Crozet Arts Festival

This weekend since both of my boys had playdates at friends houses I took the opportunity to sneak up to Crozet, VA for their annual arts festival.  Last weekend was the Newport News Fall Festival and although I went to it, this was the first year I wasn't able to participate in it (since getting a full time job).  So that is two art shows in two weekends!!  I am still trying to get my creative mojo back and this weekend was what I needed.  I met three wonderful women with amazing talent and in the next post I will share links to their amazing works.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Getting back into watercolors

Since getting a full time job I haven't wanted to cut or sew fabric because it takes a lot longer to sew a quilt now.  I can only work on projects at night and by the time I get home all I want to do is rest (I work with two-year old's at a preschool). 

I taught myself how to watercolor about 10 years ago so I thought I'd try my hand at that again.  I started with leaves because they are kind of easy:

My first one was the one in the top left but by the time I got to the bottom right one I didn't like how they were turning out.  My favorite one is the one with yellow leaves and a few roots.

Since moving to the Blue Ridge mountains I've seen a lot of artists paint these mountains so I thought I'd give that a try too:

I loved how my leaves turned out ( above) so I returned to those but tried my hand at an entire tree:

To me it looks like a "Winnie The Pooh" tree.

I then decided to paint lavender but I don't like how this one turned out:

My favorite flower has always been the Black-eyed Susan so I tried to paint two different versions, one tighter and one more loose and free flowing:

 One of my favorite birds is the blue jay so I sketched that one yesterday and hopefully I'll get it painted this weekend so stay tuned!

Update, I'm back!

Where do I even start?  Well I have decided to change the name of this blog back to KIMagination.  The main reason being that when I did art shows, and my sign read October Cat Studios, people thought I only sold cat stuff.  And while I do love and adore cats, I have never limited myself to one subject.

The last time I posted I had briefly mentioned that my husband and I bought a house.  As of June first we have lived in it a year and not only do my husband and I love it but our boys do as well.

In April my mom had hip replacement surgery so I flew up to WI to help my dad take care of her for two weeks and it was nice to see them again and to know what a big help I was.  They moved a year and a half ago to Wisconsin from my childhood home in Virginia.  I've had a hard time dealing with their move as I've always been close to them.  My mom's new hip is doing great though!

When I got home from WI I started looking for a job.  I have been a stay at home mom for 3 years but our boys are becoming more self sufficient and we have a house note to pay!  Within a week I had a new job! I am now working at a preschool with the two year olds (pray for me!)  "rejuvenating place" of art.  I haven't wanted to sew or quilt or paint or draw or anything for about six months now.  It seems like after the NN Fall Festival (my last post) art no longer brought me joy.  I have done a few projects here and there but I am now trying for get my creative mojo back to relieve the stress from working with 2 year olds.

Over the next few posts I'm going to be catching you all up on what I have done this past year AND what I'm working on now.

Thanks for sticking with me!
Kim