yeah… so i got on a roll last night [or should i say very very early this morning].

i really enjoyed making these. playing with Photoshop is something i give myself time for that often. when i do allow myself the time and opportunity though, i quickly remember why it is that i love this program so much. it’s like painting, only with undo buttons and options to erase. lopve that!

so this morning i’m leaving you a little eyecandy to enjoy!

feedback is appreciated

and i’m messin around with digiWERX stuff that will be hitting the online store. soon.

this is what i came up with. there will be an entire printable, downloadable pattern paper collection in this vein. it’s kind of a paperWERX and pharmacie digiWERX combo. me likey! me likey alot… your thoughts?

feedback is appreciated and can be added in the comments below. thanks!

please complete this brief survey to help me with my plans for lazar studiowerx in early 2008… there is a 10% off coupon in it for you if you do =)

thanks!

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yesterday i spent the better part of the late afternoon and early evening getting to know my new computer and the demon operating system known as ‘vista’.

well… as you can obviously tell, we’re all getting along swimmingly and i gotta say, that beyond the annoying ‘permissions’ box that pops ups on a regular basis, i really like the new system. it’s a lot more like the mac interface now with ‘gagdets’ and the transition of program windows, but is clearly still a windows o/s. the fact that the new monitor terry got me for christmas looks seriously slick and the graphics beautiful now that my new computer has the right resolution [i was working on a 5yr old dinosaur] makes my heart sing! ahh… it’s truly geek love =)

so with the computer all sorted out, we did something today that i have been asking t to help me with for months. we gutted our clothing closets and drawers. i mean seriously gutted.

we have been needing to do this for going on 3 years and finally i tied him down long enough to help me. we have lightened our clothing load by not 1, or 2, or 3, or even 4 bags of clothes… nope we have managed to cull a whopping 5 HEFTY bags full of clothes that are all going to goodwill and charity. talk about clothes horses huh?

loads of sweaters, warm pjs, pants, t-shirts [oh lord… the t-shirts!] and i gotta say, it feels fabulous! it’s even better that the clothes will benefit those who really need it and my closets and drawers look civilized, orderly and wholy crap - i can actually see to the back of the closet and the overflowing wall unit is less than 3/4 full. yay!!!

whilst i wait for my darling [yet oh so sloooooooooow] hubby to finish showering and cleaning up from this marathon of clothes [3-4 hours at least!] i’m checking the movie listings. i am legend [wil smith’s new flick] will be the one i think, so we’re heading off for a celebratory movie night out. yup… i think we deserve a movie, some popcorn and kool-aid [cineplex serves my favorite kool-aid flavours] for a job well-done on the clothes marathon. plus, now i’m too damn tired to cook dinner…

that’s it for now. night all… we’ll chat tomorrow. i have some fun art ideas percolating and i’m looking for some feedback.

first, i hope everyone had a happy and festive holiday earlier this week.

we did and we certainly ate far, far too much as usual! thank goodness i still have few days left before i abandon sugar again for the next 3-6 months… got get all those christmas cookies, cakes and chocolates in me before the sugar police remove all traces of the oh-so-good-white-stuff from our pantry. for health reasons, i’m ditching the sweets and alot of other stuff, but not until after new year. so i have 5 days left to indulge…

we spent our usual christmas eve with my family and t’s parents. then christmas with t’s family. it was really nice just to hang out, eat and enjoy each other’s company.

we deliberately avoided the stores yesterday [i don’t do boxing day madness] and ventured out today for only a few hours to hit ikea for a couple of narrow wall units for t’s huuuuuuuuuuuuuge starwars collection and then over to the electronics store to get a usb hub for my new monitor [since my new one has now usb ports and my old one had a bunch that i used all the time]. well, t may have gotten two new ikea wall units [and is building them as i write this], but i definitely got the better end of the deal with a new computer! 

you see… i went in to future shop to get a hub, it was $50 on sale! a little pricey for a hub… "at those prices" t said, "do you just want to look at a new computer instead?"

uh… ok! sure! don’t have to twist my rubber arm. so 15 minutes and $399 of christmas money later [thank you mom and grandpa], we walked out of the store with a brand new computer fully loaded and ready for me to install my beloved adobe software onto. ahhhh… i am truly a geek [albeit, an artistic, mixed media, graphic geek] at heart. techno-weenie things like a 24" monitor from my santa-baby and a new computer after boxing day make me very happy. sad huh?

well, i’m off to figure out windows vista [this should be interesting] and install my favorite software, AFTER i back-up my 11.5GB of iTunes music and video, email, web and other stuff off my ancient 4-5yr old dinosaur computer. thank goodness my work and art stuff is on an external USB harddrive and i don’t have to back-up 200GB art and photography…

have a great rest of the week my friends and i’ll see you again in a while =)

we went back and forth on how we could prevent the lulu from diving bombing and generally wrecking havoc with the christmas tree this year… you see, it’s her first year with a tree [we adopted her in late january this year] and we didn’t know how she would react to it. so we devised a plan to ‘prevent lulu from destroying the tree’:

1. put tree out, sans ornaments for a few days to get her used to it.
2. spray her mercilessly with the water bottle everytime she tries to climb or eat it. [this began to work after about 6 sprayings from the squirt bottle]
3. after a couple of days, move tree into it’s final position into corner of living room, near the hearth
4. decorate
5. spritz from water sprayer everytime she tries to climb, eat or play with the ornaments. again… she’s soaked a few times, but seems to get the point
6. keep fingers crossed that the tree and the hundreds of dollars spent last year on gorgeous new mercury glass ornaments survive the holiday season!

we had hoped that this well thought out plan would work. it had with our other kitties. so far, everything seemed to be going according to plan, until yesterday then it all got blown to hell… .

whilst napping on the couch [nasty migraine due to the snow storm we had in the morning] i heard the telltale tinkling of ornaments rustling in the tree. i figured the lulu was pawing at the tree from the hearth ledge or from the floor. but NO that wasn’t what she was doing. nope, she was in the tree. in the top half of the tree!

i must say that she did look adorably devious perched in there, with this ‘you can’t see me’ attitude. but we had to get her outta there quickly [before she got too used to being in  there], and punish her [spritzing from the water bottle] as soon as possible to correct her behaviour.  we had to ‘try’ to make her kitty brain realize that climbing into the fake, skinny black christmas tree with the twinkling lights and prettily decorated tree is bad.

have you ever tried to correct kitty behaviour? it is a daunting task since most kitties are pretty much independant and don’t really need/want your approval on their behaviours [unlike dogs]. cats do what they want, when they want and how they want. they just like to make us think that they are behaving - it’s much easier that way LOL!

needless to say that she was a wet kitty after we extricated her from the tree. but that doesn’t seem to have phased her too much since most of yesterday was spent spritzing her and calling out:
‘no lulu. don’t be bad!’
‘no lulu, don’t go in the tree!’ ‘no lulu, don’t touch.’
‘no lulu.’

i’m pretty sure [about 90%] that this has happened more than once and that yesterday’s sojourn into the tree is not a new occurance. i’ve noticed a few ornaments looking cockeyed and strangely angled over the last few days, and figured that maybe i hung them incorrectly. but now, i’m pretty convinced that i am not the one to blame for an entire level of strangely positioned and cockeyed ornaments. i believe that the furry, calico, adorably devious elf we know as the lulu has been subtlely realigning everything to suit her perch and viewpoint. heck, she’s probably been in there on nights that i’ve been too tired to notice.

right now, it seems to be a game of notice me! notice me! don’t ignore me ’cause
i’ll be bad! we hope she’ll tire of her game soon…
i’m certainly done with it LOL!

on a somber note: we had to put mackenzie to sleep one year ago today and i miss her dreadfully.  she fought hard against her FIP illness and we battled right alongside her. we miss you furgirl, but thank you everyday for sending us the lulu. she is so much like you in so many ways, it’s like your spirit is alive in the lu. thank you and we love you.

my last public art showing of the year is now done, and for those of you interested, i’ve posted the new works in my ETSY store.

there are 20 new original artworks and in the coming week i’ll be listing more pendants, fun adjustable ring, collector buttons and a few more small items.

i’m happy to say a few of my favorite pieces have gone collectively to new homes. deb, sorry to say the goth girls are gone =( but at least they were purchased by a couple who took all three and will undoubtedly give them a lovely new home. my blue and orange series is also now off to a good home, in fact to a fellow portobello artist - great news, i know she’ll love them for a very long time.

the great thing about the remaining artwork is that now i have new pieces for MY walls at home. i love changing the artwork in the house over and around, and now i have my very own personal inventory to rotate. love that. terry also really enjoys the new pieces, so later tonight i’ll be hanging a collection on my dining room wall… probably in a big mosaic style. yeah, there will be holes in the wall, but who cares? the artwork collection will be amazing!

that’s it for now… off to hang artwork and unpack my boxes from yesterday. catch you all later =)

i can’t believe in the last two years of steady[ish] blogging i’m almost at the 325 mark. who knew?

anyway… i have a sneak peek of some new artwork for my show tomorrow [or later today - depending when you read this]. i have about 12 new pieces in addition to a bunch of other new work left from the snowed-out show i was in two weeks ago. i really love these new pieces… i played with tinting my image transfers, then adding some illustrative details and love the subtle look of them.

good news! i finished the big piece all 24×32 inches of her. i love it. it’s so big and has a slightly warholish vibe with the oversized image transfer. i’ll be bringing it with me to portobello west tomorrow and will post picks of it here tomorrow… varnish is still drying so i’ve got to wait before i can standing it up for photographing.

oh, and just a little reminder folks… ALL my original artwork is handmade. no digital here. it’s all the real macoy, down to the paint stained fingernail [so attractive!], varnish and paint splattered t-shirt and trashed, calloused fingernails and cuticles. they are labours of love and i hope you like them. i certainly do.

well, i’m off to bed to get a good night’s sleep for the big day tomorrow. be sure to pop bye and say hi if you make it out to portobello west. i’m in booth #108. ciao for now, have a great weekend!

a little seasonal yumminess… don’t you just love the starbuck ornament? make me want a caramel macchiato and slice of holiday gingerbread loaf right now! mmm…

have a great weekend and hopefully i’ll see a few of you local blog stalkers at portobello west =)

Christmas Ornament, originally uploaded by studiowerx.