fresh picked whimsy

life is a blank canvas...

My sisters always joke that i sucked all the creativity out of my mother's womb and left none for them.  So not true...they are amazing in their own unique ways.  Kim's thing is organization.  The girl actually LOVES to clean and organize.  She's done it for me and my house more times than i can remember.  Susan is very creative...loves to craft and cook and garden.  I was born without the organizational/cleaning DNA, without the love for cooking DNA and definitely without the green thumb DNA.  we can't win 'em all, sistas. 

 

{Kim, Lori & Susan}

When our kids were born, i wondered if they would be artistic.  Given that neither of my sisters are artists, i guessed that our kids would not necessarily be artistic.  I was wrong.  They are really amazing and it's so much fun to watch them develop! 

 
 {elementary school art by Katie (top) and Riley (bottom)}

The boys do enjoy drawing, however they don't seem terribly interested in anything but Xbox and sports right now.  Someday, Riley wants to be an engineer like his papa and Griffin's future plans are currently either designing new Lego sets or being a train engineer!  However, Katie has recently decided to study art in college.  {and, yes, i am one excited mama} 

some of her recent work...

 

 
Kate and Riley are both taking drawing at the high school and i am LOVING the projects they are coming home with.  Their latest project was called "minu-mental".  The objective was to create a piece of art on a one square inch base.  They could use any materials they wanted and the work could be one dimensional or 3D.  They were given the theme "earth".  Katie's friend Brendan came over to work on it with them in the studio.  They all had a lot of fun dreaming these up.  They each made 2 and this is what they came up with... 

 

 

 
 
 
 
aren't those fun?!  We recently were at the high school and walked through the art hallways.  This poster was hanging and it cracked me up!

 
I loved this one, too!

 

 We are just beginning the college visits, SATs and exploring Kate's options.  She's a junior this year.  It's all very exciting and thrilling and terrifying at the same time.  She recently started a blog called "Illuminating Kate" and it's all about her journey to figuring out her place in this world.  A mix of her dreams, hopes, adventures and art.  You can check it out here.  And don't be shy...she's new to the blogging world and is thrilled when she gets comments and followers!  ♥  Thanks, friends!

 

Sweet new prints in the shop!

This is a new addition to my cakes....thank you, thank you very much:

 

you remember this one:

and for you chocolate lovers:

I already have a few more cakes sketched out...they're still baking...when they come out of the oven, you'll be the first to know.  :-)

Row, row, row your canoe!

Mark and I took the kids on a little adventure yesterday.  We went to Sugar Creek and rented some canoes and took an 8 mile trip down the creek.  Not being a big nature girl, it was so much more fun than I had anticipated. 

Most of the creek was 1-2 feet deep; 4 feet at it's deepest spots.  We saw big and little fish, crayfish and clams!  Who knew there were clams in Indiana???

We stopped for a picnic on a sandbar and found this guy:

This pretty butterfly hitchhiked in the canoe with R and me {almost the whole time}:

The water was crystal clear, there was a light breeze, and the sun was shining.  This creek was really out "in the sticks" of Indiana.  So, you didn't hear anything but nature and each other.  There were lots of other people canoeing and kayaking, too, but it wasn't crowded.  I don't think our teens even missed their cell phones.  :-)

G loved the mud!

We canoed under 2 covered bridges along the way:

Sometimes it's just nice to get away from the hustle of it all.  Even though we were only about an hour from home, it felt like we were a world away.  We all had so much fun, that we've decided to make this an annual event. 

Illustration Friday: Enough

"Gee, I hope I got enough..."

It's back-to-school shopping time here in Indiana.  Our first day back is August 12th.  I think we are one of the earliest to go back.  I hate that.  When i was a kid, we didn't go back until after Labor Day and that was perfect.  There's still so much summer left on August 12th.  :-( 

So, the school supply lists for just 2 of my 3 kids inspired me for this week's Illustration Friday topic.  Those are the exact supplies we have to get.  We are blessed to live in a really fantastic city with top of the line public schools.  The teachers, the schools themselves, and the education my kids get there are all stellar.  I know that teachers are not paid nearly what they are worth and that many of them reach into their own pockets for classroom supplies.  But, i swear the school supply list gets longer every year.  Now, i don't want to get on a rant about local government spending, but pretty soon, i'm going to need to take out a loan at back-to-school time just to buy the supplies for my kid's free public school education. 

Does anyone out there remember when school supplies meant a new lunchbox and some No. 2 pencils?

Illustration Friday: Hoard

The combination of working on the book illustrations and having my kids home for summer vacation has really left my house neglected.  So, i've been catching up this week and that is why my blog has been neglected.  This week's Illustration Friday topic is hoard.  My housework has hoarded my creative time this week. However, i still found time to draw this illustration last night.  If my vacuum, laundry basket and dirty dishes really did meet me with a smile, maybe housework wouldn't be such a chore!   

Illustration Friday: Wide

Lucky is what he would be if he fit through the door of his new house.

L'eggo my Eggo

Fourth in a series, "We Go Together"

This one was inspired by R.  He gave up waffles for Lent this year.  They are his absolute favorite food.  He has them almost every morning for breakfast.  (ok, maybe not the healthiest breakfast, but at least he uses sugar free syrup)  It's not the homemade variety he loves; it's the Eggos!  This morning when they popped up in the toaster, he said "Ahhhh...i love that sound!"  It cracked me up. 

This and that

Yesterday was a good creative day.  The Dr. Seuss unit at G's school wraps up today with Hat Day.  G had to make a Seuss-inspired hat from his favorite Seuss book.  He chose to make a hat inspired by the "Iota" character from "If I Ran the Zoo". 

He was supposed to do the majority of the work on this hat.  He tried and tried and had a major melt down.  So, finally, i drew it, he colored it and i cut it out.  We worked together to turn it into a hat and there was peace in the land, again.

I spent a little time after the kids went to bed making these gift tags for my shop.  I still need to add the ribbons to them:

I have had my eye on this cup and saucer at Anthropologie for months.

It's not that it was expensive, but there are so many other expenses in my life, that, at the time, i just allowed myself to drool over it at the store and then walk away.  Well, last week, i went to Anthropologie for some inspiration with my sister and mom. I LOVE that store!  To my surprise, it was still there and on the sale shelves.  After more drooling and walking away, yet again, my sister bought it for me when i wasn't looking.  Wasn't that sweet of her?  I don't know where i'm going to put it yet, but i know it has to be somewhere i can see it every day.  It just makes me happy.

A VERY happy last day of winter to you!  Good bye, winter...don't let the door hit you in the bum on the way out!

Third in a series, "We Go Together"

Oh, what i would give for that cookie right now...but i gave up sweets for Lent.  ...small sacrifice...

Well, a first for me today...I have been "tagged" by my new blogging friend, Christina.  She is a fantastic vintage-inspired artist.  You can visit her blog and link to her etsy shop here:  www.mytangerinedreams.blogspot.com.  So, Christina tagged me and i'm supposed to tell 5 things about myself that are oddities or quirks, reference my tagger, and then tag 5 more bloggers and let them know that I've tagged them via comment or email.  So, here are the first of my quirks/oddities that come to mind:

• I was born in NY, and moved to the midwest when I was 9.  However, my kids swear that when i get mad, my NY accent comes out.  I'm not really sure how that could be, but they always point it out to me and can't help but giggle about it. 
• I am a pop culture trivia junkie.  I don't know how, but i do have a rather large memory bank for useless trivia.  I LOVE the shows "Cash Cab" and VH1's "World Series of Pop Culture".  My sister and I love a good celebrity gossip magazine, too.  I have a knack for remembering commercial jingles and song lyrics.  I can't help my 6th grader with his math homework, but I do still remember all the words to the "preposition" song that i had to learn in 7th grade to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy.  Why?  I don't know!
• My stupid human trick:  I can make my eyeballs shake.
• I LOVE to sing my heart out to the radio in the car.  I have a terrible voice, but it doesn't stop me.  I have been busted more than once at a stoplight by the car next to me, laughing hysterically at me.
• I'm a sucker for a good sweepstakes or chance to win anything.  I won tickets to see Michael Jackson in the 80's (before he became a freak) on the radio, a trip to the Bahamas in the 90's on the radio, and i'm going to win HGTV's dream house this weekend!!!!! Oh yes, i am.

Ok, so, pathetically, i don't know many in the blogging world, but i'm going to tag my cousin, Jeannine at http://blog.creativejuicestudios.com/ .  She just started blogging, too.  She makes the most beautiful quilts, pillows and an assortment of hand-sewn accessories.  And...i'm tagging Jenny at http://jennyelkins.blogspot.com/ . You can see some of her latest work on my blog if you scroll down.  She has been wanting to jump back into her blog after taking some time off and this will be the perfect jump start she needs.

Don't forget!

...don't forget to change the batteries in your smoke detectors, too!

Last night, Mark and I and our friends, Jason and Kim, went to the opening of a gallery show that featured the work of one of our friends, Jenny Elkins.  She is a mixed media artist who creates collage art that features photographs from the late 1800's to the early 1900's.  Jenny's wicked sense of humor is weaved into every piece.  Jenny is a member of G.A.S. (Garage Artist Society) which is a group of artists who work in home studios in their garages.  These are a few photos from last night's show, which also featured her fellow G.A.S. artists.  The show runs through April 24th at the Dean Johnson Gallery in Indy. 

This is a close up of the text from the piece above (I think it was a favorite among last night's gallery visitors:

This piece featured all of the "characters" that are regulars in Jenny's work.  We told Jenny that she needs to write a book about them.  So funny!

A close-up of one of the sections from the piece above:

This next one is one from my private collection (really, it's the only original art i own, but i thought it would sound a little more prestigious to say "my private collection" :-)

A close up of the paper below the photo reads:

Doesn't that crack you up?  That woman is so serious in the photo.  That piece instantly reminded me of the enormous framed glasses my mom used to wear in the 80's.  I just had to buy it.