HAPPY HALLOWEENIE!!!!!!

And have a wonderful weekend as well!

Gadzooks I've Been Tagged!

Wacky and Crazy Me ;)

Okay, okay, OKAY. I  know I have the enthusiasm of a puppy but I can't help it. Dana from Charmed Designs TAGGED me! I know! I'm an infant in the blogging world and the Etsy world, and I have no idea what I'm doing. NONE. But bless Dana's heart, she tagged me anyway! So I get to post 7 wacky, crazy things about myself that none of you know. Can you even believe how lucky you are? I know! And then I tag 7 bloggers I admire, who have no idea that I'm breathing let alone following their blogs. So I guess we'll just see how THAT goes.....

Rules:

* 7 random/weird facts about me

* 7 fave blogs and links to them

* contact the 7 so they know they've been tagged

* they tag 7 more and so on 

1. I was on the Art Linkletter show when I was little. Something about getting tattled on when you wet your pants. Which I was always doing (wetting my pants). Wow, now that I think about it..... still doing. 

2. I have the cutest feet EVER. Seriously. You wish you had my feet. My ankles, on the other hand, are awful. Tree trunk ankles. Horrid.

3. I love the weirdest smells. Warm dirt. The rubber tire smell in bicycle stores. Chlorine. A far away skunk smell. Luna's paws. Vinyl. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. 

4. When I was 18/19 I studied in Israel for 6 months. I did everything from Climb Mount Sinai in Egypt to work at an Arabic orphanage in Bethlehem. It was way cool. I was way tan. 

5. I'm opening my Etsy store wildchildarts! I don't care if this is a shameless plug. Check back often because I not only think I'm a writer, I'm convinced I'm a painter and a photographer too. Find out for yourself here. I'm just sayin'.

6. I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love my three boys.............. even though it's obvious there is something seriously wrong with them.

7. I'm over 40 now so I pretty much don't care what people think ;) 

Okay, now comes the part where I tag 7 bloggers I *adore* even though they have absolutely no idea I am loving their blogs. I could turn out to be crazy famous, or this may turn out to be terribly humiliating - - - - - 

 

* Alicia from Posy Gets Cozy

* Pam from Housemartin

* Tracey from A Cottage Industry

* Erin from Elements of Style

* Christine from Lavender and Limes

* Sabina from Barefoot in the Orchard

* Ree from the Pioneer Woman

Reflection: Autumn in Sandpoint, Idaho

Around this time of year, I find myself reflecting back on the three very short months we lived in Sandpoint Idaho. Now, that is a reeeeeeeeealy long story in and of itself, so I will spare you the details. We've been back in California for four years now and Sandpoint seems like a dream sequence. 

Sandpoint is in northern Idaho, waaaaaaaay up at the top of the pan handle on Lake Pend O'Reille, about an hour south of Canada. Yes. That Canada. I had never seen such scenic beauty in my entire life as I did in northern Idaho. I'm not sure I ever will again (okay the Swiss Alps came close). It is only now, four years later, that I have finally been able to start looking at my photographs. As comforting as it was to come back to California and the people we love and left behind, it was excruciating to leave Sandpoint. We just closed our front door, and drove away.

So. Anyway. Autumn is my very, very, very, most favorite season. And let me just say that California STINKS at Autumn. At least where I live. Case in point: we are at the end of October and it's still in the 90's. The poor trees try so hard to do what they were meant to do - to turn into breathtaking, brilliant reds and yellows - to put on a fashion show like only nature can. And it's just sad to watch. I feel like posting apology notes on each and every tree. Oh sure, we'll have our autumn all right. It will last for about 48 hours sometime in November before we get some ridiculous heat spell and find ourselves once again putting up Christmas decorations in the blazing sun. But my jaded views of life in California is yet another fun topic you can look forward to another time. Back to Sandpoint.

 

When the temperature started dropping, and the trees in Sandpoint started turning all kinds of fiery colors, I felt like I was living in a painting. Around every curve and down every road there were more and more paintings to experience. I found myself pulling off the road a LOT. For the first time in my life, it wasn't just a picture I was looking at. I was IN it. Even now I can hear water lazily lapping, coots quacking, leaves rustling. Twilight silent and calm, smoke appearing up above the trees from chimneys here and there, sunsets making the yellows and reds glow orange and pink like magic. Ah, Sandpoint.

 

Then on Halloween day the most amazing thing happened. SNOW! Real snow. The kind that comes from the sky when you least expect it and you think this can't possibly be real because I can't even remember the last time I experienced snow and I don't even know what to do except dance around in it and thank God for it and feel like a kid opening the best Christmas present ever and smile until my cheeks hurt and take pictures so that moment in time is captured forever and ever and ever and ever.

 

TGIF from the Swiss Countryside

One of my all time favorite pictures - and memories - on the face of the earth. I took this picture while riding in a horse-drawn cart (YES REALLY) through the picturesque Swiss countryside, just outside of Lucern Switzerland. I will remember this day forever. Happy weekend!

The Possibilities Are Endless!

Brand new blank canvases! You know what that means don't you? A clean slate. A new day. The world at my fingertips. Color waiting for it's turn. Potential. Ah, the starchy smell of new canvases. So white and bright and patiently waiting. The smell of endless possibilities.

Every single day is a new, blank canvas. The potential is there. What do you think will turn up on yours today?

Wow...... that was borderline Zig Ziggler - sorry about that. But you get what I mean - the glass half full and all that ;) Better than a sharp stick in the eye, what!

 

GROSS anatomy

So I had this great idea for a new post today. But my camera battery was out, and by the time it was recharged, I had lost my natural light, and along with it, my motivation. Around that same time, my 17 year old came home with A DEAD CHICKEN from his anatomy class. Yes really. The feathers had been plucked, thank heaven, but that was it. It still had it's HEAD! Staring! And it's TALONS! Flopping! 


The object was to boil the chicken for 6 hours and then REMOVE EVERY SINGLE FREAKING BONE, in order to build a skeleton of the chicken in class. I know!!! So you can only imagine what a fun time THAT was. It took us nearly an entire hour of picking the bones from that chicken, while switching back and forth between dry heaving and collapsing with laughter. He did NOT appreciate my rendition of "O Solo Mio" using the chicken's beak, but I couldn't help myself. The situation just begged for it. On the other hand, our two dogs were standing at attention the entire time, smelling the chicken and salivating. And let me tell you, the entire house smells like boiled chicken skin. And it's NOT a yummy chicken soup smell. It's a fatty, goosebumps, heavy smell. BLECH! I'm thinking I won't be eating anything except cheese sticks and Ruffles for a while. A long, long while. And I'll tell you right now that there's no WAY I'll be cooking a Thanksgiving turkey this year! No. Can. Do. 


And at some point during all our fun, as we're squeezing teeny tiny digits out of teeny tiny talon skin, my son casually mentions we're doing all of this...... for extra credit. That's right - my son who is already an "A" student! OH. MY. GAAAAA....... So I give him a swift kick in the arse, he kisses me goodnight and RUNS, and there you have the play-by-play of our exciting evening. Aren't you so glad I shared? I know you are.

So at midnight I made his usual PBJ sandwich, taped a note to the door not to forget Da Bones, and poured myself a nice diet Coke. Oh, the memories :) 

Happy Monday!

I'm starting out our week with these lovely flowers. A professional I'm not, but I absolutely love taking pictures, and flowers are my favorite subject. I could photograph flowers all day. Flowers have it all. They are colorful, and cheerful. They come in a vast array of mind-boggling variety. They smell amazing. And each and every flower is a little miracle in and of itself. LOVE. FLOWERS.

Well, call me crazy but Monday is my favorite day of the week. I enjoy Fridays like everyone else, because of course I look forward to the weekend. Unless it's one of those "have to" weekends filled with obligations. Those stink. But as much as I like Fridays, I'm still partial to Monday. Just think about it. With the weekend at an end, you've just completed an overdose of family togetherness and hours of church and social activities. You've kept track of your kid's nonstop comings and goings at all hours of the day and night, and grilled cheeseburgers for them and all their friends. You've grocery shopped and successfully navigated Lowes. You've refereed boys pummeling each other and shooting each other with air soft guns. You've endured every obnoxious sound imaginable from video games and guitars. You even enjoyed some rousing games of Uno until all the cards started flying. Sure, you've worked on a few projects and you've written a few e-mails, but it's taken you the entire weekend because you've been interrupted 40 million times. By Monday morning, you are so ready to kiss your beloved family goodbye, lock the door, read your scriptures, pick up the aftermath of the weekend, get your bowl of Ruffles and your glass of diet Coke, and enjoy seven hours of peace! LOVE. MONDAY. 

Happy Friday Photo of the Week!

I leave you with a beautiful photo taken personally by moi :) This photo is of the winding mountain road that led up to our house in Sandpoint, Idaho. Enjoy your weekend!

A Little Sneak Peek :)

                                           
                                             

                                                                                                                                                                          

I am working tirelessly to set up an Etsy store so I can sell my paintings. To give you a little sneak peek of the type of art I paint, here is a photo of my front room with an original painting centered on the wall. I don't normally like using a flash, but my house gets so little natural light I am forced to... This painting is much larger than the sizes I will sell on Etsy, but the style is the same. I call my style of painting "layered art". 

I have this unquenchable thirst for color. Color upon color upon color! I don't know why I have such a strong need for so much color, but I'm not going to question it. All I know is color makes me really happy :)

I was constantly trying different techniques, using acrylic paint on canvas, but I was never satisfied. I wasn't even having fun. All of the sudden, this layering style came out of the blue. I start with a base of two similar colors - the second usually mottled on top of the first - and then start layering color upon color with a spatula. I add and scrape off until everything feels right and I am happy with the result. 

It's essential to see that as you look closer and closer, you see more and more individual color. And I love how the spatula is so unpredictable. Hopefully this will appeal to others who already embrace color - and even those who might be a tad afraid of color, to enjoy it in small amounts.

Please feel free to leave comments, questions, praise, and commissions - LOL :) But seriously, the more feedback I get, the more successful I can make my store at Etsy. And in the meantime, stay tuned for the opening, and for a gallery at Flikr that you can enjoy also. 

Pet Peeves

No, my dogs are NOT pet peeves. But since they ARE my pets, it was a really good excuse to put their picture on here :) Stretching it, I know. Anyway. We all have pet peeves. Small, annoying things that really get under our skin and BUG us. And we all have the deep-seeded desire to share them with others - and to feel validated that yes, we have every right to be annoyed. But we always end up keeping them to ourselves. So today is Pet Peeves Day. I'm going to start off by sharing a few gems of mine. 

1) jam falling off the knife when making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This pretty much makes me want to take the knife AND the jam jar AND the sandwich and throw them across the room. If you knew how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I have made over the last 20 years you would understand.

2) ice cubes from the freezer slipping out of both sides of your hand and ricocheting all over the kitchen when all you were trying to do was fill up your glass for a nice diet Coke because if you don't have one soon you're going to kick a piece of furniture.

3) trying to get wet clothes out of the washing machine to put into the dryer when they're all tangled up and wrapped around each other and it hurts your back because you are short and then you get even more mad when you can't reach the bottom of the washing machine to get the last sock out. 

4) walking into a room and forgetting completely why you walked into that room, and/or, starting a sentence and not having the capacity to finish one freaking sentence because you've got so much on your mind that it's already borderline "Sensory Overload" but you just keep cramming it with useless information to the point of "MAYDAY" and then your kids are staring at you like you've got goo dripping out of your nose or something and all of the sudden you feel mentally disabled and 90 years old. Which is a good reason to have that diet Coke handy, because you're going to need it.  

But this is no fun unless you share your pet peeves too - so by all means please comment!

A Small But Meaningful Life - first post

Well, here I am. The first post ever on my blog. My blog? Weird. I can't believe I'm attempting to fake my way through this. I'm not young, hip, or cool. Actually that's not true - I am still cool. But definitely not young or hip. And I don't really know what to say of particular interest. But I love to write. LOVE IT. And I love to do crafty, creative things someone other than myself or my kid's friends might like at some point along the way. My life lately is feeling just a bit on the scattered side. This and that are all over the place. In between kids and friends and chores and errands and definitely hiding behind laundry. Paintings here, poetry there, photography still elsewhere. Dogs, drawings, ideas that keep me up at night. Projects constantly simmering. Mosaics still patiently waiting to be created. An Etsy store that MUST be created! And of course antiques all over the place. So I'm going to try to bring all these loose ends together here on my blog. A tall order, I know. But it might be a great thing - it could be a terrific thing.

I guess I need to introduce myself, considering this is my first post. Most of my friends still don't know what a blog even is, and the ones that do think it's mainly an exercise in narcissism. Fine. Nevertheless, I still need to establish my voice here. So because I have a headache and can't think of anything too creative, I'm going to rip off what I wrote about myself in my Facebook profile:

I'm the mom of 3 boys. There's a husband (of 26 years) in there somewhere too. I'm a bohemian. Color makes me happy. I'm so tie dye I need my own Ben & Jerry's flavor. I have more favorite scents than you would believe. I have a weakness for peace signs. I'm super creative. I will only use McDonald's straws. I don't know what I'd do without music. I love sunshine but I HATE the heat. I love food way too much. I read magazines backwards. I have 2 tattoos. Abused and abandoned animals make me cry. I love decorating but I hate excess. I'll do anything to avoid a public toilet. I am fun loving but I love to be by myself too. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. My speed record in my Bug is 120mph so far.

So that is pretty much me. Let me explain the "small but meaningful life" part of this post. Remember when Meg Ryan said that? In "You've Got Mail"? She was explaining her life to Tom Hanks via the internet. That description really struck me. Because no matter how small a life is, you still affect a lot of people, a lot of things. No matter how small it is, it can still be full of meaning and richness. I definitely have - and am blessed to have - a small but meaningful life.