2nd Annual - It's my birthday but you get the gifts giveaway!!

Hi all!

As some of you know next Friday is my 36th birthday and I'm not dreading it like I was last year! I'm looking forward to it for some strange reason and you all can look forward to some fabulous gifts from some wonderful sponsors! YES that's right GIFTS! I'm giving away things, some are mine to give, others are donated from some wonderful Etsy shops and artist friends. You can start entering by midnight tonight and I will stop the comments on the morning of the 9th. Here's the list of the generous sponsors:

Becky Hilgendorf - 5 Original Art Cards

Amanda Makepeace - Original Frog ACEO

Mindy Murphy Lacefield - Tim's Sally - Acorna Pocket Mirror with bag

Erin Keck - EK Creations - "Love Within Our Reach" mixed media necklace

Shelli Dorfe - DazeyChic - Print of your choice & a journal!

Zuda Gay Pease - Handmade Beads & Pendants - Original Polymer Sunflower Brooch

Amy Kane Smith - Amy Smith Mixed Media -

Handpainted & Stitched Card wallet (OR) a pair of earrings.

Amy Kane Smith Glass - $10 Gift Certificate

Kelly Nelson Warren - Happy Shack Designs - Glass Tile Necklace

Kim Geiser - Persimmons Gal - Original ACEO & A Pair of Earrings

Julia Jewels White - Jewels Dolls - Handmade Christmas Doll

Jodi Marie Foster - 3 Art Dolls Kit
(plastic carry case included, 3 fabric doll forms with materials for embellishing (feathers, beads, face cabs, fibers)

EBSQ - Self Representing Artists - One FREE month of membership!

& Me! - MazerDesign - Original Little Whimsie of your Choice (I have 3 originals left!)

Please be sure to visit these wonderful artist's websites and say hi!

I will announce the 15 winners on my birthday (Oct. 9th)!!

Here's the rules:

1. Add a comment on my blog (this post) to enter (that's not hard right?)

2. Tell me what the best birthday gift you ever received was!

3. If you want bonus points add a link on your blog (tell me about it) about this giveaway and you'll get your name entered 2 more times!

Good luck to all who enter and thanks for playing!! Feel free to pass this along to others as well! OK now go do something nice for someone! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME AND YOU! :)

Tomorrow is the BIG day!

Lorelei gets her cast off tomorrow morning at 9:15 am! I'm so excited and nervous all rolled up into one. She has been such an amazing, strong, little girl through this whole process. She totally got it the entire time and knew that something was wrong with her leg but the huge, hIdEOus spica cast was going to make it all better. We had some incredible bonding moments with Lorelei during this time and we tried to make the best of it on a daily basis, it wasn't always easy but here we are at the end! Six weeks felt like an eternity but then it also flew. We all survived and found out how strong we really are.

I wanted to thank everyone for their kind thoughts, prayers, words of encouragement (for J and I), videos and gifts galore for Lo and things to keep her busy. I have some amazing people I call my friends. A lot of you who sent things I have never met in person but you still cared for us. I am blessed by all of you and truly thankful for you all. I know for a fact the tremendous outpouring has blessed others around me. You are all amazing and kind and for that I love you.

It's going to take some time to get back into the normal routine and for Lorelei to walk normal so continued prayers are appreciated. I am going to be her physical therapist as well and take her swimming as much as I can during the recovery process. I know my little dynamo will be back stronger than ever, probably sooner than I can imagine.

I just wanted you to know how blessed we are to have you in our lives. Thank you.

Much love,

Aimée, Jason and Lorelei

Reminder - Can't keep up is a good thing!!!!

Hi all!

I'm exhausted!!! I have been keeping late nights and taking care of Lo who is still in her cast :( . I just can't keep up with life and my art life together!! I have been selling art like hotcakes which is WONDERFUL! The pieces I have been selling have been big and small alike. I still have my art in 3 places locally and if one sells I have to replace it with a similar sized piece. Well I just sold my very large piece that I didn't even have a chance to blog about yet called "The Earth Laughs In Flowers". It is 24 x 36 and very vibrant. It's light and airy and a different style for me. That same night I sold it I created a new piece called "Whimsical Garden" (same size) in a similar style. The big piece was a focal piece at a local restaurant so I didn't want there to be a bare wall. While there switching out things I met a lady who was looking at my art and may purchase a piece for her sister. The same thing happened before when I was hanging "The Earth Laughs in Flowers" 2 girls were looking at my art while I was hanging it and have since gone around town looking at it! I was busy getting things ready for the "All About Birds" show at the library which will be up for a month as well. I've been scanning prints like crazy and even started a new series called "From the Book" (all originals listed on ArtFire). Busy, busy, busy!!! PHEW!! Tired yet? I am!

This is great! I feel like I'm finally on a roll and all the late nights and constant marketing online is paying off. Thank you to all who have passed on my links or have purchased my art. Because of the sales I have been able to pay off 2 credit cards!! What a good feeling that is!!! Still a ways to go but it's a dent! I need to be debt free!!! THANK YOU!

I just found out last week that I am going to be in an upcoming artisan spotlight on ArtFire in a few weeks!! So I'm busy stocking up my ArtFire shop. If you see a new piece you like it will most likely be listed there. I am trying to generate more sales in that shop now. They have soooo many great features that are very helpful when listing items.

I also wanted to give you a heads up that I will be hosting a giveaway again once I hit post number 200 which is very soon!!! Be on the lookout for that. It may or may not be an original just for you as a thank you.

Well this was long! Here's the photos you've been reading for! LOL

"The Earth Laughs In Flowers" - SOLD

"Whimsical Garden" 24 x 36 Mixed Media

"Adventure Called" - From the Book Series 5 x 7 mixed media

"Keep Branching Out" - From the Book Series 5 x 7 mixed media

"NYC Visit" - From the Book Series 5 x 7 mixed media

"BFF Swoon" - From the Book Series 5 x 7 mixed media

2 More Little Ones

Out of the Blue - Mixed media, originally uploaded by creativeFlutter AKA MazerDesign.

Got busy last night creating and it felt good. I think my creativity is going to help get me through this rough time. I'm so thankful for this gift from God.

Out of the Blue (pictured above)
I made molds of these flowers out of vintage pins, buttons and beads so I can recreate them at any time!! I may do a series of these with limited color schemes. It was so much fun!! I melted UTEE in my melting pot and poured them into the molds!! So much fun and a whole new world to explore!!! This is a 5 x 5 piece and has water color crayons, acrylics, UTEE flowers, silver marker and oil marker. This is now listed on ArtFire.

A Little French
I started this piece a few weeks ago and never finished it until last night. I like how it turned out. I used a light molding pasted for the Fleur de Lis and stamped in the image from a foam stamp I have. It has lots of nice texture to it. It's now listed on Etsy.

Enjoy!

Off to get my daughter to her 2 year check up, fun fun!

Thank you to all who responded to my blog yesterday. Reading everyone's heartfelt comments made my day a bit easier. This is a rough time and I know she will no longer be in pain so that eases it a bit but I'm sure going to miss my Nana. I'm working on another tattoo in memory of her. It will probably include a cardinal, a strawberry and some lily of the valley flowers. All her favorites. I'll keep you posted on that.

:)

Aimée

Thank you all for entering my birthday giveaway!!!

365/2, originally uploaded by creativeFlutter AKA MazerDesign.

I will be tallying up the names and entries today and tomorrow and will announce the winners on Sunday! Thanks for making me feel so special and all the sweet birthday wishes! The entries are now closed.

Excuse my photo this was me after waking up this morning. I had no birthday photos yesterday, it was an extremely crazy day.

Thanks for reading my little art blog and I hope you keep visiting, giveaway or not.

Check back by Sunday evening and I'll have the winners posted!

Hugs and blessings!

Aimée

Merry Christmas & Happy New Years

Just look at these tasties!, originally uploaded by creativeFlutter AKA MazerDesign.

I'm sooooooo very sorry to have neglected my blog in the last few weeks. Things have been nuts with the holidays especially with it being my baby girl Lorelei's first Christmas!! Many firsts have occurred just in the last week. She's started to walk on Christmas eve and say Hi! It seems like everything happens at once! I have had no time to create anything lately, I have missed the last 3 IF topics :( I'm hoping to get back on track in the next few weeks but I'm also gearing up for her first birthday in 2 weeks as well! UGH! Like I said lots going on!

On a cool note my newest store on Etsy: Something Random is doing well, we've had 7 sales and 2 were biggies so it's great!!! Thank you all!

I wanted to say thank you to all of my readers and friends and wish you all a VERY HAPPY New Year, 2008! I hope it is filled with many blessings for you all, unexpected and expected! :)

I'll be back soon because I'm CRAVING creativity again!!

HUGS!

Aimée