*e*

breathe

(word for the art journal group this week, journalling will be added to the stitched lines)

breathing is what i will be trying to do all week as i get ready for our trip to italy next weekend! eeeek! i'm packing kits and clothes and dreaming of cheesy delicious pizzas! i can't wait to meet those of you who will be there, and am especially excited to hang out with my lovely norwegian friends lene and gudrun!!

incase you haven't noticed - organisation is not one of my talents and i have therefore left planning our 'extra days in italy' to the very last minute. anyone want to tell me about some amazing little village in the picturesque countryside where we might sit and eat fresh crusty bread and frolic in the fields and cobblestone streets? i want to find somewhere simple and lovely to just be together as a little family for a few days - away from the cities! we will be heading off from naples after i teach for a little adventure! oh, and it needs to be cheap ;) grazie!

life = art...toes in the ocean

yesterday was yindi's first time putting her chubby little toes in the ocean...she LOVED IT! i thought my heart was going to jump right out of my body watching her with her daddy playing in the water :)

a layout i love...

i just checked out the new garden over at 2 peas though as i ate my lunch (did you know potato pancakes are really yummy with applesauce? i didn't!) and there is so much colour and happiness for life in these layouts. i love it. and i love this layout i made. mainly for the funny little pictures, taken by ivy when she was still 3. her most favourite people at the time (yindi has now beat out tabby and myself for numero uno)!!

i haven't taken my photo yet today for 'life = art', it's been fun to look harder each day and find something beautiful to me in my 'stay-at-home' world :) so i'll be back later with something from this lovely sunny afternoon we're having!

life = art...silly is good

laughter is art right?!! we had a lotta lotta that this afternoon on the couch with photobooth!

every few months we remember that we have this on the computer and it is good-mood therapy every time ;)

life = art...best best friends

is there anything more beautiful than a very best friend to call your own? to share your secrets, to laugh about things that are only funny to the two of you, to be completely open and comfortable with each other? i just adore the way these two are holding each other so sweetly in this picture!

and when someone else adores your child as much as you do...thats pretty magical too!

life = art week!

i woke up this morning and decided i would take some advice from my very own blog banner and find the pretty stuff in my every day. who wants to join me? keep the camera closeby and look for the little things that mean art to you. its easy once you start looking...

a lovenote from ivy, who was most put out to discover that daddy had not left us one today!

"its a spotty and a stripey day today mumma!" (and if socks with thongs won't make you giggle, i don't know what will!)

ivy's new best friend...before being murdered and made into soup for lunch.

tune in tomorrow for more life = art in our crazy little world!

grateful for motherhood

(very lovingly being served my mothers day lunch!)

today, more than anything i enjoyed soaking in the deliciousness of my 2 girls and pondering our journey together. it was a sweet luxury to be able to just sit around and think (no meals to prepare or nappies to change today - mick, i love you!!), and be and enjoy them. i loved it. i love being a mother. i became one at the young age of 23 - unprepared and overwhelmed...but happy and hopeful for our life together. i don't regret a minute of it, it is who i am, it is what i was supposed to do. it's not always easy. or fun! but i am more grateful to be a mother than anything else.

i recently started a teeny little motherhood journal - little random memories and messages for my girls, which i have been writing in today.
(the cover was shown in the april issue of CK, some of the finished pages can be found over here)...i love this little book as it holds such precious pictures and memories to me. i think of my babies as little birds who love to be tucked under my wings (and often have wide open mouths ready for food!), so needing at the moment but soon to discover their own wings and begin to fly on their own. it excites me and breaks my heart at the same time! my plan for this book is to keep it by my bedside - write down those sweet things as they happen, pick it up as a reminder of those sweet things on those not-so-sweet days, and enjoy as little hands turn the pages and want to be read the stories.

i feel really blessed to have the job of raising these sweet souls. and thankyou, mum - for showing me how to love, for quietly preparing me for the day when i would become a mother with your amazing example, for loving me, for your sacrifices, for your handmade and homecooked, for everything :)

look ma! i'm on tv!

well, not really tv, but a Creating Keepsakes DVD! ohhhh you know it! i had a fun day of filming today...and the best part of all? NO MAKEUP ARTIST!! hopefully i look less transvestite-ish than the last time i was in front of the camera - hee!

i was asked to share a few of my favourite techniques and philosophies on creating. i felt all silly and tongue tied for the first few segments then really started to enjoy myself - the crew were fabulous and i had the sweetheart CD along in the morning for moral support - she is a seasoned pro at these things and was just what i needed to assure me i was doing ok ;) i love to share my ideas and excitement for creating with others, but i always feel weird in a position like this as i never want to seem like an 'expert' on such matters, 'cos i'm really not!! i just know what i like doing and how i like doing that, everybody is different..so i hope that comes across in my little segments. it was a lot of fun to do! i felt a bit like a news-reporter. a big haired scrapbook news-reporter ;)

so now little miss yindi and i have a few days of fun planned here in beautiful utah with some of my most favourite people ever! deep breathes of relief...the hard part is over!!!

(don't ask me what i'm doing in that 2nd photo...but i'm pretty sure it was something funny - ha!)

the live lightly tour stops at our house!

yay!!! i started reading sara's blog sometime last year, just before her and her cute husband and daughter set off in their bio-diesel bus trip around the country promoting light living...so i of course got hooked reading the tour blog as well ;) i LOVE what they are doing and was more than happy to offer them a patch to park in front of our little house for a few nights!

here's matt and sara whipping up green smoothies for one and all!

sara also has a cool food blog (i honestly don't know how she manages to keep up with THREE blogs, i struggle with one!!) which is beautiful to look and and very inspiring! we have been having some good chats about food and making some really pretty salads together!

and here's sweet little yindi watching the big girls in action, probably wishing she could be up there too messing everything up! (note they had to escape to a higher place...she started crawling last friday!)

big brave art show and tell!

i have never made something big for my walls before. never! i feel nice and cozy working on paper and in the pages of books that get closed and put away on a shelf...but to make something for the wall...the WALL i tell you, has always frightened me. you know, cos people will walk into my house and see it, and i will feel akward. but, during the past few months, something has been stirring and bubbling up inside me and begging me to make something BIG! so i took a brave step and bought some pieces of wood (bargain at $3.50 each!) about 24 inches square...and got to work! i opened my crazy-messy drawer of scrap paper and covered the boards with paper, then gesso and paint - wheeee!

this one is for ivy's room. we both love elephants. thats me and her :) in our elephant bodies. mine will be on display again this summer in a bathing suit at the beach.

this one inspired after seeing a ton of amazing mandala's come out of anahata katkin's class at artfest. check out her site, she is such a cool gal and incredible artist!

it was tricky to photograph...it's all glittery and shimmery thanks to this cool stuff.

and finally...this one is waiting for me to decide what to paint on it! the background is all ready for some loving...

i can't tell you how excited i am to have painted something BIG! and to actually love them! this was scary and new for me, but the trick was translating something i'm comfortable with 'small' (paper scraps, stamping, messy paint) onto a bigger surface. i feel like something has been unlocked inside me and i am eager to see what else flows out...stay tuned ;)

and get yourself some wood this weekend and get messy!

elephant deets: i traced a picture of an elephant onto dress pattern paper and cut it out, stuck to the background and painted.

mandala deets: i traced circles from various plates and bowls onto the background, then cut the semi-circle and pointy-thing shape from cardstock and traced around the circle lines. painted with watercolours and acrylics.