Week 23: Right Now

Emily's Challenge for Week 23 is "Right Now". Basically what's happening right now in my life. You can look at hers here. I feel all I've been writing about lately is what the major things in my life that have been going on. Well, I'm sick of that. :) So I decided to do a card about what is going on in the lives of those around me. Baby girls!!! :) What fun. Is there anything more lovely than a pink baby? Well except a little blue one of course.

My brother and his wife just had a little baby girl last month named Allegra. They also have one year old twins and a 10 year old daughter from his first marriage. Needless to say, they have their hands very full right now. :)

Some of my very bestest friends in the whole world (James and Martha Willis) had a baby girl last month as well and named her Lindy Carolina. (The Carolina part is named partly after me (Karalenn) and partly after where James served his LDS mission! It's true! What an honor!) They've been telling me for years that if they ever get a pink baby they are going to name her after me. James was my swing dance partner through college and one of my best friends. I met his wife in college too and have grown so close to her that I consider her one of my most cherished friendships. She is an incredible woman! Martha discovered breast cancer in her back in winter of 2004. She was in her early 20's with no history of cancer in her family. After a long battle she has come out stronger and more beautiful than ever. She has two older WONDERFUL sons Phillip and Luke, but has struggled through several miscarriages. I'm so happy that they had their little miracle girl. What a great family!

I'm so happy for Emily, Mic, and Ivy with their new little Yindi Willow. She's so beautiful. Here are pictures of her. I just wish that I could still be in California to give my kisses. I'll have to through mail. :)

Last of all my very bestest friend, my little sister is pregnant with her third child- a little girl too! She is due in 5 weeks! I can't wait to hold my new little niece and play with her when she gets a little older. I'm going to teach her all sorts of annoying tricks to play on her mom so her mom can think of her wonderful, greatest, most marvelous older sister.

I'm so happy to know such wonderful people that are bringing sweet, strong, beautiful little girls into the world! I left the top of my card blank in that gold section so that I can print copies of this card and put the names of these beautiful new little girls in there and mail them off to you all. The quote around the card is a favorite of mine. I wrote it all over the walls of one of our homes in California. It is from the play/book Peter Pan and it says, "When the first baby laughed for the first time, it's laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about and that was the beginning of fairies." Isn't that beautiful? Those little glowy orbs are pieces of the baby's laugh that will soon make fairies with one fairy already made watching from the toad stool. I've been daydreaming this card for a few weeks and I'm so happy to see it done and out there. It's more whimsy and fun than what was in my head, which I'm very happy about.

P.S. I just counted an embarassingly large amount of times I used the word "beautiful" in this post. Feel free to give me any alternatives I could use in the future. :) Thanks

Week 21: Your Redeeming Qualities/Qualities You Aspire Towards

Emily's Challenge for Week 21 was: "Your Redeeming Qualities/Qualities You Apsire Towards".

You can find hers here. The first thing to come into my mind were qualities that I aspire towards of course, because I am never satisfied with where I am. I always am thinking of how to improve or how to be better. Once I feel a sense of accomplishment, it is short lived. I soon am thinking how to improve the next time. That's why I love these challenges so much. It pushes me to the very core. I'm so happy to see me come out of my shell with art again. When I finish a piece of art I will feel happy and show it to who ever is around and then I begin to look at it and see what I could fix or do if I were to start over to make it better. I soon learned that the great thing about this challenge is there is always a new painting to make. I can feel happy about what I learned in that painting and not pick at it because I'll get to paint again in a few days.

So instead of picking what qualities I want, I'm going to feel happy about what qualities I have. :) I think one of my greatest traits is my desire to grow and blossom. So I made this painting to represent me as that beautiful butterfly who was not afraid of growth or change. I know I will blossom here in Utah where we have just moved. I'm not afraid of adventures and people that will come into my life. I'm not afraid of the unknown. In fact I'm excited! I will be a better person for it. Work is hard, change is hard, but who's happy with the same old blah? It's in the struggle and work and change that make us beautiful and refined. Growth to me is happiness and beauty.

Week 22: What would you like to learn?

I'm getting closer to catching up, I think. I'm skipping week 21 for now, because I finished week 22 first. :) For Emily's Art Challenge for week 22 she titled it, "What would you like to learn". I love it when I get a good drawing and watercolor painting out, so something I would like to learn is how to do acrylic or oil and make a mural in my girl's new room. They want it to be a princess room and I want to make it look like a real princess room with molding, fancy drapes and bed, a fancy little chandelier and on one side I am going to make a mural. (This painting is an idea for what I could make). Only I want to be able to keep it so I am getting a big flat piece of wood and preparing it for painting on and then painting the mural in my new art/sewing/creative room (eek!). That way I can nail it up and when we need to move I can take it with me and the next people wanting the house won’t have to paint over all my hard work with some boring shade of taupe or yellow. (Actually I really like those colors too.) :) Anyway, you get the idea. I want to learn how to paint in another medium and make something huge out of it. Probably what I will end up doing is cutting two pieces of wood in the shape of arch windows and painting a scene like they are looking out instead of a whole balcony scene.