Inspiration

I've been ambushed by a variety of inspirations, new relationships are starting to take root and opportunities are offering themselves like so many Costco samples (I couldn't think of a better analogy...is that a bad sign?) and I'm getting to the place where it's quickly becoming apparent that I have no idea what I'm going to feed all these kids this week and the sink is full of dirty dishes and it's just about bedtime and we haven't eaten dinner (these longer days are fooling us!). My big dreams and inspirations are hitting the ceiling of this little houseful of hungry children who look at me to direct their own bursting imaginations.

But before I realized the impending conclusion of spring break leisureliness, I found inspiration in a conversation with my dad. I promised my dad that I would sketch something and mail it to him immediately. I told him he should, too...but it might take getting mine in the mail to push him to actually do it. He's an amazing artist, but he's been undercover for a long time. Just takin' care of business I guess. There is value in always making art, if that is what you were made to do, like I was (I am forcing myself to believe that). Like he was. Like his mother before him was. I don't want to let art become a stranger to me.

So I held up my end of the sketchbook... now it's his turn.

iProud

Korah is a budding photographer now that she's got her own camera. She babysat all summer, dividing up her earnings between giving, savings and spending jars. Her grammy, who's a bookkeeper, showed her how to keep records, and I'm proud to say that Korah kept them! Every time she earned some babysitting money, she came home and divvied it out, taking note of her employer, her hours, her pay. I could take a lesson!

By the end of summer, her goal was reached (although the specific amount kept changing as we shopped around online) and she bought her very own iPod Touch! We are very proud of her achievement...and now, of her photography!

I love shots like this, illustrating the inherent magic of adolescence.

photo credit, edited by korah

photo credit, edited by korah

Under the Sea

This month I had a ridiculously awesome offer given to me by Milagros Boutique (the best mama & baby boutique in P-town, baby!): to re-paint their play area! Welllll.... alls I do is sit around dreaming up crazy murals in my own house (the baby's room is East-coast sand dunes, and there's a half-finished stork in our hall (for about 3+ years now). See?) so this was a no-brainer!

I took Taylor with me and all the paint I could find. A few sketches and almost 7 hours later (woah, that's like...a workday!) and we've got an underwater adventure!

At the last minute I found gold paint in my stash,
so I had to add some bling to the mermaid's attire.

This guy looks like he's going to open up any second and offer you a pearl!

 This was so incredibly fun! I loved taking Taylor with me. He primed with me and helped with some larger color blocks, but mostly he just kept me company, washed brushes, ran errands. He was my excuse to get dessert from the French restaurant next door. It was so LIFE-giving to me to paint like this, and I haven't painted in acrylics, much less painted at all since I got my job as a MOM....you know how it goes. Well, maybe you don't. Maybe you have had a well-rounded life of fulfilling your potential. But for me, this is a walking-in-the-right-direction, and it feels great! The best part is that I got to trade for time at their beach house. More on that to come....

Meanwhile, maybe it's time I finished that stork.

Thirty-eight

David lucks out with a birthday in August, when the weather's nice and we're all ready for some fun, and no one else is stealing your birthday thunder (everyone else in our family is two weeks from someone else). And what's more, my parents were visiting this August, and got to celebrate with us! (I am ashamed to say that these are the best photos I have of them on their visit. My photographic priorities are defunct!)

Papa says, "it looks like I have ice-cream on my lip!"

I don't have pictures of the hilarity, but we went bowling/video game playing at Big Al's. That place is a ton of fun. I fulfilled a life-long dream of being on Wheel of Fortune, and Noble spent the entire time standing on some driving game that took your photo. Morgen and Micah were in an air-hockey playoff and Taylor and Korah were doing their own thing, which has something to do with pooling their resources to end up with the biggest bag o' loot from the prize counter. Dave played Rockband. For like, an hour. So basically, we all got what we wanted for Dave's birthday.

We came home and had ice cream cake made by yours truly (awesome, that job at Baskin Robbins is still paying off!) and quick-like I made a card, since I didn't have a real birthday gift:

it's all meaningful and symbolic to us, and stuff

Actually, David worked hard to get his own killer birthday present this year, painstakingly dialing his phone, digit after digit, until at last.... HE WON TICKETS TO THE DECEMBERISTS from Kink.fm! And a gift certificate to Ringside Fish House! This guy knows how to win 'em!

"...and I'm reaping all the benefits..."
(name that movie)

I liked the Decemberists before, but now....oh, live music, it's what you do to me... now we are FANS. This was a special show for a few reasons:

• It was the last show of the tour. There seemed to be a goofy energy that came with that....so fun!
• Since they are from the Portland area, it was a homecoming of sorts and they had tons of family, friends, local fanship and familiar McMenamins Brews to celebrate.
• Their beautiful keyboardist Jenny Conlee, who missed the tour to stay home and fight breast cancer, was performing in all her bald-headed, Doc-Martined glory! Yay, Jenny!!

We are undeniably blessed. As crazy and chaotic as our life can be, good things just keep on happening, and we have to make note, make note, make note: we are loved.

HAPPY 38th BIRTHDAY, DAVID! YOU ARE LOVED!

A Perfect Ten

A ginormous birthday breakfast and a pile o' presents...
what more could a 10-year old want??

The CARD.  The card seems to be very important to these kids.  I'm sure that has nothing to do with the chance that money might fall out of it.  Nothing at all.

Ooo, PJs from Grammy!

 Noble's basking in the fullness of his belly (and diaper, apparently).

I love that my mom sends these random things to the kids, like Popsicle "Craft Sticks" and it turns out they love it.  Taylor dove right in building something.  Later, Noble the toddler broke it.  Story of our lives.  We've learned to be very flexible about it.

Now please allow me a moment to show off,

because that's what this blog is for, right?

 Why yes, that is a pop-up card you see before you!

 Taylor's always begging me for jellybeans at the grocery store and I always say no.

Of course, on birthdays you get lavished with eccentricities and these are ice cream flavored jelly beans!  So ice cream it is!  Seriously, the green ones taste like mint chocolate chip ice cream, it's crazy.  Crazy, I tell you!

I would like to have written out a sonnet about how much I love and adore this decade-old little boy (a decade?!?!  Where, of course, does the time go??) but I am way too tired from planning his big birthday party, in which we will be marching in our little neighborhood parade.

This one, this 10-year old amazing, talented, funny, kind and brilliant kid can get my goat like no one else can.  But he's also wrapped around my heart more than all the goats in the world.

Whatever that means.

A New Little Life

5x7, to accompany a friend's baby shower gift

Holiday Open House: Success!

The Domestic Bias Holiday Open House was such a blast for me!  I'm sure that is due in part to the fact that I want these people to adopt me into their family so our total of 10 kids can play together and be over-the-top cuteness every day!  I love this family.  But I digress.  This is about me!  Being crafty!  Starting a business!  Kinda...

This was my display, so fashionably put together by Jaime from DB.  I sold the cards individually (in a fancy plastic wrapper!) and as Christmas four-packs.  I made a little money (but not a profit), and I have a LOT left over...which motivated me to send out Christmas cards to my own family this year (um, yeah...I've become a pretty big slacker with holiday greetings the last few years).  But overall, I deem it a total success for Chroma Aquatic.  This show pushed me forward into the production and business aspects of selling art.  And doing that has impelled a change of heart over depreciating everything I do.  Not only do I have a tendency to undervalue my art, or value one piece lower than another because of how long it took me or the ease with which it was done, but I am not a very gracious receiver of compliments.  To be honest, I am surprised by what comes out of me artistically, and I feel like very little credit should be given to me.  When I draw/paint something "good" I'm really not sure how it happened.  I just put my nose down and later.... "ta-da!" is on the paper.  It's weird to me.  So instead of nay-saying all compliments and hiding my gift, I need only to give praise to the One who fearfully and wonderfully made me who I am, and give every piece back to Him as an offering of worship.  So there.

I was astounded by the professionalism of this in-home craft bizarre, and of the marketable talent of my fellow mommy-friends and acquaintances.  Like these hair pins/brooches, made by my friend Lindsay:

I've never been much of an accessorizer, but seeing how they are made and worn by friends has changed my mind.  It's time to flower up...I totally want some.

And I know I can put together cookie mix myself, but when it comes to cute packaging, I start to stutter and forget who I am and what I was doing and then I just take a nap.  What I'm saying is, I won't ever do this, like Janine:

The thing I really wanted in my stocking was one of these beautifully hand-felted soaps by this amazing woman I know, Gretchen.  Do you know, the soap is just in there, and you rub it on your bod in the shower and the whole thing just felts tighter as the soap disappears and then you are left with a wash cloth thingy?  So hippy and I love it:
 

 Unfortunately, she isn't selling them online or anywhere public that I know of.  Fortunately, I know where to find her!

Now, I don't need any stuffed animals in my house.  To put it kindly, I'm not a big fan of the things.  And yet still, I found myself oogling and perhaps coveting these strange and beautiful creatures by OLBAPI:

Check out this very cool pendant jewelry by Gretchen as well.  Also, these killer candles by Courtney.  And the wood-circle journal on the left by Domestic Bias (love!).  Who knew these mamas with their busy lives were gettin' all crafty, making these wares like you see in shmancy boutiques?

These pictures do not do justice to the beautiful work that is Domestic Bias, but you can check out their Etsy Shop or visit them at the Portland Saturday Market:

 The jewelry on the left, which I didn't even try to take a picture of because I didn't think I would capture it's amazingness, is by Renee Tracy Design.  This was by far, to me, the most impressive art represented.  Having never worked with polymer clay myself, I was blown away by how beautiful, intricate, colorful and time-intensive these were.  Check out her blog to see how it's done....fascinating!  Tracy sells her designs to support herself as a missionary in the Dominican Republic.

I didn't get a picture of, but was thoroughly impressed with my friends Sarah and Emily, who are starting an Etsy shop too!  Keep checking back so you don't miss when At The Table opens!  They made cute hats, canvas bins, little girl dresses and little boy shirts, adorable felt hair clips and probably some other things I'm forgetting.  They are über-talented.

There were a few other vendors there, but they don't have websites and I don't have photos, and I've maxed out my blogging patience for today.  Over all, I'm so glad I did this and I realized that I love to paint and create illustrations and my eyes have been opened to career possibilities I have always taken for granted and not thought possible.

May my God look upon me with favor as I follow and honor Him!

It's Official...

Thank you to everyone who weighed in on an Etsy shop name for me!  I ignored all of you and went with something completely different!  Ahhahaha......but isn't that how think tanks work?  I was surprised to count up TWELVE friends who contributed suggestions and helped me think it through.  That blows me away and I'd like to send each of you a little goodie for spending your time with me!  Thank you for your encouragement!

I settled on Chroma Aquatic because I love Paul Simon's song, "Kodachrome". It was written the year before I was born and when I hear that tune all the fun parts of childhood pass before my eyes, ending with the time I got confused about what gear my Pinto Wagon was in and I ran into the Kodak photo booth in the Standard Brand's parking lot.  Ahh, sweet memories.

This weekend I am selling some real, honest-to-goodness greeting cards at the Domestic Bias Holiday Open House, so I've had to put my arse in gear and paint, print, decide on a bunch of things and I'm overwhelmed and totally loving all of it!  I officially have an Etsy shop but there's nothing in it, so don't even go over there.  If you want to know when it's up and running, email me at chromaaquatic@gmail.com.  (See what I did there?  I gots me an officially business email address!)

I'll let you know how the open house goes...I'm trying to stop being so pessimistic about it myself (about my own stuff-- all the other stuff is undoubtedly awesome), but if nothing else, it is a lot of fun!