Happy Friday

A very happy Friday indeed. This little girl of ours is once again surrendering to the nap. Thank goodness! She also visited Mama's studio today and had a blast painting with big girl paints and very big paper. Mama got some work finished. AND, one of my pendants made the Etsy home page!!! Woo hoo!


My Etsy Maine Team mate, Jen, from Whimsidoodle (http://www.whimsidoodle.etsy.com/) selected my long, simple 3 button pendant as part of her treasury (unsure what this treasury thing is? Go to http://www.etsy.com/ and click treasury). In an email correspondence, she mentioned this, I checked it out, did a happy dance in the kitchen, and emailed everyone. BUT, it gets better...I logged in later in the day, and there's my pendant...home page of Etsy!!!!! No one has bought the pendant (grr), but it was viewed 299 times. Very exciting stuff !

My darling daughter, as I mentioned above, worked with me in my studio today. She was so well behaved and focused on her painting. I love kids' art. I taught k-5 art in Maine and was a teacher's assistant in college for youth art. I'm all for celebrating youth art. Below are some of our girl's drawings and paintings. These frames are from a large chain that begins with "W". I'm not proud that I shop there occasionally, but these frames are only $4.00!!! Deal.

Here's the pendant, fixed and finished. I found a vintage shell button that had off-center holes...perfect for this piece! I omitted the gold rivets as the sterling rivets worked with the brown button. I'm happy with the necklace. I'm listing this tonight on Etsy.

To end my happy day, my husband did the grocery shopping and I had a nice crisp walk with my sister. Happy Friday, everyone!

24 hour vacation

Providence is lovely, especially in the fall. Ornamental grasses with their full furry flowers, leaves scattered on the sidewalks, brilliantly painted Greek Revival homes (much like my friend's where we stayed) adorned with pumpkins, mums, and kale. Ahhh...

24 hours later, I'm back home. Refreshed? No, as the trip is 4 hours, one way. Refueled? Yes. Old friends, good conversation, and great food (I had ALL my favorites...starting THE diet today). However, the highlight of my 24 hour vacation? A phone call home. My 2 yo daughter told me with bubbling enthusiasm about her day with Daddy. I caught all the important words in her babbling run-on sentence: apples, wagon, horsies, neigh-neigh, yee-haa! Piecing them together, I concluded that they went apple picking at an orchard and got a horse drawn wagon ride to boot! To finish our conversation, she told me that she missed me and, in her adorable pronunciation, wuv you, mama. ~sigh~

Before I left for my mini vacation, I introduced my girl to watercolors. She loved the process of wetting her brush and swirling in the paint, wetting the brush again, swirling in the paint again, wetting her brush...you get the idea. Even though very little painting was done, she was still mastering a skill, a tool, that will aid her in the painting to come. She delighted to discover the water changed colors as she swirled and wetted her brush. Of course, I changed the water several times in order to avoid that unavoidable murky gray concoction.

When I sit down at my bench today, rather than cranking out finished pieces one after another, I will choose a technique and work to master and explore that technique. Today will be less about production and more about discovery. What will you discover today?