End of November Give Away!

Mishkat won our last give away this weekend! Congratulations!

Now... for our End of November Give Away...

Three photo cards -- one of each image shown above!

To enter, leave a comment here about what type of holiday cards you like to send.

Deadline to enter is November 26.
We'll have the drawing over Thanskgiving weekend!

Good luck!

November 29 Update:
Annette won our giveaway! Congratulations!

"Love you"

I took one of my older flower shots today and "retooled" it. I like it far more now.

Interview with Julia Jasinski

Recently I interviewed Julia Jasinski, an EFA member who was one of three winners in the EFA Birthday Bash earlier this fall. This story was originally published here. Check out the site for other great interviews!


Julia Jasinski, the artist who runs Schmoomunitions, is one of the three winners of the recent EFA Artists Helping Animals Birthday Bash – Win for Your Animals! Each month Julia donates 10 percent of the proceeds from her shop to the EFA Charity of the Month.

"My paintings are 90 percent of the time pictures of cats done in acrylic, gouache, collage and colored pencil," she says. "I also do dogs and various other animals I learn about." She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago in painting and bookbinding.

"While studying art in college, I painted vaguely figurative work, more 'fine art,' but the paintings I hung up at home were the cat pictures I made for myself," she says. "I then kind of let myself off the hook with attempting to make serious gallery work and decided I'm only going to paint what I love even though it may be 'cute.' That allowed me to produce so much more work and it is so much more fun. I like my art to have a sense of humor, too." When she's not creating art, Julia works as a veterinary assistant for a house call veterinarian. "I truly enjoy comforting them and getting them on the path to health," she says. "It is what makes me able to wake up in the morning."

"When something bad/tragic/sad happens at work, I make little paintings of those animals. I like to think my paintings help the animals spirits pass over to the other side. Especially when the death is sudden, I worry those little souls are lost and I consider it a ritual to thank them and value them and get them moving on their journey," she says. " Often the people just leave their animal with us to euthanize and I feel it is my duty to make their last moments on earth peaceful and I tell them they are so loved, and that they can leave this pain-filled earth and go be free. And I apologize for the harm they might have received at the hands of humans."

Working with Angels Paws to Help Animals

Julia's favorite animal rescue organization is the Kenosha, Wisconsin-based Angels Paws. Angels Paws is a home-based foster rescue dedicated to helping shelter animals that would otherwise be euthanized. Though based in Wisconsin, Angels Paws rescues animals from Chicago Animal Care and Control. "The animals at Chicago Animal Care and Control are the first to be put to sleep," she says. "That's why I believe Angels Paws is doing a wonderful, wonderful thing by picking up cats, dogs and rabbits to adopt out."

Julia also cares for a group of feral cats that she's spayed and neutered through trap and release. "Angels Paws have helped me re-home my feral cats, too. I'm happy to say two years later -- everyone is fixed."

Julia lives in Chicago, Illinois, with her boyfriend and many cats. Her vast gallery collection of her artwork can also be found on schmoomunitions.com.

NaNoWriMo & Blog Feature

For those following the little ticker at the above right, I'm participating in the National Novel Writing Month fun. Despite pink sticky notes exclaiming "NaNoWriMo!" all over my work and home computers, I'm feeling the writing block coming on pretty strong already.

To be frank - I have no plot. I am writing aimlessly with what comes to mind. My last 500 words were poetry. Which felt great to write and came so easily to me that I wonder if I shouldn't finish off the remaining 41,378 words that way.

Whoa.

For those unfamiliar with this project, the goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words between November 1 and 30. Those who have succeeded recommending not rereading and editing your work thus far. Just keep going.

That's what Rob keeps reminding me.

"Just get the words out."

So -- here's my excerpt from my poetry blitz earlier today.

~

How do you live without a mother?

How do you live without the sound of her voice?

The one who you once took for granted- what do you do when she is gone?

You can go through her things

Finger the sweater that used to keep her warm

Use the coffee mug that she refilled every day.

Who do you go to for advice?

Who do you go to when you need to hear her words?

How do you find her in your every day life?

Is she the monarch that sways in the breeze?

Is she the bird that calls as the morning sun rises?

Is she part of the ancient trees and wisdom of the forest?

I search for her everyday

On the cold, dark drive home

On the trip to the store

Finding gifts she would like for Christmas – and then realizing she isn’t there to enjoy them

How do you go on living without a mother?

The one who fought to keep you alive

Who sacrificed so much

How do you ever repay her?

I think you can find her in love

When you nurture a plant on your windowsill

Keeping the porch light on for those who are lost

Appreciating all of the good things

That she made possible for you

Even when she left you behind.

~

It's a bit rough and I already see things that could be tweaked, but in "ignore it until later fashion," I'm going to leave it and focus on getting the remaing 41,000+ words out first.


P.S.
Just found out my lovebirds were featured over on the POE blog! Check it out!

Always back up your files!

ALWAYS!

That was a terrible lesson to learn last Thursday night when I received an order and the file corrupted when I went to fulfill it. Usually I am pretty good about backing up my photos to a stand-alone hard drive, as well as the computer, and a CD or DVD. In this case, the file corrupted, and there was no backup.

EEP!

Luckily it turned out OK in the end, but it spurred me to take new photos this weekend. (My poor cupcakes were the victims of the backup malady.)

So beginning this week I will be uploading new cupcake photo cards in my shop!

Vote vote vote!

Go out and vote today if you live in the U.S.!

New items!

I am now offering ACEOs (Art Cards Editions and Originals) in my shop! These small photos (2.5"x3.5") are an affordable and fun way to collect art and photography. They will be signed and numbered on the back.




I've also created my first bookmark, from my "Moon Over Middletown" photo. :)

What are you working on?