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Monday, November 29, 2010

My Friend LuLu is having a Giveaway!

LuLu creates the gogeous pieces and among these is her collection of Faux Cakes- Truly things of beauty!  Right now she's hosting a giveaway featuring this one- isn't it amazing?  Do pop over to her blog to enter!

Sorry I haven't been around much in the last week.  Been busy prepping for Turkey Day and then recovering from all the prepping.....
Cheers,
Stephanie

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Weekly Challenge- "Incognito"

Since I've spent all week working on "Midnight in the Garden" I didn't have time to create a new piece just for this week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue. But after looking at my garden angel, I've decided that he has enough mystery to fit the theme of incognito so, here is my entry for this week:

"Midnight in the Garden".

Be sure to see what everyone else has been doing for the challenge at Inspiration Avenue - as always, there are a ton of varied pieces that folks have been working on!
Have a wonderful day!
Stephanie

Black Friday a few days early.......

Etsy just added a wonderful new feature for their sellers- coupon codes!  So, because I'm so excited about it, I decided to start my Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale today!  From now till November 30th, you can get an additional 10% off all of my paintings by entering the coupon code: BLACKFRIDAY2010 at check out. 
I'm also offering a BOGO special on all my altered books and journals- buy one and get the second half off!




Have a wonderful Sunday!
Stephanie

Saturday, November 20, 2010

What's UP in the Studio- Just a bit more on Midnight in the Garden......


Dontcha love my sloppy desk?

Since the weekend is upon us and my kids will be home until the Monday after Thanksgiving, I will probably only have snippets of time to paint. But, sometimes that's a good thing. Right now, my painting is at the point where I need to leave it alone and consider what it wants in order to be finished. It's also at that point where if I just jump in, I'll make a LOT more work for myself by overoing it. I have two pictures for you guys today- the first one is before I started painting yesterday- the reason I'm showing it is because I like the horizon line in it better than where it is now. Not being a landscape painter, this is the kind of thing I struggle with. A lot. So I need ya'll's eyes and suggestions- right now it's too harsh. Do I just blend it in with the suggestion of a horizon or do I have the leafy bits drape over the existing line? Seriously, I need any suggestions, prompts, etc.! Thanks!
Oh, and the colors in the first one are more accurate.  The second one was taken before sunrise with a flash and with my decrepit camera that I'm hoping Santa will replace :)  So please bring on the suggestions- I AM happy with the far background and the statue tho' he still needs a few more highlights.
Have a wonderful Saturday, whatever you choose to do with it!
Stephanie

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Art Makes a Wonderful Holiday Gift- All of my Paintings Have Been Marked Down by 25% or more

O.K. so here I go......maybe it's a good ole Southern girl thing, but I HATE promoting myself. I was taught to not toot my own horn but wait for it to come from others- a "good old Southern value" indeed, but not so great for business purposes.......Even though I really believe in my work, tho' THAT took a long time to accomplish as well.   So here's the first in a series of postings sharing my holiday specials.


In addition to all paintings being marked down for the holidays I am also offering:
Free Shipping for all items in my Etsy Shop
Black Friday~ Cyber Monday Special
All Journals and Altered Books are BOGO- Buy One Item, get the Second at Half Price!

"Metamorphois 02- Becoming" Regularly $65.00 ~Holiday Special $55.20

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Have you marked down your prices on Etsy for the Holiday Season?

"Feminine Mystique" 40% off until January!

You might notice that I did not use the word "sale" in my title.....it's because of this post I read yesterday in the Etsy forums:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6685824
which starts with a quote from one of the admins,
"We're making these changes to make it easier for sellers to use Etsy On Sale. However, yes, it appears that even having the word "Sale" in an item title may negatively affect Google Shopping search results. So, sellers should choose their titles wisely."

I scheduled a holiday sale on Etsy On Sale and the first thing it did was rename all my listings to begin with "Holiday Sale". At the time, I thought that was a good thing until I read this post and all of the comments that followed. I would have thought having the word "sale" in your title would HELP you........so I Googled myself with the terms "stefny68 holiday sale" and the only relevant results I got were from blog posts- mostly from LAST Christmas!

SO, I used Craftopolis' handy little bulk editing tool to remove those pesky terms from all of my titles and now, when I Google myself, it does pull them! I DO still have all my items tagged with Holiday Sale and Free Shipping which evidently is not problematic! I'm quite confused, but SO glad I ran across this, because I would really like to have a nice Etsy season like I did last year!
And just to warn you guys, I probably will be doing a posting featuring my holiday specials- I hate self promotion it feels all "look at me, look at me...." but, evidently, a lot of people find Etsy stuff through Google searches and I want to make sure that they are linked!
Cheers and some Wednesday love to all bloggy friends,
Stephanie







Tuesday, November 16, 2010

What's UP in the Studio- A Bit More Midnight in the Garden

Here's a little more, I was only able to work for a couple of hours yesterday due to the constraints of domestic duties......however, today is ALL mine for painting- at least until 3:30! So, perhaps, I'll get close to finishing today- I'm really ready to work on making the statue all old and mossy :D

Please excuse my feet in this one ;)

Here's to having a creative, upbeat kinda day!

Cheers,

Stephanie

Thursday, November 11, 2010

What's UP in the Studio- Progress on "Midnight in the Garden"

Hello all, I actually made a LOT of progress on my new painting these last couple of days. Tho' I'm pretty sure that I won't be done for IA's new challenge :) I do have something else I can use so it's not that big a deal....This particular painting is the biggest canvas I've ever worked with- it's 16" x 20" which doesn't sound that big, but for me, it's approaching HUGE! Anyway, here's what I have so far, and dare I say it without jinxing myself? I'm VERY happy with the way it's going!

So that's all for now, I'm off to get some more work done!
Happy a great day!
Stephanie

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

I feel like I've been missing in action.....!

Sorry it's been so long since I wrote anything. It's been crazy around here! My Mom and I host a home a Home Show twice a year and last week was our Fall show. So, while I've managed to poke my head in around other people's blogs and leave the occasional comment, I haven't had time to do anything on my own blog; not even Silent Sunday!
Right now, I'm trying to plan my entry for our new theme at Inspiration Avenue- Community and how it realates to food. Tough one! Plus, I need to get going on my new painting, so I'm trying to combine the two! AND, once again, I've got artist's block........
Here are a couple of pictures I took at the Atlanta Flower Show, that I'm thinking of trying to make work:

I'm not even sure how I can make this work with the theme, but I'm hoping once I get going with the painting I'll be more able to make it work. I think half my problem is that it's been a couple of weeks since my last painting, and I'm in some kind of withdrawal.....

Sorry for the bleccky mood.....

Hope everyone else is having a great day at least!

Stephanie