take a hike

This weekend we went to Usery Mountain Regional Park. Usery Mountain Regional Park offers over 29 miles of trails for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding. Park trails range in length from 0.2 miles to over 7 miles, and range in difficulty from easy to difficult. We love taking the kids for a hike on the Merkle Trail.


If you are looking for an easy, relatively short hike, the Merkle Trail is barrier-free and stroller friendly. Plus, there is a playground located right off the trail. So, we can hike 1/2 way then stop and play for awhile and then continue the hike. It's wonderful! Our friend Craig (and Hudson's godfather) is visiting from Florida this weekend, here they both are riding the slide at the trails playground.


This picture shows a gorgeous view of the Superstition Mountains seen while hiking. The trails within the Usery Mountain Regional Park have enough elevation to offer spectacular vistas of surrounding plains. ahhh ... heavenly. I just love the Arizona desert.

weekly reflection

Drawing is a visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. For this drawing i used colored pencils. The word 'drawing' is used as both a verb and a noun:

• Drawing (verb) is the act of making marks on a surface so as to create an image, form or shape.
• The produced image is also called a drawing (noun). A quick, unrefined drawing may be defined as a sketch.

The term drawing suggests a process and intent that is distinct from the traditional act of painting. While there are drawings that are finished artworks, drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem solving and composition, often as a means of preparation for a painting. In contrast, traditional painting is often a means of execution or finishing an artwork. It is fair to note that modern painters often incorporate methods of drawing in their painting process, particularly in the early stages of a painting.

I was inspired to create this drawing by a pendant Rhianna was wearing in an ad. Of course her's was in all diamonds!

vote today and everyday

I VOTED. The energy surrounding this election is like nothing I have seen before, I have never been one for politics but, as I get older and have a family of my own I care more about what goes on in the world around me.

Everyday is voting day. We get to cast votes for many important issues on a daily basis. Everyday we vote with our hard earned cash. Are we we supporting conscious, safe, and sustainable companies and products? They way we shop, eat, live matters ... we are casting a vote in support of that product and that company ... are you voting for the people and things you want to be? I know I still have some work to do to truly vote they way I want to be. We have lots to consider every time we make a purchase ... we vote everyday for the world we want.

I just finished reading Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times by Zoe Weil in which the author speaks of how to strive to live with respect for our environment, all species and all people and make humane choices for ourselves, our children and our world.

never pull off the road

On Halloween night my 2 sisters along with 2 girlfriends were driving to meet my parents out at a local bar to celebrate. They were driving down a main road in the neighborhood we grew up in and were harassed by some guy in a white van with brown stripes. The guy screamed at them to "pull over" while stopped at a light. My sister continued to drive on and the guy began screaming psychotically at them to pull over. He drove was closer and closer to their car trying to push them off to the side. My sister had to jump the curb to get away and turned off the main road into an area of side streets. The guy continued to follow them at top speeds. One of their friends in car got the police on the phone who told them to immediately leave the side roads and get back onto the main road. After a few panic stricken minutes of chase my sister was able to lose the guy in the van at an intersection.

Luckily, everyone is OK. Unfortunately, they were unable to get a license plate #. Sadly, things like this happen. I am unsure if this was a very nasty Halloween prank or if some serious harm would have been done had he somehow cornered them. I shudder at the thought. This is why Halloween creeps me out.

happy halloween!

Mario & Luigi - Halloween 2008.

Okay I have to admit Halloween has been one of my "ba humbug" holidays. I love candy and sweets as much as the next person. And a good costume party can be fun sometimes. I know it's sounds wacky for a creative person to not enjoy dressing up and going all out on Halloween. And I do enjoy the dress up part but, honestly I have frightful teenage memories surrounding this holiday. Memories that include shaving cream, eggs, toilet paper, flour sacks and more. You see as I grew into my teens Halloween took a turn for the worst and I even stayed home some years to escape the torment that went on in my neighborhood after dark.



For the past 4 years (since I had my sweet little Ethan) Halloween is looking better. The kids so enjoy dressing up and trick or treating. I wish you all a frightening fun Halloween fill with more treats then tricks.

beading: natural

This is one of my favorite "go to" jewelry sets. It is casual, chic, super light weight and can be worn with black and brown. I created it out of natural wooden beads in varying sizes, swarovski crystal rounds in light colorado topaz, black seed beads strung on .019 diameter soft flex beading wire in original steel tone and finished the design with a simple hook & eye clasp and ear wires.

kids art: pumpkin pals

Ethan and Hudson's completed pumpkin pals

To celebrate the season, I hosted a Pumpkin Pals Playdate with the East Valley Hip Mamas Meetup group. Just in time for Halloween, the kiddos (ages 2-5 years old) decorated their own pumpkins. EVHM provided all the art supplies for this event, including a pumpkin for each child. Since this event was around dinner time, we had a Pumpkin/orange themed potluck dinner and the goodies were cheese dip and chips, orange chicken and rice, homemade mac and cheese, pumpkin muffins and pumpkin cookies.

Hudson is in the zone.

Ethan contemplating what to paint on his pumpkin.

All 8 kids' pumpkin pals lined up to dry.

why i love to paint

Hudson painting at the Children's Museum of Phoenix

i love to paint because ...

• it makes me smile from the inside out
• i am at peace during and after creative expression
  
• i am able to create freely without the notion of "am i doing it right" that i feel in other mediums
  
• brush strokes, layering and color mixing are meditative and relive stress for me
  
• a finished piece evokes fond memories of the creative process, accomplishment and joy

beading: pendant gifts

This past weekend I met up with 3 of my favorite ladies: Erica, Laraine and Suzan. We are friends from high school who all turn 30 this year and decided to celebrate together in West Palm Beach, Florida. It is amazing that we have kept in touch all these years and even though we all live apart and don't talk to one another often enough it's like we haven't skipped a beat when we are together. I feel blessed to have them in my life. Erica was our hostess with the mostess and we had a fabulous weekend staying with her, Steve and of course Bella. I wanted to give these important women in my life a special gift. I picked out one of my original paintings turned resin pendant for each of them and then beaded a necklace to match the pendant design. Above is a photo of us on Saturday night all wearing our necklaces! (Laraine, Suzan, me and Erica) Check out each necklace below:

Erica's moon & stars necklace, as teenagers Erica was way into astrological designs so, choosing this pendant for her was a no-brainer.

Laraine's 3 daisies necklace, a long time ago I sent photos of my paintings to friends and family and Laraine commented on how much she liked this one so, I knew this pendant had to be hers.

Suzan's sunflower necklace, Suzan is a strong woman who is a lot of fun and this painting expresses that with its bold colors and sunflowers, which in and of themselves are cheerful so, this pedant was a natural choice for her.

Thanks for all the fun times in the past, present and future. I love you ladies!

beading: peach pearls

I purchased a beautiful strand of peach mother of pearl beads from Soft Flex Company's booth and the Glass Art & Bead Festival in Sonoma and lucky for you these can also be found online - 14mm peach mother of pearl rounds. Pearls are organic gemstones. They are formed when a foreign body becomes trapped inside of the shell of a mollusk. The pearl is a symbol of feminine wisdom, purity, and spiritual transformation.

I designed this bubbly necklace with 14mm pearls, small pearls as spacer beads, 3 swarovski cube beads in 2 sizes as the focal point, strung it on soft flex .019 beading wire wire and finished it off with a sterling silver 1 strand clasp.