Easter travels

have a Blessed Easter Day!!!!

We are happily traveling from Princeton to NYC today

with kiddo #1 and Kim.

Can't wait to share this amazing adventure with you soon.

wish I could travel by this scooter...

well maybe not with all 4 of us!

(original photo from Anthropologie

with a little help from picnik)

doodles

Nick loves to draw...

anytime...

anywhere...

this one is a polar bear drawn 

in the sand...

 and this little ninja was the inspiration...

for this composition just completed 

for his art class.

btw he graduates in June with a BA in psychology,

which I think he should use for art therapy,

 don't you agree?

going around in circles...

going around in circles can be quite fun...

start in the center and...

add your favorite colors...

and work towards the outside
adding magazine and construction paper cut outs...

and blobs of paint,

and pen doodles,

and stamps of more paint

and then...

cut your beloved painting into 1/4s... 

and pass one piece of yours to the person on the left 

and so on and so on until....

you have a gorgeous new piece of art

with a touch of your creation

and 3/4s of your friends.

note: we then doodled with permanent marker

on used laminate and attached brads to adhere this 

to the top of our art

for a wonderful multi-layered look.

then we moved on to the another piece...

full of happy spring-time colors in the background...

and construction paper flowers...

jumping off the pages...

ready to enjoy springtime

(if it would ever arrive - first time ever we have not hit 60 degrees in April

and tonight the low will be 34 - a new record,

but who's counting?)

not these guys...
aren't they adorable?

a Sunday blessing

or Happy Fern Sunday...

remember this from last year?

just had to repost because it really was too funny.

if I am honest with you,

I have to tell you I had a no good rotten bad week 

and thankfully it was our spring break,

so I laid low 

and cried a lot

and missed my mom

and cleaned 

and cried a lot.

grief really is a roller coaster of emotions...

I feel better today and ready to face the world again.

xo

the spring tree socks of Sammamish bloom

 the Sammamish trees got clothed in their new spring socks...

 gone are the winter ones...

 even tho it did snow two nights ago...

we are hoping for spring and sunshine

(even tho I hardly recognize that yellow thing in the sky

 trying to make an appearance right now)...

 the trees are hoping to sway in the breeze in their 

Easter attire.

now all we need is some bunny rabbits and easter eggs

 to complete the scene...

 the barrista at the Starbucks next to the installation 

said we should tell the world this is what we do in the northwest 

to all our trees to keep them cozy in the winter...

hee hee, wouldn't that be fun?

simple pleasure

Limitations live only in our minds.  

But if we use our imaginations, 

our possibilities become limitless.

Jamie Paolinetti

(the photo is one of my favorite collections...

the quote is from Carla Sonheim's wonderful book 

Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists)

What limitless possibilities

are you imagining today?

spring bloom has bloomed

finally finished...

but let me tell you -

this painting was torture

and if the art process was always like this...

well I would quit painting...

 it started like this -

an innocent beginning...

 but soon advanced to getting every art supply out of every drawer

to try and steer it in the right direction.

I blogged about the plan for the painting here -

innocent enough I thought...

 but soon it was clear to see that my plan for stamping was too busy,

and the composition didn't work 

(no photos - too painful)

so I covered all the stamping with paper flowers,

but I had too many 

so I scraped some of them away...

 and added and subtracted

and finally got to something I liked...

 that made me happy...

and ready to bloom.

This painting will be for sale at 

The Up Front Art Gallery In Issaquah

during their 150 Feet of Art fundraiser in May.