With a heavy heart...

Mark 1990-2009

...I attended the funeral of one of our Seniors of 2009 today. Mark was killed in a tragic car accident Saturday, the afternoon before his senior prom. Mark was also one of my students and one of the students who traveled with us to France last summer. Mark was an intelligent, curious, and musically talented young man. He will be missed by us all!

God Bless You Mark!

Creative inspiration...

Heart Home Series

Colored pencil on watercolor paper

Beth S. Macre © 2009

...has really kept me busy in the past 2 weeks! And it feels really great! I'm working on some new clay pieces and drawings that I am enjoying working on. They will be in my new Etsy shop soon. As soon as I get the clay pieces glazed and fired and photos taken, then I will be ready to open it. I'm shooting for opening it up by my blog two year anniversary, which is May 3rd.

Preview...

The above image will be the first piece in my new Etsy shop. It was created with Prsmacolor colored pencils, both watercolor pencils and dry pencils. I have also created tiles of clay that have similar subject and feel to them. So this is a sneak preview of what will be in my new shop starting in about a week.

Give away...

I am also creating some special little clay pieces that I will be giving away to those of you who leave comments on my blog from the last post until my opening! So I hope that if you take a moment to comment and leave your name (or a link so I can contact you)! Everyone who comments will receive something, but one person from the commenters will be randomly chosen to win a Heart Home tile!

I look forward to summer vacation so much this year! I plan to spend a lot of time in my studio creating. I have lots of ideas and really can't wait...but I guess I will have to!

So, what do you think?

~ Beth

Upcoming year of events...

This is my view on my way to work.

This year will be a year of milestones. I just started to realize how important this year will be, as far as milestones in my journey through life. I realized that I will have a 2 year blog anniversary coming up on May 3rd. So I started thinking about other anniversaries and events that will be occuring this year. Probably the most important one will be that my 25th wedding anniversary will happen this year! That will not happen for another 3 months, so I will talk more about that later. Another milestone, that I'm not so excited about at this point, is my next birthday is 'the' big one...but I won't discuss that until next January! I thought last year had big milestones with my oldest child turning 21 and my youngest child graduating from high school and going away to school! But this year could be just as important!

Give-away...
Since this is going to be such an eventful year, I want to plan some give-aways to celebrate. I will give more information soon. The 2 year blog anniversary is coming first, so I will give more details about my give-away soon. So please check back for more information. I will be taking names of readers who leave comments over the next few weeks until May 3rd. Please make sure you leave your name and a way to contact you!

What milestones have you achieved lately?

~ Beth

Ups and Downs...

Up...

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you get some good news one day that makes you feel great, then a couple of days later nothing seems to work out right? Well...that is way things have been for me for the past week.

Well, I haven't decided whether I should celebrate, but I'm very excited that an Arkansas magazine is going to feature Arkansas Artists on Etsy in an article and I am one of the artists that they want to include! Well, I shipped my items to them today, but I don't want to get my hopes up, or too excited, because the way things have been going, I don't want to jinx it! I will give more information when I know its going to print with my name and pictures of my art in it!

Down...

But since I got that good news, I decided to make some new pieces to send to the magazine. Well, normally the clay tiles that I made take a while to dry completely. Well I tried to rush it and unfortunately that did not work out. The tiles were very cute! I was really proud of them! But when I opened the kiln, my excitement changed to disappointment. The tiles were broken into pieces. That means they weren't completely dry when they were fired. So, I will have to redo them, but unfortunately it will be too late for the magazine article.

Up...

The kids came home for Easter weekend. My daughter brought the dogs. The new puppy has grown alot since the last trip! He's still an active puppy, but he is becoming more loveable and a little more calm. My daughter volunteered to cook a meal Saturday for us and the in-laws. It turned out very well. The lasagna rolls and the chicken rolls (not sure what they were called) turned out very good. It was the first time she cooked both recipes, but they both turned out excellent! I'm getting very used to others cooking for me! My husband has always had certain dishes that he cooked, especially Italian dishes (he's part Italian), but since he is home more at night, he has become the main cook around here and it is OKAY with me! Gives me more time in the studio, which is always good!

Down...

This weekend, I was simply walking down the hall when my knee popped and locked up. Well that has happened before, but this time it started to swell up...alot. It seemed different this time. So I went to the Doctor today and he seems to think I tore some cartilage. I'm not sure how long that will take to get better. The up to that is that it doesn't keep me from doing my art! If I was a jogger or a leg model or something, I would be up a creek! haha



Well enough babbling for today. I'm not complaining about the ups and downs. The ups are definitely appreciated and enjoyed. And the Ups are so good after experiencing the downs! So I guess they all balance out. I took some pictures of some new pieces that I will be listing in my new Etsy shop. But I want to get more things finished before I open up the new shop or post them. So I will leave that for another post.



So how do you deal with lifes ups and downs?
~Beth

Happy Easter!

Hope you all have a very Happy Easter!

New art work will be coming soon! I've been working on some new clay tiles, heart houses, and little magnets this week. Several pieces need to be finished up and I will be opening a second shop on Etsy. More information will be coming about that soon. For now, I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!

I have Spring Fever...

...and I've got the sinus headaches to prove it! I think the changing weather has been part of that problem. I guess you could say that I've been recharging my batteries this past week. I've been very tired after being at school all day and not had a lot of energy to do much artwork of my own. We started working with clay at school this week, so I'm looking forward to working on some new ideas for projects out of clay. I've been working on a few little sketches to get some ideas for those. I hope to put some new clay items in my Etsy shop in the next few weeks!


Also, I want to get out and take some photos with my new camera to capture the pretty spring flowers out in the neighborhood. I've posted a photo of the dogwood tree in my backyard. Its blooms are opening up. As usual I have lots of ideas, but no time or energy to complete anything. I'm looking forward to summer break, when I plan to be very busy in my studio! I'm looking forward to warmer weather too. I've had enough of the warm one day, cold the next day weather! Bring on the warm days and nights!

Have a beautiful day!
~Beth