Gone Missing!

Mt. Shasta Photo taken by Me!

Hello everyone! It's August---almost September--- just like the rest of you, we too have been swept off of our feet by the busy-ness of the August rush!

In the beginning of the month the family where everyone seems to have perfectly straight and white teeth, also know as my sister and her 3 kids came to visit us here in Jacksonville!
For not seeing each other in over a year, we had a fantastic time!
For 7-days we hiked, swam, cooked, laughed & partied like a one huge family!
It was wild!


Of course everyone LOVED Bubby & as you can tell Bubby loved everyone!


The day after they left our Mac went down, and it took about to weeks to fix.
So we had zero time to promote our KickStarter.
And now we are moving!
We decided to move into a more cozy space, which will allow us to save a little more cash for the House of Imagination!

The winner and the wait

The wait is finally over. After going to 3 computer shops and $65 we find out there is a re call on a piece to the mother board. All though its running slower then ever we are able to continue on our quest.

The first thing we would like to do is announce the long over due winner of our make up contest. She is a wonderful woman who also has a non profit that supports the arts and benefits her community.As well as being an outstanding etsian and avid tweeter.

Thank you Ladie Jaye for entering in our giveaway,tweeting our items,and helping the homeless people of the world.We will be shipping off her make up shortly,in the meantime please check out Ladie Jaye on some of the social sites she's on.

www.art4thehomeless.org

Twitter

etsy

The winner was chosen on random.org

Bank Statement update: Funds raised so far for the House of Imagination

+ $33.78 in the HOI paypal account leaves us at a total of $465.40!!!

5,6,7,8 Who do we appreciate

This thank you is long over due
But it is the perfect time to show our appreciation to a great artist,
a wonderful person, dog lover and dedicated wife.
The all amazing STEPHANIE GASCON ,known on the world wide web as kismet1990. She has been there since we started our project and im sure will be there the day we open our doors.From countless blog postings and tweeting to donating and promoting she has been working as hard as we are.She was even our first backer on our Kickstarter campaign.
Enough talking,its time for you to meet this individual and see some of her wonderful creations.


Here is a few places you can view her work's
and keep updated with her on going amazingness

kismet1990.etsy.com
twitter.com/kismet1990
kismet1990.blogspot.com
facebook.com/kismet1990

Support us on our mission to bring great artisan food to etsy and our community

A wonderful gift for you~Brought to you by meliannaa

This month were doing are giveaway a little different.First off we wanted to introduce you to a wonderful etsian by taking a walk through her shop as well as giving you our personal opinion on an item she kindly sent to us.

So without further adieu
Welcome to the wonderful world of Meli Anna Anastasiadiswww.meliannaa.etsy.com

A native of the little french province of Canada called Quebec.From a young age she has always been creative and to this day still loves to re-shape,revamp, or think of her own ways to create just about anything. Its great to see a person these days that is inspired by love and not money.
Because it is her daughter,her husband,God,the city,nature,angels,and more that keep her creative wheels turning.Here is a quote from Meli her self." When I just feel peace and love inside, most of the time i go and make a necklace...it is like meditation to me".



Meli is loving her life,and is content living in the now to see the beauty of her future.She want's people to know that life is a love story.First about our self and after that with others and after that with things...and it never stops.

We asked her what advise she would give to other creative individuals?
She said "the only advice I would share is trust yourself because it is only from inside that something unique come's out. If you feel stuck, go and learn a technique...then forget it a little and mix it back in your own way with what you feel inside".

As we browsed through her shop we loved the fact that she made so many inventive creations out of a similar medium.From circles to flowers ,
from earrings to necklaces all very fun and easy to wear.




My wife knows from experience.lol..
She even ended up wearing them all day during a photo and video shoot then ended up falling asleep with them in.That's how light they are.
Perfect for a night on the dance floor or for a mother to do her everyday chores.



These lovely shiny pink earrings will also be featured on my wife in our promotional video,
that will be released on our website later this month.
www.willcreate4adollar.com

Now for the 10 ways you can win this wonderful item from meliannaa




10 WAYS TO WIN

Here's how to enter:
Make sure you post a comment for each entry you would like to make
1)Heart melianaa's etsy shop (1 entry)
2) Become her fan on facebook(1 entry)
3)Follow meliannaa on twitter (1 entry)
4)tweet about this giveaway and post the link in the comment(1 entry)
5)Email her your email to recieve a notification about her promotions twice a year.
(meliannaa [at] gmail.com)(2 entry's)
6)blog about this give away(2 entry's)
6)Make a purchase from her etsy shop (3 entry's)

Bonus ways to enter:
7)Make a donation to the HOUSE OF IMAGINATION(1 entry)
8)Follow this blog,our twitter and fan us on facebook.(1 entry)
9)Donate a hand made item to THE HOUSE OF IMAGINATION PROJECT
(post the tracking number in a comment when you sen it out)(2 entry's)
10)Convo me on etsy about doing a give away on my blog(2 entrys's)

Winner will be chosen between August 10th and 14th

GOOD LUCK

Bank Statement update: Funds raised so far for the House of Imagination

Paypal & US Bank Statement Update for funds raised for the HOUSE OF IMAGINATION

As of today--- we are sporting the grand total of $272.27!!!
Although, its not the full 500k--- it's nothing to scoff at---
it still means we're going up. :)

Wine & Dine Me Baby! 5,000 flyers. Pizza. Movie and a Kickstarter video.

We've been married a year and a day.

July 21st is our "wedding" anniversary.
I quote the above due to the fact we didn't really have a wedding as so much to oppose to just popping into a courthouse and laughing "I will.", as Gabi straightens out my glasses.
Don't get me wrong now---- we love each other deeply.
But just as we are married to each other, we are also married to our dreams, goals and ideas.
We celebrate success.

So yesterday, for the 7th day in a row.
I awoke at 5 am to work on our Kickstarter video.


Now for those of you who don't know what Kickstarter is THE new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors. It gives the little everyday person -with an idea of course- to announce it to the internet world.

Not only that, you can get friends, family and complete strangers to fund it!
You'd think my favorite part would be the funding, right?
No, it's the ideas. I love when they are successful.

To see goals in their conceptual state and becoming reality.
Changing the life of that person between 1-90 days!
Changing the world as we know it!

It gives me shivers.



See the full view here.

Also yesterday, we had our flyers come in.
Thank's to the generosity of our local hydroponic store In and Out Gardens.
Gabi has the gift of gab. Note the name Gabi.
So he truly enjoys the fact that he get's to pass out and flood all of Oregon with these badboys.
As for me, I'm nerdy and can be found either hidden behind a barricade of books,
behind laptop---
Or covered in paint at 11 o' clock at night, while listening to reruns of Roseanne.

I'm cheap.

Lol. Seriously, I run like $9.00 a bottle!

I ended up making my "wow, this is tart!" face each time I took a sip.

Even though Gabi and I still carried on with our day-to-day routine of work & baby Anastasia-
we still did a little something to commemorate our 1st year of marriage.

Before it hit the oven:

Behold the Train Wreck


After a little too much of myself to drink, this menagerie had manifested in my kitchen.
Made from scratch. Because I don't believe there isn't anything I can't master on the first try.

Made without a specific recipe in mind, measuring and pizza tossing skills, our pizza had:

Homemade Crust Infused with Butter, Oregano & Coriander
Fresh Homemade Basic Tomato Sauce Saturated with Wine
Spinach
Oyster Mushrooms
Baby Bella Mushrooms
Garlic
2 bags of Parmesan & Mozzarella Blend
Chevre (Goat Cheese)
Red Bell Pepper

It weighed an estimated 8-12 pounds and about 3,500 calories.

Mr. L would have eaten the thing alone.
But something magical happened in that oven.

WOW!




Our little mess turned out to be an actual deep dish pizza!
The crust had a slight crispness on the outside and the moist, fluffy goodness within.
The sauce was sweet and savory and our choice of veggies married beautifully.
Oh! And the cheese....SO creamy and rich----so in the end

we ate half of the pizza.

And watched a movie about us. With friends. :)

Sincerely,

Experiment gone horribly………. right ?

I hate to toot my own horn but I love this piece.
This has to be the most whimsy I've ever captured in a painting.
"Peeking" Is a fusion of abstract and dreamlike surrealism.

I've been using my big sister as my "guinea pig".
What made her such a great candidate to test my art on was that she just bought a new place and was looking to furnish and not really into art. Crafts. D.I.Y. Or doing anything herself. Lol.

I thought it was a great way to introduce different types art besides non-representational works to match the sofa into the home. Without overwhelming ---lets say the new home owner.

It was to serve as an example incentive for Kickstarter.
In reality its one entire piece.
Besides being split into sections, nothing else was digitally enhanced.

Details


Photos of the process



So what do you think?

It's GIVEAWAY Time....So come get it

Through the blades of the grass i see something to ad some shimmer near your lash..


Its a jungle out there these days and the survival of the fittest in the dating world.So if your on the prowl for your soul mate, hitten the town with your hubby, or just shaken your tail and haven a good time.Let us help you have the that extra shimmer to add to your beautiful glow.
Were giving away a full set of
PURE VEGAN MINERAL EYESHADOW
Gonna Get Cha CHEETAH EDITION

10 WAYS TO WIN
Here's how to enter:
Make sure you post a comment for each entry you would like to make
1)Follow our blog and heart our etsy shop (1 entry)
2)Follow us on twitter and become a fan on facebook(1 entry)
3)Make a donation to support THE HOUSE OF IMAGINATION
(3 entry's, so be sure to post three comments saying donated)
4)tweet about this giveaway and post the link in the comment(1 entry)
5)blog about this give away or THE HOUSE OF IMAGINATION project(2 entry's)
6)Make a purchase from my etsy shop (3 entry's)
7)Make a purchase from the HOUSE OF IMAGINATION
section of our team leader kismets etsy shop(3 entry's)
8)Join TEAM IMAGINATION by posting in this thread
and i will convo you with more info.(2 entry's)
9)Donate a hand made item to THE HOUSE OF IMAGINATION PROJECT
(post the tracking number in a comment when you sen it out)(3 entry's)
10)Convo me on etsy about doing a give away on my blog(2 entrys's)

Winner will be chosen through a random number
generator on August 7th.

GOOD LUCK

WARNING!: Random Painting May Fall From The Sky

Here are some of my painting I've done over the past few days.
Mostly done in oils and done with speed.
I'm learning to master the art of patience.
I haven't adopted a style & probably never will.
Making things are just too much fun.
Why limit creativity?

Here are some unedited pictures of experimental works (Some in the making) with titles:

Carrie Cumulus (CCu)

Emily French

Kiwi-A-Gogo Kiss

My Last Memory of You

The old photo where you looked so pretty

The Art of a Split Personality
(Hey Stephanie, doesn't this look familiar?)

Because your so sweet

Finding Sunshine

Sorry for the short post.
The bed beckons.

Fireworks + Husband = Fear: The Lamonts first family 4th of July

Forth of July last year Gabi & I literally -just drove to Oregon from Arizona.
During the trip in our '98,gas guzzling, questionable condition, Lincoln Navigator,
money was tight. We had a violent tire blowout, a day behind schedule, and I was just beginning to feel the early side-effects of pregnancy.
Before a large financial problem hit us, due to the economic crisis we traveled often and much more comfortably. However, we'd RUSH!
Back then, we'd drive 24 hours straight on Thanksgiving Day to make it in time for dinner with family. 12 am. Can't sleep. Let's drive 1000 miles, as if it was around the block.
It's something we call our "Go Mode".
We were like a 2 - man swat team...GO! GO! GO!GOOOOOOO!
No rest. No stops. No fun.

The first week of July 2009 had to be our best trip ever.
We had no radio. So we spoke the entire time.
We stopped at the ostrich farm even though it was closed.
Visited family in Phoenix & L.A. Dined at a few restaurants. Took pictures of the sunset.
Got Lost. Stopped for peaches. And it was the best trip ever.

I was taught to think of money as a lifeline and if the that line was cut, I'd sink. Although, for years I'd tried to reassure myself, that is not the case.
It never worked.
Until that trip.

Simply enough, we were beckoned to the comforting waters of the beautiful Applegate river, yet again. Sat under a nice shady tree. Ate snacks. Laughed. Talked. Played.
Watch a couple float down from the sky.

At the end of the day, Anastasia, Coco and I were delighted with Gabi's firework spectacular.

DISCLAIMER: No pictures or video we taken due to my weariness and if something went askew, I wanted to evacuate the premises asap.

We bought them last year, and had them sitting around ever since.
So they were a little dudded.
And a little small so, Gabi was a disappointed about the show he put on for us .
No matter, It was still a wonderful show because it isn't about the size of a man's firecracker but the fact that he is brave enough to light it.