Happy Heart DAY!!

Hello everyone! My J just took a giant bag of Valentine cards into school today to put in her friends mailboxes.  This year I made the girls valentines for them. (I find any occasion possible to put my computer graphics degree to use!)  I am sure you are thinking..."Lindsay, you are so creative....how do you think of these things?"  Well..I don't. I copied 100% of the idea from my friend Rachel.  The only thing I did different was put my kids pictures in it. I have a feeling her class would be confused if Rachel's kids were on it! Here is a link to Rachel's blog, she is so, and I mean SO crafty! http://holy-craft.blogspot.com/  Here are the results

Here is each of their tags close up!

and the sassy 2 year old.....

Other things happening around here:

1. ART. and lots of it. WOW you guys are amazing, I have custon art jobs coming out my ears.I am feverishing painting and trying to answer e-mails. I have been blessed by all this work!

2. I rarely have occasions that I freak out about my kids getting older. I love most stages and each one is so neat....BUT soon I will have an 8 and 3 year old. EIGHT. DID YOU HEAR ME?

I heard that 15 song by Taylor Swift in the car and BAWLED. Not because of any loves that I had at 15 but because she and Libby will be that age soon and I was just overwhelmed.  I am pretty sure that I must be ill or something, I am never really that sentimental about things so far away.  I think Julia having the Beiber fever is the reason. I hope it isn't contagious.

3. My 2 year old just got a sucker stuck in her hair. She is now eating a hairy sucker dispite trying hard to wash it off. and is now throwing a fit....yet I type on. I rock as a mom.

4. My car is slowly falling apart. Keep in mind that it is paid off so I will be driving it until the doors fall off, or running like Fred Flinstone to get it moving.  I know we have agreed that after this we are getting a minivan.  I promised myself this would not happen.  Ugghh. Then on the other hand, who am I fooling? I am a stay at home mom with 2 kids, I have nothing to prove in the catagory of being cool. I am just fine with it...right?  (insert reassuring remarks here)

5.  Did you see the halftime show of the superbowl? HOW bad was Fergie? She TOTALLY messed up Sweet Child of mine for me. I really wish we could have heard what Slash was thinking during that song. Ughh.  I guess they proved they weren't lip syncing!!

6. If my dog asks to out one more time I am going to LOSE IT! She is out and in out and in and so on.

I also want to know what she is thinking...Did she forget something out there?

Ok I think that is all that is bumping around in my head today. Carry on... 

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION. YOU have been warned!

STOP YOUR DAY EVERYONE......
This is IMPORTANT.  This is a movie from my generation or thereabouts.  This is the Very important scene in Footloose where Kevin Bacon does some angry dancing.

Here are a few of the MANY things that HAVE to be said about this.

•  I do not understand the thought on this....I am PISSED. PISSED OFFFFFFF. I will now head to a warehouse and angry dance.  hmmmm
•   I am heading to the airport tomorrow for a morning full of travel to warm and sunnier places! I am sure I will be angry at some point in my travels, maybe I don't get a window seat, maybe the ticket lady is slow. I WILL  angry dance and reenact this scene to the best of my ability on the plane. Consider it done.
•  You have to figure that there is some guy in the warehouse working the late shift...saying WHAT THE WHAT??? IS that guy dancing? IS he ANGRY dancing???  Why are his clothes so stinkin' tight??
•  I can just picture 80's Keving Bacon sitting in his fancy condo (80's stars always had condos....don't you know anything?)  reading scripts....thinking  "hmmmm....my character gets so angry that he drives (while drinking) and heads to a warehouse and dances his anger away, OH and does an Olympic worthy gymnastics break. hmmmmm this is not only totally plausable, but something that could launch my career skyhigh~"  I wish I could have been there.
•  As kids watching this we TOTALLY bought it. WHAT?? Not only did we buy it, we friggin loved it! This is why I love my generation. We were playing pacman and pong, of COURSE we bought it!!
• Could it be that I have thought this over too much? NOPE. 

OK on to my next order of business....packing for my trip? getting my kids ready to have 4 days without me? NOPE. I need to talk to you about my superpowers.  I have them.

I remember friends from grade school and high schools phone numbers..... jealous?

I can now at this moment give you Cynthia, Ashley, Laura, Kandis, Danielle, Scott, Joe, Dustin, Mandee, Lori, and my now husband's  phone number from high school. Really.  This is not important information to ANYONE.  Apparantly at the time, talking on the phone was SO important I was convinced that I had to store away everyone's number in case that hello kitty phone book disappeared.

I hate that this is my superpower, it has only paid off one time I was standing in my parents kitchen and my dad asked me for one of my friends phone numbers so he could call her dad to go fishing with him.  (AMAZING huh?)

I only mention this because I feel like I can't remember ANYTHING anymore, but these numbers are stuck. I wish that I could scoot them over a little bit. Currently they hang out with the lyrics to almost every Bel Biv Devoe song and are squishing out things like signing my kid's homework. Oh well.

Have a lovely Wednesday...Off to pack.
me

Get ready, this might take awhile....

Wellllll, now guess who is AWESOME at blogging?  I guess not me since it has been since October since I blogged. It is not for lack of things going on. HOLY cow, and I mean it!  The art thing is happening. I am painting in almost all  my free time. Painting paid for all of Christmas this year and then some!  I have been blessed and could not be more thrilled to be doing what I have always wanted to do!!

In addition to painting for other people I got some of J's room finished off. I have been slowly working on the details.  This has to be my favorite room in the house. It is so her.  She is such a happy kid and her room reflects it!! I just painted the canvas abover he bed this week, I have to admit, I like it tons!  Ok pretend you are in the room and spinning around  and you will get what is happening here.....A whirlwind tour if you will....

I've shown you this before, but this is Miss J's butterfly picture and the big J on her door!!

This has also made an appearance in my blog before...a little zebra stripes never hurt anyone..right?

OK this dresser is super fun, I got it at the Corner Cottage in Noblesville, I am hoping by mentioning their name on my wildly popular blog that they will give me free things.....  :)

HERE IT IS!!! The new picture!!!

Super fun curtains....Any questions on where I got things....assume  Target or IKEA.

I like to think this makes me stylish, but pretty much makes me stylish and frugal! :)

OK at 7 J is TOTALLY over princesses (most of the Disney gals have made it acorss the hall to her little sister's  room- L LOVES Julia being " too big" ) and Miss Belle will be leaving soon. J has MANY ideas on what she wants there....

(note the "Tangled" dress and hair... too old for princesses... eye roll.)

This is what is on the inside of the wardrobe....

This is the onther side of her wardrobe

Here is one more look at the painting!

Here is what I was stepping over while I was photographing.....

want a closer look???

There you go, a tour of a FANTASTIC 7 year olds room!!!! LOVE IT!!!

MY WEEKEND!

Well it has come and gone and I am better for it! I will try to make the story as short as I can as I am sure you have not blocked out 2 hours of your day for my blog (this is the time it would take to really tell it.)
I started off on Thursday and met my friend Stacia at the covered bridge festival. We looked super cute and artsy. We had our cars filled with all of our super cute stuff.......then.......we got out of the car.

This was NOT the art fair we had in out mind. This was a flea market.  I tried to stay positive. We looked around and did not see ANYTHING that looked like we were selling. Sometimes I can imagine this would be a good thing, this time it was not. No one was shopping for what we were selling, NO ONE. It was bad. We sat there all day, fighting back tears as people squinted at our booth to see what we had and quickly moved on. I sold 1 print and Stacia sold 3 pins.   Don't worry, other vendors told us, you will double your sales tomorrow (Saturday) hmmmmm....   We made a few phone calls to friends in our respective cities and ended up finding a potential " in" at a show in Louisville that Stacia had tried to get into forever.  Once we were told we had the booth, we closed shop and ran, literally. We only had hours to get there in time to secure this awesome booth at this awesome show.  RUN, GIRLS, RUN!!!  We packed my car up in 20 minutes and I have a feeling if anyone with an indycar team were watching, we would have been hired for a pit crew on the spot!

We were on our way to Louisville, 2 squealy gals, PUMPED to get to our new artsy location.  Stacia's phone rang, it was our contact at the new and wonderful show.  "Maam, I am sorry I think we got our wires crossed and you do not have a booth tomorrow"  Our smiles and squeals stopped. Now we had no show. We stopped for dinner and then back to my house to regroup.  We decided to drive to Louisville and just try to worm our way into this show.  THAT is exactly what we did, and it WORKED.  We were finally told yes you can have a booth only minutes before the show started....RUN AGAIN....HURRY....SET UP!!!!!!
(picture pit crew again)  

It was a great day, beautiful outside and the crowd was great.  I got to sit quietly behind my art and listen to people talk about it. A very unique experience.  I realized that people liked the art and found out how I need to change it to make it a bit more marketable (thanks to my genius friend Stacia).  Stacia did well as did I and we all lived happily ever after!~ 

I also learned alot by watching my friend Stacia.  She is such an a mazing person. I enjoyed watching her sincere interest in people and wanting them to do well and feel good. Stacia asked about 2 more questions of people than I would have, this resulted in us finding out that the lady at the gas station had just buried a child. We found out about people and their lives at the fair, what they planned on wearing the pin to, what was the reason that they bought my print.  She is the kind of person that takes every opportunity possible to brighten someones day. I learned so much! :)  Ready to get my stuff ready for the next show on the 30th!!
Blessings,
Lindsay

Just a Tuesday....?

WHAT? Just a Tuesday you say???  NOPE this is only 3 days until the covered bridge festival, I know I won't shut up about it. Tired of it yet?

So I had 3 hours of sleep or so last night. M was out of town and I had lots of quiet time to organize. I took advantage. Coffee has been on constant flow this morning.  This is what I needed to do this morning....

UUUUGGGGHHHHH. dumb laundry. stupid dishes.

OK. Now I WILL get them done but this is what I did instead...

 

L- and I did some driveway painting. It is a favorite hobby of hers thatnks to a dear friend that introduced me to this awesome passtime.Water and paintbrushes (thank you Erin)  Our picture of choice was pumpkins.....

Her little 2 year old piggies even came out to play.....don't you just want to eat them they are so cute??

Nope, you can't...all mine.

Guess what is ALMOST as cute as bare 2 year old feet? These ADORABLE shoes.  Thanks again Once Apon a Child, you make it so easy to be cute!

hmmmmm what was next.....

AHHHH yes leaf raking (done by mom) and leaf jumping (done by both of us!)

Well while we are out here let me show you what we have been doing, it is fall ya' know.

We are getting ready for art shows 24 hours a day, Halloween!

Here is our front door.....creepy huh?
(Do you see my reflection in the glass? I know I'm not looking my best. Don't forget I only slept 3 hours~!)

Ok the wreaths are BEAUTIFUL, thanks MOM!

AND the spider, OH the spider....we love him, as do the kids in the neighborhood.  We should name him....

I will think on that.

what else....hmmmmm

Here is the web our spider Roger(thought I would try that one out)  has been busy on.

OH and the MOON FLOWERS?????? I almost forgot. DO you know about these things?? First things first, I LOVE VINES. If I had a tattoo that would be it. "I love vines" (Lame huh?) There are vines of morning Glories EVERYWHERE at my house. This is the first year that the moon flowers have taken off.  I LOVE THEM.  Doesn't this gate look like it should lead somewhere AWESOME? Nope. Just a backyard with dead grass and a swingset and most likely dog poop. BUT I like that it makes you THINK it is  awesome back there

Well there you go, now I am going to tackle the dishes and organize more STUFF!

Watch out covered bridges, and your crazy festivals....we are on our way!

Blessings,

Lindsay

My super girl....

I usualy don't mention much about my 2 year old - L.  She is very much in a 2 year old phase and is frequently trying my patience. She is so sweet 80% of the time and it seems that the other 20% is so dramatic I kind of forget about the 80%.  I am here to tell you

that 80% is such a fantastic kid!!! Right now she is pretending she has a baby sister named Joy. Joy is EVERYWHERE! She is always crying and L has to fix it! I love it!

L- is developing quite an imagination....this is the picture she painted today

I asked her what it was... her answer:

"A cat and dog in a rocketship, pulling a lever and going really fast."

 :)

I bought her a winter hat last night and she has not taken it off since. She wanted to wear it to preschool and then changed her mind "my friends might take it and that would be icky"

She took it with her and cautiously put it in her cubby. She looked like a secret agent hiding a big secret!

Here she is in her fantastic hat!

This week I have been on a STOP DOING THAT kick! We have our family picture this Saturday and I am convinced that we are going to have a broken bone, or face laceration.  I guess this would not be the worlds end.....but I think the whole family will be relieved when Saturday is here and gone. I will post a picture and link of the family pictures next week.

NEXT WEEK speaking of NEXT WEEK......it is the COVERED BRIDGE FESTIVAL. Can you tell by the capital letters that I am SCREAMING.....and terrified   really excited! !!!!!!!!?

The AMAZING friend that asked me to do this with her and I are talking and plotting daily.  I am painting and printing and plotting on how it will all work.  This is what my living room floor looked like last night.

If you have not been to my etsy site ...please have a look!

http://www.sevenlemons.etsy.com/

OK I am off to package more prints!

Have a lovely week!

Blessings,

Lindsay

"You're right, I am a coward! I haven't any courage at all. I even scare myself."- Cowardly Lion

Ok, so, I have mentioned the art thing.  I know I have...you know the "life long dream of doing my own art" gig.  I started thinking  (inner monologue) about what if I have a million paintings left over after the covered bridge festival?  I guess I should do another festival.

I got online and one link lead to another and I was lead to the Irvington Halloween festival. Hmmmm..... I contacted them. YEP they had booth space if I hurried. I printed out the forms and then hmmmm.......

I looked at J -age 7- and said (outloud this time) I am not sure if I should do this or not, what if nothing sells?
Then I realized I should have made that comment in my head. What kind of mom says that to her 7 year old? It is not her job to take care of my concerns. ....but I am glad I did. That little freckled face pixie looked at me, smiled and then put her hands on her hips.  "MOM, you are an amazing artist, you need to do this, and just be brave. I was nervous when I sang on the 4th of July but I did it and I am so glad that I did"  

OK SERIOUSLY what kind of example would I set after that half time speech if I didn't sign up.  I reluctantly signed the check and walked it out to the mailbox.   Man I love that kid.

I am reminded of a Ben Folds song...he talks about how when we are kids we imagine how the need to fit in and being scared ends when you are an adult.  Once you are an adult you realize that it keeps going and going. surprising sometimes.   I am painting like a fool with that little freckled face in the back of my mind. I am also loving that L comes down every morning to see what I painted and declares....Mommy painted that. Yep I did.
Blessings,
Lindsay