A visit to PA

Joel and I recently took a trip to visit my sister and her husband in Pennsylvania. We had a great time hanging out with them despite the fact that they had just been robbed!

Cristi and Ben after the police recovered their stolen car and they got new keys!

I'm glad we were able to be there and help them out as they had to deal with this invasion of their privacy. I'm very proud of my sister who is a "military wife" and has had to adjust to constant change, sacrifice and unexpected goodbyes. Now add to that list, having her house dusted for fingerprints, a field trip to the city impound, and going to a job interview with no make-up or personal ID!

The morning we left, right outside their house.

Ben and Cristi inspire me. Cristi was always the romantic dreamer, running around in dress-up clothes looking for her "kindred spirit" and Ben likes to wield swords, wear capes and be the hero. I hope they never lose these qualities, the world needs more lovers, dreamers and heroes.

Something old, something new

On occasion, my darling husband rescues something headed for the garbage and brings it home. He's a wonderfully simple man who can find use in things that are "perfectly good" even if they are out of date and old. I am a simple girl who refuses to spend money on new-fangled stuff but loves to reuse old things, thereby making them new, cheap and exactly what I want!

The newest project (it's sometimes these kinds of projects that distract me from sitting down and working on real art!) turned out quite nicely, I think. Joel brought home two ottomans, I hated the cloth and the color clashed with the living room, but they were still very squishy and in good shape. Here's what they looked like:

I went off to a wonderful cloth store nearby and for $6.06 plus the cost of staples made two new ottomans that are so pretty in the living room! I'm very happy about this as I spent probably a half hour in the cloth store deliberating over which cloth I should get. I think they turned out well. Sometimes one man's trash really is another man's treasure!

Starting off!

Woohoo! I'm blogging! We'll see if I can keep this online web log going longer than I did my childhood journals. I wrote wholeheartedly, just sporadically!

For the past few months I've really been looking into children's room art. I love the idea of helping people decorate their child's room or the nursery for their new baby with beautiful, peaceful, fun artwork. I started painting some cute little jungle animals. It seems to be a popular theme among my friends who are having babies. This is the second time I've painted these little guys. This set I did with acrylic paint on an 11x14" canvas. Then gave them to my friends Sam and Beth at their baby shower. I was working so hard on them for a few weeks, I was almost sad to let them go!

Let me know what you think!