Photo 366 #5

January 24 - A pretty little flower that Maben pointed out on the way to school.  He even picked some to give to his teachers.  I have the sweetest little boy!

January 25 - I neat looking design in the leaf of a plant.  Not sure what kind of plant it was, but I like the way it looks.

January 26 - Love the graffiti on the back of this sign.  Do you really think they would prosecute someone spreading some "Love?"

January 27 - Colton was trying to "fly" like his brother on the swing.  So cute.  Unfortunately I didn't get my camera out fast enough when Maben was pushing his brother's butt to show him how to really fly.

January 28 - A sharp shinned hawk decided to swoop right in front of my car while I was backing out of my driveway.  He landed in my neighbor's tree, so I got out and took A LOT of pictures.  He didn't mind.

January 29 - Colton was released from the stroller temporarily at the local home and garden show to enjoy some coloring on a spinning paper plate.

January 30 - Either a double breasted cormorant or a neotropic cormorant sitting on some power lines.

Blast From the Past: Stained Glass Man

I have been pretty well immersed in doing stained glass lately.  I wish I could show you more than just 71 pieces of cut glass, but I am still grinding and fitting them.  A very tedious process.  I am working on window...to be revealed at a later date.  But, it did get me thinking of a painting that I did back in college that I called, Stained Glass Man.

My friend Joe is the man in the painting.  We were assigned in our illustration class to paint a silhouette.  I loved that illustration class, each painting that we did were based on a theme that frequents illustrations.  It left much of the creativity up to us. 

The stained glass window behind Joe is from the Crouse College building located at Syracuse University.  Such a beautiful building with an amazing pipe organ located within it.  Even though this was the furthest building for me to get to, I never really minded because of it's beauty.

Source: here

Just a little FYI for everyone, Crouse College housed the first College for Fine Arts in the United States.

I've Been Vandalized!

I will be the first to admit, it was probably too quiet in my house and I should have investigated, but instead I was enjoying a quiet moment surfing Pinterest. 

Then, Maben (my 4 year old) came downstairs.
"Mommy, come see."  Waving me over.
"What do you want me to see?"
"Oh Mommy, come here."  This time extending his hand out and the sound of worry in his voice had me seriously worried.

I grabbed Maben's hand.  "Mommy, close your eyes."  He is crazy if he thought I was going to close my eyes while he lead me up the stairs.  We reached the top of the stairs and he points to my art room.
"In there."

I walk in and see a very proud Colton, with a giant smile on his face and a black marker in his hand.  He had just vandalized a painting I was working on.

"See!" proclaimed Colton...EVER SO PROUDLY! 
"I see baby."  I quietly die a little inside.  If anyone has lost a painting to a little vandal, you know the feeling.  "You aren't suppose to color on Mommy's stuff.  You color in your color books."
"See!  A bird!" 

My little artist was so proud as if it was he that did the entire thing himself.  I couldn't be mad, but my heart hurt and bursted with pride at the same time.  I was hurt that I had lost a painting, one that I was working very hard on.  It hurts to lose something creative that you pour your soul into.   I was also so proud that my little guy is showing the true marks of being an artist.  And it reminds me of how much fun we had doing this.

I guess we need to do another painting project together.  Maybe we will tackle using some brushes this time.

Decorative Rocks

Last year I painted some rocks, you might even remember my lady bug rock.  Anyways, I had prepped a bunch of the rocks with gesso and never got around to painting them.  Instead of painting them, I sharpied them.

I love the way they turned out.  Most of the colors laid very flat on the surface and didn't give me a lot of lines.  The greens seemed to give me the most trouble, but I don't mind the look of the "lines."

This was is definitely my favorite of the set.  It's Maben's favorite too!  He declared that he is going to take them to school to give his teachers.

I am definitely going to need to do more of these with markers.  It is so much faster than hand painting all the details.

Linking this up over at:

Photo 366 #4

Sorry to be a little MIA lately.  I was heading up a Preschool fair for the city I live in and it was rather time consuming.  I am happy to report that it is over and done with!  YAY!  I will be back much more frequently to share with you what I have been up to.  In the midst of all the chaos, I have kept up with taking photos.

January 17 - Maben insisted on using the umbrella on our walk home from school, because there were about 10 raindrops that fell.

January 18 - Driving down a local highway I spotted a huge herd of deer.  Obviously I had to pull over to take some photos and show them to the kids.  One even ran right in front of my stopped car!

January 19 - A bird in a tree.  Not sure what kind of bird, but will update if anyone wants to let me know. (My FIL informed me it's a Northern Mockingbird)

January 20 - My feet, in my favorite shoes, standing on a rock in my backyard.  Vibram's Five Fingers.  COMFY!

January 21 - I almost forgot to take a photo, so I took a picture of fruit on my counter.

January 22 - Meet Doozer!  This is my first fur baby.  He is part sheltie, part border collie and becoming very stubborn in his old age, but boy, he has a lot of energy if he sees a ball.

January 23 - A rare smile out of my sick little guy.  Who knew ear infections could be so horrible?

Take Action

I am not blacking out this site today, but I am passing this on.

Take action and sign the petition to let our government know that we do NOT want a censored internet. 
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

If you want to understand why this is so dangerous, please go to this site.  A guy read the bill and broke it down from it's crazy legalese into normal language. 
http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/

Create

Do you have an inspiration board in your studio/crafty area?  I do and it has pictures of family, inspirational places, small pieces of art and now it will have this.

I created this to help remind me to keep creating.  What helps keep you inspired to create?

Photo 366 #3

January 10 - I snapped some photos of a pomegranate before digging into all those yummy seeds.

January 11 - I took a photo of the sun radiating through some clouds.

January 12 - Maben fell on his way home from school, scraped his knee and started crying.  This is the first smile I got out of him.

January 13 - Photo of a beautiful bird.  A cedar waxwing.

January 15 - The kids and I had a lot of fun watching this turkey vulture swoop through the air.

January 15 - Colton with ice cream face.

January 16 - The first splatter of ink on a new piece of artwork that I am working on.

Splatter Paint and a Bird

Like I said previously, I have deemed this the year of creativity.  I want to push my boundaries and release my mind from the walls I have put up.  I would like to be a little more like Dr. Seuss and whatever I dream of, can exist...at least on paper. 

So, I took some watercolor the other day and put some drips and splatters on a piece of watercolor paper.

Nothing too exciting here.  The lines at the top made me think that I could make an umbrella.  But, there was still something missing.  I figured out what I wanted to put under the umbrella after I captured this beauty at the park yesterday morning.

Once all of it combined in my head, I needed to put it all to paper.  This is what came about and I love it!

Photo 366 #2

I found it quite easy this week to remember to pick up my camera.  It might have something to do with my new camera bag that I got from hubby for Christmas, more about that another time.

January 3 - I revisited the same rock wall after some fresh snow fall.  I'm not sure if I prefer it with snow, or no snow.

January 4 - Squeezing in some pics of the kiddos with their grandparents.  It was our last day in Vermont :(

January 5 - This is how we roll at Target.

January 6 - Enjoying the beautiful fall like weather on the walk home from school. 

January 7 - Looking at the wood print blocks that my in-laws gave me for Christmas.  Can you guess how I feel about them?

January 8 - One very tired boy on playoff Sunday.  Go Broncos!

January 9 - Admiring the bubbles that were being made by water drops falling from the trees into mud puddles.

I'm Painting Again!

While up in the woods of Vermont over Christmas I brought my new watercolor set (which by the way is totally awesome, thanks hunny) and a new journal of hand made paper that is perfect for watercolor.

I really love these small sets.  They are so portable.  I feel like I could take them just about anywhere.  They also make it through airport security!  Tube paint will not always make it through, because it's technically a liquid.

This is the new watercolor journal I bought myself as a gift for the trip.  Love the thickness of the paper.  I picked this up at Hobby Lobby.  Can't remember the brand because it's not written on the journal, but you can find it in the sketchbook section.  This one is 9.5x6.5 inches.

Here are two of the paintings I did while on vacation.  Both paintings are watercolor with ink overlay.  There is something about being totally disconnected that is inspiring to me.  Maybe it was the slow internet connection that kept me off of Pinterest and Facebook!

The painting above was inspired by a photo I took of a Common Buckeye butterfly.

The painting above was inspired by a photo I took of a Viceroy butterfly that was hanging out on some Queen Anne's Lace. 

Both paintings aren't perfect in my eyes, but after only picking up my watercolors less times than I can count on one hand last year, not a bad starting off point.  I was worried how well I would do tackling the Queen Anne's Lace, but that is my favorite part of the second painting.  I overworked the butterfly in my opinion, but we are our own worst/best critic! 

2012 is the year of...

Creativity! 

I have decided that this will the be the year that I really bust out and put my best creative foot forward.  This last year has helped tremendously.  This blog has helped tremendously.  I really feel like I have busted through that creative block and have more ideas than I can possibly entertain.  I am finding inspiration everywhere.

This is a very exciting feeling.

When I started this blog, it was because I was lacking that feeling.  The part of me that saw the possibility, the dream, the beauty in ordinary places.  I have it back and I never want to let go of it.

I have been painting again, I will share them next week.

I am excited to challenge myself with my photo 366.  I look forward to that and hope that you do too.


I won an online class from Alisa Burke.  I have been working on that and it's fantastic.  If you need the artistic motivation to get you sketching again and the ideas flowing, I would recommend her class.  We are only 6 days in and I am having a lot of fun with it.


Tonight I get to start my first of 8 stained glass classes.  Every Saturday evening for the next 8 Saturdays I will get to create, in uninterrupted bliss!!!  I am so incredibly excited for this.  My first project up is a lofty one, a piece to hang above our new front door (which still needs to be installed).  Here is a peak of some of the prep work.

I will go into more detail on my window project in the coming weeks as it progresses.  For now, I see lots of cutting and grinding in my future.

Anyone else dedicating this year to something special or amazing?

Photo 365, errr I mean 366

I am taking the plunge.  I have decided to attempt to dedicate myself to doing a Photo 365 (actually a 366 since it's a leap year).  For anyone who hasn't heard of this project, it is taking a photo every day for an entire year.  This will be replacing my Favorite Photo Tuesday.  So, I will be posting all my photos for the week on Tuesdays now.

January 1 - Vintage glass bottles at an antique shop in Bennington, VT

January 2 - Rock wall in the woods of Vermont