It's early morning and I'm sipping on a nice cup of coffee. Early start this morning because there's a lot to do today! First thing on my to-do list was listing these two new mini watercolor paintings.

I'm trying really hard to get my shop stocked full of original art for the holidays. I can't believe that Thanksgiving is 23 days away! Then Christmas will be here! It's all so overwhelming so I'm just focusing on making new items and getting them listed. 

I'm learning that not all these little freehand watercolor paintings are going to be successful. I was really luck when these four little ones turned out well. I've worked on several more that just didn't turn out so well...

Maybe I'll post them tomorrow to show. I feel like even if they're not that great, there are certain elements that will work in a different painting. 

Have a great Wednesday everyone! 

New things are happening in my Etsy shop today!

Hooray! 

I'm really liking these two new pieces. I'll be posting a couple more different pieces tomorrow.

In other news, it's been a little over a month since I've had any ankle pain! I've been running a couple of days a week, 3 slow miles. I'm hoping my Achilles are 100% better, and that I'm out of the woods. However, I know this injury is tricky and if I'm not careful, it can come back. So I'm just going really slow right now and trying not to over do it.

If there's one thing that this injury has taught me is that patience pays off. I stopped doing any physical activity for over a month. I just stretched and did my ankle strengthening exercises. Even though I felt like I was going to loose my mind, it paid off in the end.

The other thing that I'm taking away from this experience is that cross training and stretching are so important when you're a runner. Strengthening and stretching all your major muscle groups will make you a stronger runner and you'll be less prone to injury. Lesson learned!

Fingers crossed that my ankles continue to be awesome and pain free! 

Hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! It poured buckets here in Portland. Many areas were actually flooded and we didn't get many trick or treaters. That's okay, more candy for us!

I wasn't really sure where to start today. I had a lot of ideas but just didn't seem to go through with any of them. So, instead I just found some little pieces of paper and decided to paint free hand. No sketching, no references, just going for it.

I like how they turned out! I'm thinking this is a new way for me to work. Sometimes I rely too much on sketching and reference pictures. I think it's good to get away from that and just go with my gut and memory.

I'll be posting some of these in my Etsy shop tomorrow!