amazing weekend

I had an incredible weekend away with some friends in the mountains of north georgia. We took our crafty things, some good movies, fun games and never left the house the entire weekend. We sewed, crocheted, painted, made photo albums, watched elizabeth and les miserables, and played banagrams for four days straight. what more could some mamas ask for??

I worked on sewing some details into these pretty, vintage childrens' book illustrations... not sure what i'm going to do with them yet, but i really like them...

New Landscape

I was able to take a picture tonight of my newest landscape painting in progress. This one was commissioned by a friend of mine! It's still much too hazy - I want to find the balance of adding in more detail while keeping the peaceful feeling of the painting. I'm really liking the colors... I've always known this, but I realized again while painting this that I love, love to mix colors.

It feels really good to paint in oils again. They are so very different from encaustics. I love the way you can move oils around the canvas and work into them while they are still wet. I've actually found some acrylics this week that work much the same way - more on that soon for anyone who's interested...

Ughh!!

Ok, so consistency is not my greatest attribute!

It's been several months since I've last posted, but I have plans... My hope for this year is to post here at least once a week (hopefully more). I'm realizing that I have to learn to set achieveable goals. I usually go all out with something for about a week (if I last that long) and then because I can't keep up the "all" aspect, I end up doing nothing again...





Doing the Couch to 5K app has been a good lesson in this for me. (If any of you haven't heard about this, it's an awesome way to get up off your butt and get moving.) My main goal is just to complete the app - all 9 weeks. I bought new running shoes in December (Why do running shoes have to be soooo ugly?) and have been "running" since then - but I just completed week 4. The moral of the story is that because my goal has been to finish, I can achieve that, even if it takes me 6 months to do the 9 week app. I've seen myself getting a little more consistent lately, so hopefully, I'm making progress.


I feel like I'm seeing the same progress with my artwork and other creative endeavors. We had quite the setback in January with a round of the chicken pox and no school for a month, but now that I am back in my little studio, it's been great. I've started a commissioned painting, found a new medium that I LOVE, and have taken the first plunge into a new art installation that i have been dreaming about through the past few months. I'll be posting pictures of all of this in the coming weeks!

so here they are...

The beginnings of a pocket advent calendar.

my second bag... not quite put together yet

detail from the bag

machine embroidered zipper pouch

and more zipper pouches...

Pictures of a few of the things I'm working on for the Moss Rock Festival. I keep hearing such good things about this festival and can't wait to check it out and participate!

Oh my!

It's been over a week since my last post - I'm still getting the hang of blogging - figuring out the timing of taking pictures, editing the pictures, and then posting. Any advice?? I'd love to figure out how to utilize flickr better...
Beau has been gone all week, and needless to say, life is always more hectic as a single mom. I was thinking that, without him here, I would have extra time at night to get some sewing done, but most of the nights he's been gone, I've fallen into bed with the little ones at their bedtime! I did start working on some fun things last night for the Moss Rock festival, and I will hopefully be able to post some pictures later tonight of the things in progress...