the Sweatheart Sale starts today

A sale in my shop starts today!  It's Buy One Get One FREE for all PRINTS and prints ONLY.  In order to get your free print, you must select a print to buy, then specify which additional print you would like in the "Message to Seller" section of the checkout process.  I will send both prints to you with no additional shipping charges.

Enjoy shopping for your loved ones!

I love being a mom... so much!

I have tried not to make my little Noah the center of my artwork blog, but...  he IS the inspiration for most of my artwork.  He IS the focus of most of my day.  He IS the sweetest, cutest little boy I've ever known.

The other day while playing with Noah, I squished my cheeks together to make a face at him.  He laughed, then came up to me and squished my cheeks together with his big, clammy hands and kissed my puckered lips, then hugged me.  Then.... be still my heart.... he did it again... and again... and again...  For about seven minutes he did this over and over again.  My cheeks were sore, my lips were raw, I had things to get done...  But this little moment in time... it is times like these that you forget everything else around you and live in that moment.  Just soak it up because it may never happen again.   And you say, "I love being a mom".

seeing the lights.... post Christmas

We wanted to take Noah to see Layton's crazy display of "Christmas" lights, but didn't want to fight the crowd so we waited until after Christmas to go.  Now what I mean by "crazy display" and my quotes around the word Christmas is that these lights are downright silly.  You've got everything from mermaids to dinosaurs, monkeys, dragons, airplanes, flowers, bears, dolphins, butterflies and yes... even a unicorn!

Silly.

Speaking of silly... luckily these snow pants are hand-me-downs because of course by the time Noah can wear them, they are a wee bit small.  But he LOVED them!

It was PAINFULLY cold that night, but Noah didn't care at all.

There he goes...

He so loved the silly lights...

All in all, we were only there for about 15 minutes because of the single digit temperature.  Needless to say, Noah was very upset we were leaving so fast, so we drove around the park a few times so he could see the lights from the warmth of the car.

gotta have Christmas morning pictures

What a fun Christmas we had!  Noah is at that super fun age where you can get him next to nothing (though we probably still got him too much) and he loves it no matter what!

Here's Noah in his new jammies with his stash...

Gotta love the bed head and puffy eye pics!  Abe and I showing off our Christmas socks...

And then... the day after Christmas is one of my fav's because this is what it looks like:

A complete disaster!  I LOVE the messy house right after the celebrations!  That may sound strange, but those are some of the best memories of growing up.  Playing with all your new toys amongst boxes and wrapping paper.  He played there for at least two hours!

Certainly one of the happiest kids I know.  I'm such a lucky mom!

I hope everyone's Christmas was as joyful as mine. :)

Happy New Year!

Christmas is coming...

This year is super fun because Noah will actually get excited for the things he gets for Christmas!  Having kids makes the holidays so much more fun.  It throws you right back into childhood.  I'm afraid I may even wake Noah up too early Christmas morning because I just can't wait for him to open his presents!

I normally buy new wrapping paper each Christmas.  It's one of my very favorite things to do.  But this year, I decided to use up what I already had.  I still have so much left over from other years. 

So I used 3 different patterns and it turned out really cute!  I LOVE how a bunch of piled up presents looks under a tree.  I know, I know... it shouldn't be the focus of Christmas.  But... it's just too darn fun not to do!  I stayed up until 3am one night wrapping everything while watching Christmas movies.  It was great fun even though I was super tired the next day!

50% Off Sale on Prints!

Come check out the  50% OFF SALE at the shop!
(UPDATE: sale is over... new prints available in the shop daily!)

Picking Out The Tree....

Thought I'd share a glimps of the fun we had picking out our tree earlier this month.

Noah had such a blast!

I have a few VERY short vidoes of him where all you see is a flash of him running through the trees and hear him yelling at the top of his lungs.  Such a funny little guy!

Taking it home...

...and dressing it...

Finished!

We are still in the "collection" process of fun little ornaments.  We only have a handful or so now and I refuse to put them on the tree until there's at least another handful.

What fun!  I love this time of year!

PRINTS ARE IN!!

Finally, I have prints available in the shop!  They are prints of all new paintings!

A Rescue Set

And a Construction Set

The prices are dramatically reduced from the originals!

Go see for yourself!

I will be getting prints of some of the older stuff in the shop this week as well.
Thanks for being so patient!

A Sneak Peak!

Here's a glimps of what I've been working on this weekend.  This is before the "antiquing" stage.  I use an antiquing stain on all my paintings because I love the texture it brings out and I love them to look old.  So that stage will come next.

These two will be a part of my "rescue series".  I'm also working on a "construction series" as well as some other ideas I have floating around.  I haven't painted in over a month so it feels great to be painting again!  I've had so much fun with these!

They will be in the shop very soon.

UPDATE ON PRINTS:  I am still awaiting the paper I ordered for my prints.  It should be here this week.  (update:  prints are now available in the shop) Once it's here, I can begin selling reproductions of my paintings as prints at a HUGE price reduction!  So exciting!!  We've tested it out already and they look wonderful!  It makes you want to feel the paper to make sure it isn't really canvas.  They look great and I'm very excited about them!

More Christmas Crafting....

I found this little red felt reindeer that my sister, Brandy, gave to me a few years ago with a few other felties.  I had forgotten about him, but came across him again and thought he was just so adorable that I would have to frame him!

Cute!!

Crafting for Christmas!!

I'm the type of person that goes shopping for decor, not to buy, but to get ideas.  I don't know if it's because I'm too cheap to spend money on something I think I can make or because I truly want to make it.  So I found some white, glittered pinecones that were ridiculously expensive so.... I made some myself.

Here is after I spray-painted and was glittering.  I didn't glitter them too much because I was SO DONE WITH THE PINECONES!  I was covered in white spraypaint, that doesn't come off very easily, and my trigger finger hurt super bad!  Plus it was cold outside!  And I'm certainly not going to spraypaint inside.  Not to mention I was coated in a layer of glitter.  Anyway, it was a lot more work than I ever thought it would be, but we have this giant glass snifter that I needed to fill.... so white pinecones it is!

And the mis-match stockings:

I think it's fun to add random socks to the fireplace as your family grows!

Decorating for Christmas!!

I have fond memories of the holiday season when I was little.  I remember it was always the day after Thanksgiving, I'd wake up to my parents decorating the house for Christmas and listening to Christmas music such as:  old Mannheim Steamroller, Bing Crosby, The Oakridge Boys and.... my all time favorite still.... The Roger Whittaker Christmas Album.  I would huddle up by our giant 1980's speakers and listen to "Tiny Angels".  Oh how I love those memories.  Needless to say, I, and most of my 7 siblings, have that album and listen to it still to this day.

My parents never really decorated for any other holiday.  Not that I can remember.  But Christmas... watch out!  My dad would even put Christmas-y tassels on the cabinet knobs!  I loved it!  Thanks mom and dad for those fun memories.  I love you!