Basically I traveled around the Western Caribbean, while everyone was under some kind of Winter Weather Advisory, I was for the most part, enjoying the heat I have missed so much since leaving South Florida.

First I’d like to introduce you to the best cup of coffee I have ever had in my life. This was the first cup I had on the ship, on the first morning we were at sea, and it was brought to me by someone who got up earlier and made it instead of ME getting up and making it like I have for the last oh, 10 years?
Now if I could only figure out how to get an iv drip of coffee first thing in the morning…

As I slowly defrosted my bones after that amazing cup of coffee, I bravely leaned out over my balcony, after looking for sharks, and took this shot. I am in love with lighting and have a growing fascination with linear visuals as well, so to me this came out really cool. You can kind of get a feel for how a cruise is really just you out on a big ship with nothing but a deep dark ocean.

Hi, Little Lina is doing a cameo on the island from LOST! I found the LOST island! I can save them all!!
jk, this is Labadee, Haiti, miles from Port-au-Prince. It’s what I saw out my window on the second day.

Haiti? I Lovie!
lame…but really, look at that water! Fabulous!! What winter weather advisories?? Muahahahaha!!!

HE puts the lime IN THE COCONUT!!
It was really crazy when I first noticed this guy right behind me with a BIG machete…I sloooooowly realized what he was doing. I think, if you find a fallen coconut in Labadee, Haiti, you bring it to this man and he chops it up for you with a machete and creates some sort of tropical drink - WHEW!

*Skips photo of bikini clad Little Lina trying to get out of a kayak*

Oh hey look over there, it’s a beautiful sunset!

Lastly of my favorite photos are these two. In Mexico, I was in bed next to the window, shades closed, sun peeking through. Closed my eyes for a bit, sun went away so I opened the shades again to see how big the clouds were and, BAM, There Were People Looking Back At ME!!! /shut blinds in a frenzy

Apparently another ship had docked right next to us, lovely hehe. Least there were no clouds yet. So while I got off the ship to track down some nice Tequila and a Corona with lime I kept snapping shots of the amazing ships together and the lighting, ah the gorgeous glowie lighting.

That was the last port, it was a great vacation, thank you Royal Caribbean for knowing how to take such good care of all of us.

Warmest wishes

Little Lina

This is the January piece that I am painting LIVE on my lunch hour show this week. I broadcast from 12pm to 1pm so you can sit back at your desk, veg out and watch some magic happen. You might even be inspired to throw down some paint yourself!

Original sketch

Underpainting in raw umber

Fast forward through 1 picture and you have where I am today

These got out the door after the snow melted and I wasn’t snowed in anymore!

So all in all, pretty good start to the New Year. By the way, you can keep up with my antics on my flickr site too, I post more things there than I blog about here and you can see my pictures larger than you see them here. Hope where ever you are, you’re staying warm!

Happy New Year!!
♥ Little Lina

Crafting a Tote

Or a little something I call functional upcycling!

Tune in here on my blog at 12 eastern standard time, Dec 10th, to see the suprising project!

This is the piece I am working on

They were even cool enough to offer free portraits in their natural light alcove. I’m so jealous they have a natural light alcove, brilliant!

I spent so much time shopping that I really didn’t photograph products as much as I would have liked. This not so well thought out shot still came out with cool colors. If you made these birds, let me know!

Random shot of vendors and shoppers, this one caught Christy Wooke, the illustrator in her booth. I think I will see her again, her site says her next stop is The Big Crafty in Asheville, NC on Dec. 6th.

After the show, and after many mouthfuls of sushi, we went to The Alcove, a contemporary arts gallery in Atlanta. I have wanted to visit this place since I think I saw them selling Audrey Kawasaki prints a year ago. Could be wrong, I have a bad memory.

Anyway, this place was full of eye candy, amazing artwork that is super fun to look at, interact with and just all around enjoy. The gallery owner, H.C. WARNER, is a very cool guy, laid back and easy to talk to, even for someone as shy as myself. He makes you feel very welcome into his space and he’s very passionate about his work.

So all in all, ICE 2009 was awesome, you should definitely go to see the fine quality work/artists there. I definitely hope to be a part of it next year.

Before the couple arrived, pre-wedding, I started renovating my kitchen. These things always take longer than expected, don’t they? I’d love to say it all got done before they came into town, but alas, I’d be lying to you, and I don’t want to do that! So in the middle of visiting, cleaning, gathering last minute items, and working I let my little blog slide, I am sorry.

A few days before the actual wedding we headed over to Maggie Valley where the bride and groom had rented an unbelievable cabin at the top of a mountain where incoming family would stay. There we had people coming and going and gazing in awe at the amazing view.

You know you are high up when you’re at eye level with other mountaintops! And just look at the fall colors, truly beautiful.

The rest of my pictures here are from the reception. I was maid of honor, so I couldn’t take photos nor did I have time to chase down my love to get him my camera to take pictures. He was incredible, helping everyone get seated when they had to be, getting the leaf-blower guy to actually stop blowing leaves, and getting everyone packed into vehicles to head up the mountain from the gazebo to the cabin for the candle ceremony and reception.

So here are some of my favorite pictures I did manage to snap. Enjoy!

The Bride and her mom, so cute!!!

The Groom about to chow down on some delicious bbq and amazing hush puppies from Butts on the Creek.

Amazing cupcake toppers, hand painted by yours truly. And the amazing cupcakes by Natalie from Annie’s in Sylva. I swear as you can see this girl rocked the cupcakes, you could just tell she enjoyed making them by how lovely they turned out.

I’ll be posting actual wedding picts very soon, so check back!!!

This sketch reference is from deviant-caroline

Amongst logo’s, illustrations, house-sitting, rummaging, eating and sleeping I managed another sketch, I think this one came out great.

Comment time!
This was a strange one, the first quick outline of this was horrid, the second not much better. “What is going on?” I thought to myself. I took many deeper looks at this portrait and how her features lined up just trying to understand where I was going wrong. On all faces, the corner of the mouth lines up with the iris, and the edge of the nose lines up with the interior corner of the eye. For some reason I could not line up her features. Everything was off. Sounds kind of frustrating huh? It was. I did the only thing I could do, I pushed through and kept trying, and I’m honestly so happy with the result. I would paint this but I don’t think I could because it’s her stock and she probably wouldn’t appreciate me making money off of her photo. O well, life goes on. The only other thing I may not have done was to shade in that crease on her chin, it visually disturbs me because it meets with her shoulder. But here it is, take a look at it if you like. I absolutely love the eyes in this one, they came out looking like there are true reflections if you look deeply enough.

I accomplished most of this, quite successfully. My friend at stoneschoolvintage.etsy.com called one day to tell me she found me the perfect red school desk. This woman has an uncanny knack for finding THE BEST things! So I went and got the desk, $10, nice.

Then we went to this new thrifty place, I could not lose! The rest of the items shown above (not the cat…) I got from this place and the most expensive item was the white wall shelf for $2.00! I do not think I spent over $4 for the rest of the items in the picture.

The white wall shelf will go either in the kitchen with a new coat of paint, some fabric on the back, and maybe some hooks to hold my everyday drinking glasses and coffee mugs. Or I may put it into the bathroom to hold simply some books and new rolls of toilet paper. BUT the cool thing is that it will double as my new doll display! Yay, what a find for two bucks!

The wire bin has yet to find a use, it can be hung on the wall or used to hold my pots, hmmm not sure yet, that’s half the fun. The little black chalkboard might fit in my kitchen after I replace the image on it with something I’ve done, or I may resell it with a new portrait I create or something.

The two little jugs are perfectly cute on my kitchen window sill with some wildflowers. The little frame will display a picture of Dawn at the show. The little black hanging basket will look super cute in my kitchen holding chucks of garlic. The peanut sack slung over the back of the school desk I hope to frame and hang behind the school desk on the wall there. And the two window frames are actually from stoneschoolvintage.etsy.com, I plan to put cork board in them and hang them somewhere in my house to tack up those fly-away papers we all have.

Um, my Maine Coon friend in the picture just loves to approve my little finds. Here he is giving his thorough sniff test. After this approval process was done, he took quite a long cat nap on the desktop there. He approves!