Fall

I look out the window.  It's a beautiful fall day.  It's the start of holidays.  Three months of saturated fun and feelings.  It's color and commercialism.  It's family and stress.  I always try to slow my pace a bit at the beginning because it all goes so quickly.  Soon it'll just be a hangover of good food and parties. 

But not now.  Now it's the beginning.  The first step.

And it's beautiful.

Family Time

Time is so valuable right now in our family.  With Nathan in school and working full time he barely sees his kids.  We do what we can.  We've established a once a week lunch with Dad and are starting to do more things as a family on the weekends.  

This was our first trip downtown on Trax.  Logan loved the train ride down.  If I didn't have a fussy baby-in-arms I would've taken more pictures of the train ride.  His face was glued to the window.

The entire trip was perfect.  I've realized how important these little trips are. 

 

 

 

Painting #2

Black bird

23" x 23"

acrylic on panel

Senior Pictures

This is our newest HS graduate, my niece Nicole. I love when the new graduates ask if I'd take their senor pictures.  It's so fun for me.

Here are some of my favorites.

Painting #1: Yellow Bird

Yellow Bird

23" x 23"

Acrylic on panel

(Detail)

Whoa, what?

Today I wanted to play around with a new header for this blog so I wandered into my photo files trying to find a current picture of Logan.  I was slightly shocked to find I have not taken one picture of Logan since the new year.  What?  No pictures of Logan?  My own little Muse?  The face that never loses my interest has been put on the back-burner.  I am ashamed!  A photo shoot is definitely in order.

I think the tumult of this fall and readjusting to our new normal has really caused me to back off from things that I love.  Stress can really put me in a funk.  But I feel so much hope in our situation.  Nathan is incredibly resilient and I'm trying hard to follow his stride.  Now is the time to fall in love with life again and not worry so much.  There is so much to be grateful for.

Even though the gestation of little Cecily has taken most of my brain power lately I have a lot of exciting work in front of me.  I'm currently working on a series of paintings for a client.  Her family has bought a beautiful cabin up in Sundance and I'm the luckiest girl in the world to work on adorning her walls with my own artwork.  As soon as I stepped foot inside her cabin home I was inspired.  She has incredible taste and has worked her magic for the last year shaping this cabin into a home.  Her color palette is rich in neutrals which makes my job a playground of color to choose from.  She has left the reigns completely in my hands which excites me more than anything.

I've done one painting so far.  It took me a little over a day and a half.  Photos to come.  I want to finish the sides before calling it complete.  I love it.  I secretly want to keep it!

Nesting

There is a general buzzing around my house lately.  Things are shifting.  I'm pretty sure it's some sort of emotional and subconscious preparation for Cecily to arrive.  I think I'm nesting.

Some changes are very much physical.  I've arranged and rearranged the kid's room (I love to say "kid's") to best suit the new arrival to our family.  I'm pretty sure Logan thinks by now his room is magic the way he'll leave for school only to find his room is completely different when he returns. 

Nathan wants to build Logan a bunk bed but with a play area underneath in lieu of a second bed.  A few months ago our neighbors built their boys a bunk bed and I think Nathan is aching for a creative project.  I don't know where he gets his energy since he works full time and goes to school full time.  His energy seems endless.

We've also brought my art supplies down from the confined corner of the bedroom to the living room.  Actually, we have no living room which is surprisingly nice.  The couch fits perfectly in our vast bedroom and I get lots of room to work and teach.  Which is the plan starting once Cecily gets settled.  But right now our front room looks like a storage unit which contributes to this general feeling of...well...being unsettled.

I've never done well with anticipation.  I like to get things moving.  I'm not stellar at follow-through but I'm great at starting.  Being 6-9 months pregnant is probably the most annoying time for me.  I'm happy that the nausea is gone and the energy is back but I just get anxious to get going.  Since I can't do a thing about the length of gestation I start to hone in on projects.

I've got loads of ideas for Primary visuals.  I've got an art studio/classroom to set up.  I want to patch up the walls and repaint in the kid's room.  Logan's birthday party to plan. And an upcoming commission this spring. 

And I'm even taking time to blog. :)

Isn't nesting fun?

Finished and Sent

This is very much done and gone.  With the craziness of the holidays and my tendency towards inconsistent blogging, I forgot to return and report the final product.

Here is Ellie.