My Work was Chosen in a Treasury: Another Roadside Attraction.

"How Are You" was chosen for this treasury by SonjaCaldwell.

Been Busy: Shop Updated.

Sorry for my lack of posts the past few days. I was working on a deadline to get an order into the printers on time. I just sent it out, and I feel completely exhausted. I've been working during any free moment that I have on my inventory for The Gallivanting Girl. I decided at the beginning of the year that my etsy shop was getting a complete overhaul. I found a professional printing service, bought a negative scanner, and I've begun the long process of editing and creating new work to add to the shop. Things are looking great though. My first order to the printer had over a hundred prints (all on metallic paper, which I'll be excited to see). Below are some of the items that are going to be in my shop (if they haven't been added already). I'm hoping to get all the new listings added by this Friday. Tell me what you think.

"Will You Wait?"

"Morning Graze"



"Is it any Wonder?"


"Foggy Morning"


"Bright Eyes"

I'm really liking my new edits. They should make really neat postcards/notecards which is something I'm hoping to add to my shop too. Right now I've just got 4x6s listed, but have prices up for larger sizes, and I ordered some 5x7s so they'll be getting listed too. I'm also wanting to design a 2012 calendar to sell next fall as well. Never a dull moment around here.

In other news, I put my buck and doe rabbit together again, so in about a month we'll have another litter of rabbits. I've moved them to their new quarters down at the barn which will make life a lot better for all of us. They had been bunking in temporary cages in our little shed by the house and they had plastic catch-trays that I was having to wrestle out to dump in the icy tundra that is our yard. Down at the barn their cages are suspended above the stall area, so clean up is a breeze. The bucklet, as I call him, (the only remaining kit from their last breeding) has become my little buddy. He loves attention and is a very pretty boy. I'm hoping to buy him some ladies this spring, so he'll get to be the new breeder buck.

Learning How to Write.

A photo of my Grandma around my age. Wasn't she beautiful?

I have such a hard time actually writing what I'm feeling on this blog. It's not that I can't write about such things. I keep a journal and write in it almost daily, but for some reason I hold back so much I'd like for all of you to know. Perhaps it's because I feel a fear of sharing too much, or even worse, you not wanting to hear what I have to say. I've decided to get over it, and write, and we'll see what happens.

Life on the farm is a bit stagnant. This time of year gives me a slight case of the blahs. Spring is my favorite season, the warmer days, the greening of things, all the baby livestock, it doesn't get much better, so I get a bit anxious in waiting for that time of the year to get here again.

My grandpa's birthday is today; he's eighty-one years old. My husband, Mike, Joelee, and I went up to see him on Sunday, and I hate to say it, but Alzheimers has changed him so very much. He's just a shell of what used to be my grandpa. It's really hard to visit, he's so quiet anymore, and that's the one thing my grandpa never was. He used to know it all, and could keep you entertained with stories for hours. The bright side is that he does know who Joelee is and he fawns over her whenever she's around, and I can't ask for anything more than that.

While we were there, my dad gave me an awesome present. A box of slides that my grandma and her family had taken in the late fifties. Hence the photo from above. I never thought I really resembled her until I saw this particular photograph. The smirky smile has traces of me all over it. I'm really excited to find all these glimpses into her life when she was my age, you know? She looked so strong, and happy, and she's such an inspiration to me. You see, she died when I was about nine, and she was sick a lot of those nine years of my life. I have a hard time remembering what she was really like. Honestly, Ma Kettle, and a few other strong-roled, funny actresses make up a majority of what I've lumped together as what my grandma was like.

I've been slowly scanning the slides onto my computer, along with a huge batch of negatives from my numerous years of using film photography. I'm expanding my shop and I've started using a professional printer, in readying for my next big venture which is getting out there and selling my work at markets, festivals, and bazaars. So far, this year is turning out to be incredible. My optimism is through the roof.

There I think that's a good start at opening up. Maybe tomorrow I'll share a few facts about me, and some talk about my garden plans...I'm sure you'll be just sitting at your computer waiting for me to put the post up...ha.

Getting a Good Start.

Image by Dorothea Lange (October 1939) via Library of Congress

Detail said: "Interior of Mrs. Botner's storage cellar. 800 quarts of 'food for the winter.'..."

This is my dream pantry. I'd love to not have to go to the grocery ever again. That would be glorious. I have already ordered my garden seed for the year, and I'm really looking forward to what it will yield for us. I got $25 extra to spend since I spent $25, so I also bought a Cherry tree which I'm giddy about. My other purchases were: green beans, peas, carrots, roma and cherry tomatoes, onions, spinach, butternut squash, broccoli, pumpkin, garbanzo beans, cannellini beans, black turtle beans, red kidney beans, eggplant, and garlic. I'm going to be a very busy girl this summer.

I also ordered myself a scanner from Canon to digitize all my film negatives. This may not seem like a big deal to you, but I could literally do a jig I'm so happy. I've got my film from photography class in college as well as film from before I had my digital Rebel that I've not been able to reprint and after I get them on the computer they will be easily printed for selling. Hopefully this will push me to sell at festivals and bazaars because I won't have any excuse not to.

Otherwise this spring is going to be full of livestock. Currently I only have a small batch of chickens, two goats, and three rabbits (my original buck and doe and one of their buck kits). Just a week ago I had seven other kits, but we got them butchered and put in the freezer. I was leery about how I'd take the butchering, but it was quick and not as awful as I'd envisioned it to be. I'd never had tame rabbit before and it was a very nice surprise how delicious the meat is. Rabbits are a very dismissed meat animal. They are cheap to raise and very prolific breeders. Butchering 7 kits I got 28 pounds of healthy, tasty meat. They give a much better return than cattle, hogs, chickens, or lamb for sure. I'm going to build three or four grazing pens to raise kits in, and I'll be buying three or four more does this spring. I'm also going to raise a box of ducklings and perhaps another box of chicks, and I'm hoping I can find some goslings as well. We also have three horses, but they don't contribute to the farm much except for their manure which goes on the garden.

I'm a very busy girl, but I couldn't be any happier!

Five weeks to go, but holy cow...

I've been feeling SO good here lately--like I can take on the world, but all at once this baby has me feeling nauseous again, with woozy spells, achy belly...it's like a time warp back to about six months ago. I feel so guilty for taking it easy because I have so much that I want to do to this house, the blog, The Gallivanting Girl, everything--but instead I find myself laying on my left side on the couch because that's apparently the only way she and I are both comfortable.

I know I shouldn't feel bad about relaxing for the baby's sake, it's just hard to slow down. Then again, if I was to keep going I'm sure I'd be in the hospital with premature labor and I definitely do NOT want that. So...if you don't hear from me for a bit it's because I'm listening to the wants of this little girl inside me and taking it as easy as possible. Soon enough I'll be a mommy and life will change again.

I'm going to lay down now. Wish me luck.

Logo Struggles.

Don't you hate it when you have an idea in your head and you just can't get it down on paper exactly how you'd like it to look? That's become my problem with my logo for The Gallivanting Girl. I want it to be an image of my old truck Brute with wings on him with a banner that has "The Gallivanting Girl" on it. I want it to look vintage and semi-rough. Definitely not pristine and new.This was my first quick sketch of Brute with wings. I just can't seem to get the wings to evoke the vintage, simple vibe that I want them to.
This was my first banner design that I really liked. I added the text to see how it would look. I'm definitely wanting a font that is relaxed, yet looks like it goes with the logo.This was another truck/banner combination. Then I began thinking about possibly having Brute be a profile image.This is where I'm at today. Just a fast sketch of Brute. Now I'm really liking the idea of using him from the side. Now I'll try putting wings and a banner using this image and we'll see where I end up.