lauryns new painting

i just finished lauryns painting for her new room, and i'm crazy about it! it didn't photograph as well as i would've liked, so the colors aren't true, but regardless, the painting in person is exactly what i was wanting. raspberry, pumpkin, lime, turqoise, aqua, lemon, all muted. i just love the way it turned out. reminds me of a dream when your in between light and deep sleep, when nothing makes sense, yet it all makes sense. happy. comforting, colorful and mismatched. i love that she can pick out a part or section that is her favorite, where your eye natually draws to. around the sides are the lyrics to "somewhere over the rainbow". i just love it.

oh christmas tree...

as most of you know, we celebrated this christmas at the lake house. i'll admit i was pretty excited about this, even though i knew there would be no room for a tree...especially our tree which is ginormous in height and width...so i improvised and made my own "modern" version of a "christmas tree"...then i hunted around at various antique shops collecting "shiny brite" ornaments. i just love 'em, they have so much more character than new store bought ones, i think. anyway, our "tree" sat on our dining room table, and i'm hating the thought of taking it down. ( usually all things "christmas-sy" are OUT the day after christmas) but i just don't want to take this down. not yet. i had gotten the idea a few years ago from a picture i saw online, and knew one day i'd make one similar for myself. i took a silver water pitcher and spray painted it milky white ( j about died when he found out it was one of the silver pitchers, but i told him it was the one i hated) ;) and then i took polished rocks ( hobby lobby) and sprayed them silver, lastly, had the kids round up a bunch of fallen branches around the lake and sprayed them turqouis. tied white ribbon to each of the vintage ornaments and a bit of tulle here and there, and called it good. it's fun to think of the families that used these ornaments in past christmas's and know that somewhere, someone probably has really fond childhood memories of some of them. anyway, hope your christmas was shiny and bright!

my babies aren't babies anymore...

baloo~ i'm thinking reference to jungle book? who knows where he (london) comes up with stuff...

this is gracie. lauryn had a difficult time naming this one. she couldn't make up her mind.

i just love my kids stuffed animals. they are getting seriously close to the not wanting them in their rooms or on their beds, since they seem to think that they are older than they are, but i can't make myself put them away. i figured taking some pictures of them will help in remembering just how precious this time in my life is with my two little monkeys. it's amazing how badly you want to hang on to each year of your babies lives. how part of you is so ready for them to get older and more "responsible" and the other half fights allowing them to grow up. it's a constant struggle of emotions. as heartbreaking as it is, i wouldn't have it any other way.
this is george. as in "curious george"...;)

this is jane. i made this for lauryn several years ago, and she has been well loved ever since. she's starting to look a *bit* ragged, but lauryn won't let me do anything to her. she'd hate for me to say it, but lauryn rarely goes anywhere overnight without her.

this is slurp. the other side is sip. london is *king* of names. we once had a toad that lived in our flower beds, he'd come out at night, let us pet him and watch him up close, london named him warts. we had him about 3 years till he had an unfortunate accident with the front tire of j's truck...then we had wally ( also named by london) he was the groundhog that lived at the corner of our subdivision. london loves naming things. i love that kid.

lauryn named this one bellini. i have no idea why, but it's cute.

a saturday all to myself!

since living at the lake, i've had so much more time to indulge in some of my favorite hobbies...my drawing journal being one. rarely do i leave home without it, for i find myself finding inspiration for a painting, or some sort of craft while driving...whether it be something off a logo, or whatnot. anyway, these little pieces of "art" are so fun to look through and draw inspiration from. the milla jane stuff shown is for a project i'm working on. anyway, i had a saturday all to myself, with j at the property working on the shop, and the kids at grandma and papa's, i played with my camera, painted, drew, embroidered and watched some good ol' girly movies. what a great saturday.