My Weekend Gourmet.

We call him the 'Weekend Gourmet'.

His stats: tall, dark and handsome.
His title: teacher, father, and chef extraordinare.
His therapy: cooking.

We are going to Hawaii in a couple months, and I have been desperately trying to get rid of those unwanted pounds I put on over the winter. But I have no hope. None. I have an amazing excuse to eat food. The reason? My husband. He loves too cook like I love to draw. It is in his blood. His therapy after a really stressful day is cooking up some new inventive recipe. My therapy after a really hard and stressful day is eating his really amazing new and inventive recipe. We make an incredibly good pair.

No, I have no reason to blame him. It is really my laziness about getting to the gym. But really...can you blame me when this was our weekend?



This is every weekend. And this is just "easy food." The kind of food he can make quick without thinking. You should see him on holidays. Or during the summer. You should see his library of books he POURS over...every culinary institute's manual, every ethnic cookbook, you name it he has read it. And I love it.



My kids love it too. Our weekends are spent making sure the kids aren't falling off the counters while they are covered in flour. They LOVE to cook with dad. I think they always will. And I think that I will always be his best food critic...um...taste tester that is!

check it out...

Remember....

Last weekend for the BUY 2 get one FREE offer.

Also...

If you are in UTAH, come see my stuff at the BABY EXPO at the Southtown Expo Center. I have a small spot with ONEITY. It should be a lot of fun! Come on down and have a chat!

Happy Site Friday.

Hello. Happy Friday. Today I bring you color and light from the Netherlands. Yvonne from Yvestown has created a beautiful blog/shop/site that is happy candy for the eyes. Many of you are familiar with her site. I crave these clean bright rooms of hers, her taste for color and non-color, and her love of spring and fresh.



Be ready to be inspired by her fresh take on crafts, home decor and gift making.


She had an ETSY shop where she sells these darling Alphabet pillows. She has just moved the shop to her own website for better custom making. Aren't they to die for?

Thanks Yvonne for inspiring us all!

Let's talk: Art for children.

Art for children's rooms. One of my favorite topics of discussion. I have such strong feelings about this (really?) and have come across a GREAT article on the REAL SIMPLE website. Holly (from Decor 8) talks about 1) the love of great nursery decor and 2) the increasing opportunities to buy inexpensive art for your kids. I was FLOORED when I saw one of my images up in her pick of 60 or so prints that she likes. I really had no idea. I was reading my first favorite children's artist blog and she mentioned this article and so I checked it out...and voila!



See that little teaparty action happening on the left there? geesh! About give me a heart attack. Real Simple is a favorite place for me, so that was extra special. Thanks Holly!

But I bring this up, because there is just a lot more out there than there used to be. When I was first pregnant I was trying to figure out what *style* I wanted to incorporate in my children's playroom and nursery. There is so much to consider when deciding! Color, theme, style, gender, baby or big kid, etc. I truly believe that you have to know your child and decorate with their personality in mind. For instance, I spent my entire pregnancy collecting fabric for Addie's crib bedding and after Addie was 6 months old, I abandoned it because it just wasn't "her".

Here are some of my favorite art prints for kids as well as some pointers to consider when purchasing art for your child:

creative thursday

1) Have your child test it. Circumstances won't always allow your children to see the art before you purchase it, but my children are my BEST testers. I print off a copy of all my new prints, and let them hold it. If I find them looking at it for a long time, or carrying it around with them, I know I have a winner. Addie has been known to sleep with a few.

binth

2) Timelessness. You will most likely redo your child's room by the time they are 8. But will the art work for 6-8 years? Will it be too babyish in 3 years? Maybe it doesn't matter to you...but it sure is something to consider.

Margot Curan

3) Does it have an easy color scheme? I am not "matchy matchy". I really don't like everything to be just perfect. But I do consider that in the next couple months, Addie will need a new bed and new bedding. Can I easily find bedding that will "go" with the decor she already has?

Belle and Boo: Lost and Found

4) What is it teaching? Not every piece of art will tell a story, or teach something. In fact, most won't. But good art will stay in your child's mind for years to come. Do you remember what was in your room in your early years? I do. I had a picture of Jesus with the children, an embroidered "one, two buckle my shoe" piece and a print of the Goose Girl. I remember falling asleep staring at these images. They are a part of my first memories as a child. I can't say that they "taught" me anything, but there was a feeling of safety and comfort in them. What kind of comfort do you want to offer your child?

You will notice that the art above is different than my own style, but that is what I love about art for kids...why do "Matchy Matchy?" Let your children imagine a reason it all goes together. As an artist and mom, these thoughts are running through my head as I continually adjust my kids' room, but also as I create the art itself.

For more ETSY artists, check out this link: 100 ETSY artists. Some really great finds! Stay tuned for more...I could chat about this subject for hours!

Just stay little.

We are shoe shopping again and Ian's pants are too small, and I find myself groaning not for the lack of funds to clothe my children (well that too), but for my babies that aren't going to be babies forever.

I have a funny feeling that in 10 years, Ian won't want to hold my hand. Or kiss my lips. Or lay his heavy head into my neck. Or brush my hair.

Addie isn't going to ask my permission to use nail polish. She won't be kissing my owies. Her bum won't fit into my hand. And she won't be wrapping her body around my torseau and clinging to me when she is scared of loud noises.

I hope she still says "Mom, we're the girls" and "You're my best friend" like she does now. And that Ian will still tell everyone he meets that I am his mom...with that proud inflection in his voice.

Oh--Ache my heart for little feet, little hands, little voices, little noses, little kisses, little laughs and little shoes.

Just stay little.

End of March SALES and an early APRIL print

OK....so April is almost here and March is on its way out! And I want to celebrate by offering all of YOU another free print. Yep...another Buy 2 get one FREE! Again, I am only offering this to my blog readers (if you are reading this, that means YOU!). I have really loved hearing from you and getting great feedback, and it is time to return the favor...again!

SO: Buy TWO products and receive a 3rd one (of equal or lesser value) for FREE! All you need to do is purchase TWO items, and at checkout, tell me the third one you want in the "message to seller" box. You will only be charged for shipping on your two items, so you save on shipping as well! But it is just this week, ending on March 31st.


Today is actually a beautiful day. Not a sign of rain at all. But I finished my "APRIL" print, and loved it so much, I wanted to offer it as "non-calendar" print with more standard sizing. For some reason, I am really drawn to this print. I can't say that I really "LOVE" all my art work. It is the artist in me. Never really satisfied...always needing to create something new. But this (to me) really captures that pensive feeling I get sometimes on a rainy day.

Have fun, and enjoy the last week of March. I sure will. Rain or Shine.

Happy Easter Everyone!

He has the carrot, she has the bunny. They make a good pair. Well, sometimes. Oh, I just have to repost last year's Easter picture for laughs:


Seriously, this was the best shot we got last year. Right before church in their Sunday Best. Come one now...isn't this what most Easter pictures are really like? Trying to get them to sit down next to each other while they are still fresh and clean in their new clothes. Ya right.

This year, we just bagged the whole "Come on! Sit together!" picture, and snapped some of them by themselves. Well, I must admit, we tried to get them to sit together, but this is what we got instead.

Hopping Easter bunnies. At least they were in character:) Happy Easter Everyone!

Waiting.

Well, every artist is entitled to do a little something for herself....and this print is just that. I often am creating images from my own childhood, or my children's experiences. Today, I post a print that reflects what I am feeling right now. I can't put it into words, and so I had to draw it. I guess that makes me an artist...not a writer. I can't even say that I am waiting for anything...but the title just seemed to fit. You can make of it what you will, but for me, in this moment, maybe it's the stillness in this image I am drawn to. No wind. No noise. No distractions. Just a calmness.

Happy Easter everyone. Not bunnies today...but revived dancing french elephants to say..."Dance a little. It's SPRING!"

Happy Site Friday.

Click on the image above to enlarge for wonderful eye candy.

Today I bring you spring colors, fresh inspiration and clean space all from a magazine that I can't order cause I live in America. I have TRIED to order Ariadne at Home, but lo, I cannot. But if I lived in the Netherlands....

Thankfully they have a website, where you can find little snippets of the latest issue. And oh am I glad. Fresh. Simple. deliberate. Colorful. Just what I need for a splash of inspiration on a very brown day.

Pink. Sea spray blue. White. White. More white. Yellow. Grey. and even purple. (I am not yet a purple fan...but if I lived in snow laden Holland, I just might be).

I have never lived in the Netherlands, but I have visited Amsterdam (close enough?) and I have also been in the Swiss alps in the summer where I learned that Winter people REALLY know how to bust out color in the spring and summer. And Ariadne at Home takes that Scandinavian Country flair for fresh and colorful and created a lovely place.

Oh, and did I mention it gets better? They have a kids magazine as well??? (I drooling right now!)

So, if you live in the Netherlands, or have access to this magazine, do you want to be my friend now, and mail the monthly issues? That would just make my day.

Best of both worlds.

Well, Here they are...in all their springtime glory. I really took to heart all your comments, and I think that I have mixed all the good elements from all four and put them into one. I love simple...like you are seeing an image right after it's been sketched on a paper, but I also love a grounding illustrated background. So I think that this is just the right mix. Thank you all for your great honest feedback. It's nice to know I can bounce off ideas here. My brain gets kinda full sometimes...needs outside input.

And for your enjoyment...we have bookplates and postcards coming soon with her at school, so stay tuned!

EDIT: Here are the postcards! I am just in love with spring color right now! These cards are hanging in my studio for just the right splash of color! I love it!

I love you DeGeega.

We have a word specialist in our house. Addie. She makes up words. She learns words really fast too. Like, museum, stethescope, delectible, exhausted. She says these words in context, and pronounces them perfectly. She has always been our word girl.

Have you ever said "I love you" and recieved the response "I love you more?" Well, we say it all the time in our house, and it turned into a game really....

"I love you more."
"I love you MORE"
"I love YOU more"
"I LOVE you more."

It never ends, and no one can really win, can they? Addie figured it out.

She finally blurted out..."I love you DA GEEGA" (da-gee-ga).
"What does Da Geega mean?"
"It means lots and lots and lots."

She won. She wins every time. So now, when she says "I love you Mama and Dad," and we resond, "We love you more!" she will always reply, "I love you Da Geega." Can't top that, can you? But then really, no one can top anything she is. She is just the most fun I have ever had. I love you, Addie. (More than 'Degeega', but I won't tell her that:)

PS: thank you so much for all your wonderful input below! I just love hearing what you have had to say, and it is really helpful for me! I am still deciding, but I have decided to make the chalkboard print into some darling bookplates. Still deciding on the rest, but I have a pretty good idea! Thank you guys! You are the best!

Opinions Please.

Hello visitors, welcome to Open Studio! It's been a fun night here drawing and painting. The work is finished, and it's time for comments and critiques. Sit back, relax and have a look.

Now that you are visitors today, I am opening up the art studio for comments. I want to know which one you like the best. Or which one you would hang in your daughter's room (or yours, or your sisters...) I am really interested, cause I just don't know myself! All opinions welcome.

1) Blue




2) Chalkboard



3) artist paper color



4) green grass



Ok. Maybe you don't like any of them, but this is open studio time, so if you don't like any, tell me, but be nice. I want to make a few more prints to match, so which ever background you like will help me to draw up more little lammies. And please...even if I have never seen you around before...pipe up! All opinions welcome.

Thanks!

Happy Site Friday.

This is exciting for me. I get so excited to hear about other moms who love being moms and love being creative...with their children and without. I wish that I could post more pictures (because her pictures are AMAZING!), but I never did receive permission from the SOULE MAMA, so I will just post the book that she has published that is coming out April 1st. Oh, and you know who will be at Barnes and Noble April first. I can't wait!

Many of you have read her blog, seen her site, and have fallen in love with the way she has rooted her family is good values, exploratory learning and bright color and creativity. But I just found her last week. Pretty sad. I needed her inspiration months ago. Years ago.

Creativity lies in the souls of all of us, and especially children. She feeds on their creativity and writes about it. Maybe I love her blog because she lives in beautiful Portland, Maine. Maybe I love her blog because she has really old hard wood floors in her house. maybe I love her blog because her studio is painted ocean spray blue. Maybe I love her blog because I really want a house in the forested hills of New England (my forever childhood home). Maybe. Maybe.

But the reason this site makes for a Happy Friday, is because she inspires me to be as creative with my kids as I am in my mind after they go to sleep (which is when I grab my sketch book and get all my ideas out that have been pent up all day). Living an a small condo in a very uninspiring part of town, I sometimes think I am limited and can't be as creative with my kids. We haven't a large space for finger-painting on banner paper. Or any trees near by for climbing. Or room for the kinds of things I would like to do. But after getting to know Amanda and the way she chooses to unveil the world to her children, I am inspired to give my kids the kind of world that will always make them curious, and never lose their curiosity. Have fun. I know you will. And buy the book.

EDIT: I just found out that Bloesom Kids posted an Interview with her just today! It is so inspiring!

Tangles, Toddlers and Two new stores

Isn't he just so darling? Yes, but oh so clever!

So Ian wakes up from his nap today with a great big YELP! and then quietly seems to rest back to sleep...or so I thought. I was in the middle of you know...all those things that Mommies do during nap time, and hoping for a little more time, accepted the fact that he was just having a dream. Well, optimism wore off when I walked in to see Ian IN HIS CRIB but with our room looking like this.



Yes, he had climbed out of his crib, rolled around in the bed, went searching for bears in the trees outside our window and became so excited that not only did the covers get scrambled but the blinds broke too. I wonder if he found any bears. (I did!!) So what he did isn't really that earth-shattering...I mean really, there isn't anything else to do in our room. What makes him the CLEVER boy, is that after making all this mess, he must have remembered that he wasn't allowed to climb out of his crib, so he crawled back inside which is where I found him after I heard him say...oh so politely..."AWAKE!"



And then Darling-dainty-ready-for-the-runway-Addie has the habit of ROCKING (no I mean really rocking...like she WHIPS her body back and forth as though I were still bouncing her up and down the hallway from her severe colicky days) and so her hair becomes this wild tangled seaweed every time she takes a long time to fall asleep (which has been every night now that Addie and Ian are sleeping in the same room now). Wow. Sorry grammer freaks. Run-on sentence. But really, you can't tell from this picture...but Little Miss has DREADLOCKS underneath those loose curls that (I have timed it) take 25 minutes to get out in the bath after only one night of tossing around.

But with my mischief making son, and my wild haired daughter we still manage to get things done here in the studio. Like starting wholesale! I have two online shops with my artwork ready to order...and not just any online shops. These are GREAT! I encourage you to look around (if you haven't seen these stores already). All incredibly great for kids and all very unique. Warm Biscuit has been a favorite of mine ever since my nursing days when I would nurse and read catalogs...theirs being a favorite. Simply a boy is new to me, but oh so great! With all the GIRL stuff out there, it's about time there was a place just for those boys! And there are more coming soon!

I love the children's industry! I love that I get to be a kid and a grown up all at the same time. Best of both worlds. Hey...I never even have to make my bed! (Ian does it for me:)

Framed.

Searching for the right frame is like searching for just the right prom dress. I hated formals for that very reason! After one day of shopping with nothing to show for it, I would usually just give up and try and think of a creative solution (like the time I borrowed my best friends formal just so I didn't have to face the mall mob one more time).




Well, there is no borrowing here folks. These frames have been in the works for months now, and well, I think that they turned out just great. I am debating whether I will sell them on my ETSY site. For now, they are for the companies I will sell wholesale to. I have 8x8, 8x10, and 11x14. Just right for the prints in the shop. Thank goodness I have an uncle with an empty unfinished basement!



And speaking of "framed" Kenneth and I have FINALLY managed to get Addie and Ian in the same room! With a daughter whose method for getting to sleep is singing, talking, moaning and rocking her crib very loudly, we have had reason to hesitate. But sharing a studio with a sleeping baby boy has proven to be even harder, so we decided to go for it.

How have they fared?

Well, let's just say they haven't been sleeping much. The first night went like this: crying for mommy, followed by random animals sounds, laughter, more animal sounds, more laughter, then addie saying, "Ian, we're best friends. Let 's talk". An hour later, they were still laughing and talking. I have never been happier about them staying up late. It is the sweetest thing when you see your children enjoying eachother's company. Especially when Addie has decided to sing Ian lullabies at night. She sings "Twinkle Twinkle little star" and he just curls up in a ball in his crib. I think that they have only been loving each other more now that they share a room. Happy babies, happy mommy! And now that I have a studio to myself, I can get crackin' on selling more framed artwork! Horray all around!

Happy Site Friday.

I may have mentioned this blog before. In fact I am sure I have. It is also on the left hand side under "My Daily Reads."

I don't read many blogs...i browse through my friends and my favorites every once in a while...but ZEN HABITS has me hooked.

I am a mom. I am a wife. I am a cook. I am a housekeeper. I am an artist. I am a business owner. I am an assistant dance teacher (ok...I keep Addie's 3 year old dance class under control). I am a voice teacher. Bus driver (to Addie and Ian). I am a bill payer. I am a woman who loves time to myself. (when?)

Do you relate? Sure. Every woman I know has to be a master juggler. And ZEN HABITS (though written by a man) is starting to help me get the picture. Each day of the week is designated to a different topic (finance, organization, family, simplicity, health) and he writes about it.

He has 7 children, is a writer (meaning...there is right brain in him like me) and he believes in living minimalistically. It is beyond me, but I DESIRE to believe I can do the same (not the 7 kids part!!)

But keeping two kids, a studio, a happy husband and laundry all from flying out the window in complete chaos is a real art! I go through phases. Right now, I am needing to get back into the phase.

I need to have a picture in each of my posts ( I am a visual person...no. Really?) And so I leave you with a picture of me and my kids 2 days after Ian came home from the hospital. Remember now, that Addie and Ian are 12 months apart...so Addie, bless her, was still just a baby!


If any of you have any inspirations you find to keeping the balance, please share. It is always good to get good simple ideas!

But for right now, this site is making for a Happy Friday.

P&P

I am so excited! Bowie over at Print and Pattern posted my stationary today on her site! If any of you haven't seen her blog/website yet, you really need too. She posts products and photos of products that she finds all over London...all with some element of vintage/modern pattern and color. GREAT site for the design minded. I just wish I had more design experience! My dream is to figure out how to make more pattern elements in my artwork...but maybe I just need to take classes...or just read enough of Bowie's Blog??



Well, I am just really flattered. Bowie is a dear person with a great eye. Thanks!

I can't send you to the post exactly...only her site, so scroll down a bit...it's there:)