Olivia Ocelot Is Living On Etsy Now!

I now have my book "Olivia Ocelot Comes to the Rescue: Adventures in the Rainforest" on my Etsy store. It's called AnneJantzDotCom. The really great thing about buying my book through my Etsy store is I will be sending you the book, and I can hand sign it and dedicate it to whomever you choose. I know I always value and cherish books I've purchased directly from thier authors.
 You can click on the link below to go there.......
My Etsy Store

I'm also cooking up a newsletter which will follow the progress of my second Olivia Ocelot book, "Olivia Ocelot Saves the Day: Adventures in the Saguaro Desert" which is set in Arizona, U.S.A. Stay tuned, friends!

Portrait of Bandit

I just finished a portrait of my friend Carlota's dog, Bandit. Adorable dog.

Olivia Ocelot Comes to the Rescue: Adventures in the Rainforest makes it onto Amazon.com

So after 7 months of blood, sweat, and tearing a lot of my hair out, my first children's book is on Amazon. Sooooooooo Cool. All you need to do to purchase it, is go to Amazon.com and type the title into the search window. VOILA!  I'm assuming the next one will go smoother. In fact I will use the first book as a template for the second one. Olivia Ocelot will be going to Arizona in the next episode to solve a problem for her friend and cousin, Bob Bobcat.

The book is on Amazon tonight. I'm not sure when it will be listed, a day or two, I think. It will also be on Kindle.  I am so happy to have it completed. I plan to start the next Olivia Ocelot book soon. This time she'll be in the desert in Southern Arizona. My grandchildren are working on a separate story, Jupiter and Russell's Road Trip. It is about our dogs going on a trip to visit their cousins, Olive and Birdy, our son's dogs near Washington D.C. I will be illustrating it.

Here she is, the Princess of the Rainforest

This Week Olivia Ocelot Comes to Amazon.com

At long last, I need to look at one more proof, and if all is well, then I can place my first children's book "Olivia Ocelot Comes to the Rescue: Adventures in the Rainforest" onto Amazon. It seemed to take a lot longer than it actually did. I started to write and illustrate it at the end of November last year, and so 8 months later it's ready. I'm sure that the next book will be quicker. The book will be available as a real paperback book and also as, a Kindle.

Heading into the Holidays

Whew it surely has been a while since I wrote in this blog! I'm loving my job @ Ghafari. I use Revit a lot and occasionally AutoCAD. I'm also working on  my first children's book,  "Olivia Ocelot". I'm doing the illustrations amd also writing it. I've also been doing some weaving.

Sunset & The Milky Way

I just finished this painting for our back deck. I stretched canvas over a hula hoop. It ties in with the painting on the top of my pallette pla nter which is also a  sunset.

5th stage

S oooooooooo hard. I'm having the worst trouble getting Henry, the baby right. He is so neautiful, but my paimti g doesn't show it, YET. I will do this!

4th stage of "Love Seat"

It's coming along.

3rd Stage of "Loveseat"

Roughing in the childrens' faces. A long way to go.

2nd Stage of "Loveseat" Painting

Sketch for "Loveseat" painting

Here is my sketch for the portrait I am doing of my grandchildren. Bill bought me oil paint for my birthdat, so I w ill be painting them in oils. Fun, exhilerating, scary as Hell. I haven't ever painted people very much, but it is never too late to learn something new.

The end of 2013

Were down in Alexandria, Virginia with Matt & Janna & their boys, all 6 of us from the D, and it is so great to be all together. We don't have to go back unti Monday. So weird to not be backgetting up at 5:45 am to go to work. Ther weather here is beautiful , sunny and chilly '

A New annejantz.com

I just re-did my website!!!  http://www.annejantz.com . I used a template from the Go Daddy website. The tech people at Go Daddy are so helpful, and the templates are beautiful. Please visit it and let me know what you think. Thanks!

Sunflower Painting on a Ceiling Tile

This sunflower is one of a series I painted on acoustic ceiling tiles.  It is proof that I will paint on anything that isn't moving too fast, I'll show you some more examples later. Anyway, this tile costs about a dollar at home depot, and ends up looking like stone afterwards. I like it a lot. What do you think?

Little Darlings

I am going to paint these little darlings. They are my grandchildren. From left to right is Wesley , 7, Henry, 18 months, Aemelia, 10, and Liam, 4. Wesley and Aemelia are my daughter Katy and her husband John Kott's, and Henry and Liam are my son, Matthew and his wife Janna's. I am not really good at painting people, but you know what? I am going to do this!!!!!!!!
I may have to use some of the tricks I learned in the awesome book, "Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain". One of them is to turn the canvas and the photo you are using upside down, if you are working from photographs. It isn't quite as easy to do that if you are painting live models! After a few minutes, the blood rushes to their heads, they turn really red in the face, and small children start crying, which really messes up the painting. Also their hair js all in their faces so you can't really see them very well. I don't recommend that method with live models. I may have to break down and use oils. I love oils very much, but they aren't as user friendly in terms of cleanup, etc. The awesome love seat the little treasures are sitting on is a gift from Bill's sister, Marge. That is Hines Park behind the kids. Please stay tuned to see my progress on this project!

Beautiful Things Recycled

 I can't believe I didn't mention my obsession with recycling throwaways into beautiful, useful things when I  described my palette planter and my ladder back chair planter. Bill and I retrieved the palette from a dumpster after I saw the gorgeous ideas for using them a recyling website. The chair was lurking in our garage not being used before I got a tip from a cashier at Home Depot about how she had made a planter from a ladder back chair. Now I am constantly on the prowl for things to put plants into. My grandmother was an incredible gardener. She could make anything bloom. I inherited her love for plants, but unfortunately I didn't get her knack. I mainly forget to water them.  We used to have a chain of greenhouses in Michigan called Franks Nursery. When I bought plants there, the cashiers would give them the last rites, because they were goin to my house to die. I am trying though to get better. Bill and I joined Techshop a couple of months ago, and we are learning how to design things using 3D Printers. I think perhaps that I need to design a self-watering device for my plants. My daughter has a self-feeder for her cat so she can leave the cat alone overnight, so I need the same ability for my plants. So getting back to my thread about using castaways for planters and other uses, let me know if you have any ideas. Talk to you soon, my darlings. Love you, Anne

Ladder-back Chair Planter

I am still bracing myself for the winter here in Michigan. My husband, Bill and I had to go out of state for employment for 4 years beginning in 2008. We spent the first 3 years in Phoenix, Arizona where it rarely got below 40 degrees in the winter and got up to over 115 degrees in summer. The only snow we saw was far away on the mountain tops. We liked it there a lot, but we missed our kids too much to stay. Our next year was in Newport News,  Virginia, close to the Atlantic Ocean, which makes the climate quite moderate (if you don't count the hurricanes). We got hardly any snow there. It was so great living there because our son, Matthew lives in Virginia wiith his family.  Then at the end  of 2011 my contract in CAD Design ended at the Newport News Shipbuilders, and we moved back to Michigan. Our daughter, Katy and her family live here. So back to my statement about bracing for the winter. I created a planter in a ladder-back chair last Spring, and it is thriving, so I am going to bring it in for the Winter. It may not do well, I am not the best gardener, but I really do try. We'll see, my lovely friends, we'll see. I will keep you informed. Meanwhile, the leaves are changing here, and it is beautiful! Love you, Anne.

Bittersweet Season

Autumn is upon us now, a time of year when Mother Nature treats those of us in the North with spectacular color displays in the trees and gardens. It is wonderful, but it soon leads to the fall of all the leaves for the winter. Just when my garden is at its best, my petunias are flourishing their pretty little faces, my exuberant sweet potato vines are at their fluffiest, and my geraniums are fabulous, old Jack Frost will hit Michigan with a vengeance. This year I have made the executive decision to move things around in my studio and bring my shelves inside off the back deck along with my plants. 

Our Pallete Planter

I plan to transplant most of the plants out of my vertical pallete planter into the great pots I bought from Ikea and bring them in as well placing them on the cute Ikea polka dotted trays. I also have a ladder back chair planter on my front porch which I will bring in from the cold. I don't know how many of my little plant children will make it through the winter, my dear folks, but they will have a fighting chance (if I remember to water them).Love you, Anne.

Ikea Pots and Trays