MY BLOG

ARTIST BEWARE!

They are out there!!  By the droves!  Cons and Thieves - and we are so vulnerable!  Kind, sweet, generous artists... happy whenever anyone pays us a compliment on our work- thrilled beyond words whenever anyone wants to pay us for a piece of it! 

I recently got an email from a "woman" who wanted to purchase three of my paintings.  She didn't seem to care what the price was and was pretty insistent that she would take care of payment with a cashiers check - even after I told her I only accept PayPal - she insisted she would also handle the shipping.  As the emails went back and forth I became more and more suspicious.  You see, she and her husband were here in Seattle, but were building a home in South Africa - her husband had some important job to go to there.  Uh,hu - and they were buying lots of items in the US to furnish their new home with so that's why she would have her shipper contact me. The truck would just swing by and pick up the stuff.  Sure.  When the shipper contacted me wanting my address I told them I would not give it until I was paid for the art.  More red flags went up when I noticed the name the shipper gave for the client was totally different from the woman I had been emailing with.  Ooops...  When I pointed this out, the story got even more dramatic.  She was on bed rest because she's having a baby, and her auntie was helping her... must have accidentally put her name on the correspondence.  Yeah. Right.  Pretty convinced at this point that this was some kind of scam, I talked about it with some friends who also agreed it was way too suspicious.  Still, I thought, this art was only worth about $300.00 - why would anyone bother to rip me off for so little?  Well... here's the way it works - my next email had an explanation that the check was on the way, but sincere apologies... her husband made it out to include the shippers fee too, so would I be so kind as to cash the check at my bank, take my fee, and send the rest to the shipper?  I THINK NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, again... I say  BEWARE.  What happens here is they send you a check for way more than the price of your goods.  If you do take their check to the bank, it looks very real and your bank will probably cash it and you won't find out until weeks later that the check was a forgery.  Your bank will reverse these charges and you will be stuck for the amount. 

Sometimes having a cynical side pays off.  I was immediately suspicious of these people and with a little help from some friends, my suspicions were confirmed.  Best advice I found is only accept PayPal as payment.  Once I told them that, I never heard from them again. 

Geez... like it's not hard enough for artists to make a living?!!  ARRRRGGHHHH!!!

I found almost the exact scenario on this site:

http://dmichaelcoffee.wordpress.com/

Also, got information and the graphic above from here: http://www.artscams.com/

 

Thank you David Darrow!

I would like to take just a moment to thank a really nice guy... and a really talented artist!  We're talking both sides of the brain working here! So THANK YOU DAVID DARROW - first, for creating a PayPal button that works so well and second, for helping me work out the kinks within my own system.  You stuck by me until we got it working and I couldn't be more grateful.

S E R I O U S L Y... this thing is ingenious.  It allows you to input all the information about your painting or piece of art, gives you code to copy and paste in your blog and best of all, when the button is clicked by a shopper, they are taken right to your paypal account where they pay and voile'!! It all works fabulously perfectly!  My favorite feature is that since we are dealing with one-of-a-kind art, once it's purchased, if someone else tries to buy it, they are told the item has been sold so no worries-only one person can purchase your one-of-a-kind piece.  You can check it out HERE and watch his quick, easy to follow tutorial.  Again, my thanks to David. Nice guy, talented artist, and he's a jazz fan too!

Don't forget to shop for one-of-a-kind gifts now through December 21st.  Buy American, By Handmade!

 

Joyce Shelton, where have you been?

Oops...you may have noticed I've been MIA since last May!  No sense droaning on about the specifics.  Suffice it to say life happens.

Back on track and channeling my creative powers once again, I have decided to focus on more than one of my artistic passions.  A new blog is in the works which will feature a painting a day, but for now, I have decided to make use of the thousands of beads upstairs in the bead room and focus my attention on the gift-giving season. 

From now until December 21st, every day I will be posting a new creation available for sale on my jewelry blog

So, check it out!

Think I can make some fabulous baubles out of this mess?

Okay. Since my last post was soooo many moons ago, I feel it's necessary to say a few quick words about the two main exciting events this summer.  First the birth of my great nephew, Evan Joseph Smith.  Here he is at 3 months old... is he the cutest little man or what?

Equally exciting, and pretty darn cute, themselves, the adoption of our own little darlings, Dot and Tess.  These two are plenty busy and have given our home it's silent soul once again.  We are totally smitten with all our new babies!

So,once again, take a peek...

Please remember to shop small AMERICAN businesses this holiday season...and handmade, is best!

Surtex, 2011

May 13, 2011

Months in the making!  I learned so much about creating these panels digitally on my little 24” computer monitor. Here they are, all blown up to 8’ X 10’.  I am amazed and so grateful!

More thanks than I can even express to my dear friend, BJ and her wonderful husband, Jamey for all their help! 

 

Set up day!  A few glitches getting it to fit.  Nothing that couldn’t be solved with a trusty exact o knife.

I took a big chance this year by plastering large, splashy art on my walls instead of the usual bits and pieces of patterns and art examples.  This art was fun and created purely from my heart - not totally dismissing the fact that they needed to be licensable, of course.  Thankfully the response great!.  My goal of increasing my client list was achieved... we’ll see where it goes from here, but so far, I am sure it was the right choice and I am on the right path!

 Bj's stunning booth!  Went up without a hitch.

Okay.... we're ready... so where is everyone??!!!

Miss Liberty lighting up the misty river.  So beautiful!

Kick off cocktail party at Battery Park between the raindrops. Ahhn the camaraderie of fellow artist friends.

 The BIG WINNER!!  "Who me?"  Cograts Amy Biggers - Louie Award Winner Extrordinaire! 

Alas, the teardown is done and all our remnants have been dragged back to the hotel through the soggy, NY city streets.  Wet, tired, bags under the eyes - ahhh... it sure feels good to have it all behind us.  Great Italian dinner, a little whining, some real wine-ing... most of all, Joyce and Bj celebrating our treasured friendship!  

 Next year?  Uh, maybe ... Too soon to tell!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Growth

Alas! Spring is bursting with new growth, and after a long, dormant season, so am I.

I knew the day would come... the day I would have to poke my head out of my cozy winter den and face this forgotten blog.  Okay, so it’s not such a bad winter here in Florida.   We pretty much continue to see the sun every day and there’s no snow to shovel, but have pity... after all, my winter uniform changes drastically... from tank tops and sweats to the dreaded polar fleece!  A girl tends to get a little testy when she has to trade her flip-flops for wool socks and slippers... month after endless month!  Who wouldn’t?

Where to begin?  Where have I been and what have I been doing?  Well, to be honest, I’ve been in a FUNK!  My family and friends are feeling deserted (sorry) but my poor husband, being a creative soul himself (thank God), has not deserted me!  He nurtures, waters and feeds me as I once again go through yet another soul searching phase.  Yep, it’s time.  Just about every 8-10 years I find myself at the re-inventing stage.  What will I be next?  Always an artist, of course... but what kind?  What medium? What venue?

It’s a never-ending story.  The ageless question.  “The Journey”.  For now, I’ll be happy to make my own unreasonable deadlines and have something new and exciting to show at Surtex in May.  After that, well, who knows? 

New growth can be just so... well, so.....

 

 

Atlanta Market

Yet another summer Atlanta market has come and gone.  Always fun, exciting and inspiring, not to mention exhausting. It's good to be home again and I'm feeling refreshed and excited... anxious to dig into the next project!

Three new collections made their debut in the Giftcraft showroom.  I had not yet seen samples of them and I must admit, I was pretty excited to see how well they turned out!  It's always fun to see my art come to life- from drawing board to finished product and it's especially nice to visit with all the wonderful people I don't get to see in person often enough.  I am very blessed, indeed!

Here are a few photos I snapped in the showroom of the newest collections.

 

Easter Party, Girl's Night In and the Accessory Collection ... all coming soon!

The added bonus of meeting up with good friends... tired good friends! Sorry Beej - you had to know this would end up on the blog!  Good wine, good friends...the reward at the end of the day. 

Me, Carol Eldridge and BJ Lantz

Meeting for cocktail hour... some of our Linked In group.  

Jane Maday, Terri Conrad, Martha Collins, me, BJ Lantz, Phyllis Dobbs, Sue Zipkin and Carol Eldridge

And now... back to work!

Kelly Rae Roberts "Taking Flight"

 

Kelly Rae Robert's e-course is over and thankfully I took the time to print each post as I went along because I often fell behind.  Also, something about reading on the computer screen does not compute with me... know what I mean?  No comprendo.  Printing and organizing in a notebook so I could go at my own pace and highlight points of interest was definitely the way to go for me.

I thought I'd try to sum up what spoke to me most as sort of a little review for myself and anyone else who might be interested.  If you took the class and are interested in sharing your high points, by all means, feel free to leave a comment below. If you didn't take the class and wish you had, I know she is offering PDF's for sale, although I'm not sure if that is only for people that signed up for the class or not.  You can head over to her site and ask her about that.  If you are like me and you just need a good kick in the seat of your pants, I highly recommend you read her book.  I find her enthusiastic writing style uplifting and soulful, which is why I signed up for the class in the first place.  That - and the girl's got the whole marketing thing going on!  Which brings me to my review list.  Of course there is much more, but these are the stand up and take notice ones for me, personally:

•  BLOGGING is the single most important marketing tool we can use to try to promote ourselves, our products, or just good will among other like-minded souls.  Websites - a close second.  
• FACEBOOK another important tool! ... I know... who knew?  I thought the only thing it was good for was for keeping up with my busy kids and my active nieces!  So I now have a FB "biz page". (see my widget over there on the right?) All I have to do now is learn how to navigate this!
• SETTING GOALS and scheduling every step needed to accomplish them- Mucho important!  Of course I already know this and Lord knows I've attempted it on more than one occasion, but the big epiphany is I am not a failure if I should happen to fall off the schedule!  Everyday life can sometimes kick us off track.  But you need to schedule time for every thing you want to do in your daily life.  One scheduled step at a time - it's the only way to accomplish goals. 
• TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE  This really is a "given", but if you are anything like me, you either have a difficult time figuring out what your own true self is, or you allow yourself to get beaten down by comparing yourself to the success of others.  Knock it off! 
• LISTEN TO THE WHISPERS  Focus on the ideas that keep tugging at your heartstrings and you will find your way.  There's room in the world for every creative soul so be true to your heart's desires.
• CONNECT with community.  Take a retreat,  some workshops, hang out with other like-minded souls in your area or on line - especially if you work alone... we need each other!

Of course, there were many other points of interest along the way.  Lots of reinforcement for the wavering soul and many links and suggestions for marketing, selling your work, managing your time, etc.  All in all, I am very happy to have had the opportunity to learn from someone whom I greatly admire.

Thank you, Kelly Rae Roberts!

More on my self discovery journey later!

New Samples

A quick hello!  Seems like that's about all I have time for these days.  So grateful to be busy - best of all... making a living at what I love to do.  I'm working on two new collections for Giftcraft to be released sometime next spring, but in the meantime, it's always exciting when the new samples come.  Usually I have completely forgotten what they look like since we work so far in advance, but I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of these guys and although I have not had time to completely unpack the entire collection, I can't contain my excitement at how pleased I am with the outcome.  For you cat lovers, this collection is called "Cat's Meow" and will mix and match nicely with "Tea Party".  Is he cute or what? I'm just sayin'....

Many thanks to all of you who are patiently waiting for my shop to open, I'm still working on the shopping cart and all I can say is it's coming along.  It just takes forever to photograph, scan and plug it all in.  I'm close though and anxious to get it up and running.  Thanks for your understanding.  I have saved each and every email and will notify you as soon as it is all in place and working properly.

(Where is my "Goddess Of Getting It Done?")

In the meantime... back to work!  Hope you all have a bright and sunny day!

Stepping back in time

No pump intended!

There's a new project in the works for Giftcraft and it's taking me back to the beginning. I began my career as a fashion illustrator.  First for a department store in Miami, then for Belk here in Orlando.  I loved those jobs! Go to work in jeans, paint fashions all day... a regular pay check with bennies and a 401K... ahhh....I thought I would never have to do anything for the rest of my life in order to be happy.  And I would probably be there to this day if the job still existed.  My gosh! Scary!!! look at the opportunities I would have missed had I not been pushed out of the nest by the use of photography in ads instead of art! Well, everything happens for a reason so they say.  But I digress... let's step forward into time.

I am blissfully immersed in a new project today. The holidays have passed, the company has finally subsided and the roadie gig with Eddie is behind me. I'm thrilled to report that yesterday I had the first productive day at the drawing board in a long, long time!  I must admit, it was a little frightening! It's been so long since I sat down with a paintbrush in my hand. Could I still do it?  Would it come back to me?  It's not that I haven't been creative over the last several months in other ways, but dipping my brush in the paint...wow... I didn't realize just how much I missed it. True confession... about a month ago I cleaned and reorganized the studio and I actually had to search for my gouache!  Note to self: visit work area more often.

So.. back to the project at hand. I can't divulge it all just yet, but suffice it to say, this collection of shoe and purse illustrations will be going on a variety of products. This is exciting to me because it's a step out of the nifty- gifty products and tabletop I usually design for Giftcraft.  Not that I don't love doing that, but variety is nice.  We are still working on "the look" but here's a sneak peek at my first go of it. It may end up looking completely different, but it's a start...and best of all it was FUN!!

Well, at the risk of shocking anyone (who might be paying attention) with a post two days in a row, I'll leave you with the hopes of another successful day as I step out to the kitchen for another cup of joe.  Have a wonderful, creative day!

And the winner is.....

My unbiased winner-picker, Heidi draws the winning name!

CONGRATULATIONS...

... SHARON, from TX!!

Please email your address to me and your mug will be on it's way to you.  :~)

Thank you all, so much for participating.  It was fun... I think I'll do it again!

  

Holiday Blog Hop

Welcome to day four of the Holiday Blog Hop!

MY TURN!

I'm honored to be among the talented artists who are participating.  Thank you Terri, for organizing us!

Here is the lineup once again: 

Terri Conrad Designs                 November 14th
Brenda Pinnick                           November 15th
Tori Higa                                   November 16th
Me                                             November 17th
Phyllis Dobbs                             November 18th           
Cherish Flieder                          November 19th
Joy Hall                                     November 20th
Barbara Johansen Newman        November 21st
Sharyn Sowell                           November 22nd

I'm not much of a paper crafter so I really had to step outside of my comfort zone to come up with  something crafty to share.  Here goes.... I love beads and I love to set a fun table so I have combined the two and made these simple wine charms from 6 of my small rectangular designs in the downloadable pdf below.  I simply cut around the shapes with my exacto knife and glued them to a rectangle cut from heavy green card stock.  I punched a hole in the top, finished it off with my grommet tool and attached a wire s-hook that I made out of inexpensive silver wire.  I then played around with a longer strip of wire, adding beads and charms and wrapped it around the stem of the wine glass.  Easy enough! (Please... replace my silver and red balls with real wine!)

 

Here's the PDF for you to download and print.  I used a good quality presentation paper or you could use photo paper so the colors come out accurate and bright.  Have fun, but please - this is for personal use only.  I ask that you respect my copyright and do not use my art for any commercial purpose with out my permission. 

Download Wine Charms

For the next part of the blog hop (the most difficult) I'm asked to answer a few questions, so here goes:

Five things we might not know about you that you'd like to share

1. I sometimes have a difficult time focusing and completing a project.
2. I could easily eat some kind of pasta dish every night for dinner and I'm not talking that yukky whole wheat stuff-give me the trashy white kind, please!
3. If you want directions to somewhere, just ask me, then go the opposite way.
4. I am a loyal friend. If you tell me something in confidence it goes no further.
5. I am useless without my morning coffee...in my favorite red cup.  Ahhh... nectar of the Gods!

Five things going on in your creative world

1. New collections always in the works for Giftcraft.
2. A fabric collection for Henry Glass that was just picked up by Hancock's.
3. I enjoy working with free-form crochet and recently I'm learning a new technique.
4. Beads, beads and more beads!  Working on jewelry designs to sell on my website.
5. Continuous experimentation with new painting and illustration styles.  I am easily bored and must play with a variety of mediums and styles - or die!

Five things that really inspire you

1. The smell of an art supply store.  I just love walking in and breathing it all in.
2. Color!!!!  Without a doubt it's the one word that describes my motivation to create.
3. The impressionist painters.  All of them!
4. Jazz... really good straight ahead jazz like the kind my husband plays.  The real deal.  No smooth jazz... definitely NO Kenny G! 
5. Other artist friends are always an inspiration.  Nothing like getting a bunch of us together for a brainstorming and art supply swapping session! (or BLOG HOP!)

So there you have it.  Leave me a (nice) comment and you will be registered to win one of my Christmas travel mugs.  Winner announced on the 24th.  Remember to visit each of the other artists, comment on their blogs, and post our invitation with our links on your blog if you have one.

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Blog Hop

What is a blog hop, you ask? (curiously, so did I)  In a nutshell, here's how it works:

Each of the talented artists below, licenses her art for a variety of different products.  There will be some fun projects, crafts, maybe a free pattern or "how to", and some give-aways on each blog for the next 9 days.  All you have to do is visit each blog and leave a comment.  That's it... then you're in for the  goodies!

This is a first for me.  I'm hangin' out on a limb... a fish out of water... jumpin' off the high dive... still wondering what "exciting" project and give-away I will come up with... yikes!  Anyway, the fun starts tomorrow with Terri Conrad so please join in and spread the word.  If you have a blog, you can even lift the "Blog Hop with the Artists" invitation and post it on your blog - the more who post, play & win, the merrier!  Remember, just leave a comment letting us know you visited and then on November 24th each of us will randomly select a winner from those comments for our give-aways!

1.   Terri Conrad  http://www.terriconraddesigns.typepad.com/ (nov 14)

2.   Brenda Pinnick   http://www.brendapinnick.com/blog/ (nov 15)

3.   Tori Higa   http://www.torihiga.blogspot.com/ (nov 16)

4.   ME   http://www.joyceshelton.typepad.com/ (nov 17)

5.   Phyllis Dobbs  http://phyllisdobbs.info/ (nov 18)

6.   Cherish Fielder  http://somethingtocherish.com/archivepage (nov 19)

7.   Joy Hall   http://joyhall.typepad.com/ (nov 20)

8.   Barbara Johansen Newman 

      http://johansennewman.typepad.com/designrocket/ (nov 21)

9. Sharyn Sowell  http://www.sharynsowellartblog.blogspot.com/ (nov 22)

Off to the drawing board to come up with something wonderful.  :~) 

Have a great weekend!

One Liners

Otherwise known as contour line drawings! 

I've been cleaning and sorting in the studio, among a zillion other projects strewn about my house.  For some reason, I am having a focusing problem lately.  I'm here...no, wait... I'm there.  Don't want to do anything I'm supposed to be doing.  Real work? What's that?   Maybe it's the change in the weather.  Ha... What change? 

Anyway, while browsing through my sketchbook, which rarely has anything worth sharing, I was reminded about contour drawing and just how much fun it is.  The thing I like best about it, is that the end result is just so original.  There's no other way to come up with a lighthearted sketch.  If you follow a photograph, it comes out stiff and distorted, but if you just sit with pen on paper, looking up ever so infrequently at a live subject, and let the line flow, the results are sometimes worth keeping and developing further.  Here are a couple of examples.

This was a little coffee shop in Mt. Dora where my friend, Christy and I were enjoying a cup of coffee and dessert together.  This is the type of little vignette that gets me inspired to pull out the pen and paper.  Even the watercolors now and then.

On a recent visit to Jo-Nanny's up in the Poconos, I was inspired to do a quick one of Leann, who was busy sketching.  I'm so proud of her for making this part of her everyday life as an art student.  Love her monkey slippers!  This one actually even looks like her.  Amazing!

Then there's this!  LOL!

She turned and began to sketch me sketching her.  She looks like some strange little munchkin here!  Thank heavens this looks NOTHING like her!  But I really like it.  It's quirky...with a sort of whimsical feel to it.  Again, you could never get this from a photo reference.

So next time you have 5 minutes, Give it a try.  Put your pen to the paper and try not to lift it or even look at it much.  It's fun and you might be surprised to see what you get.

 

Tea Party Sighting!

My 15 minutes of fame... finally!  Last Sunday, my friend Nada called all atwitter.  She had been flipping around the channels and lo and behold, she caught a glimpse of something familiar on HGTV.  While chatting with the realtor, at her kitchen table this lady on the show was drinking from one of my Tea Party Mugs!  I immediately tuned in and there it was! This may seem like no big deal to most of you, but for a designer of product who sits inside like a hermit most of the time... alone with her cat... well, it was just fun to see someone actually using my art!  I'm pretty sure it was this one.

I do remember another time when I got a similar phone call from my friend, Moni, who had seen two of my prints hanging on a dining room wall on an Oprah show.  It still makes me chuckle - I knew, at long last, I had made it!  The show was all about inexpensive decorating! 

For anyone who's interested, I thought it might be a good time to share a little bit of the product design process.  I am amused at the reaction from people when I explain to them what I do.  They always seem amazed, and admit never having given much thought to the actual process involved. Here goes... from my drawing board to your kitchen table....

After the concept is decided, I sketch out the product shapes for the entire collection.

In this case, I was re-designing Tea Party for Giftcraft, which is my favorite and most popular line.

We wanted to keep it in the same color family for collectors of original Tea Party, so with the already established palette in mind, I went to work developing some new patterns to add to the mix.

I work closely with the VP of product development so once we agree on these, I hand paint each and every piece in the collection so there will be no question at the factory as to where I want what print to be placed.  Many weeks of countless hours.  Who ever says working for yourself is easy has not done it!  I go into what Eddie calls "Hermit mode".  Sometimes it's days of never leaving the house.  Thankfully he feeds and waters me!

Once this leaves my studio, it all goes to Giftcraft and they prepare it for the next step.  As is the case with most of my designs for them, Tea Party will be hand painted at the factory so it's important that my patterns look the way I want them to look and I try really hard to keep this in mind and not make them too complicated so they end up looking like my hand in the end. 

So far I've been very happy with the end result.  What do you think?

This one is my favorite guy in the whole collection! 

I plan to offer a few of items for sale on my website, coming soon. 

Hot-Lanta Summer Market

WOW!  I'm, shocked when I realize my last post was May 26th!  Time is flying much to quickly.  It's going to be a crazy July here so I want to try to catch up before I'm too far gone!  

It's always fun to go to the Atlanta markets.  I found it particularly worthwhile this trip.  Even though it is summer and traditionally slower than the January market, there seemed to be a buzz of hope and a good crowd of retail buyers.  The one's I spoke with were shopping with a little more caution in this economy, yet predicting a much better holiday season than last year.  It was a good feeling, overall.

On a persona level, I made a few new connections and met with three new clients that I would be very excited to work with.  I also got to spend some quality time in the Giftcraft showroom where I am now sharing the spotlight (ha!) with Marie Osmond.  It seems Marie is now making quilted bags and was even present at the showroom for a signing.  This is a very good step in the right direction for Giftcraft and I am happy to be part of such a wonderful, growing company.

Move over, Marie... here are a few shots from my little corner of the showroom!

New "Tea Party". 
This is the third time we have updated this line and it was so much fun creating all these new pieces.  It looks FABULOUS!! (if I do say so myself!)





I guess, due to the great price point in these tough times, these little travel mugs are keeping me in a paycheck.  They really are cute and so functional.  More on the way!



"It's Just A Job!"
Another new group of fun occupational mugs.  Good price point, great display.  They come packaged in cute little matching bags.  Great nifty-gifty item!



Of course, the really fun part was socializing with fellow artist friends.  Nothing like commiserating, gossiping and having a few good laughs with old friends, Carol Eldridge, Barbara Barnett and BJ Lantz after a tiring day.



Last night, dinner with Phyllis Dobbs, Barbara Barnett, Brenda Pinnick, BJ Lantz and Carol Eldridge.  Hard to believe, but the maitre de at Azios actually compared us to the ladies on the View... I mean, like we were all talking at once or something!  Go figure!

For a more complete overview of the show, you need to see Carol's blog.  She's got it much more together in the reporting department!

My Website created in Typepad

Well, it's been a week out of my life, and I'm sure I've added a few extra inches to my butt from sitting for so long, but it's done!  I finally have a somewhat presentable website!!  And, you might also notice, I tweaked a few things on this blog.  It was about time for it to get a face lift as well.  So one of my short term goals from January has finally been accomplished and I feel pretty darned good about it!!  It's nothing fancy, but the best part is, I can now add to it or change it for free whenever I want without the help of someone who knows html.  I did it all in Typepad and even mapped my domain name from my web host, which to my surprise... actually worked! 

I first learned about all this by reading Craig McGinty's article after seeing it posted on Kirsten Farris's blog.  Working with Typepad's software is so easy once you play around a bit and learn the ins and outs.  Their Help knowledge base is pretty good at answering most questions and they even provide free live tutorials. 

Now this week I will get down to some real work.  I do plan on posting later about a really fun workshop I took this past Saturday, so check back later to hear all about that!