Ornaments!

I finally have finished most of my holiday ornaments and listed them in the etsy shop today! They are going to look so cute adorning a tree!

I just figured out how to make a coupon for my shop too. So I made one for all of my blog readers as a thanks for all of your kind support this year. Get 10% off any sweet mess art for one month. Just fill in this (2010HOLIDAYS)  as a coupon code when you check out. OR, let me know you are a blog reader when you come visit me at the BIG CRAFTY on December 5th to see my ornaments in person and get a discount!
*Also, my earrings will be listed sometime next week hopefully  : )

 I hope everyone has safe travels this Thanksgiving! 

Ornaments in progress

 Here are some of my miniature prints for my 2010 ornaments. In these pictures I I had just applied a high quality resin dome sticker very carefully onto the print. After that step,  I cut away the excess paper . I am looking forward to seeing them all complete!

Alex and Eliseo

 When Alex's Mom came to visit she brought along a gigantic suitcase of childhood memorabilia. It was fun to look through old family photos. Particularly noteworthy was how striking the similarity of Alex and Eliseo is.

 and I think this one of David and Alex looks just like Lili and Seo.

piece work

Once a week I trade childcare with my friend Michelle. I take her daughter for 3-4 hours one day, and she will take Lili the next. 
Often I try to get all set up so the moment Lili is gone and Eliseo goes down for a nap I can start being productive. 4 hours sounds like a nice chunk of work time but honestly, it often doesn't go as planned. Seo will wake up after 30 mins, or....... I can't think of what else would prevent me from accomplishing what I set out to do. But, I promise you, 4 hours is gone in a heartbeat it seems...
I used last week to take some photos of my new earrings. I am still trying to fine tune my designs, but it was fun to take some photos and start thinking about how to make them stand out and look pretty when you are seeing them online.

I found this pretty milk glass holder at the thrift store recently. I don't know why, but I just love milk glass. And the jewelry looks so nice against the white I think.

After much deliberation and searching came to the conclusion that I didn't love (and I want to love these) the ear wires I could find, so I started making my own. I learned how on You-Tube. It is amazing you can learn almost anything online. And then I had my supplies shipped to my door.Amazing.

I had hoped to have all my earrings posted online and ready for the start of the holiday season, but it just isn't happening. Time feels short, but surly an hour here and an hour there will lead to a satisfying bundle of work.

week

I was just thinking to myself it had been awhile since I made a blog post... Then to see how long it has been... it must have been another whirlwind of a week. 

Let's see. 

Alex and David's Mom and younger brother came to stay for a few days over Halloween which was a ton of fun. It is such a shame to live so far away from them! Here is my Mother-in-Law Kiss to the right. Awesome right?!!!
Okay, here is the cuddlier side of Kathleen:

                                                                           

Lili's other grandma (Memere Linda) made her this beautiful princess dress for Halloween.
Here is Princess Lilikoi and her Unicorn Daddy-O:

Halloween and trick-or-treating was all great fun. We celebrated Alex's upcoming birthday with a costume party later that night. Then Tuesday was his real birthday. He made this chocolate peanut butter birthday cake... Then Wednesday morning he flew to NH to pick up our new car that my Mom and Paul gave (!!! ♥ !!!) to us. He drove the 18 hour drive back home yesterday.
Today is slated to be a day of installing our new wood stove. It certainly is getting chilly~ so yay!

Deer

This is the first image that I created that for this year's ornaments. One of my favorite color combinations... A 30x40mm print of this little blue deer will be inlaid into an oval shaped copper bezel picture frame, and it will have one or two beads dangling at the bottom. I don't know yet  if it will be a blue bead, a red bead, or one of each.

POST SCRIPT: It was painted exclusively to the tune of Bob Dylan's "Nashville Skyline". If you haven't revisited this album in awhile I recommend doing so promptly. 

off day

 Here it is 12:38 AM and I don't feel a lick tired. It is the consequence of drinking a cup of delicious coffee at 4:00 PM... At the time it seemed like a good idea. A reward for the challenging day I was having with Lilikoi. And it made me happy... Or in the very least it helped take the edge off.

Oh she was a difficult punky child today. Drove me crazy. Probably gave me 5 more gray hairs. I kept saying "Why Lili, WHY????!" and "WHAT do you NEED Lili???".  To no avail. Usually I can pinpoint reasons why she acts out, but today I was in the dark. She must have just rolled out on the wrong side of the bed. Which was unfortunate, as I rolled out on the other side. She didn't get the memo that her Mama was in a GREAT mood, and it was a GORGEOUS fall day outside. Ahhh, well. Some days are just like that.

Yesterday, on the other hand, was an AWESOME day with her. We had her Kindermusik class (always a high point in the week) and it was dress up day there. She was a ladybug, and I painted her face red with black dots.  Other errands included buying art supplies and going to the thrift store to complete our Halloween costumes (SCORE!!! EEP, I am so excited!) And the ladybug brightened days everywhere we went.


Perhaps today was just such a disappointment to wake up and not be a ladybug...

Luckily, even the most frustrating days have high points. And today's (aside from that coffee and Alex and I eating Stromboli by candlelight after the kids fell asleep) was walking Lili's best little friend back to her house after a bicker ahem, play-date this morning. In a last ditch effort to keep peace I painted rainbows on their faces. And then as we were leaving they both decided to wear hats. Who wouldn't??? When they stopped halfway and traded hats I wanted to scoop them both up and squeeze them they were so gosh darn cute. See?

slowly but steadily updating the shop...

Here are some pendents I have been updating in THE SHOP. Some are older designs, some are new... I also added a few recent original paintings as well. Finally got this favorite one up! Seo has been taking killer (2.5 hour!) naps this week so I have been able to carve out a little work time during the day which is nice.

I also have been dreaming/designing new holiday ornaments~ I think they are going to be reeealllly cool~ more on that later ;)

Eliseo

HOME

While Alex has been away at work (building this house!) the kids and I have been homebodies this week. Both have come down with colds and are super boogery. Seo has been feeling particularly bad (You can see Seo's new teeth (and boogers) in the photo of him.) , and was up in the middle of the night for a couple hours the last two nights (*sigh*). Despite the sleep-challenged nights and the fussy baby, it has been enjoyable to putz around the kitchen, dream up some fall craft projects and decorations, and pull away some of the cobwebs that have accumulated on the ceilings of our house.

I know, I should have left them up for Halloween right???

Happy days...

find beauty

 Find Beauty 

4"x4"x1.5"

vintage and handmade papers, oil, fluid acrylic, 

photograph of the Swannanoa Valley, type, on wood block.

Back, back, back... and off to unpack.

We are back from the festival and I am SO happy to be surrounded by tubs. Tubs of dirty clothes, camping supplies, art, food... Tubs that need sorting and unpacking, but signify the end of this week.

It has been a week of change and lessons to go with the flow.  In my mind I had a tight plan as to how the week leading up to festival, and the festival itself, were going to unfold. It involved both Alex and I creating art in every spare second to be as stocked as possible for the fair. It involved planning a smashing birthday party for Lili while camping. It involved my Mom flying down from NH to help with the kids at the festival. And finally, it involved creating the best booth space possible so my art looked great and we would have a very profitable weekend.

Well.

Several big events collided this week, and they turned my "plans" upside down.

1. First off, Seo has had a heck of a time cutting his first two teeth the past two weeks. And it resulted in fussy evenings that disrupted my art time, and sleepless nights.  I did not get the last minute quality art push of my plans. 
2. My Grandfather's funeral coincided with my Mom's trip down, so sadly, she couldn't come down to visit and help with kids.
3.  And lastly, 20 minutes after we had finished setting up our booth, a gigantic gust of wind came and torqued, toppled, and destroyed our vendor tent.

We knew the wind was going to be fierce on Friday, and yet as I watched our booth collapse with all my artwork inside I was in disbelief.  But we had a strong tent! I was thinking. But we had it screwed in and ratcheted down so tight! How could this be happening???
Maybe if we hadn't been so rigid we would have survived the wind. It is hard to know~ but it serves as a potent metaphor for the rest of the changes to my plans this week for me. Sometimes it is best to bend with the changes rather than try to fight them, you know?

I had a moment when I finally burst into tears. It was after dark fell and the kids were asleep. My artwork was in disarray and I sat behind where my booth was supposed to be. A line of white vendor tents, and then a gap of green grass.  Like a missing tooth. And as I looked at the blank space, all the sadness of my grandfather's death, and the bitter sweetness of Lili turning three, and all the hopes and fears associated with putting myself out there in the art world came crashing down. Alex gave me a hug. Later everyone bent over backwards to help us borrow a new tent and start the weekend over. And so we did.

It all turned out beautifully despite the setbacks. Most importantly, no one or things were hurt (aside from the tent) in the tent collapse. Lili was right behind the tent and it is a miracle she wasn't seriously hurt by the tent flying at her. (Also, seven other vendors lost tents and nobody else was hurt either.)  The Carmonas, Becca, and our friends helped with the kids a bunch. I survived throwing my first ever three-year-old party. Aside from the wind that first day, the weather was gorgeous for the festival.
We listened to amazing music right from our booth. We took morning family walks, watching the steam rise off the lake together. We had a successful time vending. My earrings were popular. We met new friends. Seo's second tooth burst through his gums. And Lili happily turned three.

Preparing and packing...

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers for me and my family at this time. I feel blessed to have gotten to have my Grandpa (and all my grandparents!) alive and healthy for so much of my life. Here is a link to his obituary.
And yet life moves on already... We have been busy busy getting ready to vend at the fall LEAF Festival and preparing to celebrate Lilikoi's 3rd Birthday this weekend! (It was yesterday but we are pretending it is Saturday). We are packing up and leaving for the festival in a little bit, but I will leave you with some shots of making our glass tile pendants and my earrings (my newest endeavor). We have been working almost every night and on the weekends getting prepared. I am so excited!

Fare thee well Grandpa Lyn...

 Eliseo and his Great Grandpa Lyn, October 3 2010

My Grandpa Lyn passed away this morning in his bed. He lived a long and full life (he was 90!) and yet, I still feel heartbroken over the loss... I will be forever grateful that I had the chance to say goodbye to him in NY last weekend after having not seen him for a year and a half. He still knew who I was though saying, "Well, you're out of your territory!".  Lili and I sat next to him at the reception of my cousins wedding. He didn't eat much but he kept plopping the strawberries from his appetizer plate onto Lili's.

At one point during the wedding night he was wheeled over for a picture with the bride and groom. Everyone, including my Grandma Lee, was looking at the cameras that were all pointed at the group except my Grandpa. He was looking to the side and right at me (or maybe even through me it seemed) giving the slightest, but most sweet smile. Everyone trying to take the picture was like "yoo hoo~ Lyn!!! Look over here!" "Hellllllooooo!"But for me those few seconds were so touching. 

I had a hard time saying goodbye and leaving their house knowing I wouldn't see him again. Even though I got to spend time with him the day after the wedding I feel like his smile for me at the wedding was his parting gift to me.

portrait

Portrait of me and Eliseo (age 7.5 months)

Testing out my new camera (A Canon PowerShot SX20IS) that I received as a birthday/Christmas present from my Dad and Amy. I am so in love with it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!