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.

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