Christmas wrap up

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Megan

Ya, I know its well into January. But I feel like I’m finally recovering from the business of Christmas. Clint and I spent the Holidays in Colorado Springs with his family. I LOVED having the chill and the snow. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas to me without it.

We spent Christmas day in Vail, and I got to walk abound the village and enjoy the Christmas lights. New Years Eve day we went pheasant hunting with the family.

I did not reach my goal of December 15 for the I’m a giant challenge. Boooo. But I’m okay with that. This isn’t a project that I think will ever be complete done, so I will keep working on the dollhouse, because I love working on it, and now I have plenty of time to do it.

Some goodies I picked up in Colorado when I visited a miniature shop (there are NONE near me in California, and that makes me very sad).

I feel it is necessary to say, “Yo dawg, I heard you like dollhouses. So I put a dollhouse in your dollhouse, so you can play dollhouse while you play dollhouse.” Ya, I just went there.

Here is the couch in place in the living room, with some of the little throw pillow my mom made for me for Chirstmas. Also in the picture is the arm chair that used to be a dark blue. But I painted it a cream white to match the sofa, and to fit better into the room’s color scheme.

I think I will be painting the bed, because I don’t like how the maple wood looks in the room. And you can see the fireplace in progress. Here is the finish result.

I actually think I might be adding some brick onto the face of the fireplace. But I am so happy with how it turned out. I love the flickering flame inside.

Some more goodies I got over Christmas for the kitchen: the sink and the stove. Also note I got ONE of the windows framed up. Finally.

Its really starting to come together. Now I feel like I have most of the bones in place, I can really start the decorating process.

I'm a giant challenge: Getting started

I'm a giant challenge: Week one update

I'm a giant challenge: nursery update

Adding to the stash

Giant challenge: Dollhouse exterior

More miniature inspiration

Back from vacation

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Megan

No dollhouse updates because I’ve been away on much needed vacation, to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I’m back now, and it just hit me how much work I have left to do, with less than a month left. Yikes.

Christmas wrap up

Happy Birthday Tara

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Megan

Another year older, eh? Being the baby give me the joy of being able to always be the youngest, meaning I get to always make fun of my OLD sisters as they are, well, older than me. And since I’m the baby, they are not allowed to hit me. So there. Today is my sister Tara’s birthday. I won’t tell you how old she is today, except to say, OLDER than me!

When we were little, we did not get along very well. Mainly, because I was young enough to be annoying, not cool, when I followed her around trying to copy everything she and her friends did. I remember sneaking into her room when she wasn’t there to secretly play with her doll house, which was cooler than mine simply because it belonged to her (I was NOT allowed to play with HER doll house, except for special occasions).

Luckily, we grew up, and both became super cool.

Because she’s been on my mind a lot lately, and because it is her birthday, I decided to try my hand at painting a portrait of her. Ideally, I would have her here in the flesh to do it, but since we live on opposite sides of the country, it wasn’t possible. I did a sketch to work out the pose I wanted, then hit up my photo collection to gather reference images that were close to the pose.

I didn’t nail the likeness as close as I would prefer, but you can tell its her. Moreover, I love the colors and texture of the piece, and had fun doing it. I wanted to keep working at it, to make it “perfect” and look just exactly like her, but I knew I would risk destroying the liveliness of it. So I let it go. Acrylics on a 9×12 piece of Masonite.

Two new pieces

Sea Turtle and Friends Painting

Animal paintings

A day at Disneyland

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Megan

This past Saturday, I got to spend the day at Disneyland with my sister Christy and my mom, to celebrate Mom’s 65th birthday.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day in southern California. Not too hot, the sun was shinning, the sky was blue… We spend ALL day at the park. For Christy, it was almost 20 years since the last time she’s been to Disneyland. It always amazes me how many things in the park change…and how many stay the same. The park has such a timeless quality to it that I love.

I didn’t do very much sketching since we were running around all day, but I did get these two quick drawings done. One just outside Thunder Mountain Railroad, and one of Christy while we were eating some ice cream in the Gibson Girl Parlor.

Daily sketch 379-Father's Day

Goodbye 2008

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Megan

Well, 2008 is (well) over. I have to say, that it is a bit of a relief to be done with it.

This year has been a rough year, if the lack of blog post is any indication. Every member of my family has ended up in the hospital or Emergency room this year, including myself, many of those trips resulting in surgery. Galblader surgeries, broken arms, blood clots, infections, knee surgeries…we had quite the banquet of aliments and surprises. And of course, all the economic problems as well. I left my full time job in July to begin freelancing full time. And then my husband’s company laid of this department. Thankfully, we had beefed up savings in case of a rainy day such as this, but as the job market got worse and worse, it has gotten harder and harder to pay the bills. To help make ends meet, I picked up two part time jobs.

I was very busy leading up to Christmas, working 7 days a week between my two jobs, and trying to finish up the illustrations for two different children’s books. I didn’t get tome completed as I wanted, but was able to escape for the holidays to Colorado Springs. Which was complete HEAVEN.

Now January is almost here, and I’ve been struggling to get back into the swing of things. I have completely exguasted my creative energy, and had no time or way to replenish it. I guess you could say my inner 4 year old finally threw herself on the floor and refused to do any more work. Period. Nope. Not gunna do it.

So, we read some books. And some more books. And soaked in the tub with our books until our toes got wrinkly beyond recogintion. She was willing to work with me enough to finish up one of the book projects. (Preview of that coming up later.)