Wordless Wednesday

Family Update

I have said before that I want to make sure to keep up on the Kids, Home & Life portion of this blog...but have not followed through as well as I would like. I decided to get two birds with stone & post updates on happening on the homestead a couple times a month. This will take care of it here while keeping my brother updated as well. I realized I tend to do one or the other. And time can be a precious commodity here, so this just seems more efficient. Plus, people say they do like getting to know the personal side, especially customers looking to buy handmade goodies. It is one of the bonuses of handmade - knowing the maker.

I have a big brag of an update about the biz itself, but I am putting that one up on my Tilt's Creations blog since it is more focused on my business. But I am always ready to brag about my boys :)

My oldest is finishing up the last week of the school's musical, Oklahoma. He is not on the stage this year, but in the pit orchestra. Next year - to the stage! It makes sense, he is in both the Men's and Ensemble choir at school. And he gets more than enough band in his life with the Wind Ensemble, Marching Band and his rock band - No Alternative. That kid never ceases to amaze me. Although I can't call him kid much longer I suppose. He'll be 16 in a couple months and is more than a couple inches taller than me...and has been for quite some time.

Now the little guy - he amazes me left and right too. When he was younger we had many worried moments with his development. Not extreme, but enough. His sensory & speech issues took a while to get through. Not that he is caught up, but enough for us to see that everything will be fine....albeit with a quirk or five here & there :P

For a kid who didn't speak enough to say Mama until he was nearly three, he sure can go on and on now. And with such a big vocabulary. He was always a babbler & after some testing we realized that he understood everything...and then some. It just got stuck on the way out. His desire to learn everything only reinforces the whole "so much going on inside that just can't get out" theory. Like with his reading this month...awesome! They need to keep a log of what they read at school this month. For Kindergartners the goal is like 90 pages...he hit that on day 2. Once I told him that it was okay & counted if he needed some help, he went gung ho.

I will leave you with some pics the little guy has drawn this weekend. He got a new Spongebob scratch & sketch book and has been having a blast. But the best part is that he has been able to let go of his "everything has to be perfect" thing. That issue has led to many a meltdown. I think he did rather well....

Wordless Wednesday

Etsyblogger of the Month: The Art of Joy

This month's Etsyblogger is The Art of Joy. She designs the cutest things. I even got a customized sticker set myself a while back. It's that one up there...see...right on top :)

A couple of my faves from her shop are this printable Kawaii knit themed calendar...

and this robot party invite....

And she is super generous too. Check out her website and you will find free printable downloads. Etsy even used her background for their Twitter page back in October. You can sneak a peek here in the Storque article.

Wordless Wednesday

Zombie Penguins

How great is that?!?! I saw this artist's work a while back at a craft show I was in and had bought my oldest boy a green one. He was into penguins at the time, zombies too, never thought I'd find the two in one!

Last weekend was the Funky Ferndale Art Fest and DIY Craft Show. This time my youngest got one, in charcoal so they don't get mixed up. He is loving all things zombie right now...the cute non-scary versions of course. Doesn't this guy fit the bill.....


And then he decided to do a portrait of the yet-to-be-named penguin. I think he captured it well for a 5 year old. Not sure what is coming off the one flipper though...maybe string brains? Personally I prefer string beans, but hey, to each his own.

And hubby took off the tag before I had a chance to jot down the name of the artist...I'll get back with it once I track it down.

Art a'la 3 Year old

My walls are getting overcrowded with preschooler art. I have decided to scan as much into the computer as I can & photo the rest. This should seriously help storage issues as I will only keep samplings of the actual work. Here are the first few scanned in...

Newly found old art

I was looking through some old photos for a picture of me dressed as a blimp. (See 6 secrets post #5 to enable your own visual...silver evening dress) I could not find it...I am assuming I must have burned it. What I did find were some more photos of my old paintings. I found a few a while back and put them on my website (which is still not fully complete), but somehow overlooked these. I think they were in a different album.

I have a big 'ol stack of paintings in the basement that I have not looked at in years. Maybe I need to go through them. Who knows, maybe they'll inspire me to set up ye old easel again.

These were from 1995ish. I always loved to paint. I wasn't very good, but it made me happy, therefore it was just right. So - now you get suff...I mean enjoy them also :)

Did you like the flash in the middle of that one?

This is one I had actually found previously, but the other picture was at too much of an angle to really see it.

Also - keep in mind these photos were not well done & pre-digital. Is it a good enough excuse to make you think they are better than they look?