creative every day: home

"I love you, not only for what you are,

but for what I am when I am with you."
Roy Croft

On the last day of the creative every day home theme I wanted to reflect on my meaning of home: My husband and children. No matter what is going on in our lives, where we live or create, my family is my home. I feel most at home with myself when I am with them.

creative every day: home

Before

I did it! I finally tackled cleaning and reorganizing my garage /art studio! I am very grateful for this little place all my own to create in. I didn't have anything like this in our last home and it has been wonderful. I love it even more that the space is clean, organized and has a little bit of personality.

After

Seeing all the wonderful craft spaces on Craft: blog inspired to make my craft space work for me. I now have project materials, tools & ideas all within reach. I even have room to add snippets of inspiration on the 2 corks boards I hung above the desk and the hanging picture mobile I installed above my art cart. They will be a perfect places to tack up my to do's and clip on inspiration for my works in progress. Now, I need to get out there and create :D

To see what others have been working on for the home theme, just click here.

creative every day: home

I took the opportunity of the creative every day challenge theme home to clean out and donate some stuff this month. The bag has a bundle of warm fleeces and sweatshirts. My husband and I had way to many. I just love when the unused things in our home find new homes.

I really need to clean out my art studio and make is a better home for creating. My garage is feeling way to garage-like to be inspiring. I have this weekend to finally wrap that up before I head into March's theme.

To see what others have been working on for the home theme, just click here.

creative every day: home

This months home theme at creative every day has been in the back of my mind but, I haven't blogged about it so, here I go ... unloading my mind, the home of many maddening thoughts, desires and checklists.

When I think of the word home it brings up many warm and fuzzy feelings of family, love, comfort, encouragement, food, creativity and safety along with the not so warm and fuzzy realities of cleanliness, organization, parenting hurdles and work tasks and pressures.

Who knew thinking about my home would bring up deep feelings of self worth. I didn't realize it would but, for me it did. When I'm home I am a mother and a wife, I am also a full time work-from-home graphic designer, a part time freelance designer and a mixed media artist. I spend an immense amount of time at home and the line that separates my work from my home is greatly blurred. My work/home situation is absolutely wonderful in so many ways and I am very grateful for it. But ... there are entire days that I don't leave home. If I take a look around I see many unfinished projects and many more project ideas not yet started, both for my home and work. This can lead to frequent break-downs due to the overwhelming nature of it all (here's where the self worth comes in). I put lots of pressure on myself to do more, clean more, create more, but really I need to just be home more. I need to allow myself to relax and enjoy my home and my family without all the pressures creeping in.

I love my home and I love my work and I love that I work at home. I wouldn't change the way things are. It's all about balance. Some days balance comes naturally and other days not so much. I guess that is why my home sketch above is busy, rough around the edges, with a lot of heart, balancing on top of a hill. Honestly I didn't realize my feelings about home played into the sketch I made until I wrote this. Amazing how the subconscious works.

To see what others have been working on for the home theme, just click here.

happy valentine's day

Hearts made by Hudson, 2010

I'm feeling the love today ... I am so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life. I love my family and friends and all of you that stop by, read, comment and support me in my art and my life dearly. Wishing everyone lots of love today and always. Happy Valentine's Day!

monthly goal meet up

It's the beginning of the month, well sort of, which means it's time for the monthly goal Meet Up at Athena Dreams. The Meet Up which is a monthly goal sharing group. In January and now leading into February I've been busy with a few design freelance projects. This is putting some of my biz goals on hold but, for very good reason.

Here were my January goals ...

1. load new creative stash website splash page - done!
   
2. creative stash business cards - not started yet ... and may need to wait a little longer
   
3. add bookmarks to etsy shop - on hold
   
4. add magnets to etsy shop - need to buy materials
   
5. gift packaging idea & photo for etsy shop - on hold until I get more products loaded
   

I really only got to #1 in January but, that's alright. I have been real busy with design work. So here we go into February ...

1. finish the 3 wedding invitation suites I am freelancing
2. continue work on a web site freelance project
   
3. buy resin to make magnets
   
4. add magnets to etsy shop
5. buy art materials for new products: new canvas, chain and pendants
6. get to the gym 3-4x a week - while not a biz goal it does help keep me focused, energized and happy so I need to "make it work" as Tim Gunn would say.
   

Wishing everyone a creative and productive month!

creative every day: body

My precious little one
I love you all the way to the moon and back

I finished this painting just moments ago! I already hung it on the wall even though it is still drying, my extreme impatience kicked in and I just couldn't wait. I am so happy with it. Crazy all the stages a painting goes through in my mind and on canvas before it feels done. In the end it is exactly what I wanted it to be. I added some words to connect the picture of my son in my womb (the moon) with my son today. The quote is based on a line in a children's book we love "Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney (Author) and Anita Jeram (Illustrator).

While reading some poems on www.scrapbook.com I found the one below. I thought it was particularly sweet and expressed the mother/child connection beautifully.

"Nine Months"

Author: Unknown

My precious little baby,
I have loved you from the start.
You are a tiny miracle
Laying closely to my heart.
Each day I feel your presence,
Each day you quickly grow,
Each day your heart beats softly,
As only I could know.
So, I'll keep this in a special place
And remember each year through,
Of this special time in my life
In the months I carried you.

Now that I'm done with the body theme I need to get cracking on the home theme! To see what others have been working on for the home theme, just click here.

creative every day: body

Working with the monthly theme body is officially over for Creative Every Day. But, I am still finishing up my body painting. I had some heavy feelings to work out the other night so, I took it out on my canvas. I'm really happy with the textured raw feeling this painting now has.

As you know, my pregnancy profile body shadow was the starting point for this piece of art. The outline was drawn by me in 2006 when I was 8 months pregnant with Hudson. I decided to base this piece on the moon, la Luna. Hudson has always held a special place in his heart for the moon so, it just felt right.

I'm not sure if it's done yet. I think there needs to be a little green added around the moon and I am thinking I want to add a little something in the background but, it's getting pretty close.

To see what others have been working on for the body theme, just click here.

video: parkour flip book

parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.

Parkour Flip Book Video
Illustrated with technical pen, frame by frame.
via Spraygraphic

I love stuff like this!