Happy St. Patrick's Day

Fun Gifts at My Art Shop

Since I opened some Art Shops at Zazzle and Cafe Press, I have been quite curious to see the merchandise with my paintings motifs on the items; so two weeks ago I made some coasters on my Café Press Art Shop and placed an order. I took close up crops of my funky floral paintings and had them printed on ceramic coasters. I also ordered a value t-shirt with my Nyhavn motif as a little surprise gift for Andreas. I thought since, I am paying all these shipping prices, an extra t-shirt would not break the bank…LOL.

Anyways what a surprised yesterday when the door bell range and the post woman gave me my parcel. The delivery came in a nice small box and the items were wrapped very well with lots of bubble paper. Andreas naturally, a very curious chap, ran out and was also very eager to see the merchandise. It was like Christmas morning..LOL. So when I opened the box the bag was on top and I knew it was the t-shirt. So I told him…here you go”I ordered you a little surprise too!” and handed him the bag. His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, it was so cute! He pulled out the t-shirt and said “Ah wow, Nyhavn for me…this looks super!” I was quite impressed with the way they printed the motif on the t-shirt. It was actually a print right in the fabric and not one of the rubbery print motifs. The colors were a bit dark for the rooftops of the buildings and the water. So I had a look at the pic I submitted and realized it is a bit dark. So I think if you want to submit art work for printing on material, I will lighten up the pictures and exaggerate some of the dark colors in Photoshop. It would be much better like that.

So now I open my coasters and I was very impressed. The floral prints were really full bleed on the coaster top and well printed and sprayed with some shiny varnish or something on top. The only thing that was off, is that some of the dark flowers (violet purple and dark hot pink) did not print as well as the lighter color florals. We could not see the variations in hues. But hey, they are not bad at all, and for the price you really can’t complain. And as Andreas said, I am the artist and I know the original work and I am far too picky…LOL. He thought they were just great! So, I must say we were both quite impressed and it was so fun to see my art work on the items. I am also very pleased with the coaster quality too: Heavy weight ceramic with some little felt cushions underneath not to scratch the surface. The t-shirt quality for 8.95$ was good too. But next time we will order some better quality cotton – made in the USA.

Now, Andreas wants to order a Sydney t-shirt and another Nyhavn shirt for his mom but this time from Zazzle…So I will keep you posted on the results!

So here are some pics of the coasters and t-shirt. I know some of you were thinking of ordering some items so you will be curious to see the results.

Texas Holdem Junkie

While I was in Canada over Christmas holidays I played quite cards quite a bit and I just love playing Texas Holdem Poker now. My brother Peter and my dad showed me the ropes and now I am quite hooked. I played on pogo games, played with my brother and some friends at a real poker night. Then we got back home, I played some nights with Andreas after dinner. Then he was pretty much hooked and he bought a nice case with all the chips, cards and table cover.

So when Mary and her fiancé Martin were down recently visiting on a little trip we also played. I had wanted to play with Martin and it was really great to finally play with him. Martin is one of the best poker players I have ever seen. We just could not beat him! One night he even played with half the amount of chips and still kicked our butts…LOL. Sue and Tom even came over and played. It was a great night of pizzas and poker. It was the first time for Sue playing and she did really well. They both also liked the game and enjoyed the many laughs we had that night with Mary and Martin.

Mary had on my fun Brian Johnson (ACDC) leather cap and some shades...She looked so cute! So last Sunday, I was really in the mood to play and I invited Sue and Tom over for a Quebec style BBQ chicken dinner– with our delicious St. Hubert Sauce. We even made some poutine. Tom and Sue had poutine for the first time and loved the poutine, chicken and sauce! I think they would really enjoy living in Quebec with the fun, crazy Quebecers and all its yummy, comfort food.

So after dinner we played some Texas Holdem and I got out some cowboy hats and glasses for Sue and me. We had a good laugh and the game got started. First, Sue started off on a big role winning most of the hands. I was eliminated first and then Tom caught up and pretty much then eliminated Sue, then Andreas and was our big poker winner that night.

Pics from the Sunday Night Poker with Sue & Tom

My New Art Shop at Zazzle

Hi Everyone,
I have just opened a new Art Shop at Zazzle.com. It is quite similar to CaféPresse but they have many different items. I particularly like the beach bags, coffee mugs, mouse pads, etc. I am also selling a few prints.
Please have a view of my shop at: http://www.zazzle.com/LisaLorenzPaintings

My colorful, lively paintings motifs are available on a variety of items to enjoy! Thanks for visiting. If you think of a particular painting you wish to see on a certain product that I may not have in my shop, please let me know and I can have one made.

Many thanks for taking the time to view my shop and for your past support.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!