Starting off strong...

Well, art fans, it's shaping up to be an exciting 2015 already, and we've barely even started!  I don't know what I did, but for some reason the universe has decided, "here, have some sprinkles on your 2015 cake!"  If, y'know, sprinkles were jobs and dollars.  I don't want to jinx it, but there's a project I'm in the running for that would really be a great opportunity...challenging, but that can be fun sometimes.

For another thing, we got our old house rented!

Scotty will miss the Art Shack.  As will I.

And we didn't even have to use a management company, so no management fees!  Of course, this means that I have to add "property management" to my long list of part-time jobs that I do, but I don't mind.  I'm just happy to have the house taken care of and not have to pay two mortgages anymore, let me tell you...

I also got my first Etsy custom order!  This is exciting.

And it was for a product I hadn't even really thought of offering...pet portraits ON a painted stone, which is then made into a pendant!  Why didn't I think of that sooner?  Or a stone magnet would work too, or a painted box, or...

Just call me the Official Painter of Pugs in Fancy Dress.

Cute pug, huh?  I'm pleased with how this came out, and the customer loved it too, which is the real important thing.

This opens up a whole new world now...I'm going to start offering this as a regular product, and give it its own listing and section on my Etsy store, but for now you can just click on one of the "request custom order" buttons to get one.  They're $34, which is the regular stone pendant price plus a $10 custom fee.  And then you can show your love for your animals in a cute little necklace!

I also have some of these...

...which may have to get painted and become pendants, too.  I almost think it'd be cute to have the natural wood color as the background, and paint a little dog or cat face on it.  Or hamster, or horse, or betta fish (oh, please someone commission me to do a portrait of their fish, that would be so fun! I used to have a koi pond and I love drawing fish).

So we're off to a good start to 2015 so far...things are kicking off!  Let's continue this trend, shall we?