B is for getting Bolder.


When I draw, I find myself drawing from my own childhood as well as my children's. I was a soft colors child...yet Addie is my bright colors child. I want to put more color in my artwork because it reminds me more of my own children. Here is the B in ABC. (I always seem to want to start in the middle). We love to cook in our family, and this will be an ABC for fun, vintage, red and pink little cooks. Don't worry. Boys are in the works too. I was just 'in the mood' for this tonight.

Mommies are fast. My children are faster.

Have you ever had ONE OF THOSE DAYS?

It is 9 pm, and my children are finally asleep, and I can almost give a little chuckle in my fatigued state of mind.

The day:

6 am: ADDIE: "mommy, I can't go back to sleep. My ear hurts." Addie was also up in the night several times with a terrible cough. Ear infection I am sure.

6:30 am: Kenneth leaves for the airport to California.

7 am: Ian awake

8 am: make 9am appt for the kids to see the Dr.

8:15: Try to feed two toddlers with no appetite

8:20-8:45: attempt dressing them and bundling them up for the cold. They thrive in their new-found stage of independence they think they have by saying "no" as much as they can and running away from me as much as they can.

8:45: leave for the Dr. I close and lock the front door and realize I left my house key on the kitchen counter.

9 am-10am: Dr.'s office: Addie has two ear infections and a sinus infection.

10-11am: scramble trying to find a willing boy to climb my balcony and break into my bedroom. THANKS WARNER!!!!!

11am-11:45: unsuccessful getting Addie to take any medicine. It ends up all over her and all over my floor. AS I get her ready for naptime, Ian is shoving raisin bran in the humidifyer he took apart on my living room floor. While I am getting Ian ready, Addie attempts to get a better look at my christmas cards and ends up ripping half of them up in the process (sorry guys!) While I put Addie in her bed, Ian is tearing up all my folded laundry. Oh, and pulled the bag of brown sugar out of the cupboard and was attempting to spread it on the couch when I fortunately caught him.

11:45-1:30: Ian learned how to climb out of his crib this week, and he is proud of it. Just when I thought he was finally asleep, I hear a pounding on the door. He naps in our bedroom, and managed to pull out all the DVDs from their cases and spread them all over the floor. No wonder he was so quiet! Addie won't go to bed because she can here me attempting to keep Ian in his crib unsuccessfully. Neither one of them nap.

1:30pm: I give up. I sneakily put Addie's medicine in her milk, and she drinks it...mostly. While I am taking Addie to the potty, Ian spills the rest of it on my bed sheets. They are pink now.

1:45pm: A realtor calls wanting to show our condo. "TOMORROW!?!?!" I plead.

2 pm: Kenneth calls. He missed the second leg of his flight and now has 6 more hours of travel on top of the 6 he has already had.

2: 30: lunch. I am not paying attention to Ian who has opened up his PBJ and is painting the table and himself with the peanut butter side because I am trying to get Addie to eat something!

3pm-7pm: Before my apt explodes, I get the kids in the car and we spend the rest of the day at IKEA...just let them run around and ware themselves out. I let them play in the children's showroom section...just barely keeping them together. If you've been to IKEA with kids, you know the sheer physical energy it takes to work the isles. By the end, they were screaming in unison thinking it was funny that they could do it together. Much more fun than screaming by yourself. I even took them out to eat in the restaurant. Why do they put Cranberry sauce on the kids meal plate?!? I will never know.

7:30 pm: HOME! BEDTIME! CRASH!

THE END. We'll start again tomorrow!

'Tis the season.

Whew! I have gotten through my Christmas shipping, and I am on a break to enjoy my family. It has been a really fun two months, but I am really looking forward to having more time to add some things to my shop. I am not shipping anything out until Jan 2nd, which will give me some fun family time and fun drawing time! Thanks for all of you who commented on the last post! That was so fun to read...I can't wait to see what comes next!

Since I blogged last, Kenneth and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. I have to say ( and this is saying a lot) it was our best yet. We opted out of a hotel overnight and a fancy dinner, and ate in. We (well, Kenneth), made chipino...true San Francisco Style. WOW! it was the BEST I have ever had. Muscles, clams, shrimp, scallops, halibut, monk fish all stewed together in a killer broth served with sourdough bread. Ladies...if you haven't married yet...marry a cook. It's a great set up! We also managed to spend the morning with the King Singers performing their Christmas tour with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Laughter and tears...wow!!! The best day ever!

These past few days have been delightful! Addie and Ian are catching on for the first time as to what Christmas is all about. Addie says in her bedtime prayers: "Please bless Jesus to have a good birthday". It is so cute.

We have been making snowflakes, Christmas ornaments, gingerbread houses, playing in the snow, reading Christmas stories (Addie was a little worried about the Grinch and his awful behavior, until the end when Cindy Lou-who was very happy that all the presents were back). Christmas movies have been a hit...Addie, upon watching the musical numbers on White Christmas for the first time, turned to Kenneth who was snuggling next to her and exclaimed "OH! Daddy, I love you so much!" (with the tone of "thanks so much for buying this movie for me...I am a complete person now!") Addie is the born dancer in the family (well, not counting Kenneth).


We have been doing a lot more crafts this month. Ian painted for the first time, and lets just say...He found a new way to express his artistic side.

Addie, being the "follow the rules" type, never knew that you could paint on more than just paper! After looking over at Ian, she immediately began to copy. Who would have thought that body painting was so much more fun! The tub experience following was even more of a riot. BLUE bath time.

Head to toe, wall to floor. It was so worth it!


They learned about Santa Clause this month also. We live in a condo which doesn't have a chimney of course. We told the kids that Santa comes through the front door to bring us presents on Christmas Eve. Well, Addie, not knowing when Christmas Eve is, told Ian the other day (who loves to play on the mat in front of the front door) "HURRY!!! MOVE AWAY!! you are going to get hurt and bonked on the head! Santa is coming!!!" Ian hasn't played in front of the door since.

Christmas Songs: Oh, this is a fun one. They know them all by heart. Even Ian, our little low-pitched (is he on pitch?) singer LOVE to sing "angels we have heard on high" with the runs and everything. Today in church, Kenneth was leading the music. I was having a little wrestle with Ian, and Addie escaped up to the stand where Kenneth was conducting the congregation. Well, Addie stood right beside him, opened up her little hymn book and starting singing "Glory to God in the highest!!! Peace on earth good will to men!!!!" It was all just too darling, until He picked her up to take her back to her seat, upon which she started screaming. He was ruining her performance! Come on now!

Well, I am vowing to blog more. I will post pics of our Christmas events. Let the festivities begin! This actually will be the most quiet Christmas we have had since we were married 7 years ago. We are staying home for Christmas...no travel (our parents live on opposite sides of the country), no school deadlines (Kenneth graduated with his masters in the spring), no performances (I played "Mary" in the musical production "Savior of the World" for three Christmases in a row), and no pregnancies (I was in pre-term labor with both Addie and Ian over the Christmas holiday in 2004 and 2005). Yay! We are looking forward to a cozy Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I want your opinion...

It's time for some new work....and hopefully January is the time to do start drawing again. December has thrown me for a whirl, and while it has been fun to ship packages every day all around the world, I am ready for some more time to add more stuff to the shop. I have more compositions and sketches in my head than I have time for right now!

Here is where you come in: I have Three LINES right now in my shop.

1)French text with animals: simple lines and clean fresh colors


2)Vintage inspired children: illustrative yet great for children's rooms

3)Elephant and Bunny: meet Wellesley and Winslow...best friends that do everything together regardless of their differences

What I want to know from you IS:

WHICH LINE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE OF ?

This is your turn to share, and I genuinely want to know.

I plan on doing all three, and my heart loves all three...but I want to know from you...

which do you like best, and which would you like to see more of?

(even if you have never commented...this is your chance:)

Let it SNOW!!!

It finally snowed here! December 1st brought a full day of snow showers. It was so magical...especially to see the kids out in the snow. It was Ian's first snow really. Last year he couldn't walk, so this was just so fun! I just love that I didn't have to try hard to capture the joy in their faces!

I love this picture of Ian. Somehow he hasn't managed to watch "The Christmas Story" yet.


And now with it being officially the season of Christmas, I have some new things in my shop. Come and take a look!




It has been a full month... and I feel December isn't any different. We are really trying to sell out place so that we have a little more room to wiggle. Working out of my little corner is starting to get crowded! It works, but I think that it is time for a little change. Let's hope we get a buyer! Any of you want to buy a cute condo?

And finally, here is to cold December Kisses. Can you see where I got my inspiration? It is easy with these cute kids all around me. Here are some favorite phrases from this week:

Addie and I are driving at night, and the car next to us on the road is covered in snow, which looks dark black in the dark. --"Mommy, that car is junky and covered in a lot of scary!"

Addie shows me her drawing she just did--"Mommy, look at my concept letters" "what did you say?" "Look at my concepts" "What?" She turns to Ian for more support. "Ian, look at my concepts I just made." Abstract thought at 2? Last week she was calling her drawings "calculus" (neither my husband OR I are math people).

Ian's favorite little act is to mimic the phrase from Charlie browns Christmas where Charlie Brown sees there is no christmas mail in his mail box. All you have to say is "Hello in there!!!" and Ian will reply "RATS!" The cute thing about it, is that Ian has a lisp. So it really sounds like "Rattttttttthhhhhhhhhs!" So cute!

The holidays are for snuggling.

Well, aren't they? I think we had more hugging and snuggling going on this weekend then ever!
What a treat to take 4 days off...we spent the Thanksgiving Holiday with Kenneth's parents in a cozy little cabin/condo in Park City. Food, food and more food (any more pumpkin pie left?) and lots of laziness. Just what we all needed. Oh, and shopping. For how much my husband hates BANANAs, we sure love the store! (outlets....yummy.)

Today, is a picture post. In this case, pictures really are better than words:





And since I am the photographer...I had my husband take at least ONE picture of me. I must remember I will look back on all this and think...where was I? Oh. Behind the camera.

I do have to explain this one: Kenneth received an old pair of ballet toe shoes from a dance teacher, and he brought them home to Addie. Remember: Addie is two (almost three, and LOVES to dance. She just has the 'feel'). Well, He brought these home, and put them on her feet. He never once told her how to use them. We just figured she would walk around like a duck. Well, we put on a little classical music, and she began to walk on point....completely on her own. This shot isn't a full shot, but she is balancing all by herself...holding on to nothing. Is she a natural? Baryshnikov, make room on the stage!

There is a little news:
My little "Mistlstoe Kisses" was featured on the ETSY front page. I noticed it, because all of the sudden my little picture received like 50 hits with in a 10 minute time frame. By the end of the 3 hour stint, there were 300 hits. This was a real moment for me. Very cool.

And, yes. More to come for Christmas. There are some new tags in the shop, and we'll see about getting more. I have a gift show coming up this weekend that you ALL must come to if you are in UTAH. Last year was SO great.

nov. 30-dec. 1st: Covey Center for the arts
425 W Center St. PROVO

beehivebazaar.blogspot.com

And one more thing: DO any of you ever read ZEN HABITS blog I have posted over there on the left? Read it! It is so great! Being a creative person striving for balance and simplicity, I find his articles extremely helpful. Here is the one for today. It will get you thinking....great ideas;)

top 20 ways to come up with great ideas

Read it!

CHEERS!