First Sunday of Advent

Ok, I'm a day late with this post but I wanted to show off my new Advent candle holder I got after Mass yesterday. Our church actually had NEW ones this year ~ much better than the lame wobbly, bendy one I got several years ago that I quit using for fear it would break & set the house on fire. This black metal votive holder is pretty cool I think. I like the simpleness of it & the votives are much easier than tapers.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week but I'm ready to STAY HOME for a while & get busy creating. I traveled to 3 different cities last week! Weston, MO with girlfriends for the Holiday Homes Tour, Oklahoma City with my mom to my sister's house for the Jim Brickman concert, & Abilene, KS for Thanksgiving at my in-laws. Whew!!! All fun trips but the week flew by too fast & I'm VERY behind on my Christmas paintings! I have 2 canvases sketched out & ready to go so after my shift at the Humane Society tomorrow I'll get busy on them. I wish my shopping was done so I could just paint, sew, bake & wrap all month!

Hope you all had a nice holiday. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's Christmas creations!

Happy Thanksgiving! (And Yoko's Home!)

I didn't want the day to go by without sending Happy Thanksgiving wishes to all my beautiful blogger friends! I'm so blessed to have the life that I do ~ filled with wonderful family, friends, cats, art & all my blogger buddies! Hope you all had a gobbly-good day!!!

Above are some pics of Markie & Zoolou "helping" me take down the fall decorations & put up Christmas ones. And YES, Zoolou climbed all the way up that ladder all by herself! That crazy cat.

And GOOD NEWS!!! My sister's indoor cat, Yoko, who got spooked by the garage door opener, ran off & has been missing for 5 days CAME HOME TODAY!!! We are all so thankful. What a great Thanksgiving gift!

New Pillow Ornaments!

Aren't these so cute? I was lucky to find some adorable vintage fabric with Christmas kitties on it & made this set of pillow ornaments out of it. I think they turned out really nice & I LOVE the vintage look. I do have to say sewing on ric-rac trim is no easy feat! I ended up ripping out the stitches from my first 2 attempts. I got the hang of it though & as they say, 3rd time's the charm. They aren't perfect but isn't that what's special about hand-made things?

You can find these sweet little ornaments in my Etsy shop!

Tomorrow I'm off to Weston, MO (again-ha) for the Holiday Homes Tour with my girlfriends! Can't wait! Hope you all get to do something fun & Christmassy this weekend too! xoxo

Christmas Jammies

Success! My hubby figured out a different way to upload images from the camera on the computer so I was finally able to list my new painting ~ Christmas Jammies! I think everyone remembers these cute little striped longjohn jammies you had when you were little ~ or dressed your babies in when they were little! I remember my nephew wearing them on Christmas many years ago. I wish I could find that picture! If I can track it down (among my cabinet full of old photo albums) I'll post it. Click HERE to check out this cute painting on EBAY!

I'm currently working on some cute little pillow ornaments. I found the cutest vintage Christmas fabric (with cats on it of course) & thought it would be adorable for Christmas decor! Stay tuned.

Happy Wednesday! Is it already only a week til Thanksgiving??? xoxo

Stupid Computer!!!

Well, I have 2 new paintings & a cute new kitty pillow to show off but for some reason my camera isn't cooperating with the computer & the pictures will NOT upload! AUGH!!! So aggravating! My husband (who's a bit technologically challenged) double checked all the cables, ports, cameras, etc., etc. & found nothing wrong but it's still not working. We have 2 cameras & neither one will upload so we don't know what the deal is. Guess it's time to call our friend Jeff ~ our never fail computer fixer! Hope he can come soon. I can't sell anything on ebay or etsy without a picture! This is supposed to be an ART blog after all.

Oh well, for now you can laugh at my little comic above. Wishing you a happy Monday & no computer problems! xoxo ~ Jill

P.S. We had our first SNOW today!

A Brilliant Show!

My youngest daughter & I went to see the "Celtic Woman" show last Tuesday night & it was amazing! A lot of you will say "Who the heck are they?" but I'm sure a lot of you know who they are too. Four beautiful Irish singers & a fiddle player with the fastest fingers I've ever seen! Combine that with a pianist, orchestra & 2 percussionists, each with their own enormous set of instruments, & you have magic! We saw them a few years ago in Oklahoma City & it was the BEST show I'd ever seen! This one was just as good. We were so excited when we found out they were coming here. There was a packed house & many standing ovations. If you like Irish music you MUST go see Celtic Woman if you get the chance!

Today is a creating day for me! The hubby took the kids & friends up to the K-State football game for the day & I have the house to myself to paint & sew the day away! I have a few new things for the shop I'd like to show you but I'm having some uploading issues with the camera so unfortunately that will have to wait. HAPPY SATURDAY!!! xoxo

A New Rug, A Baby & THE SHOP'S OPEN!

Trying out the new rug

I'd rather have him on the rug than the bed!

Shelby & her "pretend" baby, Cara

Happy Monday everybody! Lots of news to share but not lots of time ~ there's never enough time to do everything you want during the holidays is there? Anyway, my first news is I finally got my Etsy Shop up & running! It's exciting, even though I don't have much in there yet ~ a few original paintings & some of my fleece kitty pads I've dubbed "CAT NAPPERS". I had several people comment on them when I was making them for the Humane Society kitties & tell me I should sell them so I thought why not? I'm STILL making them for the H.S. cats first, & then just making a few extra for Etsy. I plan to have everything in my shop "cat related". I named it THAT'S MY CAT~where there's a CAT in every creation! CATchy, huh? heehee. If you're interested, check out my new shop HERE!

I'd been eyeing this rug at Target for a long time thinking how good it would look in my newly redecorated bedroom so yesterday I decided to spend some birthday money & go get it. I LOVE it & Koda & Zoolou seem to approve too! Markie was so funny ~ at first he was afraid to walk on it like he thought he wasn't supposed to - ha! He would carefully walk around the outside. Later after seeing the other furballs on it he decided it wasn't going to bite him! Silly cat. It's not quite as plush as I'd like but it's soft enough & goes perfect in the room!

Lastly, my daughter Shelby (a junior in h.s.) is in a Parenting class & brought home the fake baby last week for 3 days. I couldn't believe how realistic the baby looked & sounded! It was a little scary. The baby went everywhere with her for those 3 days & kept her up quite a bit at night. I kept telling her "remember how much WORK this is ~ this is what you DON'T want right now - ha.

Gotta get busy on some commissions. Have a wonderful week!!! Purrrrrs

Kitty Angel Wood Box

Hi beautiful blogger friends! I finally finished the little wooden box I've had primed & sitting neglected since last year! I thought of doing a Christmas theme but decided instead on a pink & black design that can go for any time of year. I think it turned out really cute! Great for a little girl's room! This sweet little box is available on EBAY right HERE!

I've also been busy creating & gathering things for my new ETSY SHOP I'm planning to open up very soon! More on that later. Hope you're having a wonderful Wednesday!!! xoxo