Selling Handmade Makes A Difference

Just finished my 2nd Art and Craft Fair here in Vancouver. There were so many talented people. I enjoyed the way people used there creativity to come up with all the different designs and ideas for children and as well as adults.

I ended up selling more of my craft wares than my paintings at this event. I was even in the local NorthBank magazine for the southwest Washington. It takes alot of work to get something like this together. Planning way a head is the key. Making sure you have business cards updated, brochures, gift certificates and if you do create custom work, put up some kind of sign to let your customers know you can personalize it or custom make a design for them if their interested. So if your a crafter or artist get out there to your community and sell handmade!

Holiday Gift Ideas That Won't Break The Bank

My new Pacific Northwest calendar as well as other gifts are on sale now. As some of you know I love that area. It is beautiful year round. Watching the storms over the ocean is something that I never tire of. As well as the beautiful sunsets and tidepools that are teaming with life. I am always finding new things to photograph and paint here. I hope you enjoy the many beautiful photos of this calendar as well as the many other gifts that are available.

Please go to Visons In Nature to see this calendar and more.

Photo Calendars On Sale Now, Plus More

Happy New Year to all of you and I wish you a very healthy and prosperous one. I just finished putting together a Pacific Northwest calendar of Cannon Beach. Some of you may know, I love that area. It is beautiful year round. I hope you enjoy this as well as other items from my store that also make great holiday gifts.

Giving Back To My Favorite Charity

I finally finished my collage for the Humane Society of Southwest Washington. I will donate it to their auction next year. I thought I should start early this time. They are building a much needed new shelter. They are going from a 11,000 sq. foot facility to a 30,000 sq ft single story building which will double their capacity for dogs and triple the capacity for cats. Many hands, many hearts are making this a reality. We are so grateful. If your interested in donating please click on http://southwesthumane.org/ and donate now! Please let them know Michelle Tourtillott sent you!

Almost Time

Well, the summer is starting to slowing come to a close here. School starts for my girls in 3 weeks and we are off to see family in Colorado before that happens. We've had really unusually hot weather here in the Pacific NW and today I heard my first huge thunder clap! It almost sounded like an explosion, it was so loud. Then the rain came. It's actually been several weeks since we've had a good rain. So this is good. I love the sunshine, but a little rain is always nice and needed too. Back in Colorado they've had their share of weird weather. They've had some very hot days and it's cooled down 30 to 40 degrees in a very short period.

I went into Portland yesterday and found a 70% off sale on stretched canvases! I had to buy one. I got a 30 X 40. It just made since. It was the biggest one and down to 17.00 from 60.00! Can't beat that. I'm still not sure what I'll paint, so it will sit there for a bit till schools in gear and I have several hours to play! So stay tuned. I'll post when I get started.

New Paintings Can Now Be Yours!

Some of my new paintings that you have seen recently are now on sale. I have them up in my store at Michelle M Designs. Also check out my Secret Escapes! Some of my photographs and paintings I have decided to use there are on beautiful keepsake boxes, tiles and cards. Start your holiday shopping now and enjoy this season stressfree!

Here is one of the paintings for sale. Tuscany Farm. $50.00

The Creative Side Of A Teen

My daughter has been spending a good amount of time drawing when she has a feel for it. She has developed a style of her own with her playful theactical imagination of pretend from her childhood and her love and passion for what lies in the present and future. She still loves the world of imagination and discovery. These beautiful and colorful drawings bring back youthful memories and feelings of love, happiness and dreams. Come see for yourself the creations she has developed. They're avalible on t-shirts, totebags, journals and teddy bears and so much more!

Successfully Completed Cannon Beach Sunset!

Here is my finished painting of Cannon Beach Sunset. It is a 24 X 36 wrapped canvas. I really enjoyed it and I love how it looks in different light! I am excited about starting a new painting soon. We have company coming in for a few weeks so I may have to wait. Maybe I can sneak in a few minutes here and there. It's getting hot out now. This will be our 2nd day of 90's here in the Pacific Northwest! Stay cool!

Wrap It Up And Put It Away

Don't wait until the winter holiday season to find a holiday gift for your loved ones. If you live in the north pacific come by the Art and Wine Fair in Vancouver, Washington for the perfect glass of wine and beautiful hand crafted gifts. Find the perfect gift , wrap it up, and put it in a safe place until the holidays. With a glass of wine in hand, you can stroll the winery grounds, listening to music and perusing the many, varied works of our artists. You'll find established artists and up and coming artists working in a variety of media from oils to watercolors to acrylics to mixed media: landscapes, still lifes and abstracts to pique your interest. There will be wonderful objects of wood, of glass and of metal. Silk flowers, arranged in gorgeous bouquets. If you love beautiful photos of landscapes and nature, of people and places, you'll be in photo heaven. Crafted jewelry, purses, totebags, note cards, specialty foods, recycled wine bottle chimes, soaps await your choice. Meet and talk to the artists creating these unique works.
All the works are crafted locally, and the prices are affordable.

If you can't make it to the Art and Wine Fair come take a peek at a few of the gift items that will be there and also my store! or my other store at Secret Escapes!

Art Show Went Great!

My "Art, Women, And Wine" class I attended for the last 8 weeks had an art show. We all put in 3-4 paintings that we either did in class or have painted before. The turn out was great and the ladies in the class did awesome. There was so many different styles and techniques. It was a lot of fun to see so many different mediums, and subjects in one room. It really brought out the creative juices I've stuffed away for so long. We have another one at a winery that I plan on doing. Hopefully the painting of "Cannon Beach Sunset" will be done by then. Here is a look at the almost finished painting.

Playing Around With Photography

I have always loved photography but could never really have a nice camera that takes great close-up photos with a nice zoom on it for wildlife. So I try my hand with what I have and went out to Cannon Beach, Oregon in Febuary. It was beautiful out there the whole week we were there till the last day it started getting alittle chilly. I'm sure thats why this photo "Haystack Rock" turned out to be so colorful. To check it out go to Secret Escapes in the dolphins and shells. I put it on a keepsake box and it turned out really nice!

I am also going to try and reblacate in on canvas in acrylic. I'll be posting my progress soon.

New Arcrylic Painting!

I decided to go back to working in acrylics. It drys so much faster and I don't have to work around the medium so much. It's been quite a while since I've worked in this medium on canvas, it's usually on walls. Here is the painting, "Iris" that I completed in just a few hours. I would enjoy hearing from you and your experience with different mediums. Would love some feedback on it.

Now get your brushes out and keep on painting!

Painting Is Now Completed!

My sailboat painting is now done. It's taken me a couple of months to complete it working on it only a few days a week. I had a lot of fun and learned so much about oils. I plan on using oils again for my next painting. I enjoyed being able to go back over the paint when it was wet to add or mix color into it. I also like to looks of an oil painting. I'll always return to my watercolor and acyrlic too. but this was an interesting project. I hope you all enjoyed it too.

Skipped To Day 5 of Sailboats In Sunset

I decided to skip to day 5 because I felt I wasn't able to get much done on day 4. So as you can see I was able to finish the sky and work a bit on the boats sails in the foreground. There is some folds in the red sailboat that needs attention next week. Hope this inspires you to get out some paper and brushes and have some fun. See you next week with more details in the boats and the sails.

Day 3 Of Sailboat Painting!

I started working on the clouds getting colors of a sunset in. I used yellows, reds, purples, blues and white. I mixed the the reds and yellows to blend into oranges near the bottom for a deep sunset. Next week more sky work and then work on the boats and some detail. Yhee! See you next week.

Day 2 Of Sailboats in the Sunset Painting

I meant to get this out earlier, but I was out with that nasty flu bug that has gripped a lot of people here.

Here I worked on a few of the base colors for the sail boats and water and touched up the sky a bit. Next week I start on the cloud formations. I love sunsets and I wanted a dramatic background for the evening sunset. See you next week. Stay healthy!

Deciding To Try Something New

Finding time to be alone to paint with family coming and going, I reminded myself it's Ok to play a little, so I decided to join an art class and try something new. I had streched a canvas several years ago that I wanted to try water-based oils on. I had bought the oils and everything I needed for it and finally I get to use them!

Each week I'll show what I have done with the painting. I've never painted in this medium before nor have I painted this type of theme. So I hope you enjoy the ride with me and maybe learn some tips from this as well.

This is the day 2 of my painting. Day 1 I sketched and transferred it onto the canvas. I am working from 3 different photographs of sailboats and sunsets. I'll tell you again I am used to painting in watercolor for the most part, so the texture was interesting and I loved how long the paint stayed wet! So for some things I will have to wait till next week to go over a few things without mixing the colors into one another. Well, I hope to see you next week with day 3 of my painting. Goodbye for now.

Spring Is In The Air!

Lately I've been seeing and hearing a lot of birds in my yard. They seem to know that Spring isn't to far off. I saw my first pair of hummingbirds at my feeder too, and at the end of January no less! I couldn't believe it! It just seemed to me that it was still a bit chilly out there for them. When I talked to a lady at a local bird shop she said they start nesting in January! To keep warm they go in between the bark of large trees. I live in the Pacific Northwest and where we are there is little to none of the snow that the higher elevations get. So I'm sure that helps.

The birds gave me some inspriation for my new butterfly totebag and hummingbird coasters, just in time for Spring!


Click here to see other new designs and personalized gifts!
Click here to see more designs from my other shops!

Hearts, Totebags and Coasters, Oh my!

We always could use a great book bag or shopping bag (let's go green!) to docorative coasters with beautiful designed hummingbirds and more to use ourselves or as a thank you gift. Come in and see the wonderful gifts friends and family would treasure at: Buy 2 of anything in my Flying Spirit Store and get free shipping!

MichelleMDesignsathuggabears

and in my secretescapes I have new Valentine designs on many different items that you can choose from.

Secret Escapes!

Appreciating The Little Things Over The Year

I always appreciate it when a family member or friend does something for me when I never even asked. It makes me see how much they care and value our relationship. Gift giving is'nt just for the holidays. Sending a little gift to someone just to let them know you are thankful for who they are makes not only you feel great but it also sends a positive message that makes them feel loved too! So don't wait till it's too late, send a hello or thank you!

Now I do need to touch on a wonderful holiday that is all about love! Valentines is a great time to let people know just how much you appreciate the little things they've done over the year for you or a family member. From shoveling snow to taking you to the grocery store. It's always a nice gesture to send something special that was personalized just for them!

My Valentine Teddy Bears are not just for kids! Parents love them too, especially when it has there name or photo and names of their children or pets. I have also created a beautiful heart design to my tote bags. They will love them and it makes their day when someone noticed the little things they do everyday for neighbors, friends or family.

Have a loved filled Valentines From Huggabears To You!

Come in and take a peek: Flying Spirit Woman Designs