Another Hectic Week - New Computer/New System/New Shelves

Well this has been another very hectic week as I, for some odd reason, decided to purchase a new point of sale software solution for Pampered Palette. Well, that was a little bigger item to carry off than I was expecting. Just the whole integration with our financial system was enough to send me straight for therapy. Now that we have everything installed, the system provides a lot of interesting features including barcoding and scanning, cash drawer, receipt printing, credit card processing and much much more. If a new point of sale system was not enough, I decided to purchase and install a new computer with 1 TB hard drive and 8 gigs of memory running the new Microsoft Windows 7 operating system. That required the moving of all my files and software off of the old machine and onto the new machine. Another big headache as nothing seems to be as easy as everyone says it should be. It is a good thing that I have my own personal computer genius (Mark) who handles all my computer problems. With his help everything is up and running.

The pictures above are of my supply room that I am putting together. We have been busy putting together shelves, stocking the shelves and running an inventory for the new POS system. As you can see, I try to utilize every inch of space so that I can pack as many items on my shelves as possible. I still need to add some additional shelves especially where I stock plates giving me more room to stock more items without having to install a complete new set of shelves. I just add a shelf where needed. So far, so good.

Well working on all the computer stuff and shelving has left very little time for painting. However, I did get a few things started like my new pattern packet (number 2) that I a painting before scripting. I paint, take pictures, paint, take pictures and then finally I will script out the instructions. I really do not have enough hands to get everything completed. There are times that I feel overwhelmed. Well actually I think that is most of the time recently.

This week I fly to Los Angeles for the weekend and then back to Santa Fe on Monday. Well that cuts the time I would have to paint this weekend. I am home for a weekend (February 6) and then the following weekend we are off to Delaware for another painting seminar. Actually, during February we have two seminars. The second one is the weekend of February 26th with Maureen McNaughton in Wichita (SDP Headquarter). Oh well, maybe next month.

I really have tons to do so I will get off my box temporarily. Until the next post, HAPPY PAINTING!

New Sandy Scales Seminar Pieces

After a week of business travel where I returned from Santa Fe late Friday afternoon, Mark and I got out of bed Saturday morning at 4:30 am to drive to Delaware. We were attending another Sandy Scales seminar at Painter's Paradise and need to arrive no later than 8:30 am. Well, we did great on the road as the traffic was pretty light which helped us arrive at Starbucks by 8:00 am. Wow, we had time to spare. After picking up our drinks and drinks for Sandy, we headed to Painter's Paradise arriving with plenty of time to set everything up. The first piece we painted was the green plaque picture above. For that piece we did a lot of shaded, floated some color, highlighted some flowers with a little extender and a mop brush and marbleized the outer edge. In all the Saturday class went very well and even though I consider myself a slow painter, I was able to keep up with everybody.

On Sunday we worked on the plate pictured above. I just love fan strokes which the piece has a lot of those strokes. I find them fun and easy to do. I think I have that technique down pat. When I returned home, I still needed to finish the plate's outer edges. So, I took two of the colors from the palette, made a purple mix, and then antiqued the piece with a gray wash. I am pleased with the results. The next Sandy Scales seminar is scheduled for February 13 & 14 at Painter's Paradise. Again, Mark and I have booked our places for that seminar then then end of the month we will be attending Maureen's Seminar in Wichita. We have so many classes scheduled that I am having a little hard time keeping track of them. I know I have two classes scheduled with David Jansen as well later this year. Boy, I should hire an assistant.

Still lots going on at Pampered Palette as we have received lots of new wood, metal and canvas painting surfaces along with many new supplies. Rapidly our shelves are becoming completely stock, which is good. But it has definitely kept me busy along with all the seminar painting and the Heritage lesson pieces I am painting. Maybe I can clone myself so I can have another set of hands..........lol. Anyway, there is never a dull moment. This is about it for the news right now. Until the next post, Happy Painting.