weekend art adventures

This past weekend was a good one, as far as creativity goes.

I finally got everything up on the paint room walls. It looks good. I need to post pictures. The only thing I have to figure out is my shelf. I have a shelf that mounts to the wall, and I hung it only to have it come crashing down about 30 minutes after I loaded it up with all of "the stuff." None of the glass jars or other items broke or got damaged, thank goodness, but it did make a HUGE noise that scared the poop out of both Emily and I. The wall anchors were even pulled out, so I've gotta find stronger anchors. Other than that, I really like the new space and I am spending a LOT more time in there than I did when the room was downstairs, so that's a good thing.

The other thing I did was finished up some ATC's. These cards are really a lot of fun to work on. I joined a second swap that was all about flower people. Here's what I wound up with:


I really have to figure out how to take better pictures.

The one side effect of all this activity is that I want more of it and I want less of work. I'm really struggling with work right now as there's nothing currently happening that's really challenging me or teaching me something new. I'm a person that needs a challenge, and needs to feel that my work is producing something good in order to stay engaged. I'm not so engaged right now. And I hate it. I'm getting the work done, but I definitely don't see myself putting in 125% right now. Most days I hover between 90-100% and while I guess that's ok, I wish I felt more "into it." I've been playing around with the idea of opening an etsy shop, but I think I need to get through the first few weeks of June as it's a heavy birthday time before I start focusing on a new venture.

Mother's Day

Emily is going to be 3 in June, so she is still figuring out what all of the various holidays are and what you are supposed to do on them. When we first started talking about Mother's Day, she corrected me and told her that it was "Emily's Day." Which, I guess, without her, I wouldn't be able to celebrate my own Mother's Day so I guess she sorta had a point. Anyway, we finally got her to understand that the day was a day to be nice to mommy. Given that she has 2 mommies, that's no small feat! She made/colored in our cards and gave me flowers. Her school did some cute things and overall it was a pretty low-key quiet day. One of the things I wanted of course, was breakfast. I mean, what Mom doesn't want her favorite breakfast on Mother's day. It's a chance to live a little, right?! Right!

This mom decided to take matters into her own hands to make one of my favorite things - cinnamon rolls.



I have only made from-scratch cinnamon rolls once and that was when I was little. I was visiting my grandma's house, and my Aunt Wendy was there (which is worth remembering in itself as I didn't see my Aunt Wendy too much growing up). My Aunt gathered me up and we headed into my grandma's delightfully sunny, yellow kitchen and she showed me how to make cinnamon rolls and sticky buns. I remember the process took a LOONG time, but the wait was totally worth it. I still remember kneading the dough, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting for it to rise and the wonderful golden color when they came out of the oven. I couldn't have been more than 11. As an adult I've thought about making cinnamon rolls so many times, but I call up this experience and it just seemed so labor intensive, that I've always just settled for the pop-out-of-a-can variety. As Mother's Day approached this year, I thought that it would be a perfect time to try to make these again.

After not finding a recipe that caught my eye a few months ago, I settled for Paula Deen's cinnamon roll recipe. I mean, Paula is southern and for things that should be gooey and yummy and delicious, Paula is a no brainer. I used the recipe here, and made a few adjustments. First, I used my Kitchenaid mixer to mix, so kneading wasn't required. I used only half of the butter she called for when brushing the rolled dough with butter. I also used less white sugar and added about 1/3 cup brown sugar to the filling. I also used pecans in my filling. When it came time to frost the rolls, I found that I didn't need as much as the recipe made - I probably drizzled half of it over the finished rolls, but other than that I followed the recipe to a tee, and these were the most perfect, wonderful cinnamon rolls. The process is long, but it wasn't as hard as I remember and I will likely make these again, but split the time up by starting a day before I plan on serving so that it doesn't take 3 hours in the morning to make.

First ATC for swap

I took last Friday off for a personal day. Literally. Friday was all about me. I got up, I made coffee and I went into the paint room and didn't come out for most of the day.

I made 3 Artist Trading Cards, and I had SO much fun doing this. I joined a swap that was centered around "ransom notes" and you simply had to use words with ransom-type letters in the card. My pictures are really bad (I really need to learn how to photograph art), but here are the first three:


I need to swing by Hobby Lobby to see if they have individual plastic sleeves so I can send these out. I joined a second swap called "Flower People" and I've drawn out 5 of the 6 cards I need, but this one just sorta popped out last night:

(That picture is really bad, but sadly it was the best of the bunch that I took.)

I didn't even seem to think about it too much - I just had fun with my supplies and went for it. These cards are a lot of fun, and I'm really excited for the actual trading part and to see the work of other people.

ATC's!

I've been intrigued by Artist Trading Cards (ATC) for awhile now. Yesterday I somehow stumble across ATCsforALL.com which is a site dedicated to ATC's. I poked around a bit and decided to sign up. I also put my hat in the ring for a trade that is focused on ransom-note designs. I need to do 3 cards in the next few weeks. I've had fun brainstorming this since last night. Looking forward to see how my work turns out and even more excited about the trade!

cake fail

I think I have a pox on me. A cake pox, to be specific.

Growing up, my family baked. Not every day, but cookies, cakes, brownies - they were all apart of the fabric of my house. My sister grew to be the family's official baker. Despite my best efforts, I could only master cookies and brownies. Cakes always failed me. It's so sad. I even had trouble with boxed cakes. I don't know what it is, but I can literally count all of the successful cakes I've made on one hand.

Yesterday the pox struck again. Last week, pound cake recipes were hitting me from every corner of the interweb. I don't know what it was - but everywhere I turned was a lovely yellow cake - some topped with berries, others with frosting, but they all looked delicious. Have I mentioned that I love pound cake? So yesterday, I decided to try Paula Deen's Grandmothers Sour Cream Pound Cake. I mixed it all up, dug out my bundt cake pan and loaded the batter into the oven. At 45 minutes, I check it. It was beautiful - turning golden brown on top, it had risen above the pan just enough to make the removal of it easy. About that time, Heather started making pizza for dinner. The dough was rising and one of the pizzas was going to be bbq chicken. So after resetting my timer, I left the kitchen to let Heather cook the chicken. I came back 20 or so minutes later after the chicken was done, and noticed that the front burner was still on. I turned it off and checked my cake. It was still jiggly. Weird - it should be just about done. I set the timer for 5 more minutes. 5 minutes later, same thing. 10 more minutes went on the timer and 10 minutes later when I checked on the cake I noticed that it was starting to fall. Weird. Heather was getting close to being ready for the oven (we had timed the pizza and cake to coincide), so I set the timer for 5 more minutes. As the timer was beeping for the last time, I reached to turn it off and noticed that the oven had been turned off. I then opened the oven. The cake had completely fallen and it was still wet in parts. I was so sad. It smelled wonderful and the color was perfect. After it cooled, I naturally picked through the parts that were done to give it a taste. OMG - so moist and rich! It would have been so good with the strawberries I had cut up and the whipped cream we were planning on making later that night. I made sure everyone got a little taste of the cooked part so they could tell me how wonderful it would have been. Heather ran by the store and picked up a store made angel food cake, which is just not the same when you are all set for pound cake, so I passed on the strawberry shortcake and instead just picked out a few strawberries.

I really want to try this recipe or another pound cake, but I'm afraid the pox will somehow find a way to strike again.

creative planning

So last night I sat down to make my list of all of the things that needed to be done over the next 6 weeks for Emily's birthday. I then decided that it would be fun to formally document it and keep it in Em's scrapbook. I started with a calendar page that was simple and fun to do:

I punched out a bunch of 1.25" squares and turned them into a colorful calendar. I stamped each block with a date and then I started to write in all of my to-do's. There are simple things like:

Today's task is easy (and already complete) - Ask a couple of folks at work to save 2-liter bottles so that I can make a bowling game and use the bottles for pins.

I also tried to think about what goes on in my average week so I could plan around that.


For example, I have assigned myself the task of sewing beanbags while watching American Idol on Tuesday nights. Making a big production out of the process is new to me, but so far I'm finding it fun and I'm excited that I'm not waiting until the last minute to get everything done. Spacing out the simple things and assigning them to specific days makes all of this feel manageable and not overwhelming, which I like a lot too. We'll see how it goes. I plan to also make some smaller pages to document the guest list, my "map" for the yard and I'll include examples of the things I make, like the invitations, thank you cards and other things that will be used in decoration.

birthday planning

Birthdays are a big deal around our house. Like really big. Like we decorate and have balloons and we make cakes. ohhh - cakes. The tradition started about 7 or 8 years ago. A client of mine was trying to be a very sweet husband and made a cake for his wife. He described it to me, and said that the whole thing wound up looking like a volcano. Which inspired me to make a volcano cake for my birthday that year. I'll update this post if I find the picture, but we filled a flower pot with cake mix and cooked it for an unbelievably long time, flipped it onto a sheet cake and then decorated the whole thing with chocolate and candy (twizzlers for lava, brownie bits and other chocolate for "rocks"). It was delicious and fun and from this a tradition was born.

We've gone on to make all sorts of cakes, relying on all sorts of themes. For example, my partner Heather is a big video game fan. So one year, I made her this:


In 2007, she surprised me with not only the best pirate-themed surprise party I've ever had but also this great cake:


When my niece turned 12, we threw her a huge luau theme surprise party and at the time she was totally into monkeys, so we made this:


Oh, and I can't forget Heather's 37th. She's a huge Cubs fan, so my sister and I made this cake:



And of course, Emily's birthdays have all included fun cakes. Her first birthday was ladybug cupcakes. Last year, for her 2nd birthday, we went all out with a Sesame Street theme. My sister, Felicia and I made these character cupcakes:


This year will be no exception to the rule, but this year I will have a plan because not only are we going to make the cake at home, but I'm also going to attempt to make the majority of decorations on my own. The theme for her party this year is carnival/circus which I was debating before I saw this amazing post on odeedoh, which lead me to the full story and the amazing pictures here. These pictures totally inspired me, and it looks like such a FUN birthday to work on that I just can't resist. Emily has never been to a carnival or a circus, but I think she'll love it as it all comes together. She's already talking about the fact that her birthday is coming up and one of my big tasks with pulling all of this off will be to incorporate purple as much as possible (without it becoming too purply) because she has told me she wants a purple birthday.

So tonight I'm putting my plan of attack together. Here's the categories to be attacked:
decorations
invitations
jumphouse rental
yard preparation (read finish raking up the yard, pulling weeds and plant summer annuals and possibly building a retaining wall)
party games
cake
party favors
thank you notes

I plan to make pennants similar to Evan's birthday but am still debating between paper and fabric. I want to make a "Happy Birthday" sign, but I haven't quite decided what form/shape I want that to be in yet. There are a few games that I want to have and need to prep for. Lots to do, and only 5 weeks to the party! This will give me a great opportunity to break in the new paint room. I finished up the organizing last night and have just a few more things to hang on the wall but none of that should delay the planning session that will take place tonight.

moved

Well, I did it! The paint room and all of it's parts have been moved upstairs. Because of the rain, we had to wait to move one big piece of furniture last night, but it's done. Now it's organization time, which I hope to finish up tonight and maybe even get some things hung on the wall before Em goes down for bed.

I was pretty good about taking pictures. I'm very excited about the new space. It's bright and cozy and has plenty of storage/organization space. Looking forward to playing in there soon!

the big move

I'm very excited. The weekend is here and while I'm typically excited about weekends (I mean, who isn't?!) I am extra excited about this weekend. This weekend, my paint room is moving to a new room and it will be a room that I can call "mine" (and Emily's) again.

We live in a two-story house - technically it's a ranch with a finished basement. My paint room has been down stairs for the 6 years we've lived in the house. We have 3 bedrooms upstairs - one for us, one for Em and one that has been a myriad of things, but right now it's my niece's room. Well, this weekend she is moving downstairs into my paint room. This decision was made for a few reasons. First, her dad (my brother) also lives with us, and he's in another room downstairs. He spends most of his free time down there, and my niece hangs out with him. Second, the downstairs bathroom is only accessible through the paint room. My niece has claimed that bathroom (even though her dad uses it too) and on a regular basis, her stuff just sort of bleeds out into the paint room as only things belonging to a 15-year-old girl can do. Third, even though it's my house - I feel like I am invading their space when I go to the paint room so I haven't spent as much time down there since January and I miss it. Fourth, and this is the most selfish reason - I want that room to feel like it's mine and for all of the reasons above, I don't. So Flea (my niece and one of her many nicknames) and I are swapping rooms.

I have to start packing tonight, which will likely be an all night chore because I'm very good at procrastination and haven't packed a thing, but I'm excited. I've been picturing the new room in my head for a few weeks now. I can see where my stuff will live, where Emily's little red desk will live and I can't wait to see what new ideas will sprout from the new room. Hoping to take pictures to document the process.

on being a (creative) mom

I randomly stumbled across this blog this morning and was struck by the quotation in the header:

The moment a child is born a mother is also born.
She never existed before.
The woman existed, but the mother, never.
A mother is something absolutely new.

Wow.

This morning I was thinking about this blog and what I'm trying to accomplish and this quote just sort of made me understand that things really ARE different and a NEW process HAS to be created because I am not the person, the woman, I was before Emily.

The person I was before being a mom thought that a perfect day included the following:

- rising early to a full pot of coffee
- quiet music
- being in the paint room doing something with my hands
- a morning that stretched into an afternoon with people coming in and out, participating and enjoying their own creativity
- and something (or a lot of somethings) to show for the effort at the end of the day

Then something changed. In 2006 we decided that we wanted to have a child. We started a process that would change us, and at the time we had no idea how much. In 2007, just 10 short days after I made a wish on my birthday candles, the wish came true and Emily was born. And a mother was born from within me.


I've never thought about it that way. That's pretty amazing.

Now my perfect days include a little person who calls me "mommy." The day will likely include something creative, but instead of that creativity stretching all day it's distributed in 2-year-old manageable pieces. The focus is no longer on me and my work, but hers. Honestly I've been frustrated with that sometimes. I miss getting lost in the process. I miss hands filled with paint or tiny bits of paper on my clothing after a day spent cutting or tearing or whatever it is I am doing. I miss all of that me time. And it's taken me 2.5 years to realize that it's perfectly ok for me to feel this way. It doesn't make me a bad person and it doesn't make me love my daughter any less. Sometimes I've struggled with guilt over wanting those days to myself, but when I step back I realize that everyone NEEDS that time. I also recognize that to take the time would be setting an amazing example for my little person who will one day be a woman, and possibly a mother. I want her to know that her personal time is valuable, important and needed. My personal time is not an exception to that rule.

The challenge for me is making the time instead of making excuses. From June 2007 (when Em was born) until last summer, I experienced more change and uncertainty and rode more emotional roller coasters than I have since my teenage years. My creative time was lost during that time. Last summer things things started to settle down, but life threw another curve ball in January and I'm just now starting to feel "normal" from all of the changes that have taken place over the past few months. The thing is, life is always happening. It happened before when I wasn't a mom and it will continue to happen. I will always savor the care-free creative days of the person I once was and I imagine that as Emily grows more independent I will see them again, but for now, I have to find a new normal when it comes to my creativity as a mother. I'm a little gun shy (what if I can't do it?) but I also know myself pretty well. The more I build stuff up (like I'm doing now), the more nervous I get but when I actually sit down to do whatever it is I've been fretting about, I do it and wonder after the fact what I was worried about. I look forward to that moment of wonder. :)