Blues Clues

Every little thing is going to be all right

The finished product.

The painting of Sloan and I that hangs in the girls room now.

These are the kind of tacky gold frames I am trying to find. They can be any shape or size, large or small. If you know where I can find some please leave a comment. The large oval frame came from a dear friend and the small oval frame came from a thrift store in San Diego.

The idea. I sketched this when Zoe was little.

The finished painting up close. I am going to call it "Every little thing is going to be all right". After a Bob Marley song. Its one of Sloans favorite songs and Bob Marley is her favorite musician. This will go on their wall with the other painting I did of Sloan and I.

Painting

This little guy spent the night under our porch eves. It was so cold and I guess he just couldn't get home in time. He was gone by the time the girls woke up the next morning. I was a little sad about that because I wanted them to see him in person. The picture will have to do.

The work area.

The frame for the new piece.

My paint tray. I have had this since art school. It's kind of my artistic security blanket. I have used it for every painting for the last 10 years.

A day in the life

I figured since I mentioned the upcoming JDRF Vision Gala in last nights blog, I would take a few moments to tell you about Sloan's life as a diabetic. I am so used to the daily regiment of shots and finger pricks that I sometimes forget my child has a diffrent day than most other children her age.
Sloan was just 4 years old when she was diagnosed with juvenile diabeties, on December 16, 2004. We were supposed to fly home to see my folks for Christmas but that just wasn't ment to be. Her keytones were very high and her sugar was well over 475. Once some more blood work was taken and her diagnosis confirmed I was in shock. She spent 5 days in the hospital while doctors and nurses showed us how to manage this life altering disease. When we finally got home I felt like the world was coming to an end and life would never be the same. The world didn't come to an end, however life has returned to "our version" of normal. 5,840 is the number of shots Sloan has taken over the past four years. 8,760 is the number of times Sloan has pricked her fingers over the past four years to test her sugar. A little hard to wrap your mind around considering most kids only have to have one or two shots a year. There is so much more that comes with this disease. There are the food issues, mood swings, and the motherly guilt to deal with also. Sloan is a brave little girl. She can do what everyone else can do. She just has diabeties. The awesome thing is now she knows how to do her own shots at school. She also does all of her own prick tests. She is more aware of lows (we are working on the highs). Sloan is an amazing and beautiful little girl. I just adore her. It still touches my heart that because of this experience, as a mother I saw so many blessings come our way. It is so true that when one door closes the lord always opens another. I experienced some of the most amazing outpouring of love and kindness durring the time Sloan was diagnosed.

A few minutes to relax

I was able to take a 3 hour nap today! Can you believe it! Everyone cooperated and it was so wonderful. Today was busy but good. I just spoke with Molly Dillon tonight. She is the head of the Northern Nevada branch of the JDRF. It is time to start getting ready for the annual JDRF Vision Gala. This will be my fourth year helping out. It is such an awesome event. They have the most amazing silent auction. All the money raised from the auction and ticket sales going to help fund research for a cure. This year they are also hoping to get an entertainer to come and perform for the event. I already have two friends that are willing to donate art for the auction. I will be working over the next few months to try and round up donations from artists and businesses. If you or anyone you know are interested in donating something for the auction, please call me or e-mail me with contact information so I can call and send them the proper forms needed for the auction donations. No donation is too small and all are appreciated. This is a cause I am passionate about. I hope that in Sloan's lifetime they will find a cure for diabetes.
It is almost time for Popeye to go to sleep. I am feeding her cereal at night with the hope that it will help her sleep a little better. This is my first try so we will see. Oh she just looked up at me and smiled. I love that. I have so little time to create and as much as I would love to write more I am going to cut it short and panit tonight. Hope everyone had a great day. I will post some photos tomorrow.

Alice

This is the darling Alice that I received from Cordwood Cabin. I also won the White Rabbit and should receive him sometime this week or next.

A good day for choclate chip pancakes

Zoe trying to do a somersault.

Dean with Aris.

Sloan with her "husky family". She dressed up all her dogs...........

and served them a delicious meal.

Cooker girl Zoe. She was bound and determined to put on her shoes all by herself.

Hey mom, take a picture of me with my husky!

Also with my lion. If I had allowed it you would have seen twenty different pictures of Sloan with all her different animal friends.

Popeye playing.

Abby and Sloan, BFF.


Dean and Zoe practicing their guitars.

I thought I would put some pictures from Friday thru Sunday. We are all feeling so much better. I still am a little congested but feel like I can get back to normal again. We had a lovely weekend and we were able to spend some time as a family just hanging around the house. Although we ran a few errands, for the most part we just took it easy. I think it helped in the recoup department. Dean is back at work and I think he is happy to be back to his work schedule. He can only stand a few days off at a time.

I woke up to a phone call at 5 am this morning saying we had a delayed start for all Washoe County Schools due to all the snowfall we recieved last night. It was nice because the girls and I slept in, and when we all woke up I made chocolate chip pancakes for the girls. Very healthy for all, especially since I have a diabetic daughter. Even Sloan deserves a super sugary breakfast once in a while. When I dropped Sloan off at school, I kid you not, there were about 100 semi trucks lined up along the road chaining up so they could get through the pass. The exit for Sloan's school just happens to be one of the last few exits before you go through Truckee. It was kind of cool to drive slowly past all these men who are chaining up not just two tires but 4-8 tires. It gives you a healthy respect for the job that they have to do. My dad drove trucks when I was a small girl.

Well time to go and pick up my little Sloan from school. I will try to post more, later.

Popeye

I could watch this a thousand times. One reason is, well she's mine. The second is I know she is growing so quickly. I hope all the grammas and grampas, uncles, aunties and whoever enjoy seeing a little peak at what I get to experience in my everyday life. I do truly feel blessed.

Family days

I am feeling a ton better than yesterday. I think we all are. My voice still sounds super deep and raspy, but it could be that way for a couple of days. We just got back a few hours ago from our weekly run to Costco. These shopping trips always start out innocent enough. "We'll just get a few things!" is the most infamous quote. However this is almost impossible to do because almost everything comes in bulk. So even if you go in for one thing you walk out with two. This time we had coupons. With the coupons we saved $40. Which would have been awesome if we hadn't spent as much as we did. One culprit of the large purchase amount was a memory foam mattress cover. It was either that or a new mattress. We took the more affordable route this time. Dean and I are both hating our mattress. I think it is the main cause of all of our back pain, and neck pain, and headaches, and Deans arm constantly falling asleep, and my leg that sometimes falls off. Ha! got ya. Wanted to make sure you were paying attention. No, but for real we will be super excited to get a new bed one of these days. The good thing about this memory foam thing is even when we get rid of our retched mattress we can still use this on a new mattress.
Enough about beds. Sloan was finally able to use her Boarders gift certificate. Grandpa David and Roberta gave it to her for Christmas. She was able to buy the first Harry Potter book, the first Spiderwick Chronicle book, Utterly Me, By Clarice Bean (This is the artist and author of the Charlie and Lola cartoons on Disney Chanel), Dave Barry's Peter and the Starcatchers, and last but certainly not least The good Dog by Avi. Plus she finished off the card by purchasing a husky beany babies for herself and a kitten beanie babies for Zoe. Oh yea, she also bought a mini pack of highlighters to use for her art. She cleaned up with that gift certificate. Thanks so much David and Roberta.
We are now home, the girls are in bed and Dean is watching the X Games while I type. I am going to add a few layers of paint on my large canvas before I call it a day. Before I go I want to tall you about the latest link I added to my blog. It is The cart before the horse. They are a husband wife team of artists who make the most amazing art dolls. Their dolls are more like sculptures, so whimsical and creative. I am so inspired by these two talented artists. They sell their work on e-bay. I hope to own some of their art in the near future.
Look for some pictures tomorrow, my batteries were out of juice today.

Hello from the land of tissue!!

I figured I would take just a moment to say hello and write a few thoughts down before the day gets away from me. Dean was home from work again due to a sore throat. If you know Dean you know how hard it is for him to sit still even when he is sick. So he decided to clean out the garage. While doing this he made a layout of the kitchen with the cabinets we are going to use. I guess he is getting sick and tired of having all the kitchen cabs taking up all his space in the garage. Good thing because he is super motivated to get going on the kitchen. I have a huge smile on my face right now. Really huge. We will be doing the kitchen in sections but I'm good with that. Anything will look better than what we have.
I will be picking up Abby and Sloan from school soon and this is their fun day. Friday is the day we call "popcorn" day. We pop up popcorn and watch a movie and then the girls usually play barbies for a few hours. Most Friday's we invite some friends over to have popcorn with us, but because we have been sick so much the last few weeks have been just us. Hopefully next week we can get back on track.
I have had a chance to talk to a few old friends through e-mail lately. It is so nice when you can still talk to someone like you saw them yesterday, even though you might not have talked in a while. I am so very blessed because I have so many wonderful friends and family members.
I will try to write some more tonight and add some more photos. Time to go wash some dishes and fold some clothes.

Sick........again!

I feel like I have the flu. I will post more when I am not suffering from the chills and aches.

A few ideas for paintings

This is one of the possible ideas for the large canvas. I just have a few more reference photos to take for it. I have the reference for Aris. Now I just need to get more reference of Sloan and Zoe.

This is a sketch I would like to do a painting of. It's a sunflower couple and all their little sunflower children. I want to experiment with gold leafing on this one.

I have wanted to take this sketch and see it through to a painting for quite a while. I still haven't found the right frames. I am keeping my eyes open for antique, ornate picture frames the gaudier the better. The middle frame has a little girl opening a valentine. In the two frames on both sides of her, little boys are vying for her attention to take the valentines they are trying to give her.

Just an idea for a girl with fish swimming in her hair.

Another idea for my mother series. I have some sketches and now I just need to get painting.

A feeling of peace

The girls just goofing off.

I know that most people will look at this and think what a mess, but I feel I am doing pretty well at organizing considering I have fit toys for two girls in this small room.

Plus dresses for three girls.

The freshly cleaned room. These are most of the girls books.

The new kitchen. Isn't it so cute?

The beds were made and every toy box cleaned out. It took me just a few hours to get everything cleaned up. The room looks great.

Abby serving up the meal.

The girls playing in the "messy before cleaned" room.



I can't even express how good I feel at the moment. Not only was I able to get all the cleaning done, but I also read with my girls had dinner with my family,took a nap, and visited on the phone with my little sister Cristin. I should probably just call her my sister because shes 18, but It's a hard habit to break.Something really cool happened. Cordwood Cabin (one of the new links I added the other night) added a nice little paragraph about my blog today. It's a super motivator to keep working toward my goals and not give up.

I am sitting here listening to Ryan Adams radio on pandora.com. He's sort of a favorite of mine at the moment. Snow is falling. Everyone is asleep but me. I am going to sketch. I can't explain how peaceful it is right now in my home. I have had some ideas of sewing projects that I want to do eventually. I want to sketch them out before I forget, but I don't want to sew right now. I need to finish up the last eight hand print plaques for the JDRF. I also have that giant canvas sitting in the kitchen calling my name. Sewing is something I enjoy so much but right now I need to focus on my family and these other projects first.

The girls had so much fun playing with the kitchen today. As I promised I'm posting some pictures of the girls playing' plus some video of them dancing. You will have to forgive the jumpiness of the video, it's just my camera so the resolution stinks. Tomorrow I will post some art.

Snow Day

My dad used to always tell me, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". Today I had the best intentions to take photos of the girls playing with their new kitchen, to get some art work done and to also finish filing the last few papers that I wanted to file. Of coarse none of those things ever happened. My days always seem to take on a life of their own. I guess with three little people, all with little agendas of their own, my needs are met when time allows. That is life.
The girls Dr.'s office called today and Sloan has strep again, then little Zoe woke up half way through her nap with a fever of 102.3. She was shaking and so sad. Once I gave her some Motrin she slept until a little past three. It was sooooooooooo nice because I was able to take a nap with the girls. I must say as lovely as all this snow is that we are getting, I can't wait for the spring and lovely weather. Mostly so we can all get healthy again.
I am hoping that tomorrow will be a more artfully productive day. I have all these ideas that I want to get down on paper. Things I want to sew and draw and paint. I know that family comes first. As much as I love doing my art I love being a mommy even more.
PS. No matter what I will post some art and pictures tomorrow!

Church and a much needed nap

Sloan's mixed media piece. She used scrapbook paper to make the tree and painted the rest of the paper. All the lines on the tree she drew with a ruler and pen.

Little Zoe watching Blue's Clue's. Shes kind of obsessed with the show.

Zoe rocking the punk rock tights!

Popcorn!

Before..................................

Well folks, I actually got to take a nap today. After the girls and I got home from church we all had a nice little lunch and I took a nap. By the way did I mention that I came home to all the laundry folded, our bed made, kitchen cleaned, and kids toys picked up? I told Dean that there is nothing sexier than a man who does the dishes. I really mean that. My sweetheart thought I could use a pick me up and this was a wonderful surprise.

Tonight Sloan and I went and picked up the much anticipated last Christmas gift, from Bumma and Pop Pop (my mom and dad). By the time we got it home and had some popcorn and opened the box it was already 9pm. It was way past bedtime for both the girls. They were both so excited about the new kitchen. Sloan understood the concept of playing with the new kitchen tomorrow, Zoe not so much. She cried until Dean finished putting it together and brought it into their room. I am sure tomorrow will be filled with many "pretend" meals and lots of fun.

Before I sign out I would just like to let everyone know I have added even more links. These are fun sites to visit, you never know what you may find. I used the last of my eBay gift card from Cindy today. I won this awesome handmade Alice in Wonderland Doll. Shes not to play with, more of a sculpture. I plan on eventually putting her in the girls room on their bookshelf with the other characters they have from various children's books. You can actually see the doll in progress on the artists blog. Their blog is under Cordwood cabin Primitives.

A super fun day

Abby spent the night last night, and the girls had a blast. I even took them to McDonald's for some ice cream and play zone fun. Of coarse the girls were up super early this morning and ready to go again. Zoe is not taking very good naps these days and Aris is not sleeping well during the day either. Aris is still waking up all night long. I wake up with her and then I can't fall back to sleep. That is one reason I am up writing an entry at this crazy time of the day. I have tried to go back to sleep but my mind is racing with a thousand thoughts of things I need to do, projects I haven't finished, and things I would like to do. Oh and did I mention Dean, bless his heart, snores? So its hard for me to fall back to sleep. I really believe this is the reason I have been such a grump this week. I am nothing less than sleep deprived. Hopefully tomorrow The kids and I can get back on normal sleeping schedules again.
Oh yea, the whole super fun day. Well that it was. After Abby went home Dean and I took the girls out for some family fun. First we went to an RV show. I know it sounds sort of red neckish but it is actually fun to look at all the models. Sloan and Zoe love to see all the "little houses". They had a blast running from RV to RV. Sloan's favorites were the ones with bunks and a place you could put a TV for just the kids to watch. Than we went to Recycled Records and I traded in some Cd's I just don't listen to anymore and got store credit to go back and buy some music I actually listen to. After that we took the girls to TGIFridays for dinner. It was very yummy, however halfway through the meal, due to hardly any nap today, Zoe had a small meltdown. So instead of taking the girls to the book store afterward we headed home. It is always fun to do things together. I can't wait for our next family day.

Power weirdness

Tonight has been so busy. The power all over our neighborhood was acting up. The lights were on, but it was like someone had put a dimmer switch on everything in our house. It was weird! I kept waiting for green fog to ooze from the vents and a zombie to pop out from a darkened doorway, it was like something strait out of a horror movie. Thankfully the power was in full juice about an hour after the weirdness began. I am still going to work an the little sketch I posted from last night. I think the first few things I do will be to get me back in the swing of things. I am super rusty.
One kind of cool thing is that I received a "comment" from someone I didn't contact first. I think she is a friend of my mother in law, but it's still super cool. I have switched my settings so that you don't have to have a Google account to leave a comment. Please feel free, it is super fun to get them. hope everyone is well.

A few minutes to myself

Just a little sketch I started tonight. Will work on it some more tomorrow.

Stressed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zoe watching her favorite Blues clues.

My dear friend Kirsten holding little Aris

So I have decided that what I have done with this painting/art/creative goal is just set myself up for failure. Unless Dean wins the lottery and we can afford a nanny or a house keeper, I am having a really hard time fitting in all that I want to do with all that I need to do. No I am not giving up. I just have to realize that sometimes having three kids means my day has only a few minutes for the things that I want to do. So no more deadlines or putting pressure on myself if one night I am unable to do my art for as long as I would like. If my kids need me, well they come first. Today is one of those days. So I am all stressed out because I feel this pressure to create. I have been monster mommy tonight. That is not the kind of mom I want to be. It is early. Popeye is still up so I am going to get down on the floor and play with her for a while. Before I go I'm adding a few photo's, enjoy!