May 18, 2012

Helena Spring Art Walk

The Art Walk is tonight from 5:30–9:30. Everywhere you go on the walking mall and downtown area you will find businesses open late and displaying local artists' work. It's a great time to get out to meet local artists and see how much talent and creative variety can be found right here in Helena. We are quite the artist's community.

I will have my work on display and for sale in the lobby of the Placer Building. I will have some of the new pieces I've been working on over the winter. I've been working on a few online mixed-media classes over the winter so you will some different styles for me. Same colorful, fun themes, just new ways of creating fun.

It's wonderful to have such a great opportunity to show my art for the whole town to see. I'm very thankful to the folks at the Placer for welcoming into their world. I enjoy these events and all of the people who come out. It's a really fun evening. I hope to see many of you there.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

New Computer, Fun or not so much?

I have a new computer! Woo hoo! Right? Well, it was a long and frustrating process which left me computer challenged for the past month, so a "hesitant Woo hoo!"

It all started on my birthday, April 1st. I needed a new computer as my old lemon was just about ready for the graveyard. I ordered a nice new, touch screen computer, with all the graphics bells and whistles. Kind of a birthday present to me. I went to bed that night a little satisfied, thinking I could finally get back to my computer art duties soon. I was oh so wrong.

I got the computer about a week later. I played around with HP's fun "Magic Canvas" for a few days, no hurry. Finally I decided I should get around to some work. I tried to install the software I need. Everything imaginable went wrong and none of the programs would work. I also tried to open some programs that came preinstalled. They wouldn't open. After several hours on chat and the phone with a few different tech support people I was told to return the computer to HP. Ugh. I sent it back to HP the next morning. Let's see, by this time it was Tuesday, April 17th.

This past Thursday, the 26th the new computer was due to be delivered to me, by 4:30 PM. I took the afternoon off to stay home and wait for it. 4:30 came and went. I waited a little while, thinking the driver might be a little late. Finally I decided to go to the Fed Ex office. I don't know about other cities, but there isn't a local number for Fed Ex here and the last time I talked to the 800 number they gave me very inaccurate information. So I went to the ground store. The guy there looked at the tracking # and said it's Express, go down the street to the other store. Thank goodness I live in a small town. At least 3 kind ladies tried to figure out where my box was. Their computer showed it was here, in town, that morning. After 45 minutes of looking and calling other people they said they'd call me when they figured anything out. They called me 10 minutes later, just after I bought myself a bottle of wine. It seems that the box was mislabeled and my box was on the other side of the country. It never made it here. I don't know what made it here, but it wasn't my box. So maybe it will be here tomorrow they told me. The next day, Friday, no phone calls so after work I went back to the Fed Ex office. It was still "somewhere",on it's way here. Again they couldn't be sure when it would be HERE. Did I mention that my box went half way across the country because HP labeled it wrong? Yeah.

This morning I got the call. They had my computer. I went straight to Fed Ex to get my computer, rather than waiting and wondering when Mr. Fed Ex would arrive at my front door, all the while being stuck at home. Sigh. I finally got it. Phew, what a relief, right? Oh no, I forgot. When they built my new machine they put the wrong (cheaper) version of Windows on it. That was about an hour of arguements with a HP supervisor on Thursday afternoon, trying to get them to reimburse me for the upgrade that I would have to do myself. After many "I can't authorize that much..." comments I finally got the reimbursement that they somehow couldn't approve. Today I bought the upgrade myself, installed it myself (not rocket science, just a pain in the butt) and installed some of my programs so that I can once again get my art onto my website. Things are working. Yeah!

So now that I'm done whining about the 28 day wait for a new computer, I can get back to my art. What a relief.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Think Spring this Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!

After a few inches of snow on Friday threatened our early spring, we've had a couple of nice warm days and it's almost gone. I took the puppies out in the yard a couple of times to let them run and play. It was nice and quite warm by this afternoon. It's nice to see, and feel, the sun. It put me back into the spring spirit.

I had been thinking about a painting like this one since last weekend when I was at the Spring Art & Craft show. I sat there playing around with some new ideas with my wonderful water soluble crayons. They are almost mess-free so it was easy to take them with me to the show so I could play in color. This is one of the ideas that came from that afternoon of sketching and doodling. It's really simple, but I like the colors because they're springy and they look like Easter egg colors, so a perfect choice for this warm, springy Easter Sunday.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Spring Arts & Crafts Show

Tomorrow is the Spring Arts & Crafts Show at the Helena Civic Center. I took today off to get ready and set up. Setting up for craft shows takes quite a bit of planning and preparation. We never have everything ready that we want. We always forget something. Things sometimes go wrong. It can be stressful, but not today.

Today, I'm taking my time. The truck is packed, but I can't set up for a couple of hours from now. So I'm going to paint for a while, one of the most relaxing things in my life. This dragon would have been done by now, but I've been having major computer problems this week which has thrown my schedule off a bit. Due to the computer problems I won't have some prints available tomorrow for some new pieces. It's dissappointing, but I WILL have the dragon there tomorrow, with eyes, all done. Maybe I will get some ideas tomorrow for a name for my blue dragon. The first name that came to mind was Elliot. I had no idea why that name popped into my head. After a little thought, and research, I realized that was the name of the dragon in Pete's Dragon, a Disney film from the 70s. So, his name will not be Elliot.I wonder what it will be.

Sunday,March 24, 2012

My Very First Happy Abby Blog Post

My first post. Wow. What an accomplishment. Even though I am a Web Designer by day, it took me a long time to get this site up and running. Most of the time I I'd just rather be painting. But now it's done and I like it. I hope you do too.

I am Cheryl. I am an artist. This site is a place to share my art and inspirations. My biggest inspiration, is Abby, my little Yorkie. She's always happy and makes everyone else happy, hence, Happy Abby Designs. Abby has a little sister, Pixie who also fills my life with smiles and laughter. They are both a blast and constantly keep me smiling and laughing. I'm not quite sure if I paint happy art because they make me so happy, or if I just get my happy inspiration from them so I can paint happy art. Either way, it works.