Busy, busy...

Last Friday was the Fall Festival at Ella's school. It was her first chance to wear her Halloween bat costume that we made together. It turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself! I just love fall!

I've also been putting the art shed to good use lately. Christmas presents, anyone?

Stress Relief

Life is so stressful right now. Seems a lot of things are just up in the air for us right now.

Another good day in the art shed

It's still hot here, so I got out to the shed early this morning and stayed there until about noon. It was so nice to spend some time there. I got my encaustic stuff all fired up and for the first time in the shed I goofed around with the wax! I just love this stuff! I created this little Crow King and started another one of a jellyfish that is looking pretty good so far.

Last night I was watching an episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" that was saved on the DVR (I know, say what you want, I like this show. I also like "Project Runway".... Unlike "America's Got Talent"and "Dancing With the Stars" these people are true artists and really do have talent. Say what you like about that..) and this kid who was trying out had on these really awful pants (if you watched you know the one's I mean).... it seems this is his his thing, looking for and wearing what he called "bad pants". I just thought that was such a funny thing. I thought, what a great idea for some little collage pieces. Bad Pants! These ones are acrylic paint, paper, buttons, paint marker and pen. More to come, they were quick, and fun and look so funky and much better in person.

One in, one out

I just love the weekends. Yesterday was a busy day, but busy in a good way... not like that craziness during the week. We did some shopping - I love new clothes. I got to do some scrapbooking - I worked on getting some pages done from our trip to Michigan and Chicago this summer. Here are a couple I managed to get done:

The dogs got haircuts:

Ella LOST a tooth

and, we found Honey Crisp apples at Whole Foods - they're organic and so, so yummy.

Good Thing

Tomorrow is dog haircut day. But, isn't Fred cute anyway?

Ah, there it is

Well, the tooth finally came through this week. Ella lost her two front teeth right around Christmas (I know your singing the song now....) and they have been gone ever since. It seemed seriously strange that her teeth were missing for so long. I even took her to the dentist and told them "some thing's wrong". They took some xrays and said "look, lady, your kid is just fine.... see, you can see them there, just below the gums. They'll poke out soon." And, sure enough there they were on the film (and they were HUGE!).

So, there it was, this Wednesday, finally making its appearance.

Good Ol' Fred

This is Fred. He is SUCH a good sport. This is one of Ella's favorite things to do. Dress him up and tie him up. This was poor Fred this morning just before breakfast. He's wearing his favorite apron and he's tied to the chair with a hairband and shoelace. Ella will use this same contraption to tie poor old Fred to the back of her big wheel. He trots along amiably behind her as she pedals across the patio. I would so bite her....

Art Shed and Buttons

Well, let me just say that I am (so far) not a very good blogger. I guess that I have just been all caught up in life since January and have not really thought to post. It's funny, I really like to read the blogs of my friends - it's such a great way to keep up with what is happening in their lives when we don't get to talk very often - but, so far, I am so not good at retuning the favor!

It has been a busy summer around here.... full of ups and downs. I still can't talk about the downs, but on the ups... we had a wonderful vacation this summer. We flew to Chicago and drove to Alpena, Michigan (a LONG drive, if you are wondering) to see my folks who bought a house (huge Victorian era thing) there this year. It was quite relaxing, though a bit cool. Alpena is on Lake Huron and it was cool enough that the lake didn't warm up enough for me to swim, but Ella gave it a try. We got to visit with my grandparents, my Aunt Kathy and my cousin Kristin and her family. It was nice.

On the way home, we stayed in Chicago for a couple of days. What a fun city. We spent a couple nights walking through the Art Institute (free nights!) and one day we spent checking out dinosaurs and a special pirate exhibit at the field museum. We also got a chance to see the HUGE American Girl store on the Magnificent Mile. Ella kept saying "Ok, I think I've made my decision...", and it was truly amazing that we got out of the store without buying one thing. Even more amazing was the fact that there was no pouting, crying or tantrum throwing from that seven year old! She's amazing.

The recent big news here is the addition of the ART SHED! We bought a Tough Shed for our empty garden space in the back yard to house all my scrapbooking, painting and encausic stuff. Ella quickly took over one corner of the shed for her space and she loves the idea of creating art pieces out there - she's so creative! So far, it's a big mess inside as i work on organizing and putting all my junk in there..... I can't believe I had so much stuff in one little closet in the house! Craig is happy too, because he has a space back for his computer in the den.

In other big news, my mother-in-law, Mary, got a new puppy! She has had cats ever since I have known her, but recently started making noise about getting a dog. A year or so ago she moved into Reno and there are several walking paths in her neighborhood - one goes right in front of her house and she has enjoyed watching all the people walk by with their dogs. I think she will have fun walking her new dog when in get bigger... So far, she is calling her Buttons.

Birds

I got my bird coasters all framed up today and I am really happy with how they turned out! I think we will hang them in the remodeled bathroom.

Coasters

Check out this fun project. I met a friend recently at Chili's for lunch and I stuck a stack of coasters from the table in my purse . I painted them with white gesso and then added these fun mixed media birds. There are 12 of them all together.... time to collect some more coasters!