website adding some new photos and links.  I'll be posting soon about the updates!

Looking forward to a new year with lots of creative possibilities!!!

Society6 Direct Link

I've been adding more photographs to my Society6 shop lately and I discovered that I can add a link to my blog. So, here it is :) I would love for you to stop by and check it out! There are some amazing artists on Society6, so it's worth a look!

Happy Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas!!!

As I type this, my family is decorating Christmas cookies, my son is "napping," and my husband is listening to football...I love the holidays!  I just wanted to take a moment out of the fun to wish my followers, fans, and customers a happy Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas!!  I hope you are enjoying family time as well and getting some much needed rest.  Blessings!!!

New Shops!!! New Mixed Media Painting!

EXCITING NEWS!!!  I jumped on the bandwagon and started a CafePress and Society 6 shop.  CafePress is local and I've ordered some fantastic products from them for some merchandise I'm developing for the Jane Austen Society.  They offer all kinds of products...tote bags, jewelry, office supplies, calendars, notebooks, t-shirts, hoodies, aprons, iPod/iPad/Laptop skins and covers, mugs, water bottles, key chains, and more!  I have a limited amount of designs right now, but I'm working on adding more.

I follow several Etsy artists on Facebook and several of them have been posting products from their Society 6 shops.  I decided last night that it was time to join.  Here's the description of Society 6 from their website: "The artwork on Society6 is created by thousands of artists from around the world. When you buy a product from Society6, we produce it using only the highest quality materials, and ship it to you on behalf of the artist."  At this point, I just have a few of my photographs available for art prints, framed art prints, and stretched canvases.  I've already been asked to share one of my photographs with the "Society 6 shop," which was awesome to receive after just uploading my first few photographs.  We'll see what comes of it...

And now to the newest mixed media painting..."Feathered Peacock," 30"x15" canvas with satin ribbon edging and stripe accompanied by three of my original fine art photographs. 

What do you think?

Busy Weekend

Once again I have fallen into the "not posting enough" rut.  I apologize!  I, actually, have a couple valid excuses, but I still feel bad.  I am VERY grateful for each one of you that follow and read my blog.  I know I don't have a ton to say when I post (I'm not much of a writer), but I hope to share with you some of my recent adventures and creativity at least once in a while ;)  

So, here are my valid excuses...for at least a couple months now I have been preparing for this past weekend (Dec. 9-11th).  On Friday night, I lead the children's crafts for the Candlelight Tours at Historic Locust Grove.  If you don't know, I used to be a Kindergarten teacher, so teaching and crafts are kinda my thing.  I had direction boards for making 6-point snowflakes and German or Christmas Stars, and had clementines and cloves to make pomanders.  The kids who participated had a wonderful time while learning some new skills and new information about pomanders.  It was a very busy time, but it was fun to see each child's creativity and excitement about making a craft!

On Saturday afternoon, I had rehearsal with my video team and directed the 4 o'clock service at my church, Northside Christian Church.  When the 4 o'clock service finished, I hopped in my car and went back to Locust Grove to lead children's crafts again.  I had a whole Girl Scout troop and some Boy Scouts surrounding my three tables right after I arrived...it was controlled and amazingly fun chaos!  I also had some sweet moments working with individual children and helping them create something they've never made before.

On Sunday, I was back at church early in the morning to direct my video team again until noon.  Then, it was off to decorate the Audubon Room at Historic Locust Grove, which is where the Jane Austen Society of North America- Greater Louisville Region meets.   We had a birthday celebration for Jane Austen at our December Tea.  This was my third year decorating for the December Tea.  I had a wonderful helper, Emily, who punched the holes and tied the ribbons in each of the 85 paper hearts that I made.  And, Emily, plus several others in our membership helped me set up the room.  The decorations were well-received and, actually, tied in with our speaker's presentation.  Here are a few images of the decorated room (sorry about the terrible lighting...the light is terrible in that room!): 

So, that was my crazy busy weekend.  I was exhausted on Monday.  I've, thankfully, recovered, and I have a new product to share with you.  It's my "Trees of Life" 2012 Desktop Calendar.  It's 10'x5" and has a cardboard stand, so it fits perfectly on a desk, shelf, or nightstand.  It features 13 of my original photographs.  It would make a lovely gift!

Thanks for stopping by!!!  Hope you all are doing well!  I might post some new things tomorrow...stay tuned :)

Thanksgiving, Sickness, and Christmas Lights

I am sorry that I haven't posted in a while.  My son caught a nasty cold, which he lovingly passed on to me at the beginning of last week.  I have been rather miserable since....I won't go into any details, but I'm on the verge of heading to the doctor because it's so awful.  However, I did have a wonderful time with my husband's family and my mom over Thanksgiving.  Loved seeing family again, snuggling with my two-month old niece, laughing till my lungs hurt, watching football with my son repeating "Yes!" and "Go, go, go!" after great plays, eating amazing food, having a date with my husband, and watching the cousins play and listening to their adorable expressions of excitement over food and the Christmas tree.

I didn't take many photographs over this weekend.  I took a few of little Miss Madison, my two-month old niece.  I, also, took a few of my mother-in-law's Christmas tree and played around with different long-exposures to create light trails.  It was a lot of fun!  What do you think?

Holiday Season

As an Etsy seller, I have learned that you have to have items in your shop that reference the current and upcoming season and holidays to appeal to customers, treasury makers, and, possibly, make it to the coveted front page.  My latest installment of photographs cover Fall or Autumn, Christmas, Winter, and Valentine's Day.  Most of these photographs are of my burning bushes on the side of my house.  They have been so full and brilliant this year that I had to document their beauty.  Enjoy!

And, as always, I would love to hear from you about your favorite image(s).  I appreciate your feedback!