Book 12 and Happy New Year 2014!

I'm sorry I'm late. I just don't know why I'm so spaced out. I forgot it's Friday and that I need to put a post up. I also forgot to do the journal entry for this book so I pulled out an ATC to sort of match the storyline. I'm cheating again. Oh, well.:)

I had fun doing this "art reviews" every month this year even though I fell off the wagon the last couple of months. Thanks Darcy for making this a fun experiment. :)

The twelfth book for The Artful Readers Club is

Blue Hearts of Mars

by Nicole Grotepas

My review:

4*

Retta seemed like every other protagonist in this kind of genre. A teenager in her last year of school who was raised by one parent alone so she had some issues because of her Mom’s death. Of course she found a hot guy to swoon over and fall in love with within a heartbeat. I did like that she openly took a stand against the general beliefs even though it was triggered by her falling in love with an android.

Hemingway was a total hotty at the beginning but then he became a total jerk. I understood why he broke up with Retta and I was feeling it but then after her attack I thought he came to his senses and they’d go back together. That’s what Retta thought, too, but he was kissing her one second and then the next telling her that being with an android was easier for him. I so wished right then Retta would slap him.

I was a little confused about the running away thing and I had an issue with the weird marriage ceremony because it kind of felt like the author had to take the safe road with the whole “waiting until marriage” thing. But all in all it was a uniquely written story and I enjoyed reading it even though the “revolution” was over pretty quickly and everyone was happy.

Some random news:

• I am officially a Reiki Master and Teacher
• I'm going to London in January :) for 4 days only
• I have a new crystal - Fluorite octahedron 
• I ordered some more crystals from UK

Have a FABULOUS New Year 2014!!!

Linking to Paint Party Friday.

Book 12 and Happy New Year 2014!

Tea Party for Tracey

Today we, at Paint Party Friday, are having a surprise virtual tea party for Tracey Fletcher King. :)

I've been visiting her blog ever since I first found her through PPF. She is an incredible artist and her posts always make me laugh.

Tracey is a teacup lover but I'm more of a mug person myself. :) So, I ordered a mug at Society6 for my daily Zen Chai tea consumption with my own artwork printed on it. I'm in love with it!

To you Tracey, I'm sending lots of good energy to battle your demons and I'm wishing for your quick recovery.

And some old stuff that I thought I'd share with you again because it goes with the theme of the party. :)

Tea Party for Tracey

Friday 13th and 40% off

The guy above is Brendon Urie. Don't worry. I've never heard of him before either. :)

Random fact in my life:

• my body is not so nicely reacting to french fries. It seems to be saying I should'n eat them anymore. But they taste so good.

I'm making some changes in my life and I'm not sure yet what my final decision is going to be but for now I'm having a SALE of all my paintings in my Etsy Shop. Enjoy! This might be the last chance to get them. :)

Use coupon code 40PERCENTOFF at checkout to receive 40% off anything in my Etsy Shop.



Linking to Paint Party Friday.

Friday 13th and 40% off

Freaky Wednesday on a Friday and random move characters

People seem to like movie characters so I drew some for them. :)

Random list:

• Hunger Games #2 movie is awesome!
• I finally bought the above trilogy books, I just need to read them now
• I have surpassed my reading goal of 120 books for this year by 30 books so far. Will probably add another 10 by the end of the year
• I'm taking Reiki 3 and 4 next Sunday, it's a gift from my parents

Tip of the week:

Freaking YouTube:   

Linking to Paint Party Friday.

Freaky Wednesday on a Friday and random move characters

Book 11 and B&W

I'm sorry I haven't done the 10th book. I read it but I didn't feel inspired to make any art journaling for it. And even now I'm cheating as this is an ATC and not an art journal entry.

However, I found out recently that I enjoy doing these black and white versions on ATCs. It's a phase I'm sure but I love how simplistic they feel.

The eleventh book for The Artful Readers Club is

Dying To Forget (The Station)

by Trish Marie Dawson

Book's Blurb:
Piper Willow dies the summer after her high school graduation and finds herself in a spiritual terminal called the Station. She's given only two choices: Move on to the unknown where she'll be faced to spend an eternity in her own personal hell or be trained as a Volunteer and return to Earth as the subconscious for a person in need of outside assistance. Does Piper have what it takes to save a life, to be the nagging voice inside another person's head? Or will she fail and end up lost and tormented...forever?

My review:

5*

This is a powerful and heartfelt story of a girl’s suffering. The author spares us nothing and goes right in from one incident to another. I did not expect what happened next. I thought it was going to be a cry for help and we’ll see how Piper overcomes her difficulties but I was wrong. I must say the author took a really interesting road to address this certain choice. Not that I agree with the concept in reality but it’s an exciting idea to explore. We get to see how she handles her two assignments and I just love how it’s all presented. I was kind of expecting or rather hoping the end result because I have a feeling a love story will unwind in the next book for sure.

Here are some unrelated b&w ATCs that I made for a swap.

Linking to Paint Party Friday.


P.S. To my Cotton Candy Girls students, I've sent out a class update for my August group but I'm letting you know here as well just in case. The end of the month is almost here and these are the last few days for you to download all the class material. It won't be available anymore after Dec. 1st.

To anyone interested in taking my Crazy Hair Ladies class, click on the image below. It's our final lesson next week but the class will be open until February.

Book 11 and B&W

$50 Book Blast Giveaway - Rebels by Scott & Judith Powell

Rebels

The world is on fire. From the ashes like a phoenix rises a new America, one that will save it all. Under one condition; absolute and complete surrender.
The world complies without question. Those who don’t are destroyed. It is in this world, John is born. His very name is treason.
If the New America, now known to everyone as the State, knew what John was, they’d kill him, but instead they give him a gift.


Praise for Rebels

John has a lot of potential (especially for someone so young) in that he sees the flaws in this society. He wants to be like George Washington and knows a lot about the manner in which a government should be run... Highly recommended. ~Amazon Review




About the Authors

Scott Powell was born in Burlington, Vermont, to a father who was a police officer and a mother who emigrated from South Korea. He received a degree in marketing from the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, and a master's degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Scott served a two-year Spanish-speaking mission for his church. He is a mixed martial artist who continues to train with his father, a second-degree black belt in Tae kwon do and a kick boxer.

Besides being married to Scott for over seventeen years, Judith Powell is a stay-at-home mom whose whole life has been full of stories. Being raised by an Irish storytelling father and a Native American mother, stories have filled her life and her head until they finally had no choice but to flow out through her fingertips.

Website * Twitter * Pinterest

Rebels' Facebook Page

Judith's Facebook * Scott's Facebook

Tour Schedule

Book Blast Giveaway

$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 12/20/13

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the authors. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

$50 Book Blast Giveaway - Rebels by Scott & Judith Powell

A whole bunch of Round Robins

I talked about Round Robin ATCs before and I really do love them. In short round robin ATC is a set of three cards worked on by three artists. When they are finished, each artists gets one ATC card to keep.

The bat was drawn by me, Tandy added the tree branch and Nicky finished with the background and spiderweb.

Linda4atc started the set with the black cat, I added the mouse under the witches hat and Angelmuz finished it with the witch and background.

The leaf was drawn by mariloupatch, I of course added the naked gnome :) and Nicky finished with the background.

Linda4atc started the set with trout, Tandy added the hook with a worm and the plant and I finished with the background.

Santa's cap was drawn by mariloupatch, I added the orange cat and Linda4atc finished with the grey cat and background.

I love how the cards evolve and that you never know how they're going to end up. :) If you want to participate in these kind of round robins, go to ATCs ForAll forum.

On another note, Crazy Hair Ladies online workshop started on Monday. You can still sign up for 25$. Click below.


Linking to Paint Party Friday.

A whole bunch of Round Robins

Crazy Hair Ladies

 I totally forgot to show you paintings I made for my Crazy Hair Ladies Workshop. I'm not being very good at marketing, am I?! :) So here they are.

My favorite of course is the above black and white portrait. As you can see the paintings are big (40x40 cm or 16"x16") so I had to photograph them because they don't fit into my scanner.

The backgrounds are really fun to make and then we draw the three faces for each painting. Front facing, 3/4 turned face and profile. And I made PDF's for all three so it's easy to follow.

Come and join the fun. It's only 25$. I'm sending the blog invites today and we're starting our first lesson on Monday. :)




Linking to Paint Party Friday.

Crazy Hair Ladies

How to make Tweeting easier for you

Are you on Twitter? I am. Follow me @MayNatasha. :)

I’m not very good at tweeting though. I’m more of a Facebook fan but we cannot ignore the power of Twitter.

This is a tip for people like me that don’t really get the Twitter mania and for people that are really good at it but would like to make it easier for themselves and not so much time consuming.

“Why should I bother with Twitter, when I don’t like it?” you ask.

Well, the answer is easy. You and I might not like it that much but there are tons of people that do and they might not be hanging around your Facebook page. So, how are they supposed to get all you fabulous updates?

Here are 3 steps on how to make tweeting easier for you.

Step #1:

• Find a free service like http://bufferapp.com and schedule your tweets for different times of a day for 7 days a week.

• All you need to do is sign up with your twitter account and it will take you to your Dashboard. You can see on the left that you can connect different social media with this service.

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• Buffer is where you store your pre-scheduled tweets. You need to make them slightly different each time because Twitter only allows the same exact tweets once a week.

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• Click on “What do you want to share” box on top and write the message. If you put in a link, Buffer automatically shortens it. Click Buffer to save it for later. You can also upload photos if you want.

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• You can schedule max. 4 tweets a day for each day of the week but you only get 10 spots with the free account. That means when your 10 scheduled tweets are posted, you'll need to schedule 10 new ones. Either you use them all up in 3 days or in 10 days or even 10 weeks, if you schedule one tweet per week.

• Click on Schedule to set up on which days you’d like tweets to be posted and at which times. You can schedule for every day, only on weekends or only on certain days.

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Step #2:
If you want to know when your tweets will be most effective, use a free service like http://www.tweriod.com. Sign up with your Twitter account and get the free analysis. It tells you for each day of the week what are the best times your tweets will reach the highest number of your followers.

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Step #3:
Connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You can set it up both ways.

1. Connect Facebook to Twitter
This means whatever your tweet will be automatically posted to your Facebook.

• Go to Twitter Settings > Profile > Connect to Facebook

  

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• Follow the prompts and select the privacy you want

  

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• Unclick the boxes if you don’t want to post retweets to your Facebook or post to your profile

  

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• Click Allow if you want your tweets to post to your Facebook page

• Select the page you want your tweets to post to

  

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You’re done!

• If you change your mind, you can always “Disconnect it”

2. Connect Twitter to Facebook
This means whatever you post on your Facebook will be automatically tweeted.

• Go to https://www.facebook.com/twitter/

  

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• You can either link your Profile or your Page or both.

• Follow the prompts to connect the accounts

• Edit the settings and save.

  

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You’re done!

How to make Tweeting easier for you