Welcomes and Farewells...

First off, I want to say thanks for all of the well wishes on being pregnant. The reason I was hinting at it instead of being upfront was that I wasn't supposed to tell the world yet exactly... Alex still hadn't told some of his closest friends from his hometown, and we had hypothetically said we would wait until the end of the first trimester to make it public (I am still only 10 weeks along). One of Alex's friends did find out via the blog (sorry Michelle!) ~ whoops. :)
Although quite a few friends have, I have never experienced a miscarriage first hand, so I don't have that life experience to make me want to hold my tongue I guess... And at this point if I did miscarry it would be traumatic for me, and I am sure I would share it with you anyways. Sooo.... I just want to state for the record that I CAN be trusted to keep a secret. Just not this one. I am just too excited to be welcoming this little being in.

And this weekend was one of farewells. We said see-you-later today to my Mom who has been visiting us for the last 2 weeks. She has been helping with Lili (much to her delight) and keeping my house in order as I do important things like nap and lay around feeling sick. Lilikoi really reaped the benefits too. She got completely 100% spoiled. Meme let her do ALL sorts of things that she normally isn't allowed to do. Things like: bringing the pebbles form our front step inside the house to play with, extra amounts of sweets and juice, drinking the pool water, and listening to the Elmo song on repeat... Here they are getting some lemonade at the farmers market because Lili was hot:It is hard to see her go...

Something that wasn't hard to let go of was the 89 chickens we processed this weekend. They were starting to smell, and we were all ready for the big day. I actually got the easy job of being the babysitter (b/c I am pregnant) while Alex, David, Ema, and Brandon spent 13 hours killing and dressing the birds. They were exhausted at the end of the day, but it went smoothly and it is so awesome to have a freezer full of chickens. They averaged about 4lbs a chicken. We have learned a lot since they were cute little chicks, and overall it was a good experience. I think next time we will rotate them on a pasture instead of having one permanent area. And we will do less birds at once.
I said goodbye to them that morning, but I didn't feel nearly as sad or as torn as I thought I might feel. The smell is already improving around our house. Farewell and thank you chickens!

Pick of the Week- Lauren Nassef

My friend Lucy told me about an awful thing that happened to a wonderful artist named Lauren Nassef. A woman in the UK blatantly copied her artwork and passed it off as her own. She was selling prints and even won a big award for one of the plagiarized illustrations. I was touched by Lauren's artwork and thought maybe I could pass the story along (a good description and disscusion about this here) as a heads up (not sure how to prevent this other than hiding in a hole) and also to share Lauren Nassef's work. Maybe the publicity from this will be the silver lining to a dark and disturbing week for this talented artist.
Check out her website here.

Sock puppets ~ Lauren Nassef

a tour of the garden.

Our garden is in a very chaotic, weedy state, but it is still providing us with some love:

a trip down memory lane...

Just for fun.
Did you all know that I was on a unicycling team grades 6-8? We were called the

Andover One Wheelers

This shot was taken right after we taped our Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade audition tape. We did go on to go to Macys, and we those were rented tuxes that you see. Our typical get up at that point was black padded biker shorts and floresent green tee-shirts. This photo was taken around 1991 I am guessing~ 8th grade. Our hit routine was to the song "Locomotion" blaring from a boombox...

I am sorry I haven't been posting. In all honesty I haven't been doing any art at all for the last couple weeks. I have been feeling kind-of sick.
sick
tired
queasy
unmotivated
blah.
constipated (i know, tmi, but it is happening.)
tired.
joyful too.
Um, those are my excuses if you know what I mean.
;)

When you get knocked down...

eat ice cream.
Alex, Lil, and I went on a family outing on Sunday night. We took a nice drive, walked around Hendersonville, and then went out for dinner. As we were leaving the restaurant Lili walked ahead of us to the front doors. We were gathering up the stroller and loose things on the table (just about 10 feet away) when a waiter came in from outside and swung open the door. Lili darted after him and the door hit her head and then pinned her head between the two doors.
She was screaming by the time I reached her. I pulled her outside onto a bench and held her. She got a pretty good wallop right on the side of her face and her ear and it took a bit to calm her down. Poor baby...
So to make it all better we went out for ice cream. Well, ice cream and lots of hugs and kisses.

makin' cheese.

So we have been making goat cheese the last couple months!!!
I made some simple goat cheese early on in our goat keeping days but because of the kind I made it was VERY bland. It was good in a curry dish, but when I would spy it sitting in the Tupperware in the fridge it did not look like something I wanted to pull out and snack on.
Fast forward till now....
Ema took the plunge and ordered some cultures and cheese making kits from Ricki's Cheese making Site, and was the first to dive into making chevre. She brought her first samples over on little crackers~ and we were totally hooked. IT IS SOOOO EASY.
Here is the steps I take:

1. Pasteurize milk. This involves heating one gallon of goat milk to 145 degrees F for 30 mins.
2. Cool the milk to 86 degrees F.
3. Add little packet of culture which costs roughly $1.50 and stir.
4. Cover and let sit out for 6-12 hours. (I think this process is faster for us because our milk is so fresh.)
5. Spoon curds into a cheesecloth lined colander and let drain for 6-12 hours until desired consistency.
   
6. Mix in any spices or herbs.

I was just thinking that maybe that doesn't sound as simple as I say to someone who has never made cheese, but I promise you it is easy. I think the hard part would be obtaining a gallon of goat milk for the non-goat-owning soul. One time we mixed honey, walnuts, and dried cranberries in~ it was surprisingly really good. The cheese has a hint of goat flavor, but it is very subtle. It is almost like a cream cheese. This is my new favorite sandwich. It is a toasted sesame bagel with black bean hummus, our scallion goat cheese, and tomatoes sprinkled with salt:
*Also, the drink next to my sandwich is my new favorite drink. It is lemonade made with two or three squeezed slices of fresh lemon, ice, water, and 5 or 6 drops of liquid stevia. Stevia is a plant based sweetener that has a zero on the glycemic index, and has zero calories. Regular lemonade has A LOT of sugar, and this tastes just as good to me. I was so happy for this lunch!

tu-tus and...

a rainy day dance party in the living room...
with an adored older cousin...
followed by a big bowl of popcorn...
makes the day seem less gloomy.

The Big Crafty

The Big Crafty last week was a ton of fun. Some highlights included:

• All my friends coming out to show support.
• My sister Becca watching Lili almost ALL day so that we were able to set up and talk to customers without chasing a toddler. THANKS BECCA SO MUCH!!!
• My sister-in-law Ema making me a cool money holder/belt re-purposed from an old skirt the day before the show. It got lots of admiration from the other vendors.
  
• A customer from last Big Crafty reading on my blog that I made pendants and coming to get some~ Thanks Holly! That was a great feeling.
• My AWESOME photographer (who also made me my prints) and his wife stopping by to check it out.
  
• Making lots of sales (a lot of pendants)
• Sans Lili, getting to walk around the fair and check out all the talent and fun things going on. Also eating a cupcake was a highlight of leaving the booth.
• Connecting with people about my artwork was a nice aspect I rarely get in person.

I feel happy about the way my booth pulled together, although I have ideas peculating about how to make it stand out a little more next time. Namely, white-wash the wabi-sabi doors so they are slightly less distracting from the paintings, find a better and more colorful table-cloth, make a better sign, and make sure the tablecloth isn't crooked next time.
Don't those doors look awesome? We were going to buy plywood and paint it black, but this is more sturdy, and has way more personality.
I am happy with how my pendant packaging came out too. Don't they look cute all bundled up?

images from the ocean...

f

on vacation!!!

On Sunday we spent all day at the Big Crafty (it was great, and I will tell more later) and then broke it all down and got in the car and drove 5 hours to the beach for our family beach week. So far our days have consisted of long dinners with family and way too much food, playing and running in the sand with Lilikoi, blueberry picking with my grandmother and aunt Bonny, and taking long naps with Lili in the air conditioning... Right now Alex and my sister are riding their bikes up and down the roads looking to score some beach chairs because tomorrow is trash day ;)
One of the things that I forgot while we were in our crazy packing frenzy is the cord that connects from our camera to the computer... so I guess I will be truly on vacation for the rest of the week. Hope everyone is doing well. XOXO

twin

{Twin} 12" x 12" x 1.75"

I wouldn't say this is my favorite painting I have done in the last couple months, but it is more personal than most, and it holds a special place in my heart. This painting is about having someone in your life (whether it be an actual twin or family member, lover, or friend) with whom you feel an intense kinship with. Not just that you love them, but that feeling that somewhere deep down you share a core of similarity. That you recognize yourself beneath this other person's skin.
When I was working on this piece I went searching in my 8 inch thick vintage dictionary from the 30's to find a word to compliment and collage into what I was trying to paint. I settled on twin as the closest I could come. I flipped to that page and as I ripped it out a pressed four leaf clover fell out from that exact page. Who put that there? And I just teared up at the mystery of it all.

getting ready

The summertime BIG CRAFTY is coming up this Sunday, and I have been busy getting things ready for it. I haven't been posting any new paintings on my Etsy site the last couple weeks because I am afraid of having a sparse booth. So far I have accumulated:
12 paintings
20 small collages
50 prints that are in the process of being printed
and my newest venture: 80 art pendants...I am really excited about the pendants. They have been SO easy to make, and they look fantastic. I ordered crystal clear glass tiles and sterling silver bails to attach to them. I ordered these from the supply section of Etsy. From a separate store I ordered black metal chains (I wish I could have nice silver chains, but I figured if someone wants to they can get their own and in the meantime it will be nice to have some way to wear it). Then I went to Kinkos and on the color printer I reduced my artwork and collages to fit in these little 1" or 1"x2" areas. It was so easy and so inexpensive! I spent $15.00 to get about 200 little itsy images printed.
In this picture you can see I have been gluing on a decorative back so it isn't just plain white (most of them have a backing from a dictionary page).
I know this type of pendant is popular and perhaps overused these days, but I hope people will see the artwork and not just the trendy glass tile.
I love that I am finally getting into a few things like the prints and these pendants. I feel like I could use a source of income that won't require a constant stream of creative output. Some way to pay the bills for those moments when my painting process is taking it's sweet time or re-fueling. You know?

Give exceeding thanks

...for the mystery which remains a mystery still --

the veil that hides you from the infinite,

which makes it possible for you to believe in

what you cannot see.

~Robert Nathan

"Ripple"

12" x 12" x 1.75"

some collages-paintings on an old stamp collector's book pages...

It is late and Alex has long gone to sleep. Our fan (the king of fans) is on level 3 upstairs, and it sounds like an airplane is hovering just over our roof because of it. Lili sleeps better to the fan... I think a mosquito just bit my eyelid as I was closing my eyes trying to think of what next to say here. That said, I think I will have to leave a more thoughtful post for another day.