30 days of happiness :: 17

Okay, this is kind of a silly one, but it brought me this big giddiness to have my childhood teddy bear invited (without my prompting) to the tea party.
It seems kind of ridiculous, but I harbor some residue childhood guilt about outgrowing cuddling and playing with Mickey~ so to see Mickey all dressed up and being fed popcorn... well, it made me happy.

Cheers!

*So I don't leave you hanging...in the great package from the previous post:
A cute handmade little pouch bag with fall colored fabric, a heartfelt letter, a print of Nikki McClure's, lots of cute clothes for Lili to borrow, a screen-printed tee-shirt for Lili, and the book "A Handmade Home" which I have been coveting for a while. It was a treasure trove!

30 days of happiness :: 16

30 days of happiness :: 15

The drive to paint.

Working here on thirty 4"x4"x1.5" paintings for upcoming shows. And yes, I do think that it is my creative muse sitting atop of my head for the picture.

30 days of happiness :: 14

FALL!
and all of the good stuff that comes with it. Such as:
Hot cereal for breakfast... (cream of wheat with flax seeds, maple syrup, butter, blueberries, and walnuts.)

going for walks with the little one and starting to find colorful leaves...
making home made rosemary bread, and the smell that comes with it...making roasted Autumn soup with these:
and getting to eat it ( in the soup bowls made by my mother) with the home made bread by candlelight...
and there are a hundred other reasons why fall makes me so gosh darn happy. Like the deep cold smell of the air when I open the window in the morning. Or the apples. Or how the cats get more cuddly. Or the sound of falling leaves in the forest. I could go on and on... anyways...
Happy Fall Equinox!

30 days of happiness :: 13

To be honest I am a little tired of the rain here, but a few small things have me smiling...
such as my big rainbow umbrella,
and my red rain boots,
and this song... sung by my favorite little one:

30 days of happiness :: 11

new work

No title yet
6.5" x 6.5" x 1"

I finally updated the shop with some new pieces, but this one isn't in there yet. I needed to take three dimensional pictures of my paintings but had a hard time finding a good place to shoot them. I ended up doing a photo shoot on my bed, and I feel happy about how they came out all things considered. I have 17 paintings in the shop right now, and I am hoping I finally break the 20 mark (I never have). Of course if I sold a bunch and didn't make it to 20 anytime soon it wouldn't be so bad... ♥

30 days of happiness :: 10

Hours of uninterrupted painting... mmmmmmm....
(something that is sort of rare these days~ but it sure makes me happy when it does.)
I am in between studios right now. I moved out of the cabin studio and soon I will be able to move into this SUPER cute little 8' x 8' building that is currently our bathroom. So during the interim period I am back to working at the desk in our living room. When the house is clean, and I have the whole day alone to create, it is actually pretty darn nice. The biggest problem was the amount of banana bread I ate since I was so close to the fridge.

30 days of happiness :: 9

Loved ones knowing you well and being silly. Even if it is somewhat at your expense...
David found this nest outside one the ground the other day. As he handed it to me he said
"Look at this beautiful nest. I think this bird used some of your hair in it Kelcey!"
I peered inside the perfectly crafted nest and thought: Hmmmm, no... it seems like the bird used Atticus's hair because it it white.

"HEY!!! Thanks. A. Lot. Hmmphh."

Okay, it did make me giggle. It is true, I am going grey already...
oh well. So is David. ;)

30 days of happiness :: 8

Happiness is:
When Daddy gets home from work, all dirty, with his ear plugs hanging around his neck. It is especially exciting if it is the end of the work week.
First things first: Riling up the little girl...
Second: Cracking open a beer to celebrate while the little one has a milk.
Cheers!

30 days of happiness :: 7

In the middle of the night before my birthday Alex snuck downstairs and decorated the house birthday style with balloons and crepe paper. When Lili and I came downstairs in the morning he had lit 2 candles on top of some Krispy Kreme donuts and he sang Happy Birthday to me. Lili's eyes were gigantic at the whole scene before her. It made me excited for her birthday.
I was happy to be celebrating 31 years of health and joy on this planet with my thoughtful family. I had tons of well wishes too.
I just feel so grateful to be here.
And then yesterday while it rained and fogged outside, Lili and I had a balloon dance party in the living room. Dancing with balloons could be a cure-all for any blues I think...

30 days of happiness :: 6

Snuggle-y beds...

and soft places to rest our heads...

*above our bed is our marriage vows that everyone at our wedding signed, and a heart painting that Alex painted for me ♥

30 days of happiness :: 6

Giving into my sweet tooth just a little bit...
Eating a small scoop (larger scoops seem to happen right before bed for some reason) of chocolate ice cream in the middle of the day... in my wonderful handmade cup by Pink Kiss.

Just because.

30 days of happiness :: 5

For this tiny bit of fabric called panties:
We went to target and got some "Big Girl Panties" this past week. "Like Gita, and Nim, and Kessy!" Lili will promptly add.
She has been using her little potty for months now, but she didn't have much control over #2. Then about 2 weeks ago she announced to me that she went "Poo poos in the potty!", and she brought it to me like a prize. We made a huge deal of it and fed her marshmallows... and she has been going diaper less around the house ever since. I was trying to think if the lack of dealing with poopy diapers has been joyful~ and I realized I usually equate joy with something I do have rather than something I don't~ but it only takes a second of contemplation to realize that yes, It brings me joy.She loves her new panties, and she parades around the house in only her new panties much of the day.
Today she pulled her underwear up as high as they could possibly go and then kept peeking inside them. I kept asking her what she was doing? and what was in there? and she wouldn't respond. Then a couple minutes later I heard her whispering to herself "button. shhhhh.... night night".
I said "your belly button?"
and she replied "night-night belly button" and pulled her underwear up over her belly again... tucking in her own belly button. And then she patted it.

30 days of happiness :: 4

Our goats and the fresh milk they give us...

30 days of happiness :: 3

Joy = Baby with a blinking heartbeat:
As you can see, everything went very well today. ♥
In retrospect now it seems like maybe I was overreacting by how devastated I felt yesterday. Although it is a serious concern to not hear it at 13 weeks, it does happen. A lot of things I read as reasons you may not be able to hear the heartbeat (such as a tilted uterus or a placenta in the way) seemed void since I had heard the heartbeat at 10 weeks, so I really went straight to the worst case scenario, while Alex really was focused on the best case one. And he got his way, and I am happy. He also wasn't in the room when my midwife was trying to find the baby though... I started to cry today after the ultrasound technician said the baby looked great. I had been thinking that maybe I wasn't an overly emotional pregnant woman this time around (you know, crying at commercials ect. ) but, the last 24 hours have made me think different.

I never had an ultrasound with Lili, so it was fun to see the baby, and see it moving around. Don't you like the second picture of our little alien baby? We thought it looked either like an evil monkey or an Alice Cooper type alien. Or... Maybe it is a Grateful dead-head baby... None are very babyish images, but I am sure by the time it arrives it will have toned down it's hard-coreness ;)

Anyhow, thank you all for your good thoughts from the bottom of my emotional-train-wreck-heart.