Sold #2!!

In a previous post, I had mentioned that one of my paintings had sold to a Costa Rican and his wife, who reside in Atlanta, Georgia. Here is that painting - “Colores de Costa Rica”:

While browsing through my art web page, they saw “Vanilla the Cow” and decided to buy this also:

Raul and Angela flew down here to pick up their paintings. We had them over for lunch and it was so nice meeting the both of them. They were able to look at the paintings I have in my inventory and decided to buy “Blast Off”!

Here are “Colores” and “Vanilla” framed and hanging in their new home in Atlanta, Georgia:

Wait! There’s more! Raul may be having a print made of “Colores” to hang in the Costa Rican Consulate in Atlanta. He said the painting represented his home country so well.

It’s an honour to have people like my work enough that they purchase them and then display them in their homes.

Photo references: “Colores” and “Blast Off” are from my own photographs. “Vanilla the Cow” courtesy of Andy May.

Oh My Gawd! It's May!

This is zero month, the month we leave, no more sitting around saying "when we go to Costa Rica" - because we really are going there this month.

So much has been happening. A lovely young couple with a toddler have rented the house we have been leasing. Genny our cat had a wellness exam last week, plus a chip inserted, rabies shot and one of her innoculations. She goes back on May 9th for a couple of more tests and another innoculation. We are liaising with her vet, World Pet Travel and Veterinarios Asociados in San Jose, Costa Rica, where Genny will be boarding until we find our long term accommodations.

I'm now down to packing the last few storage bins and my paintings. We went to Rona this morning and bought pipe insulation tubes. They are perfect for putting around the edges of paintings to protect them from damage.

Here are some photos of Genny helping me pack today, the paintings I need to pack and the insulation tubes around some paintings.

More Sales

Sold a bookcase this week, and also our one and only chest of drawers which held our underwear and dainties. I bought that bureau in North Vancouver from a second hand store for $50, way back in 1979 or 1980. It's solid wood and was old when I bought it. I just liked the design of it ... see photo below.

It's schlepped along with us over the years and through all our moves (I get itchy feet every few years). At one point, I decided to paint the top. Unfortunately, at another time I decided to use it as a good surface to stand on while I painted a ceiling and that caused a crack across the top.

For $10, my buyer is getting a good deal and he doesn't seem to be bothered by the defect.

It's A Lot of Work to Downsize

Scanning, shredding, photographing, wrapping, storing, selling, donating ..... wow, it seemed so easy collecting so much over the years but not so simple paring down. Plus, I'm doing several paintings for upcoming shows - www.dianamiskell.com - so trying to fit that in, get to the gym every day as per my usual schedule and just keep on with our life as we know it now!

My brain is in Costa Rica ..... thank goodness it is winter here, so I don't have gardening guilt. In Costa Rica, it is even quite warm during the day in the Central Valley at this time of year. Apparently, all the school kids have the month of January off - it seems to be their "summer" holiday - and Christmas was a big celebration. One thing I am looking forward to is seeing all the different festivals.

Back to reality - I'm almost finished scanning the first photo album. Still haven't had any responses to my requests for scanning slides - folks?

Labor Day Weekend

What to do on this long weekend? Labor! I have my old, wood drafting table on Craigs List and a couple of people have expressed interest. So I spent what seemed like too much time dismantling it, carrying it down from my studio on the second floor, then putting it together again and storing in the garage. I can paint anywhere so can get along without a table for the next few months.

We now have a lawyer in San Jose to deal with Immigration for us, give us advice, and move our paperwork along. He was recommended to us by an American couple who moved to Costa Rica a couple of years ago.

August 1, 2010

We made an executive decision today - January, 2011, will be the month we go to Costa Rica. So now I'm writing a large do-to list: look into Etsy to see if that is a viable place to sell some paintings because that would be better than putting them in storage; hold a garage sale in September; try to find out who owns the little tabby cat that moved in with us uninvited about a year ago (she has a tattoo); list some more stuff on Craigslist; etc., etc., etc.

Well, I'm tired thinking of it all.