Holy crap, I sign in today and my latest pic has received a DD, WTF!  Thanks so much to for choosing something of mine to be featured, lots of love your way

So on July 2nd Lily was discharged for the hospital finally.  We did have to spend a week at the IWK hospital in Nova Scotia getting all kinds of tests done, but thankfully we're now back in our own bed, not sleeping!  Oh the fun of a newborn.  She had to come home with a nasal tube for feeding, so we sometimes have to feed her through a tube that goes directly into her stomach, at least for now, but I'm just glad we can get back to being a normal family.  Thank you to everyone who gave their best wishes, support from my friends on here means a lot to me, so big hugs to you all.

On June 1st I gave birth to a sweet little baby girl.  Her name is Lilith Vivian Helena a.k.a Lily.  She was 20.5 inches long and weighed 10 pounds 8 ounces.  Unfortunately it's not all happy baby joy, since she's still in the hospital   Now I'm busy going back and forth to the hospital to visit her and trying to squeeze in time with my son as well since he's feeling a little abandoned right now too.  Steve ended up having to go back to work without his little girl coming home, so he's sad about that, and I'm just getting more upset each day that she's not home, and I don't know when she's going to come home.

Hmm wondering if I should change my username. It doesn't really have special meaning to me, just something I picked, but I'm thinking maybe using my name or something, ie catmARTin or something silly like that.  I haven't even picked names for my unborn baby who's due in a week so I think I'll have to debate this one for awhile.  Great new feature though

So I'm now just over the halfway mark, at 23 weeks.  It won't be long now before my life becomes even more insane.  As excited as I am I'm also a little anxious as to what I got myself into, raising a newborn and a toddler!  We're also planning a big move to a new house sometime in April or May, depending on when the repair work is done, because I can't just have one thing going on at a time, I've got to shove as many big events at once as I can.  I'm starting to get back into the swing of doing some actual art now thankfully, but I'm still trying to find my voice so to speak.  I guess that's it for now.  I'll be haunting around here more often from now on hopefully!

Okay so here's the wrap up of why I haven't been around and how everything is going

First, I decided to do my first Christmas Craft Fair.  It took place on Dec 2nd-3rd and I was selling different Christmas wall hangings/papercrafting items etc.  It didn't go very well, but it didn't go very well for any of the vendors there.  A lack of customers and a skewed age demographic led to some disappointing sales, not just for me, but for many.  This was why I wasn't around for the last 2 months.  All of my free time was spent working on products.  I haven't even drawn anything since October.
Since I have some items left over I'll put up a few pics so people can see what exactly it was I was working on.

Now with that out of the way all of my energy is pretty much going to go towards work and Christmas. Once I've had a chance to clear my brain in the New Year I'll be able to get back to making art that I love.

And lastly, as of Wednesday it's official.  We had to take a trip out to the Hospital for verification where we saw tiny feet, and tiny hands.  The doctor nicknamed our baby Skeletor and they're 15 weeks old as of yesterday.  It was such a relief to know that I was past the 3 month mark and the chance for another miscarriage was decreased.  Looks like I'm due May 25-26.  And unfortunately we can't find out the sex where I live (the hospital doesn't allow it) but I'm not too bad at reading ultrasound pics so hopefully I'll be able to make an educated guess.

what awesome person gave me a sub?  if you want to remain annon that's cool, or if you just want to note me and let me know that's cool too, I would love to return the favor in some way.  Thank you whoever you are, you are the best evar!!! Love you lots

My husband and I just had our 7 year wedding anniversary this past Saturday.  Sometimes I'm amazed at the time that we've been together.  It doesn't feel like all that long, especially when you're married to your best friend.  Love you

In other news, I'm participating in an Artist Trading Card event on Thursday and I have to get all the pics I want to hand out organized and printed.  I'm a little nervous, since I've never done anything like this before and I'm also worried that I don't have enough decent art to show, but I'll make due with what I have completed.
Hope everyone else is doing okay.

I would like to thank you all so much for your congratulations, but it seems I went and jumped the gun, so to speak,  I was pregnant, but no longer am.  On Thursday I went into the hospital to discover that I was having a miscarriage. I appreciate all the nice words you've given me, and hopefully I'll be able to make a good announcement again soon.



Well, I won't be going to the doctors office for 2 weeks since she's not in, but I feel fairly confident in letting people know that and I are expecting our second child!  We're not due till Feb/Mar so I still have plenty of art months left, but I'm too excited to keep it to myself.

Sometimes that's how I feel.  I'm just waiting to break into the design/art world, but with little to no success.  A lot of it is my fault though, and some of it is just my situation.  I live somewhere where there is very little demand for design work, so I've been neglecting my portfolio in a major way and not really making any effort to get a job in that field.  My other issue is that while I'm a big fan of my own work I'm never really out there trying to promote myself or get my stuff seen.  I also never do anything about the tons of ideas that are in my head.  Motivation thy name is . . .   Ack I've just got to do something about this.   To those who are also struggling with getting out there, what do you do to get through it or stay motivated.

Holy crap a DD!!!! I don't go online for over a week and I get a DD LOL!!  If people are wondering why I haven't mentioned this Daily Deviation it's because I have been away from my computer for well over a week, doing some spring cleaning and building a storage unit for my scrapbooking supplies.  
I've been reworking some of my "Stockings" pictures just colors or backgrounds and I've been just kind of slacking on my art (as usual).  Hopefully I'll be back in the swing of things soon and thank you to all who favored my piece and to
for featuring it!