THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

A big Thank You to all of you who came by and bid for the silent auction to benefit Stephanie and her husband Christian. If you didn't win the auction, but still wanted to donate for this wonderful cause, just press the donate button to the side of my blog. No amount is too small and all donations I am sure will be appreciated. Any questions just email me or visit CJane (Stephanie's sisters blog) for more information.

I will be posting some pictures and some exciting news (I won something) plus I have been a sketching fool, have a stack of mail to send off to oh so many people (I am terrible at mailing off things on time, sorry!) So can't wait to hear how all me blogging friends are enjoying their long weekend. Take care and I will post again soon.

Silent Auction for NieNie (Closed)

The Nielson Family, our prayers are with you!

Don't forget to visit Design Mom for other amazing auctions. All helping to raise funds for Stephanie and her family.

UP FOR AUCTION

"Sleepyheads"

Shhhh! Momma Owl is trying to get all her little owls to settle down, for the moon is waining, and the sun will soon be ready to say hello. She is reading her little one's their favorite book, Goodnight Moon. Looks like little brother has already fallen asleep from a busy night of hide and go seek and lightning bug races. Good luck Momma Owl, those other two look like real night owls. (sorry guy's, I couldn't help myself)

Up for auction is the original painting "Sleepyheads" in this lovely wooden frame. This is an original painting (not a print) using watercolors and acrylic paints. The size is 5"x 7" and the painting is mounted on coordinating acid free scrapbooking paper.

Stephanie and Christian and their beautiful family

I just visited Kathleen's lovely blog, Grosgrain, and found out the most heart breaking events that have happened to the family of Stephanie from the very well know blog The NieNie Dialogues. Stephanie and her husband Christian were in a plane crash two weeks ago. From what I understand Stephanie received burns over 80% of her body and her husband received burns on over 30% of his body. It is speculated that the medical bills will soar to the upper thousands if not millions. I am touched by Kathleen's kindness. She has decided to auction off one of her beautiful handmade dresses. Although I am new to the NieNie Dialogues ( I found them through Grosgrains links) I feel the need to help out in any way possible. I have decided to follow in Kathleen's footsteps and host a silent auction also.

Instead of hosting a giveaway this week, I am going to put one of my original illustrations up for auction. To purchase the painting, just leave your bid in the comment section. Check back often. If you would like to increase your bid, just leave another comment with your new amount. Bidding will end on Sunday August 31st at 12 pm my time. The painting will go to the highest bidder. The money will go straight to a fund set up to help the family with all the upcoming expenses. 

I will be keeping this sweet family in my prayers. I pray that they both have a speedy recovery.

I would like to thank Kathleen for passing all this information along. I hope she doesn't mind that I used the images from her blog to put on this post. If you want to find out more information on ways that you as a fellow blogger can help, please visit C Jane (Stephanie's sister's blog) for more details.

Snow and art

Daddy and Zoe cooking.

My Gymboree barrette obsession.

The girls playing before dinner.

Our blanket of snow.

Start of the new project.

It snowed today. Tonight the snow left a lovely blanket of snow on our yard. Dean feel asleep while he was putting Zoe to bed. He has been working so hard on his job and side jobs and the house. I didn't have the heart to wake him up. He slept for almost three hours and just woke up to feed the dogs, close up the garage and come in the house to go to sleep again. I have finally started on the turtle illustration. I have like 15 other ideas ready to roll after this one, thank goodness. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to just pick up and run with things again. So far so good. I have a lot to finish before the JDRF auction coming up in April. I am hoping that I can round up a ton of art for this worthy cause. Starting Monday I will be pulling out all the stops and asking all of my old buddies from art school and other talented artists from Reno if they would like to donate work for the auction. My goal this year is 30 donations. If you are reading this and know of an artist that would be interested in donating something please have them contact me and I can get them the appropriate forms.


On another note my little ones were so very grumpy today. It was an off day for all. Around 3:30 I had finally had enough and decided we needed to get out of the house. I drove us to the Sierra Summit outdoor mall. We went to Gymboree and I bought the girls some darling new barrettes. I try to justify this addiction by the fact that I have three girls, and I do put hair pretties in their hair everyday. These barrettes are used over and over more than anything else I buy for the girls. A part of me still feels a little guilty when I splurge on things like this. Just that little bit of time out of the house did us all good. When we got home Dean was fixing dinner (I would cook more but he is the better cook). We had a nice dinner together and then it was time for baths and Jammie's. All in all it has been a good day.

A few minutes to relax

I was able to take a 3 hour nap today! Can you believe it! Everyone cooperated and it was so wonderful. Today was busy but good. I just spoke with Molly Dillon tonight. She is the head of the Northern Nevada branch of the JDRF. It is time to start getting ready for the annual JDRF Vision Gala. This will be my fourth year helping out. It is such an awesome event. They have the most amazing silent auction. All the money raised from the auction and ticket sales going to help fund research for a cure. This year they are also hoping to get an entertainer to come and perform for the event. I already have two friends that are willing to donate art for the auction. I will be working over the next few months to try and round up donations from artists and businesses. If you or anyone you know are interested in donating something for the auction, please call me or e-mail me with contact information so I can call and send them the proper forms needed for the auction donations. No donation is too small and all are appreciated. This is a cause I am passionate about. I hope that in Sloan's lifetime they will find a cure for diabetes.
It is almost time for Popeye to go to sleep. I am feeding her cereal at night with the hope that it will help her sleep a little better. This is my first try so we will see. Oh she just looked up at me and smiled. I love that. I have so little time to create and as much as I would love to write more I am going to cut it short and panit tonight. Hope everyone had a great day. I will post some photos tomorrow.