As I mentioned, I've had a couple of trips to the coast in the last weeks, which is always a lovely opportunity to look closer. I love the tangle of stuff created by wind, water, and other forces where the water and land meet. On a sunny day at the coast, all the amazing colors come to life. And so it's fun to look out to the distance too. Visiting the coast has been such a lovely way to kick off the summer. And it's always so inspirational to just get out and take a look. Bubbles, rivers, trees, sticks,... Continue reading

Oh my but it's been a busy few weeks! The end of the school year usually finds me on adventurous class field trips... Attending to final spring concerts and spring cleaning... Juggling crazy work work with real life... And tackling the mundane of finding a new sitter, feeding the cats, tending a wild garden, you name it. And so I find myself unbelievably pleased to realize that I have sold a good amount of my artwork at the same time!! And I've sold it to people who are SO happy to have it. I've sold sixteen necklaces and two small... Continue reading

I took a day away from everything on Saturday and went to a symposium honoring my favorite UO college professor as he is retiring from teaching. Kenny Helphand is an amazing person, teacher, and a blessing to the planet. The symposium was a day of other professors and professionals talking about Kenny and how their work has been influenced by him. My faves were by Anne Spirn - photographer and landscape historian extraordinaire. She was SO inspiring. Her work following the path of depression era photographer Dorothea Lange was really moving. She wrote a book about it called Daring to... Continue reading

Things have been purring along in my little world of mini-paintings and pendants. I thought I'd just give my faithful readers a bit of a photographic preview of my progress. So far I have about 75 little pendant pieces and maybe 10 larger ones. I'm hoping to add some larger paintings to the mix while I get everything truly ready for the eventual Etsy launch. I have more reading, photographing and learning to do, but I'm having a ball in the meantime. And I'm excited to see where this all goes and to do lots of learning along the way.... Continue reading

I love seeing my images in print. Whether it's on fabric... On an iPhone case... Or even in a tiny run of mini-calendars. It's just so pleasing and I don't even care that just a few folks who read my blog or receive gifts or are just around me are the only ones to see these things. My most recent printing adventures have been photography printing through prinstagr.am and printstud.io. These are two wonderful on-line photo printing shops run by the great folks at socialprintstudio. For one thing they seem to specialize in the *small* print sizes, which I love.... Continue reading

A lovely couple of small boxes arrived in the mail today. Oh and what treasures inside! My first ever batch of Moo mini-business cards! They're all so crisp and printed on such lovely cardstock. This was the first one of my Intentions I set up earlier this year, so I'm extra delighted to have taken the proverbial small plunge. And it's so much fun to see my work - of whatever sort - in print. I'll be using them to put into packages sold on the brewing Etsy site. Or to hand out to friends to share my blog, my... Continue reading

We have had amazing weather here the last few days and it truly feels like summer in May! Over the last couple of years we've had steady rain and chilly weather through June, but this year almost seems the exact opposite. Needless to say, my sunny loving self is overjoyed and the garden is just exploding with life and color. I finally got some starts and flowers in the ground that are definitely overdue since I missed a couple of weeks for the trip. And some seeds are started in the greenhouse. And I even have chard, rhubarb and artichokes... Continue reading

Several months ago my husband asked me if I could do a logo for a new company he was starting. I said no. He said, "But, but, you do cool stuff and I think it would be easy and pleeease?" And I said, ok - but with hesitation because the reality is that between working, running the household and trying to squeeze in a little artwork/blogging/etc. here and there? I didn't see a happy future for completion of the project in a timely manner. But I started anyway. And doodled and came up with few things. And they kind of... Continue reading

Now that I've landed a little more, I'm working on squeezing in some tile necklace production time in between the rest of my life. The sun was flowing so beautifully into my dining room the other morning, so I captured a few pictures in the early dappled light. I'm so excited to get this all going and my goal is to get an Etsy site up and running some time this summer. I'm hoping it will also include some other fun items down the road like fabric, calendars, gift cards, maybe even some photographs from my recent voyages. For now,... Continue reading

Well, there's another baby on the way among our friends and since I was pretty successful at the last sweater? I just went and got more yarn for a second one. This one is for a boy and the gal at the store said the colors reminded her of rainbow trout. Sounded good for the mama who works for a local watershed council. The dad is a super gardener and all I could see were beets, carrots, kale and soft lettuce. The green buttons were the final touch - so hilarious! Can't wait to see it on the little guy... Continue reading

I've been a busy bee over the last couple of weeks on all kinds of fronts. But especially in the crafty and gardening sorts of ways. I cleaned out my closet in a big way two weekends ago, gave away three bags of clothes and then fixed the stuff that needed attention...with really fun patches this time! I really love my old sewing machine. It was my Mom's and I grew up sewing on it. Now she has a new fancy one, but I feel like the Elna is the old Mercedes of sewing machines. Every sturdy, ever strong, rarely... Continue reading

Well, it's been 10 days since I landed back home and it's been a bit of a whirlwind to say the least. I had to dive headlong into work as we're blazing toward funding and building this: (It's a 1/2 acre skatepark in downtown Eugene - under the freeway bridge - oh yes!) And soccer started, and my house is a tumble, and the garden needs tending. Oh my. So, I'm working on deep breathing, embracing my family, reading to the kids, and making sure the most immediate items are getting the attention they need. (Like wise money management -... Continue reading

Well it's just been a wonderful last couple of days in Paris. We went to Montmartre and saw wonderful art, old buildings and lovely boutiques - and today we met up with friends from home who are spending the year abroad and were here in the city!! And of course the visual beauty never ceased. So many thanks to my mom and her sister for helping make this all happen. Au revoir and a bientot Paris!! Continue reading

There is artwork of all styles and types in this wonderful City - big, small, you name it. I'm just trying to soak it all up for a couple more days. Continue reading

I've never been much of a flea market fan, but maybe it's a cultural thing. For whatever reason a French flea market is much nicer. There is certainly plenty of junky stuff, but also some super lovely things too. Here are a few images I captures along the way. We have another four days here and my camera will be in hand! Continue reading

It is such an incredible treat to be here and enjoy time with my daughter and mother. It been really chilly but his hasn't dampened our spirits. Of particular note yesterday was the Chagall exhibit and incredible Vietnamese food. Plus some gorgeous flower shops and ice cream to melt for. I now have a consistent wi-fi connection so look for more regular posts over the next week that we are here! Continue reading

Well it's taken a few days to work through some wi-fi bugs, but here are a few pictures from Paris at last! Of course they decorate and have decorated every surface here over the ages, so I'm working on soaking in every detail. Many places also have a new coat of gold - fabulous dahling!! I will post a few more along the way here as long as I have a connection. Au revoir for now! Continue reading

Oh my goodness, spring is sproinging! We've had some amazing warm and sunny days, some wild hail and wind, and March lion like weather. Hopefully we won't experience the horrible snow that we did last year - oh my. But I think we're definitely leaving winter behind in these parts - I can tell... I have had some good creative bursts too, which has been really fun. And even a little spring planting. But this will all come to a halt for a couple of weeks while I'm away in... Yes, dear friends - a two week trip in the... Continue reading

A good friend of mine is having a baby after having twins ten years ago - and so the knitting needles re-emerged last week after sitting idle for what seems like years - but is probably only about a year. Basketball practices and games provide some good knitting time, too... There's nothing like a baby sweater to re-invigorate and inspire a lapsed knitter! I picked chunky super soft yarn and a very easy Lion Brand free pattern to whip this up over a few days last week. And then I used some buttons I had kicking around that I found... Continue reading

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've posted - but I've been a busy bee. Lots of garden work and basketball games and general life. So, do you remember these? I blogged about them a while back and you can read the post here. In any case, for Valentines Day I decided to take the Valentine idea up a notch for my kids and sweet hubby and finish some of them up into cards. They mostly started out with washi tape and random circular stickers. Of course then most of the linework was added during long work meetings. But... Continue reading

Ok - so given that we are now in February, I think I'll embrace the Chinese New Year (February 10) as an occasion to state some New Year's Intentions. Notice that I didn't say "resolutions"... and I think I'll start small. Here are some intentions, but not in a real order of priority. 1) Print up some Moo business cards 2) Update the blog look a little to keep it fresh 3) Get a paypal account where I collect money - not just spend it. 4) Start an etsy shop. 5) Consider getting a business license and a business bank... Continue reading

It's that time of year again when the kids and I start to make valentine cards for all their friends. You know how it is at school - if you make one for any friends, you make them for the whole class. So we embark every year a few weeks ahead of time on making lots and lots. Then the kids fill in the names and off they go. The fun by-product is that I end up making some too - and passing them around to my colleagues at work, my book group friends, who-ever. Who doesn't love a little... Continue reading

For those of you who don't live in Eugene, it's been a week of freezing fog here. We get stuck with this inversion layer sometimes in the winter - and we're not allowed to light fires in the house because the air is already so stagnant in the valley. To be blunt, I'm ready for some sun. But then I remind myself that these are the most important times to get outside and be in it whatever "it" is. The kids and I went for a woodland hike on Saturday - and what loveliness we found! Freezing fog illuminates so... Continue reading

So, it's been a couple of weeks since the blog's birthday and I've been working hard at implementing some life habit changes that I think will ultimately make my life so much happier. For the record, I am someone who lives in the moment.... a lot. It's definitely my comfort zone, that is, until it gets very uncomfortable because I haven't planned ahead. Another piece of information that will be useful for context is that this last fall was just crazy intense for lots of reasons. But the year literally ended with a bang on Christmas Day when I crashed... Continue reading

Well, here we are at the beginning of 2013 and it was on New Years Eve a year ago that I sat with my brother-in-law Howard and got myself a GoDaddy account. And then my sweet sister, Eileen, walked me through the steps of making it look beautiful. And then there was a blog post by SouleMama that led to hundreds of pageviews within a couple of days time. Thank goodness I had something to post about!! And since then I've kind of bumbled along, posting here and there - sometimes more often, more times less often. Life is full... Continue reading