post earrings

I am excited to share that I am adding sterling silver post earrings in the Seed & Sky shop! 

 They are so delicate and pretty! 
(I took all the photos today only to realize I forgot to add the earrings backs in the photos. Oops.)

making room for the new...

David and Ema (my brother and sister-in-law with whom we share our land) are doing an incredible job dismantling the yome this week. After 9 years it is time to say goodbye & to start dreaming of what the free space will become. Outdoor kitchen? Yoga studio? Outside pavillion? Guest house? Hot tub???... 

rough sketches

Rough sketches of a project I am working on for a client. I love this stage when the layout and form are up in the air and full of freedom. 

on his second birthday...

 marking the time

silver knife, squiggly child

oh! my heart, dear boy

process

detail of my painting in process.

snow bath

Snow day. First snow of the season. 

Seo takes a bath (yes, they both still fit in our deep cast iron sink) and outside the window our new tool-shed/chicken-house duplex.

Lil wears a swimsuit all afternoon, and later she puts on a purple snowsuit and goes outside in the 1/2" of snow.

visual journal page

A page from my current journal. 

(Here it is in it's blank form. I have had journals of all shapes and sizes, and this might be my all time favorite. I just love the Fabriano paper.)

maira kalman

Maira Kalman, do you know her work? Amazing stuff. 
I watched her TED TALK (The Illustrated Woman) today while I glued. I loved the rambling and funny way she expresses herself. In this day and age of the pretty & ultra-organized Pintrest style~ I love to see messiness and rawness so boldly declared. 


p.s.~ I added a side note explaining my Remembering / Recollecting painting in my last post if you are interested. 

Remembering / Recollecting

Remembering / Recollecting 

30" x 40" 

I have sold a few paintings recently, this being one of them. Of all the paintings I made last year, this one has something inexplicably different about it. It was the first painting I have ever felt nervous to sell~ like I might be selling a part of my heart... but when the moment came for me to let it go, it felt just right.

{edited to add: My grandmother was on my mind a lot when I painted this painting last summer. She recently passed away, leaving the stories of her life imprinted on me. Most of the stories are snippets, fragments, that leave you aching for more. Abandonment at two-years-old when her mother died, Befriending the chief of a neighboring Indian Reservation as an 8-year-old, brain surgery and subsequent morphine addiction,  Hearing restored in her ear at a revival, years of being a librarian, a collector... meeting my grandfather when he shot a spitball at her at the soda fountain... 
But this painting isn't about my grandmother specifically. It is about love, and loss. And deeply allowing grief to sit on your shoulder so you can let go what you need to. }

Monday Links

Zinnia Feather Art Earrings in Gold

:: Some Monday Links ::

1. Amazing Urban Homesteader. So inspiring! We are light years away from having this type of production or sustainability. I love to see people making this happen in an urban setting too. 
2. A Visual Scope of the Universe. A friend of mine brought this to my attention. Allow yourself to feel HUGE! Allow yourself to see how tiny you are. 
3. I came across the work of Katherine Dunn this week. I love the colors and openness in her paintings. 

patterns & idea sketches

Sketches of some pattern ideas for jewelry 

In progress...

for years...


A slightly blurry photo of a painting I started years ago and never finished. (I also promised it to my Mom...sorry Mom!)

Most paintings that remain unfinished I let go of, but this one I can't seem to paint over, but neither can I can seem to finish it. 

tool shed :: part 2

It has been a bare feet kind of winter here. I truly feel ambivalent about the daffodils that are pushing up through the dirt. Where is our snow???
However, I will admit that three kids drinking cold smoothies with bare feet in the February sunshine is pretty sweet...

Meanwhile, Alex worked hard on phase two of the tool shed. It is coming right along. The chickens seem completely unfazed by the addition.

 P.S.~ Now that Seo's top molars have pushed through (Beginning at Thanksgiving and finally through this past week) he is dramatically less whiny/fussy & has been so stinkin' cute. I just want to squeeze him in sheer delight all the time. Makes me so happy. 

tiny prints

 My little studio and lots of tiny prints (for jewelry) on the clothesline. They are drying from layers of varnish and UV protective sealant. I love how they look fluttering in the breeze...

goodbye yome ~ hello tool shed

the yome:

I don't know if you have ever spied our yome (a yome is a structure that has features of both a yurt and a dome) peeking out in our pictures. You can see it from almost anywhere on our land. I have a love/hate relationship with it. 

{ + }

* It has served us in so many ways. David and Ema originally got it to live in while they built their house. * Our friend Heidi helped make the structure, and family members helped build the floor system. 

* It was a home to our friend Kurt for one summer while he helped establish our garden. 

* It has been crucial the last few years: serving as our tool and storage shed. 

{ - }

* Because it is made of canvas it is now molding, tearing, and leaking. 

* the deck is rotting out.

* It used to remind me of a circus tent in a romantic sort of way. Now it just feels like an eyesore. 

Soooo... we are finally building a tool/storage shed.

We broke ground this week on an 8'x12' shed that will be attached to our chicken coop. I am beyond excited to have a real roof over our tools! 

goodbye january

"Ode to a Crow" Earrings

Tree of Life Earrings in Blue  / Luna Moth Earrings

January was a difficult month in our household. Stubborn-stubborn sicknesses that would not (and haven't fully) go away, heartbreaking news from a friend, pink-eye for all!...blech.
And now here is February with a clean inbox and a sniffling, but recovering, family.

I spent all day today at the computer, the rainy weather keeping me company outside the window. I knocked a lot of overdue emails off my to-do list, tidied up loose ends, and best of all: spruced up the shop!
I even got around to adding a few new items. Hooray!

Tree of Life Necklace in Sepia