Friday, August 30, 2013

Prepositional Phrases

on the easel:


in my head:


upon the drawing table: 

 outside my window:


inside my drawer:


without shoes:

against the wall:


around his little finger:





[as in I'm wrapped]

Happy Friday!

xo
nessa dee

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Exciting News!!

Would you like to have one of my prints in a larger size? How about on canvas?  Matted and framed? On birch wood? Or you might just want to go browse this site and see the name Nessa Dee. [Okay, maybe that's just me.] For everything else, you can visit Gallery Direct.

Gallery Direct is now offering high quality, limited edition prints from Nessa Dee Art! Each piece can be printed in several different sizes on a variety of materials. Right now there are seven different paintings to choose from, but more will be added in the weeks to come.

You can also find my work over at New Era Portfolio.

How cool is that? 

I'm so excited to get to join the family of talented artists at New Era, and am so thankful to those who've given me this opportunity. 

xo
nessa dee

Monday, August 26, 2013

Hello, Monday!

Hello, Monday! How are you?
Tell me, tell me, what is new?
How are you, first day of the week?
What is new? Please tell me. Speak.

I do so love this day today!
The kids are back in school. Hooray!
What's that you say? Oh, I didn't know.
I'm so sorry... your kids don't go.



This year, I'll be juggling a 7th grader [eek!], 2nd grader, 1 year old, and an attention-starved dog. I often wonder if I'm losing my mind.

Wish me luck.

Happy first day of school!
Happy Monday!
xo
nessa dee




Saturday, August 24, 2013

Confession

Remember this silly picture I posted on Monday:

I have a confession to make. I might have edited the photo a bit.  It actually looks like this:

That's my brother in between us. We were at our cousin's wedding when we took these and I think they're hilarious. Jonathan and I took some together, just the two of us, but I think Jon took those to work because I can't find them, so I was forced to alter these. I felt guilty, though, and needed to confess. Also, I wanted to explain why I was leaned so far over in the pictures. Well, now you know why.

Phew. I feel much better. 

Here are some more, for your entertainment:


xo
nessa dee

Friday, August 23, 2013

Random Friday

I've been busy this week. "Doing what?" you may ask. "Well, stuff," I may answer.

Actually, it's been a week of random. On Monday, Jonathan and I went on anniversary date. Audrie asked if it was unlucky since we'd been married a spooky thirteen years. I told her that was silly superstitious stuff, but then I thought about our date, and maybe it was a bit unlucky. My car's transmission decided it didn't have a reason to live and called it quits on my way to meet Jonathan. Thankfully, I was able to make it back home and borrow my mom's car... which had a low tire. Fun. But I made it downtown to find all of the parking garages full. I circled the downtown area about five times before I stumbled upon a parking garage right above the fancy theater we were going to. [a bit of luck!] We were 30 minutes late to our movie, and upon the trek to our seats at the very top of the theater, I knocked someone's drink off their table and broke the glass, liquid and glass spraying the backs of my legs. [Yay!] It took me a while to get into the movie after that incident, but I eventually found myself laughing, and by the movie's end [and after waiting until that particular person exited the theater], I was feeling lucky. We stopped into a restaurant for a night cap, and ate the most delicious chocolate dessert. It was seriously good, and seriously full of heavy cream because we both felt like we'd eaten a brick after finishing. [Yummy bad luck.] Not feeling well, we called it quits, and headed back to our cars, where I spent 20 minutes looking for my validated parking ticket and another 20 minutes sitting in parking garage traffic. I finally made it back home, we put the kids in bed, and bid farewell our [perhaps a bit unlucky] 13 year anniversary mark.

My car's been in the shop all week getting it's rebuilt transmission rebuilt again. Audrie's been doing school [she started last Thursday]. We've been swimming, and playing, and painting, and creating, and eating, and baking, and painting and creating some more. I've been trying to get a few projects knocked out this week one of which was painting the family of nesting dolls sketch I posted last week. They still need a background, but here they are in all their round glory:

I've also been trying to revamp a few old projects. Here are some rough sketches of one of them:





Once I get the final painted, I'll post it.

I've been working on this:


You can't tell what it is? Well it's obviously a...hmm...a... okay, I don't know what it is either. [chicken? rocket? goose?] It's actually the base for a yet to be determined paper pulp sculpture I'm working on. I'll be teaching a mixed media art class this fall. I'm super nervous because it will be the first time I'll be teaching kids who aren't easy to please [ aka middle and high schoolers]. I'm trying to come up with lesson plans that will accommodate all skill levels, AND are fun and exciting. Just wait till we get to sculpt chicken rocket geese.  I'm sure they'll be impressed. 

August learned a new trick. Can you guess what it is?

Also he's super cute...just look at those baby blues:


Everything I accomplish each week happens with this sweet guy hanging on my legs. I'm reminding myself that there's a reason I'm so exhausted and don't have much to show for it. But he sure is worth it.

Enough random rambles.

Happy Friday!

xo
nessa dee



Monday, August 19, 2013

13



13 years later...



 and we're still rockin' it!

I love you, baby, baby!

Happy anniversary!

xoxoxoxox
your lady

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Drive Through Safari

Remember our little summer camp my cousin planned for the kids? Well, the last activity planned was going to a drive thru safari on our way home. To be honest, when we pulled in, I thought it was going to be a waste of money. I thought we might see a few exotic, but not unusual animals at a distance, and since it was the heat of the day in Texas, the animals would be lazing under the trees.

Instead, this was our experience:

Yes, that's a zebra's nose in our car. I had no idea that we were going to feed the animals, although the animals were quite aware of the routine. As soon as you pull in, your car is surrounded with an interesting variety of farm and exotic animals, including zebras, buffalo, rams, ostriches, llamas, ponies, cattle, emu, camels...the list goes on.





Some of the animals unnerved us, like the large birds and the Ankole-Watusi cattle. When they approached
the vehicle, we'd quickly throw some food and roll up the windows. But if you weren't paying attention because you had two zebras sticking their noses in your car on one side, you might turn and find an emu  staring you in the face.
This guy almost gave Audrie a kiss/heart attack.

In addition to the drive-through part, they also had quite a collection of caged animals, and those you could pet. We saw monkeys, Wallabies, hedgehogs, some newborn camels, a baby zebra, and Wilbur:

I grew up on a ranch. I was surrounded by animals all of my childhood, so being around animals isn't really a big deal to me. But I don't know if it was the excitement of seeing exotic animals, or the adrenaline rush from the up close encounters with scary animals, or that cute little piglet that I almost pignapped, but I had so much fun here. The kids had a blast. It was well worth the money.
If you're ever near Franklin, Texas, I'd recommend a trip to their drive thru safari.

xo
nessa dee

Monday, August 12, 2013

Nesting Dolls

I think I just might have to paint a nesting doll family portrait of us. I like these guys.

Happy Monday!

xo
nessa dee


Saturday, August 10, 2013

Tweet, tweet

I finally did it. I joined the Twitter. If you want to follow me, I'm @nessadeeart. I can't guarantee special offers, humorous bits of wisdom, or even more than a post a month, but I can guarantee that I have a Twitter account.

If I was a twitter logo, I'd probably be this bird. Not soaring, or chatting...just sitting lazily on a sagging high line wire, enjoying the view.

xo
nessa dee


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Symphony in the Park

Sunday night we went downtown to listen to a free concert performed by members of the Austin Symphony. This particular night, several members of the strings section tickled our ears with some beautiful classical music along with songs from Queen, Michael Jackson, and Journey.




We picnicked on the grass while music filled the air...



We gaped at castles..



We encountered bats...



and spaceships...












and giants...



We listened...


and were inspired.

It was a magical evening.

xo 
nessa dee

Thursday, August 1, 2013