What A Week

Luke has had two birthday parties, one Halloween party, my parents have been in town, we bought a house and got another one ready to sell and listed it for sale by owner and I managed to get to art class finally.

Let me just say, I LOVE OIL PAINT. Love it! Here is my first oil painting. It will probably be my last until after Christmas (oils will be on my wish list) and after the move - but I'm looking forward to making many many more.



Here is Luke in his green Power Ranger costume at his school party:

More Pictures of the TreeHouse

More pictures are available here.

What I Will Miss

Of course I'm thinking about this a lot as I work my butt off trying to make my current home sparkle so it can go on the market... what will I miss the most? Obviously the amazing ever-changing view of the Cascades and the Valley. But most of all, I think I'm going to miss my huge double person jetted bathtub and my "his and her" sinks and the double shower. And the awesome heated slate floor. And those wonderful mosaic tiles that add just a sparkle of lavender to the green and white. (I do love my bathroom!) The new deck will be missed too... and all the new hardwood floors. I really worked hard on this house to make it "just right"... and now that it's done... we are moving. Funny how life works out, hu?

Anyway, some people have been asking what our house looks like - so here are a few pictures I've dug up - just of the view. There will be more soon of course. You may have seen some of these already. And there are also the halloween ones from about a week ago.

Amazing News

We got the house!!!! I never even said where it was, did I? It's in Edmonds. It's right next door to an elementary school, it's a 5 min ride to downtown Edmonds. I think there are two parks in easy walking distance from the house. And the house itself has almost half an acre of yard! With a 30 ft tall holly tree and a ton of fruit trees and a big stretch of grass. I promised Luke I'd build him a tree house - he requested a ramp so his dogs can go in it with him. We are just so excited - it's going to be great! Here are more photos... happy happy!

I did it.

I submitted the offer all by myself. And by that I mean pretty much all by myself... with just a tiny bit of help from my agent who is on vacation and not much input at all from my husband who won't be home until Friday night late. I am so exhausted, from the stress and the worry and the wonder and fighting off the fear and deciding just step into it and go for what I want even though I really don't know how in the world it's all going to come about - mortgage-wise and selling this house and timing, and if my husband is even going to like the house... and all that STUFF... and then the fax machine that kept jamming... but I feel really good about it - I really do. I really feel like they are going to accept our offer. And I told Luke I'd build him a tree house when we move there. Thanks to all of you who sent out the good vibes. I should know soon.

As a reward for all the work and stress I bought myself a beautiful book today - I only stumbled on it by chance in the "self help" section where my mother was looking for a Louise Hays book - Sabrina Ward Harrison's Brave on the Rocks. (Which is kind of how I'm feeling.) It's an art journal - why in the world is it in the self-help section??? Anyway, it's got all my favorite images from her site and the few pages I've read are just wonderful too. So, highly recommend :)

Here is a shot of the back of the house and maybe the area where Luke's new tree house is going to go:

Found My House

I found our new house. I love it. It's beautiful. It's fantastic. It's almost everything I want. And guess what? Frank is in India and my real estate agent is in Arizona on vacation. So I'm flying solo on this - my agent is going to help me submit the offer myself and then there is going to be a bidding war. Please send good vibes - I could really use them! Oh, and here are some photos.

Pumpkin Kind of Day

Had thought to be spending the day with a friend who is in town, but that didn't work out, so decided to get those Halloween decoration plans going instead. Here's what Luke and I did:





The bat's eyes light up and the whole thing shakes when you make a loud noise or clap your hands. Luke loves it.

Can't Commit

Some of my ideas for this painting, none seems to be good enough or interesting enough. This may have to sit for awhile.



oh wait - I think maybe I just found my trees - only they aren't trees - they are alluvial channels etched into the mudflats of the Colorado River Delta by the receding tide. Just other-worldly enough for this painting.



and here is a picture of Tyger, just because he's so cute. I'd really like to go curl up and take a nap with him.

Beginnings of My Starry Night Painting

Here is the beginnings of my new painting that I've been working on (mostly in my head) for the past week since I found those photos on flickr. Next I'm planning a Klimt-inspired tree of life.

Gouache

Painting class was fun - I spent 2.5 hours working on one painting and for all the effort, I don't have anything to show. I don't think gouache is the paint for me at ALL. But it was great to try it out - reminds me of Luke's poster paints actually - looks good wet, dries boring.

Starry Night

I've been fascinated with these amazing night photos over at flickr.com and so I started a Wearable Art Friday at Wet Canvas with them... and then I made this:



I'm also painting a picture inspired by them... but it's going slow.

Puppy Fix

Of course now this is all Luke wants for his birthday. I hope he won't be TOO disappointed, because he's NOT getting one. Though if I didn't already have 2 dogs, I'd be tempted. Ten wonderful puppies just crawling all over you and wagging their tails and smiling at you is a bit hard to resist. Aren't they adorable? The one with the purple ribbon around his neck is going to go live with my neighbor when he's a little older.

Aquarium

We went to the aquarium again - it was fun because they are doing construction and we had to walk through it "backwards" and it was great to have all our fresh energy on the finishing end for a change.

Ending Things

I don't think anyone will be crushed if I end this aaad a week early. It's not that I'm done creating, just done trying to hold myself to a standard worthy of showing the world *something* every day. In fact, I plan on creating *something* every day for the rest of my life... but I doubt anyone cares to see all those hundreds (or, let's hope, thousands) of creations. Today, for example, I drew an angel, but she's not ready to see daylight, it's not worth it just to keep up the aaad. If and when she is, I'll be sure to post her.

I also dropped my children's book illustration class. I'd been stewing it over all week - it wasn't enjoyable last week, the teacher gave me bad vibes, it wasn't what I was hoping for... and I was dreading the next class... so I called today and found out I could drop it and take a credit good toward another class in the next year. And that is what I'll do - once I finish my painting survey class, I'll pick a medium and take a class in it. I have a feeling it will be acrylics, but only time will tell. I'm very happy with myself for dropping it - sometimes I think breaking a commitment is just what is needed - especially if it's not making your heart sing.