New Work

Here's what I've been working on lately:















They'll all be up in the shop soon.

Also, if any one is in the Lawrence area, I'll be participating in the Lawrence Arts Center Holiday Art Fair, on Saturday Dec. 5.

Hawaiian Flora: Part Two: Strange and Wonderful

Twitter

I just joined twitter, still figuring it out though. My username is ralstondesigns.

And the Winner is...

... alilydarling! After plugging the number of comments into a random number generator (excluding my own comment), the lucky number was 15. Thank you all so much for all the wonderful, supportive comments, it was so great to hear from everyone. And thanks to everyone who became a fan over the last week, you really surpassed my goal of 100. This giveaway was a lot of fun, and I plan on doing another one in time for the holidays. So, if you are 'alilydarling', shoot me an email at gailmralston@hotmail.com, and we'll get you your prize. It's all boxed up waiting for you. Thanks again!

Facebook Giveaway

I started my Facebook Fan Page a few weeks ago, and thanks to some great friends and friends of friends, I'm up to almost 100 fans. So in an attempt to make that final push to 100, I'm going to give away a Cottonwood necklace to one of my fans.

Here's how it works: If you're already a fan, just come here, to my blog and leave a comment on this post. If you're not already a fan, go become one, then come back here and leave your comment. Next Wednesday (October 21) I'll draw a random winner and send them their necklace. I'm really excited about doing my first giveaway, and hope you're excited too. I'm also looking forward to hearing from everyone on my blog. Good luck!

PS-- Be sure to check back next week to see if you won!

Hawaiian Flora: Part One: Orchids

I have a ton of pics from Hawaii, so I thought I'd do a few posts on some of the plants and flowers we saw there. I was amazed that there were so many flowers everywhere. Practically every tree, bush, plant was in bloom. I have never seen so many flowers, and everything blooms all year round. Here are some of the orchids we saw, and I even had some in my hair for the wedding.

Reading Materials

I've just ordered a couple of books about marketing: I'd Rather be in the Studio by Alyson Stanfield, and Making and Marketing Better Artwork by Milon Townsend. Marketing is an area where I can definitely use all the help I can get. I found out about these books on Harriete Estel Berman's blog, Ask Harriete, which seems like an awesome resource for artists. Her blog also led me to Alyson Stanfield's Art Biz Blog, another great resource. In case that's not enough links for one post, here's one more ;).