Big Craftyness withdrawl...

This is the first night in what feels like a long time that I haven't been painting or assembling or crafting. Alex fell asleep putting Lili to bed, and now the house is quiet and I feel restless and without a purpose.
The Big Crafty went really well for me yesterday. It was packed and bustling most of the day, and the area my booth was in felt lively but also a little sheltered from the sometimes overcrowded main hallway of the event. My sister was kind enough to take Lili all day which was a HUGE help, and Alex and I took turns at the booth. A couple of times I eavesdropped on conversations he was having with customers and I came to the realization that he is better about talking about my art than I am much of the time. I sometimes get tongue-tied, or shy, or unable to fully articulate something, whereas Alex plunges right in and really is my ultimate champion.

Overall yesterday, I sold 36 of the 49 small paintings I brought to the show (yay!!!) and TONS of pendants. The ornaments didn't sell as well as I thought they might, and I am already thinking about how I can better display them next year. Honestly the whole selling art, marketing, packaging, and displaying thing still feels new to me. I have days where I just want to disregard it all and just paint, but I am finding that I am enjoying this aspect of being an artist more and more as time goes by.
I forgot to take my camera out of my bag the entire show, but thankfully my friend Liz stopped by and took these pictures of the booth to share with you. (Thanks Liz!)
Thank you to all of you who came by and supported and encouraged me yesterday!!! And here we are, socially overstimulated, exhausted, (Lili woke up at 4:30 that morning... what the heck???) but very happy:

Packing up for the winter BIG CRAFTY!

thanksgiving

A few Thanksgiving pictures of time spent with the bigger Carmona family:

new work

some chunky (they are 1 1/2" deep) four by four inch collage paintings I have been working on...

some snippets from the day today...

Here Lil, let me get you in your car seat now. Why? Because it is time to get in the car.Why? Because we are headed to Ingles. Why?

Please don't touch those Lili. Why? Because they are scissors and they are sharp. Why? Why are they sharp? Why? Lilikoi, please put those down. Why? Because those are Mama's. Why? They just are, Thank you for listening. Why? Why what? Why?

What doing Mommy? Making a smoothie. Why? So we can have some smoothie. Why? Because you like smoothies. Why? Why do you think?... Why? Argh Lilikoi, why what? Why Mama? I have no idea. Why? Just because.

more from the journal

Circa late 2005...

old work

In lieu of not doing much journalling recently, I have been taking on the project of documenting some of my older journals. These are some pages from the preceding journal to the one I am keeping now. Someday I hope to have scanned all of my journal work and be able to see it all together in one place, rather than in individual journals.

30 days of happiness :: 25

PJs with feet...
and kisses nigh-nights...
and picture books before bed...

new work

Here are some more of the ornaments I have been working on this past week. They will be shrunk down, printed, and glued on 2" thick glass tiles. I think they will look very nice, but it always a little scary not knowing for certain. I suppose that is why some people do samples or trials before they jump headfirst into making 200 of something. Well, I think trial runs are just for scaredy-cats. ;)

30 days of happiness :: 24

Michigan

I flew solo to Michigan to visit some dear girlfriends this past weekend. It was way to quick, but really nice to have some quality old friend time. My friend Carrie lives in Ann Arbor and she showed us around downtown (including a Greg Brown concert!), took us on a beautiful walk along the river, opened her home to us, and brought us to the most spectacular paper store I have EVER seen. (Click here to see Hollander's online store. Um, It is heavenly... you should peek.)
Here we are taking our long walk along the river with non-stop catching up that would drive our partners crazy... It was so beautiful out...
There is nothing like time spent with older friends to shine clarity on your present life. And there is also nothing like a little space from your home life to make you appreciate it. It was my first overnight away from Lili and she did great~ barely missing me. Supposedly she said on the first morning when she woke up and I still wasn't around "Mama at work? and Alex replied, "Yeah, I guess so" and she just said, "Oh!" and that was that. ♥

holiday time

So I have begun making holiday things. I must say it feels very weird. I am savoring all the bits of fall that I love, and then painting images of snowflakes and Christmas trees... it just feels wrong. But, each year when I wait until the holiday spirit prompts me to make holiday goods it is too late to sell them. So even though it would have been practical to start this endeavor in the summer I am quite proud of myself for not waiting until Thanksgiving. I went out to do my errands the day after Halloween and was inundated with all the stores busting out the holiday stuff already. Maybe it is just me, but I find it disconcerting. So on that note, I am sharing an image I created to make ornaments from. One of the not-so-Christmasy ones. I am sure I will show you them all at some point, but not yet. I am still enjoying the Halloween-y-ness around here...

30 days of happiness : 23

22 weeks!
Some facts about the baby's development at this point: "Your baby is about 11 inches long and weighs in at about 1 pound. The eyebrows and eyelids are fully developed, and the fingernails cover the fingertips. Sounds from a conversation are loud enough to be heard by the fetus in the uterus. If you talk, read, or sing to your baby, it's reasonable to expect him or her to be able to hear you."

30 days of happiness : 22

Halloween

Halloween was a rainy, foggy day, but we stayed festive by carving pumpkins inside. The rain cleared up just in time to go trick-or-treating!
Auntie Ema took a shift bringing the little dragon to the doors:
When we got home Alex had our pumpkins all lit up waiting for us!

We finished off the day by having a homemade pizza and dance party with our neighbors. I hope everyone else had an enjoyable day too!