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September 17th, 2011
Hi everyone! Great news — I am alive and well, (though I can’t say much for this poor blog, haha) and I’m super excited to be featured on Guinea Pig Today, a wonderful, adorable, informative site created for guinea pig lovers everywhere by the talented and so friendly Angela and her sweet guinea pig Papua! Catch up with her and Papua on twitter or Facebook.
Now if I ever needed an incentive to direct my attention back to sprucing up this website, this is surely it.
Honesty is always my best policy, so I’ll share some stuff with y’all. Busy is not a good excuse for me to use. Everyone gets busy. But here’s a little tidbit about me: I am a commitment-o-holic. I’m also a bona fide ‘scanner‘, meaning that I have a big bunch of life passions and I often feel torn about which to focus on and for how much time.
In addition to painting guinea pigs, this year has held a lot of experiences for me, some really rewarding and fun (writing a musical with a friend and seeing it performed in NYC), some challenging and difficult (struggling with my health and figuring out I have food allergies that may or may not be permanent), and some just there and part of the process (taking on a full-time Internet marketing position that thankfully allows me to work from home and feel flexible with the health and music commitments). Regardless, they’ve all helped me to grow and learn more about myself and who I am.
When Guinea Pigs Fly is growing and I am embarrassed to say that I need to catch up and keep up with everyone! But I have so many ideas in my mind for more artwork. It’s occurring to me that When Guinea Pigs Fly isn’t just me anymore. It’s a growing community. And it still completely blows my mind that some of my artwork is hanging over guinea pig cages in the UK, Australia, all over the world!
Thank you so much to everyone for your love and support, of my artwork but also of me! I can’t say how exciting it’s been to get to know WGPF customers over the past two years. I can genuinely call many of you my friends now, even though I haven’t met you in person! I can’t wait to see what the future holds. 
March 20th, 2011
Oh goodness. This blog has just slipped away from me! I think a website re-design and blog overhaul may be in order. I think this center column is a little narrower than I’d like, and I want to re-organize this site so it makes a bit more navigational sense. Or possibly have the homepage be the blog.
Thank you to anyone and everyone still hanging around, and I hope to have this more current and cute shortly! xoxo
November 16th, 2010
Another new holiday art set is ready for the fair! I spent the entire day and night yesterday working on it and cranked out 12 3 x 4″ drawings, scanned them in today and assembled them in mini-poster format. I’m debating also offering them as an ACEO set or possibly as their original size as a garland.
The 12 Days of Christmas!
 If you see some unfamiliar items in there, it’s due to a bit of historical research. Apparently ’5 gold rings’ originally referred to 5 ring-necked pheasants! Who knew?
I hope you like it. I’m planning to get it up in my Etsy shop as soon as I print a proof I like. I keep having to fiddle with settings to get it looking like the drawings, but I think I’m just about there.
November 14th, 2010
It’s approaching the holiday season, and while common sense says I should have been working on holiday artwork about 3 months ago, of course I am scrambling now with less than a week before my very. first. holiday. craft fair!
*applause*
Ok it’s small, but it’s a start. And to prepare, I have made this!
You can click the image to see a bigger size. You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and, well, you get the idea. It’s Santa’s reindeer! (it goes without saying, but pretty please don’t print this out for yourself off your home printer. I worked super hard on it and I would *love* to make you a really nice fine art print instead. It won’t be too expensive, I promise!)
I’m thinking of selling them as either:
- a set of 9 ACEOs all bundled cutely in their plastic sleeves for people to do as they wish
- a single sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper with all of them on it ready for framing
- tied together with ribbon as a little garland you can hang
I’m not sure if I should do all three, just one, hm. Any opinions on this matter are welcome!
I have a lot of different projects going on these days so I’m just psyched I get to squeeze my first fair in before the year is over. I still have no idea how I’m going to display things or how much to print and bring with me, but it will be a learning experience if nothing else. I got this amazing snazzy credit card reader from Square that is completely free and I just pay a transaction fee if someone swipes. It is so cool!! I had Todd test it by giving me a dollar, haha. We watched in amazement as it went through seamlessly. I’m gonna feel so spiffy and tech-savvy amidst the other crafters.
We’ll see how it goes! For now I’m just excited to have some new work, and hope to have a bit more before the week is out.
xoxo
October 23rd, 2010
If anyone reading this follows me on Facebook or has been a return visitor to the When Guinea Pigs Fly shop, you’ll probably have noticed that it’s been awhile since new artwork has gone up. Far too long, actually.
I could go into details about the excuses why I haven’t been drawing, but you’d probably be more interested in seeing what I’ve been working on and what’s broken the ‘artistic silence’, so to speak!
Now, this would have been even better if I had done this a month ago so more people could see this in time for Halloween, but I’m just glad to have it out on paper and hope that it will make even one person’s day who sees it. I suppose I’ve already accomplished that goal because it totally made mine when I put down my pencil and realized it was ready! haha
So, without further ado, I introduce the latest and greatest piece at When Guinea Pigs Fly! If you click on the picture it will open nice and big (it’s 1600px wide) so you can see the details.
I realized that unfortunately in order to get the full effect in a print, it’d be ideal to offer it in a wide size. The fine art paper I use comes in 13 x 19″ size but of course, given that it’s a week before Halloween, I think by the time I ordered it and received it, it’d be too late for anyone else to get a print on it. So for now, I’m going to just offer it as a 10.5″ wide banner, which works out to be about 4″ tall. You can still see a lot of the details at that size, but I actually drew it on two pieces of 9 x 12″ paper taped together.
I’m really excited to be drawing for myself again! (I have been sketching for a children’s book in the works for an author I’ve previously worked with, so I’ve been swamped with that until very recently) So yay! Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things here because I am growing to love these little characters from the birthday party scene and every time I draw them I get to know their personalities better and better.
I’d love to know what you think and if you have a favorite!
October 15th, 2010
So I’ve been making content on Squidoo for a couple of years now, and I was contacted today by someone from Martha’s Circle just letting me know that a couple links to some super cute Halloween cupcake recipes I found on Martha Stewart’s website that I featured on my Squidoo Halloween Cupcake page were going to error pages.
I think they updated their URL structure and site hierarchy since I put those links up last year, so I went in and changed them right away so people could actually find the recipes!
I never expected to hear back but they told me they were so appreciative that they featured my Squidoo page as well as this very blog on their Martha’s Circle Facebook page and Twitter!
I’m so excited! Hopefully this blog post will also get them a few more fans and followers. I know I need to update my blog more often, too. My artwork has been in the works for awhile but I’ve been pulled aside a bit working on….dun dun dunn….. a children’s book!
More on that very soon.
Until then, many thanks to the Martha Stewart marketing team for featuring me and letting me know about the links!
September 13th, 2010
Yesterday was my husband’s and my one year anniversary. I can hardly believe it’s been a year already!
Props to Mom for wrapping the top tier of our wedding cake in a bulletproof fortress of plastic wrap, foil and cardboard. It literally tasted just like it did a year ago, with not a spot of freezer burn on it. Even the jam was soft and tasted fresh. *baffled*
And now – wedding cake pictures! w00t!
I used the special knife Mom and Dad gave us with our names and wedding date engraved into it. On the other side are my parents’ names and their wedding date. It was their original wedding knife, and this is one of the most special gifts from our wedding. I cherish it dearly.
Yay!
August 9th, 2010
What have I been up to these past 5 weeks?
Not making paintings of guinea pigs, sadly. But hopefully there will be more time for that shortly. I’ve spent my days in a stifling hot middle school cafeteria working with an amazingly talented group of middle schoolers with the Stoneham Theatre Summer Program. Over the course of 5 weeks, the kids have 3 hours of rehearsal for a musical each morning, then two workshops after lunchtime.
The workshops I taught were Music Theory II and Auditioning for Musical Theatre. I was so nervous!! I’ve never taught a class before, and since everyone was at different levels of musical knowledge, it was a challenge to find things we could do in class that would be really fun but also help them learn and make sense to everyone. But I made it!
Last week, we had ‘tech week’ at the Stoneham Theatre where the kids got to rehearse on the mainstage and get costumes ready, lights, etc. I’m blown away at how talented and professional they all are. Sadly we weren’t allowed to videotape the show due to rights restrictions, but we have lots of pictures.
I didn’t get to watch the show because I was playing the keyboard for it (in my flannel and cowboy hat o’ course. yeehaw! see me a tiny bit back there in this photo?) And we had a phenomenal drummer come in and help us which truly just pulled the show together and took it from a great kids show to a really professional production.
Photos courtesy of John Howrey for the Stoneham Theatre, who was actually the music director for one of the other shows going on the same weekend, Footloose!
This all came to a close yesterday so now I’m feeling the letdown. What will I do with myself now? I’ve spent 5 straight weeks smothered in Old Broadway showtunes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and sweat (ew, I know). Where do I go now? What’s next?
I guess breakfast, for starters. There’s no business like show business! 
August 1st, 2010
Wow this Summer is flying. It seems that every week or weekend I have something going on that takes me away from being able to relax and enjoy the Summer. Gah!
After this upcoming weekend, I’ll be finished with the Summer theatre program I’ve been teaching/music directing. But there is no rest for the weary just yet! The following weekend yields a wedding I’m a bridesmaid in for my friend. But that is going to be awesome because it’s on Cape Cod and we’re going to take it as a long weekend and treat it like a little getaway. Yay!
I’ve never been a bridesmaid before (only the bride. haha how often does one say that??). So I’m thinking it’s going to be a really fun time. I designed their wedding invitations and will post pictures once I have the motivation and actually remember to!
Wedding invitations are something I’ve been aiming to offer to customers. I just still need to perfect the process of printing them. I can’t seem to get my printer to print the right colors on paper that isn’t pre-stored as an ICC profile in its settings. I know there’s a way, it’s just complicated and I can’t seem to get it quite right. And I’m a computer nerd! Sheesh.
Oh! And how could I forget one of the other huge milestones in August? : ) Ma birfffday! August 25, baby. I’m going to be… :: gasp :: 26. WHAT? Where is my life going? Lordy me. I’m not so sure how I feel about it.
I’ve already been plucking gray hairs out of my head with tweezers, and there seem to be more and more of them. I don’t think I’m going to be able to keep up with tweezers much longer. It’s truly frightening. I know 26 is nothing. But I’m a frantic, constantly over-committing, over-achieving, over-dreaming art and music loving freak so when a year of my life goes by and I look back on it and don’t see myself in a drastically ‘improved’ place compared to last year, I get scared. But I am in a drastically different place now.
I don’t live where I lived last year. I’m not doing as many freelance corporate projects. I’m teaching theatre. I’ve opened an Etsy shop. I’ve written a musical. I’m married (what?!). And perhaps most importantly, I now have bangs.
So…
It’s been a big year.
Just a few more weeks before I’m past my quarter-century mark. Perhaps my ‘quarterlife crisis’ will begin to wane a bit more now?
July 28th, 2010
Ohhh where does the time go? I am so awesome at updating my blog, aren’t I?!
Amidst playing songs from Annie, Get Your Gun for several hours a day, wrangling pre-teen and teenage thespians, and scarfing down peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the 90 degree sunshine while scratching at mosquito bites, I’ve been reflecting on my love for the humble guinea pig.
I never meant to fall in love with guinea pigs. I never gave them a second thought. I thought they were weird-looking… I didn’t ‘get’ them. I had never held one. And then I met Gus, and my world flipped upside down, and suddenly my heart was melted into a puddle by this tiny squeaking ball of black and white fur with the cutest little pink lower lip the world had ever seen.
This was my wake up call to the captivating world of cavies on a rainy Saturday in April of 2005.
I said goodbye forever to that sweet little face on June 8 this year. I’ve been emotionally recovering since, but it still catches me and I get tugged into crying at times when I’m alone with my thoughts. Gus changed my whole life. And I had to see the life leave his body right in front of me at the vet’s office. We didn’t have him put to sleep. It was just his time, and that’s how it went. He was in such capable hands. All I could do was sit and watch in simultaneous horror and relief that his suffering was finally over.
Oh golly here I go tearing up just now. I’d better not write too much more.
I just feel so grateful to have had him in my life. Without him, I never would have known how sweet, smart, and loving guinea pigs really are. Not to mention how completely disgustingly CUTE. Ugh it’s sickening isn’t it?? I’m a little nutty but I can’t help it. I’ve barely had time to think about artwork lately but all I have to do is search ‘guinea pig’ on Google images and I get filled with more inspiration than I know what to do with.
So my public proclamation stands – I love guinea pigs. I think more people need to know about them and how great they are. And I’m going to keep drawing and painting them, because I can’t help myself. Nothing I can do can bring Gus back to me, but I can honor him and remember him with my artwork. I miss you, little guy. :’(
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About Me 
Why hello there! I'm Lesley. I'm 27, and I'm an artist-turned-geek-turned-artist. This is my blog. Enjoy!
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