Is it Summer yet?

My days are full and busy, but will be slowing down soon.  I am doing my best to keep up on the "index card a day" challenge.  Some of the prompts from the last few days . . . . top ten list, bowling, compass, island, baseball, and cobalt.  I can't say I am happy with all of them - but having fun just the same.  Things should actually be a little better after today.  

Summer time, Summer time . . . it's all most here!

hope, joy, and cotton candy . . . .

The simple things

are often the most beautiful!

I love how certain smells bring back memories.  I have read that the sense of smell is linked to memory probably more than any of our senses.  

Walking through school yesterday and I smell cotton candy . . . 

I can't say that I have a bad memory that goes along with the smell of cotton candy.  

I love my job!  It's the last week of school - so why not be able to stop by a classroom and get some cotton candy.

. . . and it's PINK!

life is busy . . .

My life is crazy busy at the moment, but then that is normal for this time of year.  It won't be long though until things slow down.  Until then I am doing my best each day to make a little time for myself . . . and taking time to find some joy in the little things.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

random weekend stuff . . .

 It has been a very relaxing weekend . . . which I think I needed.  

Here are the last three index cards I made for Daisy Yellow ICAD.  

The prompts were Snoopy, typewriter, and clouds . . . and the challenge is turning out to be as much fun as I thought it would be.  

Good Joobies . . .

 The "Index Card a Day" officially started yesterday.  The prompt for yesterday was "Mix Tape".

This is going to be fun!

 Our serious little artist was hard at work last night.  

She asked me for some yellow paint . . .When I asked her if she liked yellow, she replied, "Yellow is my favorite color too.  I like all the colors . . . colors of the rainbow is good joobies." 

 I love spending time with this girl!

ICAD prompt for today is pyramid . . . 

This isn't what I really had in mind, but I smashed some paint on a card . . . and liked the colors and came up with this.  This challenge also has weekly themes.  The first week's theme is - Inspired by words, typography, found text, poetry, old books, list making.  This is a very relaxed, fun, creative challenge . . . and you do not need to follow the prompts if you don't want to, but I think I am going to try . . . having a prompt that I need to get creative with makes it a little bit more of a "challenge" for me - and I like that.

. . . and then there is lunch with this guy.   

Hope your day if full of 

GOOD JOOBIES!

ICAD - warm-up #* . . . imperfect cirles

Just a few more days until Daisy Yellow's ICAD challenge starts.  I am really looking forward to 61 days of creative fun.  Warm-up # 8 was "imperfect circles" . . . I came up with these monster faces.

I love monster faces!

I had hoped to also be posting pictures of a finished doll, but instead I spent a good portion of to my long weekend cleaning and organizing our garage and my art/craft supplies.  The kind of cleaning that requires an awful mess in order to do it right!  I decided to enjoy the process.

I got rid of a lot of stuff . . . and I am exhausted.  

I tend to over do . . . but that's what Tylenol is for - right?  

GOOD THINGS THIS WEEKEND . . . 

1. Adam's baptism . . . and being his god parents.

2. Working on index cards

3. An almost clean garage . . .(I still have a few things to go through.)

4. Making a decision . . . and making it work

5. 3 day weekend . . . and only two more weeks of school!

6. Talking to Mom . . .she will be here in about a week!

7. Reading

8. Coffee and reading the paper in the morning with Richard

9. Feeling relaxed!

10. Apricots

a little more ICAD warm-up . . .

"Creativity is seeing what everyone else

has seen, and thinking what no one else has thought."

~ Albert Einstein

One of the warm up prompts for ICAD 2016 is to make a collage using junk mail.
Oh . . . I think this challenge is going to be fun!

ICAD 2016

I decided to try the ICAD challenge this year. (Index-Card-A Day)

  It looks like fun and challenges are always a good way to spark my creativity.  

The challenge runs from June 1st thru July 31st . . . that's 61 index cards to create something on.  

If you are interested check it our here . . . Daisy Yellow.

It is a busy time of year for me to take on a 61 day challenge, but things will slow down once school is out . . . and this challenge sounds like more fun than a "challenge."

Grab a stack of index cards if the mood strikes you and join in.

love today!

"Never lose sight of the fact, 

that just being is fun."

~ Katharine Hepburn

 Happy Anniversary to these two couples . . . who share their anniversaries today.
Jake and Kasey have been married two years and Brent and Ashley have been married for six.  

I love these faces!

 Never enough time - especially this time of year, but I am doing pretty good at painting a little bit each night . . . and I am getting back to my dolls.  I just like all the color on my desk tonight.
My head is full of ideas . . . makes it hard to go to bed and then get up and go to work, but Summer vacation isn't far off!

 . . . and of course Charlotte has to paint whenever I do.  This is her latest creation.  

She has decided to paint a picture for everyone she knows.  

three little monsters . . .

I like my three little monsters . . . although I have a lot to learn about shading.

Looking at them makes me want to make three little monster dolls . . . which sounds like a fun project I should probably make some time for.  

good things this weekend . . .

 GOOD THINGS THIS WEEKEND . . . 

1. A surprise party for Jacob . . . and we really pulled off the surprise

2. Flowers and Peace Signs

3. The perfect weather for a lazy Sunday

4. Chocolate cake for breakfast . . . just have to every so often.

5. All my kids and babies together!

6. Painting flowers

7. Charlotte being Charlotte . . . oh my she can be entertaining

8. Prayer . . . 

9. Wonderful colors

10. This picture of Stella . . . I love it!

painting with charlotte . . .

 She always has to start with PINK.  She has so much fun painting . . .
but also seems very serious about what she is doing.
I love watching children create.

 She is so proud of her painting.  

Grandpa told her that it needed to be framed and would make a frame for her picture.  

She was thrilled with that idea.

"Let yourself be drawn 

by the strong pull of what you love.

I will not lead you astray."

~ Rumi

good things this weekend . . .

Busy is a choice.

Stress is a choice.

Joy is a choice.

 Choose well. 

Girls just want to have fun!

So I actually had hoped my weekend would be busier.  There were some things that I really wanted to get done, but things just didn't work out the way I had hoped . . . so I chose to just go with it and enjoy the weekend for what it was. 

 I had an unexpected phone call from a dear friend today.  We live quite close to one another, but life gets in the way too often and we go way too long without talking or seeing each other.  

We are working on correcting that. 

GOOD THINGS THIS WEEKEND . . . 

1. Mother's Day with my kids!

2. Playing with paint.

3. 50% off nearly everything I needed at Michael's

4. Lily and Charlotte playing dress up.

5. Talking to my dear friend Julie

6. Beer and rocks with Brent :)

7. Talking to my Mom 

8. Reading to Charlotte

9. Coffee . . . always a good thing

10. Getting some rain . . . my tomatoes are happy!

painting every day . . .

Whatever you decide to do.

Make sure it makes you happy.

I found these pieces of cardboard last night when I went to put something away in a drawer.  (Who knows why I keep some of the things I do.)  Looking at them I thought they would be perfect just to mess around  with - with some doodles and paint.  I gave them a coat of gesso and now I have a whole stack of little pieces to play and experiment on.  My personality - who I am truly needs to create something every day  . . . whether it be a doll or a doodle or just a little painting on a piece of cardboard.  I also believe that the more I paint . . . I may just find myself painting what I want to paint.  I may just be able to put the ideas in my head on a canvas and have them look the way I want them to.  My goal . . . to paint something (not matter how small) everyday.  I am thinking that can only lead to something good.
Have a wonderful day!

enjoy the process . . .

"To live a creative life, we must

lose our fear of being wrong."

~ Joseph Chilton Pearce

 I seem to like my practice painting better than the other things I am working on, 

but I am thinking of it as a process . . . and I always try to ENJOY THE PROCESS.

I'll just have to see where this crane painting goes . . . I don't like it - but who knows . . . I still might.

Now that I think about it, I do that when I make dolls all the time.  When I don't like how a doll is looking . . . I know that eventually I will come up with something and then I will like it.  Hopefully that happens with painting also.  (Enjoy the process . . . right?)  I probably need to paint more like Charlotte . . . just paint . . . and then proclaim, "Look, it's so beautiful!"

We can learn a lot from children!

This weekend went by way to quickly, but then weekends have a way of doing that.  

The weather was everything you could ask for on a weekend . . . perfect for being outside.  

We even had a small surprise thunderstorm last night . . . nothing huge, but enough thunder and lightening to make sitting on the patio while watching Fear the Walking Dead a little more fun.

GOOD THINGS THIS WEEKEND . . . 

1. Charlotte's help watering the garden

2. Lunch with Jennifer and Lily

3. Working on my rock peace sign in the backyard (finally)

4. Charlotte wanting to paint rocks.

5. Sarah coming over . . . staying late . . . and drinking champagne

6. A little thunder and lightening

7. "Love Suds" Open House . . . a friend of Jennifer's makes her own natural and organic spa products.  They are wonderful!

8. Sitting outside reading 

9. Richard making a fabulous dinner

10.  A relaxed, lazy Sunday . . .