Artful Bloggin Summer 2014

I feel so honored to have had the chance to write another article for Artful Blogging! The summer issue came out a few days ago and I wanted to give you guys a peek. :) I was thinking about how often I get stuck for a blog topic or find myself scurrying around "the day of" a post and it just feels crazy. In this article I share few tips for planning ahead and how to get some relief for the frantic blogger (aka...usually me! ha!)

I've been working on making these changes for awhile (the ones I share in the article) and when I do, I feel like I'm a much better writer, take better photos, have more original content and I'm more proud of what I post! I hope it encourages you too!

I had a little photo re-printed from my blog in the front of the magazine too.... So fun!

If you'd like a copy, just visit your local Barnes & Noble or order online from the Stampington & Co. website. Thanks as always for your support. I never dreamed I would get to write for one of my favorite publications and having my own column is a dream come true!

Artful Blogging Spring 2013

I was so excited to write an article in the Spring 2013 Edition of Artful Blogging! This magazine is so beautiful and I'm so thankful to get to share another fun "how-to" article.

 After lots (and lots!) of research, I have SO many great iPhone apps to share with bloggers on the go! Really I think these apps could be helpful for anyone. :)

I found some really great apps for blogging from your phone, taking and editing photos, keeping track of your social media, getting your web stats and staying organized. Most of these apps are either free or just $0.99! Why not check 'em out?

You can pick up this issue of Artful Blogging at your local Barnes & Noble or order it online by clicking the link in my sidebar. Thanks as always for your amazing support! Happy day!

I'm still sorting through photos from our trip... more on that soon! :)

Surviving your First Blog Conference (an Article!)

I was so honored to write an article for the 2012 Winter Artful Blogging Magazine! (It's one of my all time favorite magazines!) After writing for them a few times, my editor there asked me to write about my experience at my very first blog conference.

This conference was a couple weeks away but my deadline would be three days after I got home... eek! I'm actually glad because it was all fresh in mind and I knew first hand what it was like to be a first timer at a blog conference! (Something I might forget if I had written about it later on.)

When the article came out, Jeremy and I were out of town and saw it in a B&N in Dallas! Oh my goodness!!! So exciting!!! But what really surprised me was seeing my name on the cover... I about fainted!

I wrote about 6 tips .. a little survival guide for you! These tips included "Pack Now, Decide Later", "Introverts Are Fun Too", "Expect to Learn" and "Meet Your Blog Heroes"!  I loved just writing from the heart, letting myself be a little witty and very honest.. I hope you guys enjoy it.

I also got to take a few pictures at the conference to share! I didn't get great pics, but I love this one because it features some of my all time favorite bloggers (yes, my blog heroes!) Kendi, Katie, Emma & Elsie! 

If you get a chance, I hope you'll stop by your local B&N and pick up this amazing magazine that I'm so proud to be a part of! You can also see more of my blog conference adventures here.

Happy day!

Sharing Your Stories!

At the beginning of  2013, I posted a video introducing The New Specs & Wings. I shared my story and encouraged you to share yours... And you did!!! Thank you for ordering custom painted canvases and toms that tell you stories. Thank you for letting me interview you about your art, business and how you do-good, creatively (and sharing your encouragement in this video too!). You guys make S&W great and I'm so proud to call you friends. :) Here's to another year of sharing stories! Happy 2014 everyone!!!

2013 Year-In-Review!

This has been such a fun year for Specs & Wings! Thank you for joining me on this journey and being such an incredible support. I'm so thankful for every client and every blog reader- you guys are sweet friends to me! At the end of the year, I always get a little nostalgic and I love to look back over what has happened before moving on to the next year! Here's what happened in 2013.... 

 JANUARY/FEBRUARY
-Launch of the new Specs & Wings logo, branding and blog design!
(I couldn't believe it was finally happening!)
-Your Story interview with The Whitehouse Table Co., Sugarface! & Sara Dreshcher Braswell
- Army Toms, KenyaToms, Love Mercy Toms and Kitchen Pillows

MARCH/APRIL
-Grace & Time Painting & 10 Year Anniversary Painting
-Good & Perfect, Sweet Sixteen, Cool Grandma &  Yankee Toms
- YOUR STORY with Casey O'Connell
- Changing my paints to mostly Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics (I love that paint!!!)

MAY/JUNE
- Stars Paintings & Chalkboard Paintings
- YOUR STORY with Knit Simplicity and ADF Designs
- First blog collaboration with Bonlook: Brave Specs! (What a cool experience!)

JULY/AUGUST
-Acts 6:4 Painting
-YOUR STORY with Kathleen from Braid Creative & phone interview with Caitlin Crosby founder of The Giving Keys
- Blog collaboration with The Giving Keys
- First blog conference "Texas Style Council" in Austin, TX with my sweet friend Alison! It was one of my favorite experiences of the year!

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER
-YOUR STORY with Jesse Hadley-Stokes, Imagine Goods & Destinee McGinnis
-YOUR STORY with Elise Wehle and partnership with Uncommon Goods!
- Liquitex samples arrived & I started painting from my experiences in the fall
- "Sharing Stories" article published in Artful Blogging

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
- Nursery Owl, Courage My Love, Blessing Painting & Women of God Paintings
- First experiments in abstract painting
- Chalkboard Christmas Paintings
- "How to Survive Your First Blog Conference" article published in Artful Blogging Magazine
- YOUR STORY with Ink Cards
- Art for Addy's Hope Event!

This was such an exciting year and I'm even more excited about what's coming up next year! I'm so thankful for what God is doing and that I've had the chance to meet you y'all, share your stories and paint something that I hope will touch your heart. Let's journey together into 2014!!!

Liquitex Box

Guess who sent a box of samples?! My favorite paint brand, Liquitex! I'd emailed with a sweet rep from there, signed up on the website, and she sent this fun box of goodies... it's seriously like Christmas in this box!

There's sample Heavy Body Acrylic Paint, Ink!, Spray Paint, a Paint Marker and a Free-Style Brush! There's something so fun about trying out new mediums, right?!?

They also sent a Free-Style metal journal and The Acrylic Book- full of explanations about how acrylics are made, how they work, how to read the labels, etc...

Yes, I'm sure to totally geek out over this book!

These are project cards that provide ideas on how to use these cool products from Liquitex! I can't wait to dive in and try everything! I'll be sharing my journey on the blog so keep an eye out!

Anybody ever used these items before? I'd love to hear how you used them!

TxSC Re-Cap!

I finally got all of my pictures and my notes together to tell you about Texas Style Council weekend!

Friday Night....
First off, you should know that Alison and I booked this crazy motel with themed rooms. Ours was called "Blue Waters"... ha! It was charmingly Austin.  The first night we went to a clothes swap. I have no pictures of that because it was wild and we were sweating to death. I snagged this pic from TxSC's fb page (yep, that's my hair on the left there... ha!) Our favorite part of the night... THE BEST TACOS EVER! We might have dreamed about them for the rest of the trip.

Saturday...
Was filled with workshops and lots of information. When we finally had a break, we went and got coffee asap to "download" all we had learned and bounce ideas. Then we went to a few cute shops downtown before getting ready for the party that night. Since the whole conference's theme was "Back to School", the party was a prom!

We almost didn't go to prom, but we actually had a great time! We went to all kinds of booths from vendors and artisans, won prizes, shopped, and saw some of our favorite bloggers. We spared everyone our dancing... ya know, we didn't want to show anyone up.

Then we hit the photo booths...

... And saw some of my favorite bloggers of all time at the Bonlook booth! Yes, that's Kendi and Katie with their husbands.. super sweet and adorable...

Sunday....
This was the moment we'd all been waiting for! Elsie and Emma from A Beautiful Mess gave an awesome keynote before the day's classes began. They had such great advice for us. I'm still sifting through my notes!

After the day's classes, we all gathered up again for a blogger panel! Look at all of these amazing bloggers... front row: Morea, Kendi, Jen, Julie, Katie, Emma, Elsie and Jessi (at the podium)! These ladies are a wealth of knowledge about blogging and I felt SO inspired after this!

In the end, we ended up meeting and talking to Kendi and Katie! They were each so nice. Kendi encouraged us that it was okay that we're starting out small... she even said smaller is better! Katie encouraged us to always go up and meet bloggers and we gushed over how much we all love Austin before a big hug goodbye.

I had the best time hanging out with Alison all weekend and being around such amazing bloggers. I hope we get to do this again next year!

Elsie & Emma (the keynote speakers and authors of A Beautiful Mess blog) just released their first book yesterday! I'm going to be giving it away right here on the blog starting tomorrow! You can see a sneak peek inside the book here... then come back tomorrow to enter!

Sharing Stories

I'm SO thrilled and honored to be in the Autumn 2012 Issue of Artful Blogging! When we went to Barnes & Nobles yesterday, there it was!... so fun and feels so crazy to see my little article in print! If you get a chance to stop by B&N, flip to the back of the magazine if you want to read my article called "Sharing Stories". It's about my experience with doing blog interviews this year and I'm sharing some "how-to" steps along with "tips" to making your interviews come alive!
I couldn't have done this without my sweet Jeremy. He helped me not stress out about the deadline to finish, helped me gather my ideas and form them into an article, and encouraged me every step of the way! I'm so thankful for him!

I have some more really exciting news... I just found out last week that I get to write another article like this for the Winter 2013 Issue of Artful Blogging! This time I'll give you the inside scoop on my very first blog conference... it's coming up this weekend and my article is due the next Friday... whoa. I can't believe that I'm getting to share my heart with other bloggers and hopefully offer them encouragement through writing articles! I feel so excited and blessed with this opportunity.

Thanks for sharing my excitement, I can't wait to get your feedback!
Happy day!

The Biz Stuff

Tonight I'm working on the biz stuff. Of course paintings, prints, the shop, blogging etc. are biz stuff too, but you know what I mean... the paper work part. You're going to laugh, but I actually enjoy getting all the stuff out, going through it and organizing it. Ha! I'm just kinda nerdy like that. :)

On the other hand, that's part of what being a business is... so in that way, it feels really cool. Seems like every year I've done awesome at one part of S&W and then practically dropped something else! This year it was paper work. I guess I need to take my own advice! Ha! SO I'm paying for it now, but it'll feel really good when it's done right? Maybe one of these days I'll learn to balance everything? Ha!

I'm also feeling like I want to leave for the Blog Conference with everything in order so I can come back refreshed and refueled for the next step of S&W! Thanks for coming along for this crazy ride... even the "boring" parts. :)

Anyone have some brilliant tips for me? Please leave me some tips in the comments (or bring me some coffee!)

Deut. 6:4-9

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 

Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. 

This little idea was planted in my heart the other day. In the Bible, God tells us that we need reminders of his truth. This is SO true, ya know? I am a very visual person so seeing a verse over and over helps me remember it, especially in the "day to day" stuff.

So, I decided to start with a couple of verses and paint them on little bags! I don't know about you, but I love to put things in little bags.... make up, pencils, jewelry, etc.... and the idea is that in your everyday life, you could be getting ready for work in the morning or grabbing lip gloss out of your purse or packing your jewelry for a trip.. and remember what God has commanded you... remember His truth in the everyday stuff.

I started with just a few, but each bag is hand painted with gouache (opaque watercolors!) so they're not stiff, but soft and bright! Each bag is painted with words of truth and lots of pretty and unique detail. You can read about each bag here.

If you'd like one of these little bags for yourself, or to give one to someone as an encouraging gift, head over to my Etsy Shop! I started with just a few to see what you think. :) I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments!

happy day!

New Art Prints & Shop Re-Opening!

Heart Print Set $15

Vintage Print Set $12

I've re-opened the S&W Etsy Shop! After a break for a few months to focus on other things, I'm excited to get back into it. Currently I've re-loaded the shop with art prints (and print sets!) but in the future watch for other fun side projects and and original paintings. I can't wait!

Thanks for the warm welcome-back so far! I'm excited to start filling your orders!

Sharing Stories Article!

It's still so surreal! I can't believe I have a little article coming out in Artful Blogging Autumn 2013! I had the opportunity to write a one page article about one of my favorite topics right now... blog interviews! I'm sharing my experience, tips and a "how-to" guide for other bloggers. If you'd like to pick up this issue, it will be available at Barnes & Noble Aug. 1st, or you can pre-order it here! 

If you want to check out my very first published article, you can order a back-issue here, or see some sneak peeks here!

This week I'm experiencing some pretty exciting stuff! I'm honored to get to interview a surprise guest on Friday and I'm currently working with her manager to set up a time! Wow. I can't believe I'm getting to live my dreams!

Happy day!

I'll Be There, Y'all!

I'm SO EXCITED because I'm signed up for my very first blog conference, Texas Style Council! I've always wanted to go to a conference like this, but they're always too far for me to travel. This one is soooo close, I figured... why not?!? My sweet friend Alison is road tripping there with me and we're getting REALLY giddy about it! The speakers are all phenomenal and I'm excited to hear from many of my blog heroes (a.k.a. Elsie & Emma, Katie, Kendi, etc!)

My mind has been racing with what to pack, which workshops to choose & the amazing people I'll get to meet! Have you ever been to a conference? Any tips for me? I'll keep you updated on the journey!

Dig In!

via Out Came the Sun

I saw this today and LOVED it. Ever get kinda stuck? Wondering what the next step is or what the next big goals (or small goals for that matter!) should be?  I came to realize this week that I always have goals and I really enjoy working towards them... but I hadn't been thinking about what they were specifically in awhile. I mentioned this problem to my sweet Jeremy who gave me a brilliant idea... write 'em down!

Sounds simple enough right? Although I'm constantly thinking about S&W, this little blog and my artwork... it's all just floating around in my brain... until I make it "real" by putting it on paper. I pulled out a notebook and started letting go of fears and expectations... and making a list! Sketches starting flowing out, branding ideas, painting series, blog interviews to consider and the "why's" behind what I'm doing. Suddenly my ideas turned into goals and the chaos in my mind found a focus.... a direction. I don't have everything figured out, but I've discovered more about where I'm going and what my goals are for for S&W!

I've got sweet supporters like my family and friends (and y'all) and I want to live my life worshiping God and celebrating Him with others. God gives me everything I need to make me brave!

Percolating ideas.
Frying up the fears.
Soaking my uncertainty in syrup.
Got indecision in the toaster.
Pouring a nice cold glass of bravery.
I'm ready to DIG IN!

So, what problems do you see this morning? Expect that they will be there... then eat them for breakfast!

Sending "Thank You's"!

These are a few "Thank You" packets I'm sending out! They were so fun to make! I wrapped up a hand-written note on an art print postcard along with a business card. The envelopes are actually little treat sacks! I also threw in some cute specs confetti! I sealed them with specs and "&" stickers and stamped the front with my logo stamp. I know I'm a little nerdy with branding and stationary, but I just think it's SO FUN!

Happy day!

Big Week!

This week has been big and exciting! I didn't really go into this week thinking so many things would happen, so it's been a fun surprise. ;) I wanted to share what's happening with y'all!

-First, I found out that you guys are awesome (which I already knew!) and you gave me 50 votes for a pair of Bonlook specs! They'll be sending them soon, I'll share photos as soon as they arrive... so fun!

-Then, I got to tell a sweet friend, who's been waiting quite a while on a couple of paintings, that they're set for  delivery TODAY! I put all of the finishing touches on last night and I'll take pictures for the blog this afternoon (yay!) It was such a fun project and I hope she loves the paintings!

- Lastly, I found out that I'm getting to write another article for my favorite magazine, Artful Blogging! I've been working on the drafts for a couple of days, but I have to finish it up for tomorrow's due date. Wow, I'm excited!!!

& that's what's going on around here. It's been an awesome week, I feel so blessed to get to do what I love and I'm so glad that I get to share it with you. :) Hope your week is great too!

New Prints on Society6!

Morning! I just wanted to let you guys know that I have a new print available at Society6! Click here to check out all of the sizes and options: http://society6.com/SpecsandWings

To read more about what this painting means, click here!

Happy day!

Discovery

I'm really excited about taking some time off from custom orders to paint my story. I think it's going to be even more than just a time for me to create freely. The more I think about it, I see how it's an opportunity for me to discover more of the style and aesthetics of Specs & Wings! And in making those discoveries, I can then offer custom painting that fits S&W's style and allows me to grow as an artist.
I told a friend the other day...I haven't painted for an extended period of time, multiple paintings, on my own (without orders) for so long....I don't even know what will come out! It's kinda scary...but thrilling too...and I can't wait to discover and make changes for the better!

Wrapped Up Gift Certificates!

Last week I got to do something extra fun and special...I wrapped up two TOMS gift certificates! Here's what I did.... I wrote a special note on the back of a logo postcard and placed it (along with a business card) inside a grey and white striped bag. Then I tied up each bag with a yellow string and put a sticker over the flap to keep it closed. I added small yellow envelopes with blank cards inside so for a personal note or "to:/from:". So fun and cute! I'm still so excited about my logo designs from Liz Fabry and business cards by Kate Dominguez!

Although I'm currently not accepting orders again until the fall, feel free to ask about gift certificates! They make great gifts! specsandwings@gmail.com