Ready, set, go--It has Begun! One World, One Heart! 2010

Welcome to "Mixed Messages" by Kathleen Mattox, especially if you haven't visited before! I hope you have time to look around and explore a bit or come back at a later time to do so. Maybe some of you will even want to become "followers" of the blog.

Once again, it's time for the "One World, One Heart" event to begin. I'm late getting signed up--there are already 579 participants listed! We all are grateful to Lisa at "A Whimsical Bohemian", our fearless and apparently tireless leader in this huge venture! If you are a blogger and you wish to sign up, you have until February 8th to do so. Just click on her link, and leave a comment for her with your blog address.


Be prepared to have a giveaway ready to post as I am now posting mine. This year, I've decided to give 2 separate but equal giveaways. Each will consist of a set of my new "Words of Wisdom and Inspiration for Artists" cards (2.5" X 3.5" size).  They are 52 boxed inspirational quotation cards to motivate and inspire artists. Each set of small cards will be accompanied by  6 greeting cards of my most popular large watercolor and mixed media paintings. A selection of my paintings are shown here on the reverse sides of each card in the deck.

How can you toss your name in the hat to win one of my 2 giveaways? It's simple, just leave a comment to THIS POST with a way for me to contact you via email.  A winner will be chosen using a random number generator on February 15th at noon,  Pacific time. No entries will be accepted after noon on February 15th. If you are announced as one of the 2 winners, please contact me within 24 hours (by 1 PM on Feb. 16st, PST) with your mailing address.  If I don't hear from you, another name will be selected to take your place.

Please visit more of the wonderful artists participating in this year's One World One Heart event by visiting Lisa at A Whimsical Bohemian for a complete listing of 2010's participants in the right hand sidebar of her blog.

Explore, enjoy, become a follower of blogs you want to go back to, and enjoy the magic of this year's "Magic Carpet Ride" which will take you to new heights of being a creative artist! I'd love to know where you're from and what your own personal art is--but it's not necessary to leave a long comment unless you feel so inclined! Enjoy the ride!

"Love" Paintings

I've decided instead of focusing totally on wine-related paintings for the "Wine and Chocolate" Madera Wine Trail weekend over Valentine's Day, I'm going to paint some "Love" paintings. I know it's not too wise to paint large (full sheet) paintings that are VERY specific in content--unless they are related to content that is very popular to a large number of people. And after thinking about it for a while, what is a more popular subject than Love? So, I'm going to give it a shot and we'll see how it goes. I'm having fun "throwing" paint and working very wet into wet. A pleasant change of process--and it's definitely keeping me more focused on the process than on the product!

The One World, One Heart blogging event is gearing up for full swing so keeping up with that will keep me busy for the next 2 weeks also. More very soon!

I won one!

I won one! Yippee do! I am so excited! The giveaway I won (out of 263 recipients) was a star ornament made by Sara Lechner. When I visited a lot of blogs in the last 2 weeks, it was the one that I most wanted to win. So, I am thrilled! Thank you, Sara! And thank you, OWOH! 

Since my goal counter is still on 0/52, I must paint tonight, not write. . . . . :)

"One World, One Heart" (originally posted 1/28)

Hello to all! I am really excited to say I'm on board the One World~One Heart" Gypsy Caravan! A fellow blogger told me about this (large and still growing!) group of bloggers who are giving away some fabulous prizes! There are almost 700 of us! I'll be giving away a 10" X 14" giclee print of my mixed media painting "Strong Language". 

The event is running from now until February 12th at which time the winners of each artist giveaway will be announced.

FLASH: Since I've had so many comments and such positive responses I am adding a second prize--an assortment of 8 of my cards made from my most popular paintings.

This is what you have to do to have a chance to win the print (first draw) or cards (second draw):

1. Leave a comment to this post. (Click on the green "Comments"  that comes up at the end of this post.)

2. Make sure you include contact information--your name,  a blog url or email address. And that's it!

3. I will be putting all entries in a hat and drawing one name by midnight on the 11th. Entries into my giveaway will close at 10 PM Pacific Time. I will be announcing before noon on the 12th. I will email the winners at that time and make arrangements to ship the giveaways to them.

4. Good luck! And be sure to visit other sites on the long list at "One World, One Heart" to enter other giveaways. You might like to start by visiting Lisa's site here. Lisa is the host of the whole giveaway project and is #25 on the list of participants at "One World, One Heart."

(Holding my breath because this is ALL so exciting!)

WOW!

This whole OWOH experience is really exciting! I've visited a lot of new blogs and plan to check out a lot more in upcoming days. I'm enjoying it all and marveling at how varied the giveaways are. I am also learning how to do a lot of brand new things. Talk about a steep learning curve! Yikes! But that's what keeps us young, right?

I can now see why people put their original OWOH post and logo in the sidebar. I'm contemplating now about what to do to adjust so that mine doesn't "fall off the bottom" and disappear from view before February 11th. Hmmmmmm. I could just not post for a while, but I made a commitment to do my best to post every day. Oh, well--onward and upward!

{Obviously, it was an easy fix to just keep changing the posting date each day to keep the OWOH post at the top of the list! Duh!?}