When I painted the cardinal a couple of months ago, I intended to use it as my Christmas card this year. But I posted him on social media and sold 45 cards and the original in two days. Then the bottom right image also sold and with the new owner's permission, I decided it would be prefect for this year's card. Once they arrived and were so beautiful, I made a series of with these three other cards as well. They are already on the Shop page at www.maureenmccarron.com but I am not taking them to the craft fair, because that is strictly for the birds.

This is Ganymede. You may recall my dilemma about a painting I worked on in August and that I preferred it when it was about halfway finished to the final results. In fact, I disliked it enough that I put away where I don't have to see it. Then a few weeks ago, I decided to give the gannet another try. I struggled almost as much with this version as I had with the first, but I do like this new one a lot.

What's that saying about don't quit before the miracle? Or is try, try again more appropriate?

 Here's what my table at the Crown and Anchor craft fair looked like this past weekend. I have two sizes of giclees, the blank greeting cards, the mugs, and some original paintings. Everything is available on this website. Fingers crossed that I have enough to get me through until Christmas.

The woman with the table next to mine knits hats and she made a black wool pussy hat for me so I could add two round abalone shell buttons that will look like eyes and shaping the ears a bit. That's on the to do list for tomorrow. I also have three new pieces going at the moment and would like to finish one of them this week. Stay tuned, I might show it to you next time I blog.

 I hadn't planned on doing another shadowbox any time soon since I'm so busy with the birds, but after I wrote about selling Communion last week, the collaged piece I had at PMPM sold too. Which lead to a three hours total revamp on my website (www.maureenmccarron.com) - I think it's much better. I think you'll think so too.

So it's back to painting the birds, although now I'm itching to do another shadowbox. Maybe I'll go bigger. I do have some 18x18" frames to fill.