The Seven Links Project

My good friend Sandra (who is an amazingly talented artist and an amazingly sweet and funny person) tagged me in the 7 Links Project, which is "To unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again."

So, here are my top 7 links in these categories:

Your most beautiful post
Your most popular post
Your most controversial post
Your most helpful post
A post whose success surprised you
A post you feel didn't get the attention it deserved
The post you are most proud of

Then I tag other bloggers and it goes on and on. I think this is a great idea because there are some gems hidden in most bloggers archives so this is a great way to dust them off and let them be seen again.

Here we go!

My most beautiful post - 'Painting With Feeling'  This is one of my favorite paintings because of the memories it brings back to me, and I think that there are few things more beautiful than a newborn baby's tiny hand wrapped around your own.

'Timeless Remedy'

10" x 14" watercolor

My most popular post - 'Motivational Monday - Why Do You Paint?'  This one surprises me with how popular it is, it continues to get more hits than any other post of mine every day I guess because it's a universal question among artists, we're all trying to understand why we feel so compelled to spend time and make sacrifices so we can create. At least I know I am.

'Blue Eyed Innocence'

5" x 7" watercolor

My Most Controversial Post - 'Adventures with Claybord' This was a tough one to pick, I don't write a whole lot of controversial posts, but it was filed under 'ranting and raving' and I sure felt controversial while painting it so there you go.

'Emerge'

24" x 24" acrylic on the dread claybord

My most helpful post - Perplexed - a step by step watercolor portrait I think this is the most complete step by step post I have on my blog and I think I was able to get my working process down a little more coherently this time. :) But I also think that any of my posts filed under Motivational Mondays might be helpful when you find yourself ready to strangle your artistic muse, if they'd just show up that is. ;)

'Perplexed'

10" x 10" watercolor

The post whose success surprised me the most - Ten Things I've Learned From Painting a Self Portrait Lots of comments on this one, which made my day because I was INSANELY nervous to post it. Maybe because we're all a little self conscious, especially when it comes to painting ourselves, or looking at ourselves for extended periiods of time which you kind of have to do when painting yourself. Sheesh!  

'A-Punk'

8" x 10" watercolor

The Post you feel didn't get the attention it deserved - Valentine This was one of my first successful paintings and I just really like it. And I wrote about my husband, who is awesome and my best friend. :)

'Fascination'

10" x 14" watercolor

The Post You Are Most Proud Of - Like No One Is Watching I felt like with this post I was able to write exactly how I felt and that people who read it 'got it', you know? And the painting was a success for me because I was able to put things I'd been studying about edges into practice. Also it's my boy, which I guess is self explanatory. :)

'My Light'

10" x 14" watercolor

This was a lot of fun to look back at my posts and paintings. Now I pass the torch and hereby tag these fellow bloggers. Huzzah!!

Carcol Blackburn

Prabal Mallick

Maddy Rose

Vinayak Deshmukh

meera

Kim Rempel

Michelle Teacress

Have a great weekend everyone!

FInished portrait, and I've been tagged

"Joy, unrestrained"

10 x 14 watercolor

     Here it is, all finished. I kind of liked it. Although I always look back on a painting and think I could have done so many things better, or at least differently. But, overall I'm happy with it. And it was just so fun to paint. It really went pretty quickly, which always reminds me of something I read in an art book. This woman who paints portraits was asked how long her portraits took. She said something like the good ones don't take too much time, but the bad ones take FOREVER! I would have to agree with that, for the most part :) Now, I'm wondering what to paint next. . . I have a few ideas, and some drawings started. We'll see :)

     Instead of a question this week I'm going to do this five question/five answer game that my good friend Michelle Teacress, tagged me with. Here goes!

Where were you five years ago?

1. staying at home with my boys, just two of them at the time. Our youngest was just a few months old, so I was short on sleep but long on love :)

2.  My husband had just graduated from college WOO HOO!!!!

3.  We were living in a little basement apartment getting ready to buy our first home.

4.  I was on a total health food kick and was constantly looking for new, healthy recipes that my family would actually eat.

5. I was FINALLY understanding how watercolor worked, and had just completed two portraits that I thought I could actually let other people see.

Where would you like to be five years from now?

1. A signature member of the American Watercolor Society, or at least closer to that than I am now :)

2. Still a stay at home mom

3. Completed not just one, but two marathons (Park City is on my list of must runs!)

4. For those of you that don't know, I'm also a writer, and I would dearly love to be published one day. just to have someone hold my book in their hands. So maybe in five years I'll be published, but maybe I won't. But I will be that much closer to the goal.

5. More confident, and happy with who I am.

What is/was on your to do list today?

1. A bunch of boring housework :(

2. go to the reception for two of my art exhibits

3. play with my kids

4. write something that I feel good about

5. try to shorten the time on my sketches. See how accurate I can get in the shortest amount of time.

What five snacks do you enjoy?

1. Kazoozles (fruit punchy licorice candy, yummy!)

2. Reese's peanut butter cups

3. chocolate chip cookie dough

4. apples with peanut butter

5. red vines

What five things would you do if you were a billionair? (of course I would donate to lots of worthy charities, especially animal rescue, children's hospital and my church. These answers are after all that is done, purely selfish things :)

1. Buy my mom a new house

2. Buy us a larger, newer house with land for a horse

3. hire a maid

4. go on a family vacation to Disneyland. And a trip with just my husband to Fiji.

5. Buy all the books I wanted ( I would have the most awesome library ever!)

     Fun huh? Now, in the true spirit of all good things bloggy, I tag the following people. Who then post the same Q and A on their blog, linking back to me and then tagging more people. If you want, don't feel like you have to. But come on, it's fun :)

Rachel from Open a Window

Suzanne Berry

Kim from eat, drink, paint
Sujit Sudhi
Kim from under the umbrella
Catie and Stefanie from Run on (yes both of you)
Sandra from Sandraws
Susan Liles
Carrie from Carrie's Creations
Nureeya
Michelle Smith
Carol Blackburn
Arti

     I can't wait to read them guys! Also, if your name's not on this list but you would love to do this then consider yourself tagged. Have a great weekend everyone!