Good day to you and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
First of all I need to thank all of you that have supported me and my art throughout the year and especially throughout the Christmas season! WOW! I have been so busy. You can usually find me painting late into the night, like an artsy little elf! Some of the gifts I have done for people I wanted to keep for myself! :)
We are getting ready for Christmas like all of you are. Christmas talk tends to start in November, the early birds start planning. This planning stage coincidentally happened at the same time my youngest and I were cleaning out the toy room in the basement. I found myself picking up toys that no one played with, the same toys that I had panic attacks while shopping for less than a year ago. I wasn't mad, just kind of sad. Every year I say I am not doing it, then.... I do. Christmas Crazy. My husband and I decided that we were going to do an activity for Christmas. We live not too far from Chicago, so that is what we picked. We had talked about going to see Wicked while we were there. Getting any tickets on ground level proved to be and insane idea with prices to the tune of $250 a seat. (We are a family of 4.) At that price there would be no bathroom breaks during the show and every family member would have to sign a contract that they would speak of how amazing this show was at least once a day for the next calendar year. That is a lot of pressure. We are staying at a "super fancy" hotel (thanks to my husbands travel points) and going to tea at said "fancy hotel". We are pretty sure that we are not the same caliber of fancy that this hotel is, but we are going to do our best to blend in. (and not get thrown out) SO...It has been decided, each child will get a few stocking stuffers, one present from Santa, and the trip to fancy town.
On to Santa.... My oldest knew what she wanted, Madden for the Xbox and a pair of combat boots and or high heels. :) My mom and dad already bought the combat boots for her, but "santa" is taking care of the game. NOW....the 5 year old wanted a big stuffed polar bear like she saw at Costco. Costco was sold out. This is when I said we HAVE TO SEE SANTA TODAY. In otherwords, she keeps changing her mind and we need to get her in to see the big guy so it is written in stone (so to speak) On our way to see Santa, she tells me. "Guess what I am asking Santa for??" what? "AN AMERICAN GIRL DOLL!" WHAT??????? Even Julia my oldest picked up on the crazy. She said.."Dont ask for that, I will just give you mine. I never play with it." L said" You have one that looks like you, I want one that looks like me" DANG IT. I did not see this coming. She never plays with dolls. She draws and colors and that. is. it. Fast forward to Santa. J- tells Santa about Madden and he looks confused. Initially I thought it was because it was more of a boy gift. Nope. turns out santa was just literally confused, about everything.
L then tells him that she wants an American girl doll. He said, " How about Saige?"
THE AMERICAN GIRL DOLL THAT YOU HAVE TO KNOW SOMEONE THAT KNOWS SOMEONE TO GET!!! I found her on EBAY for $300!! Thanks Santa. (She will not be getting Saige)
.................THEN......................he said, How about some clothes for Saige?? The elf girls were looking at me to see if I was still breathing (I was not)
SHUT .....YOUR....... MOUTH......... SANTA!!!!
Have you recently checked the price of American girl doll clothes?? I spend less on my own clothes (this says many things about myself and the American girl doll empire.)
Now maybe Santa didn't understand that we are trying to not be materialistic this year. My kid shared that plan with us, until she saw Santa. She nodded yes, with her mouth open as Santa asked her if she wanted more, and more, and more??? AHHHHHH!!! He finished with a "if you have any more ideas, leave a note under the tree" OK great idea, I will leave my strongly worded letter under the tree! :)
The American girl problem will solve itself as I imagine we can snag a "normally priced" doll while in Chicago and hide it in the car. I have asked my kind facebook friends to sell me there gently used dolls to no avail. :)
With all the hubbub with santa aside. The getting rid of kids gifts has left me time to make art for Sunday school teachers and others that have helped us through the year. I did that before but was usually cursing under my breath, and my blood pressure was sky high. I hope this trip is AMAZING, as this is what I want to do every year! Merry Christmas my friendly friends!!
Monday, December 16, 2013
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
The game changes.
Well folks.
I am the mom of a 5th grade girl.
I know there are certain emotions that are packaged with having a tween girl. There are people reading this thinking, OH LINDSAY, sweet, sweet Lindsay, this is nothing. It is only downhill from here. I know this "could" be true. I am working very hard on just rolling with what we have going and not worrying about what is coming next.
My 10 year old is bold. The child wears the craziest outfits without a care in the world. She sings from the time she wakes up until she lays her sweet, freckled face back in bed again. She is confident and sometimes a little cocky. There are little cracks in this attitude lately. I see her doubting herself. I see her questioning the actions of her friends. She knows what is right and wrong, but not sure how to react to those doing the latter. There are times she is crying and isn't sure why. Blasted hormones.
I love Ben Folds. He can tell a story with his songs and I have a lengthy list of them that make me teary. This was never one, until now. I will give you the jest in case you don't listen/ watch the video. (please do). We know from growing up ourselves, that there are parts that suck. We now are in an odd/painful place in watching our kids jump thru the same wonderful and yet sometimes painful and crappy hoops that we did. One day they will be great, and fine, but until then....I'm just sorry. I also heard him talk about this song and say that when we are kids, we think that this cycle ends when you are an adult. It doesn't. You are always the new employee, neighbor, mom, dad. whatever. (hence the title)
Being who you are is still hard to do as an adult. Mean girls/boys grow up and sometimes never change. I will stop talking...just watch. UGH. Its just so great!
I am the mom of a 5th grade girl.
I know there are certain emotions that are packaged with having a tween girl. There are people reading this thinking, OH LINDSAY, sweet, sweet Lindsay, this is nothing. It is only downhill from here. I know this "could" be true. I am working very hard on just rolling with what we have going and not worrying about what is coming next.
My 10 year old is bold. The child wears the craziest outfits without a care in the world. She sings from the time she wakes up until she lays her sweet, freckled face back in bed again. She is confident and sometimes a little cocky. There are little cracks in this attitude lately. I see her doubting herself. I see her questioning the actions of her friends. She knows what is right and wrong, but not sure how to react to those doing the latter. There are times she is crying and isn't sure why. Blasted hormones.
I love Ben Folds. He can tell a story with his songs and I have a lengthy list of them that make me teary. This was never one, until now. I will give you the jest in case you don't listen/ watch the video. (please do). We know from growing up ourselves, that there are parts that suck. We now are in an odd/painful place in watching our kids jump thru the same wonderful and yet sometimes painful and crappy hoops that we did. One day they will be great, and fine, but until then....I'm just sorry. I also heard him talk about this song and say that when we are kids, we think that this cycle ends when you are an adult. It doesn't. You are always the new employee, neighbor, mom, dad. whatever. (hence the title)
Being who you are is still hard to do as an adult. Mean girls/boys grow up and sometimes never change. I will stop talking...just watch. UGH. Its just so great!
A couple of weeks ago my 10 year old tried out for her intermediate school's talent show. She practiced singing her song ALL DAY AND NIGHT. It was beautiful, but endless. I picked her up after her audition and she was super excited. She thought she did pretty great! She had to wait 4 days to find out if she made it or not. She was given an envelope at the end of the 4th day to take home. Inside was whether she made the cut to be in the show. I walked to the bus stop. I was so nervous for her! The pixie got off the bus and with a straight face said. I didn't make it.
UGH. WHAT?? OH NOOOOOOOOO!!! She looked so sad. She said quietly" its alright, I've been in other vocal shows, and it will be fine"
She was pretty quiet the rest of the evening. My heart was just breaking.
I asked her if she would feel comfortable asking her music teacher (who was one of the judges) if there was anything you could do to improve for next years try outs. She said a very definitive
(with eye roll) NO.
Two days later I got an e-mail from her music teacher. She said that afternoon J had come up to her and asked what she could do to improve for next year. She then said that she was so confused because her records showed that she was in the talent show. J HAD ACCIDENTLY BEEN GIVEN THE WRONG PAPER!!! :) Her music teacher apologized over and over. I was not one bit worried about the mistake. It showed J that if you are humble, and genuinely voice that you would like to improve....AMAZING things can happen!
I couldn't WAIT to see her get off the bus! SHE RAN out of the bus and was jumping up and down. I am so so, so proud of her! Not only did she know what was right, but she did it! That is a big step for my tiny 5th grader. It is painful to watch her struggle, but OH MAN the good parts are so great! So this is why the roller coaster analogy is always used!:)
On Friday we are going to pick out an outfit for her intermediate school ...stage debut. If I cried at this Ben Folds song, you just wait until the talent show! Spread your wings little J!
Monday, October 14, 2013
ReStyled Barn Sale and other craziness.
Hello friends. I have coffee in hand and I am ready to tell you about my weekend. My art and I were at the ReStyled barn sale. The weather was PERFECT and the venue was BEAUTIFUL. Pictures will not do this justice. I will try, but WOW. It is the prettiest show I have been to, or participated in. Applause from this girl.
This is my booth. It was in a horse stall. FOR REALS.
Here are some other displays that were around me......
Look close. you can see me taking a picture in the mirror!! :)
All in all it was an amazing weekend, that I was so blessed to participate in!
This is my booth. It was in a horse stall. FOR REALS.
Here are some other displays that were around me......
Want to see even BETTER pictures...Head on over to my friend Lori's blog.
She is a fellow artist and I was moved to tears to see her beautiful face in my booth. She has been so kind to help me along the way with many questions I had. SHE ROCKS!
If you live in the INDY area you would be CRAZY to miss out on her open house!!
I met so many amazing creative women. When things wrapped up, we got a chance to chat.
We discussed arts, crafts, our kids and how shows work out for us.
One of the awesome gals I met this weekend (Allison- of Time and again http://www.timeandagainshop.com/ )
posted a quick snippet to facebook. I could not agree more....it is as follows.
"This weekend I am reminded of how many crafty customers there are in the world. And while I absolutely appreciate that you are all amazingly talented and probably have a Pinterest board dedicated to the crafts that others make that you can...
easily do yourself, please keep your thoughts to a whisper and perhaps away from my earshot.
Petty? Perhaps.
But when someone comes into my booth and looks at a pillowcase dress and says "oh, I can just make this - the sewing is practically already done for you!" I try very hard to let it go and smile but it does slowly chip away at my morale.
Petty? Perhaps.
But when someone comes into my booth and looks at a pillowcase dress and says "oh, I can just make this - the sewing is practically already done for you!" I try very hard to let it go and smile but it does slowly chip away at my morale.
Let me just send a reminder to those of you who read this (and hopefully are not offended by this post) that the holiday season is beginning and there are a lot of us crafty girls out there peddling our wares. Please be careful about what you say and do at the next show that you attend.
Yes, you probably COULD make it. But it's already made and ready for you to take home and enjoy.
Yes, it's probably not the hardest thing in the world. If it were, I would have to charge a heck of a lot more than I am.
Yes, if you take a picture of it, it might remind you later to check the Pinterest boards for it but we have spent years coming up with creative ways to set up our displays and even longer perfecting our products to present to the public.
Could you make it for less money? Maybe. But keep in mind that there is more than supply cost that goes into most artistan's pricing. It takes in to account the time to find the supplies, the time to make the item, the machinery costs (for example, in the case of my friend over at Jilly Jack Designs. She uses an actual letterpress to create her amazing creations), and, yes, supplies but much more.
I, personally, spend hours and hours traveling around the area hunting for linens then taking them home and photographing them to catalog.
Then I lovingly and carefully restore MANY of them because most have some sort of stain on them that I do not want to pass on to my customer.
After it's been cleaned, it's ironed. Yes, ironed.
Then each case "speaks" to me to tell me what size it should be made into and then I use a pattern that I created all by myself to size, cut, sew and finish the dress with a carefully selected ribbon which is then heat sealed so you don't have to deal with fraying or chemicals because who wants a baby to chew on a ribbon that has chemicals on it?
Each step is thoughtful.
I'm not saying that you are a perpetrator. I'm asking that you remind those of you that you're with that many of us make our livings doing this. Many pay for private daycare or school. Others pay their mortgages and bills. And others do it, like I do, because I love creating and sharing my creativity and products with others and the joy it brings so many.
This is me.....jumping off of my soap box.
Yes, you probably COULD make it. But it's already made and ready for you to take home and enjoy.
Yes, it's probably not the hardest thing in the world. If it were, I would have to charge a heck of a lot more than I am.
Yes, if you take a picture of it, it might remind you later to check the Pinterest boards for it but we have spent years coming up with creative ways to set up our displays and even longer perfecting our products to present to the public.
Could you make it for less money? Maybe. But keep in mind that there is more than supply cost that goes into most artistan's pricing. It takes in to account the time to find the supplies, the time to make the item, the machinery costs (for example, in the case of my friend over at Jilly Jack Designs. She uses an actual letterpress to create her amazing creations), and, yes, supplies but much more.
I, personally, spend hours and hours traveling around the area hunting for linens then taking them home and photographing them to catalog.
Then I lovingly and carefully restore MANY of them because most have some sort of stain on them that I do not want to pass on to my customer.
After it's been cleaned, it's ironed. Yes, ironed.
Then each case "speaks" to me to tell me what size it should be made into and then I use a pattern that I created all by myself to size, cut, sew and finish the dress with a carefully selected ribbon which is then heat sealed so you don't have to deal with fraying or chemicals because who wants a baby to chew on a ribbon that has chemicals on it?
Each step is thoughtful.
I'm not saying that you are a perpetrator. I'm asking that you remind those of you that you're with that many of us make our livings doing this. Many pay for private daycare or school. Others pay their mortgages and bills. And others do it, like I do, because I love creating and sharing my creativity and products with others and the joy it brings so many.
This is me.....jumping off of my soap box.
With that said, and me agreeing. Of the comments I heard this weekend 99.9999999% were AMAZING and encouraging , wonderful and generous. It made my heart smile. HOWEVER. the few negative I hear do hurt. I understand that there will NEVER be a job that negative feedback isn't heard. I do think that the people that give it do not realize how they hurt the artists by what they say.
On a more chipper note. My art is now hiding in the Bizzy Boutique! Look at this amazing store ON WHEELS!!!
COULD IT BE CUTER??? SQUEAL!!
My art is now mobile, and traveling in very capable hands!
Friday, September 13, 2013
grace for you, and me!
Good morning everyone!
Well now. Look at me, finally posting something. It has been a crazy and busy start to the school year, as I predicted. I am going to flash back for you (8 years ago) to when I quit my job and decided to stay at home with my kid/kids. The first week at home I made 5 course meals, a headboard for J's new bed, organized the entire house...and so on. It took me awhile to calm down. I looked like Martha Stewart with an IV of RedBull. Flash forward a year, I had given myself some grace and mastered the rumored pajama day I had heard about. I "kind of" did the same thing after I put my youngest, a kindergartener, on the bus. I thought OK, now its time for me. I then tried to be me, on said IV of redbull. This week I have been attempting to get ready for an art show I have on Saturday. This is the week that I got a migraine. If you suffer from migraines you can commiserate with me. I am thankful that I don't have a "real job" that expects me to show up at a certain time. If you have seen me this week and I was perhaps driving on the wrong side of the road, talking like a crazy person, or just standing there with my mouth open, my apologies. I think this was God and my body's way of saying....calm it down.
I will still be heading to my show, but with much less art than I had planned on, and that is fine.( said with teeth gritted) Here is the hard part. I look around at other moms and think, they can do all of that and more. What is wrong with me?? I then read this article that was posted on FB. I LOVED IT. I loved that she took ownership of both the things she is good at AND the bad.
I think its easier to admit the bad to people and forget all the good you do. STOP read this article first.
http://www.sowonderfulsomarvelous.com/2013/06/moms-when-are-you-going-to-learn.html
Ok while you read that article, I frantically looked for my youngest childs yellow folder, had a second cup of coffee and refilled my children's account with money so that they can, you know, eat at school, and gave both my dumb dogs Benadryl. They have allergies. :)
After I read the article, a couple times ( I loved it that much) I love the last paragraph about if you want to do_____, Do IT! Don't let people make you feel bad about it. You don't EVER apologize for what you are good at.
Then I thought. I want a turn. This is why blogs were created, so here is my turn.
I am artsy. This has been my running theme my whole life. I was always picked first as a partner for group projects because they knew they had someone to make the poster! Art keeps me sane and has more than once saved me. I sometimes do downplay how good I am at art. I do it in subtle ways. "That didn't take that long" "Oh I saw how to do that online". All sort of picking away at a talent God gave me. This is a work in progress.
I am not the size I want to be. I am working on that, true statement.
I am not good at multi tasking, I drop the ball a good bit while trying.
I do not volunteer at my kids school.
I am funny. MAN I am funny. If I weren't me, and was someone else, I would think I was funny, and want to be my friend. Sometimes it takes awhile for people to see it, but its there, and often times inappropriate. I am usually reduced to the company I keep! :)
I hate putting laundry away. I do not pack my kids lunches. I send them to the cafeteria every day.
I am a great friend, and give well thought out advice.
I am ALWAYS early. If I am late then I am ill or injured.
I am unphased by traffic.
I make tons of crafts with my kids.
I squeeze my toothpaste from the middle, my bathroom counter looks like a war zone.
I hate reading outloud, even with my kids.
I am completely in love with my husband, who I have been with since I was 18. He is amazing and is horrible at details. I overlook this when I can. :)
My house is rarely clean all at once.
You can come over, if you give me 20 minutes notice to hide all the junk we leave out all the time.
True story. J had a friend over the other night. This was unplanned and fun. I realized her mom would be picking her up soon and my house looked like, well crazy. I looked around and thought, lets address the most crazy things first, then I guess we will just run with it. I took pictures, knowing I would write this blog post sooner or later. Let me show you. This is what my kitchen table looks like. No joke.
Longest story short. give yourself a break. we are awesome!
Well now. Look at me, finally posting something. It has been a crazy and busy start to the school year, as I predicted. I am going to flash back for you (8 years ago) to when I quit my job and decided to stay at home with my kid/kids. The first week at home I made 5 course meals, a headboard for J's new bed, organized the entire house...and so on. It took me awhile to calm down. I looked like Martha Stewart with an IV of RedBull. Flash forward a year, I had given myself some grace and mastered the rumored pajama day I had heard about. I "kind of" did the same thing after I put my youngest, a kindergartener, on the bus. I thought OK, now its time for me. I then tried to be me, on said IV of redbull. This week I have been attempting to get ready for an art show I have on Saturday. This is the week that I got a migraine. If you suffer from migraines you can commiserate with me. I am thankful that I don't have a "real job" that expects me to show up at a certain time. If you have seen me this week and I was perhaps driving on the wrong side of the road, talking like a crazy person, or just standing there with my mouth open, my apologies. I think this was God and my body's way of saying....calm it down.
I will still be heading to my show, but with much less art than I had planned on, and that is fine.( said with teeth gritted) Here is the hard part. I look around at other moms and think, they can do all of that and more. What is wrong with me?? I then read this article that was posted on FB. I LOVED IT. I loved that she took ownership of both the things she is good at AND the bad.
I think its easier to admit the bad to people and forget all the good you do. STOP read this article first.
http://www.sowonderfulsomarvelous.com/2013/06/moms-when-are-you-going-to-learn.html
Ok while you read that article, I frantically looked for my youngest childs yellow folder, had a second cup of coffee and refilled my children's account with money so that they can, you know, eat at school, and gave both my dumb dogs Benadryl. They have allergies. :)
After I read the article, a couple times ( I loved it that much) I love the last paragraph about if you want to do_____, Do IT! Don't let people make you feel bad about it. You don't EVER apologize for what you are good at.
Then I thought. I want a turn. This is why blogs were created, so here is my turn.
I am artsy. This has been my running theme my whole life. I was always picked first as a partner for group projects because they knew they had someone to make the poster! Art keeps me sane and has more than once saved me. I sometimes do downplay how good I am at art. I do it in subtle ways. "That didn't take that long" "Oh I saw how to do that online". All sort of picking away at a talent God gave me. This is a work in progress.
I am not the size I want to be. I am working on that, true statement.
I am not good at multi tasking, I drop the ball a good bit while trying.
I do not volunteer at my kids school.
I am funny. MAN I am funny. If I weren't me, and was someone else, I would think I was funny, and want to be my friend. Sometimes it takes awhile for people to see it, but its there, and often times inappropriate. I am usually reduced to the company I keep! :)
I hate putting laundry away. I do not pack my kids lunches. I send them to the cafeteria every day.
I am a great friend, and give well thought out advice.
I am ALWAYS early. If I am late then I am ill or injured.
I am unphased by traffic.
I make tons of crafts with my kids.
I squeeze my toothpaste from the middle, my bathroom counter looks like a war zone.
I hate reading outloud, even with my kids.
I am completely in love with my husband, who I have been with since I was 18. He is amazing and is horrible at details. I overlook this when I can. :)
My house is rarely clean all at once.
You can come over, if you give me 20 minutes notice to hide all the junk we leave out all the time.
True story. J had a friend over the other night. This was unplanned and fun. I realized her mom would be picking her up soon and my house looked like, well crazy. I looked around and thought, lets address the most crazy things first, then I guess we will just run with it. I took pictures, knowing I would write this blog post sooner or later. Let me show you. This is what my kitchen table looks like. No joke.
I made no attempts to clean this up. This just is. See the coupon book at the corner, my kid is trying to sell those, if you would like to buy one. :)
This is my family room. Note the kid sitting on the arm of the couch. eh.
The laundry is obvious. It is at least clean. IT does look better with the ornery dog next to it. Rather than pick myself apart, I have to point out the
curtains. I made them. Actually my mom sewed them (thanks mom) but if you look close, the pattern on them is my actual handwriting. I wrote the lyrics to 4 of our favorite songs on them over and over
with a sharpie. Yes it took forever. Yes I'm pretty crazy. Yes I love them. In case you are wondering the songs are "You are my sunshine." "Love song- by The Cure" "Philosophy- by Ben Folds" "Call me Al- Paul Simon" I can say they are my favorite thing in the whole house. I look past the folded clothes and still love those curtains! Oh and look at the porcelain peace hand on the mantel. LOVE.
Here is my kitchen. Lindsay, you have got it TOGETHER. Look at it. damn. Dinner in the crockpot, candles burning. What you don't see is the open bottle of red wine that I hid by the knives. I had it out on the counter earlier painting with the wine. I hid it before the gals mom came over, that way she would be allowed to come over again. :) Explaining to people that I paint with wine is not usually the first conversation I like to have with people! It does sound like a well thought out chat between drunks. It is semi-believable at best, but I promise its the truth.
Longest story short. give yourself a break. we are awesome!
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Use what the good Lord gave ya....
Well folk, summer is quickly coming to an end. School starts for my little fairies in about 2 weeks. This summer has gone differently than I had planned.
Here was my plan. June: SUPER BUSY. we had a million things planned. JULY: We would be totally bored and my kids would fight 24 hours a day until I was forced to put them on any bus that went by my house.( No matter what day it was or where the bus was headed. ) I would then gleefully put them on the bus (their real bus) in August and wave enthusiastically and let out huge sigh of relief. Here is how it has happened. June: busy as planned. July: My kids have had a blast together and been all around fun and pleasant to be around. There has been minimal fighting. I have not once checked the Greyhound bus schedule. There has been lots of swimming, sleeping late, reading, giggles, being lazy and more giggles. what? Who are these kids? They are at such an AWESOME ages. My oldest is 10 and youngest is 5. We are catching glimpses of preteen, but for the most part our gal is friendly and herself. The youngest is obviously potty trained, and fully capable of dressing herself and other wonderful big kid things. Whining is almost non existent. When one sister is gone, the other one MISSES THEM. (for real) I am trying hard to find the pause button, but I am having no luck. sigh.
I have already given the lecture to all involved (especially myself) that come August 14th we are walking into crazytown and we are all to give each other a break and be kind to each other. The youngest will be getting on a bus and heading to kindergarten. Clearly she was just born last week and they must have the dates for this school thing wrong. My baby will be taking off for the real world. (I may or may not be teary just typing it). My oldest is also going to a new school (Intermediate school) and will have a locker. She has been practicing how a locker works all summer. As for me, I will be fired from my current job of full time mom/part time artist and hopefully hired on as fulltime artist and part/full time mom! I will be doing my best to do my best with what God gave me. I will be stretching my wings in the art world and giving it a full shot at making a real person job out of it. We will also be navigating the soccer business I mentioned in earlier blogs we have no idea what this will require of us. I am trying hard to not worry about the changes that are coming. They are coming whether I worry or not. I am also trying not to commit to anything else until we get our feet wet at our new gigs.
Look for more posts to come once school starts. Until then....it is the pool....and hopefully more giggles.
Here was my plan. June: SUPER BUSY. we had a million things planned. JULY: We would be totally bored and my kids would fight 24 hours a day until I was forced to put them on any bus that went by my house.( No matter what day it was or where the bus was headed. ) I would then gleefully put them on the bus (their real bus) in August and wave enthusiastically and let out huge sigh of relief. Here is how it has happened. June: busy as planned. July: My kids have had a blast together and been all around fun and pleasant to be around. There has been minimal fighting. I have not once checked the Greyhound bus schedule. There has been lots of swimming, sleeping late, reading, giggles, being lazy and more giggles. what? Who are these kids? They are at such an AWESOME ages. My oldest is 10 and youngest is 5. We are catching glimpses of preteen, but for the most part our gal is friendly and herself. The youngest is obviously potty trained, and fully capable of dressing herself and other wonderful big kid things. Whining is almost non existent. When one sister is gone, the other one MISSES THEM. (for real) I am trying hard to find the pause button, but I am having no luck. sigh.
I have already given the lecture to all involved (especially myself) that come August 14th we are walking into crazytown and we are all to give each other a break and be kind to each other. The youngest will be getting on a bus and heading to kindergarten. Clearly she was just born last week and they must have the dates for this school thing wrong. My baby will be taking off for the real world. (I may or may not be teary just typing it). My oldest is also going to a new school (Intermediate school) and will have a locker. She has been practicing how a locker works all summer. As for me, I will be fired from my current job of full time mom/part time artist and hopefully hired on as fulltime artist and part/full time mom! I will be doing my best to do my best with what God gave me. I will be stretching my wings in the art world and giving it a full shot at making a real person job out of it. We will also be navigating the soccer business I mentioned in earlier blogs we have no idea what this will require of us. I am trying hard to not worry about the changes that are coming. They are coming whether I worry or not. I am also trying not to commit to anything else until we get our feet wet at our new gigs.
Look for more posts to come once school starts. Until then....it is the pool....and hopefully more giggles.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
craftiness. round one.
Happy Wednesday everyone! Thought I would post some pictures of what we are up to that last couple of days!
I have figured out that I am not good at multitasking. I am pretty good at the "mom multitasking" (ie.. brushing someones hair while yelling at another child to pack up the car, while trying to start the dishwasher and looking for shoes) Now throw in art show prep and it all goes down the drain.
Don't you know that person that can work full time and volunteer at the homeless shelter, and then set the table for a gourmet meal, run off to book club, all while looking radiant? Its not me. It just isn't. I have learned to be ok with that and give myself some grace. When I finished the art show I promised the girls that we would go to the library. I looked around and thought OMG its BOOKS! I haven't read a book in months. I wonder if I still know how. (again not a good multitasker). I had only one book on my list and I found it and I am reading it. I understand that people do this all the time, but I am so impressed that this is finally happening, I want to tell everyone. SO. there you go, who would have thought a good book would be blog worthy.
Let me also tell you that my oldest is 10 and a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE Beatles fan. We got her a ticket to see Paul McCartney for this upcoming weekend. I REALLY wish I could post the video of her opening up her present. She made me promise not to share it. So....I can say that she screamed louder than any scream ever, and then started sobbing. SOBBING. She has already promised there will be tears at the concert. She is going with her friend and her friends dad. I can't wait to hear how it goes. Apparently back in April I promised her that I would get her a new Beatles shirt for the concert. YIKES. I said "Lets make one!" This sounds crazy but I usually will do quite a bit of crafts with my sprouts, but this summer has been craftless. We ran out to Hobby Lobby and bought the kids shirts and supplies. Libby wanted one too. YEA! Let me preface this with girls t-shirts are not as cute as boys in the store. Boys shirts are no frills and witty. (more my style) Girls are kittens and hearts and stuff. Julia is against all kinds of pink. Libby likes pink but quirky. I showed Julia some Beatles shirts online and we were all set to plagiarize, which we successfully did.
Have you heard of making shirts with freezer paper? I have seen it on the blogosphere....and thought we could give it a try.
1. Draw out your pattern on plain paper.. Julias I printed off the computer and Libby's I drew by hand. This is Libbys drawing
2. tape design to cardboard and then tape freezer paper over top to trace, making sure the shiny side is down.
3. Using an exacto knife, cut out letters and design where you want ink at. This is when I really regretted the detail I put into Libby's drawing. If you have no patience keep it simple!
4. Place on the front of shirt and iron on the stencil, again shiny side down. Do not use steam on your iron.
5. Once the stencil is on the shirt, blot fabric paint over it. The ink SHOULD stay in the empty part of the stencil. I don't have a pict of this...sorry.
6. WAIT UNTIL PAINT IS DRY. Use a hairdryer if you have to.
7. Peel off stencil and you are left with fancy shirts!!!
I am pretty happy with how they turned out. The girls had fun and so did I. Summer craftiness was a success. Since I only have a month left with these two pixies at home we are going to be doing more crafts..... stay tuned! :)
MUCH love to you all, hope you are enjoying your summer.
I have figured out that I am not good at multitasking. I am pretty good at the "mom multitasking" (ie.. brushing someones hair while yelling at another child to pack up the car, while trying to start the dishwasher and looking for shoes) Now throw in art show prep and it all goes down the drain.
Don't you know that person that can work full time and volunteer at the homeless shelter, and then set the table for a gourmet meal, run off to book club, all while looking radiant? Its not me. It just isn't. I have learned to be ok with that and give myself some grace. When I finished the art show I promised the girls that we would go to the library. I looked around and thought OMG its BOOKS! I haven't read a book in months. I wonder if I still know how. (again not a good multitasker). I had only one book on my list and I found it and I am reading it. I understand that people do this all the time, but I am so impressed that this is finally happening, I want to tell everyone. SO. there you go, who would have thought a good book would be blog worthy.
Let me also tell you that my oldest is 10 and a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE Beatles fan. We got her a ticket to see Paul McCartney for this upcoming weekend. I REALLY wish I could post the video of her opening up her present. She made me promise not to share it. So....I can say that she screamed louder than any scream ever, and then started sobbing. SOBBING. She has already promised there will be tears at the concert. She is going with her friend and her friends dad. I can't wait to hear how it goes. Apparently back in April I promised her that I would get her a new Beatles shirt for the concert. YIKES. I said "Lets make one!" This sounds crazy but I usually will do quite a bit of crafts with my sprouts, but this summer has been craftless. We ran out to Hobby Lobby and bought the kids shirts and supplies. Libby wanted one too. YEA! Let me preface this with girls t-shirts are not as cute as boys in the store. Boys shirts are no frills and witty. (more my style) Girls are kittens and hearts and stuff. Julia is against all kinds of pink. Libby likes pink but quirky. I showed Julia some Beatles shirts online and we were all set to plagiarize, which we successfully did.
Have you heard of making shirts with freezer paper? I have seen it on the blogosphere....and thought we could give it a try.
1. Draw out your pattern on plain paper.. Julias I printed off the computer and Libby's I drew by hand. This is Libbys drawing
2. tape design to cardboard and then tape freezer paper over top to trace, making sure the shiny side is down.
3. Using an exacto knife, cut out letters and design where you want ink at. This is when I really regretted the detail I put into Libby's drawing. If you have no patience keep it simple!
this is my husband working on his laptop and having a frosty beverage behind the stencil.
4. Place on the front of shirt and iron on the stencil, again shiny side down. Do not use steam on your iron.
5. Once the stencil is on the shirt, blot fabric paint over it. The ink SHOULD stay in the empty part of the stencil. I don't have a pict of this...sorry.
6. WAIT UNTIL PAINT IS DRY. Use a hairdryer if you have to.
7. Peel off stencil and you are left with fancy shirts!!!
I am pretty happy with how they turned out. The girls had fun and so did I. Summer craftiness was a success. Since I only have a month left with these two pixies at home we are going to be doing more crafts..... stay tuned! :)
MUCH love to you all, hope you are enjoying your summer.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
art..where are we going???
Good Saturday morning to ya!
I just finished up a large art show and WHEW! It was a great show but I am totally exhausted.
I have to give a huge. HUGE. HUGE shout out to a few people. First a big public thank you to my parents. Not only did they watch my pixies for me while I set up for my show, they and my kids.....CLEANED MY HOUSE! When I am getting ready for a show I am pretty crazy Like many moms out there, when you focus on work, the house falls apart and then focus on the house and work is running away with itself. SO. my house was a wreck. I am so blessed call them both my parents. I could not do this without them!
Another huge shout out goes to my awesome neighbors. I have never done this show before and I was not aware that I could not bring my car in to load up art after the first night. The vendor parking lot was about 1/2 mile away and I had no way of getting my stuff there without walking 4 bins of art 1/2 mile there and back 4 TIMES. hmmm what to do. Just then my neighbors showed up and said "Do you need help loading up??" Errr...yep I do! :) I put my original art in their van and then carried a crate of prints to my car. I have no idea what I would have done had they not showed up when they did! If you think I am bragging that my parents and neighbors are better than yours. I am !:)
As an "artist" you work and work in the quiet of your own home, not sure what people will think of your art. I post my stuff on Facebook and get great feedback. This feedback is from my friends, total strangers is a different story. Art shows are exciting and scary. Once a few people buy things I start to relax and enjoy myself. I start to notice what kind of people buy my art and who "doesn't get it". I don't sell landscapes and I understand that quirky may not be the theme you want for your home. Here are a few things I noticed at my hometown's 4th of July fair.
I have used every bit of spare time I had to paint and glue and make all of this art. The act of each fair is tiring as well. The pay off was when about 75% of the people in my tent enthusiastically asked me where can I get more of this? do you have a store? can I get this in different colors? I have never seen anything like this before, I would like to buy more. I was overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. I also was very overwhelmed. My answer was always the same. "My youngest child is headed off to kindergarten in a month and we will see where all this goes!" I understand that this is an amazing problem to have but I have no real answers on how to make more art with the time I have. I have started researching "thinking bigger" . My husband has been encouraging me to do this from the beginning and I will have to give him the credit if it pays off!! :) Just quietly saying a prayer of thanks tonight and overwhelmed by everyone's support. Except for the balloon animal guy. I am praying he gets a how to make new balloon animals book for his birthday!
Have a great holiday weekend!
Lindsay and her seven lemons...
I just finished up a large art show and WHEW! It was a great show but I am totally exhausted.
I have to give a huge. HUGE. HUGE shout out to a few people. First a big public thank you to my parents. Not only did they watch my pixies for me while I set up for my show, they and my kids.....CLEANED MY HOUSE! When I am getting ready for a show I am pretty crazy Like many moms out there, when you focus on work, the house falls apart and then focus on the house and work is running away with itself. SO. my house was a wreck. I am so blessed call them both my parents. I could not do this without them!
Another huge shout out goes to my awesome neighbors. I have never done this show before and I was not aware that I could not bring my car in to load up art after the first night. The vendor parking lot was about 1/2 mile away and I had no way of getting my stuff there without walking 4 bins of art 1/2 mile there and back 4 TIMES. hmmm what to do. Just then my neighbors showed up and said "Do you need help loading up??" Errr...yep I do! :) I put my original art in their van and then carried a crate of prints to my car. I have no idea what I would have done had they not showed up when they did! If you think I am bragging that my parents and neighbors are better than yours. I am !:)
As an "artist" you work and work in the quiet of your own home, not sure what people will think of your art. I post my stuff on Facebook and get great feedback. This feedback is from my friends, total strangers is a different story. Art shows are exciting and scary. Once a few people buy things I start to relax and enjoy myself. I start to notice what kind of people buy my art and who "doesn't get it". I don't sell landscapes and I understand that quirky may not be the theme you want for your home. Here are a few things I noticed at my hometown's 4th of July fair.
- Women wearing denim shorts, wearing tall socks and tennis shoes don't get my art.
- People that bring their dog's to festivals tend to like my art.
- Women wearing maxi skirts/dresses love my art.
- The hippie guy selling magic wizard wands, incense burning was awesome when I set up the tent. Two days of it was overkill.
- The guy making balloon animals should be banned from making "Swords" for kids. I saw at least three kids come into my tent with these "swords" we are all adults right? OK. these looked like kids running around with giant genitalia. eek. This balloon maker needs to look on youtube for some new balloon making tutortials.
- When you let your kids come with you in a booth please don't let them touch all the art with dirty hands.
- Pictures. hmmm. There were a lot of people that would smile when they saw my art and say "OH so and so would love this...." Then text them a picture of my art. I have no idea what to do with this. I don't want my art ripped off but also don't want to be a jerk. hmmm fine line/
- I had some time to sketch while I was in my booth and I keep sketching the same mermaid wearing water wings. Not sure what to do with her. I realize this makes me sound crazy.
I have used every bit of spare time I had to paint and glue and make all of this art. The act of each fair is tiring as well. The pay off was when about 75% of the people in my tent enthusiastically asked me where can I get more of this? do you have a store? can I get this in different colors? I have never seen anything like this before, I would like to buy more. I was overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. I also was very overwhelmed. My answer was always the same. "My youngest child is headed off to kindergarten in a month and we will see where all this goes!" I understand that this is an amazing problem to have but I have no real answers on how to make more art with the time I have. I have started researching "thinking bigger" . My husband has been encouraging me to do this from the beginning and I will have to give him the credit if it pays off!! :) Just quietly saying a prayer of thanks tonight and overwhelmed by everyone's support. Except for the balloon animal guy. I am praying he gets a how to make new balloon animals book for his birthday!
Have a great holiday weekend!
Lindsay and her seven lemons...
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