Whew, it’s the end of November 2009 already and thus the end of AEDM.  It’s been a whirlwind of events and although I missed a week from getting sick, looking back at my posts – I realized that I have accomplished a lot.  I put myself out there, more so than normally and so glad to have shared my work and thoughts.  Thank you to Leah for starting this fabulous community, so supportive and open.  Also, thank you to all of you as well.  I feel as if I’ve grown up a bit, matured just a little and took one step closer to my dreams and goals of being a full-time artist.  No matter how small the step, it’s a step forward nevertheless.  Although there’s a long road ahead and I’m sure many more challenges, I’m excited and happy to be on this journey.  Woohoo!  Here’s a little hello from me  ciao ciao!

I am continuing to fill up my newly opened Etsy shop with more items, even if I’m a bit slow at it.  It takes time to write everything out and prepare photos, still not sure if I’ve got it down yet – in terms of how to present my work.  I’m going to keep at it, little by little – Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?!  Today, I decided to offer a free printable to say thank you to everyone.  Even though Thanksgiving has past, it’s always a good time to give thanks.  We can’t take for granted all the caring people around us and online that help us through our everyday challenges of living our lives and getting through the days, good or bad.  Here’s my way of giving back a little, I hope you like it!

Download Thank You Folded Card PDF

Download Thank You matching Envelope PDF

I designed the thank you folded card and matching envelope above, feel free to download for personal use.  Grazie mille for your support, your thoughts, your feedback…and really just for hanging around so I don’t feel so alone on this creative journey.  Thank you.

Posted on November 30, 2009 at 1:24 pm | art every day month, designs, free goodies | 18 comments

Sundays are always slow days here in our household.  Besides the fact that I’m so not a winter person and feel like I want to hibernate more than anything else these cold days.  I just doodled a bit today…nothing fantastic as I tend to go for random faces when I don’t know what to do.

Posted on November 29, 2009 at 11:25 pm | art every day month, drawings | 14 comments

Hi folks!  I am catching up as I’ve been offline for multiple reasons this past week.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving…it was a bit weird for me to not celebrate this year, since it’s not a holiday in Italy!  What a change…I suppose better to not stuff myself with turkey from now on…hehe!

While I was sick and pretty much glued to the bed and didn’t get much done except outlining this little acrylic painting…

As I mentioned previously, I also did open up my Etsy shop before getting hit by the flu.  I am continuing to work on adding items to the shop, which surprisingly takes longer than expected.  Just to write out descriptions, get the pictures prepared and such.  Today I added a printable item finally, so please check it out and let me know what you think.  Thanks!

Posted on November 29, 2009 at 12:21 am | acrylic painting, art every day month, store | 2 comments

This past week has rushed by with so much information for my brain to absorb.  It’s like my mind just can’t handle it and overflows a bit.  I wanted to post to say I’m still here and actually got as far as finally opening up an Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/tortagialla – or perhaps I should say starting to open shop as I still have so many items to list.

However, we had a big internet outage here and I was completely offline and disconnected.  Talk about isolation and withdrawal from the internet, eek!  Turns out it didn’t matter in the end though because I got a high fever and stayed in bed practically the whole week…

Long story short, things are looking up now and internet is back.  Hopefully I can continue filling in my shop and continue with AEDM.  It really sucked that I couldn’t post daily as planned although I did try to do something daily anyway.  Will post more soon to share.

Whew…it’s weird when life sort of just takes it’s own unexpected twists and turns.

Posted on November 28, 2009 at 2:35 am | blogging | 4 comments

After creating the template for the snowman stationery template set (download it for personal use here), I decided to add a list paper template as well, so you can download the snowman design for your to do lists, shopping lists and whatever lists .

Download the Snowman Stationery Set List Paper PDF

I like the idea of creating as many usable elements as possible in the stationery set, so that it suits all needs.  Can you think of anything else to add in?  For the holidays, I was thinking of place setting paper goods, but perhaps that is a different set altogether that would have invitations, namecards and placemat decorations.  Perhaps color-it-in line drawings for children’s placements?  That was an idea that popped up when I was in the shower, so random!

Otherwise, I was happen to make an order on Moo.com for my holiday postcards with different designs and art work featured.  I am so excited to receive it, although here in Italy the mail takes forever – even if something is sent FedEx or DHL.  I’m crossing my fingers.  In the spirit of looking at past designs and trying to clean up and organize, I decided to go back through all my files from the beginning and finish all those unfinished and abandoned projects.  Or at least look at them again…!  This is going to take some time…

Posted on November 21, 2009 at 12:17 pm | art every day month, designs | 24 comments