We Will Try This Space

Cousins in the kitchen.  He came and knocked on our door and we had to get a picture.

Happy Birthday Sam with reversible felt crown, dumplings, sauteed mushrooms, raspberry jello salad, green salad was his dinner choices!

Chocolate, chocolate cake with chocolate chips inside and on top, as requested.

Painting project behind photos of our children...

Left side and

...right side of space.  Yes, it glows in the dark.

After (Princess Pink & Cream)

In process...When the real 3 year old princess saw her room at this point she pointed to the water and said, "And this is where Flynn will be in his boat to rescue Rapunzel..."

Teeny tiny "not-Flynn" in his boat coming to rescue the princess.

Mini cherry tree.  Topiaries in front of the castle Edward Scissorshand-style. 

Ladybug, butterfly, worm, toadstools.

Lilies and stars-NOT-lanterns.

Pink cherry tree that will hug her headboard when the bed is moved back in place.

Light

The Family: A Proclamation to the World is all over my house. Lacquered into the dinning room table. Here, in this collage glow-in-the-dark-stars piece. This was a long ago submission that was juried out of a show. Rejected art. I think Joseph fell off of the center, but the rest of it is stored somewhere in the garage.

I am thankful for the opportunity to try things, experiment, even if they fail, or don't meet my expectations. Freedom to be creative. If I were more confident, I think I would be a better artist, and care less about my audience. Create just because I couldn't help it. Feel the need, the drive, the little bit of madness. The dedicated craziness that makes me forget food, relationships, sleep, aching muscles.

I love Minerva Teichert's narrative art. One of my favorite stories about her is hearing how she stirred the pot of soup with one hand as she painted with the other. She was a mom and an artist--didn't let her relationships falter for art creation. Made them work together, and paid for her children's education with her paintings (the reason BYU has so many in their collection!).

Romance!

I love getting comments! My writer-sister, Deb in NY, mentioned our picture Wednesday looked like the cover of a romance book! I did a quick look through our history to see if there were any better ones. And made copies and put them all in one file named "couples" for future reference.

(Note to Emma: the Christmas project we talked about illustrating "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" with family photos may have to wait another year...or turn into a Valentine's gift? I need to see your contributions! In fact, open invitation to any other couples/families that want to participate: send us or blog photos of you doing things that show the principles talked about in the proclamation. Or if you decide to do one on your own, show us how you figured it out!)
Quilt on wall behind us: partial top found in an attic in South Carolina by a friend. I finished adding to the top and quilted it.

I think JenB took this one of us?


In Ocean City at a conference. Yes, we match on purpose. It was a Hawaiian themed dance on the last day.
Emma took this one for a Reflections photo contest. Those daddy eyes are looking at you!


Emma took these last two, at Friend's Park in Forest Hill. We have used this bridge for many family photos.
I liked this one so much I printed it on glow-in-the-dark paper. After we turn out the lights in our room we can still see it! David--pens in the pocket again!