HARK! The Herald Angels Sing.....

Today we spent the day in Monterey, CA. We went on a whale watching trip in Monterey Bay and just beyond in the Pacific. I will post some of my whale pics, but let me warn you I do not have a future as a nature photographer! Anyway, all around the Wharf and the historic areas they had these beautiful angels hanging for Christmas. I loved them and just wanted to share them with you!

Sweetpea Arts.

I've gotten my etsy store up and running and will be gradually adding art for sale....so stop by to say hello....I accept paypal and money orders, and if I know ya, I accept checks. :)

SPC: red

Hey chicks, clear up my confusion: is this supposed to be a self portrait?
or just something *red* ???
For me, *red at christmas* is fun and fruity and luscious and sexy.
Red is strawberries.
Strawberry picking and strawberry eating. Strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, white chocolate. Strawberries crammed onto the top of a pavlova. Strawberries dropped into a glass of pink bubbles.


(What a boring photo, but we did drink these today.. check out this sugarplum fairy for pretty and strawberryish. HT: the very talented cozy posie)
The fresh, sunshiney mouthful of a luscious strawberry (or twenty-five) makes Christmas *Christmas*...
just like the song says: Have yourselves a berry little Christmas!!
*mwah*

My first ATC

Today I made my first tradable mini-painting. You guys should google "Artist Trading Cards."

This image is 2.5 x 3.5 inches!

More pics of the bazaar.

Saturday night, Miss Hannah and her brother John (of gigantic Garippa family fame) brought some special little people to my booth. Valissia is the delightful fourth grade student I'm mentoring--she came along with her siblings Victoria and Vicente. If you look closely, you can see that Vicente's afro ponytail was causing some hood problems. Anyway, we got to walk around a little and sip hot chocolate. It was a special treat to have them there. On Sunday, our friend Ryan stopped by to sip some Mexican hot chocolate and hang out with us in the rain. He and M. managed to have an in-depth convo about Chaucer while crammed under our little tent. It was hilarious.

You can see in some of the pics that the weather was, *ahem*, inclement on Sunday. The misty fog conceals the skyscrapers of downtown. It was quite lovely, actually. We stayed until the table cloth was soaked and my work in danger of ruining.

Work.

Ethan contemplating Rodin's The Three Shades.

Some paintings by Lizard

I have recently completed two small paintings which is pretty remarkable these days. The Bird painting was a birthday gift for a friends baby who was turning 1. They call her their little birdie and she had a birdie b-day party. I painted the apple with some left over tempera paint from a project I was doing with Ethan and my friends little girl.

Wedding Photo Contest (one more)

I just added this one to the contest entry in the "Reception" category. I think that gives me a nice range of photos. Good luck to me...

Wedding Photo Contest

Every year I enter PDN's (Photo District News Magazine) "Top Knots" Wedding photography contest. I haven't won anything as of yet, but I haven't given up. (they will announce winners in January, I believe) PDN is one of my favorite photo magazines and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get a photo published in their magazine.

"Entries will be judged on the basis of creativity, photographic quality and effectiveness in expressing the contest theme."

I tried to look through my hundreds of favorite images to find the most interesting...the most unexpected. It's a tough process stepping back from your work to look at it in a new way. Here are four that I chose to enter in this year's contest. The first two for "portraits" and the last two for "getting ready."

SPC December

From the SPC website:

"Ah how I love the colour red. What better way to finish off the year than with a cheer. And red is the perfect colour for it.

Red is a colour charged with emotion - fierce and stongly felt emotion. Extreme feelings, hot tempers, blood and violence. Red is the colour of radical barbaric deeds, and of love and passion. Red expresses energy and fire and excitement and exhaustion. Red is excessive and rich and hot and sexual and exciting. Red is fun and fruity and luscious and sexy. Red is the colour of desire, of anger and of power.

So Red - go forth and show us what you have - have a little fun - its the holiday season after all."

Should we play along this month or come up with our own themes?