Disconnected

Two storms here in the northeast US brought us about 2 ft. of snow (some places had as much as 50") and a total of 17 hrs. of electricity since Tuesday night. There were lots of broken tree limbs and fallen trees. We were forced to disconnect. In many ways it was hard, in many other ways good.
Neighbors pulled together helping each other as much as they could. There was lots of focused family time. Reading by flashlight. Taking photos. Listening to a battery run radio. Singing. Eating by candlelight. My husband spent many hours digging us out and setting up a generator. So thankfully we had heat and hot water and refrigerated food. We are so thankful to be fully restored. All of the utility workers worked (are working) so hard to get everyone running again. I am feeling extra grateful today for all of the blessings we have been given. And so happy to have my coffee maker working again. :)

The Artistic Mother

Shona Cole is an artist and mom to five. She wrote the new book The Artistic Mother : A Practical Guide to Fitting Creativity into Your Busy Life. And if you are a mom you know how hard this can be. I haven't read the book yet but it has gotten great reviews on Amazon. It is on my wish list!

Here is a link to Shona's beautiful blog, An Artful Life. She is giving away a copy so go check it out! And here is a link to where her book can be purchased.

Around here

* I got to meditate today with this cd while my daughter napped and my husband took my son out. This is only my 2nd time trying this and it was great.

*I am anxiously awaiting the rest of my painting supplies. I am going to stretch my own canvas. I really enjoy that part of the process.

* I sketched with colored pencils last night. Flowers and thoughts of growing things are keeping me going through the end of winter. We bought some bulbs yesterday. I have to restrain myself from starting any seeds indoors because last year I did it way too early and the basil and tomato plants were so big, so fast.




*This is a sketch from artist Susan Abbott. She does beautiful watercolor paintings. She travels and teaches and posts daily paintings to her blog.



*Another daily painter, Carol Marine. This piece is titled "Cherryguards".
She has been doing one small oil painting a day since 2006! I love her pieces! Don't you? Wouldn't it be great to do a painting a day? She says it takes her anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hrs. to complete a piece and 15 minutes to post her paintings to ebay and her blog. Here is a link to a demo of her painting.

*Have you seen the Crafting an MBA blog? It is blog devoted to business for designers and makers. A wealth of info.

I hope your weekend was great!
xo,
Dana

I heart you!

Happy Valentines Day! Who doesn't love hearts?

I will never tire of found heart images. I love this one by Rick Ruggles. He was my first intro to found hearts way back when. I love his work.

Today we are baking brownies in my heart shaped pan from Bennington Potters. The kids made some decorations and we are going to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

I hope your day is great. Thanks to all that come by to read, to say hello or more. I heart you! There are so many reasons I love this blogland but the baby is crying and I will save it for another post.

xo,
Dana

ART BOOK-Page 4

This week has been a bit topsy turvy.

A stomach bug, a mouse in the house, a hospital trip, 2 drs. visits, a couple of snow days and a birthday.

I am hoping we are back to "normal". And thankfully the mouse has been caught!

I know those things aren't inspiring but this post from Wini of ARTLOVEJOY was. She did a great post on Kim Parker. I believe I have heard of her but not to this extent. She has a book for 2 bucks!! So I had to get it of course! She sparked something in me. Maybe it is her dealings in textiles, her color sense, her loose and beautiful flowers. Maybe it was all of that and more. She got me excited. So I ordered some paint. Acrylic. I have some but not enough and mine are very old. It has been so long since I painted in acrylics. I started with acrylics way back in high school and I can't wait to try again. I am having trying to decide if I want to just buy a pre-made canvas or stretch my own. I really enjoy stretching my own and I think it is more economical then pre-made canvases. So I think I will order the gesso, stretcher bars and canvas. I am going to create a piece for our home.

The photo above is a page from my ART BOOK. It is just a bit of play with stamping with erasers using gouache and ink. Be back soon!

This week and next are a bit busy. Lots of pleasant things and a couple unpleasant. It is o.k. though.Everyone has a life filled with ups and downs, and mine is no exception.

So I had the feeling that I wanted to play. I made a scrappy collage. I have LOTS of scraps. And for some reason I can't through them away. I played around with them, glued them down. I wanted to try and sew them so they would stay more textural but I didn't. Maybe I will for the next one. I bought some acrylic ink. Still not sure about it. I want to order some Shiva Paintstiks. Kelly Rae demonstrates them in her book. They look like alot of fun to play with. I think I need a night to just play. Couldn't we all just use a night for this?

So I just saw this you tube video,mom 2.0:defining a movement. If you are a mom or know a mom. Watch it! It is really great! I saw this on wishstudio. I really love this blog!

Also, I started a page in my ART BOOK. It has been so long but I am feeling like I want to play so this is a great place to. I hope to share soon.

I just found this site, Art Wall Online. Did you already know about it? It looks so great. Go check it out. I may have to add this to my vision board.