rest in peace, nana~

Last night, my beloved Nana passed away peacefully in her sleep. I am heartbroken, but at the same time, I am relieved that she is free now to be her true free-spirited self amongst the heavens. Some of my happiest memories in my life are with this woman, and I'll always remember her as the spunky old lady with the best sense of humor and a warm heart. 

***

Nana, I'll never forget the tea parties we had at your house, the way you let me try on all of your beautiful scarves and jewelry. I'll always look back fondly on family time during the holidays, where you were the heart of our rambunctious little world. Whenever I see a cardinal outside my window, I will think of you. I know your loved ones amongst the stars are welcoming you and will take good care of you, but your loved ones here on earth will miss you dearly. Be at peace, I will always love and miss you. 

garden blooms~

I'm so proud of my little flowers in the front of my house~

When we moved in, the yard was so overgrown that pretty much all you could see were weeds. I've slowly but surely been nursing it back to health, and I'm pleased to report that after some vigorous pruning and daily deadheading on these little beauties, I have had a pretty constant supply of lovely pink and purple flowers here!

What's your best tactic for dealing with weeds?

These babies just keep on blooming! #flowers #blooms #garden #gardening #colors #colorful #flowerstagram #flowerlover #flowergram #flowerporn #flowersofinstagram

A photo posted by Alicia O'Shea (@aliciamichelleoshea) on Sep 22, 2016 at 8:44am PDT

snail mail~

So I recently had to try my hand at some fancy snail mail. I was inspired by Pinterest of course. (You can check out my board for snail mail here~) I sent this one to a friend and I had so much fun I am very much in the mood to send more!

I felt like I was sending a care package right out of a gypsy fairy tale. I just got lost in the creative process with this little side project and enjoyed putting my all into every tiny detail~

Haha, whoops~ #stayclassy

Have you sent anyone a letter recently?? It's awfully rewarding! You should try!

my travel altar~

When the family and I took a road trip out west across the country, I made a point of collecting little bits and pieces from some of the stops we made. I wish I had taken more, but I am grateful for what I did manage to carry with me, all the way back home, because now I have a little travel altar containing little pieces of all the places that I've been.

I even have this beautiful letter I found when I went to a festival in Michigan called Electric Forest. In my group of friends, I was the only one wearing a dress at the time we stumbled upon this little gem, perched on a tree branch in the middle of the woods.

So I took it and opened it and I will keep it forever. It touched my heart~

oil painting wip~

Here is a work in progress shot of an oil painting I've been working on. I haven't used oil paints in years! It feels so good to be trying it out again after all this time, and I must admit I am quite surprised at myself. I love the way this piece is turning out so far. I might even put it up on my Etsy or in the art fair next summer!

I love the smell of the paints~

Have you ever tried oil painting??

speaking of mandalas~

If you're into mandalas and coloring books, I've made some books I am actually quite proud of~

So far, I've got two, but I even have more planned in the future. They're available on my Etsy shop and they're instant download/printable coloring books. They each have about 20 pages.

Have you ever purchased a digital/printable item from Etsy before? What are some of your favorite Etsy buys?

my first coloring page~

I recently decided I wanted to try my hand at coloring pages. I have made a couple of mandala coloring books in the past, but I wanted to try something a little different.

Since I discovered Aurora-Wings Etsy shop and her gorgeous fantasy drawings and digital stamps, I have been inspired. When I was a kid, I used to draw manga/anime style characters constantly, and I have since abandoned that art style, thinking it was immature or maybe unprofessional. However, I have since realized that it's actually a great style for coloring and to be quite honest, it's just fun for me to draw. So I came up with this little piece here, as well as another that is on its way shortly. (You can see it peeking out from behind this one.)

You can actually buy this page on my Etsy shop for just a couple dollars if you want to try coloring it in~

 

What do you think? Are you a fan of adult coloring books or pages??

~Alicia