BIG and Exciting!

I have some good news to share! I was part of a book collaboration headed by the talented and inspiring Chrissie Grace, and the book "Sharing Stitches" is now available for pre-order on Amazon! I contributed two projects, and yes, one astute observer noticed the figures on the cover are indeed mine. I am just so excited and honored to be a part of this!

mutually

new small

some smaller paintings (9" x 7") I did last week.
It seems to be a format I keep coming back to. I'm lovin' the big ones but they are quite time consuming.
In the top painting, I embedded a seastar reliquary filled with resin. I think it's an idea I'll be exploring more in the future. Like right after I get a drill press. Drilling the hole with a hand drill was scary! At one point the drill bit got stuck and the drill flew out of my hand and kept trying to go around.

subterranean

on ebay here

Just been catching up on my life. big events always throws things off the track, not that there was much of a track, but you know what I mean.

Yesterday was the kiddos first day of spring break, so we went to the Science Center and then Grandpa's house for lunch. A pretty good day for everyone.

Today, we clean.

I did this painting over the weekend and am pleased with the results. I used a 20 year old bottle of masking fluid to get the root effects. I bought that bottle of masking fluid in highschool and used it once. I had the idea to use it in a mixed media painting, looked for it and found it easily. Either I'm more organized than I thought, or I got very lucky. It was so fun to use, it may be showing up in future pieces.

For those of you that don't know what masking fluid is, it's a yellowish, thin fluid that you paint on, it dries, and 'masks' out the area that you painted, so you can paint over it and that area will remain untouched. Watercolorists use it primarily. Once the top coat(s) of paint are dry, you rub the 'mask' off, it's kind of rubbery when dry.

Finally!

After a year of saving, researching, and hunting, I have my new (used) mini-van!!!
I am so excited and happy :)
(As well as nervous and stressed, but lets just talk about the good, shall we?)
I can't believe I'm so excited about a mini-van, how soccer mom of me.
Never mind that neither of my children play soccer, and that my son's favorite activity is the science club at this school ;)
Actually, the idea of a van always appealed to me, (you can fit more friends in!)
I come from a big family, and we are very close and some combination of us get together at least once a week. Now when we go somewhere, we can all ride together.

I have to say as far as mini-vans go, mine is very swanky... I'll just brag on it a bit...
Leather seats
heated front seats
sun roof
dvd
remote start (not sure what I would use that for)
power everything
three separate climate controls for driver, passenger and back seats.

When we were driving home from the dealers I had mine on 70, Mike had his on 68 and kids had theirs on 72, and we were all happy as clams.

I don't think I will be missing my last car, except maybe in the snow (it had AWD)
It was a '98 Honda CR-V. I bought it in 2000 and drove it for 10 years. I like to hold on to my cars, buying cars ranks up there with life's most stressful events and I try to avoid it at all costs. I hope to drive my van for the next 10 years and maybe even pass it on to Paul who will be 16 by that point. What a crazy thought! I hope the next ten years don't pass as quickly.
The Honda served me very well, and had only one repair done (radiator)
May this one do as well..

everything

Thanks for all the suggestions for what to do with old art. I think I will be photographing them, and painting over them.

Here's to letting go of the past and moving into the future

trinitarian

a close up























At last, spring is in the air,
the sun is pouring into my bedrooms windows,
the birds are singing,
everything is waking up after a long, cold winter,
or at least is intent on waking me up.

Going into my studio, which was such a refuge in the winter, now seems cave like and a bit depressing. I think I need to clean, organize and decorate the area so it is more uplifting.
I'm pretty good at purging items in the rest of my house, but I am so protective of 'art items'. Books, reference materials, odds and ends, supplies... I can't seem to let any of it go. If I can't use it in my paintings, I think it may be usable for a future classroom. One thing in particular I am totally perplexed about is old artwork. This stuff isn't good. It's from classes, or failed experiments, or at one time I liked it but now consider it unworthy.

What do you do with old artwork?

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.