I've been having fun in my sketchbook lately with patterns and color. Inspired by one of my favorite artists, Lisa Congdon, and one of her online classes, I purchased a set of these markers and they are so fun to work with. The colors are super vivid and they have a watercolor-like finish. Here are a few of my recent doodles...
It is a nice change of pace to do something outside my usual doodling, and try different color combinations. If you want to keep up with my almost daily doodling, follow me over on Instagram! XO,
Today I took a much needed mental health day, complete with an appointment to cover up my quickly multiplying "natural highlights" and get a fresh hair cut. I usually joke about the term "mental health day" but to be honest I was desperate for this time. When I'm in the middle of an extremely difficult season {day, hour, minute} of life, I find myself becoming frustrated and hurt that those around me aren't more aware of my need for attention and rest. Surely they can see that inside I feel like I'm about ready to lose my grip, right? While it is great to have people around that notice our need for care, here's the truth. They probably aren't going to do it for you. Chances are, they are having a rough time too. We all have our things. For me it is the feeling of my soul being suffocated by the roles of professional, mom, wife, and artist with no white space to inhale deeply. For you it might be the total overwhelm of the stay-at-home-mom life, the fresh and still stinging grief of a personal loss, or the worry and exhaustion that comes with having a special needs child. The point is, you have to take care of you. Our lives don't have a built-in self-care alarm that alerts everyone to back away and give us some space. Oh, wouldn't that be nice? So take a mental health day, grab your favorite drink from the local coffee shop, spend some time reading an encouraging book, take a bubble bath. Whatever feels right...whatever your soul needs to get back to some sort of balance. If you need to set an alarm on your phone to take a break at 10:00 every morning just to stop and take ten deep breaths, do it. Leave a post-it note on your bathroom mirror reminding yourself to do that mud mask you keep forgetting about. Take care of you. {What's one thing you can do today to better take care of yourself? Tell me in the comments!} XO,
I'm a bit obsessed lately with Vance Joy. Have you heard this song?
Aside from loving his voice and the tune, the title of the song reminds me so much of how we should be living life. We all mess up. We all make huge messes. We are all messy. And one of the best parts of life is that we can embrace each other's messes.
Awhile back I was having lunch with a good friend that I hadn't seen in a few months, and she asked me about a situation that was causing me quite a bit of anxiety and sadness. I started to get choked up and I told her "If I talk about this I'm going to cry." And her reply was, "I have tissues!" She wasn't freaked out by my mess. She was prepared to help me spill it out, and clean it up. Now that is friendship. Living life alongside each other and not being scared of the messes. Not expecting each other to offer perfection. I kind of think the messes are what make our time on this earth so meaningful anyway. And they are a lot more bearable with friends that are willing to trudge through them with us. Goal for today: Embrace your mess and help someone else with theirs. XO,
There are a few things that can pull a room together and give it that perfect feeling...the just-right shade of paint, a great pair of curtains, a stylish sofa, and last but not least, a kick-ass rug. Yeah, I said kick-ass. I'm feeling spunky today. And so is our living room thanks to our new rug from Mohawk!
I have lots of feeling about this rug. The pattern and color are just what this room needed. I was a bit unsure at first choosing such a bold color and design but holy cow I just love it.
Our old rug was quite a bit smaller and I had no idea how a larger rug would pull the room together and make it cozier but also feel bigger all at the same time.
It's a keeper. It also inspired me to sprinkle some more love around the room including a few favorite photos of the boys and a doodle above the sofa...
And a heart rock the boys found on one of their treasure hunts in a little green dish...
I forget how much happiness little touches like this can add to a space. So now would you like to add some love to your home with a new rug from Mohawk? I'm also going to throw in an 8x10 print from my shop. Your choice! There are lots of options below to enter, and you can also get a behind-the-scenes look at how their rugs are made over on their YouTube channel...
I find it funny how things come full circle...or come back to visit us in amazing and unexpected ways. This Saturday I'm doing my first solo show/sale with my art. Eek!!! I'm SUPER excited and extremely humbled that a local shop owner invited me to do this. She purchased some of my canvases a few months back to sell in her boutique, and while we were chatting brought up this idea of a trunk show. So this Saturday I'll have a table set up in the middle of her shop. Just me and my art. Whoa. But the funny part about this story goes back about three years I think, back when I was knitting and selling baby hats on Etsy. The same storefront where I'm having my trunk show was a completely different shop at the time, and they hosted a Christmas handmade market. The booth fee was low and a friend of mine was selling her handmade scarves, so I took the plunge and reserved a space. I was so excited about my cute little booth with my antique chenille bedspread covering my card table and milk glass vases for hat stands. I put so much thought into it. And my table was in a perfect spot right where people were gathering to chat. I thought it was going to be such a great night for me and my little hats.
{this was my set-up from a different craft show} Lots of people I knew came and went. Several people said nice things about my stuff. One cute local college student bought a flower hair pin for I think $4. And that was it. I didn't sell one hat.
And I heard on more than one occasion women walk by and say..."I could make that myself." Yeah. Ouch. I left feeling SO deflated and defeated and embarrassed. Whoa that was a tough pill to swallow. I can honestly still feel my cheeks burning a bit as I type this. It was a rough night for me and my creative ego. It's not that my hats weren't cute and well made, because they were both of those things. It was the wrong crowd. It wasn't my night. But most importantly, it wasn't THE thing. The thing that God created me and only me to create. Now I'm not knocking my knitting era...overall it was really great for me. It was cheap therapy and I sold quite a few of my little hats. But I never would have imagined a few years later I would be setting up a booth in the very same space to sell my ART. Never in my wildest dreams! And now that I look back on the past few years of rediscovering this talent it just blows my mind how buried it was for so long. I guess the point of this funny little story is that we all have our purpose and sometimes we take crazy backroads and detours to find it. But it's there waiting for us. Waiting until we are ready.
That sale certainly wasn't a highlight of my life, but my time as a knitter definitely was a valuable and needed part of my story. The detours in life may seem annoying and unnecessary but they are usually preparing us for bigger and better things. So enjoy the ride friends. XO,
I need to get back on the reading wagon. I have a huuuuge Amazon wish list waiting for me, so I thought I would share a few of them today to perhaps motivate me, and give you some ideas of books to add to your list as well! Here are the books at the top of my list: {images are linked}
Jeff Goins, Lara Casey, Shauna Niequist and Emily Freeman are all faves of mine so I'm super excited about each and every one of these books. I had the pleasure of hearing Jeff, Lara and Shauna speak at the 2013 Influence Conference and all three of them offered so much practical inspiration.
What are you reading right now? Give me some more good books to add to my list!
This is a sponsored post by Pop Secret but all opinions are 100% mine. Head over to the Pop Secret Facebook page for a $1 off coupon!
For about four years now, we've had movie night with the boys every Friday night. It is one of our favorite traditions and kicks off the weekend in such a fun way. For the first few years we took them to the movie rental store and they each took turns picking out what we would watch. These days it has turned into a Redbox or Netflix movie, but still just as fun. And bonus points if the boys agree on the same movie! In addition to the movie, here are the essential ingredients for our movie nights: 1. comfy pj's 2. movie theater style boxes of candy 3. popcorn It doesn't feel like a proper movie night if we aren't wearing our fleece pajamas, curled up on the couch with a box of hot tamales or Mike & Ikes and a big bowl of salty, buttery popcorn. This week we amped movie night up a few notches and built a fort for the boys! They were so excited when I surprised them with that fun addition.
I pulled out their faux firepit, some battery operated candles and their softest blankets and pillows. You could say they were happy campers. <<< See what I did there?
And it wouldn't be movie night without some silliness from my Benny... {If you can't tell by the above photos...Landon was tired with a capital T!}
I already can't wait for this Friday. Although now I think the boys will be expecting a fancy fort every week! Do you have family movie nights? What are your essentials? If you want some fun fort ideas and a coupon, head over to the Pop Secret Facebook page! XO,
Happy Friday friends! Are you as anxious for the weekend as I am? I wanted to share some exciting news with you. A week from tomorrow on January 31st I'll be holding my first trunk show! The cutest local boutique shop, LaMonta & Elsie, is hosting the show and I couldn't be more thrilled and humbled by their invitation.
I'll have cards, prints, mugs and a few canvas pieces for sale. I'll also be offering custom 5x7 "one little word" or first name doodles for $10 while you shop! How fun is that? OK...the idea of doing them on the spot honestly freaks me out just a tad, but I'm doing it anyway! :) If you are local I would love to see you there! I've also added some fun new robot Valentine's Day notes to the shop...
Perfect to pass out at school. Ahh I miss those days...Valentine's Day is so much fun! XO,
Did you know I can open and shut car windows with my mind? OK...so I really can't, but I had the boys believing I was magic today, and that in itself made me feel like supermom. We were driving home from my office, and Landon rolled his window down. It took Ben by surprise, and Landon tried to convince him that it was magic. I decided to take that and roll with it, so I told them I could open and shut the windows with a simple command. For the rest of our 15 minute commute, they yelled out requests. "Mom's window down!" "Mom's window up!" "Landon's window down!" "Landon's window up!" Man I had fun with it. I would roll one down halfway, then slowly roll it back up in short spurts. They were laughing and freaking out and oohing and aahing. It was fabulous and so magical even though all it involved was a sneaky press or pull of a lever. We were making our own magic.
Isn't that what life is all about? Finding magic in something so ordinary and boring and sometimes frustrating as a drive home from work. There is magic everywhere if we look for it. And if there is none to be found, we can create it. Kind of like a super power, if you will. Where could your life use a bit more magic? XO,
Happy weekend friends! Sorry for the blogging silence...the new year has been a full one so far. I've been busy doodling all sorts of things and have some new products in the shop to share with you. First are some fun Valentine's Day notes that of course involve a coffee mug...
As the new year approaches, it is time to choose my "one little word" for 2015. This will be my fifth year doing OLW, which is kind of hard to believe. The idea behind "one little word" is you choose a word to guide you through the upcoming year...to be your compass as you navigate life during the next 365 days. Last year I purchased a necklace from Lisa Leonard with my word, become, and wearing it really helped to make that word a part of my daily life. Here are my past four words... 2011 action 2012 commit 2013 grow 2014 become In 2013 I chose the word grow, not knowing what was in store for me. In that blog post I said: "I want to use the talents that God instilled in me. And right now I feel like I'm not doing that to the level He wants me to be." Wow. Reading that gives me major chills considering all that happened that year, and since. My word literally took form and my dream began to take shape that spring when I started drawing again. The past two years have taken such a huge shift for me. I've become an artist. A working, paid, professional artist. And that has been huge. But I still have so much work to do, and I'm excited but also a bit daunted by that challenge. This past year, become was all about allowing myself to become an artist. I signed a contract with an art licensing company and recently received news that my art was purchased by a major retail store {more to come on that hopefully very soon!}. If I can toot my own horn and pardon my French, but I used that sh*t out of that word. I'm pretty darn proud of myself. And now for 2015. I could recycle the word grow because there is so much I want to learn and do as an artist. Like I said above, along with excitement there is also a healthy dose of fear that comes along for the ride. I'm the kind of person that wants to be good at something without much practice. I'm getting better with that, but I still procrastinate trying new things because I'm worried I will suck at them, in all honesty. And I don't want to do that anymore. I know that if I want to turn my art into a full time profession I simply can't do that. I have to be open to trying new things, regardless of the outcome. I need to be willing to take a few chances. So my word for 2015 is... I chose leap because I want to focus on the adventure of all of this, and not on the fear or anxiety, because, let's face it...I'm one anxious lady most of the time. And anxiety doesn't get you anywhere but curled up in your pj's eating ice cream on the sofa watching Project Runway. {Not that there's anything wrong with that...but I could be doodling instead of eating ice cream.} I don't know what all of the leaps will be, but I'm doing a few of them already. I'm taking courses on handlettering to improve my technique. I'm contacting art licensing companies about selling my work. I'm selling my art locally. So here's to a year full of leaps of all sorts, but mostly of the artistic kind. If you have a one little word for 2015 I'd love to hear about it in the comments! I'd also love to doodle your word for you! XO,
