Welcome to my blog Upstate Girl, (a.k.a Follow Your Bliss Part II), I am an independently published author. This blog is all about writing and the stuff that inspires me to write, the joys and obstacles that come along with the writer's life, and my fascination with the psychology of people and what makes them tick...the human condition, as is...and my love for words, playing with them and making sense of them...and I throw in a few photos from my acre of the world just to make things pretty...sometimes there are things I have no words for, only pictures will do.

*Copyright notice* All photos, writing, and artwork are mine (
© Laura J. Wellner), unless otherwise noted, please be a peach, if you'd like to use my work for a project or you just love it and must have it, message me and we'll work out the details...it's simple...JUST ASK, please.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Digital Sketchbook...

Cicada Wings #2

Dead Cicada (poor fellow)...
I know they're such a weird looking thing, I find them fascinating as far as bugs go...


Three Crows on the Wires... these little guys were perched outside The Gallery, they look curious...

Branch and Trunk

This is a broken branch from my friend the old maple, I love the bleached bone look of it, and the gnarly root and trunk...

Been a bit busy lately... the book signing went well last weekend, I met a few new faces, introduced them to what I do... and did a reading (I did okay)... we might post it on YouTube... might. I was told that My Fred was just aglow with pride while I was doing my thing... I had a good time... yes, I did wear my fancy shoes!

I'm looking forward to a quiet couple of days, resting... I need it.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

A busy time...

A dried out burdock leaf made an interesting pattern I couldn't resist...

This little guy was in my garden feasting...


I've been out and about the acre on and off today (and yesterday)... taking a few pictures (if you can say 86 photos to be a few!)

A rose in my garden...taken yesterday...

Marks on asphalt...

I found a box of nails that were left out... I love the "wash" at the bottom of the box...

August flowers...

I finished preparations for my next art exhibition at a local restaurant (Gentile's), matting, framing, making labels, and figuring out prices, 20 pieces total, paintings, drawings and photographs...a nice mix of things for people to look at... I hope the patron's and the staff enjoy my work...I believe the installation is happening on August 6th. I'm looking forward to going there for dinner (OMG that's a belly full of yummy food!)

I just Googled Syracuse.com earlier today and found that the notice for my book signing on Saturday, August 7th 1-4 at The Gallery at Healing Art Passages in Liverpool NY has been posted, so hopefully that will bring in some new peeps to see what I've been up to... I'm pretty happy to do this little gig, and I hope to expand to other places in town or the region...

I'm proofreading chapter 3 of my next manuscript Drinking from the Fishbowl...tinkering with this and that, it's moved along too easy, I'm suspicious when that happens, so I'll revisit it again later, maybe I'm too tired to really think about it today.

At the end of our walk...with distant thunder rumbling over Syracuse in the north, my faithful dog, Max, once again proves that he does not like his picture taken... believe me, just seconds before I took the picture, he was looking up at me with perky ears and happy brown eyes...

(He's the best of good boys!)