and the winner is...

...my little buddy, Jacob. Proud winner of the history bee. And some celebratory cookies. I didn't have time to bake, so I made sandwich cookies out of vanilla wafers and homemade frosting. Yummy! Good job Jacob!

rainbows everywhere...

I thought all of the rainbows were kind of cheery. I keep my embroidery thread on these neat old spools I found on etsy, my favorite piece of batik fabric, some new oil pastels and a journal page I never finished. I've noticed that most of my blog posts are color coordinated. Why is that? Does anybody else do that? I think I get it from my dad. He has his routine right down to certain meals on certain days. I'm not that bad, but... I like things to match. I only wear neutral colored clothes, usually something black or white or gray, sometimes khaki. And I like things a certain way. I have a routine most days. Get up, coffee, get the kids off to school, exercise, studio time, check emails, work on some art, lunch, blog, more art... Of course, it helps keep me focused, but still. Time to get out and do something exciting.

dreams...

My original love is for making dolls and I've gotten away from it somewhat (although there is a lovely fairy in my shop right now). I find myself missing the dollmaking process, so I am working on some new dolls of my own design. The doll above is one of the first dolls I ever made - from a book called Crafting Cloth Dolls. I still remember the day that I discovered this book. At the time, I had been a stay at home mom for a few years and hadn't done anything creative for a while (except for raising four toddlers, which involves a different sort of creativity). I had just discovered the internet and I saw this book on Amazon. I fell in love with the doll on the cover. For me just then, a dream was born. So I ordered the book and made the doll and then another and another... Little by little, my squelched creativity was let loose. And that opened up a world of dreams and slowly, slowly I find them coming true... And it's all so wonderful. So you see, dreams really do come true.

no place like home...

There's no place like home, that's for sure. A picture of a shadowbox I made for my daughter with her most favorite pair of shoes ever. The words are stamped on the outside of the glass. I thought I would show you this picture of my kids. We stopped at one of those photo booths in the mall. They've gotten so big, we could barely fit them all inside. So much fun. It was one of those hang out at home weekends. I dragged out our spin art machine and the kids had fun playing with it. I'm still finding spots of paint all over the dining room...

fun at the art shop

I've been shopping today. I've been hanging on to this gift certificate since Christmas and I finally got to go to my favorite local art supply store and spend it and boy it went fast. I got some new stuff to try, but my favorite is the recycled brown paper journal. You know I'm a fan of journals and this one caught my eye. I love the rough brown paper. I'm thinking some pen and ink? I'll let you know. I didn't want to leave you with just one picture, so I included a couple of snippets from one of my art journals.

this and that

With all the kids back to school today, I'm doing a little catching up. Working on a little birthday present. I always spend more time on the presentation than the actual making of the gift. I think that is actually my favorite part. Here, I made a pair of earrings and then I stamped and hand colored a tag and wrapped it with ribbon and hung the earrings from it. I hope she likes it! My 12 year old daughter made this lovely lemon cake yesterday. It is so lemony and delicious. Each of my kids can cook to varying degrees. A couple of summers ago I had them each choose a meal they wanted to make and with a little help from me, they planned it, shopped for it and cooked it. They turned out to be really great meals and now they all feel comfortable in the kitchen. Now I just have to teach them to clean up! Also working on my drawing skills today. I'm trying to draw a little something every day. One of my goals...

purpley stuff

I can't believe it, but it is snowing again. One of the reasons we moved here was to get away from the icky white stuff. The kids are home anyway because of President's Day, but who knows about tomorrow. I may have to start home schooling pretty soon (ha ha). Sooo anyway, I'm doing some experimenting today with collage and painting, which is one of the things I do, but I am still working up the courage to put that kind of stuff out there for everyone to see. One of my goals... But as I was taking some pictures for you, I noticed that everything was kind of purpley (is that a word?) The top two pictures are of today's experimentations and the next picture is part of a wall hanging that I am working on and the last picture is of flowers I received for Valentines Day. My nine year old picked them out. He picked a red rose for each of my daughters and he told my husband, "mom needs something colorful" and this was his pick. So pretty. And purpley. I hope you all had a wonderful Valentines day. I had so much fun posting all the hearts last week and thank you to everyone who stopped by to look. I truly appreciate all of your lovely comments.