What time of year is it anyway?

"Potential Candidates" ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Hi there folks,

Well, Halloween has come and gone and we're well into November and you know what that means? We're being bombarded with commercials drilling "Jingle Bells" into our skulls and store flyers featuring images of over-indulged children surrounded by toys requiring every type of battery known to mankind and houses that look like one of the National Lampoon movie sets exploded.

Yup, as they say, "Tis' the season!"

Despite the aforementioned points, Christmas is one of my favourite seasons since I enjoy decorating the tree and making cards and eating massive amounts of butter and sugar... all of which I rarely do the rest of the year. AlthoughI suppose I could, but the neighbours would probably think I was even stranger than how I normally present myself.

This year, though, there is one thing that is greatly hindering me from getting into that Christmas-y spirit. The weather.

"Bowl of Good Taste" ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

That's right. Autumn started off pretty darn chilly here in our neck of the woods and I figured that, much like last year, we would be almost knee-deep in snow by the beginning to middle of December. However, if things keep going the way they are, we'll be showing off our knees by the beginning to middle of December because it'll be so warm! The past few weeks, dare I say it, have been downright balmy and while most people seem to be enjoying it (myself included since I've been able to get caught up on my outdoor chores without dressing up like Natoonook of the North) I can't help but wonder... how do you folks in the Southern States do it!?

I mean, really, how on earth can you possibly get into the Christmas mode without cold weather and snow? Clearly you've mastered some kind of Jedi mind-control ability that the rest of us have yet to tap into.

If you wouldn't mind sharing your skills I'd greatly appreciate it because, starting this Friday, the barrage of Santa Claus parades in our area begins and I just think it's kinda odd that most kids might be in shorts and t-shirts drinking Kool-Aid rather than Winter coats and mittens drinking hot chocolate. Maybe it's just me though...

... right?

Back on track...

"Autumn's Warm Welcome" ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne
SOLD

Hi folks, I know it's been a very long time since I posted and I do apologize. I've been insanely busy and I think that my life may stay on a similar course until about mid- December.

That said, I am at least slightly more organized now than I was 2 months ago and I'm almost done school (yay me!) so I should have more time to post and work on art. I have to admit that I let quite a few things slide by the way-side this year but I'm going to shamelessly blame that on getting married... I had no flippin' idea that it would take up so much of my time and energy. :/

So where it stands at this point is that I'm not going to commit myself to any particular posting schedule for the blog but you can be sure that I will be posting more frequently now that I have my ducks in a row, eggs counted, chickens hatched or whatever other nonsensical analogy you can apply to this situation.

"Apple-solutely Delicious" ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne
SOLD

Thanks to those folks that emailed me while I was on hiatus to chit-chat about life in general and art. Oh, and to harass me into posting again. :)

For those of you that are interested, I've decided to fall into the Facebook fray so you can find me there too, although the posts are much shorter (as I'm learning is the quid pro quo for Facebook) and I have yet to share my artwork there. I'm still a newbie though so we'll see what happens...

Stay tuned for more art. I'm getting much heavier into still-lifes and I've been working on a wicked cool piece for my brother that I can't wait to share... but since he's getting it for Xmas you'll have to wait until after that to see it. ;)

I'm up and running

Well, no embarrassing stories to tell and while I suspect that there may be a few embarrassing pics floating around I have yet to find them. I was rather busy on wedding day but I know there were many people armed with cameras and once I find out who has the most embarrassing pics you better believe I'll be more than happy to post them... unless I'm in them, of course. :)

"Signs of Autumn" ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

I have some excellent news to share and that is that my website is up and running again (thanks Mike!) and can be found at www.ritawoodburne.ca. My e-mail address has also changed to rita@ritawoodburne.ca so if you have e-mailed me in the past 2 weeks or so and haven't heard back please re-send the e-mail to the address above and I'll get back to you ASAP. I'm not ignoring you... honest.
The reason for the name change (from .com to .ca), and the reason the first site went down, was that it had been taken over by a squatter. Said squatter wanted/ wants $250 to get the domain name back which tells me that they are blissfully unaware of just how much of an income artists actually make. My brother has been in conversation with said squatter and I told him to pass along the message that if the squatter would like to purchase some art, $250 or more, I will be more than happy to buy the domain name back.

Lesson learned. Don't let your domain name renewal lapse.


The funny (and not in a 'ha-ha' way) thing about all of this is that ultimately this frustration and aggravation all goes back to Bell. It's a long story but if you've been following this blog for any length of time you'll know that Bell has become the never- ending thorn in my side. *sigh*

Oh well, all has been resolved and I once again have a website. I've also been churning out a few more ACEO's and I'm finding I'm really getting into still-lifes... but that's for another post. So stay tuned, dear reader, for another art update shortly!