trying to get back to work…

Posted on March 13, 2013 by susie carranza studio

since lawrence’s dad (my father-in-law) passed away life seems to have…stalled. it’s already going to be one month that we lost him (on the 15th) yet it still seems unreal.

so…this week i’m making a conscious effort to do something creative (art therapy?) so i’ve been going through our packed boxes looking for my art supplies. so far, not bad: found my boxes of acrylic paints and my box of wood pieces, so i can hopefully have new work to share really soon.

yesterday, my creative endeavor was to photograph textures found outside. i enjoyed it; it was a very warm day, and i’d been sort of hibernating inside lately. i liked all the textures i found around my parents’ yard (i even included Canela, our dog).

i was hoping this would spark some idea or light a fire in my artistic brain…

…and it did. it gave me the itch to work on some mixed media pieces. i’ll be starting with the large green heart in the photo below (seems like i painted it eons ago, with watered down lime green acrylic paint).

i have been busy listing sets of cards in my Etsy shop – each set includes 3 greeting cards, blank inside, with images of my original artwork on the cover. take a look and let me know what you think! Below is the “Flowers” set; click my shop link below to see the other sets…

https://www.etsy.com/shop/asucarr

’til next time…

loss…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by susie carranza studio

i’ve been trying to write a blog post for a while now, but i keep deleting everything i write…

on february 15, 2013, we lost my awesome father-in-law. quickly. within one month we found out he had liver cancer, and then – he was gone.

i wanted to write a post in honor of him, but it’s too soon. i’m not ready.

and as i was trying to write, the mail came. the latest issue of Sunset magazine, which we did not subscribe to. i read the address label and it read “Mr-Mrs L-S Aguilar”.

Mr-Mrs L-S Aguilar. only my father-in-law wrote our names like that. (i kept my last name when i married lawrence.) i guess he ordered us a gift subscription to Sunset magazine as recently as december or january.

the tears came. and continue to come. i’m not ready yet to write about my beautiful, funny, handsome suegro (suegro = father-in-law in spanish; “suegro” is what i called him). just let me share a photo of him in happy times (at my mother’s 76th birthday party, 2010)…

he is greatly missed…♥

i tried to create new work, if only to help with the sadness and anger i feel, but i couldn’t. i had put my Etsy shops on vacation but they’re up and running again as of yesterday. slowly…slowly…i’m getting back to business. i forget, for a while.

and then a gift from my father-in-law arrives in the mail…

so – they say things happen for a reason…

Posted on January 29, 2013 by susie carranza studio

haven’t written anything since christmas day. 2012. today is january 29, 2013.

where do i begin?

let’s see…lawrence and i were buying our first house! EXCITING, huh?! well, we didn’t. to make a long story not so long, the guy selling the house didn’t want to repair the damages found during the home inspection and he backed out of the deal. right before escrow closed. we had already given our notice to our landlord, had rented a storage unit near the house we were going to buy, and had packed up pretty much about 90% of our belongings when he backed out.

actually, we went through SO much crap with this guy during the whole (almost)home-buying process that we came out angry, tired, and not sure we wanted to do it again any time soon. we’re lucky to have an awesome real estate agent, paul (lawrence’s cousin) who explained the whole process to us every step of the way and never backed down from trying to get us what we wanted. i’m sure we’ll eventually buy the right house for us, with paul’s help.

so – we are staying with my parents. and let me tell you, it’s HARD to go back home. as an adult. with your husband. trying to run a business. with most of your possessions either at storage, in your parents’ garage, or at friend’s house. yes, i tell myself we’re lucky we had somewhere to go. we’re lucky family and friends were there when we needed them. but once the moving was over, the reality of the situation sets in: how long will we be here? living in one room (a room already fully furnished with an oversized couch, a bar, a trundle bed, large screen tv, and a table with 4 chairs) and living out of moving boxes? my brother and his family took in Canela (our dog; canela is spanish for “cinnamon”) because lawrence and his brother-in-law had to build a fence before we could bring her to my parents’ house.

we’ve been living here since january 2nd. it’s been quite an adjustment. funny thing is, we wanted to move closer to our parents, and we did! can’t be any closer to my parents than living with them (as lawrence says) and we are much closer to lawrence’s parents’ home too.

so that’s what’s going on here. i FINALLY got internet service here yesterday, so this week will be back to work on the online shops.

speaking of shops, if you haven’t checked mine out lately, please do! lots of new work in my Etsy art shop, and lots of new items in my Etsy supply shop –

http://www.etsy.com/shop/asucarr

http://www.etsy.com/shop/susiecarranza

hope you’re having a successful new year!

merry christmas…

Posted on December 25, 2012 by susie carranza studio

just wanted to pop in and wish you a very merry christmas…

it’s still busy around here: we’ve been busy packing up all our belongings into a storage unit near what will be our new home. it’s been lots of work, but we’re blessed with family and friends who were willing and able to help any way they could. hopefully we’ll start the new year in our new place.

again, merry christmas to all of you. may the new year bring all of us much love, laughter, and exciting new possibilities…

♥ – susie

waiting…

Posted on December 7, 2012 by susie carranza studio

the past several weeks have been filled with excitement, frustration, laughs, and anger. as mentioned in an earlier post, my husband and i are trying to buy our first house. for all of our seven years of marriage we’ve rented houses, and though i think we did a great job of making them our homes for the time we lived in them, we are SO looking forward to owning our own house.

but it sucks when you have to deal with individuals who have a much different sense of doing business, different ethics, and different goals. i won’t go into detail until this whole ordeal is over, but i will just tell you that the selling agent is lucky my husband and i haven’t met him in person…

anyway, i’m stuck in a vicious cycle of “we need to pack!” and “wait, this might not work out!” and back to “we need to pack!”…you get the idea, right? this week i spent packing away my beloved art supplies, to hopefully be opened again soon in our new home (fingers crossed!!!). my mom spent a couple of days with us and i got more done with her here than i have in weeks!

i am keeping my sketch pad handy, so i’ve been drawing lots with my awesome Faber-Castell PITT artist pens. i thought nothing could be better than drawing with my dear Sharpies, but i am LOVING these artist pens!

i’ll share photos soon of my drawings, but in the meantime keep sending prayers, positive thoughts, energy, light, whatever-good-stuff-you’re-into, our way please!!!