NOLA Christmas

I've been a bit behind in my posting lately but I wanted to post my trip to New Orleans with my husband Justin.
It'll be our first Christmas married and I've been so excited about it because we get to start our own traditions and things that we will eventually want to start with our kids.
So I suggested we take a trip to New Orleans to find a Christmas ornament from New Orleans Glassworks
I'd been there once before and they have the most beautiful blown glass ball ornaments. We made a day of it. It only took an hour and a half to get there. We took our time around the city enjoying coffee and beignets at Cafe' Du Monde, going to Urban Outfitters and finding a lovely bookstore all while Justin smoked his pipe as we walked.

On the drive there

Love the blue skies!

Aren't these absolutely amazing??

Believe it or not this is a chandelier

Visiting Cafe Du Monde is a must when in New Orleans!

(he's pretty dashing eh? We'd just bought the hat at UO)

LOVE the way pipe tobacco smells

We found this little nook and a picturesque fountain. Didn't get a great outfit shot but the jacket and scarf are F21 and the purse is Charlotte Russe.

 

 

Found this cozy bookstore across the street from the House of Blues

We left New Orleans and came home to put up our Christmas tree and decorate! I really felt like I got into the Christmas spirit. We blasted Relient K's Christmas album and got into the mood.

the lights look like rainbows...haha

This is the ornament we took home! The start of our Christmas traditions

:)
Hope your holidays are going great!
Cate

Christmas in the City

So this past weekend has been jam packed and so much fun! To start, Saturday, my friend Christina and I did the Christmas festival called Christmas in the City. We set up a booth and sold pottery, Christmas wreaths, homemade soap and my paintings. Here's a few of the ornaments/gift tags I was also selling:

These were so easy and fun to make!

Saturday morning I loaded all the paintings I had ready and set up. I had a bunch of 8x10 pears and oranges, just little painting doodles. The pottery is Christina's (isn't she amazing??)

this was my favorite wreath

 

 I only sold one painting (the one in the last picture) the one with the sad eyes. But oh well. It was fun, got to hang out with artsy friends and sit around all day drinking this hot German wine drink that reminded me of wassail (Christina and her family are German). There were a lot of booths there but maybe not a lot of people? Christina sold soap and pottery and a wreath so I guess it made the day worth while.

It finally feels like Christmas here on the coast. There's a cold front and I'm enjoying it! Justin and I broke out his fire pit and we drank hot coffee and sat around while he smoked his tobacco pipe.

Expect a long post soon about my trip to New Orleans!

Painting Progression

A couple months ago I was asked to begin a portrait for a friend of mine on her wedding day. She came up with this amazing idea to have me begin the portrait of her and her husband during the ceremony. In the back of the church. Right then and there. Of course I was thrilled (I wish I had thought of it for when I got married!). I love weddings and being apart of hers was so special. I started off doing a series of sketches trying to prepare, knowing that completing a full length portrait during a 30-45 minute ceremony wasn't practical so I started off just sketching them on canvas during the wedding and took it home to finish in my studio with tons of reference pictures.

It took me way longer than I expected (hadn't worked with oils in a while) but I'm satisfied with it and I thought I'd show the progression of the painting. 
This is Lisa and I before the wedding started!

Just laying in the groundwork for the proportions

Getting her proportions straightened out

Laying in more color

adding the dress and darkening the tux

first bits of the background

Beginning the background flowers

close up of her dress

Lots more flowers

Close up of Lisa

Decided to brings the flowers all the way to the bottom

Close up of them together

The finished piece!

First Outfit Post!

While this remains somewhat of an artist/art blog I still want to post daily outfit shots (and in my case not-so-daily lol). So here it goes!
Wore this the other day to lunch with my husband (those are Olive Garden leftovers yummmm). I wanted something pretty casual and warm seeing as how all of a sudden the weather decided to get cold for the day, and I say for the day because the next day it was hot and now it's turned cold again, curse you Mississippi weather! I know my "landscaping" is quite pitiful but I was told by my brother-in-law that cutting back our crazy over grown bushes will cause them to grow back beautifully.

cardigan: target, vest: charlotte russe, scarf: rue 21, shirt: rue21, necklace: thrifted, jeans: charlotte russe, shoes: rocketdog

photos by my husband who actually hates taking them haha

I decided to chop all my hair off last Tuesday and I'm loving it! So much less work than it was and I even got to donate some of it to pink heart (kinda like locks of love) never cut off enough to donate before but I was in the mood for something drastic! Who knows what I may do with color, I have been thinking...haha
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I definitely did. :)

The Start of Something...

So I'm totally new to the whole blogging world. Granted I've been following other's blogs just sort of an anonymous reader, but I wasn't sure I'd ever start my own.

Well here it is. haha
Who knows if anyone will really read this but I like the idea of having my own place in the cyberworld to say whatever and post whatever.
So here it goes:
My name is Catie (or Cate) Daniel. I'm from the gulf coast in Mississippi. I'm an artist and mostly that's what I'll be posting here. Art, pieces I'm painting, drawings, projects, works in progress, my inspiration, my creativity, my musings, things like that. There are alot of things that make up me and many things I'm passionate about. So it goes without saying that those things will also find their way here. I don't want to label this an "art blog" or a "fashion blog" it's just me. My thoughts and progression within my corner of the world.
(is that super cheesy??)

I'll leave you with my favorite quotes (and the namesake of this blog)

"No great artist ever sees things as they really are.  If he did, he would cease to be an artist."

-Oscar Wilde  

photo by Paige Reaux