A Few New Paintings and Penelope's Smile

I've been working on these paintings, but was only part way through on all of them and then I just finished these three around the same time so here's a few at once. I have a couple more that are part way as well that I will post in a few days when I finish. These are for Emily's Art Challenge this year of 52 Questions...

52Q- Week 6: If I could do it all again, would I change anything?

I took a photo of the miniature grandfather clock that the the clock store owner gave me when I was a little girl. I still have it and love looking at it. It's one of my favorite things.

52Q- Week 8: What was the last thing that made you laugh?

Here's a photo of our little Penelope laughing and I threw an extra one in of the look she always gives us when we are holding her. She's just so darn cute!

52Q- Week 11: What keeps me awake at night?

This is now found on Kristen's blog. :)

Krisser's and My Latest Adventures

Winter time, sitting around a lot, and all the major holidays are done for a while make prime ingredients for two bored sisters who itch to do projects together. So what do we do?.... start a new project? No- start WAY TOO MANY PROJECTS- and yes we are in over our heads and so excited. :) We like to do cross stitches together from time to time. Here's a link of the last one we did together here. Kristie just finished one for my mom you can check out here. The way we work it is that each of us will take on a cross stitch, work on it for a while, and then switch for a few weeks at a time. It's fun to send something off and get something new and fresh to work on and then a few weeks later get yours back with a bunch more done on it. The cross stitches we've chosen this time are Scott Gustafson designs and SO SO wonderful. Kristie is starting the "Frog Prince" one and I'm making "Pat-a-Cake" nursery rhyme one. They will probably take us at least a year, but when we are done with those I have 3 more patterns waiting right in my craft cupboard. :) I guess it'll be a Scott Gustafson gallery when it's all done.




















Here's the other 3 that are waiting for us when we are done with these. Probably what will end up happening is that we will be sick of this style for a while, get into a different sort of hobby like sewing to exchange and then come back to start these other ones in a year or two. Below are the paintings of "Snow White", nursery rhyme of "Owl and the Pussy Cat", and "Golilocks".


Must admit that even though I haven't purchased the pattern for this one yet, it's so sweet. I'm tempted to get it because I think it would make such a great present for someone sometime.

52Q- Week 5: "How Do I Feel Today?"

52Q- Week 4: "When I look into my eyes, I see...."

To view all the other people's entries you can click on this link to the flickr group here.

52Q- Week 3: Do I Believe in Fairies?

This painting is described in my journaling on the back, but it basically says that I believe in fairies with all my heart. :) The painting is of Christmas Eve 2007 when Makenzie lost her tooth and we had two visitors to our home that night. We wish we could have been there to see Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy sit down to a quaint tete-a-tete over hot cocoa and sugar cookies. I'm sure the Tooth Fairy decided on drinking herbal peach tea while Santa enjoyed his hot chocolate. In the journaling I mention video footage that we caught that night of Santa Clause. If you'd like to see that you can follow this link to it here.

Makenzie and Kendyl's 52Q Art Challenge Tags

Makenzie and Kendyl have joined in with me in Emily's art challenge this year. They are doing them on little tags and linking them with a ring. Here's what they've done so far. It's so fun to do it with them at the table and see what they come up with and how their little minds and hearts work. I know they will cherish this little journal when they are older. It will be a little chunk of themselves to remember and giggle at.

Makenzie's first tag: Wishes for 2009?
I love her spelling- adorable. Looks like we'll need to get her a pony this year to make her wish come true. :) Anyway, here's a translation of the back of her tag:
Ponies have been my favorite animal since I was a baby. I guess you could say I'm pony crazy.

Makenzie's second tag: Are you Afraid of Change?
On the front of her card she drew a picture of Daxton (one of her best friends) scoring a goal in soccer in the snow. She's on the edge by the chain link fence building a snowman all by herself. On the back of the card she says that yes, she is scared of change because she hates that now Daxton plays soccer during recess instead of playing with her.
(Don't worry too much though- they've worked out a deal that he will play with her 2 days in the week and she has 3 other boys that she plays with everyday so she's not alone- just missing one of her favorite buddies.

Kendyl's first tag: Wishes for 2009?
She of course wishes for a unicorn and for her birthday to be everday. What a wonderful idea. :) On the front is a drawing of her and her sister holding balloons and wearing their pink flower dresses- how lucky. I like how she made the horse stickers turn into unicorns by drawing them on.

Kendyl's second tag: Am I Afraid of Change?
The front of the tag is of her thinking about that question and then on the back she did her best to spell out that no she wasn't afraid of change. Her reasoning she told me was that she wasn't afraid of butterflies changing to have wings or for princesses to turn into other princesses that were their friends. hmmmm I'm sure it makes perfect sense to other 5 year olds. :) Too cute.

From here on out, I'll just post their cards on the posts that have mine. I'm so happy they want to join in with this. We're having a lot of fun together.

52Q- Week 2: Am I Afraid of Change?

For my art journal card this week I tried something new. First I painted the picture on the left for the front of my card. I wanted to use butterflies to represent change and how it can teach you new things, helping you to grow and become a more beautiful person. I also painted a "looking glass" that I ended up putting this week's question inside. I wanted to represent how change leads to adventures (like that curious Alice has). Next I used this painting that I made of stripes and superimposed it behind my butterfly painting in Photoshop, erasing some parts of the painting and messing with the opacity. I found I liked the color scheme better when I changed the hue and saturation of the top painting.















Combining the two gave me this...

It really was fun to learn more in Photoshop and try new things. Below is the back of my card with my journaling for the week. I put Penelope's footprints on there too with an ink pad. I'm so glad I thought to do that so I will always have it as a keepsake. She really is the sweetest most beautiful baby.

New Year= New Art

In Jan of 2007 I participated in my friend (Emily's) art challenge called "A Deck of ME" where we journaled once a week by creating a piece of art around a topic about our lives. It was so fun to push myself to figure out what I would do for her topic, sketch, paint it out, and then journal about it. I love looking at my pile of paintings from that year. In 2008 I didn't keep up with my art as well and so I've decided to join in again this year with Emily. This time she is asking a question a week. I'll answer the question with a painting and journal my answer on the back of my little 4"x6" watercolor post cards. Seth keeps challenging me to paint in a bigger format and I am tempted, but the nice thing about the post cards is the size. I actually finish something that way. I'm so use to it by now and I have all these nice quality tiny brushes. I've always loved miniature things and so I'm really drawn to this format. I'm sure bigger would make it so I could add more detail and push myself color wise, but for now I really enjoy small.

I would love to invite anyone to join in with us. Here's a link to her challenge explaining how it works this year here. Most participating are scrapbookers and create the most lovely things. I want to keep improving with painting so I chose to join in that way. It's open for anyway of interpretation though. Come on... it's fun. Let me know if you join too.


Week 1 Question: "Wishes for 2009"

Before you think I'm super corny and that I'm wishing for world peace when you look at my painting- hear me out. Of course I wish war would stop, especially with all that is going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, etc. etc. and of course I wish violence would cease and people would be more giving, but I can't really do much about that. What I'm wishing for that I can make a difference with is having more peace in my heart and in my home. I chose to make my painting reflecting the recent Christmas season because it brought my family and myself so much peace and happiness. We were all a little more relaxed, focused on our Savior more, and relished time with our new little angel girl- Penelope. What a special spirit she brought to our home. So as I think of what I want for 2009- I see that I just want it to feel like it did at Christmas all year long. I have asked myself what can I do to bring greater peace to my home and life and have decided on a few things that are my resolutions for this year:

1. Study from my scriptures everyday and spend time praying and meditating.
2. Use more kindness and patience with my children.
3. Build more on our emergency fund savings.
4. Give back to myself by:

~painting at least once a week
~exercise 3 times a week
~attend the temple at least monthly

Some of these things I'm already doing pretty well and have established habits of, but can increase my dedication to and some I don't do well with at all (ahem... exercising). I feel all of these things answer my question of what will give me greater peace.

Just for fun here's a picture of our beautiful little 3 week old baby girl having tutu fun with her big sister.

Okay- and some more. What? I'm a proud mommy. :)

Family Christmas Presents

For Christmas this year I made 14 of these puppies for all my siblings and Seth's and both our parents. Around October I started compiling all the anniversaries and birthdays of everyone and their current emails, addresses, home and cell phone numbers, etc. I then separated them by family because obviously Seth's family wouldn't want my family's birthdays and vice versa. I chose a painting for each month that went along with that season and then put three addresses pages on the back with paintings and a cover so all together everyone in our families gets all the family information compiled and put with 17 of my paintings from 2007 and 2008. I then went and bound them and sent them off to everyone. We have ours hanging inside the pantry. My favorite thing about them is that it's good for every year since it doesn't go by days of the week. You can just flip it to the next month and turn to the back where all the information is to be able to call, email, or send a card to the family member with a bday or anniversary.

Below are some pictures of what a few of the pages look like. You'll notice on the month of December there is a little Penelope's birthday on the 13th of that month. :) We put some photos of her and a few videos on our family blog here and here. She's such a sweet little baby. We feel so blessed.

Finished Result

I finished the calendars for my sister and brother's families on Thanksgiving so that I could mail them out the next day in order to get them to their houses by the 1st to start counting down December. I didn't quite finish mine that weekend. I was worried about getting the others out in time and put work into theirs first. After I got theirs out I realized I had lost a bit of steam. Also- the Saturday after Thanksgiving I spent in the hospital thinking I was having problems with my blood clot and found out I was just contracting a lot. The nurses thought I was in active labor and kept me for a bit monitoring me, but I was released in the middle of the night with a shot of Demerol in my back side. Needless to say I have still been contracting and uncomfortable and the last thing I've felt like doing was sitting on a chair for another hour to finish sewing up calendar. (Good news- my inducement date is set for the 13th instead of the 15th now... THIS SATURDAY!) Finally today I finished my calendar. My little girls have been just getting the ornaments that would have been in the pockets each day to hang on the tree without actually grabbing them from the pockets- that is until now. :)

Here's some close up pictures as well. My sister did such a great job on her pockets (#3, #5, #8, #12, #13, #15, #16, #21, and #23). She embroidered the tree as well and put our name on the bottom. After making the rest of the pockets all I had to do was sew on all the pockets above her embroidered numbers and sew up the trunk and star and sew the back of the tree to the front. I think we made a great team. I loved calling her and working out details and it was fun to work with my own little girls here. They had a great time gluing the characters on the pockets and helping me to make these trees. I loved being able to spot something at Pottery Barn and make our own version. It was more fun that way and cheaper. I'm excited to think up a cute Halloween calendar in a few months and work with Krisser again.

It's coming along...

Here's what my little work space looks like. Like my art table? Seth gave it to me for my bday this year. :) It's matchy-matchy with his on the other side of the room. So hanging up is Pottery Barn's super cute advent calendar and on the table are my pockets I've been making. My sister Kristie and I have split up the work. We figure that if you have to make one pocket than you might as well make more, right? So together we are making enough for 4 trees. One for each of us and one for each of us to give away for a Christmas present. Krisser has just finished embroidering the snowflakes and numbers on the trees with her fancy new embroidery machine and has sent them to me in the mail with her pockets today, so I should get that in a few days. I will sew on all our pockets and sew the tree front to back and add the trunk and star at the top. Hopefully this will be done to start counting down the beginning of December. I wanted to show some of the detail of a few of my pockets. The fun of making your own stuff is that you get to change it to fit you better. I've had great time making alterations and adding more details. So in each photo I have Pottery Barn's pocket on the left and mine on the right. (Mostly I'm showing this because Kristie keeps asking how they look and telling me she wants to see them- so here you go Kris)

Snowman

Rudolf

(Seth sketched the design of this one for me to make- thanks honey)

Red Skate




Pink Skate

Christmas Tree

(I changed the shape to mimic the advent tree that these pockets are all on)

I didn't do much to change the Santa except add a nose and a little snowflake (can you tell that I like snowflakes?) :)

And here is just one I made up for fun. There were a few designs that repeated and were simple and I decided that I wanted a wreath. It replaces one of the green stripey pockets (pocket #9 in the top photo). Also Kris- I added little bow ties to our penguins, but didn't take photos of them. The #19 penguin has a red bow tie and the #14 penguin has a green bow tie.

So here is my progress. I'm pretty excited and have been having a great time. It's been a good way for me to relax since the nesting phase is setting in and I want to attack every part of my house. I keep over working and then contractions set in for a few hours- ug. So this has kept me sitting for long moments and I still feel like I'm getting something done. Only 3 more weeks and our little Penelope will be here!!! Man alive have I got a lot to do- but at least this will be one thing to check off my list that I really wanted done. BTW- I've had 3 people in the last 2 days tell me that it looks like she has dropped, which might be a nice way of saying I'm looking bigger. I sure feel bigger and more uncomfortable. Thank goodness there's an end in sight!

Halloween Costumes

I just read my cousin Jill's comment about checking in often to look for Halloween costumes. Since I didn't really sew any- except my Igor one and it wasn't that amazing I just put all of our Halloween fun (including costumes) on our family blog. Sorry if it's confusing with these two different blogs. I'm trying my best to keep this one for projects and art stuff. Speaking of I'm just about to post some photos of the progress of my advent calendar...

THE Advent Calendar

I grew up looking forward to the first day of December with much anticipation- because my mom would hang up a hokey craft looking similar to this (but of course ours was better). :) Everyday leading up to Christmas my siblings and I would take turns pulling out an felt ornament from it's pocket and deciding where to put it on the tree. It was so exciting to get the day that had the ballerina or the rocking horse and you were most lucky of all if your day was the last and you got to put the star on the tree. I've been wanting to make a special Christmas advent calendar for many years now. I have a sketch book filled with ideas of what the different ornaments would look like and have had a pile of felt stashed away waiting for me to actually do it. At times it was going to be a tree like my mom's and at times I was turning it into a nativity type scene where everyday you'd put a different animal or person on until the last day you could place baby Jesus in a manger. I even have patterns of cross stitch characters that could be put with the manger scene.

I had also considered different kinds like these two. All I knew is I wanted to make it myself and I wanted it to be something magical my children could anticipate every year.

This year I got more serious about it. I decided to locate a pattern somewhere and put feelers out with friends. My sister came across this at Pottery Barn's website. Not 24 hours later I drove 40 miles to the nearest Pottery Barn Kids and bought it to use as a start for a pattern. Kristie has joined in the fun as well. We are splitting up the pockets to make and she has even ordered herself an embroidery machine (so jealous!) It costs with tax close to $75 at Pottery Barn and Krisser and I are making them for a little under $25 each and having lots of fun at the same time. I hope these get done before the first of December. We're sure trying.

Here's another photo of it. It is just too cute! Although I do love the idea of a simple one that is just hanging ornaments up I didn't know how I could refuse making this. Everyday there is a little gift in there. What I think I will have to do is put a clue in there everyday leading our kids to a different place to find a little treasure instead of stuffing it with 3 presents in each pocket. We are going to put a bit more detail into it and make pretty stitching around each pocket and more embellishments. I'll post pictures when it's complete.

Just for fun here is a cute idea for Halloween. Well you know us... if we are going to have an advent calendar for Christmas, we better have one for Halloween too. I love the Christmas one so much more, but this is a good place to start for ideas for a Halloween one.

Thriller video

Well I made our family blog unprivate again because it was just a big 'ol pain in the patootie. I found myself posting family-ish things to my projects blog here just so everyone could see and that ruins the whole purpose. So I've posted my video from our Thiller performance on our family blog and hope to keep that as family stuff from now on. Here's a link to the exact posting here

My Baby Bump and Thriller Projects

Thought I'd post a pic of the baby bump. We finally found our camera cord for uploading pictures and so here's a snap shot Seth took just before church two weeks ago. It's nice to be on the ending stretch of this pregnancy. :) Only two months and a few days left! (I'll be induced Dec. 15th)

Different news... here's a silly montage of my "Thriller Group". Some are missing from it in these photos because they missed this particular practice that I got my little girls and Seth to photograph, but you get the idea. All of the original boys have dropped out of the group except for our Michael (we have put too much pressure on him I suppose-hehe). There was a ward basketball group that started around the same time so they switched over to the dark side I guess. Oh well, it's really fun doing it as a bunch of girls too. We've had a few practices and really have it down. We perform it next Saturday and I'll see about getting someone to video record it. I keep telling them to watch Michael Jackson's video because I just can't do some of the moves as well with this big belly in the way. In fact this coming Monday (after the kids are in bed) we are meeting at one of their houses to watch the Thriller video and "13 Going on 30" while putting together our zombie costumes. I'm bringing my sewing machine, fabric glue, and gobs of Gothic fabric and trims and we'll be cutting up and dragging our costumes through the mud and adding to the clothes we've bought to be zombies. Sounds like most have picked out nasty 80's prom dresses. Mine is a big white dress that I hope to use double task as Frankenstein's Bride for Halloween night since Seth is going to be Frankie this year. It wont look like the original Frankenstein's bride, but a weird sort-of pregnant Gothic bride. I hope that by making my hair all crazy up and sprayed black with a white stripe people will get the idea.

It's nice to find some people who like to have fun in the same geeky way I do. Whenever I think about what we are doing and how excited we all are about this Thriller dance, I can't help but remember my group of friends from LA that I took a car trip to Arizona with a year and a half ago dressed up for a vampire prom. Then I always hear in my head Mr. Bennett (from Pride and Prejudice- speaking of his daughter Lydia) say something to the effect of that she will never have a problem making friends as silly as she is because she always makes such a spectacle of herself where ever she goes. I haven't lived here as long as I did in LA and since moving here I have either been working or trying to get through a rough pregnancy making me fairly anti-social. With all of that of course I have not made as good as friends with people as I did in LA, but still it's nice to have let myself out of the bag enough to make a "spectacle of myself" and have the beginnings of some "silly friends".