I painted this red-bellied woodpecker for the birdie calendar for the month of February:

And then last week (during the first week of February) this guy appeared at my bird feeder for the first time all winter:

Pretty cool.

But please excuse the image quality! The photo was taken through my (very dirty) glass door, while trying not to make too much of a scene and scare him off. Also my camera, while pretty awesome, doesn’t have much of a zoom lens. But you get the idea. A month-appropriate visitor.

Next month is the chickadee, but if your feeder is anything like mine it has been covered with chickadees all winter long. One of my favorite things about winter, actually — they are definitely my favorite bird (sorry red-belly, you’re cute, too!).

From now through January 1, 2010 I’m offering FREE shipping on everything (everything! well, excluding custom orders) in my Etsy shop. I’ve also put my 2010 Birdie calendar on sale for HALF PRICE. It’s only $10 now, was $20.

Wicked good!

As I write this, I’m just over 12 weeks pregnant. It’s true! A baby! Making it’s way into our lives at the end of April (2010!)!

I have been soooo tired these last few months, and thankfully that has made it a *little* easier to keep this secret, since it takes all my energy to sit down and get anything done, including this blog post. I haven’t been doing much making, and therefore not a log of blogging, but as Penny’s hubby said about her first few months of pregnancy in this post, I need to remember that I have been busy creating something completely different. I might look like I’m just sitting on the couch, but darn it, I’m working hard!

So far everything is going great with out little bean, and we will get to see much more at an ultrasound at 18 weeks. We got to hear the heartbeat a week ago, and let me tell you that was quite an amazing thing. We had an ultrasound at 6.5 weeks, too, but weren’t really able to see anything but a little blur and a flickering speck of a heartbeat. {Little flickering speck, how I can’t wait to meet you!}

I spent the last 4 days in Pennsylvania with my cousin Becky and her twin boys who just turned one on Wednesday. What a fun time that was — they are quite possibly the cutest and happiest children in the world. It was a nice for me to get some baby practice, too, even though they are technically toddlers — both walking now!

Some FAQ about the baby bean?

• No, we don’t have any names picked out (tho some front-runners, which we will probably keep a secret)
• We still aren’t sure if we want to find out the sex until the birth, but I think I would like to, as I am not a very patient person!!
• Yes, we had been trying off and on for about a year, but it finally happened when we relaxed about it and really believed “whatever happens, happens” (my hubby’s favorite mantra). And then it happened! I really didn’t believe it when I saw that plus sign on the test, and I had to wake John up at 6am to tell him! It has been so hard not telling everyone in the world, and we started telling select friends and family pretty early — at 5 weeks. I decided I didn’t want to go through any of it alone, and especially if something bad happened, you know? You know. And also wanted to share the joy and excitement as soon as we could!
• Thankfully I have been feeling pretty good. Super tired and a little moody, but I have been soooo lucky not to have any morning sickness. I am just constantly hungry, but I get full really easily and nothing really sounds good to eat. I have had some heartburn, which is not terribly fun, but I am so lucky not to have much nausea at all that I really can’t complain. I do pee about every hour, and there are lots of other “symptoms” of pregnancy that I’m not going to get into here, but I’ve got ‘em! It’s been quite a ride so far, and I really can’t believe I’m already a third of the way through!

: )

P.S. Just listed my 2010 calendar in my Esty shop! This year it’s “Birds of the Berkshires”; a whole collection of hand-painted likenesses of our favorite New England avian friends. They’re pretty pretty, if I do say so myself. I’m so happy with how it came out!

I couldn’t have said it better, so I’m here to point you to this post from Maya of Maya*Made about our journey “In the Fishbowl“; Marisa Haedike’s 6 week online course. I’m really missing it already and love love loved it so much. It’s been fun to see Marisa continuing with video posts on her blog, too. If you haven’t seen any yet, be sure to check them out. It’s part of a month-long project she’s been working on with the ever-inspiring Supercoach, Michael Neill. (Can’t I just have all these amazing souls over for dinner?)

This little guy is on his way to his happy new home, and I’m working on some wedding invitations and thank you notes for some of my favorite friends. Birds and pirate flags (?)!  Not in the same designs, but still. super fun.

Bunnies and birds and chickens and sheep, oh my!

A whole load of new prints from my recent paintings on wood blocks and panels are up in my Etsy Shop now! As part of my lil’ affordable art summer sale the 4×6″ prints are $6 and 8×10″s are only $10. All these prints are super-high-quality and archival for lots o’ years.

Also coming soon will be 4×6″s of the birds and words series, and the ever-popular Radish in 4×6″, too!

These are my two newest, to add to the growing batch of original paintings on wood. Boy I love this stuff. I also really love these two little buddies. The magpie just told me he needed to be painted. The bunny idea has been brewing for a while, and I think I will have to paint a few more.

These are both mostly gouache (pronounced gu-wash, as far as I know), with some acrylic. I find the gouache is really nice on the wood because it’s semi-transparent (like watercolor) but it covers pretty well (unlike most watercolor colors). I mix it with acrylic to get a little opacity (and more permanence and durability) going on and to give a little more life to the creatures. I also love that dried gouache can be rewetted and used again, when I come back to it later, unlike acrylic which dries right up unless stored in an air-tight container or mixed with some kind of extender. {Though I can’t deny how fun it is to peel old acrylic off a palette in one big piece. Very satisfying.}

Here’s a link to the Wikipedia article on gouache, in case you want to know more. I think it’s my new favorite medium. And how fun is it that it is made of pigment, binder (what makes it stick to the painting surface) and chalk?

one of my acrylic painting palettes