Monday, November 30, 2009

Our Thanksgiving in pictures~

There they are, the twins....
....just separated by 6 years.





E-man with his "ba-ba".
That boy is serious about his bottle time!



The Bubs asked to play a game of Scrabble. He did pretty well and the Hubs coached him on how to play the board to get the most points possible.

That may come back to bite him in the tushy.


Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Gratitude and apologies~

I am both giddy and humbled by all of the encouraging feedback I received about my art. Many, many thanks to you all! You've inspired me to create even more and I hope to have more ready to show y'all soon.

One minute I'm doing my happy dance and in the next, I'm biting my nails or pulling my hair. It's delightful!

I think I may have inadvertantly insulted the Hubs, though. Unintentional though it may have been, it was done and I want to come clean.

The Hubs has always supported me in all my artistic ventures. He gets me supplies, offers encouragement, a listening ear when I need to "talk out" my ideas, a gentle (but firm) shove when I need some get up and go.....and love. Unconditional, precious and uplifting love. So when I started sharing with him some of the wonderful comments you all sent, he was just as thrilled as I was. However, he couldn't understand why I didn't truly believe him when he said much the same things as y'all did.

Oh.

I realized that I had, in my insecurity, done something to hurt him. My biggest fan.

Hubby, I hear you first and I hear you the loudest. I'm sorry for letting my insecurity get in the way of accepting your honest support.

I'll make it up to you later...........

Friday, November 20, 2009

I'm taking the plunge....

I've decided to take a leap of faith and share some of my art experiments with you. Art, as with many things is a journey and I feel that part of that journey (for me) should include being brave enough to share my pieces.
So, I'm sharing with y'all. Be kind and remember I'm still learning....



All of these pieces were made on old hard back book covers, an idea I gleaned from Kelly Rae Roberts (thank you, ma'am). I used a white gel pen for the curlies around the edges and the bird is drawn on a piece of notecard paper that was sandpapered and then adhered with acrylic medium.




One of my first experiments and one of my more personal. I cut out the phrase, "I want to share my heart and see joy bloom" from an old book.
The woman's skirt is a collage of papers that I painted and aged. Phrases like, "blessed journey", "beautiful courage", "passionate spirit" and "warm laugh" surround the word Mom on the woman's skirts....that's how I remember my Mom and I wanted to include her in my art.



This one says, "Even with imperfect wings~ We Fly." The Hubs likes this one.
That glare you see is from the pearlizing mist that I sprayed on it. I like the glow it gives off.




I believe that this one is one of Dad's favorites as he loves butterflies! (That strip of blue at the top of the picture is part of another painting that this one was leaning against...Oops!)




Monday, November 16, 2009

An artist who gives flying lessons...

I recently made a discovery. It wasn't earth shattering and won't be in any history books, but it was a momentous occasion for me. I, in one of my web surfing sessions, stumbled across the artist, Kelly Rae Roberts. She does whimsical and encouraging mixed-media works of art like this:

When I found out that she had a book published, I was so excited that I gushed about it to the Hubs. I thought he was listening with half an ear at the time, but he must've been paying more attention than I realized because he turned right around and ordered it for me from Amazon. It's titled Taking Flight~ Inspiration + Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings. In it she tells her story about being almost thirty and knowing that she wanted to do more with herself (um, I can identify). She talks about being nervous about experimenting with her art again after having set it to the side for so many years. She's not formally trained, but she created because it gave her joy (um, again, I can identify).

I may never sell a single piece that I create, but I'm already having so much fun creating and painting again. Even the Bubs has noticed how much fun I have when I'm painting/drawing and now he's excited about expressing himself on paper. We ooh and ahh over one another's creations and those moments are so very precious to me!

I don't have any pics of my "creations" to share with you, as yet, since the workmen are laying tile in the kitchen today and I can't get to my little studio. I'm working on finding my own aesthetic and experimenting with different techniques. The best fun, though, is when my guys just hang out in the studio with me and watch what I'm doing or ask me questions. I like that they feel included in what I'm doing....they should since they are at the heart of almost everything I do!


Friday, November 13, 2009

The light at the end of the tunnel....

I can definitely see that light at the end of the home repair/remodel tunnel. Cabinets are going up, flooring is going down and the final coats of paint are being rolled on. Our appliances are being delivered this afternoon...hopefully the weather has calmed down by then. We've been having squall like conditions for three days (thanks Ida).

I promise to share pics of the progress asap. I was going to snap a few pics this morning, but I got caught up doing silly things like making a grocery store run, doing laundry, taking care of the boys, etc. I know, that's just CRAZY.

Speaking of taking care of the boys, the Bubs has more congestion, another earache and possibly pink eye. *sigh* It's already been interesting trying to keep him from touching as little as possible while in an enclosed space as the work on the house continues. We're all in the master bedroom/home office. (The previous homeowner took two smaller bedrooms and made one big room.)

I think the worst thing for the Bubs is that he can't love on his little bro. I'm hoping that we can get him in to see a doc soon. It's always the same thing when I'm trying to get an appointment at the base clinics- too many people and not enough docs.

Anyway, we're all looking forward to getting the house back to some semblance of normality, whatever that may be, and enjoying our new space.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Just more of the same craziness, y'all...

Holy cow, people, I am all turned about! More major reno going on in our kitchen, deliveries of cabinets, scheduling kerfluffles with the contractor, E-man is cutting more teeth...and now the Bubs isn't feeling well.

Wowza.

The Hubs and I talked it out, and I decided that I didn't want to spend our money on a dress, etc. for the ball (as in Marine Corps). It's not mandatory for him to go and we'd both rather have some time to ourselves rather than at a "forced fun" event with other peeps that I don't know.

I'll be blogging more later, but right now I'm watching the Steelers play the Broncos with the Hubs and I wanna hang out with my man!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

This and that...

I finally got my new power cord for my laptop yesterday. *doing my happy dance* Of course, the first thing I do is hop on Blogger! The old one had frayed to the point of being useless a few days ago. I LOOOVE my Dell laptop, but putting the power cord on the side of the unit instead of the back is my only pet peeve with the design.

I don't have a cohesive post in mind, just a bit of this and that floating around in my noggin...keep the jokes down to a minimum, y'all!


Little E-man is getting longer and more mobile everyday. He now has 6 teeth at various stages of coming in. He's had his cranky moments (um, hours) lately, but we figure if we had that many teeth coming in at one time, we'd be cranky too. In between his more uncomfortable moments, I've been experimenting with my camera and light in preparations for my little photo session with the boys. I'm hoping to get some fun and nice portraits of the boys. Here's a sample of some of my "playing" as I call it~


The work on the house continues in all its dusty, messy glory. We go to purchase countertops and appliances this weekend...may the budget juggling commence! Fortunately, we talked to a very lovely sales associate last weekend who filled us in on all the upcoming sales/discounts. I coulda kissed her feet. But I didn't. Cause that woulda been weird.

The Bubs got his first report card of the year yesterday. He's doing great! I was concerned because he's already missed more time out of school than I would like, but he seems to be doing fine despite his sick days.

Well, that's all for now. I'm off to catch up on what's been goin' on in your worlds!

Monday, November 2, 2009

From the virtual dressing room....


Okay, so most of you know that I am a woman of, um, voluptuos proportions. I have a few places in town that I can find things I like but since I discovered online shopping, I have come across multiple sources from which to fortify my wardrobe. In short, I can shop in my j's with bed hair and a mug of coffee in my hand....Bliss!

It's ball season here in 'Marinesville' and I am on the hunt for a ball dress. I don't do fussy and am not into wearing a sequin factory. Add that in with being on the higher end of the dress size scale and I've got the makin's of a whopping panic attack. Yet, I have a new plan of attack this year....the internet!!

See that picture up there? I finally stumbled across that on a website and I actually like it. It's different, not black, interesting without gobs of sequins or bows (I'm not going to the prom, after all) and *GASP* it comes in my size!

The length doesn't scream formal occasion, but I'm okay with that. Some fab accessories (anyone have some site/store suggestions?), great hair and makeup.....a support undergrment....and I'm ready for an evening out with the hubs.

YAY!