Squeezing in the time...

My hubby is out of town for the next two weeks. I'm not complaining, as he only travels about once a year, sometimes once every two years. When he is gone, however, it means that I have very little time for myself...

I've been fortunate the last couple of days and have been able to squeeze in some time after the girls go to bed. This is a picture of Fiona, Alexa, and my niece Giada. My mother loves this picture so once I am finished embroidering it I'm going to give it to her:)

I was also able to squeeze in a little bit of time for some doodling. I have a set of watercolor pencils that I have been wanting to experiment with...

Hopefully I will have some time to color this in and paint it before the week is over! Isn't it amazing how much we appreciate time when we have so little of it? Have a Blessed and cool week. It reached 95 here in northern Ohio today! Nothing like going right from winter to summer:)

Photographic Friday...Lots of Bubbles!

Last Saturday, we were getting ready to go to my parent's camper when the girls broke out the bubble machine. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and lots of bubbles...

What is it about bubbles that makes everyone giggle and laugh? There must have been hundreds of bubbles floating around the back yard, even the neighbor and his father stopped working on their roof to watch them float by.

Sometimes the simplest of things give us the most joy. Have a Blessed weekend:)

Procrastinating and then catching up!

Like many other busy artsy craftsy people, I have projects that I start but don't quite get finished. This is one of those projects...

I had completed a digital collage of the girls last fall, I had even printed it out on a fabric sheet and started to embroider it. Well last week I finally collaged it! I painted my canvas board a bright blue than collaged it with old book pages, school papers from the girls, and of course lots of tissue paper...

I wanted it to convey a northern Ohio mid-summer feel to it. I think I am going to end up giving this to my mom and dad for their camper, it has a camper kind of feel to it:) What projects are you finishing up?

Photographic Friday...

Whew! What a busy week! Lot's going on up at the girl's school now that summer is almost here. The good thing about taking pictures is that is forces you so slow down and look at the world around you.




There is so much beauty in our "every days" that sometimes it can take my breath away...




What have you seen that is beautiful this week?

Paper Beads...

In her book "Stitch Alchemy" Kelli Nina Perkins gives a tutorial on paper beads. I've had the book for three years and I still love it. I finally gave this a try...

They were so easy and fun to make! I used magazine pages; a few from a Stampington magazine I had - I normally don't like to tear those up but the colors were so great. Then I just added a little bit of a paint wash to them and of course a little bit of glitter...

I collaged some tiny words on them as well. I'm going to call them my "affirmation beads". I hope everyone has, once again, a dry week! We had a few nice days last week and over the weekend but as of today we are back to lots of rain and highs only into the low fifties all week.

Photographic Friday...

April showers do bring May flowers! Whew - busy week and then some problems with Blogger make this post more pictures than words but sometimes that's okay...

Now that we have had a few days in a row with sunshine and no rain, flowers of all kinds are starting to bloom...

I can get really inspired by all of this natural vibrant color - what about you? What kind of things inpire you?

I hope everyone has a wonderfully colorful weekend. Blessings.

Photographic Friday...

Yesterday, we had a rare (rare for this spring season anyway), clear, dark blue sky, nothing but sunshine kind of day. It was a little cooler but that didn't stop me and Alexa from playing outside while waiting for Fiona to come home from school...

I got out my Macro lens and started taking some pictures. I LOVE my Macro lens, it allows me to capture a view of the world that is not often seen. It's also an extremely versitile lense...

The sky was soooo blue and looked so wonderful peering through this blooming tree. I must have taken ten pictures of it. It's moments like this that cause us to really appreciate what we have; like a beautiful sunny day during a spring that has seen more rain than any other in Ohio history! What are you grateful for today?

Doodling, doodling, doodling...

I have a 5 x 7 Moleskin journal that I have had for quite awhile. I also have a new set of Sharpie markers...

I had to do some doodling. This may sound really easy to a lot of people, but it's hard for me. I'm very critical of my drawing and tend to get stuck in that "blank page" syndrome...

Fortunately, I have a Facebook friend who is a wonderful illustrator and posts pictures of her doodling all the time. I find it VERY inpiring.

I don't know why I am so intimidated about drawing, but I am. The other burst of inspiration for me to start doodling was a school bag that my sister bought for Fiona for her birthday. It's a messenger bag with a big front flap. The flap is printed with all kinds of flowers, hearts, and doodles and she got to color it in. It was a lot of fun to help her!

I hope everyone enjoys their first week in May:) It is still very cloudy and rainy here in Ohio but I am not giving up hope that the sun will eventually come out to stay. Blessings.