Three women

thank you Olympics, I laughed, I cried, I cheered, I gasped, I was thoroughly entertained.
I think I am going to take a class offered by St. Louis mixed media artist Mary Beth Shaw. I want to do more experimenting with different textured mediums, like modeling paste. And I want to learn some new ways to use acrylics.
Hopefully it will get some creative blood pumping

I am still fixated on my 'squirrel' feeder, as that is the only thing eating from it. I reserved a copy of a book about 101 ways to outwit a squirrel. Hopefully they will have some new ideas. Thanks to those that offered their own. I'm willing to try anything. I really am not ok with the squirrels eating out of the feeder, because once they discover the feeder, the birds never really come back.

bounding main

can't talk
watching American Idol

crowning

Kind of a dreary Sunday. I kept the kids in all day, it was rainy, muddy and cold, but I can see spring, I feel it, and it's right around the corner.

I've been battling squirrels for the last week or so. I am determined to feed all the lovely birds that live in my yard. I have a huge, bright red cardinal, a noisy, busy woodpecker, with an orange shock of hair on the back of his head, several little things I call chickadees, and I love them all. When I have my bird feeder up, they flock to it, and the kids and I delight in watching them for as long as they are feeding. Unfortunately, all too soon, the squirrels arrive. Once the squirrels figure out how to get to the food they monopolize the feeders, or worse, dump the seed out. This is the third feeder I have gone through. This is supposed to be 'squirrel proof'























At least they can't pour the seed out, but since they discovered how to eat out of this one, the birds have been scarce. Also this feeder is a bit small, and the cardinal and woodpecker can't seem to land and eat.

Any ideas out there!!!

i love the olympics

I have enjoyed my Olympic filled weekend. I'm recording hours and hours of events and play them throughout the day. The short track has been my favorite so far.
My kids have been in ice skating lessons for a few weeks now, and so they have been interested in some of the ice events. Paul actually played ice hockey last winter, but decided ice skating he liked, hocky, not so much. Lila was able to start lessons too, even though she wasn't officially old enough. I don't know which they like more, the lessons or the trip to McDonalds afterwards.























tracking deer this morning...

blue angels

woo wee! what a week! I feel like a broken record, but sometimes I just can't keep up with my life. It's a cycle of normal, crisis event, recovering from crisis event, sitting around looking at the fallout and wondering how I got a week behind on laundry, again.
My husband and I are pretty good budgeters. We can predict most expenses, have plans if faced with crisis, live within our means and put away what we can for the future.
YET somehow, I can not translate those skills over to actually living my life.
We have a financial advisor,
I think I need a life advisor.

cleansing

How's your week going?
Tomorrow is Friday, but my weekend is shaping up to be quite busy.
Ice skating with the kids
a party for a friend
a trip to Artropolis (yay!)
Paul is attending a b-day party
guests coming over for super bowl

PLUS I am meeting with my accountant on Monday so have to sort out all my tax info

I am probably forgetting something

ah well, time for Lost season premiere

happy housekeepers

Instead of going to Artropolis at Chesterfield Mall like I wanted, we cleaned. Grandpa came over and got the kids leaving Mike and I alone, to purge, scrub and dust. I seem to have a bit of a book hoarding tendency, so I sorted through stacks and stacks of children's books and I'm happy to say I was able to donate about 30% of them. Paul's shelves are orderly and there is even some empty spaces.
Then we were off to get everyones hair cut, Mike, Paul and Lila. Everyone looks great and I keep smelling their heads :)
For dinner I tried to be healthy with a plate of falafel, tomatoes and homemade cucumber dill sauce.

















I baked the falafel instead of deep frying it, and it was just wrong. But the sauce made it edible.

Next Sunday... Artropolis and maybe dinner out.

apparent

Thank you for encouraging comments! I'm sure the weather is related and it is darn cold here today. Lack of sunlight isn't good for me, no sir.

This morning after dropping the kids off, I came home and went straight to the studio. I started three different paintings and kept getting frustrated, and kept painting over them, until this image emerged on top. I was working on an itty bitty masonite board, about 8" x 7", much smaller than anything I've done recently. I think the change in scale helped and I'm happy.

a serious case of the blahs

I think I have the January blahs, bad.
I should paint more, because it makes me feel good, but I'm tired, lethargic, unmotivated,
I can't believe tomorrow is Friday, I have nothing to show for the week. Where did this week go? It was Monday like 10 minutes ago.
I want to control time, rather than time holding all the power.

contemplation

I can't believe it's Sunday night already. This weekend has flown by. As my kids get older they get so much more Interesting and Fun! We played three different board games today, Lila helped my make stuffed french toast (delicious), Paul went to an ice skating party, Lila and I made a necklace and did some finger painting. Somehow I managed to squeeze in a painting too.

It does seem that my January blogging has suffered though. Instead of posting everyday, I am averaging every other day. Still it's better, and maybe a pace I can keep up in February and beyond...

worry like a feather

on ebay here

Class was great! It's called "Psychology of the Exceptional Child" and it's part of my degree program for my BFA in Art. Education. I think it's going to be really interesting and not to heavy on the coursework.

I've been having a good time painting, and I tried out a new bread recipe. here's the tasty results


















It's from a book I got at the library called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It's this really easy process where you mix the ingredients, let it rise and put it in the fridge. You can take some out whenever you want, form a ball, and bake it. It can keep in the fridge for up to 14 days and the batch makes enough for six loaves. I may have to buy the book because there is so much more like adding ingredients in, making cinnamon rolls and different kinds of loaves. My first attempt was great, so I can't wait to try more.

tuesday taxday

I am busily printing out monthly reports for sales from my online venues. Thank goodness they are organized and that they keep very nice reports for me to print out and hand to my husband to make into a pretty spreadsheet for my tax guy.

Actually it probably won't be that easy, but the information I need is there, we just have to put it all together and make sense of it.

Also I start my class tonight. Hoping, hoping, hoping for a good teacher...

family fun

This weekend, we were so busy, but we had a lot of fun. Friday night was spent at the Grandparents house, a favorite event for all of us. Saturday morning we had Lila and Paul's first ice skating lessons for this session. Paul skated last winter, but it was Lila's first time on the ice. She has been begging me to take her ice skating for a few months now, so when I signed Paul up I asked if my very enthusiastic three year old could join the four year old class. The director allowed it and Lila did great. I was told that three is actually a good age to begin ice skating, but it's not good to force a three year old, so they start their lessons with fours, who are slightly more cooperative. Well Lila was very motivated and did awesome!
Saturday night was a charity trivia event. Our team came in 11th out of 48, no thanks to me. I only knew answers that pretty much everyone knew. Oh well, it was still fun to get out with the hubby.

Here are the paints I promised you... look how creamy, like butter


















I love these paints, and they weren't expensive either, about $5.50 a tube, and they were 30% off this week.

Here is another painting in progress, I've been focusing on brushwork and layers lately. It's a fun (though time-consuming) way to paint.























Unrelated: Did any one 'get' Ping's outfit on the new season of Project Runway tonight? I would blame my lack of knowledge of avant-garde fashion, but the other designers pegged her as going home too. I do look forward to seeing more of her work, maybe it will make sense the more I see.

emerge

YAY! I just finished watching American Idol, I am very happy :)
Is it wrong to like a tv show so much ?
Lila and Paul watched the first hour and Paul had fun deciding if the singers where "chumps" or "champs" (his terminology) I don't know where he picks this stuff up! But it is actually a good grading system. Lila seemed to enjoy it too, she laughed at all the right parts. Mike was here too and we were all lined up on the couch, sharing a blanket...good times.

On another note, I bought twelve new tubes of paint today. It was a brand I had never noticed before, but today, for some reason I did. They have the most gorgeous colors, I'll have to post a pic of the tubes tomorrow.

Finished!

This morning things were back to normal. I dropped the kiddos off, came home and went to the studio with my coffee and finished this painting. It felt really good to work in the empty house. I have another promising painting started that I can't wait to get to tomorrow. I'm feeling fresh energy after our extended holiday break where I didn't get much done. Back to work!

Any American Idol fans out there? I am a huge fan and can hardly wait till tomorrow night!!!

work in progress

oh dear, it doesn't look like much does it?
Painting is strange, it has to go through ugly stages, well at least mine do, and it seems the uglier I let it be in the beginning, the happier I am with it in the end.
I think it has to do with being free and loose with the painting and trusting the process. If I try to control it, I lose.

Tomorrow we go back to our schedules again. I loved the extra time with the kids on their snow days, but we all need our routines. Next week my class starts up too, psychology of the exceptional child. I'm hoping for a good professor, it makes all the difference.

white primer

the creative extent of my day was priming a cabinet door for painting, so i'm not going to bore you with a picture of that.

It seems very difficult to get things accomplished when I have the kiddos underfoot all day. Since they have been home since Thursday I am getting behind again.

I'm having flashbacks of this summer.

I love taking care of them and doing things with them. As they get older, the projects we can do together get more interesting too. I know they are my first and foremost so I don't feel too badly when my time is going to them, but it does make me wonder how other mom/artists balance it all...

snow dayS

We turned out to have a snow day after all! I think around 4 - 5 inches fell, and it was bitterly cold, so no school today AND no school tomorrow.
It's kind of nice to be 'trapped' inside with bad weather howling all around you.
I ate so much food today, but good food. Big salads, berries, turkey, pickles then a yummy dinner made from one of Annabel Karmel's cookbooks. She is one of my favorite cookbook authors. There are no dogs in her books, every recipe is a star.
I will have to leave the house tomorrow to get some scans done and to buy dishwasher detergent. I hope it's not to cold or dangerous out there! I'm safe and warm in here!

stupid weather people

it's 10 to 10, my children are still awake, because we played big band music all night and danced, because they told us all day

winter storm

winter storm

don't drive tomorrow if you don't ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO

so I figured, snow day

the WINTER STORM has come and gone. There is a pretty, light dusting of snow, no schools have been canceled, and my kids are going to be near impossible to get up tomorrow.

also, there is no completed painting to post, I danced instead