Sunshine and Ravioli

Monday again....where does the time go? The monkey is rearing his banana eatin' head yet again...

If you're not familiar with Monkey in the Middle Monday, click here to learn a bit more.

And then go visit Kathy at Catnip Studio.

I will be sorry if you don't because this is the most awesome M-i-t-M yet! The mosaic work that Kathy does is absolutely beautiful and you will be missing some serious eye candy if you don't click...seriously!

Now what am I in the middle of this week? It's not the traditional make something, show the progress kind of post this week...

I have mentioned that I want to start offering prints from some of my original illustrations and paintings. I sent out to have some prints made, but just wasn't happy with the results. I am very much a believer in controlling everything I possibly can concerning my work (if you add "freak" after control I won't be too offended- I promise! ). The only obstacle blocking my path to complete control was a lack of a high quality printer. The short list has been compiled for months. I have been scanning the sale ads for at least half that time, hoping one of the printers that I pined for would become affordable to me.

So imagine my surprise when I went to Staples a few weeks ago for something completely different and came across one of the objects of my desire on clearance! Serious clearance...more than 50% off kinda clearance....less than 200 bucks kinda clearance. I felt like Yukon Cornelius striking gold with his little pick ax. Out came the plastic and five minutes later I was the proud owner of a professional quality, wide format printer....

...and then I had to learn how to use said printer....it's a whole lotta machine for a girl who's just a bit (Ok- a LOT) on the low side of the Computer genius scale....throw in Photoshop for editing and I have had a major learning experience recently....

See how much I have learned?

These are just a few of the rejected prints....and I have arranged them fairly neatly on my high speed printer, for your viewing pleasure. Imagine a stack with at least twice as many sheets of paper. Imagine yourself throwing it up in the air and watching all of the pages flutter to the ground, covering the floor. THAT"S what my very tiny workspace looked like almost all weekend. (And don't make fun of the duck! He's an instant stress reliever who sings the chicken dance and does a little jig for me whenever I want to scream at that high speed printer- my family knew what they were doing when they gave him to me as a birthday joke...)

BUT the good news is that I think I finally got it!

The resulting print is available on Etsy....hopefully with more to come....