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Tuesday, December 30, 2014

2 Girlies

Here are a couple girls I've finished lately.  The one with the lovely brown skin was kind of fun to make, because I didn't quite now what colors to put on her face to make it pop.  






This is the clay doll above that I mentioned in my previous post, that her head had broken off her body while cooking.  So now she has a new little torso & a wooden box in which she resides.

So it is almost a brand new year.  New year = new things to learn & create, so I am looking forward to that!

Friday, December 26, 2014

26th

It's the day after another great Christmas. The end of December always reminds me how fast the year goes by.  This December, like so many others has been filled with holiday craziness, parties, school programs, & catching up with fun peeps we don't always get to see.    
Out looking at Christmas lights
Christmas Eve
Making them pose with their mama
Christmas Morning
Reading the Christmas story
Cody's new pajamas & slippers
Toys!!!
My Folks came to our place on Christmas, so we didn't have to drive anywhere.
Gifts....Hello Kitty Kiss doll & my awesome new blanket


We had a great holiday & now it's the day after all ready. Looking forward to the New Year ahead, curious what it's going to bring(see I'm an optimist today :)

This month, I've been trying to still work on my art...but it seemed to get buried under holiday festivities & obligations some days.  I've had quite a few orders lately, so I am grateful for that, because it's always encouraging when someone out in this wide world likes my stuff. 

Also still learning what the heck I'm doing. It's probably a lifetime of experimenting, & figuring out what works & what doesn't.  I was making this girl out of clay below, then her head broke off of her body while I was cooking her.  So I made a new body which is the one below, & today I've been trying to make her a little box to go in.

I was making another clay doll & she broke too. Ugh! So I salvaged her & fixed her neck & decorated her all up. I had her how I wanted her, photographed her for my ETSY site, & all that jazz.  A day later or so, her face started to feel slightly sticky. So I tried to remedy that with painting over the stickiness(maybe not wise), drying with a hair dryer, spraying with a matte sealer. Blah, now she is stickier than ever! 

I'm slightly obsessing on it, me & my crazy personality. I put my heart into these creations, & when they get ruined, I kind of feel sad. Especially when I can't figure out what caused it. Did I not cook it long enough, paint it too soon, use a different paint, etc?

Anyway, all part of the messiness & creative process that is art, I guess. I'm sure there will be plenty more pieces that have unexpected things happen to them along the way, but hopefully also a lot that I really end up loving how they turn out . 






Before her face got shiny :(

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Exercise, Work On Art, Repeat

I'm a little late, a week to be exact, but I finished my 2nd Olympic Distance Tri last Sunday.  I am soooo, soooo grateful that I survived the swim, did reasonably well, & it's over!  Of course I enjoyed it in a somewhat masochistic way, that most people who do races will understand. Here are some photos from the day.






My perfect days, are days where I feel good cause I challenged myself & did something hard that maybe I didn't totally want to do.  Some days that is just getting out & overcoming my mind, thats telling me it really doesn't want to run when it's cold out.  But then I feel awesome when I do it.  Also, any day that I get a block of time to work on my art & my brain is totally in it, & off all the other directions it is pulled in, is a good day.

Today I've been working on a clay girl, that may end up being a Christmas present, if I like the way she ends up. I'll show here when I'm all finished with her.  Then my husband & I got out of the house together & did a 4 1/2 mile run on the trail.  I'm liking our little late afternoon dates on the trail :)

Here is a little art piece I did the other day. She started out totally different, but somehow turned into the girl below, with branches for hands.



Monday, December 1, 2014

Thoughts On Being Thankful & Stupid Scales




Well, Thanksgiving has come & gone already! We had fun outdoors most  of our days together...my kids could shoot their little bow & arrows forever & be happy. This year, we were lucky to do the cooking, & stay put in our own place, instead of braving the crowded freeways. The weekend was officially capped off by the picking of just the right 29 dollar Christmas tree(that's what my husband steers us towards:) 

I've been sick these past few days. Fighting it since Thanksgiving night, but didn't want it to take me out because I had too much to do. My race(swim, bike, run) is next weekend. So I lie down for awhile & then go out & run. Been running through the achy feeling, & with lungs that seem to be gurgling, wishing for an inhaler. Ugh. So I may come into the finish line at a slow crawl, but I know I can do it.

Here's a little discouragement mixed with thankfulness(how I roll usually)....so I've been running, doing exercise videos at home, going to the gym, swimming, blah, blah, blah & NOTHING! My weight stays the same, & for the life of me I can't get it down to where it used to be. Then Thanksgiving came, mind you I did an hour & 20 minute exercise bootcamp that day, stepped on the old scale at the end of the day & it was up. I don't even eat half the stuff other people do, what the hell?  Stinkin' 5ft2 frame.

So I try not to obsess on things, like a number flashing at me in bright red on the scale. I am more than that. At least that's what I tell myself, & I think I'm starting to believe it.  But the old thoughts are always in the back of my mind, of unworthiness, & thinking if only I weighed this magic number, I'd feel better. Somedays it's a lot not to give into them. But I so don't want my girls to pick up the message that their value is in what they look like, so I am fighting it.

But I am thankful for this body of mine, that has gotten me through so many races, that is strong & doesn't quit. In a weird way I'm also thankful that I can be this self-conscious, neurotic person because I am realizing through working on those things, that you know what, I am fine. For so long I didn't know that. I am exactly who I'm supposed to be.  




Ok, enough with the self discovery :) Here are some pictures...














Monday, November 17, 2014

Tumbleweeds


There is this large open space as you drive up to our house, when it's Spring it's usually filled with wild Mustard, right now it is a mass of puffballs.  Pretty in their own way, don't you think?  I love the days like this, where we find ourselves pulling over for an impromptu romp through a field, exploring, & time gets away from us for awhile.



I don't ever want to be too scheduled in life that I can't stop on a whim every once in awhile & get off the beaten path.  There is probably not any danger of me not being able to get time outdoors though, on a trail or a mountain somewhere.  I think I need it to be me.

So here's my analogy, you know how tumbleweeds blow all over the place when a strong enough wind hits them?  I feel like that in so many ways.  Which I don't like cause I feel I am a strong person, not wishy-washy, or easily swayed, but I think my mind can easily go from feeling hopeful about life, to despair when just a few things rock my boat.  I need deeper roots.

Also, I've been trying to stave off this creeping sense of discouragement I feel about my art, & making a career in it.  It's not about the money, I know. I need to do what I love, & that is creating things.  But it would be nice to feel like I am contributing to my family, without doing something like a desk job, which a person like me would find mind numbingly dull.  So the old brain goes back & forth on all these ideas, of paths to take....opening a shop to sell my art(how?), writing a book(kids book, fiction, a memoir?), suck it up & work retail, or maybe go back to school.  I feel the clock ticking.  Maybe this is the mid life crisis people speak of?  I'm 40,  & spent a lot of my life falling into things, without too much direction or forethought.  There is this need for me I think, to feel I've made something out of my life, aside from being a mother & a wife.  Ha! All that from some tumbleweeds.



This is a painting I finished the other day.  I like the colors.  Named her Marmalade.  Grateful to have had some time that was quiet & I could work uninterrupted, because the husband-man & kids were watching a flick at the theatre.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Until Next Year Dia De Las Muertos



 I love this time of the year, plenty of Halloween & Day of the Dead festivities to attend. So much beautiful artwork, &  sometimes slightly creepy things to see.  Our weekend consisted of Halloween evening, going out with our 3, which were scooting from one house to the next fast with friends, happy to feel like they were out on their own, as we kind of hung back & got used to the role of the parents with older kids.  Not walking them up to the doors anymore, not holding the hands.  Just trying to keep up.  The next day (after a rainy 4 mile run) we headed to Hollywood for their awesome Day of the Dead Celebration in the huge cemetery out there.  My brother who lives out that way, came & joined us.  Sunday was capped off with a drive to San Diego with some friends to visit this cool shop of a lady we know, & they were having a little outdoor Day of the Dead celebration too.  I was thinking looking at her shop, that I need to get going on some of dreams in my head for my art & maybe my writing.  It was inspiring to see her eclectic little store with local artist's goods. Ahhh anyway,  so many good things in one weekend!  I'm proud of myself for showing some restraint, I've developed a little of it in the past couple years. I really wanted this felted Sugar Skull doll($145).   I kept going back to take a peek, but I was good this time.

Queen of Hearts, Zombie Boy, & The Mad Hatter(aka Madeline Hatter)

Captured prettiness after our wet run.

I told India to give me a kind of sad look, this is what I got.

Cody's souvenir was a wrestler's mask
Sage
Me & Toby
A pretty alter

Going to check out the artwork inside
Badass Frida
Part of an alter for the great Robin Williams

Girlies

Very pretty, as far as cemeteries go

The Make Good Shop in San Diego
Felted goodies by www.valsartstudio.com