Wow!

Not to put too fine a point on it... but wow. :) Thank you Very much to Dr. Joy Johnson for her amazing and generous donation to this project. A box arrived from Curry's Art Store today with Lots (capital L) of canvas boards, a whole rainbow of paint colours and new brushes. Oh it felt like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one! I knew it was coming because we've talked on email, but still, opening that box was pretty amazing. So thank you a whole bunch for helping out with this project!!

Everyone that has helped so far deserves thanks and gratitude for sure... and there is a list of names at the bottom of the blog that I'm updating as we go with everyone who has donated and/or helped in some way. I've left off Chris's name because I talk about him so much in the posts, but he has obviously helped in so many ways it would be impossible to list them all. He's not forgotten though. ;)

This is such a huge project... and I don't think I thought all of it through when I started. Hmmm... yup, that sounds a bit like me. Jump in and hope for the best. I figure it'll all work out in the end. :) Definitely my basement is looking more and more like an art gallery/studio mayhem. It's a whole lot harder to take the kids down for some casual playtime! However, it is so totally worth it! I'm loving this project, I'm so happy to be meeting new people through it, and I think it's a wonderful part of my life. Even though it is harder in some ways than I thought it would be, it's better in others too. So it all evens out in the end. :)

It's funny, tonight I told myself that I wouldn't put too much pressure on since I sort of started last night. I thought, hey, I'll take it a bit easy, watch a movie, finish up the painting... no biggie. Well, instead I just couldn't stop painting. I finished tonight's kid-oriented piece "Finders Keepers" and started the background for what I think will be a dragon and started (possibly finished, will look at it again tomorrow and see) another one that was meant to be a companion piece for the dragon, but might end up being something else all together. I had new paints and brushes to play with. Whee! I missed a bunch of the movie, but that's ok... I've seen it before. :) I'm so excited about the two new ones... texture and colour mixing... lots of fun.

New pictures tomorrow too! It has been a crazy week in some ways... but a good week too. A few too many late nights, but hey, like I said before, it's all worth it!

One last thought... I know I'm thanking people who are helping with donations... but I do not want to overlook all the people who are reading this blog, posting it on their facebook pages, passing along ideas and suggestions, support and comments... and generally contributing in less tangible but also incredibly important ways. To all my friends, family, and even complete strangers who have found this blog and follow it... thank you! I hope that it inspires you to try new things, find beauty in odd places, and help someone out at a random time or place. We all live and share this life... let's make it a little better for everyone, together. :)