A Giveaway!

Hello, my friends. I am starting to feel the holiday spirit and am having a giveaway on Instagram. I wanted to be sure that you knew about it! You could win a nature collection print, a 'Celebrate Simple Things' card and gift tag and a set of recipe cards--all featuring my watercolours. Check out my post on Instagram for how to enter. It's simple. Click here.

I will be choosing the winner on Tuesday, December 9th at 9:00 a.m. EST.

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Lovely Lilacs: A Giveaway (Closed)

Oh joy! My lilacs are in bloom and the scent is heavenly. My shrubs are FULL of blooms this year. We had a tough winter here so I worried that the lilacs wouldn't be at their best but they absolutely are.

I have four common lilac shrubs planted in a row and, really, there's nothing common about them! I am always amazed that there are so many shades of purple and pink in their blooms.  Really gorgeous. They are planted at the side of the house that doesn't have any windows so I need to go outside to see them. Their scent reaches our back door though and provides a strong incentive to walk around the side of the house and visit them often.

They were planted almost fourteen years ago now and have grown to be so tall and majestic. Their habit of sending up suckers in surrounding flower beds is a little annoying but a small penalty to pay to enjoy their beauty.

In honour of my lovely lilacs, I am giving away a pair of my lilac cards (one each of my Lilacs and Lilac Sprig images). All you have to do is leave a comment below and I will choose one winner here on June 1st (noon EDT). Because the lilacs' scent has gone to my head, I'm also giving away pairs on Instagram and Facebook. So you can increase your chances of winning by commenting there too.

Giveaway results (June 1, 2014):

I think it is so nice that the random number generator I used for my giveaway happened to pick locations around the world. :)

Blog winner: Jessica in the United States

Facebook winner: Maribel in Spain

Instagram winner: Sharon in Australia

Thank you to everyone who entered. Thanks especially for your lovely comments. Here's to lilac love!

If my hand looks a little awkward in this photo, it's because I took the photo with my iPad.
I had my iPad steadied on my outstretched arm. Artist and acrobat.

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In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd palings,

Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,

With every leaf a miracle - and from this bush in the dooryard,

With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

A sprig with its flower I break.

From Walt Whitman's 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d' (Leaves of Grass)

And the winner is...

First of all, thank you to everyone who participated. It was wonderful to see the names of friends, new and old. Thank you everyone for the kind comments. They mean so much to me.

I put all of your names on folded pieces of paper. My daughter Emma drew the winning name.

This tiny handful of Canadian snow is going to be mailed to Julie Clay. She is a wonderful watercolor artist from England who illustrates both greeting cards and children's books. Congratulations, Julie!

I wish I could have sent something to everyone but I'll have another giveaway sometime soon. Have a lovely weekend!

A Little Giveaway

This is a little ACEO-sized watercolour I did last year. I loved the way the dried Queen Anne's Lace had cupped the new fallen snow. Nature's own little snowballs. This Queen Anne's Lace grows just at the edge of the forest pathway where I walk with Meeko in the winter.

I am giving away this original watercolor just because. Well, there are actually lots of becauses. Because I appreciate all of the support I receive from my online friends, here and on Facebook and Twitter. Because I have the nicest customers on Etsy. Because I feel happy when I paint. Because sharing is a good thing. Because snow is beautiful. Because spring is coming. Because...

All you need to do is leave a comment below. Please make sure that your comment links back to your own blog or that you provide an email address, so that I have a way of contacting you if you are the lucky person.

I would also appreciate it very much if you would like my Facebook page (if you haven't already) although that is optional.

So please leave a comment below. I will choose a winner on Friday, February 15th at 6:00 p.m. EST. ❤

Giveaway Winner

I am happy to announce that the winner of my giveaway is Carol of 'Yankee Girl' Art. Meeko drew your name. He did! I put everyone's names on pieces of scrap paper, put them face down on the floor so I didn't know whose they were, put a treat on each and chose the one Meeko went to first. (Maybe a silly method, but it was more fun than using a hat.)

Thank you everyone for the heartwarming comments you left for me. It means so much to me that you like my paintings. Thanks, as well, for the comments on my photography. I love taking photos and I'm learning more about my camera every day.

I wish I could have sent something to each and every one of you, but stay tuned. I will have another giveaway near the end of October to celebrate my first year on Etsy.

A Birdie Sort of Giveaway (Closed)

It's a dark and gloomy day here. For some reason, it feels like a giveaway day. :) Leave a comment here and I will choose one name on Tuesday morning to win one of my new Blue Feather prints. There are more photos and details about the print here.

And because it is so very dark and gloomy, I'm going to add one of my new Chickadee note cards that are printed on real watercolour paper.

So the winner will receive one print and one note card (with envelope). Anyone can enter. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments. I appreciate your kind words so much. I will continue to accept comments up until 9:00 a.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, October 2nd. I'll announce the winner sometime during the morning.

Facebook Giveaway (Closed)

Click the "Join Me on Facebook" link at the right side of my blog to go to my fan page.
The winner will be announced on Monday.

Giveaway Winner

The winner of my Pink Heart giveaway is Rebekka Seale.  If you don't know her already, you can look at her beautifully written blog here and her lovely artwork here.

Rebekka, please contact me (kathleenmaunder at gmail.com) and provide me with your mailing address.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Your comments were so appreciated.

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I've enabled a different kind of comment formatting. Now I can reply directly under each comment.  It's a new feature on Blogger so it may have some bugs. I've noticed that the times noted beside the comments are wrong even though my time/date settings are correct. If anyone has any other trouble with them, maybe you can let me know. Hopefully, they will work the bugs out in the near future.

Pink Heart Giveaway (Closed)

I am so excited about my Pink Heart print.  I have just added it to my Etsy shop.  I wasn't sure if my first attempt was a fluke, but I now have been able to print several times successfully on the handmade Saint-Armand watercolour paper.  It takes time and care feeding it through the printer because of its thickness and the deckle edges but the results are absolutely amazing.   I cannot stop staring at these prints. They really look like original watercolours.

Because it is handmade paper, it means that each print is a slightly different, one-of-a-kind work of art.  I wish you could feel the paper.  It is thick, soft, luxurious and has a beautiful grain.  There are four deckle edges.  It is exquisite paper and is made right here in Montreal by the Saint-Armand paper mill.  Do I sound excited?

I have painted on Saint-Armand paper before, but it wasn't until this past weekend that I thought of trying to print on it.

Anyone who has followed my blog for a while knows that I have had an up and down relationship with my printer.  Well today I am a happy woman and I wanted to share the love by giving away one Pink Heart print (the exact one in the top photo).  It measures approximately 6 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches.  I will initial it on the front and then sign and date it on the back.

All you need to do is to leave a comment on this blog post.  I will close comments at 1:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, January 18, 2012.  I will announce the winner on Wednesday evening.  Thanks so much to everyone for all of your ongoing support. It means so much to me.

I am not responding to each comment the way I normally do as it will be easier for me to do the draw if my comments aren't mixing up the numerical order. I just want everyone to know that I am reading them all and appreciate them so much!

My Etsy Shop Is Open! (Plus the Name of the Giveaway Winner)

Let the bells ring and the birds sing.  After weeks of preparations and months (maybe years) of thinking about it, my Etsy store is about to open!!!

At the top is an image I am including in my Etsy prints.

I created this painting as a gift for my younger sister Nancy a few years ago.  I asked Nancy if I could borrow back the painting in order to make a print from it for my Etsy shop.  She said 'yes' right away. Sisters are like that. We are different in some ways but share many similarities too.  We are both sensitive, creative people. We love colour, nature, music and beautiful things. We are devoted to our families. We each have two daughters. In fact, our eldest daughters were born just one day apart.  We live six hours away from each other.  We email each other often, whether about good days or bad days.  When we do get together we have fun. When I'm with Nancy, I am assured of at least one laughing fit (you know the kind--you laugh so hard that your stomach hurts, there are tears running down your face and you can't get any words out, but it feels so good).  Nancy has had an Etsy store for the past three years.  She designs beautiful jewelry and I wear her things just about every day.  She really encouraged me to think about selling my artwork on Etsy, so if I'm here today opening my shop, I need to say thanks to her.

I have another sister too.  My sister Karen has special needs.  Despite our differences and a 19-year age gap, we are incredibly close. Karen and I share a love of music, animals, films that require kleenex and the colour purple.  We know that if one of us is feeling bad, we can count on each other for some encouraging words. Karen is the sweetest person I know.

My own teenage daughters haven't felt so close in recent years (the beautiful photo below was taken when they were about 9 and 5), but lately I can see their friendship starting to blossom. That makes my heart happy because having a sister as a friend is a beautiful thing.

(If you'd like to see my sister's jewelry you can click here or just click on Wallis Designs in my blog list.)

What an incredible amount of work it has been getting everything ready.  The photography alone has taken me days.  I hope I get faster and better at it!  I will continue to add images to my shop in the weeks ahead.  Check back often.  I am offering a 20% discount to all customers during the first week to celebrate my opening.  The coupon code is noted at the top of my shop page.

Thanks to all of you for your encouraging words over the past few weeks and for the lovely comments you have left for me.

We have been silly and used random.org again to draw the winner's name from a very small number of entries. :) My daughter just called down the stairs to say that Margie Oomen, owner of the beautiful Resurrection Fern blog is the winner of my giveaway!  Please contact me and let me know which of the two framed prints you would like. Congratulations and thanks to everyone for taking part and leaving such nice words. ♥

Giveaway! (Closed)

Special Edition - Archival print in 10¼ x 8 frame

While I'm photographing and fiddling and figuring things out for my Etsy shop opening, I thought I might as well hold that giveaway I promised you!

Poppy Field - Archival print in 10¼ x 8 inch frame

All you have to do is comment on this post and indicate your favourite of the two prints:  Special Edition (the colourful bouquet of flowers wrapped in a newspaper) or Poppy Field (the scene I did 'en plein air' on my honeymoon years ago).  And because I am excited about my shop opening and because you've all been so nice about encouraging me these past weeks, I am offering the print framed  (in the black IKEA Ribba frame shown in photo).  I just might tuck a few cards in with it too! I will send the package anywhere in the world by snail mail at the lowest parcel rate so it might take a while to get to you depending on where you live but I think it will be worth the wait. :)

For anyone who is new to my blog, these are archival prints based on my original watercolours.  They are printed on beautiful, thick textured paper that looks very much like my watercolour paper.

So what are you waiting for?  Don't be shy. Start commenting!  Now I have to get back to photographing things while the light is good!

You have until midnight Eastern Time (Canada) this Friday, October 28th, to comment.  One comment only please (don't forget to mention your favourite) and make sure I have a link or way of contacting you.  I will announce the winner's name on Saturday morning.

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My Etsy shop will open sometime during the day on Friday.  I will install a little widget at the side of my blog once some products are inside the store.  Be sure to have a look as I will be having an opening special.

(Please note that I am not likely to offer framed prints in my store and if I ever do it will be on a limited basis, so this is a special giveaway.)

The winner of the giveaway is...

Congratulations to the winner of my first giveaway--jodyvanB.  Please contact me with your mailing address, so I can send your print to you.

My daughter and I used random.org to generate the winner which was a little silly I suppose.  We could have easily put the names in a hat or jar as there weren't that many of them.  But it was fun to do it in a high-tech way.

Jody visited my blog after we 'met' on Etsy.  I had been admiring her very beautiful watercolours and told her so. Have a look at her shop.  She's a wonderful painter.  I plan to own one of her originals or prints some day. I am really happy to be able to send her my Pansies print.

Thanks to everyone who participated.  It was so interesting to read how pansies held special significance to a number of you. For all of you who didn't win or didn't have time to enter, I will hold another giveaway to celebrate my Etsy shop opening which should happen in the next few weeks.

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Well, yesterday was an interesting day.  I woke up to find out my PC would not open.  It got stuck in a forever cycling loop of 'startup repair'.  I thought it was a Windows problem but it looked more and more ominous as the day wore on and all of my attempts to repair the situation failed.  Mid-afternoon, I thought I had lost everything--all of my recent work on my prints on Photoshop, family photo files, documents, you name it.  Yes, I know I should have saved everything.  I had a backup up to October 1st of many things but not of my most recent scans and Photoshop work on my art.  I have a delivery to make to the arts and crafts show early next week.  I was also working on a compilation and CD artwork for the birthday party of a dear friend which was yesterday evening.  The timing could not have been worse.  When my husband heard the desperation in my voice on the phone (if we'd been on Skype he would have seen tears too), he asked his IT guy from work to come home with him at the end of the day.  At first the IT guy said that he thought everything was still there and it was just a Windows glitch, then he said my C drive was gone and I had lost everything on it and then, just towards the end of his visit, he said that he was seeing my files and thought he could save them. Talk about up and down emotions.  I do have my files.  They are now on another drive until the damaged one can be replaced.  He said I was very lucky.  Yes I was.  Now I can get back to work on producing more prints.  I'll post more photos over the weekend.

It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada.  Happy Thanksgiving to all.  My mom, dad and sister are visiting us from Ontario.  Here are my suggestions to you for this weekend:  surround yourself with family and friends, enjoy the beautiful autumn weather and back up all of your important files!