Where the time goes

Wow, just noticed it's been 10 days since I last checked in here.  It's a busy life with kids, animals, and art.  I've been learning a lot, trying some new techniques, reading some books.  I love to read.  There seems to always be something left to work on, or to change in myself and I do this with the help of many authors.

 That is a story for another day though.

One of the girls pointe shoes

Today what I wanted to share with you is what
things take up all my time.  So there was this contest at my daughters ballet studio.  They do this yearly, sometimes semi annually for Galas and such.  They sell these beautifully decorated pointe shoes, decorated by the lovely ballerinas themselves.

one of the girls creations

 Always full of ideas I have been wanting to make one.  This time I did.  I only had a few hours to accomplish this, but I had so many ideas I just had to pick one and execute it.

 Here is the outcome...

It was fun, albeit a little stressful with my time constraints.   And I am very happy with the way it came out.

 I hope some little ballerina in the making is happy with it too.


I have this way of letting myself get distracted and sucked into things my kids do.  Especially if it's a creative endeavor.

One of the girls did this one

So this was a welcome distraction today.   A piece of art to create in a very busy week.  I am in the home stretch with the graduation over and ballet dress rehearsals in two days.  

Isn't it gorgeous?! 

 I got a new tattoo ...

   and my mini has been out having too much fun once again...




that too is a story for another day...

The chicks and the ducks are pretty much full grown now.  They are less work, but still occupy some of my time.  I will post pics another day.

This is the final piece.  Giselle.  My lovely daughter has been working on Giselle for her auditions.


This is where my time goes.  Love, Art, Life...





Enjoy life loves.

      It's the only one we get.

Something New

Thought I'd post a few pics of some of my current works.  I have many things going on at once and finish things all the time, but don't always take pictures, or do anything with them really, except look at them.  I get attatched. It's always been difficult for me not to. So, here's some of the latest paintings.  Hope you like them!

I've been experimenting a lot with textures.  Took a close up so you could see some...

Beauty

Tonight I found some beauty.  In fact I was privileged to sit in a room full of beautiful women, all there hoping to find some grace.  It was wonderful.  I am cynical of meeting new people to say the least, and seriously debated staying home and 'holing up' as I prefer to do.  But I mustered the courage and went.  I am so glad I did.

I met a wonderful woman tonight.  Her name is Wendy Joy Hart.  I found her through Meetup.com.  Going into this I thought surely this woman is selling something, or pushing something.  The last meetup group I joined was more of a way of drumming up business for the woman who led it than a meetup group.  I promptly quit that group.  But this one was so different.  I left feeling better, lighter, and happier than I've felt in years.  I learned a whole lot of new things, and hopefully made some new friends.   Beautiful friends.

Driving home I was struck by the fact that I was in a room full of beauty and could easily, very easily, have missed it.  These are the moments, the light I need to retrain my eye to see.  My memory to hold.  I had pictured this being a scary thing.  Me and all my baggage.  My deep deep shame and shyness to boot.  But whenever I am in a group of women who are real and honest I find that we all have baggage, and shame.  If we can just be real for a moment we find that none of us wants to be left out or judged.  We are all looking for love and a little acceptance.  That is my motto as you know choose love.  On my way to the group I kept telling myself, it'll be ok, just choose love.  It was exactly where I was supposed to be tonight, and I almost robbed myself of the opportunity.

Graduation time!

It's been a very busy couple of weeks.  I had my first High School graduation to plan, and as a homeschooler it's not as easy as that sounds.  There are many things to tend to besides the party afterwards, the gift, and the guests.  There are photos, programs, music, a slideshow, a display table, cap and gown and a boy scout uniform to find and make sure is ironed so he can lead the flag ceremony at the beginning.  Not to mention the other million and a half things, grad night, events, and all those little details.

Now that it's all done I'm happy.  Happy to have graduated one.  Happy to have been able to share this with family and friends.  Happy that he's happy.

I wish being happy came easily to me.  As you can tell from my art it does not.  I am trying to change that.  There really is so much beauty and grace in the world if I look for it.  

This is what I must remind myself constantly.  

I went through a period last year where I realized that I must retrain my eye to see light.  As with Art, art is a process of training oneself to see- to really see things.  I think there is beauty in everything and everyone if one looks deep enough.  It is my hope that people have that kind of grace for me.  That they look deep enough, beyond the external stuff, the tattoos, the funny clothes messy hair and pack of children I travel with  to really see me.  

One of our guests commented on the love he felt.  So much love in that room.  He was impressed.  Did I feel it?  No.  I was horribly stressed and hoping everything was ok.  One guest gave us his interpretation of our sons biography which was, well let's just say non-traditional, as a statement of our belief that none of this really matters.  I hadn't seen it that way, but I had to laugh, because that is how we entered homeschooling.  Wanting our kids to be the best people they could be, regardless of what they knew or had accomplished.  Wanting to give them a love of learning, not just a set of facts memorized and quickly forgotten.  Not a host of  painful school memories, but a family they know they can turn to, and be loved unconditionally.  These are all very lofty goals.  I am not sure we accomplished them.  But I think what I will choose to remember from this past week and this past 17 years is the certificate of appreciation our son gave us during the ceremony and his beautiful smile.  Life is good.  Life is indeed good...