Silence

Can someone please tell me how it got to be the middle/end of November already??? How is it that Thanksgiving is already next week and the Christmas stuff is already 40% off? Hello Friends, if anyone is out there still. I know I have been a blogger slacker this fall, so I understand if no one is attempting to keep up with me these days.

Anyway, I wanted to share something briefly today that we did on Sunday with our community group. Jon and I facilitate a group every Sunday night that is essentially a small Bible study. This past Sunday we watched a Nooma video. I won't go into a long explanation about what Nooma is - all I will say is they are a series of videos put out by a pastor named Rob Bell who is pretty awesome in my opinion. And I truely mean that in every creative sense there is. His book Velvet Elvis made me want to jump up and down and scream, in a good way. My personal opinion is he has a really fresh perspective on things that is still rooted securely to the foundations of Christianity. But again, like I said - that is my personal opinion there are alot of people who disagree with me on that.

Ok, so my point of what I wanted to share today...my rambling is getting the best of me... this past week the video we watched was called Noise. It was about the Noise that surrounds us, the visual noise, the audible noise, the noise that we can't get away from and the noise that we run to because we are too afraid of what we might hear in the silence. I'm a big fan of silence. I need it to calm me down. I need it to think clearly and regain my footing when I let myself get wrapped up in the daily drama of life (because we all know I'm also a fan of drama sometimes...;)

One of the last statements that is posed in the video made me think alot about where we look for answers- in good times and bad. For whatever reason I felt compelled to put this "out there" to whoever maybe reading this. I don't know why but here goes. The question is this...

"Is is possible that you've been searching for God in the winds...the earthquakes and the fires...and He's waiting to speak to you in the silence?"

Have a great week friends...be back soon...

Thumbs Up...

hi there. i'm sick today. and i just chased my dog around the dining room table after a pen. anyone want a dog? just kidding.

jon and i are in full bed and breakfast mode here these days. as i mentioned in my last post, my parents were just here for over a week. it was good to visit with them and get alot done around the house. the middle of this week are here expecting some more family from jon's side to come into town. fall is a great time to visit tx, especially if you aren't ready to let go of summer quite yet. you get the best of both worlds - cooler nights and warm days.

anyway, i don't have too much to share with you right now - only one tidbit of exciting news....drumroll please.....
it's a girl!! :) we had our ultrasound appointment last week and found out that we are expecting a little girl! i think we are both surprised, even though we had no preference either way, we both just thought we were having a boy. and i'm pretty sure that, that notion just came from the fact that everyone else had started to tell me that they thought i was carrying a boy. anyway, we are delighted.

everything looked good and healthy. the dr. said i was still on track for my march 15th due date. we got to see the little one moving around a little bit on the ultrasound. i have been feeling her move alot more lately. it's like having my own little alien growing inside of me :)

they were unable to get a good profile view of the baby. we did get to see her hands alot though. it was pretty amazing to watch her move her little fingers. here is my favorite picture we got from our appointment. looks like she's giving us a thumbs ups sign in there!



hope fall is finding you in good health and spirits where ever you may be. be back soon....

Fall Fun

Hi there. Just thought I'd share some pictures from the past few weeks. We have been really enjoying some Texas fall weather. I love this time of year. If I can't be in the Northeast for colorful leaves, at least I am some place where the sun is always shining and the temperature is rather perfect, low 80s and chilly at night and in the mornings.

Last weekend we took a trip to Sweetberry Farms in Marble Falls, TX with our friends Brandon and Jenna for some pumpkin patch fun. I swear, when we were kids there was one type of pumpkin. Now it seems like the options are endless!





This truck was on the farm with pumpkins in the back of it. The colors and textures in it were SO cool. I couldn't resist.




We attempted the Texas shaped corn maze. There were 8 cities hidden inside that you had to try and find. After about 4 cities Jenna (a fellow pregnant person) and I decided there was no shame in giving up. So we sat outside of the maze and waited for our fearless husbands to finish it up.

Well that's all for now. We have two weeks of company coming up. I'll try to be back in the mean time with some actual creative stuff that I am working on! Take care and enjoy the time of year!

Lancaster, PA

I love Lancaster, PA. Have I ever told you that? It's no Austin. But it has it's own wonderful, unique charm to it that is just different. I mean, where else can you go where your local Walmart or grocery store have horse tie ups out front? (for the Amish) There were a lot of charms I really enjoyed about that area of Pennsylvania. When I went back a few weeks ago my goal was to get to experience as many of my favorite things there as possible.

Downtown Lancaster is really growing into itself. There is a WONDERFUL variety of small, local restaurants to pick from. As well as some really great shops and art galleries. But one of my all time favorite things to do in downtown is go to "market". Central market. In Austin that is the name of a really nice, high end grocery store. In Lancaster, it is a real farmers market where you buy your meat from the butcher, your jelly from the Amish people and you take your pick of vegetable and fruit vendors. It is the oldest farmers market in the country, dating back to around 1757. You can learn more about the history here. When we lived there I would go down there really early most Saturday mornings and do the majority of our shopping. I loved every minute of it. My girls and I took a visit there while I was home, just long enough for me to remember the wonderful smells and buy myself some homemade jelly and jam.

Another new treasure that I visited on my trip was a store called Building Character. Be still my beating heart. My good friend Heidi took me there during our visit. I wish it were there when I lived there. It is an architectural salvage store. They have pieces of old houses - everything from windows, to doorknobs to keys. Everything in the store reminded me of my grandmother's house (you never know, some of it could have come from there!). It is the type of store that I always wished existed and who knew, it does! It was so cool, anyone reading this from up there - it is worth the visit.



Heidi and I also took a trip to one of my FAVORITE places to eat - Rachel's Cafe and Creperie. They are a small cafe where the wait can be really long if you go during peak times, the food takes a while to make but the crepes are to DIE for! Our plan was to have lunch there. But there as a 45 minute wait and then another estimated 45 minutes until you got your food and...well... baby couldn't wait that long. So we enjoyed lunch at another local spot and hit Rachel's on the way back for dessert...the best part. We shared a nutella and ice cream crepe. Sinful, absolutely sinful and totally worth it.



Well, I am hoping sleep will find me soon. Our dog Winston and I had one of our 2 am cereal eating sessions tonight (it is close to 3am as I write this). I got in bed and my mind just wouldn't stop whirling. Finally my stomach also started growling so I decided if I got up, ate and maybe wrote this entry that my brain would settle down long enough to go to sleep. We'll see how many more bowls of cereal I eat before that happens. Good night y'all.

Out of the loop

Hi. I've been gone for awhile. My apologies to anyone out there who may check back here often. I know the feeling of clicking on the link and it coming back to the same post that was there last week and the week before. I did some traveling last week and then came home and had some wonderful company a few days later.
All excuses, I know. But at least they are good ones.

I was fortunate to be able to go home to Pennsylvania for a long weekend two weeks ago. I needed to go home. It wasn't quite fall yet up there, but close enough for me. I love Austin, but the northeast will always be "home". I needed to feel some sort of change in the season and to see some familiar faces who I have been missing.

While I was there, I visited the company that I used to work for - York Wallcoverings. It was so good to go back and see all the people that I used to see on an everyday basis. I miss them. Like any job, the people you work with are the ones to help make the every day craziness worth it. What has happened to the wallpaper industry makes me sad. I worked in it for 7 years and unfortunately all throughout that time the industry struggled to keep it's head afloat. I feel like if people could see wallpaper being made, they would realize how awesome it could really be. They would also realize that it's not just all old flowery patterns anymore, that there is some really great, sophisticated design out there. Cost, well...that's another thing.

When I left almost two years ago I didn't think enough to take some pictures of the machines that are used in printing wallpaper. Being away from them now, I realize how cool they are. I feel like I look at things differently now. The following photos are some shots I took on my visit of the Surface printing presses. Surface printing is the oldest printing that is done. These presses are well over 100 years old and are still used today in the same way as when they were originally made. All of the colors that are used on these are mixed by hand in big barrels - there is nothing electronic about this particular process. I find that inspiring.


This is my friend Luke, he's one of the pressmen who actually runs the press. There is a science to getting patterns to print just right. When I was learning about printing and "trialing" on the presses I learned alot from Luke and the other guys who have been doing this for years.


This is a pattern as it is running through the press.



Don't you just love pictures of HUGE gears....I do.

Well, that's all for now. I have lot of things to share with you. I'll be back soon!

Greatful Tuesday: The Smell of Oils

"Have you ever smelled oil paints?" she asked me? "No." I said. "Well, there is something about them that is delicious, you could just eat them."

This was part of a conversation I had over 10 years ago with my high school art teacher while standing in front of the Jamie Wyeth painting pictured above, titled Portrait of Pig.

I think it's funny the way things happen sometimes. I had recently been thinking about that conversation, as I packed up my oil paints, along with my encaustic stuff last week. I will never forget the first time I DID smell the smells that come along with painting in oils while I was in college. I instantly fell in love with the richness of the intoxicating (and probably somewhat harmful) aroma. I think it is in part because of my conversation that I had years prior with Mrs. Smith while standing in front of that huge painting. So, here I was thinking about that conversation so well etched in my mind and then I also found out that she recently retired from her teaching position at my high school and my mind went nuts with all of my memories and gratitude for her.

Most of my favorite stories of my time with Mrs. Smith actually happened outside of school hours. I grew up in a small town, my graduating high school class had only about 120 kids it in. For the most part, the kids knew the teachers and the teachers knew the kids. I happened to be lucky, Mrs. Smith lived in my neighborhood. So not only did I benefit from her during the school day, but there were a lot of extra trips that her and I took on our own. We went to Washington D.C. when the big Vermeer exhibit was there in 1996 because SHE knew what a big deal it was to have so many Vermeer paintings in the same exhibit, all in the United States (at that time, I didn't even know who Vermeer was). She got up and waited in a line that extended outside of the museum for a few hours to get a hold of the free tickets, got within 10 people of the exhibit before the said "sorry folks, we've already given out too many tickets today there will be no more..." Talk about heartbreak. We stood like little dogs with tales between our legs at the exit hoping to get a peek inside (they really limited the amount of people that they allowed in the exhibit at a time because most Vermeer paintings are very small, so they didn't want to over crowd the gallery). This sent me on a mission. When I studied abroad my jr. year of college I was DETERMINED to get to Amsterdam so that I could stand in front of a Vermeer, for the both of us. And I did.

I have been very fortunate to have had mentors during every creative stage of my life. I hope that whoever out there is reading this blog, that it will cause you to stop and think about the people who invested in you along the way and be greatful for them.

Caught off guard

Hi. Last week I walked into our entry way and saw this image on our front door. I am well aware that we have two lizards that live outside of our front door, but it totally took me by surprise to find the silhouette of one of them on the door. I thought it looked pretty cool.....

Today I am thankful for a somewhat over cast day outside (of course,as I type the sun is peeking out) and some time to get caught up from the weekend. I was caught off guard this weekend when I got hit with a terrible stomach bug. Ugh. It totally took me for a ride and dehydrated me in a very short time. After an ambulance ride, two bags of iv fluids and some rest, I'm feeling much better. Thankfully it didn't last long.

I like these days, when I can just caught up on things. It's quiet around the house. I'm working on cleaning up my studio and finishing up some projects. I was all excited last week to get some creative energy back and got myself ready to do some encaustic work, only to then realize that it is debatable weather doing this type of work is safe during pregnancy. The wax that you use when doing encaustic work can be toxic if heated over a certain degree (which I don't do), but can also produce some fumes that I probably don't need to be smelling currently. So I'm packing it all up for awhile. I am working on this piece that I started last year (it's still in progress). It was a collage piece that I started in my encaustic class. I think I am just going to finish it up using some none toxic collage glues. I think I can still achieve what I want without the wax.


Thank you to everyone for their well wishes and expressions of excitement for us on my last post! This week we get to hear the baby's heart beat... :)

I hope you are having a quiet day wherever you are....

Labor Day

Hello Out there. I've been keeping secrets from you....I'm pregnant....:) Officially 12 weeks this week. I've been waiting until I got to this point to share my news, although it has been painfully difficult to keep my big mouth shut.

I don't intend on turning this blog into a blog about my pregnancy. Its main purpose is to still track my creative experience through life. But how could something so HUGE not have it's effects on every area of my life, so I hope that you will enjoy some tidbits along the way of my experiences. I am hoping that now that I am through my first trimester that I will regain a little bit of my creative energy back. I even went out last night and finally got the supplies I need to do encaustic painting at home... I took a class on this last year at the University of Texas and have always wanted to continue to do it at home. Stay tuned for some exciting projects!

So I guess you can say somewhere around March 15, 2009 "Labor Day" will take on a whole new meaning for me...

Show and Tell: Circle Journaling

Hi Friends. I hope that you are off to a great Labor Day weekend, with lots of bbq and other picnic foods. We don't have too much planned, which I am looking forward to.

I wanted to show you this journal that two of my best friends from college and I keep. Have you heard of circle journaling? It is when a group of people all take turns with the same journal, sending it back and forth to each other, as a way of keeping in touch. We decided three years ago to give it a try. One weekend while we were all together visiting we bought this simple journal and off we went. Our intention was that we would each have the book for about a month or two before sending it off to the next person. The last time I had the journal was almost two years ago when we moved to Texas... so as you can see, we aren't the best in keeping with our original time frame! Let's face it, life gets in the way sometimes - babies are born, big moves are made, career and life changes go on... But we have kept it going, which I think is an accomplishment in itself.

I feel like this book is a time capsule. I love it. Every time I get it, I read it from front to back. I pour over every inch that is written or sketched on. It's pages bind our thoughts, our creative journeys, our lives....it's a pretty powerful thing.

I was going to show you more pictures of it, but decided to keep them between my girls and I. I will show you my favorite page - it's the very first page. Even though it is by far the most simple, it speaks volumes. Enjoy.

Show and Tell

Hi out there. I can't believe it is Thursday night. What a whir wind week! I am happy to report that my girl Jenny finally made it to Austin safe and sound. Check out some of the awesome places we ate and shopped while she was here (because what else do you do when people come to visit you but eat and shop!) Here's where we got some tasty grub:

Hyde Park Bar and Grill
And for dessert we went to Mozarts
Then the next morning before hitting the shops on South Congress, we had some coffee at Jo's Coffee
then after shopping all morning we ate some tasty Mexican at Gueros's. (I introduced Jenny to queso - a reason in and of itself to live in Austin)
Then of course we couldn't leave SoCo without giving Jen a taste of Amy's.
For dinner we met up with Jenny's cousin for some more yummy Mexican at Chuy's.(my other favorite spot for queso, but I have a once a day limit, otherwise it's all I would eat!).

And here are some of my favorite places to shop (well, window shop is more like it)
Maya(love their jewelry and vases!!)
Parts and Labour (this Austin treasure has all local vendors inside it's funky shop - it is one of my favs!)
IF+D
Eliza Page(love love love their stuff!)
The list goes on and on as far as places we popped in and out of. The only place we really found any treasures that came home with us was Uncommon Objects (it's hard NOT to find treasures there).

Every time I go there I have been trying to spell our last name with old printing letters. Finally this time I was able to make something work. I love anything that has to do with old printing, it fascinates me.



Happy weekend. I'll be back soon!

Midwest Modern

Hi. I'm up at the crack of dawn again, on a Saturday. One of my best friend's is supposed to be here right now visiting and she's having a heck of a time getting here (sigh). I feel bad, I've been in her shoes where you either just want to turn around and go home or finally get to your blessed destination. Hopefully this weekend will start looking up later in the day.

I have been reading this book called Midwest Modern by Amy Butler. Another one of my girls sent it to me for my 30th birthday. (I love it when your friends know you so well that they can send you something that you've never seen before in your life and know that you will love it.) I had never heard of Amy Butler. She leads one inspiring life and her book is BEAUTIFUL. I love some of her design/life philosophies. Here is a quote from the book about their studio:

We have a mantra: Work is CHAOS. And if you understand that, every ounce of forward momentum makes you feel like you're in complete control. Pace and balance. Moderation, in all things. Taking our work and our art seriously, but not ourselves. After all, we're still an art studio. If we fail in some way, nobody dies.

When I read this part originally I just had to close my eyes and smile. I think that most design studios need to have this mantra. I worked in the corporate creative world for 7 years and I can't tell you how many days, evenings and nights that I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get to the next thing. Like the world would fall out of balance if we didn't meet this deadline. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for organization and have a great understanding of the fact that things have to get done. But there has to be a balance. For the longest time I ran around with my scales tipped, completely unbalanced. I hope that you are feeling balanced today on whatever scale it is that you work or live. Check out Amy's book, you won't be disappointed.

This Old House

Hello. Happy Monday. I hope it is happy where ever you are.

I wanted to share one more thing about my grandmother's house. It is a poem I wrote, almost 14 years ago - when I was in high school. The assignment was to write a poem that takes you through a passage of time. So mine was looking at the house through my eyes as a child, into becoming an adult.

This old house means hours of agonizing car rides and destinations filled with Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins and newly found relatives.
This old house is full of family.

This old house is the home of loving hands that wake early on Sunday morn and begin to prepare.
Days of rest mean cooking at eight a.m. in order to fill long tables that extend out of the enormous dining room.
Tables which elongate all the way to the small square in the kitchen reserved just for us by the warm window.

This old house has never-ending staircases which extend up and up.
Look upward into all of the twists and turns which take us right into the heavens.
Count as we go up all the twirling, swirling steeples of steps.
Climb right to the top, right into the attic filled with rooms inside of rooms.
Rooms full of forgotten toys and haunting mysteries.
Watch as the history of another unfolds right before our eyes.

This old house is full of secret doors and passages into other worlds.
Doors, doors and more doors leading into warm welcoming places, as well as cold forbidden places.

Travel into the sunshine that leads to the comfort of being a child and tip toe through the darkness of what is yet to come.

This old house is just another place to travel to.
Car rides are no longer painful.
Car rides are no longer even remembered.

This old house is now the home of one pair of hands.
Days of rest are now spent cooking for a small table which does not meet the enchantment of the kitchen window.
The small square reserved for us is no more.

This old house has steps upon steps.
Steps that simply create longer distances to travel in order to reach upstairs.
Twirling and swirling as we exceed only justifies the height we must fall in order to come back down.

This old house has a cluttered, dusty attic.
What an impossible task to clean the rooms and rooms of everyone else’s “has beens” and “what if” projects.
Watch as we tumble over the toys which have been lurking for centuries.

This old house has doors in the most unusual places.
Doors, doors and more doors, which only lead into stuffy, little rooms filled with cold shadows.

Travel through the darkness of what is now to return to the sunshine of what has been.


This was where our square in the kitchen was....

More Pictures

Hello Again. Sorry it has taken me a few days to post these additional pictures of my grandmother's house. I usually don't get home from my nanny job until 6:30 or 7 in the evening (most nights), by the time I get something to eat ect ect, the last thing I want to do is be on the computer. Sorry about my rambling - who doesn't have these things, right? :)

Anyway, here are some more photos that I took the last time I visited "the house".

Outside Shot


You won't be able to see it well on this image, but in the real photo you can just about make out all of the family names that lived in the house on each doorbell: Ferrara, Romano, Fulco


Another Outside Shot


This was the banister light at the bottom of the staircase. The staircase wound up from the bottom all the way into the attic. You could stand at the bottom (or the top) and look all the way up or down.


Here is one of the key holes I mentioned in my original post. This one was on a door that led into my Great Uncle Al's bedroom.


My grandmother's bathroom tub


This way the view from my grandmother's kitchen. You can't tell well from this photo, but from this window you could see the HUGE garden Uncle Al had - it was his pride and joy. This is also the kitchen where the hutch that I now have in my studio used to stand (you can see it if you go back in my archives to the second post I ever did where i showed some of my studio pics).

I have one more post that I'd like to share about the house...so stay tuned!

We are off to the Austin Ice Cream festival today with some friends. Eating ice cream is really the only way to be outside in this heat!!

Show and Tell

Good Morning. Well, it's morning here, I'm not sure what time it is where you are. But it's very early here and I am painfully aware of the fact that on my day off I got out of bed at 5 am because I was tired of laying there awake. My hope is that if I get some of the things that were buzzing around my head out of the way that I will enjoy a long morning nap! :)

My friend Megan has started having Show and Tell Tuesdays on her blog (you should check out her new plates she showed yesterday, they are beautiful!). I think it's a great idea, so this week I'm attempting a Show and Tell Wednesday, so here goes....



The house pictured above is a photo I took of the house where my father grew up. It was torn down last year. Prior to that it had been in our family for a very long time. I'm not sure exactly what I want to tell you about this house - there is so much to tell.

I'm not sure if I should tell you first that all of my dad's family grew up in this house together....two of my grandmother's sisters and one of her brothers all lived there....

or maybe you'll find it more interesting to know that this house had rooms inside of rooms...as a child I used to think that I was the only one who knew there was a door inside my grandmother's closet that led into the hallway, or that there was a door in my great aunt's room that led into my cousin's closet and so on....

Maybe you'd laugh to know that in 30 years I can count on one hand the amount of times I went into the basement because it was just too scary....

On Sundays dinner was usually early in the afternoon... my grandmother and her sisters would get up at the crack of dawn and start cooking...always pasta of some sort. When we were all there visiting the dining room table extended into two rooms...the youngest would be in the kitchen at our own little table....

Perhaps you'd find it interesting to know that there were no showers in this house for the longest time, only claw foot bathtubs, which I hated taking baths in as a child...or that some of the doorknobs to the rooms where glass or crystal...or that there were key holes that had really interesting shapes to them...or fireplaces and grates that had the most ornate details....

For me this house was a collection of memories of my family, my grandparents, my aunts, uncles and cousins. There are details like the wallpaper in my grandmother's bathroom, the creak the steps made when you walked up them and the smells that were so familiar that will be forever ingrained my memory.

I'll be back soon with some additional photos of the house and some more fun tidbits about it's history!

Happy Wednesday Y'all!

All Wound Up

Hello All. Just thought I'd share some shots of this plant that I have in our entrance way. I love watching winding plants attach themselves to things. It fascinates me and reminds me that they are really living things. I love how it twists and twirls up the trellis and then starts to grab the rock of our house. I love this plant, it is a Mandevilla. So far, it had done really well in the Texas heat, I think it likes it. I am hoping by next year this little guy will fill the trellis I have it on. We'll see.... It is the only area of my landscaping that I actually like. Our house has some really large bushes and cedar trees in front that I can't wait to get rid of. However,that wasn't exactly in the budget this year. So I managed to rip a bush out in this little section leading up to the front door and planted some lilies and the Mandevilla. I love to garden and have potted plants all around our yard. However, I have learned this summer that potted plants and Texas summers are a tough thing to maintain. So I have given up on that and am going to try having potted flowers through fall and winter down here. Hopefully that will be a little more successful.

Away for awhile

Hello out there. Sorry that I have been away for awhile. I wish I could tell you I was on vacation or had another really good excuse. But I don't. Sometimes the computer just drains me. Do you ever feel like that? I'm not sure why, during those times it's all I can do to check my emails, let alone surf around and be productive in the blog world.

On another subject, I thought I'd share something I've been working on here. Remember that tree I cut out awhile back when I got carried away? Well, here is what I ended up doing with it. Please excuse the lack of depth in the photograph, I had a hard time getting a good shot of it.




I don't think it's done yet. It's kind of chaotic, there are no resting places for your eyes. However, there is something I like about that. So I think that I may just live with it on the wall of my studio for awhile until something else hits me about it. Behind the tree are some words taken from a song I really like by Phil Wickham called I will wait for you there. You really can't tell what they say, but I like knowing that they are there. It's how I was feeling while I was working on putting this piece together. My friend Melissa turned me onto Phil Whickham. He is a contemporary Christian artist, there is just something really different about his music. There is a certain depth to his music that I can get lost in. Here's what the verse says:

....and with outstretched arms I will sing out melodies
and my beating heart will pour out a symphony
Hallelujahs in the morning, Hallelujahs in the night
I will wait for you, as long as I have life.


Happy Monday everyone - hope it's a great week!

Summer

mmmm, summer..... hope yours is wonderfully warm and refreshing. i am in love with blueberries lately, they have been so sweet the last two times i bought them. i hope you are finding things you love this july. here are a few things that I have been loving...

austin evenings...the days have been blazing hot, but the evenings have been the perfect temperature with a slight breeze - perfect for sitting outside.

ice pops...when was the last time you ate one? we had some on the 4th of july and it was like taking a step back to childhood. i bought some the next time i went to the grocery store...

going swimming...i rarely went swimming when we lived in pennsylvania. mainly because i worked a normal job during the day and didn't have or know anyone who had a pool. i am loving the fact that now there is one right next door and the fact that we have very gracious neighbors who allow us to enjoy their pool with them.

that first moment when you walk outside and the heat hits you...and it warms you up because you've been freezing in the air conditioning all day.

that first moment when you walk back inside from outside and the cool air conditioning welcomes you back....

things like green, green grass and blue, blue skies...

anything that smells or tastes like coconut....

avocados....i can't eat enough of them since we moved here...

even though it's way too early, i love the fact that the school supplies are already out because it gives me the notion that september, october, november and december are only a short time away....they are my favorite months, even if it's not the same experience in texas as it was in the northeast.....

Carried Away

I always get carried away. My husband will agree with that statement for many areas of my life (i.e.- my ability to shop, worry and talk on the phone). Sometimes I get carried away when I'm working on a project - I hate to plan. A lot of times I run full steam ahead without really taking a look at what it is I'm doing.



I have had this background for awhile. I made it a few months ago and have been looking at it to try and figure out what exactly I want to do with it. Today, I jumped in with an idea that I had been mulling around in my head - full steam ahead. The background kind of reminded me of trees so I wanted branches and a bird..... notice I said branches....take a look at what I started out doing....



I got carried away. About half way through cutting this tree out I realized it was WAY too complicated and WAY too small for what I was doing. It's not like it will go to waste - I've already got it laid out on another canvas and am pretty excited about it. But it just made me laugh - a little planning may have been helpful....but then again, i wouldn't have gotten a pretty cool looking tree out of it if I had actually planned ahead :)

So here's what I ended up with...some slightly larger, slightly less complicated branches and a bird. This collage feels quiet to me. The bird almost blends into the background. Which I kind of like - almost as if it it doesn't know someone is watching it.



I am in LOVE with this lace paper that I used for the background. I love to use it as is and also to paint it to blend it in with whatever i am working on.




Be back soon - have a happy Tuesday!

Tagged!

This is what I see every morning when I open my eyes.....


Yesterday I was tagged by my good friend from college, Megan. This is a first for me. For those of you who have never experienced this before either, it's basically an info session where the blogger is asked to provide a bunch of little known facts about themselves. Except in this version, the questions are already provided. So here goes......

What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was home from college for the summer, working as an art teacher and working at a children's camp that helped to integrate kids with special needs and typical kids.

Five items on my to-do list:
1. Clean off dining room table
2. pull weeds
3. order clear bags
4. make some new cards
5. pay the bills

Snacks I enjoy:
I love popcorn (and have been known to eat it for dinner sometimes). Chips and salsa, sometimes fruit, sometimes veggies, granola bars, or an afternoon snack will usually include some sort of treat (ie - chocolate). I could go on and on.....

What would you do if you were a billionaire?
Oy. This question is endless..... first off I'd get us out of debt. I'd make sure our families were taken care of, make sure we had money in the bank for savings, probably spend some, travel some and worry a whole lot less!

Places I would live:
I'm pretty happy here in Austin, TX
I'd go back to Cleveland, OH
I will always love Lancaster, PA
I think it would be neat to live in NYC for a short period of time
the same goes for Boston

Jobs I have had:
My very first job was a babysitter. This is what I did pretty much all through high school.
Then I worked at a private art studio as a teaching assistant.
In college during the summers I worked at the same studio as an art instructor for all ages and also at a kids day camp.

My first job out of college was for a wallpaper company, where I was a Colorist
Then I moved to another wallpaper company where my positions were as follows: Designer, Assistant Stylist, and Jr. Stylist

And now, I'm a nanny :) and creator of hand cut notecards ...

Bloggers I am tagging who you will enjoy getting to know better:
Kristy (Momental Designs)
Alison (Daily Treats)
Jenna (The Simeks)
Amy (The Amazing Adventures of Anna Banana)

{The rules of the game: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.}

Oh Baby!

Hi All! Just wanted to share some shots of these baby gift cards I did recently. I am trying to get everything together and enough stock built up to start an etsy site soon. If you have never been to etsy - you should seriously check it out. It's pretty cool and it's all small time people like myself.

Shut Out

I had a planned to write a whole other post today, but I was going through my photos and came across these and just had to share them. They make me laugh. We have two dogs - Winston, a hyper 6 year old mini schnauzer and Henry, a small but mighty 6 year old scottie. In a nutshell, they drive me nuts sometimes but I don't know what I would do without them.
Winston has never gotten out of the puppy habit of stealing anything that he can and chewing it up - paper, tissues, whatever he can to get your attention when you are not giving it to him 100% of the day. When you come to stay at our house these are my instructions every time...
" My recommendation to you is that you either keep your suitcase closed (meaning zipped all the way) or the door to the guest room shut at all times. Otherwise you may find yourself chasing Winston around the dining room table to get a pair of socks or underwear back. And he's fast...." I can't tell you how many socks I have lost to him because I have just given up. (that in and of itself is probably the problem)
Anyway, a few weeks ago I was working in my studio and both of "the boys" were with me. Winston just couldn't keep his nose out of the trash so I finally got fed up and shut him out of the room. A few minutes later I looked up and this is what I saw...it made me laugh and melted my heart in a way only my animals can.

Hope you have a great weekend! Our neighbors just got done putting in a pool, so we are about to help them enjoy it! I'll be back tomorrow to post some new cards I've been working on.