Aren't these fun?

Aren't these such fun pants? They' re actually cropped pants. I found them at Goodwill in like new condition for $3.99! You can see them a little more close up posted on my other blog. I just love them! And photobooth comes in handy! :) Gotta' run out for appointments. Ciao!

Finished painting

Today, I finished a painting I started back in December. It is certainly not a "pretty" painting by any stretch of the imagination... but it tells part of my story.

A few things off catch up

Well, it's late here so this will be a bit short. I just finished watching a chick flick by myself sitting in bed. I moved my computer to my bedroom and use my monitor to watch movies! It's quite convenient when you have a 24 inch monitor!

I spent the day with my friend, Lynn. I taught her how to make the book I'll be teaching at Art Unraveled! She has offered to be my class assistant so she needs to know what we are doing! It was such a fun day creating and brainstorming together. She took notes as I talked ideas out... I felt important... like she was my personal secretary! LOL! We have a lot of ideas! She asked really good questions while we were making the book today too so it was good practice.

Yesterday, a tornado hit the small town in Mississippi that was always "home". Both sides of my family are from Magee and as a child, it was my most favorite place on earth. The church that generations of my family attended, was completely destroyed. It's still so shocking to see the pictures. I was in my first wedding as a rice girl in that church when I was 7. I remember attending revivals there as a child and participating in kid programs when we visited my grandparents in the summer or on holidays. I remember watching my grandmother stretch out her quilts on table tops to prepare them for quilting. Many, many memories there. It's so sad to see such destruction. I also heard that the home my grandparents lived in before they passed away had a tree laying in the middle of the house. I'm so thankful they were spared that. My grandfather was deathly afraid of storms and usually would go spend the night at someone's house if a storm blew in. Of course, most of my life, they lived in a house with a metal tin roof so it was really noisy in a storm! Anyway, prayers for that community are so appreciated.

Tomorrow, I have someone doing some work in my apartment so I have to be here most of the day but am planning to go hike early in the morning first thing. I also want to work on a painting tomorrow. I finally have my work tables clear and ready for creating! It feels so good!

Also, this past week our church had our week of 24/7 prayer. It was powerful again this year. I wish I could have spent more time than I was able. Easily, one could be there for hours.

Well, I'm hitting the bed.

WINNER!!

First of all, I want to thank all of you who posted your thoughts about possible classes for me to teach. Your comments were encouraging and enlightening. You have all given me some direction to go... and it appears that unanimously, I need to be teaching some sort of watercolor class. Funny that I proposed one for Art Unraveled but it did not get accepted. Guess I need to venture off on my own, huh? You all have been very helpful. Thank you so much!

Now for the winner of either the book or the goodie package... using the random number generator, Judy Whitehead! You are the winner! This is the first time I've ever used the generator and had it choose the number 1!!! So Judy, let me know what your choice would be. If you want the goodie package, let me know if you would like more of a fabric type package or ephemera and also colors you enjoy working with.

Thanks again everyone! You guys are great!

Need help and a give away!

OK, so, because I have a site meter, I know that you are reading my blog. Do you leave me comments so I know you are here? Rarely, with the exception of my friend Joanne, who always leaves me comments (and suprises me with goodies in the mail too!). Thanks Joanne! Anyway, since i know you are out there and visit my little blog, I need your thoughts. I want to begin putting together some classes to teach here locally. I would SOOOO appreciate some ideas. If you would take a moment and go to my flickr site, check out some of my work, and come back here leaving me a comment about (1) what you think would make a good class or (2) if you were here locally, what kind of class would you like to take from me based on the kind of art I do?

On Wednesday, March 25, I'll do a random drawing. The winner will have a choice of a goodie package or either fabric/fiber or ephemera OR a copy of The Artist's Way by Julie Cameron. Should you choose the goodie package, I'll taylor it to your specific taste! Remember to leave contact information. I monitor all my comments so if you want to participate but don't want any contact information put public, just tell me you'd like your comment kept private and I'll honor your request but you'll still get to be in the drawing. OK?

Thanks so much!

So, go look and start commenting! I NEED you!

Overwhelmed and tired

I just came out of a three day, very intense conference on abuse. Primarily focused on sexual abuse. I'm exhausted and my back will take days to recover from so many hours of sitting and writing. But I'm so glad I went. Chuck has the boys this weekend so it's quiet here at home. I did something I rarely do... I rented a movie to watch all by myself. Yes, a chick flick. Now it's 9:00 and I"m ready to fall over as you can clearly see. I'm going to bed. Tomorrow will be busy too as I go to church in the morning first, for a class and then a service. After church, I am helping set up a station at our church's 24/7 prayer week so it will be another long, busy day... and I have to squeeze laundry in there somewhere... Laundry fairy, oh laundry fairy... where are youuuuuu?

Trying again

Finally, blogger is cooperating with photo uploads so here are some of my favorites that Sam took yesterday.

Arghhhh...

I have tried several times to upload some of Sam's photos but blogger is acting up and won't upload anything. I'll try again later...

Sam's eye on Chihuly

I just uploaded all of Sam's photos that he took today at the exhibit and I have a big grin on my face. He got some really great shots. He has a good eye. It's late right now and I need to get to bed but tomorrow, I'll post some of my favorites that he took today. He got some great shots of the glass. It's so fun to see his pictures because it's literally like seeing through his eyes.. those things that caught his interest, etc... such fun! I hope he always takes pictures.

Desert Botanical Gardens

(taken by Max, age 7)






(Ya' think they are in need of haircuts?! lol!)
The boys and I had a nice time at the Gardens today. I took several photos (seen above) but mostly let Max have free reign of the camera since it was his first "photo shoot". We got to the Gardens later than planned so it got pretty warm while we were there. AND, the garden was more crowded than I've ever seen it. Because of the crowd, the line to go into the butterfly exhibit was a 45 minute wait! NOT! I promised Max I'd take him back maybe next Wednesday after school since they get out early on Wednesday's. The light rail goes right by the garden and I think it would be a fun adventure to take the light rail and avoid driving over in that part of town during rush hour traffic in the afternoon. Anyway, Max was complaining that he really didn't want to go today because it sounded boring. However, he really enjoyed himself taking pictures. He used some of his own money to buy a baby cactus that he named Spike. ;)

Here are a few of Max's shots from today:


I love this shot... a different kind of cactus seeded and growning out of a Saguaro.

By the time we left, the heat and squinting my eyes had me on the verge of a headache and my eyes were just aching. I hit the bed for a short time after we got home. I haven't been very productive the rest of the day either. I finally took some Excedrin and feel better now.

Tomorrow morning, I have to make a quick run to the grocery store for a few things and since it's so close and I need some exercise, we're walking with my handy dandy rolling cart. I'll be having a sitter tomorrow evening as I go into the first session of a conference I am attending through Saturday so I need to plan dinner for the three of them. Maybe they can make their own pizzas. I have the stuff already but need to get the pizza dough out of the freezer. Anyway, I'll be going to bed here shortly but wanted to share some shots of our day!

And we're off...

Today, I'm taking my boys on a photo shoot to the Desert Botanical Gardens! We'll be seeing the Chihuly glass exhibit. The boys have not seen it and I'm thrilled to go again. They will both have cameras in hand today... I might have to borrow mine back from Max for a few snaps but otherwise, they are the photographers today. Pictures to follow later today so hold on to your hats!

A new creation

OK, now ya'll, don't pass out... but I actually have art to post! LOL! In my women's Bible study class over the past few weeks, I have been working on something. We did meditation on a couple of verses as well as the song "Have Thine Own Way, Lord". We did Lectio Divina as our exercise and the phrase that God brought to my mind in this song was "While I am waiting, yeilded and still". Out of that, I decided I wanted to create a figure out of clay. I've never worked with clay and while it was more challenging than I'd expected, I enjoyed working with it. I struggled in the early stages because I kept trying to make a complete body. I felt like I was fighting something that wasn't meant to happen. So, I stopped fighting and decided my figure would be incomplete. At first, my thoughts were on how I feel when I'm waiting... like I'm wasting away. Yet, as I continued to work on it, it began taking on a deeper meaning for me. It wasn't so much about the wasting away as it was the process of gaining something. Not the dying, but the growing. This figure is incomplete and in process just as I am. I intentionally did not want this figure to look "refined". I wanted it to have a rough appearance as a reminder that this is how I am. But, if I can yeild myself to God, waiting on Him and his timing, he will continue to shape my character weaving more and more of Himself into me.

The figure is actually still drying but I don't think I'm going to paint it. I like it porcelain. I will seal it though. I embedded a vintage watch face into the face of this woman to represent the time of waiting.

I then wove a brightly colored "mat" to go underneath her. I don't know yet if I have the complete significance of it having to be there other than it reminds me of how God takes all the bits and pieces of life circumstances and weaves them into something beautiful. Having the woman's figure sitting on it symbolizes putting trust in that truth... a foundation upon which we can more fully learn to "wait" on Him, yielded and still.

Caught up

Hallelujah, I caught up on my daily photo blog! Woohooo!

Tis the season

No, no... I know it's not Christmas... 'tis the season for my spring allergies to throw a party. I feel my yearly, seasonal laryngitis trying to take front and center. I'm going to do my best to win this battle! UGH! It's so exhausting. I always know when I can smell the indescribable scent of citrus blossoms in the air and I inhale deeply wishing that I could smell like such a glorious scent, I know trouble is lurking around the corner for my body. But oh, I just can't help breathing in that amazing smell. I don't know that I'm allergic to the citrus blossoms actually... I just think that everything else is blooming all at the same time and it's the citrus that just stops me in my tracks as I close my eyes and breath in the scent as deeply as I can and let out a little "Ahhhhhh". If you have never smelled citrus blossoms, you are missing out on one of God's greatest created scents. Truly you are. I believe it's a scent representational of the creator of them. I believe God must smell something like this!

Published

I know I have mentioned that I had two cards being published in a new book. Well, I finally got the book! Here it is:

My two cards are both on page 94. It's such a great feeling to see your work and name published in a real book! Mine are second in the top row and third in the bottom row.

Climbing the mountain

Today, North Mountain was on my way to an appointment so I hiked up before heading out for my day. When I first moved to Phoenix, I thought, "Oh, it's ugly here... it's just all brown." Well, compared to Mississippi, it was. However, it is far from anything but brown. And this time of year, it begins bursting with color with wildflowers. Within the next month, the mountainside will burst in a yellow blanket of wildflowers. While fall is my favorite time of year elsewhere in the world because it represents all my favorite colors, spring in the desert is just amazing. Soon, all the cactus will be blooming too so you can be sure I'll be taking lots of pictures as I have the past couple of years. Here are a few shots from my morning hike.









I'm hoping to really dig into boxes tomorrow and maybe be able to be home most all morning and see how much I can get done.

I had some fun with Max today playing outside. We have the softest, greenest grassy areas here at the apartments and Max loves being out there. He couldn't find his football for us to play catch today but he asked if I'd come out and play with him. I went out and we tumbled all in the grass barefooted. We did cartwheels, round-offs, and yes, I can still do the splits! Then I got on my back, let him sit on my feet, and either toss him forward "into space" or he'd sit up high and pretend like he was flying a plane. So, a little exercise for me too! ;) It was fun to just lay in the grass laughing with him.

Still alive

Gosh, you guys must think I dropped off the face of the earth! But no, I've still been trying to settle in to my new apartment and all the details that go along with it and keeping up with kids and life stuff.

And, when I moved out for the separation, my intention was to just move out basic stuff the boys and I would need for the next year. However, my husband asked that I removed EVERYTHING of mine and the kids from not only the house, but also storage... which I did yesterday with the exception of photographs and Christmas stuff, basically... I just don't have the capacity to go through that stuff right now. So anyway, just when I was starting to feel somewhat settled in the apartment, it now has boxes of stuff everywhere, again. I am slowly working my way though, organizing, cleaning out, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of at a yard sale. It's exhausting and time consuming. I finally went and got my car title transferred over to my name today.

Last week, I went on an all day field trip with Sam's class to Kartchner's Caverns in southern AZ. It was a total of 6 hours on a bus of third graders and a total of 12 hours of a field trip. It was very tiring but I really enjoyed the caverns even though I couldn't take pictures inside. It was amazing to see. I was awestruck. And sitting in a cavern when they turn the lights off for several seconds, being enveloped in the darkest darkness imaginable in a giant hole that has been in a mountain for 500,000 years well... it's overwhelming and powerful. The formations are staggering too. These particular caverns were just discovered in the 70's! It was a really nice day and all the schedule of everything went like clockwork.

My exercise routine has been somewhat interrupted with all the moving stuff going on but I did go hike the mountain on Saturday and ran into a couple that I have been looking for and asking about on Facebook to various friends. I was so happy to see them and sad that we'd lost touch for so many years. We exchanged phone numbers in each other's cell phones so now we can get together again. That meeting on the mountain was a God thing, I'm thinkin'... I don't believe in cooincidents.

Well, I'm still trying to recover from my day yesterday so I think I hear my bed calling me. Maybe tomorrow I won't be so wiped feeling like my eyes are swollen and budging out of my head.... I'll try to get back to my blog on a more regular basis. I have pictures to load into my other blog too! I hate being behind....