wish you were here

we're back from our week in hawaii.  i feel like part of me is still floating on gentle, clear, blue ocean waves.  i can still hear the sound of the waves crashing on black lava rocks and feel the warm sand beneath my toes!  we've decided to save up for a hawaiian vacation every year! i don't know how we'll do it, but it will be something we treat ourselves to each year.  hawaii is such a magical place filled with amazing natural beauty and kind, friendly people.  i just can't imagine never being able to return.

i'll be back with my regularly scheduled (art) program as soon as i can take some photos of my newest journal pages.  i brought a bag of supplies with me to hawaii and i maybe did half a page!!  i envisioned all this time of relaxing by the pool or on the beach with my journal but really, after hanging out on the beach all day, exploring tide pools, floating in aqua blue water, eating good food and heading back to the hotel to swim in the lagoon pool, i was too exhausted to make art! ;)  my husband had the same idea, that he'd have all this time to write (he's a poet and philosopher) and he came to the same conclusion that vacation really takes a lot of work! :)  (not that we're complaining!!)

it has been pretty easy for us to ease back into the "real world."  i'm not gonna lie, northern california this time of year is just blooming with beautiful spring goodness and mild weather.  it's not quite swimming weather, but it's definitely run around barefoot in the grass weather.  i've decided to see my every day surroundings as a mini vacation or "paradise" of its own.  

Mama's Holiday Wishlist

TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
sweaters from anthropology, frye engineer boots, golden fluid acrylics, caran d'ache neocolor II watersoluble artist crayons, pan pastels

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
recently i received an awesome hand knit headband from wendy! (i also love everything my daughter makes for me!) :)

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
good question...probably something scrapbook-y or a more intense quilting project

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
a little casio electric piano

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
littlest pet shop (but she doesn't really need any more!), movies, games, books

6. What is your favorite holiday food?
turkeystuffingmashedpotato

esandcranberrysauce

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
baby quilts (might take a little longer, though!) ;) and most likely some ornaments and cards

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
It's a tie between "A Christmas Story" and "Scrooged"

9. Favorite holiday song?
The Little Drummer Boy (sung by Bing Crosby and David Bowie)

10. Favorite holiday pastime?
Decorating the tree and just hanging out with the family at home listening to Christmas music and making holiday treats

Right Now

This is in response to Catherine's tag...she posted a fun prompt on her blog and asked us to respond. The question is: What are you all about right now? Here is my free flow, starting...NOW:

being a mom

online art classes
facebook (gotta stay connected and share)
youtube (artsy videos, art technique tutorials)
finding 5 minutes a day for art (sometimes less!)
day trips
intense dreams
wanting to DECLUTTER my house, my life
wishing for a new space to live in
expanding family
connecting with other artists

yearning for sleep!

baby steps
bold, bright colors
travel
outdoors
sunshine
love
joy
peace
the ocean
the sky

half done projects

art journaling
collage
finding my own unique style, voice
being ok with mess
good food
pearl tea
girlfriends
family
home

Thanks, Catherine, for the chance to play. ;) I'm blogging and arting a lot less these days...got a sleeping baby on my lap as I type this. It's all about balance and baby steps. ;) I'm fighting the urge to want to do art when she sleeps, cuz I know I need sleep, too! I scribble and glue a little in my art journal here and there (feels good!) and I'm still trying to find time to write a little. That will come with time. Having a baby actually helps with that whole "spontaneous" art and life thing. I don't have time to ponder and second guess my art, if I have time at all! It's just scribble and play and paste...bzzz! Time's up! So that is good. I'm also lucky she is a good traveling baby. Been out of the house a LOT this week. Half Moon Bay (relaxing day on the beach!), water park yesterday (Maya ran through the sprinklers and played on the playground while we chilled in the shade), visits with girlfriends...Life is good! Slightly sleep deprived, but feeling good. ;)

My Studio/Art Space

I was up until two in the morning last night caught in one of the rarest of all artistic moments--I cleaned up my studio! (Raul refers to these nocturnal bouts of energy as "hamster mode", after his childhood pet hamsters Nietzsche and Einstein who would suddenly decide in the wee hours of the night that it was the perfect time to shuffle their shredded paper and woodchips from one end of the cage to the other) I wish I had "before" pictures, but I think I'll make the clean studio the "before" and then take some pictures a few weeks later after an artistic episode and that will be the "after." :)

I'm really proud of my studio. It's a small room in the back of our old craftsman home--I think this room must've been added on years later or it was once a sun porch or utility room. It's kind of lopsided and two of the walls consist solely of windows. When we first moved in, I claimed it as our room and the kids were in the front two rooms. I like having windows for walls. It's actually something I had wished for once! (More proof wishes come true!) Later, everyone switched rooms and Zach ended up in the back and the girls shared the middle room. After Brielle moved to Washington to live with her mom, I had another major cleaning/re-organization frenzy and moved Maya into our room, Zach to the middle room (where he started off) and the back room was cleared out and used as a storage room for my art stuff. Target had a sale that week on storage items (coincidence???) and I picked up two 3x3 cube-like bookshelves, colorful storage bins, and smaller drawers to keep the little things in.


The next week I started wishing for a large drafting table or work table and, like magic, my friend down the street had a whole bunch of extra tables sitting in her garage and let me pick TWO out to take home! :) One of them was a very large, very nice drafting table that I use as my workspace. The other was a long table I use as my "office" area. The drafting table even came with a very comfy, tall swivel chair. Awesome.


As soon as I started moving art stuff into the room, my daughter, Maya was right there, asking questions, offering opinions ("I think the table would look good over there, mom. It would maximize your exposure to the afternoon light."), and encouragement. After everything was in place, I moved her special table and chair (a gift from Grandma Jo and Grandpa Cort) into the studio and arranged all her art supplies at Maya-height. She loves her own special art space and you can often find us in there working side by side on our own little projects. This totally keeps me sane, too, because if there's one thing an artist mom knows, is that it is almost next to impossible to get anything done with a toddler/small child around...unless they have their own art studio to play in! :) (Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses DVD works, too.)


The lighting in the back room is great. It goes through all kinds of different phases throughout the day. The afternoon is when it gets the best light, and the view couldn't be better--ok, it could be of the ocean, but let's not get picky--(or spoiled! Wishes take time...I'll have the ocean view soon!) I really do believe wishes come true. Some people call it praying or asking the universe or putting intentions out there to achieve some goal or realize a dream. I believe it's all of those. If you have a dream or goal start small and big things will start to happen. It sounds totally cheezy, but I think it's true. My art studio was there all along. I just had to start thinking of it as a reality and I made it happen. I don't know what we'll do once Maya gets too big to share a room with us...My wish is that we'll have our own house by then. But if we don't, I'll find a new artspace. It's all there right in front of me.