The Trials and Tribulations - and Completion! - of a Painting...Plus a Really Cool Real Cake!

So here is the process I went through for the "Let Them Eat Cake" painting.  I started out taking photos of each step, and did really well for a while; unfortunately, once I got started on the actual picture, I got so caught up in it that I forgot to take photos!  Oh, well.  

Okay, here's the blue on the red.  I didn't like the blue paint that I had on it, so I tried mixing another color.  Here it is with the two separate colors.  After it dried, I did another sketch right on the canvas.  This one I did with watercolor pencil.  I like using watercolor pencils for sketching on paintings.  They're so easy to erase and don't leave residue for the most part.  Sometimes I can't get charcoal pencil off the paint when I make a mistake and if I've custom mixed the background color, painting over it becomes a hassle.

After I sketched it I realized two things.  One, the cake plate was way out of proportion to the rest of the cake.  Two, I still hated the background color, waaaaaaaay too bright.  (It's hard to tell in the photo, you'll have to take my word for it!) I started to wipe off the sketch and then realized  that it didn't matter if I was just going to paint over it - plus I still needed to take this photo.

You know what that meant, right?  Shopping!  Oh, yeah...  Took a quickie trip to Michaels because I was sure I had gotten Golden liquids there before.  Wrong.  The good news about that is that I didn't have to make a total decision on the color there at the store.  The paints they had were cheap enough that I could pick out a couple colors to try and pick up another bottle of my favorite green.

Here is me throwing a couple sample strokes of paint at the painting.  Even though they both looked quite blue in the bottles, against the brightness of the blue underneath one looked gray and one looked green!  Agh!      So I decided to mix them together and see what happened.  I didn't mind it, it need a little somethin', somethin, but overall was happy with how the color was turning out.

But then, ack!  I realized that there were some very unsightly bumps on the canvas!  (Help!  Canvas ProActiv, STAT!)  So I tried sanding them down and painting over them.  While the bumps felt smooth, as soon as I put paint on them, they showed up big time.  Sigh.

So I was like, "Okay, I'll put some molding paste on the canvas!  No problem!"  Oh, lordy!  So far from even, it just started creating more oddness.(That's wet paint from when I was painting over the sanded part and the white part is the molding paste that I gave up on.)

So I just pulled out another canvas and picked one of the new paints - the aforementioned grey looking one that looked perfectly lovely and blue when it wasn't on top of the other, brighter blue - and painted yet another background.  Which, yes, I forgot to photograph!

Then, while that was drying, I sketched, cut out, and outlined the vintage dictionary page that I was using for the cake plate.  I love my vintage dictionary!  It is one of those gigantic, 6 inch ones from the late forties and has awesome color pictures of different species of animals, birds, reptiles and the solar system.  It also has maps of the world, and charts for the moon phases and other fun stuff.  It belonged to a boy that lived next door to my husband when he a little kid.  One day my DH took me on a drive and showed me his old house - he hadn't been there in years - and the neighbor was having an estate sale because she was moving into a nursing home.  It was the same neighbor, the boy's mother, after all this time!  Her son had written his name in his little-boy handwriting on the cover, so I think of the coincidence of that day every time I pick it up.

I also went over to the computer and experimented with fonts for the "Let Them Eat Cake."  I printed it out and, because I have an ink jet printer and it will otherwise smear with the slightest moisture, I sprayed the printout with a clear, matte, quick-drying finish.  I cut out the words and inked them up a bit so that they didn't look so starkly white.  Then I outlined the words with a dull-ish charcoal pencil.  In some sort of elven magic way, if I write on the paper soon enough after spraying, the charcoal seems to meld with the spray and doesn't smear when I run my finger over it.  I've no idea why not.

Then I got to painting - and forgot to take any pictures!  So here is the finished product.  I know it doesn't appear that the original blue and this blue are all that different - but they really are quite different from each other!  And isn't this cake plate so much more in proportion than it was in either of the sketches?

The other thing I was going to show you was this amazing cake I saw at a 6 year-old's birthday party that we went to.  It was FANTASTIC!  The little girl's grandmother made it and she is NOT a professional.  Can you  believe it???  She made each and every thing.  5 little fairies and each one has completely different hair!  One of them even has ringlets!  There is a teeny, tiny, little tea party on the stump; teeny, tiny teapot, teeny tiny cups, and little pinwheel rolls and a tiny cake.  Each cupcake had a big flower, 2 little flowers, and 3 leaves; and each flower and leaf was hand-painted!  Besides what you see here, there were 30 more cupcakes lined up on 3 long tables for the kids.  I talked to Hollie, the little girl's mother, and she told me that her mom had always made amazing cakes for birthdays.  Can you imagine the amount of work that went into this???  Geez!  It was all I could do to get to the store to pick up the cupcakes for Rexy's class on her birthday.   I mean, I can sort of see doing it as a grandmother or an aunt (my sister makes really awesome cakes for Rexy's birthday parties) but when you actually have children at home???  I would be calling for cocktails before the third flower was painted - frankly, before it was even iced!  I'm thinking of sending this to Cake Wrecks for the day she shows the pretty cakes (Fridays?  Sundays?  I forget.).

Lastly, a quick reminder that we're having the Art at the Speed of Life Blog Tour right now!

Here's the schedule:

Art at the Speed of Life Blog Tour

1-Mar   

Crescendoh - Jenny's Blog: 

http://jennydoh.typepad.com/

2-Mar   

Suzi Blu: 

http://www.suziblu.typepad.com/

3-Mar   

The Altered Page/Seth Apter: 

http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/

4-Mar   

Suzan Buckner: 

http://www.thriftycollageartist.blogspot.com/

5-Mar   

Sue Pelletier/Laugh*Paint: 

 http://www.suepelletierlaughpaint.com/

6-Mar   

All Norah's Art: 

http://allnorahsart.blogspot.com/

7-Mar   

Faerie Enchantment: 

http://faerieenchantment.blogspot.com/

8-Mar   

My Collage Art: 

http://nancylefko.blogspot.com/

9-Mar   

Always Chrysti: 

http://alwayschrysti.com/always-chrysti

10-Mar   

Lisa Bebi's Art Blog: 

 http://lisabebi.blogspot.com/

11-Mar

Jodi Ohl/Sweet Repeats: 

http://www.sweetrepeats.blogspot.com/

12-Mar

Living Out Loud (Hey, that's here!): 

http://loudlife-laurieblaumarshall.blogspot.com

13-Mar

The Feathered Nest: 

http://the-feathered-nest.blogspot.com

14-Mar

Paulette Insall: 

http://www.pauletteinsall.com/blog

   3/15

   The Art of Julie Bergmann

   http://juliebergmann.typepad.com/pinkparismatch 

The Street Fair report

(My Polka Dot House)

These are some of the new things I took to the street fair. The Mill Creek Street Fair, to be specific. Sigh... It was not that successful. So disappointing, I usually do well at that sort of thing. I worked, worked, worked like crazy to build up my inventory...and hardly sold any paintings or collages. Sigh. Sold lots of $3 cards, though.

(You Take the Cake!)

I just love those cake collages that people make, so I though I would try my hand at a mixed media cake. I loved how it turned out! I loved it so much, I made a little card out of it, too. This didn't sell at the street fair - but! I posted some pictures on Facebook and one of my Facebook friends messaged me and said she wanted to buy it! Hurray! And she was local, so no shipping - double hurray!

(Words Fell Like Snow)

Remember this background? Well, I finally finished it. I was going to put a coat of wax over the letters on the bottom (you may have to click on the photo to see them well), but someone in the Melange group told us that putting straight wax over acrylic is not a good idea because it will peel off. So I nixed that idea and just left it as is. I like it this way, too. I think they look more like snowflakes.

(I'm Hungry)

Oh, I love the little stylized birds! This one is just 3x10 (approx). I had someone ask if I ever painted these bigger. I have tried a few times but I just haven't been satisfied with the results yet. I think I need to get a tub of Golden's paint to ensure an even, smooth coat of opaque color. I have to drive about 30 minutes away to get Golden's, all they carry around here is Liquitex. On top of that I have to break my moratorium on buying new supplies! At this point I'm drowning in supplies and have forbidden myself to get anymore! There is currently only a trail to get through the dining room/art workspace! Partly because my DH commandeered one of my tables to use for a bike build-off - so all those supplies are on the floor right now. It won't be much better once I get the table back if I don't reorganize, though. I got a ton of those plastic shoeboxes at the dollar store to organize my supplies and Rexy's toys. I'll let you know how that works out...

(Take Flight With Your Dreams)

I'm still laughing about the exploits of Rexy and Daddy that happened last Thursday night while I was at the movies. It's a long story but it involved a flooded bathroom, a secrecy pact, and Rexy's claim that, "I can't tell you what happened. It's a secret and I'm practicing to be a spy." Later at bedtime I told a story about Goldilocks forgetting to turn off the water in the bathroom sink because she was so busy playing and Rexy looked at me in wonder and said, "That's exactly what happened in our bathroom!"

Collage Play with Crowabout #42

(Solar Powered Flight)

My first Crowabout entry...and I'm late! I forgot about the time difference. Sigh. I still want to participate, though. The sun is made from the picture of the airplane journal entry, the balloons are made from the individual words and, obviously, the picture of the man. Her belt is from the striped strip and her pedestal is made from the sign and the pic of the checkers game box. (I haven't figured out the macro function on my new camera. I may have to go back to the old one to get a proper photograph.)

In looking at this, I think I will go in and add something more to the background/sides. What do you think?

Lastly...Thanks Nancy!

The Perfect Post or...?

Where have I been?

Where have I been? I have just been here.

After the Christmas craziness, my house fell into rack and ruin (wrack and ruin?). More so than is usual for me, anyway. First, I had the brilliant notion that I wouldn't allow myself to go online or make any art until I got everything done around the house that I wanted to get done.

Hmmph! You know that saying, "If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it?" Well, I think there must be something to that. As soon as I wasn't overloading myself, I stopped doing anything. So I guess if I'm not being a part of the artistic community or making art then I'm not doing crap, basically. Add to that, if I'm not making art then I'm depressed. So that was a bad idea.

Then, it had been so long I felt like I had to give a rundown on all that had gone on in my life up to the point of my blog post. Which is silly, it's not like I had a baby or won the lottery or anything. I struggled and struggled, trying to write the perfect blog post. You know the one; it's the one where you show yourself in the very best light while also being personal , where you show great feats of artistic accomplishment, domestic aptitude, beautiful children, and a spotless

home.

Then more time had passed and then I felt like I really had to write a great post. This idea grew and grew until it was one big, ginormous, 300 ton boulder in the way of my blog writing. I think I gave myself writer's block.

Finally, finally! I gave up on that idea.

So here I am. Just me; perpetually behind, fairly slacker-ish, intermittently artistically inspired, mom, wife. Far less than picturesque. Completely lacking in the schedule-following department. (I always think that if I could come up with the perfect schedule, I could get everything done that I want to get done. Hah!)

I'm just a seeker in life. A seeker of my truth. One that doesn't necessarily include perfection.

That's a hard one to let go of. Like most of us, I love the idea of perfection. But the reality is, I don't love it so much that I'm willing to sacrifice other things in life that I love. Even if some of the things I love in life are kind of silly (like computer games).

In a perfect world I would get up early, serve my child homemade something-or-other for breakfast, effortlessly clean my house, blog, contribute to my forums/groups, and then put in a 6-8 hour day of art making while also serving a homemade lunch and dinner to the family, exfoliating, giving myself a mani/pedi, and exercising for an hour; thus leaving the evening free to spend quality time with my husband discussing art and politics. (apparently groceries magically appear in this world)

In my real world I stay up too late playing computer games, read my book in the morning after serving my child some kind of cereal or store-made pumpkin bread item, feel lucky if I either do the dishes or get a load of laundry going, seldom leave the house before noon, and if I have to go grocery shopping while Rexy's at school you can just kiss art-making good bye for the day. I do spend time with the husband in the evening - but we usually just watch TV. Forget about personal grooming - any extra time I have is spent playing with my girl, going to play dates, and struggling to keep the fallout from our pack rat tendencies at bay.

(All that being said, I still think I should create some kind of schedule...)

With all this in mind, I came across this week's Melange on Etsy Challenge. This week's challenge prompt is "Bliss." What that immediately brought to mind is Joseph Campbell's phrase, "Follow your bliss..." What does it mean to "follow your bliss?" For me it means really coming to terms with exactly who I am and what I want and then arranging my life to accommodate those things. More poetically put, "Be a seeker of truth and a builder of dreams." And so I painted this last painting. (Our 2 (!) tripods have been misplaced by the DH, so I couldn't get a full frontal pic. Above is the scanner image and below is the best I could do without a tripod.)

I so love my friend Pam Carriker's color palette that I thought I would try an homage to it. I don't think I achieved her beautiful, subtle layers. I may try to sneak some more texture into it later.

Lastly, I'll leave you with a picture of my beautiful girl. She's turned 5 and graduated from preschool since I've been blog-absent.

Not An Actual Post - But An Important One Nonetheless

If you haven't already heard, (Moss Hill Studio's) JoAnna Pierotti's husband, Ron, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.  If he doesn't receive surgery immediately - within the week - it will cut off the blood supply to his brain and he will not live more than a month.  Ron was laid off recently due to the economy and they are currently without health insurance.  They are trying to get help through social services but are unsure if they will qualify.  If you can help even a little bit, please chip in by using the widget below.

I'm sure that all of us, at one time or another, have been helped by the kindness of friends, acquaintences, and strangers.  Here is an opportunity pay that kindness forward, if only with a kind note.  I just keep thinking what a terrible, terrible blow it would be to lose my husband and my heart goes out to JoAnna.  Please join me by sending your thoughts and prayers - and a few extra dollars if you can - her way.

I've been on a loooooooooong computer hiatus...

I'm coming back, I promise!

Famous Last Words...

Mine sounding something like, "I'm back, and I'll be here more!"

(Day 1 of the snow, when we still thought it was pretty. Pictured is a 1935 Rugby Streamline.)

What with "Snowpocalypse" here in the NW (thank you to Dawn for the awesome moniker), Two (yes, 2!!!) plagues besetting our house in one month), and the holidays, my world has been turned upside down.

First, the snow. As I was clicking on "Publish Post" last time, I looked out the window and realized it had been snowing again! In total, I think we ended up with about 18 to 20 inches in our neighborhood (not including the 3-4 inches we got this past Sunday night) over about ten days time. Can I just mention again, an average of 3 inches of snow per year! We don't even own a snow shovel. Thankfully, we kept our power. Some people lost power here, and my friend Nancy Lefko's community back east had 424,000 homes without power. I do consider us extremely lucky.

Because of the unplowed surface streets covered in over a foot of layered ice and snow we missed our family Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Luckily Rexy is too young to have huge expectations and Phil's family always had small holidays, so they were fine. I, however, was disappointed. I missed my huge extended family. I love spending time with the cousins and aunts and uncles and various in-laws, ex-roommates, and a random selection of aging dogs. It's loud, and chaotic, and there's always somebody's elbow practically hitting you in the eye when you eat - and I love it. Our little spaghetti dinner just didn't quite compare.

Which is not to say I had a bad holiday - on the contrary!

Rexy woke up only slighly earlier than usual - and when she came out to the living room she couldn't stop saying, "Look! Look!" She was just thrilled that Santa had come. As she was unwrapping her presents, she stopped to look up at me very seriously and held out one of the bows from her presents, "Don't throw these away, I want to save these." Her parents' daughter! We had a pancake breakfast, a leisurely day, and the aforementioned spaghetti dinner (supplies were getting low). Definitely a more peaceful day than is usual.

I gave two of my cousin's paintings for Christmas. (When we finally saw them.) They turned out a little more "Prim" than I meant them to. The top one incorporates the dictionary pages for dog, cat, goat, and human for my cousin with the menagerie at home. The bottom one has a repeating 07 motif for my cousin and his wife whose birthdays are both on the 7th, as is their anniversary, as well as another family member's birthday. I thought the paintings would be fun and whimsical for their respective kitchens.

Oh - and the second coming of the plague. Sigh... Even as I write this, I am stopping periodically to turn away from the keyboard and cough my lungs out - practically. This version has been going on since about the 27th. Suffice it to say we've all had it. I seem to be having a hard time getting rid of it. I spent the entire day in bed/couch yesterday. Rexy was an angel and just played at my feet all day. The best line from Rexy about her sickness, "My throat is gone, but I think I have a beaver." I didn't laugh! Now my entire family is talking about "beavers."

Lastly, Haikus! This time it's just SueAnn and I. I'm sure my inconsistency has been affecting participation - not to mention the holidays. Next post I will be writing about goals for 2009 and I will talk about future Haiku challenges.

As usual, SueAnn's Haiku contributions are things of beauty. She is definitely a poet.

She had another for the winter theme:

Edged with snow and ice
roads disappear in the night
sliding, slipping...stuck!

and for the Beginnings theme:

Starting over again,
feeling the pangs of rebirth
Begin this life rejoicing.

And from me for the Beginnings theme:

Start, start, and start again
fall down, stand up, just don’t stop.
To stop is to fade

Beauty is in each
beginning; fresh, clean, and pure.
To begin is all.

Happy New Year.

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Yes, that's my child. Still in her pajamas at noon.

What? That black stuff? Oh, yeah. That's the pretend chicken pox she drew on her face - like Pingu - with a marker. No, it's not enough that she gives me this never-ending plague - she also has to use a black marker on her face mere days before we go face the relatives. I did manage not to laugh so as not to encourage her - but I had to take a picture - and that encouraged her. When I went to get the camera, she went over to the mirror with her marker - to get the places on her face that she'd missed!

On the bright side, though, it came off pretty easy. Turned out she'd used a dry-erase marker. Phew!

Winter Haikus

Blue Stellar's Jays hanging out in our snowy plum tree.

First, I'd like to share SueAnn's Haiku:

Frost fills the air; cold
etching glass with swirls and curves
Watching breath turn white.

Isn't that beautiful? It so perfectly captures our ideal version of winter.

And from Kayce, as always, making me laugh:

December is cold
chocolate and Schnapps
mug is all i need

Eyes peeking at me
a hat too big, scarf too long
torture is my game

From Teresa, I wish I was in Texas right now myself!

A chill in the air
Does not snow in South Texas
but very rarely

And lastly, from Liisa; although it was Thanksgiving turkey that brought her parents together, we have turkey for Christmas dinner, too.

Nineteen thirty-three,
farm girl raises turkey chicks,
sells one to my dad.

Thanksgiving turkey!
Without him there'd be no me!
You can ask my mom.

(well, that wasn't really the last one, mine is down at the bottom of the post.)

Frosty, the mini snowman


Frosta, the mini snow-woman

We're snowed in. If you live anywhere but the northwest or a warm climate you will laugh at the next sentence. We are snowed in because we have 10 inches of snow. Yep. Ten inches. (Okay, possibly as many as 12.) The Seattle area pretty much comes to a standstill at about 3 inches. I think there's about 2 snowplows and .62 of a road sander for every 100 square miles in this area. Seriously. Right now there is a huge suburban neighborhood completely without gas in their gas stations because the tankers can't get to them. The situation is almost the same in the state's 3rd largest city. In our defense, we average about 3 inches of snow a year - and we got eight inches in one night! Also, we are an area of hills, hills, and more hills. So while the main road might be passable, you may not be able to get out of your neighborhood, or even out of your driveway due to steep inclines.

What this means at our house is that my DH has been home, Rexy has been out of school, and both of them have been needing to be entertained! Rexy and I have been doing lots of crafts. The DH and I have been watching movies. And the DH has been monopolizing the computer! I started this post 4 days ago and have been stealing time here and there to fill it in.

The barn at the tree farm, appropriately named The Red Barn Tree Farm!

During my blog absence, we went to get our Christmas tree from my aunt and uncle's Christmas tree farm. I wrote about the farm extensively last year in this post and this post.

The stove used to heat the inside of the barn

I thought I would just post a few pictures from the excursion. Rexy was the happiest girl in town when I let her play in the giant mud puddle. Her hat kept slipping down over her eyes, so all of her pictures make her look eyeless - or nearly eyeless.

She's still in love with the flocked trees, but after last year's indoor "It's snowing!" experience in her bedroom we are never doing that again. (I was still finding that flocking stuff in July!)

When looking at last December's posts, I saw the free images I posted in honor of Chanukah. If you didn't get them then, here is a link to all of December's posts from 2007 which is where the freebies are posted.


And finally, some art! Well, works in progress anyway. I've been finding it strangely difficult to work on things with everyone at home. By the time they go to bed, I'm feeling so wrung out and cranky that I just want to vegetate. During the day, I find myself thinking longingly of my computer games! I guess I didn't realize how much I have come to rely on that block of time when Rexy is at school and Phil is at work and I can just be by myself. I feel like I should be a model mother and be happy to bake cookies, fold laundry, and play Chutes and Ladders with my child every day...but I'm just not that person. I love my family soooo much - but I 24/7 togetherness just makes me cranky. Am I the only one? Am I a terrible person? (Do I really want an answer to that question???)


This is a gal I'm working on and (and my last Kelly Rae background), obviously, I'm trying to figure out what color to paint her dress. I was going to ask for your opinions, but since I took this picture (4 days ago when I started this blog post!) I decided on dark red. It's almost done. I'll post a picture as soon as it's complete.

The canvas below I started about 2 months ago. I'm sort of in quandary. I'd like to use some pretty paper to add texture to the painting, but I can't quite find the right color. And I'm nervous about painting blonde hair. I'm certain I'm going to paint a woman, though. The mood of the painting lends itself to that, I think. We'll see.

In closing, I would just like to extend my gratitude to each and every one of you. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read and comment on my blog. The last two years have been thrilling and heartwarming and full of your lovely, generous spirits - and I thank you for that. You make my world better a better place.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Chanukah!

Happy Kwanzaa!

Happy New Year!

Basically, may happiness follow wherever you go.

My winter Haiku:

Snowmen standing guard
our ice castle safe and warm
holds us close inside.

Next Haiku challenge, lets make the deadline after the holidays - January 5th, - and the theme is Beginnings.

Summertime....

Those are Rexy's feet on our sidewalk and her friends lined up waiting for - ? Probably something involving the Wonder Pets and saving the day. (Her favorite pretend play activity. A few weeks ago she came up to me with a cardboard box and an empty paper towel roll and asked me to make it into a fly-boat for her. If you have toddlers you know what that is.) I would say that we are single-handedly causing a future water shortage with all the running water playing that Rexy has been doing in this heatwave we've been having here, but since I'm not wasting any water on silly things like laundry and dishes my conscience is clear. BTW, in Seattle a heatwave is officially defined as any temperature over 75 degrees for more than 14 daylight hours in a row.

One of my card displays at the EtsyRain Street Team sale

I'm so excited - perhaps too excited? - I created a new playlist for my blogs! In honor of the season, no less! Only 16 songs, though, I may get tired of it before the season is over. (Yes, I use my blog playlists as my stereo - otherwise Noggin would be the soundtrack to my life!) Not to mention the repetitiveness of the selection. Take a look at the list. They're not all the same song, it just looks like it - although I did include several different versions of the classic. I'm interested in the different interpretations.

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of this on Friday night, so I had to catch a quick picture at the sale. It didn't turn out too well, but you can get the feel for it.

I painted these mod little birds - completed them Friday night - and they sold immediately at the sale on Saturday. My husband was so enamored of them he asked me not to sell them! Since he knows the artist, I told him he was out of luck. I had so much fun with them, that I'm now painting more to put in my Etsy store. Look for them in the next few days...

I ended up running out of time on Friday, so I had to put all the earrings on their cards and all the price tags on the jewelry and paintings at the venue. So I was pretty feverishly busy doing setup in the morning. See that white light behind the display, below? That's looking at the windows with their blinds drawn. The sun was streaming in and it was about 95 degrees in there. All the makeup melted off my face and I ended up having to put my poor, limp hair up in a clip. I got up an hour early to get ready and ended up looking like I do every day! Oh, well.

Display in progress - never did get a pic of the completed display!

So, I did decent business at the Etsy team sale. Enough business to encourage me and keep my motivation up, that's the important thing. We got turned down for Headstart for Rexy. That means I have to come up with enough money to keep her in private preschool for the next year - both her Spec Ed teacher and her head therapist from the UW program recommended that she do both Spec and Regular Ed programs concurrently until she starts Kindergarten. She needs the peer models in Regular Ed and yet she still needs some of the therapeutic aspects of her Special Ed preschool. Everyone's goal is that she be fully integrated by 1st grade - no more special ed! She's been doing so spectacularly, I'm sure we'll be able to achieve that.

A view of my new earring card design

It's hard to believe that two years ago she could only say "milk," and "more." To give you a little perspective on that, at age 24 months a common milestone is for children to have 100-200 words at their disposal. 2 years ago she was 28 months old. You can see why we decided to get her examined, and she was subsequently diagnosed as Autistic.

You might have noticed that "Mommy" and "Daddy" are not on that list (of two). We were so thrilled when she started calling us Mommy and Daddy. First Daddy, and then, around mid-August, she finally called me Mommy for the first time. She was standing with my sister about 50 feet away from me and I was standing next to a car salesman. I turned to him, absolutely delighted and near tears and said, "She just called me Mommy!" He just looked at me oddly and said, "Oh!" I realized later that he probably throught she said it all the time and that I was somewhat strange to have made such a big deal about it.


Also 2 years ago we were accepted into the Early Intervention Study at the University of Washington. It was a 2 year study, consequently our participation ended last week. I've been in tears about it, on and off, for about a month. We've had therapists coming to our house 5 days a week for 4 hours a day for 2 years. Rexy doesn't remember life without her friends coming over to play. I can never thank them enough. That therapy was worth a million dollars. My girl talks a mile a minute now, plays pretend (Autistic children don't figure out pretend play naturally - it has to be taught. Who'd have thought about that? It's an essential base skill to learn as many other skills are built on that foundation.) gives us hugs and (some) kisses, looks us in the eyes, speaks when spoken to, spontaneously greets people, and can have a regular conversation. All that sounds like it would be just natural behavior, but it's not for Autistic kids. When we started this, Rexine would incline her head, regally, and that meant she was feeling affectionate toward you - kind of a sign language hug. If she really liked you she would extend her closed fist in your direction and let you kiss it. Her progress since then is a miracle. Since we always think she's fabulous and the best girl in the world, every bit of progress is a true gift. Those hugs and kisses are like winning the lottery every day. Well, seeing her sweet face is like winning the lottery every day anyway.

Where has the time gone and who can I talk to about it? (Plus Illustration Friday!)

Gah! I'm afraid CPS is going to stop by and take away my child because my house is so messy! I just don't have time to pay attention to it right now. I'm not sure they'd understand my determination not to die with the epitaph, "She kept a clean house." I must admit that things are a little out of control even by my standards. I suppose this means I'd better plan a party so that I'm forced to clean!

How do you balance your life? Child, husband, art, housecleaning; that's the order of my priorities. It seems reasonable until it turns out that I never seem to have time for number four. I've heard of people doing the "15 minute" plan. ie: they set the timer for 15 minutes and just spend that long on unpleasant jobs. But what if you can't complete what there is to do in 15 minutes? How many "15 minute" time slots do you end up having to do every day? (Yes, this is actually an extended whining session thinly disguised as a cry for help.)




Speaking of Jeri Aaron (as I was last post), check out these adorable water color dresses she's made. I'm absolutely in love with them! They couldn't be any cuter.



I've pulled everything from my Etsy store for the sale this weekend. I've painted a bunch of new stuff and have one still in progress. I made a bunch of cards from prints and got some cellophane card envelopes to put them in. I've made price tags and earring tags; now I just have to attach them to everything. I'm still formulating a packaging plan. I'm still formulating a plan for my display. They are just providing a 5' x 7' space - not 10' x 10' - so I'm having to adjust my thinking to smaller quarters. My fabulous husband made me a 4 foot banner on the plotter at work (plotter is another word for super-fancy-very-expensive-huge-printer) that I will put on the front of the table. I decided to use felt on the table so I got some sticky-backed velcro (or, as they call it on HGTV, "hook & loop tape") to put on the back of the banner. Wish me luck that that will keep it attached!

Giving Credit where Credit is Due



I'm still trying to find my painting style. I've borrowed techniques and styles from Kelly Rae Roberts, Suzan Buckner, Pam Carriker, and Paulette Insall for these paintings. There's definitely something of me in there, trying to get out. I just haven't hit upon the thing that gives me that A-Ha! feeling, you know? I would also like to give credit to Kat Tarra for inspiring me to make charm bracelets again. I used to make them all the time but I underpriced them (I made the bracelet part and everything) and it started to feel like forced labor. I'm faster now, and Kat's bracelets are so cool that I thought I would try my hand at them again.



I'll be advertising!
I bought ad space at Wickedly Chic which will be displayed 2 weeks in August and 1 week in September. (If you've never stopped by this website, check it out - there are tons of cool articles and stuff. Like this one, by Andrea Chamberlin. I was totally laughing, her mom sounds hilarious!) That means, of course, that I will have to fill up my Etsy shop. No more procrastinating and chickening out! You heard it here first! I will have a full Etsy shop beginning in July!

I looked out my window the other day and this is what I saw. How sweet is that? I had to take the picture through the window because I didn't want to scare them off, so it's a little fuzzy.

Full view of Follow Your Dreams - sorry for the fuzzy pic

Illustration Friday!

Lastly, this week's Illustration Friday theme is "Fierce." (Is there a Christian Siriano fan around here?) I've submitted this detail of a painting I painted for my sister a couple of years ago after she fought off some home invaders (yes, I've never been so scared in my life as I was when I first heard about it) and scared them away. I was so proud of her bravery that I painted her a pic of a boxer.

The Boxer, detail - painted in the spring of 2003

(Btw, if anyone knows how to make it so my thumbnail on the Illustration Friday site doesn't look so terrible, please tell me! That 50x50 size is killing me and I don't know how to make it work well.)