Announcing the new Drawn to Color Website!!

I am so excited to present my new website. 

One place for all of my artwork. 

www.drawntocolor.com

www.drawntocolor.com

The site is now on wordpress and with all of the plug ins available I know the site can grow with me. Currently we are linking to my Etsy shop for purchasing and if you do not see something listed on Etsy please do not hesitate to contact me.

I read recently that designing a website is not the end but really just the beginning and I agree. I have so much more artwork and information that needs to be added, but I needed to have a starting point.  Over the next few months I will highlight my favorite pieces, some new and some that I have already blogged about. 

If you like the results and you are in need of a website please contact my designer, Stephanie Eberhard. I have known Stephanie for almost 7 years and she has been great to work with and I am so happy with the site.

Enjoy and I hope you too will be drawn to color!

I heArt Fridays...found on Mother's Day

I have three hearts to share with you this Friday... all of them were found during my dinner with the kids on Mother's Day at our favorite Italian restaurant Modo Mio in Crystal Cove.

 like buttah

 my gnocchi... see the heart in the bottom right corner?

The restaurant ran out of Tiramisu so we stopped at the grocery store and Nina treated me to Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream. Low and behold I saw this heart while I was scooping!

It truly was a day of Love!

Throwback Thursdays - My Favorite Christmas Movie

My favorite Christmas movie as a kid was How the Grinch Stole Christmas... not much as changed as it is still my favorite as an adult.

I loved Cindy Lou Who. She was so cute, sweet and innocent, believing in what someone she thought she could trust told her. Maybe that is why I like her? This year when it came time to create a piece or two for the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity's Red Dot Auction... (you can see what I created last year here)... I decided to re-create The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who in my style of torn paper collage. 

All of the papers are from magazines, with the exception of the background of The Grinch.

Originally I was going to use the black of the canvas to create the heavy black lines of the original cartoons, but it was not looking like what I had envisioned in my head. 

I went back to the magazines and pulled out black pages and tore a second outline layer. That is the look I wanted.

Cindy Lou was next:

I cut her antennae and the hook on the ornament as the tearing was too complicated for these few thin pieces. I chose to paint her background to resemble the original sketch.

The Center had a great turnout of artists this year and the work was remarkable. It was a great night, two in fact as Friday evening was an artist preview and Saturday was the actual event. This year when the winning bids were announced the artists were introduced as the work is signed on the back to keep the attention on the work itself and to create some excitement. My hope was that the same person would bid on both pieces. Guess what? That is exactly what happened! Here I am with the winning bidder.

My Grinch and Cindy Lou Who are now living in Vegas! 

Nina was my date for the night, we had fun being in such a creative and fun environment together.

I am already thinking about ideas for Red Dot 4!

I was introduced to the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity by a chance meeting on the beach that I wrote about here... I have another story of synchronicity and the Center that I will share in a future post. It is a crazy small world.

Happy Mother's Day - Having Two Moms

Today I am happy for all Mothers. I am thankful that I am a Mother to two beautiful children. I prayed and waited so long to be a Mom.

Has it always been easy? No. Have I made mistakes? Yes. Has it been rewarding? Yes, a million times YES. I am so thankful for each day that I have with my children. I am thankful for their friends who call me Mom too.

This Mother’s Day I am especially happy for one Mother in particular. It is because of her selfless act and the love for her baby that made it possible for me to be a Mom. This year she does not have to wonder where her oldest baby is and how her life is. 

She knows.

Photo courtesy of fountain of youth florida

 Nina now has two Moms in her life who have always loved her. Two Moms to console her.  Two Moms to protect her. Two Moms to give her advice. (whether she wants it or not). 

We have an open adoption, just 19 years later! It is amazing.

One of the best compliments that I have ever received was from Nina’s Birth Mother, Melanie when she told me that I did a wonderful job mothering Nina. My hope is when the time is right we will find Dante’s Birth Mother too.

Happy Mother’s Day Melanie!

I Love You.

I heArt Friday's - Birthday Adventure Hearts

 I chose to share 2 hearts from Dante's Birthday weekend:

This rice heart is from our dinner at Benihana.

This is the center of an old fashioned lollipop from Knotts Berry Farm. I love these lollipops... so yummy and look at the colorful heart!