I'm not sure where these little pod houses and rainbows are coming from, but they just feel so "innate" to me, if that makes sense. They remind me of when I was young, and I used to draw countless little mushroom houses for little mouse families. I guess I'm all grown up now, and this is my grown-up version. As you can see in this particular painting, there's a representation of Riley and one of Noah, both asleep in their rooms. In Riley's side of the house is a semi truck and the alphabet, both current obsessions of his. And on Noah's side is his giraffe lovey and a shopping cart, again, current faves of his. I'm not sure where this theme will lead, but for now, I think I'm content to keep doing little houses and their inhabitants!
And just for fun, here are a few photos of how we're spending this beautiful spring, before the Florida heat hits. Noah has learned how to go down the slide by himself, and he loves it! And Riley is loving playing with his bubble machine...
So I participated in 
This vintage doll trunk is my absolute favorite item! Can you believe she was willing to part with it? I absolutely adore it- it has got to be one of my top ten favorite possessions right now!
Here is the only piece of art I've had time to do lately. It's a spread in Noah's book. Lately I've been feeling a bit nostalgic about all the "baby-ness", since he's so quickly turning into a little boy. We haven't decided whether we'll have another baby or not, so the thought that these may be my last baby moments is a little sad. 
In the past few weeks, he's become really obsessed with the alphabet, which is really fun for me. I've been teaching him all the letters, and in the matter of about two weeks, he's learned the whole alphabet. He LOVES the letter "W", with "M", "X", and "O" following close behind! 
I'll only show a portion of it, since it's going to be published. I honestly don't know which issue it will be in, but the theme was about self-portraits.
Then the whistle blew, and he hurriedly ran out to grab the first egg:
About five feet in, he saw the chaos of all the kids also running out, and here was the sight:
Poor Riley! He was completely scared, and wouldn't go back out... Oh well, I guess we'll try again next year!
This one sort of evolved into a piece about some of the naptime/bedtime struggles I've been dealing with with the kids. There's something about it that doesn't feel true to my own vision. I think I was trying too hard, which is exactly what I'm not supposed to be doing! But I have a feeling there will be many pieces I'm not happy with during this period of transition... 
And this is a spread in Riley's journal that I did this morning. I overthought it a little bit while I was working, but overall, I think I was able to let go fairly well. It's about him giving up his pacifier, which is bittersweet for me. This kid was so tied to his pacifier until about a month ago. Then one day, it developed a crack in it, and that was it! No more pacifier, by his own decision. I was just shocked that he would so easily give it up, but I guess kids work in mysterious ways! It's sort of nice that I won't have that struggle down the road, but it's just another bit of proof that he's growing up....sigh.
This is about his most favorite toy, a tricycle/big wheel sort of bike. He is on that thing constantly- a very good $4 Goodwill purchase! 
I've wanted to do this for quite a while. Riley's is 11x14, just for size reference. Portraits are so hard, because you really have to capture that certain "something" that makes the person who they are, and I really struggled with these. But I think I've finally gotten them to a point I'm happy with, and I know I'll treasure them in the future, when those baby faces have grown into young boys!
The little guy turned one this week!
The other project is something that's been brewing in my head for a while, and yesterday I decided to go ahead with it. I've been wanting to take some nude self-portraits. I'm not sure how I'll use them, but it just felt like something that needed to be done. So, while Noah was taking a nap and Riley was playing in his room, I set up the camera and went for it! I'm really happy with the way they turned out. I didn't want to post them here, since this is too easy a place for just anyone to copy them, but if you'd like to see some of them, you can go to 
I used some of the neat editing tools in my camera to blur and darken areas, which I think creates a really nice effect. Plus it doesn't hurt to soften up those stretch marks either! The shots on my other site are larger than these. I cropped in on these so as not too show too much, but I rather like the cropped images, too! I'll have to play around with some cropping on the others.
Just a quick post to say "Happy Holidays!" to all of you! These are photos from my second bathroom-this is where I put all my pretty, sparkly decorations, since they didn't really fit with the traditional red and green in the rest of the house.
Well, it has definitely been one of those weeks. One of those weeks where you can hardly remember the days before kids, when you were able to talk in a normal voice instead of yelling, when you were able to go more than five minutes before hearing someone crying or whining, and when you were actually able to do something for yourself without feeling guilty about it.
And so, I felt the need to do a piece of art about this. I don't like myself when I'm so grouchy, and I really need to work on it! I'm sure that this week will get better since the kids won't be sick, and then comes Christmas and Grandma and Grandpa, so that will provide some nice relief. And then, in a couple months, my husband and I are going to Jamaica sans kids, which will be a wonderful break..., when we aren't missing the kids, of course! Oh, who knew motherhood would be such an emotional roller coaster, right? I guess I've always heard it, but until you live it, it just doesn't sink in... 
Then, Noah's latest spread is about his own favorite toy. He has officially chosen his "lovey", a cuddly giraffe that I've named Jelly. Learning from experience with Riley, we've gone ahead and purchased two spares so that we don't run into any disasters when it inevitably gets lost (Riley has three puppy blankies for the same reason!).
I decided to go the "easy" route, and used a pre-existing cover from a vintage cloth book for the large portion of the cover, and then just added some small embellishments to that. The little boy pictured actually looks a bit like Riley, with his messy hair and blue eyes. The picture above is of the shelf in his room where I have all his journals displayed, although soon the shelf may be too small, as I'm getting close to finishing his fourth book. Oh well, guess we may just need to buy a bigger shelf!
As you can see, some of the text on the piece reads "you receive this small gift from me". This represents the fact that I was giving myself a gift by allowing myself to do this piece without any obligation or expectation. And I quite like the result, if I do say so myself!
I also wanted to show you the adorably cute doll-sized kitchen set I found on Ebay. Isn't it wonderful? The colors are just perfect in 
Anyway, hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I've got an extra little turkey cooking in my little oven here, if anyone wants to come join me! 
This is a little late to be showing Halloween photos, but I've been waiting to get the files from my sister, since we were having camera issues that night. (You know those strange times when everything you own starts breaking on you? Here's what's broken for us in the past 2 weeks- digital camera, DVD player, refrigerator, cell phone- I can't wait to see what's next!) 
Anyway, here are the kids in their costumes. Riley was a lion, and Noah was a puppy dog. Both were easy costumes that I just made from hooded sweatshirts. Noah was a champ-no complaining at all; he was too busy looking cute! Riley was a different story. This was actually his first Halloween dressing up, and as I expected, he was a little wary. At first he cried when I put on the costume, then he tried to cover his face with the hood, and halfway through the evening, he decided "no hood at all". He wouldn't actually do any trick-or-treating because he was too shy, so I ended up holding the bag for him at each house. So, I guess I've got myself a cowardly lion! What's funny is that I dressed as a lion for one of my first Halloweens, and I was incredibly shy as well. I wish I could find a photo to compare... 
Then, here is the spread from Riley's book for his second birthday. While I was visiting my parents a few weeks ago, I came across an old scrapbook of my dad's that included bunches of vintage birthday and Valentine's cards- score! He couldn't care less about them (they're from when he was like 5 or 6, so he doesn't even remember any of the kids who gave them to him), so I snatched them up for my art! You can see I used a couple pieces in this spread. 
And this is the cover of Noah's first baby book, which includes his pregnancy-related artwork as well. When I finished this book a few months ago, I had to send it immediately to Somerset for an article I'd written (I think it should be in next month's issue), so I never had time to do a cover. Funny that it's in such similar colors to Riley's spread!