30 is the new black

Thirty is choosing your own path, opening up to new possibilities, never settling for less ... Thirty is giving of yourself, taking risks, aiming for success ... Thirty is the new black!

Happy birthday to me! I'm turning 30 tomorrow! Although I have been celebrating since July ;) My fantastic husband, Bert, threw me a surprise bday bash while we were visiting our family in NY on July 4th. What a great time, I was super surprised and saw some family & friends I hadn't seen in years, and Bert had to plan the party with my family (hehehe). It was truly awesome. Thanks, babe.

Bert & I will be headed north tomorrow to the middle of nowhere (Alpine, Arizona) to visit our friends Carla & Mark. We will have no computer, no tv, no kids, no phone (possibly) - ahhh bliss! I am soooo excited to hit the cool weather and just relax. Strange that I have been on this earth for 30 years when some days i feel like i'm seeing the world for the first time. No birthday blues here - I am truly happy with where i am, how my life has evolved and am looking forward to the next decade of my existence. I desire to be happy in the present and so i will be!

I received a super sweet card from my friend Dan that states: Some people radiate love and leave happiness wherever their smiles have been. You're loving heart makes the world a more beautiful place. Gosh that's sweet. I can only wish that those words hold true throughout my life. Nothing would make me happier then to leave happiness wherever my smiles have been.

12-30-95

12-30-95 marks the beloved day Bert & I met in a parking garage outside Madison Square Garden after a Phish show. A good friend introduced us. Here is the ticket stub from that fantastic night. Who knew at the moment I met my soul mate, my best friend, my true love, ahhh ... Phish, alright meeting Bert is pretty spectacular too! Seriously though it was the first time we laid eyes one another. We ran into one another a time or two after that at a few other shows. However, it wasn't until Summer of 1997 (11 years ago!) that we really got a chance to know each other camping out at the Great Went held on Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine. Here are some other ticket stubs we have held onto over the years:

sketching: college book

I was cleaning out our utility room a.k.a where I store all sorts of random things tonight and I came across my college sketchbook. It was a lot of fun to look through it. I really enjoyed seeing such random images, thoughts, drawings and a bit of nonsense ;) Here are some of my favorite snippets!

Technical drawing of a horse in armor

A butterfly with travelers wings
(nyc subway map used to create the wings)

It is always fun to get mystical ~ dragons and castle

Left is a self portrait
I used art to vent my rage often those days

Here I was playing with color as a selective element

The next 2 sketches are removed from my usual sketching style. They are much more rigid and controlled. It's nice to do things differently from time to time for experimentation & growth.

childhood nature

I'm feeling a little creatively under the weather. I have a desire to work on some paintings but the arizona heat is creating havoc on my plans. My "studio" of sorts is setup in our garage and it is crazy hot out there right now. I usually to wait until the evening to paint when the kids are asleep and the garage is a bit kinder temperature wise but, in the midst of summer even the evening doesn't offer a break from the heat. I have one painting left mid-way that I need to finish and a few ideas that I can't wait to get started on.

For my birthday I received the very thoughtful gift of a michaels gift card. What better way to celebrate then with new art supplies! I purchased 3 large canvas' to create a series for myself. This weekend was first friday's art walk in downtown phoenix and I went with a few friends. It is always a joy to see and feel what artist's have to say. I took that inspiration along with some insight from a book I'm reading and came up with what I think is a great idea for my series: the nature of my childhood. I have yet to decide what elements of memories I will use as my muse but, I compiled the word montage above to get myself thinking. I will for sure incorporate my grandparents weeping willow tree. I had wonderfully magical feelings arise when that tree was recalled in my memory this weekend. I can't wait to be able to express those feelings!

kids art: gallery

While reading the new book The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections by Amanda Blake Soule I got from the library, I decided to try another suggestion. I was reading the chapter on art storage. I have always kept a clothesline type display in the kid's playroom of the things they create and a storage box of mementos for each child for later in life. But, the art gallery idea she suggests was a great new way to celebrate Ethan & Hudson's artwork. I located (4) 8x10 frames I had in the garage, looked through some pieces the boys had created and chose 2 from each of them to hang up. I hung the artwork at a low level that was accessible for Ethan & Hudson to see (but not too low that they could knock them down) in the hallway between the boys bedrooms as you see here! I think this will be an inspiring new way to display their prized pieces and allow them as well as everyone who visits our home to admire them. I hope that by creating the kids gallery it shows the boys that there art is, and always should be, valued.

paper arts: blessings

Here is my first scrapbook project. I think it turned out sweet. I decided to pay homage to Bert and I as kids and used some of our favorite childhood photographs. Below are 6 pages from this cute little 12 page book.

This spread is a tribute to Bert:

And, this spread is a tribute to me:

On this spread and placed photos of both of us together. Left side has portraits of us and the right side shows us on our first day of school.



This project began as a mother's day idea. I wanted to give Cindy, my mother-in-law, a scrapbook kit. She has boat loads of photographs and I thought it may be a nice hobby for her to learn and treasure. I wanted to help her get started so I bought myself a kit as well from my friend Krista who sells Creative Memories supplies and we took a little workshop together at Krista's to get going. I am happy with how my turned out. I haven't seen Cindy's finished book yet but, I do know she bought another kit! It may turn out to be a fun hobby for her after all ;)

paper arts: cards

I went to my first meetup last night with the "Not Your Grandma's" Super Hip Chic Craft Club and it was a blast! This is a group of 200+ crafty superstars in Arizona that make time for learning new crafts while meeting up with friends new and old. Last night was taught by Linda Ross, a very talented paper artist and there were 12 club members there. Linda had 8 card assembly stations setup with all sorts of goodies like stamps, ribbon, buttons, ect. I only had a chance to finish 6 of the 8 cards (see my cards in the photo!) but, they were nice enough to let me grab the needed materials to finish the other 2 on my own at home. It was a fun night of crafting! Linda's designs are beautiful and she made the whole process really easy. I have not dabbled with paper crafts too often. It was enjoyable to learning something new all the while chatting with some wonderful people. I can't wait to send these cards out to my family & friends!

kids art: lightening boltz

I picked up a new book The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections by Amanda Blake Soule from the library last week. This book was recommended by Tiffany from her nature moms blog. I was just a few chapters in when I saw the "freezer paper stencil" project for creating your own t-shirts. This sounded fun and the supplies were simple, bonus! That same day my eldest son, Ethan saw someone wearing an AC/DC shirt on TV and immediately took to the lightening bolt. He thought that was really cool and wanted a lightening bolt shirt for himself. The aha! moment struck and I thought this was a great opportunity to try the fun "freezer paper stencil" project talked about in the book. A day later I gathered all the supplies, cut out the stencils and both Ethan & Hudson painted the fun new shirts you see here!

new painting: beach

New painting! I created this as a gift for my uncle's 50th birthday. He is a big fan of the ocean, boats and tropical paradise. This took way longer to finish then I originally expected. Making sure the sky and ocean had different tones of blue and getting the sand color just right proved to be a challenge. I'm happy with the outcome and really like the "flow" of the design. This has a of brush strokes at play which represents my signature style. It should be arriving to him this week and I hope he really enjoys it.

digital sketch: beetle

In this case I enjoy the computer sketch better then the original. It was created in Illustrator. I like the addition of the soft and transparent colors. The original sketch never quite felt finished to me but, the computer sketch in contrast has a complete feel. I was trying to establish a fantasy like quality with the color scheme, the many layers of pencil and I incorporated my handwriting from the journal into this computer sketch.