Simply Audrey

So I've been busting my butt getting all sorts of work done for my art show in March.. here's one of the pieces I've done.. there's plenty more to come!



Stay tuned for more drawings!

Before the Miss becomes a Mrs.

So here is the latest freelance work I've been working on..

Simple, fun and clean. My client loved them! Another project off the list.. now I think I can focus on the art work I need to get done for my art show on March 22nd at Fat Shannon's... which by the way is DEFINITELY still on. I think it'll be from 12:00pm- whenever.. last year I put on the flyers that it was over at 9, but I didn't really leave until about 11:00.

Well, I got to embark on another creative adventure tonight. Cupcakes!!! I bought this super fun heart silicone cupcake tray at Target (only $2.50!) so tonight I put it to good use. With strawberry cupcake mix and vanilla frosting I made the cutest little heart shaped cupcakes ever!

So of course when you're getting creative enough with the heart shaped cupcakes, you gotta get fun with the decorating!! I employed the use of the handy dandy conversation hearts. Brach's, I find, are the most delicious. They're soft and won't break your teeth when you eat them lol.

And I found this awesome glitter icing at Target as well...

I love getting creative with my sweets! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Frank and I got into an arguement. We're not speaking.

So no trip to New York. The morning I was supposed to leave, my boss called and told me she had the flu. So bummed!! But Todd was there when I found out and he really cheered me up - he is so great.

But I did go to Destin! That was amazing! It was in the high 50's low 60's, but hey - there wasn't any snow! We were in t-shirts and flip flops and you could so tell that we were the tourists! The locals were in hats, gloves, earmuffs, scarves and winter coats! I couldn't believe it. I was running on the beach barefoot, jumping for joy - yay upper 50's!!!!

The trip was for Mary Kay, so it was awesome. We had a lot of awesome training and I met the 'who's who of Mary Kay'. Gloria Mayfield Banks, Allison Lamarr.. the most amazing, positive women you'll meet. Not to mention how awesome it was to spend 3 days in Destin, Florida with a bunch of your close girlfriends!!


Ok.. onto the art world.
I had last Wednesday off work - snow day!! It was so awesome! So I got bored and decided that I was tired of living in a white walled apartment (it reminded me of an asylum or something). I got some paint out from my previous apartment and preped up!

It's a beautiful sage green, and well the plan was to just paint the one wall in my art studio (aka dining room) but I got a little carried away.. here's what I did...



I know I know.. I need curtains.. it's a work in progress! But I had a lot of fun doing this - and it didn't take me that long!

I have finished Frank Sinatra.. sort of. We're not talking right now, me and Frank. I've tried and tried to get his face just right and I can't get it!! It's so annoying.. so I had to put it aside for a bit and recharge.

Next up: James Dean!

Todd bought a poster of James Dean last night and brought it over as a surprise! I needed a good photo reference before I started painting and Todd decided to take this upon himself to find one. So, I'll probably start James before I completely finish Frank.

I need to get on the ball - I have an art show on March 22nd, down in Covington at Fat Shannon's Pub. Actually, I might have to check on that: I just got word that the owner is selling the bar to someone else. I'm not sure if the new owner knows... I'll keep you posted on that!!

But I'm trying to get a lot of work done so I have enough to show. My friend Marley is going to be there as well. She's a fashion major at UC in the DAAP program. Very talented!

As soon as I find out if I'm still able to show at Fat's, I'll post it up on here!

The Tale of the Almost Tragedy in the Life of Robin Ewers

So I recently had a huge scare... I thought I was allergic to chocolate. Omg. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but to me.. it's HUGE. Eating chocolate is like breathing air to me. I grew up eating chocolate all the time, and unfortunately, now that my metabolism has slowed down, I can't eat as much chocolate as I like in one day, but I still eat at least one piece everyday. There are somedays I like to consider myself a sort of connoisseur of chocolate.

Now that I've stressed to you how much I LOVE chocolate, I'll quickly enlighten you with the Tale of the Almost Tragedy in the Life of Robin Ewers.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved chocolate. This girl also happened to have the dream job of anyone who loved chocolate, or just candy in general. Any corner you turn, there's some sort of confectionary delight waiting to be picked up and indulged by its finder.

One day, while working very hard for the large empire Wal-mart, Robin became very flushed with stress. In an attempt to calm her nerves down and get her head on straight, she helped herself to a few chocolates from the candy dish in the lobby. Eating all six, one right after another, Robin felt very satisfied and continued on with her work.

It wasn't long after that, that her arm began to itch. As she looked at her arm, she saw that she had three red bumps that reminded her of bug bites. She immediately became very concerned that there were bugs crawling on her desk and they had to be taken care of right away. In her search attempt for the crawling critters, she found nothing!

"What could it be?" Robin wondered.

She took precaution and removed her jacket for fear of spiders nesting in her sleeve. Though it seemed not likely, weirder things have happened.

Brushing it off as nothing, she and her coworkers joked about the strange red bumps that had so quickly formed on her arm. As Robin sat back down at her desk, she took a quick last glance to make sure there weren't any critters making their way around.

As time went on, Robin started to get more itchy, all over her body. It started with the arm, then the neck, then the scalp, then the stomach, next the back.. it was everywhere. Although, when she looked at her skin in the mirror, nothing was there. She just forgot about it and went back to work.

It was around 9:00 later that night when she returned from dinner with some friends. Changing outfits to go out, she saw her skin in the mirror for the first time since earlier that day. She screamed upon seeing herself!

"Erin!!! Get in here!!!" She called. As Erin walked in, she covered her mouth with her hand and tried to contain her laughter.

Slightly humored as well, Robin turned several times to look at herself several ways.

"I can't believe this....." Robin kept muttering to herself.

After some of the shock had worn off, Robin and her 3 friends decided to go out and have a drink, and forget about the mass amount of bumps all over Robin's body.

Throughout the evening, Robin couldn't help but scratch all of her itches; all the while with Erin and Leah telling her to stop. Her boyfriend Todd showed up shortly after they arrived. After seeing the anguish on her face, Todd asked what was wrong with Robin.

Robin threw her head back and exclaimed, "I'm covered in itchy red bumps!"

Upon hearing this, Todd couldn't seem to help himself and continued to laugh at Robin's expense. It's a good thing Robin doesn't get offended easily, so she rolled her eyes, slapped him gentily on the leg and shook her head at him, playfully saying, "Oh shut up."

The night went on, and slowly, people began to disperse. It was quite late when Robin looked at her watch so she suggested that she take Leah home and that it was then time for bed.

The next morning, Robin arose, and for only a few moments, she forgot about her bumps. But as she walked into the bathroom to take a shower, she quickly remembered her dilemma. She called her mom and she strongly suggested that she go see her doctor, considering the bumps had gotten worse.

So as she walked into work that morning, she showed her friends how those 3 little bumps progressed overnight. The doctor appointment she later went to proved to be not a lot of new information.

"Go get some Bendryl and make sure you don't eat any chocolate until those hives go away," the doctor said.

Robin felt a wave of disappointment because she wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to eat chocolate again after that day. So what does any girl who loves chocolate and has a possible allergic reaction to it do? She goes to Kroger, stocks up on Bendryl and gets a bag of conversation hearts. Hey, it's still sugar, after all.

A week passes and still no chocolate. Robin is going insane! But she is on a mission to really find out if she is allergic to chocolate. She gets brave and decides to try a piece of chocolate.

One piece of Hershey's down the hatch and no reaction all day..
Then that night, a few handfulls of Whoppers and no reaction overnight..
The next day at lunch, 2 pieces of Hershey's... no itching!!

It's a miracle! No allergy to chocolate! Thank the Lord!

And she lived happily ever after, Hershey's in mouth (and Bendryl in purse, just in case...)

The End.

Go to work and give God something to bless.

I heard something last week that really just stuck with me.

'Go to work and give God something to bless.'

So I made a big 'ol decision this past week: I'm going back to church.

I've been fighting it for so long, and I've decided I can't anymore. My life is better when I go to mass. It just is. And the thing is, when I made that decision to go back, things in my life have gotten better. My Mary Kay business has somewhat flourished; just this weekend I sold $400. I've been just happier all around and my relationship with Todd has just been amazing. I couldn't ask for anything more right now. God has blessed me and I'm just so amazed at what it has done for me in the past week.

I finally found a church that I want to go to; after moving to KY, I haven't found anything that really stuck out at me. It just hit me like a truck one day: St. Rose Church! It's so beautiful, and I was baptized there 23 years ago.

It's so old fashioned on the inside.. I love it.

My boyfriend Todd has been the most amazing support system with my Mary Kay business. Not only is he cheering me, helping set my goals for how much I'm going to make in 1 week, but he's also wearing one of my pink Cadillac 'Drive the Dream' bracelets. That's huge. He's been my sales rep, recruiter.. you name it, he's it! I have a feeling he's going to be one of my main driving points to getting my Cadillac and full time career with Mary Kay. I'm so glad that he can be a part of it. Yay you Toddie :)

So, I've gotta keep on keepin' on.. lots of goals to accomplish before the 24th! I leave for New York on the 25th!

Wish me luck people! I'm movin on up!!

Jordi Labanda

So at work, there are a few girls with some notebooks with some really cool fashionista artwork on them and I had to have one. So I went to Target and bought one - the artist is Jordi Labanda and I love his stuff! It's so chic and trendy and very popular. His notebooks are lenticular (holographic) and they come in a few sizes.

I recommend going and getting one for yourself!

Here are some examples of his work:





And the one I bought... notice it's very "Audrey-like" :D I couldn't resist!!!




And his website: http://www.jordilabanda.com/


Enjoy!!!!

Recharging the batteries... well almost.

Just when you think you're on top of the world, some mean lady says some not so nice things to you over the phone and you get thrown right back down to the ground and you gotta start all over. Recharge the batteries and keep your chin up.

That was my night last night. Except that when I tried to recharge the batteries (which in my case is reading a book while taking a hot bath), the hot water ran out before I got enough water in the tub. So I sat there, with the water barely covering my thighs, too uncomfortable and cold to even pick up my book. Such a bust.

Earlier that night, I sat down and got out my customer profiles and started getting their referrals together and making a list of women to call. I called 17 women and of those 17, 9 said no, 7 didn't answer and 1 booked. It was a little frustrating, I'm not going to lie. Especially when 2 ladies I talked to were somewhat rude. It's the law of the numbers though.. so oh well.

Then came the bath issue... whatever, I'm over it.

Anyway, I called my wonderful boyfriend and he made me feel so much better about everything. I felt better after that and I fell asleep on the couch reading.

When it was still December, I couldn't wait for the year to be over. There was just too much of everything happening. Too much stuff going on, too much money being spent, too much food being eaten, too much, too much, too much!!!! It was insane. So after Christmas was over, I felt relieved. I finally had time to do nothing. Just catch back up on some stuff at home, nothing with a deadline. But then, the first week of January, everything kicked back up again and I feel so let down about it. I kept thinking, "I thought I was going to have way more time to just relax and find myself and get myself back on track with my jobs and my life and my spirituality! And I totally don't have the time anymore!" At least, that's what it feels like. Maybe I've just told myself that so many times that I believe it, when it's probably not even that bad. Who knows.

My Wonder Woman is almost done, so I'll be posting that soon. And maybe one day, if I'm lucky, I'll finish Frank Sinatra too. Here's hoping..

I hope everyone had a great New Years! Mine was perfect, so I can't ask for anything more.

Oh! And I just found out that I'm going to New York at the end of the month for work! I'm so excited! I'm going with my boss, who is super cool. So I get back Wednesday night, and Thursday morning I leave for Destin until Monday! 2 places I've never been before, and I'm going to both in a matter of one week! Crazy!

Anyway, back to work... until next time...

I am the Queen.

Well, where to begin... lots has happened over the holidays. Procrastination, accomplishments, friendships were lost, relationships were started... among other things. And oh yeah.. it's New Year's Eve! It's been a little hectic.

For starters, I was Queen of Sales again last week in my unit for Mary Kay. Go me! I sold over $700! Unfortunately, meeting was canceled last week because of the bad weather and we were able to celebrate.. bummer. But that's ok... I'll just be queen again soon!

I have some doodles I was working on at my art show this past Final Friday. It's Wonder Woman. She's not finished yet, but as soon as she is, I'll scan her in and get her up here. I do, however, have a drawing of Hawkgirl. I started her a while ago, but had to stop because of my freelance load, so I finally finished her this past week. Here she is:




(And just for the record, the scanner does my drawings NO justice in the shading department.)

So I think February will be my last month at the Pendleton now, not January. I'll be out of town the last week of January, and I want to be there for my last month. I'll keep you posted with any details.

That's all for now, back to work...

Ol' Blue Eyes... Sorta

So today was one of those days where I was obligated to do nothing. That doesn't happen.. hardly ever. I did the Jingle Bell Run this morning and then went to lunch with my mom, sister and aunt. After that, I had nothing to do. It was so weird.. I was so perplexed.

When I got home, I had the urge to paint. And old Frankie boy has been sketched out on my canvas for months now. So, in hopes of having him ready for Final Friday, and not to mention that I need some new artwork for me (most of the artwork I do is commission work and therefore, I don't get to keep the originals), I decided to just suck it up, and get painting.

Here's my progress so far:

Obviously his face isn't done yet, but I got a pretty good start on it today. I'll keep you updated on the progress!

Sweet Satisfaction

2 portraits.. done! Here they are!

The Gordon House
9 x 12 Graphite on Bristol board



The Groves House
9 x 12 Graphite on Bristol board
Yay me! I'm still waiting on confirmation from my contact for the Groves house so they can be sent to the printers. They are being made into Christmas cards.

I feel a great sense of accomplishment!