Paulette Insall ~ mixed media artist & mom

Feeling better :)

Well it looks like this nasty icky cold thing is finally on its way out! YEA! The cough is still hanging on, but I'm finally starting to get some good rest at night and beginning to feel like my old self again....actually felt up to painting today. :) I just wanted to make a really quick post to thank all of you for your get well wishes and prayers. They are soooooo appreciated!!

I've got some big announcements for y'all, but it'll have to wait 'til either later tonight or tomorrow. I got a lot of catching up still to do, so just keep your eyes peeled here in the next day or so. :D

Oh and did ya notice the new bloggy banner? What do ya think? I was thinking that it was time I gave it a facelift. ;) :D

feeling kinda icky...

Just wanted to let y'all know I'm feeling under the weather. Woke up with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and general feeling of ickiness. Thought it was just allergies since it is that time of year, but I took some medicine for that and it really didn't help. So I guess I'm coming down with something. Guess its God's way of telling me I gotta slow down and rest. Okay, okay, okay I hear ya. LOL! :D

Sitting at the computer for any length of time gets me kinda light headed right now. So I'm gonna go lie down again and hope that my hubby makes it home soon. xo

Online class update (and yep, it's still busy, busy 'round here)

It's been a busy week with no time for painting outside of finishing up the painting for my current "All About Faces" online class. We're entering our last week and I'm just amazed at all the fantastic work my students are doing! I'm like a proud Momma! :D And speaking of the faces class, I have room for one more person in my next session of this class that starts on June 30th. So if you wanna grab it, go to the online classes page and send your payment quick! Update: "All About Faces" class is now full

Well, I'd better get back to work. Lots to do before I have to go pick up Aiden at preschool. It's gonna be another busy day, but its all good! :) Much love to y'all and hope ya have a fantastic Monday! Get out and enjoy spring for me since I'll likely be stuck inside all day. ;)

Ahhh...quiet time for Momma

I'm sitting at Starbucks taking a few minutes for myself before I get back to running errands (Aiden's having fun at the drop-in daycare for a couple hours today). I don't know what it is, but sitting down with a cup of good coffee always calms me....of course it also helps with my ever so taxed energy level too. :) Hope y'all get a chance to take a few minutes for yourselves today...even of its only long enough to drink a cup of something yummy... Give yourself that few moments to relax and breathe. :D xoxoxo

Update on online classes

Hey y'all! Just popping in to give you a quickie update on the status of the new session of classes I announced recently....the backgrounds class (starts May 19th) is about 2/3's full and the faces class (starts June 30th) is about 1/2 full. So if you were thinking of signing up you might want to do it soon because I won't be teaching these classes again until September.

Things are still super busy around here....thankfully I've found a drop-in daycare place for Aiden. Today is his first day, so we'll see how it works out. If he likes it, then I actually might be able to get caught up on things around here. That would be so awesome! Seems I'm always running behind these days and have so much to do....now if I could just find someone to come clean my house a couple of times a week then I'd be golden. ;)

I'll leave ya with a couple of video screen shots from the class lesson videos....the first one is from the faces class and the second one is from the backgrounds class. Be sure to click on the screen shots to see the full size of the video you'll be getting in the classes (640x480). Hope you're all having a great week!!! xoxo

Bits of life captured...

All's well again

Well I'm finally about to head off to bed after a long grueling day (well, really two) of trying to put out fires. My hubby was able to get the things resolved this evening that I wasn't able to figure out on my own. Thank God I married a computer guru!!! *big grin*

Now that I'm caught up on questions from my online class students for the day, I'm gonna go pass out in my bed. I just pray that Aiden sleeps through the night tonight...he's been waking up with nightmare's alot lately, poor guy. Also praying that he's well enough to go to back to school tomorrow...I forget if I mentioned that he came down with my nasty cold.

G'nite y'all! xoxo

My website's down

Just wanted to give everyone a little heads up that my website is currently down. I downgraded my plan so they had to move me to another sever. When they did that, I had to re-setup some stuff and things aren't coming up right now....I can't even publish my newly refreshed website.

So if you click on the website link to the left, all you'll see is an "account suspended" page right now. *sigh* just one thing after another at the moment....sure hope I can get things running smoothly again around here soon. Everything just seems to be breaking around me the past couple days...blech!

So much to do, so little time...hope y'all are having a better day than I am today. :)

EDIT: Well I decided that today's events were a sign that I needed to move my websites, so I'm in the process of doing that now. My art site is now back up and running (Yea!) on a new host with a bit of a facelift to make it more cohesive with my blog and hopefully my other domains will get repointed to their new homes soon as well.

When life gets in the way...

I'll bet y'all are wondering what happened to me, huh? Well sometimes life just grabs hold of ya and you can't help but listen. So much has been going on since I last posted.....my hubby went on a business trip to Malaysia, my Mom came up from Florida for a visit, Aiden had a half-birthday party at preschool (I'll post pics and video soon), and right in the middle of it all I started up my first online class. To say I have a full plate right now would be an understatement! LOL! And of course on top of it all, I have come down with a cold....one of those that keeps you up at night with coughing fits. Ugh!

One thing I did do for myself before all this got started was I went and had my hair done for the first time in a year....the color that is. I've had the blonde streaks for a while, but have always wanted red streaks.....and I mean "actual" red. So I decided, heck I'm just gonna do it! :D So now my dark brunette hair not only has refreshed blonde streaks, but also vibrant red as well. My hairdresser said that only I could pull off this hair. My hubby was totally speechless when I came home from the salon. I don't think he expected it to be so funky, but I sooooo love it!!! So fun and I feel really shows off my creative spirit. Nothing makes you feel more like an artist on the outside than painted hair. ;)

So know that I'm okay, just super busy and a little sick (praying that no one else in the house catches my sickies). I'm planning my next session of online classes, so if you want to make sure you get a spot in the next session, be sure to sign up for the classes mailing list because class list members will get first chance to sign up before I announce the next session dates here on the blog.

Okay, well I'd better go make sure Aiden's eating his lunch and go see what I can fix for myself. Hope you're all having a great week! I'll try  to check back in again in a day or two once I get a bit more caught up on things around here. xo

Oh and if you're curious as to what my students are creating in my backgrounds class, you can visit our Flickr group to see progress pics that some of the students are posting. They are all doing such a fabulous job!!! :D

Candy anyone???

Just wanted to wish you all a happy Valentine's day! Hope you're having a great one!!!

Link: YouTube - Valentine's candy anyone???.

Update on backgrounds online class...as of this morning it was completely full! Yea! There is still some room left in the faces class, but I wouldn't wait long. At the rate people are signing up, it will probably be full in the next few days as well. :D

I am soooooo very touched at the enormous response to my classes!!! Thank you all so very, very much!!!! Y'all are awesome!!! xo

New video...running behind

I'm soooo sorry ya'll, but I've gotten behind today and don't have the video ready yet. It's been one of those days where I tried to do more than humanly possible. LOL! One of those things was working on the write ups for the online classes to send out to my mailing list...so if you want info be sure to sign up 'cause I'll be sending out an email later on this evening with all the details for the two classes I will be offering.

Hoping to have the video up by midnight PST if all goes well...or earlier if things go exceptionally well. Until then...

Remember to live and to love....

There's been so much talk the past few days on many of the blogs I visit about the untimely and tragic death of actor Heath Ledger. He was one of my favorite actors and from what I've heard, a genuinely wonderful person. While his death is sad and tragic, it reminds me that we never are guaranteed more than today and every day we get is a gift from God. If there's something you've been meaning to do....whether it's to start painting, drawing, or some other artistic endevor....or even getting back in touch with a long lost family member or friend....don't put it off.....do it!!! Start today!!! You never know how much time you have on this earth.

This song below is one I've been listening to alot lately....especially while painting in the studio. It is an amazing song and relates really well to not only what we should remember when something like this happens, but each and every day.....to live and to love. ♥♥♥

Link: YouTube - Superchick-We Live

Update of video editing progress...

Hey y'all! Well the sickies visited us again...starting on Thursday when Aiden woke up with a nasty cough, poor guy. The same day, my hubby had some dental surgery done and I had no idea (and neither did he apparently) that he wouldn't be able to have any solid foods for days and possibly up to a week. Eek! Then of course I came down with Aiden's cold...which of course was inevitable.

Needless to say, no video editing or art got done late last week or this weekend. I did manage to get some editing done today and I realized with as much footage as I have that I want to show you guys, I think I may have to make it a three parter. I had hoped to be able to do just one video for this painting, but even with it sped up to hyper speed and some parts edited out, it would be almost 30 minutes long.....so I hope you guys don't mind if I split it up. This way I can make each one a bigger file size so that the video will be pretty clear....well as clear as YouTube makes it anyway. If all goes well, I should have the first part up on YouTube some time tomorrow. Can't say exactly when 'cause I never can predict those things with a four year old running around ya know. ;)

So, keep checking back here tomorrow (Tuesday) or on YouTube so you can catch the first episode.

Running behind

This was the state of my shipping table yesterday afternoon as I tried to get caught up on shipping...I'm running a few days behind, but I managed to get all finished up today. So all orders placed prior to January 5th are now on their way. Thanks so much for your patience. :)

I'm now shipping all art prints in boxes to make sure that they get to you safely. The post office is not always careful with packages, so this gives the prints extra protection on their journey and gives me more peace of mind.

So much more to tell, but the dirty dishes are calling my name...

Busy, busy, busy...

Just popping in really quick to let you know that I'm okay....my plate's just really full at the moment (in a good way). Aiden's first day back at preschool was today and I totally forgot that they had chapel today as well, so of course I wanted to stay for that and now I don't have much time to paint. Oh well...lots of news to share, but just don't have the time now...hopefully I can get back on later today and update ya'll on everything's that's been going on since the first of the year.

Now I gotta go get the camcorder set up so I can get to filming for my next video....yep another YouTube video coming soon. :) Plus I'm planning on having the webcam up again on either Friday or Monday. Yea!

Oh and if you've emailed me, I'm waaaaaay behind on replying to email so please bear with me. I read each and every one, but it may take me a while to reply. And some are even getting automatically sent to the spam folder unfortunately and I'm afraid I haven't caught all of those. So if you don't hear from me within a week or so, please email me again just in case your message got mistakenly caught by the spam filter.

Ok, really gotta get to work now ya'll...more later I promise!! xo

Spreading a little Christmas cheer...video post

Things are super busy around here making preparations for Christmas. It's why I've been so scarce lately. Of course it's left pretty much no time for art, so nothing new to share, but hopefully will have a little time later this week. In the meantime, here's a little Christmas cheer from Aiden...

Link: YouTube - Spreading a little Christmas cheer....

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Aiden's preschool Christmas program was today. They were all so very
adorable!!! You can barely see Aiden in this pic. He's the shortest in
his class and they put him in the middle of the back row. One of his
teachers tried to get him to stand on something, but he would have
nothing of it. *hee, hee*

The aftermath of a deadline

Lunch on the run

A little update...

Well I've been sadly lacking in things to say lately...today was a typical day filled with preschool, errands, shipping prints (was a day late on that because I didn't realize yesterday that I was out of shipping envelopes and I just was not up to going out 'cause it's been quite chilly and wet here lately), then tonight I actually cooked....yeah really, I did. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not much on cooking....I can do pretty good as long as I have a simple recipe or its really basic...spaghetti, lasagna, taco salad, french toast, grilled cheese....I make a mean grilled cheese! ;) LOL! But other than that, if there's too much to it, things get burned or overcooked.

Anyways, I've been doing some work getting brand new prints ready for the shop so be on the lookout for those in the next few days along with a new notecard set or two.

The above pic is the result of my ongoing paint/paper addiction. I cannot seem to leave any store that has either of these without buying more....like I don't have enough already!!! I'm running out of places to put it! Anyone else have this problem? hee, hee

Well I hope all of you here in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a quiet one here at home just the three of us. I ordered a fully cooked Thanksgiving dinner ahead of time from a local grocery store and went and picked it up Thanksgiving morning....I was determined that we were going to have a stress free Thanksgiving this year. We just had to heat everything up (the turkey took about 2-1/2 hours) and my hubby made a green bean casserole to go with the included sides of mashed potatoes and stuffing. Man I don't know why we didn't think of that sooner!!! We are so gonna be doing that again next year! :D

Well I gotta get myself to bed....I'm lucky if I manage to hit the hay before midnight these days. Don't know why I stay up so late...probably because its the only time I get completely to myself to relax. Sleeping would probably be the smart thing to do since I'm always exhausted by the time 3pm rolls around, huh? And on that note, I'm gonna go hit the hay....I seem to just be rambling aimlessly at this point. lol! G'nite yall! xo