What's for Dinner?

Anyone gotten as burned out by this question as I have?

Don't get me wrong - I actually love to cook. I just don't love planning the menu all the time. And, although everyone has their two cents to put in once dinner is on the table, I can't seem to get their input when I'm in the menu planning stage. UGH! Every week it's the same!

So, I decided I needed to somehow put a creative spin on the process.

This past spring I took a mini-course in chalkboard art. I made this cute sign for my son's high school graduation party,

and this one for our church youth mission team send-off party,

and this one for when my two young missionaries came back to the nest.

When I came across a cute framed chalkboard for my kitchen, I knew I had the answer for both kicking my menu planning boredom AND getting my kids to stop asking me that dreaded question every night.

Love it! And, best of all, it works!!

I'm being outgrown ...

When my kids were small, they loved blankets. The softer, the better. The bigger, the better. They loved to wrap themselves up in them like little caterpillars in cocoons. They wanted to take them wherever they went too. They'd drag them up and down stairs and all through the house and beg to take them with us in the car. 

Often their favorites were the ones they'd started using as infants in their cribs. 
At one time, their tiny baby body was just a bitty bump under the enormous blanket. Gradually they grew into it, though, taking up more space beneath it. Gradually they realized that staying wrapped up in a blanket grew hot and restrictive and kept you from going outside too. Gradually they realized that carrying around a blanket (that was usually pretty tattered and torn by years of use) wasn't the coolest look either. So the blankets got less and less use over time.

I've been feeling pretty much like those blankets lately.

I've been a stay-at-home-mom to four kids for 24 years and still counting. 
My youngest will become a teenager next year, the next is nearly half-way through high school, the next just started college this year, and the oldest is out of college making a life on his own out of state. I feel privileged to have stayed home with them all these years. I feel blessed to have witnessed so many wonderful moments with each of them. I feel very grateful to my husband whose career and work ethic made it all possible for us. When I was in the midst of the busy childcare days of diapers and tantrums, snack time and nap time, play dates and preschool, soccer practice and dance lessons, I knew my job description and performed it well (most days). I never thought much about it coming to an end or even changing to a lesser role. 

Now, however, I'm starting to see it.

The fact is my kids need me less often and in a different capacity than when they were small. They need less of my time and more of my heart. They need me to be less visible but always available. They've outgrown me just as they outgrew those blankets. I surrounded them just like a blanket with comfort and security and love when they were small. The bigger they grew -- no matter how hard either of us tried to stretch it -- the blanket only covered so much. The more independent they now become, the less my help and guidance can be stretched to meet all their needs. At some point, they each have to break free of the blankets wrapped around them and go out in the world to play.

So, am I sad about this transition? Sometimes, but not always. Those blankets now outgrown are cherished treasures! And ... just as even a small blanket can be pulled out now and then for warmth and comfort, so can a mom -- no matter how big the child gets.

Such is the saga of the career stay-at-home-mom.

If you do it right, eventually you work your way out of the job.



Perfectionism - the little demon!

I've been talking myself out of MANY things lately by claiming that I can't do X until all of this Y is in perfect order. I really want to do X and will do X as soon as I'm caught up on Y. If only I didn't always have so much Y to do, I'd be able to have time for X.

What is my X? In general, ART.

What is my Y? Oh, so many mindless things ...

All the household junk that needs to be done but really doesn't need to

consume my days the way I allow it to sometimes. It's the busy work I make for myself continually making 'to do' lists instead of just buckling down and 'doing.'

It's the quick errands run that turns into a day of leisure shopping because I don't want to go home and do the items on my 'to do' list.

It's too much and too often unnecessary computer time.

Even when I commit to art I hold myself back.

I want to make a project but need certain supplies.

I take time to gather/buy all the supplies but need to learn the techniques.

I take an online class to learn the techniques but don't want to 'waste' the supplies by using them on something unworthy of keeping so I don't try anything at all.

I take in all this knowledge through the course but don't allow myself the slightest

learning curve necessary to get started actually applying it.

It's time to stop this madness!

Perfectionism needs to be kicked to the curb!

It's time to gently allow myself to be imperfect, inexperienced, and

awkward at something new instead of expecting to ace it the first time through.
A book I'm currently reading, The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown,
is reinforcing this big time -- and boy, do I need to hear it regularly!

I'm imperfect and I'm enough!

It's time to allow myself to make mistakes and create ugly art
but learn through the process instead of expecting to create a masterpiece
every time I sit before a blank canvas.

It's time to start showing up to practice art instead of always having a plan to make

specific art. Really, no art created is unworthy when the

process of creating brings joy and satisfaction.

It's time to just show up -- imperfections welcome!

Change is a-coming!!

So ... a little art in every day ... not so much lately.

I'm dusting off my studio table after several months of inactivity. I let so many things keep me

from creating in the studio this year. Some have been very good things - family things that were wonderful to be present for. Some were necessary household things that we all have to make time for. Some were actually creative things that I was involved in outside my little home studio (which I may post on in the future?).

Mostly, however, I've stopped being accountable to myself about the importance to me

of a little art in every day.

 

But it's time for that to change.

When I was a young girl, growing up in a large household on the farm, every Saturday was house cleaning day. My sisters and I would have to get up early (often being awakened before 8am to the sound of the vacuum cleaner - my mother's not-so-subtle hint at what day of the week it was!) and help my mom thoroughly clean house. No Saturday morning cartoons, no games, no play, no arts and crafts, no going outside until the cleaning jobs were all finished. We were usually able to work together well enough to finish by early afternoon and were then free to choose our amusements until chore and dinner prep.

I used to look forward to baking and creating art on those afternoons.

I'd pour through the cookbooks for new recipes to try. (I baked my first loaf of braided Challah bread when I was about 13.) I'd also spend hours in my room coloring or cutting up construction paper and

glueing together collages, dioramas, and any other 3D art.

Both are still great pleasures for me. Both are creative things I still look forward to doing

'once my real work is finished'.

On the farm -- with its never-ending list of chores to accomplish 24/7, and in the household I began when I married my sweetheart -- when we were busily having and raising our four children, this order of priorities was quite necessary. Increasingly though, with the independence of my children,

I think that order of priorities is a bit backwards for me.

The 'real work' I'd like to be doing is the creative work.

 

What would happen if I flipped my priorities around?

What would happen if I treated my creative skills with respect and allowed them to fill more hours of my day than ... say, laundry?

What would happen if I allowed myself to learn more and dive a little deeper into art?

For the longest time I've been placing my art at the bottom of the To Do list. I've only allowed myself time for it if and when all other tasks are finished. I now realize this is a mistake.

I need art in my every day routine. It energizes me, uplifts me, calms me, strengthens me to

do the unpleasant and mundane things I have to do.

I should be doing more of it.

I will do more of it.
 

Change is coming!

A watercolor vintage Valentine project

I didn't really set out to make a Valentine project this year, it just sort of happened.

I was surfing through the Live with Prima online video classes and came across this one and simply had to try it out. I had been hoarding  selectively reserving Prima's watercolor papers for a very special purpose and now it was time to bring them out to PLAY.

Using the watercolor papers (which start off totally black on white), some Distress Ink, Distress Stains, Glimmer Glaze, watercolor crayons, watercolor pens, watercolor pencils, and Glimmer Mist, this was what my pages looked like. I loved them too much not to make a book out of them.

What better to share on Valentine's Day than the love verse from I Corinthians.

I mounted the pages on black cardstock, then on an old acrylic book I'd also been saving for too long. The book hangs from my 7Gypsies display stand.

Such a cool project to work on.

I did lose a pair of my favorite jeans in the process though. NOTE: Glimmer Glaze doesn't do well on favorite jeans or on carpet. Oops!

Thanks for looking.

Jill

FINALLY, right?

Since life seems to be traveling at light speed for me, it's no wonder I haven't blogged since ... what? November!! Wow. Sorry. Been a little busy.

In a nutshell there were ...

the holidays,

the interim term and final semester of college for our oldest son,

the many phone calls of encouragement to said college son,

the frequent travels of my DH (LOTS of this),

the trip to California I took to visit old friends and my favorite beach (Laguna),

the online art classes I enjoyed (but have yet to do most of the work for),

the homework (and extra projects - GRRR!) help for our 3 kids still home,

the many chorus and band concerts (we enjoyed but often came 3 a week),

the spring break trip to Utah skiing (that was great!),

the Easter weekend trip to Michigan to visit my mom on the farm,

the middle school musical, Cinderella, in which my daughter was "the studious sister"

the set for said musical, which I got to create! (So much FUN!)

the church dinner theater, Family Camp,

in which my son was the camp's nature guide and my daughter a Bonnie Bell scout,

the set for said dinner theater,

where this time I got to put up wallpaper for a faux log cabin and rock fireplace,

the weekend trip to Massachusetts my DH and I took to see our son's senior art exhibit,

the vertigo and subsequent ER visit for me on said Massachusetts trip (So. Not. Fun.),

the gardening (herbs, flowers, tomato and pepper plants),

the end-of-school-year wrap up events that make you beg for summer break,

the usual May and June events -

Mother's Day, my birthday, my in-laws birthdays, our anniversary, Father's Day,

and my husband's birthday (whew! those two are killer months!)

the graduation party and art exhibit we held for our college son -

Yay! He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree!

and, now that summer break is upon us ...

the summer band and chorus weeks,

the swimming lessons,

the endless requests for play dates, pool dates, sleepovers, and outings with friends,

the family game nights (YES!),

the later bedtimes,

the sleeping in (AHHH!),

the endless trips to the grocery store (man, these kids can eat!),

the picnics on the lawn and dinners on the patio,

the baby bunnies in the herb garden (second year! SO love those little cuties!)

the prep for our beach vacation for July 4th week (Yikes! that's soon!)

and the rest of the summer calendar is just as full.

So ... now that you've read my excuses (if you're still reading!), I will fill in the gaps with pics and details as I get them posted. I have managed a few art projects amidst all this BUSYness and would love to share.

What's keeping you busy these days?

Happy Summer!

Thanks for checking in,

Jill

Soaking up more ...

When my kids were in Montessori preschool, the director likened their little minds to sponges soaking up everything possible for them to learn.

Well, I guess I feel that way too about art. So ... I'm taking yet another class to learn, grow, experiment, and just PLAY!

Fellow Brave Girl, Jeanne Oliver, creates gorgeous vintage art.

Just look at all this artsy goodness ...

Online class begins in January but registration is open now.

To join me, go to www.jeanneoliverdesigns.com

Jill

Lost in a Blue Friday

Today I'm finding myself in a blue mood - maybe it's the gloomy skies this morning or the busy weekend we have ahead of us, maybe it's stress from the last busy week(s), or that "busy" has become an all too common response to the question, "How are you?" lately. In the midst of this constantly busy life I realized this morning that I feel lonely. How can you feel lonely when you can't even keep up with your full calendar? Somehow, I can. Somehow, today all of our frequent moves and starting over is hitting me full force and, unfortunately for you (IS there any of you?) I've decided to share it on the blog.

This week I've been focusing on some home decorating. It's been an on-off project for the last year as we settled into our most recent home. While I'm hoping - no seriously praying - that this is our last house and last move and last start over, I'm also reluctant to decorate it. Partly this is out of spite - a home is something that is built over a long period of time and can't just be created in a year with new furniture and paint and silly store-bought accessories. I've always wanted our home to tell our story. I've wanted it to be welcoming to guests but more importantly I've wanted our kids to feel a part of it and feel the memories attached to it as they grow. How can I possibly create this when I keep having to start over!!? The home decorator in me is trying really hard to just make it comfy and inviting but the nearly 50 year old woman in me is just so sad that no matter what I put in here it feels too new when I feel old and it won't really tell our story. Our story is too full of beginnings. Just when I think I'm getting to a middle and putting down some roots and creating some real history, we end up starting over with another beginning again. Today I just feel so ungrounded - like I have been yanked up so many times I don't have any roots left to put down. Worst of all, I don't feel like the roots matter anymore. I want them to.

So, as I try to get out of this funk today and focus more on the house projects I'm supposed to be doing (curtains for my girls' rooms, painting my son's room and several other rooms that haven't been touched yet) I can't help feeling like I'm simply going through the motions of creating a home. Why? For myself and my family, you would think, right? I wish that was enough for me. It's not. I want to create warmth and charm and some form of fabricated history so others can see it and share it. I want people in my life. But starting over makes that so complicated. You see, they (whatever potential new friends we might find) are very busy people too. They are busy with their old friends and family that they've never had to leave and start over without. We are too far down on their wait list. What if, by the time we move up on that list, we end up having to start over again? With the fear of that happening - all that time wasted investing in new relationships - I find myself too tired of the waiting, too tired of being disappointed and moved away to invest any more time drawing people in. Focusing on the house for awhile seemed a good distraction. It's not really working.

Jill

Heading back to the classroom ...

... to teach.

I've lined up several paper art classes to share at our local Hobby Lobby (on Rt. 59 in Aurora). Here is the docket for this fall:

Canvas Autumn Mini Book ($35)

Tue. 10/4   9am-12pm or

Sat. 10/8   1pm-4pm

Handmade Journal ($30)

Tue. 10/11   9am-12pm or

Sat. 10/15   1pm-4pm

Scallop Mini Book ($25)

Tue. 10/18   9am-12pm or

Sat. 10/22   1pm-4pm

Paper Quilt Box ($25)

Tue. 11/1   9am-12pm or

Sat. 11/5   1pm-4pm

The Notebook ($25)

Tue. 11/8   9am-12pm or

Sat. 11/12  1pm-4pm

Altered Frame ($25)

Tue. 11/15   9am-12pm or

Sat. 11/19   1pm-4pm

Hoping to get plenty of folks interested. It's always a pleasure to meet new people in these classes. I'm excited to expand my circle of artsy friends. Contact me at gajgreen@aol.com if you'd like to join the fun!

Jill

Playing "Catch-up" ...

OK - so school has started and the scramble is on to try and

catch up on all the things I've let go all season.

Yeah, right!

I think instead of getting bogged down for too long with that lengthy list,

I will try to savor at least one thing this summer gave me:

In the midst of my lovely landscaped yard I planted a few tomato plants and an herb garden.

While enjoying fresh tomatoes and a variety of fresh herbs just outside my kitchen door is wonderful itself,

nature left us something even more wonderful.

In said herb garden, a mother rabbit burrowed and treated us to a couple weeks of peeks at her babies.

Although only one of the two survived and all too soon the burrow was deserted, we all enjoyed their presence for the time we were allowed a view.

Through this time, I found myself nostalgic for my younger days.

Perhaps the farm finds the farm girl even here in the suburbs.

For your viewing pleasure:

Thanks for visiting.

Jill

 

The Lazy Days of Summer ...

... yeah, right!

I think we've been busier in our household now than during the school year!
I will admit it's at least more fun things for the kids but it's certainly 
more of a juggling challenge for me.

Anyone feel that way, too!?

In an effort to maintain my summer sanity, I am trying to find ways for art to
fit in to our busy days too.

With that goal in mind, the ping-pong table in our basement was temporarily (or at least Greg sincerely hopes it's temporary!) converted into an art table for "She Art" Girl canvas art.

 (see http://www.christytomlinson.typepad.com/ and her She Art Workshop)

My daughters and I have seen 8 girls take shape over the past 3 weeks. They each made one for their room:

Here is Mackenzie's -

 

and here is Paige's -

 

I have been working on a girl for my oldest son's lovely girlfriend (Hi Allie!) and 5 girls to donate for a charity auction benefit for the Idaho Health Care Association. Special thanks to Christy Tomlinson for her permission for us all to use her workshop design to create for the auction and special thanks to Jana Darrington for this fabulous idea and opportunity to share our art with others!

Here are my 6 from their simple paper covered canvas beginnings ...

transforming, layer ...

by layer ...

by layer ...

by layer ...

by layer ... to these finished beauties.

How fun it's been creating these!! Each girl is a little piece of me and touches me in different ways as she "becomes" art. It is sort of bittersweet to send them off to the auction but I'm hoping they will each find the girl who fits them perfectly.

So ... lazy summer days?

Maybe not as many as I'd like yet.

But, here's to summer art days at least - tucked in wherever I find a place for them.

Thanks for looking.

Hoping you get to enjoy a few lazy days of summer yourself,

Jill



Art on Hand

I was feeling quite pleased with myself awhile back when I had the idea to

make up the foundation of a few of these exploding photo albums to keep on hand for last-minute gifts.

All I'd need to do is decorate the covers to personal the gift and I'd have a handmade gift on short notice.

I made 8 of these to "keep on hand" and within a couple of weeks

promptly used each and every one of them.

So much for keeping stock on hand ...

Thanks for looking.

Jill

End of another school year - Teacher Gifts

OK - a little chilling away from Blogger and the computer, and, what do you know, photos magically upload like a dream!!

So here is the entry I'd planned for this morning but aborted:

Why, oh why, do I stress myself out making special teacher gifts at the end of the year?

 I always tell myself in March to get a jump on them but I never seem to decide what to do until May and then I'm scrambling. When my girls see how cute the first one is they suddenly decide they simply MUST gift all their teachers, not just the main. I'm such a sucker for this. So, here are the 3 designs of this little correspondence portfolio. I made 2 of each design for the SIX gifts the girls decided to give.

Inside, each held 4 handmade notecards w/ envelopes, 6 sheets of stationary, and postage stamps.

Inspiration for these came from an online class (Mouse, Paper, Scissors Mom) I took from Heidi Swapp and Jessica Sprague. Thanks, ladies, for taking me through the first one. Now I'm hooked.

Thanks for looking.

Jill

Giving up for awhile!!!! UGH!

I've spent the past hour trying to upload photos to the blog as an update on the art that's been happening around here. It's been fun, I assure you (the art, NOT the past hour!), but there will be no photographic evidence displayed here until my temper cools and my photos are able to load.

The problem??? Likely, many.

1. I am a technological pre-schooler (OK, probably even that is tooting my own horn since there are plenty of pre-schoolers less intimidated than I on the computer) so if systems change on me unexpectedly I am paralyzed. I can be heard more than once a week declaring how much I detest computers and my lack of skill.

2. I am not a photographer. I do not own or know how to use photoshop and have BARE minimum photo editing skills (i.e. I can crop and do red-eye redux and change pics to black/white but I don't know how to resize my photos to download - which is probably pretty important here, I know).

3. I do not have unlimited hours to spend in front of the computer "training" myself in all these necessary modern skills to make my blog easier to maintain let alone the upgrades I've dreamed of having on it.

4. I am convinced our computer is extremely tempermental. It has a mind of its own - works when it wants to, or not, at whatever speed it feels is appropriate, even though we supposedly have the highest available.

So ... for now ... I'm calling it quits with the blog and admitting defeat. I've wasted enough of my precious little creative time on it. If you'd like to get in touch with me to find out what I've been up to, please feel free to email me at gajgreen@aol.com.

I'll be in my studio now trying to do a little creative/anger management therapy.

Jill

Working on Wonderful

"I don't want to make money. I just want to be wonderful." -- Marilyn Monroe


I read this quote yesterday and it hit home.

For the last several months I've watched fellow Brave Girls blossom into the most incredible entrepreneurs and artists while I'm still trying for formulate the vision for my own future. At times I put way too much pressure on myself to come up with something that will be successful. I'm not much closer to capturing the vision yet but I've been dabbling in many artsy things and having fun with it.

This quote hit home because, no matter what, I just want to be so stinking proud of what I do in all aspects of my life that I feel wonderful about who I am. Money wouldn't hurt, but this ... this would be the ultimate.

I think there was more to Ms. Monroe than met the eye.

"She Art" mixed-media love

I'm in the middle of this wonderful online art course called The She Art Workshop. It's taught by the uber-talented Christy Thomlinson and is SO MUCH FUN! This was my first project.

I made it for my daughter Mackenzie who is always drawing mermaids and who touches everyone around her with her magical smiles. I LOVE this process of creating art layer by layer. Christy, you may have created a mixed-media monster!

Isn't she just the cutest mermaid you've ever seen?

Thanks for peeking.
Jill

Dabbling ...

I have unofficially declared 2011 my year to dabble in new art techniques and just have fun learning and playing.

So ... a little show and tell of what I've done so far.

Graphite on paper.

Watercolor on paper.

Watercolor Pencil on Bristol board.

Color Pencil on Bristol board.















And in case you're thinking I'm going all high brow, here is a paper crafty piece of pure FUN I did in a Paperbella e-course by Teresa McFayden last month.

Paper Lady's Slipper

More things yet to come.

Thanks for stopping by.

Jill

Sharing a little LOVE ...

I finally got off my butt and created AND COMPLETED a project again. Been in a rut lately. Also still been in copy mode. This was a book design I saw on Heidi Swapp's webshow last year before Valentine's Day. I've wanted to make it ever since and decided not to allow another Valentine's Day to go by without doing it. So a month ago, I glimmer misted all the pages. I've been taking the photos since December and sort of putting the book together in my head. Now, here it is.

Thanks for looking.

PS - I'm really not a pink person so this was a step out of my usual color box. I like it though.

Jill