One of the projects I worked on over the blizzard holidays was our own Saving Advice dot com owner, Jeffrey Strain's pet hunger project, The Penny Experiment.

I mailed off my art earlier this week to Jeffrey once we were able to mobilize ourselves from the snow banks. It does not yet appear on the pages of The Penny Experiment, so you are getting a sneak peek preview.

In For A Penny,
In For A Pound

by Lux Living Frugalis
16/100
5x7, mixed media, gallery wrapped canvas

How it might look framed:


I would recommend a much larger gold tone frame, or at least that's how I would frame it myself.

As many of my readers know I am of Native American ancestry and thus tried to use that theme in my project. And, as I am rather a private person I just signed it using my pseudonym here at Saving Advice.

BUT, here's the SPECIAL OFFER kicker, if any one of the members of Saving Advice dot com bloggerdom wins this auction and wants to ship it back to me (it cost me $3.45 via USPS to mail it to Jeffrey), I will sign my real life name to the back of the canvas and give my tribal registration info and will mail it back to you at my expense. Who knows, it may become more valuable that way.

These postcard size artworks, mine and others, will be auctioned to raise money for Jeffrey's hunger initiative on how one man took a found penny that teens scoffed at picking up and turned the nucleus idea of a penny outwards to help feed the hungry. To read more about the project and how to get involved, go to The Penny Experiment at:


http://www.pennyexperiment.com/


There, you'll be able to sign up for notice of when the auctioning begins. Be sure to check out the gallery.

Yesterday was a new day at the Frugalicious races...

Got up early and Hubster and FrugalSon loaded up the back of my pickup with wood for my Dad using the wheelbarrow as I was not venturing back into the muddy yard with my truck again after getting sunk and stuck the other night. I picked what appears like the last of my tomatoes for the year and took about half of them for Dad.

Then Frugalson & I loaded up and went to the bank and got my signature on Hubster's Carpenter's Pension notarized and then scooted on over to the post office and got it mailed off.

We took off on the backroads and drove the hour and half trip to my Dad's and he and FrugalSon unloaded the wood while his wife and I visited. They got through and I got to visit with my Dad for about 30 minutes and then we started heading back.

Dad had slipped me $40 for gas. He can well afford it and if he didn't get wood from me? ...he'd be buying it from someone. Nice. It takes about $50 to fill my truck and I can get one full trip to his town and back out of it, plus some other running around my town. Last trip was on me.

I needed to treat my helper to lunch so at his choice we stopped for a burger basket, frosty rootbeers and had the rare treat of fried pickles as an appetizer. Yummers. $17.23 + $3.00 tip.

After lunch we stopped at a good garage sale. I bought myself two nice little side-tables - they are very heavy, have a cute rustic style to them and are formica-ed on top. So useable with those tops & too Too TOO cute to pass up.

I don't know that I NEED them, but will try to work them into the house. If they don't work out I might sell one or both of them in my booth at a profit. Or maybe FrugalSon can use them downstairs in his apartment. They are sweet little tables & at $25 for the pair, I can easily double my money. The finish on the legs is a bit aged, but they could be really cutened up w/some beige or antique white paint on the legs! Or, even some barn red or a forest green for a bunkhouse or cabin look. Here's one of them before cleanup:





Also bought myself a cute new to me denim jacket for a $1.00, and the guy running the sale, who was flirting with me ended up giving me a paperback for free - wooo, a big spender type!

He was a nice man, but kind of overtly obvious with the compliments, thinking my son was my husband because obviously I couldn't P.O.S.S.I.B.L.Y. be that old, etc. Yeah, right. Nice to hear, but you know it's patently not true. I do look younger than my age, but not THAT young.

Also got two paintings in frames for $3 each. We'll probably paint over the canvases and have the frames to use for our creations. Cheap art material!!!

Then it was off to my Mom's house where they gave me a very nice metal patio table. They had three outdoor sets? I think one of them was from stepdad's Mom's estate. They are closing in their back patio and now have one inside that room and one set outside and this set just extra. Nice. I had given CashHappySon my old set when he moved away.



This patio set is black. My other outdoor set ALMOST matches it but is white/yellowish. The white set is 'chippy' and likely this coming spring, I'll wirebrush it down and paint it out black to match. I spot-shot the rusty areas the other day w/rustoleum to get it thru the winter. I nearly STOLE the white set late last year at a thrift store. All seven pieces for only $27.00! The other little table Hubster is using indoors for his printer stand.


(note one of the little arched water spigot cubbie covers that Hubster made the other day over on the left)

Mom THINKS she knows where the umbrella and stand is at in her storage building.

I'm counting my parental units as Corporate Sponsors! They're members of the Golden Eagle Elite Club!! Thank God for our parents. They've all done so much for us through the years.

We visited with Mom about 15 minutes and admired stepdad's handiwork on the new patio room, then jumped back in the truck.

Stopped at vitamin store and spent about $30 there, needed more magnesium for routine maintenance and also Sambucol to keep the sore throat and flu bug away. Pricey stuff but needed for to the keeping away of the creeping crud & the blue funks!

Then we stopped at the Dollar store for FrugalSon to buy more minutes for his Tracphone.

Then we got home by about 3:15 and I crashed! Then I got back up and took vitamin herby stuff to keep from being sick as I felt achy, and ate the rest of the Tortilla Soup from the other day at about 5:00 p.m. and then laid back down.

FrugalSon stayed outside and unloaded all the new bunkN'junque off the back of the truck.

FrugalSon then went out and helped Hubster who was mowing on the rider, by pushmowing the garden area and then the top-yard for the last mow of the season and to run all the gas out of the mowers so they can be winterized.

Hubster spent the day yesterday raking up all the leaves and twigs and general messiness that the tree cutters left behind and trying to repair a cheap-o rake that kept breaking on him. The last rake we had lasted about 15 years. This one? Lasted less than one season! Come on folks lets manufacture something worthwhile could we????

Then they stayed outside till dark-thirty chainsawing and stacking the rest of the wood in the front part of the yard. We are racing trying to beat winter! I had made Hubster promise not to chainsaw until I got home. I rushed around as much as possible for this daytrip to get back so he had some daylight left to work in. Supposed to be cold and wet the rest of the week here.

After all that cutting & stacking they came in and FrugalSon heated up the Black Bean soup that was also in the frig and they had that and sandwiches and marble cake for supper while I was going thru a nice little sleep cycle on the couch.

Poor FrugalSon had quite a busy day off!
I am feeling much better this morning. Like a new woman. Bouncing up at 5:30 a.m. Hubster is still sawing logs. In bed, that is!

Taking the $8 I didn't blow at a garage sale to the $20 Challenge.

$022.82 balance
+008.00 garage sale leavings
_______
$030.82 Oct MTD

2009 Challenge Total $993.10 (think I'll beat a thousand this year? Who'll give me odds?)
Cumulative Challenge Total $2046.86


*Little known L.L.Frugalis factoid: I used to jockey as a pre-teen.

Greetings My Lovelys,

Today's TO DO list - Made last night, which is actually a better time to plan, as that way you can hit the ground running rather than kill a perfectly good morning farting around on the computer! Who me???

Most of us say we're morning people, so why do we waste the better part of the day?

Everybody on board? cause away we go...

[X]DONE - 1)Make Bank Deposit.

[X]DONE - 2)Call Dentist - make payment plan. Write check.

[X]DONE - 3)Post Office - Drop off bills.

[X]DONE - 4)Move money back local to repay Lux for Tree Surgery.

[X]DONE - 5)Stop AT&T automated payment - so we don't get crammed on that $12.95 IDL charge we didn't authorize. Make online payment instead.

[X]PARTIALLLY DONE - got it purchased. 6)Buy Haircolor for Lux's House of Beauty night. Get it on head!! Be boot-i-fied! Under $6 - long hair, buy 2 boxes.

[X]DONE - 7)Buy brackets for Museum Project. Under $3. Plan B - try this afternoon at another place when I go out w/Hubster because Plan A place was closed. Plan B place had them but they were $7.50 in the metro area. Local would've been much cheaper! Procrastination costs again.

8)Package FrugalSon's SOLD painting & prints for shipment! They can go out in tomorrow's mail.

9)Call tribe about sons' enrollment.

[X]DONE - but No Sale - Buyer didn't show - ARRGGHHH!!! 10)Go with Hubster this afternoon to drop off Craiglist sale of extra mirror - $34 inflow.

[X]DONE - 11)Call Jennifer with donation information for Breast Cancer Awareness.

[X]DONE - 12)Have Meatless Monday (thanks Paulette Goddard for the idea!) Beans are soaking for supper.

[X]DONE - 13)Laundry.


I'll update again as the day goes along.

Must get busyyyyyyyyyyy and go to town.

TTYL! Got to go see if Ol' Nellie can get me to town and back.

Your friend,
~L.L. Frugalis, Bus Driver to the Stars

Back from mini vacation and need to resolve to tighten purse strings, because before we left I had gotten into a 'spoil me' spending hoo-hah that has to stop! Maybe it was rebellion against the unemployment thing or something. Budgetary restraints have got to prevail here.

House budget spent $22.84 yesterday on gasoliine, used a $50 AT&T reward card to make the purchase, this card was saved for gas for the trip. Used $22.00ish =/- of it on gas while we were gone, and this refills car afterwards. Remaining balance somewhere around $5.

Trip was good - just THE Hubster and I - we got comped dinner out for both of us on two different nights and tickets to two different performances. This was a close to home trip - about 4 hours away. Paid FrugalSon $20 on Saturday for house/dog sitting while we were gone. He had free eats while here.

I'll post some pics of the accomodations when I get a chance. Need to upload them from camera.

Just so you know, this was an inexpensive trip - a 'resort' sales pitch weekend. We paid our dues by listening to the sales presentation, rather got the bums' rush since Hubster still unemployed. However, to their detriment to my way of thinking none of them ever asked us if we had the financial resources to buy w/o a 'salary'. Phhppttt...for all they know I might be a heiress or somethang! Doncha' know!

No biggie, as we already own a timeshare elsewhere and can trade into their resort anyway, plus I'm already on the deed to this place as a co-owner with my parents, I had just never seen the place. I'll inherit it some day and that's the main reason I went was to check it out. I just don't like it when people presume to know our financial status based solely on income. It's a false reading.

Anyhow, back to costs - we had paid a small fee about $99 last September when he still had a job for this package. We ate frugally and packed a box of groceries/snacks/pop along with us. Figured it best to use it while he had the time off. No telling when/if he'll get back to work. Budget for entire trip was $200. Came home with some cash, have yet to count it, but well under budget.

I had a no spend day yesterday.

A good quote I found on a 'horror'scope page - "The border between discipline and habit is often hard to distinguish, but that is precisely the difference that you have to keep in mind... Habit is mindless and unconscious, whereas discipline is self-imposed and suited to achieving your goals."

A BA style 'QUickieTTa' -

Went to an art show today. Spent $8 to get in, and $8 for lunch plus OUGHTA BE A LAW ****$3.00**** for a bottled water. Also spent $1.00 entering a raffle for a really good cause and $40 on artists goods while I was there. $5 to $25 of it was for items that I might give away for Christmas if I don't hog them for myself!

Had a good time and now I'm tired. My favorite part was the student art competition, but alas it was also where the judges ought to be shot for not awarding this one child Best of Show - Boo Hiss! Art is so subjective. And juried panels seem so easily influenced by the loud and overbearing judge that's generally in the group.

Saw several pieces I'd love to have in my home just don't have the $8000 and $2800 respectively to spend on art right today. Some beautiful things there.

Is it just me or do you see one of George Bush's ancestors sitting on the right??

Warning - long winded pondering ahead w/associated painting below...


I've been busy attempting to rebuild my painting skills as a possible way to earn money in the future. Besides being somewhat of a burning passion (as my family will tell you I will paint it if it stands still - so, keep moving.) I think I could earn some extra dineros!

Yaaa Frugalis! -

This earning of money for my art would be easier if I wasn't so darn privately drawn in my personality. I am not shy in the slightest, but private to a fault. It's uglier than it is pretty in an extroverted world and to effectively market these creations I'll have to come up with a compromise that works FOR ME. See INFJ and Scorpio profiles on the web for privacy and introverted features of the Mrs. Frugalis gene-pool.

To get out there and financially win however, excercising painting muscles that haven't been used in 20 some-odd years equals an exercise in patience, something I'm woefully short of.

FYI - One of the best ways for writers to learn to write is to copy those who are masters. One of my best creative writing teachers had us literally copy paragraphs of great writers.

To me, painting is similar.

You attempt to copy what someone else who's a known 'great' does in order to build your own talent base. That way when you get going on your own ideas that other 'stuff' is in your veins and just flows naturally.

So, I've been spending a lot of my time working out the dust-bunnies in my muscle memories to get back in the groove on certain painting techniques and skill-sets. When I go to town doing my own creations I want the skills to again be there to back up my ideas.

Well folks, all I can say is, my ideas for some paintings are still cooking on the back burner. I have ideas and plans that I can't execute as well as they deserve to be done YET. They'll have to wait while I work up a good head of steam so to speak. The sketch book is filling up.

In other words it's gonna get ugly before it gets any better. That's frustrating to me, but part of the process. You know, all the old cliches, "to bake a cake you've got to break a few eggs", etc., come to mind.

All that said folks, in order to tell you that copyright laws prevent me showing you works that are a direct copy of someone else's artwork or photo. So, I can't show you anything unless it's my own original idea and I haven't been doing much of that.

Yesterday the day was spent working on COPIES OF ORIGINALS (so I can't show you) - a VIVID flourescent abstract in acrylics and later in the evening on a rose topiary painted in girly pastel colors in oils. Uggg-leeeeee! My abstract copy is a hot mess and the pastel one just doesn't suit my tastes - (like the form - hate the shades).

I love the brights.

See, this is good to know about oneself!

I do think that although I'm not necessarily happy with either one they do provide lessons. The abstract one teaches me that ugly can come and stay awhile before beauty emerges and abstracts are not just a few splotches thrown at a run.

The pastel one teaches that I'm not a pastel girl any more AND better - that the old color mixing lessons are still in the head somewhere down in deep dark storage and they'll float up given enough airtime. Although, I seem to have forgotten everything I ever knew about painting flowers (roses & anemones were called for). And, I learned that I can do the work of getting outside my comfort zone to try something different.

So, while we're all waiting on baited breath for my headspace to be completely revamped (yeah RIGHT on all points! - Breathe people, this could take a while), I'm going to put up a picture I did late last year. When I was younger we owned a LOT of exotic animals. We did in fact own a buffalo, who's name was Buffy (how original). He chased Hubster once! And he could flatfoot jump over the hood of a car given a running go at it. I give you 'Buffy Remembered'.

Yes, he's wild - verging on purply-hot pink, horns of silver, has red hair and neon yellow on his hump and my signature was done in the shades of the minty green turquoise grass blades as an effort to blend in and fade out. If this ever sells, that is not the original title of the painting.

This is a scanned image and may not be the best way to relay it to others. To market artwork you have to be able to reproduce it well, so I'm having to work on my tech skills as well - do I scan or photograph? Do I have the right equipment, etc.

He's done in acrylic, on a 5x7 canvas panel now resting in a silver-toned frame. Funny how the colors do not all translate thru the scanning process.

I love children's literature and would like to eventually be good enough to do illustrations for children's books that support tribal memories & cultural awareness for Native American children. My 'tiki' dream would be to actually write and do the artwork for my own Indian children's book.

My Dad did Indian art for years before the laws became stricter. I'm still not 100% sure how to refer to his items. He's not a tribal member, but I am through my mother's bloodline, so I can legally call myself a Native American Indian artist, while he can not.

Dadio's way better at it than I am. My brother and nephew are also tribal members and artists. I'll put up something my brother did some time and something of Daddy's too. I don't think I own any of nephews - his are pretty cool pen & ink drawings (B&W & colored) that are a combo of native art & anime - he's a child of his time.

Of financial note - I spent about $23.00 at the art store on Monday (canvas, frame & 2 tubes of oils on clearance at $1.45 each-SCORE!!)and finished using up a Christmas gift card on part of it, so only had a small outlay.

What I've been working on recently.

(**removed - see below)

I forgot and signed it before I remembered to photograph it for you guys, hence the edited in spray paint job! There's no black globs on the actual. Sorry ladies and gents, it's the Scorpio & INFJ thing combined. Privacy is a big, Big, BIG issue for me! It's hard enough to actually share the painting!

It's been a long time since I painted fur. And harder than you might imagine.

If you click on my pictures themselves and give it a second you can see a much larger (better) shot of it. Once it's loaded in a separate window (at least on my computer you can then left click on the mouse and get an even larger view.) Then just click the back button to bring you back to SavingAdvice.com.

The inspiration to paint a fox comes from the one that runs around the creek area in back of my house and that I see occasionally crossing the road by the house. So exciting when I catch a glimpse! The best time of day to see it is during my early morning quiet time doing bible study in the sun-room and I look up and see it crossing the road. Always a thrill and it feels like a special blessing, you know? I need to learn to take MY camera in there and get my own shots to work from.

The painting is full of texture and not nearly as brave as I'd like it to be in the choice of colors. I'm really attracted by the current fauvist paintings - some of which might have blue cows and purple suns and such. Do a google search for Fauvism. Gerry Baptist & Diane Whitehead are a couple of names that comes to mind as being inspirational to me.

Below is a close-up of some of the texture:

To make this financial - I got a great deal on gesso at Christmas time when I got a gallon of it (49.99) for half price because I had a 50% off coupon. Used a lot of it gooping up the texture on this bad-boy!

**Removal: Sorry guys, after reading around a bit on the internet I've taken down the picture of the painting I worked on and the link to the photograph I worked from.

Seems it is a no-no and to respect the rights of the photographer I've voluntarily taken it down at my own instigation. It was up for about an hour - if you saw it - great, if not, then I'm sorry! I'll post another when it isn't so directly a copy of a copyrighted photograph.

Never fear - No one could mistake my painting as the original photograph! ...but - I had given credit to the original photographers and a link to their website.

Sorry to be such a tease, so I'm putting up just the rear-end of the picture - enjoy instead the look of the smallish room we call a studio. I just hate to take this whole entry down.

One day soon I hope to paint the studio walls - maybe come spring & some dollars for a gallon or two of paint! This northern facing window sits on the second floor & runs parallel to the aforementioned tiny creek - see below.


{FRUGAL NOTE: See the very expensive (I mean FREE with services) papertowel roll holder attached to the table?}

(What's up w/the Pinesol, Dawn & Vaseline? Used to clean & shape brushes. Wax-paper? Makes an excellent inexpensive throw-away pallet.)

The creek is about a foot and a half wide here at this point and usually has water running in it approximately 75% of the year so we do get a lot of wildlife back here.

Well time flies while you are away. It really didn't feel like that long that I was away, but I realize now that it was.

Long ago in my younger life I did a lot of painting, and as a child I spent a bunch of time in the art studio of a rather famous Indian artist. My Dad, my brother, a nephew and even my ex-stepmother (Dad's wife #2) all paint. My Dad sold a lot of artwork when he was actively painting, so there is sort of a family trademark & tradition that I could step back into. I even dated a famous Indian artist's son at one time. He later married another girl and she's quite famous as well.

But - I married someone else, life happens and I got busy with my kids and that hobby had gone by the wayside. It's been over 20 years since I spent any time doing much painting, just the occassional sketching and odd tole-painting class back in the late 80's.

Since my status as a homeschooling mom has ended and my kids are all pretty much grown up I knew I needed to find my creative groove again. While I was on my little fall break from Saving Advice dot com I was busy. One of the things I was doing was setting up an art studio in CashHappySon's old room and I've started painting again. Once I got going good I did a LOT of paintings for Christmas gifts this year.

Here's one I just finished - I love the neon colors and the textured paint:

This was the inspiration - a nice pot of hot pink bougainvillea & a cool chippy multi-color painted chinese lantern that I hauled home from my last junque' buying trip (I mean literally, I drug that HEAVY lantern for about 4 hours thru a giant antique junkers mecca till I could mosy my way back to the car that was parked about 2 miles away!) A treasure w/it's purple, pink, red, black & white chippy paint!!!:



The original is a bit larger and has a bit more detailing and shadowing than this shot & it is signed and framed now.

FrugalSon who is still at home is painting with me. He's doing really well and perhaps I'll show you something he's done in the future.

To make this applicable, let us just say that trying to get back into painting full time is an expensive proposition if you go whole hog like me and try to get your equipment & paints together all at one time! OUCH! But, I'm generally very happy when I'm slinging paint - so if it costs a bit then my thinking is my sanity and joy is WELL worth it!

Goofy, but we each wear our official painting hat while we paint. Mine's an old smooshed up cowboy hat. His an old hat from the feed mill.

I am a registered member of my tribe and once I get grooving on high speed again will likely return to painting Indian art as I did when I was a teen. That's truly where my heart lies in regards to artwork. I am all about the creating, but the marketing and selling is something I really have to push myself to do. Although, I do have a good friend who owns an art gallery! May be time soon to call in those old favors.