Elves Among Us

...and I've got one living right here in my house!! These were a few pictures from our photo session at home, trying to get some cute shots for our family Christmas card. Today was the last day of work until after the holidays...lots of Christmas preparations to still get done. I'm just so happy we'll be home for the next two weeks with our little boy! What fun this holiday will be! Holly jolly fun!!

Unlock Your Story

Being a new mom with little to no time, the online class thing is THE way to go these days!! I am so happy for the internet and the worldwide community of creative people out there...you're never alone!! I'm participating in a class offered by Elizabeth Kartchner (aka Dear Lizzy) entitled "Unlock Your Story". Just love her blog...always a great pocket of color and sunshine! It's really important to me to get all of those little, yet important, moments down on paper as Liam grows because I hear from lots of moms that the images you think will always be seared in your head slowly fade. Hence, my signing up for this class! They are lesson 7 right now, and I'm only on the cover but I will catch up sooner or later! I did not purchase the class kit since it utilized colors that were more inclined towards the girly side, so I used papers from the My Mind's Eye collection called "Lost and Found". Here is my cover...

My husband said there was a little too much glitter on the cover for a boy but I said: (1) the glitter was already on the paper so it was out of my control...always good to blame things on someone else...hee hee and (2) too much glitter??!!! Could there ever be TOO much glitter?!! Seriously....where has he been all this time!!!!!

Liam the Lion

Hear me ROAR!! Well..not exactly...this is a gentle lion that giggles alot!!

On another note...I finally finished up my next mini album of Liam spanning months 4 and 5. I always get these great mini books from Eve Johnson at Evalicious...she puts together the cutest stuff! I also got a new baby one from her this past spring which I used to document our first month with Liam. She puts together albums using eclectic little pages of this and that...then all you need to do is add the pictures, embellishments, and your journaling..super easy for a new mom with very little time! Here is the cover:

Daddy reading a book to Liam...

Liam's first football game of the season! Eating chicken wings and rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles...
(Sorry these pictures are not the best...I have limited time for photo ops and even less time to write a post!)

I hope everyone in southern California is finally enjoying the cool crisp fall weather!!! Loved the extra hour today!! Have a great week ahead!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Hope you are having a wickedly fun Halloween!!! Liam turned six months old this week...can't believe how big he's getting!! He has his first two teeth now and is almost sitting up on his own! We dressed him up as a lion, but he pooped out before the first trick or treaters even showed up at the door! After I dress him in it again tomorrow for some pictures, I will post them later in the week...if I remember!!! LOL!! Have a wonderful first week of November!!!

Peace, Love, and Happiness

Sorry that I have not been a great blogger these last few weeks. I finally returned to work on Monday and had to leave my little baby behind. However, dad's been holding down the fort and keeping little Liam all smiles! Thought I'd share a couple pictures of him now that he's five and a half months old. Finally sleeping through the night consistently..YEAH! Sleep never felt so good!! Learning to eat some new foods like avocado and sweet potatoes. Most of all, just a ball of happiness and smiles! How very lucky we are!!

Just broke out the jog stroller this week now that Liam's old enough and big enough for it. Step aside everyone...momma's rollin' by! He just LOVES this now that he can face forward and see the world from a whole new perspective....

Happy weekend to all!!!

{be} Inspired

I am so excited to announce that I will be teaching a class at Paper Tales!! This has been a hope of mine for a while now, and I am so thankful that they will have me! :-)

The class is scheduled for Sunday, October 3rd, from 12:30-2:30. My goal for the class is for people to be inspired, have fun, and enjoy a creative afternoon surrounded by all the inspiration that Paper Tales has to offer! This art block is a medley of color with quotes on each side and some vintage spools on the top. It is a low stress class, and you'll be sure to have a finished product by the time you leave! I hope to see you there!!!

Rainbow of Color

You know how you buy something with this wonderful vision of what will be done with the item only to have the potential project sit on your desk or in a closet for the next 6 months? Well...that's pretty much how this project went down! However, I am happy to report that last night, in the single hour I had to myself before bedtime, I was able to whip this together and voila! here it is.....

This is actually contained within a white wooden shadowbox that I picked up at Aaron Brothers. It has a nice linen backing to it which made it ready to fill with colorful goodness. I bought this lot of pretty pastel vintage spools from an etsy seller called ArtfulVintage. I had ordered a group of these spools earlier in the summer for an upcoming class I'll be teaching, but I was lucky enough to snag another group of them that she had for sale..but for myself this time! The fabric swatches are from the Heather Bailey line and it's the same fabric that I used to cover a canvas that hangs above the dresser in my bedroom. Since this shadowbox is going on top of that dresser, I thought it would be good to tie in the two pieces with the same fabric.

A few old buttons strategically scattered near the bottom of the box for some finishing touches. I just love the rainbow of colors...don't you? They make me so happy! :-)

Getting Out to Look Within

"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown for going out, I found, was really going in." -John Muir

Hope everyone enjoyed their three day weekend! We got out on Monday for a little family picnic at the Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas...one of my favorite places for peace and nature's inspiration. I also like to experiment with my photography skills which need serious improvement most times!! If you've never visited these gardens, it really is a breathtaking place to see. They have over 35 acres filled with every type of vegetation imaginable from every biome across the world...Australia, Hawaii, etc. They have a really cool bamboo garden that's like going through a maze of sticks!

Of course, hydrangeas are one of my all-time favorites...I imagine having great horticultural skills in another lifetime and my house being surrounded by grande and fragrant hydrangea bushes, just like in Martha's Vineyard!

They had a statue of a woman made purely out of various types of succulents...now there's a plant species that I've had success with...they thrive on little to no water!! LOL!! I thought the cameo was the greatest detail here!



Liam doesn't look quite as thrilled in this picture but he really did enjoy looking up at the trees overhead and all the amazing patterns when the light filtered through the leaves. What better source of beauty for inspiration than Mother Nature?!

His Story

I've been trying my best to document Liam's first months with us. I've found that the mini album is a new mom's best friend, allowing you to document those first memories with a minimal amount of time, effort, and supplies. Back in July, I saw this cute album posted by Ali Edwards and decided I had to make my own! After gathering up the supplies she listed, here is my own version....

The cover is a great canvas album from Pink Paislee with a Jenni Bowlin rub-on.

Ali had some digital files of these little word cards on her website, but I decided to just make my own using shipping tags with the top cut off.
I little bit of Maya Road paint mist and some Japanese tape...two of my new favorite art supplies...not to mention my brand new Fuji Instax Mini camera which hubby bought me for our anniversary...LOVE these little pictures!! So sweet!


Hope everyone is having a wonderful Labor Day weekend!! Wishing you lots of sunshine in your little corner of the world!!

Where does your inspiration come from?

This was the last piece of work I did before having my baby. I wanted to make sure I had something during all those early weeks (when there was no time to create) to remind me of what inspires me. It was sitting on my studio work table when I returned from the hospital. All I had left to do was to place the letters on it. It now sits next to my work table...a beautiful collage of hot pinks and turquoise!

I have a huge binder filled with images I have cut out of magazines throughout the years. I page through the binder whenever I'm in a creative rut, but I thought it might be great to showcase some of the pictures where I could always see them. I cut out all of my very favorite ones to use in this piece. After gluing them all down on a piece of flat plywood, I added fabric swatches and some other little bits of this and that which I've been saving for just that "perfect" piece. No time like the present!

"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web." -Picasso

What inspires you? What colors are you always drawn to? What makes your heart go pitter- patter? What will put a smile on your face this week? What will be the catalyst for your next creative masterpiece? Go forth and create.....

Little Angel

Back in June, I took a Whimsical Collage class at Paper Tales (THE best scrapbook store in San Diego!) taught by the talented and sweet Lilia Meredith. I just love her style, especially with all her layers of paint and sanding and stenciling and oil pastels....it always forces me out of my "neat" zone to get a little messy with my art! The task of the class was to bring a blown up photo of a family member and incorporate it into a large collage. Of course, I had to use Liam as the subject and here's how it turned out...

I hung it in his room...my sweet little angel! Too cute!!

Playin' With Paint

I've really been into the spray mists and ink splatters lately!! I'm taking a one week online class hosted by the amazing Debee Campos. I just love all her work and her blog is always full of really bright cheery pictures. Have I mentioned that it is my new favorite blog this summer?!

Anyway, she is teaching us her paint splatter technique which she incorporates into all of her work, and I have just been dying to find out how artists get such great splatters...kinda Jackson Pollick-y. So here is my first attempt. There are more elements that are to be added to this cover but in between cleaning up the house which seems a 5 times daily occurence and doing laundry and nursing, this is all I had time for!

Here is a quick journal page I snuck in last night at 9:30 when I was supposed to be getting ready for bed!! It's just a short little journal book filled with pictures I've cut out of magazines of things that inspire me. I loved this vignette in last month's Real Simple issue.
And lastly...but certainly NOT least....an updated pic of baby Liam at 13 weeks!! He only makes me smile about half a million times a day!!!

Color My World...

...in bright hues and sunny smiles! We actually made it out of the house this week for a day trip down to the South Park area of San Diego. I had read about it in Sunset magazine so we finally checked it out. I could have spent much more time in this little store called The Grove which was a bookstore, fiber arts/sewing store, and also full of other eclectic artsy finds. Liam was nice enough to sleep for a little while so I could pick up a few things. Here are some fun Amy Butler fabrics I bought along with a pattern for a turtle pin cushion from Heather Bailey. I also picked up these cute playing cards with peace signs on them which I plan to use in projects or for gift tags.

I've also been renovating this little corner of my studio and freshening it up a bit with some bright colors. I recently bought a bunch of silk peonies and this enamel green vase. I set up this vignette with the art piece I did a few months back and a poster I bought off of etsy.
Here is a closer look at the poster on the right. It's from a seller called the wheatfield. She has lots of great graphic designs using bright "sunshiny" colors. I purchased another poster from her that is a honeycomb pattern using pinks and polka dotted yellows.
And lastly, what could brighten my world more than a smile from this little guy?! He's finally holding his head up for longer periods of time and actually rolled over twice this week!! Yeah!
Hope you find some sunshine in your corner of the world this weekend!! I'm off to the Long Beach Flea Market tomorrow. Hopefully I'll return with some fun finds!

Jumpstarting Creativity

After the birth of your first child, you suddenly realize how all of the things you filled your days with are no longer the things that you fill your days with! Then, when you get 15 minutes of uninterrupted time to yourself (on a good day), you also realize how difficult it is to make creativity happen in the blink of an eye! So these last few weeks, I've been trying to revamp my studio a little in an attempt to jumpstart my creative "mojo". These are some of the things I've been into lately:

Anything asian inspired....love this little corner of my studio now!

Anything that reminds me to be thankful and mindful and grateful for the changes in my life, even if things can be frustrating and crazy at times...(especially on little sleep)....
Anything that documents my little Liam's first days with us....and helps me to remember his story. He is almost 10 weeks old and already I can see him changing!!
Anything of natural beauty to brighten my home... Just got this vase last weekend at a flea market and hubby said, "That's a nice piece of milk glass." Wow...a man after my own heart...he actually DOES listen to me babble about all my flea market finds!!!
And most importantly, this little guy...inspiring me all of the time to be the very best I can be...even if I feel on some days that I don't have a clue as to what I'm doing!! Here he is, happy as can be with his little friend Mr. Sock Monkey....Ahhhh.....life is good!

Baby Love

Sorry I've been missing in action for the last month or so but I've been a little busy with my new bundle of joy...and hunger, and crying, and cooing, and dirty diapers! Now that summer is approaching and my husband will be off from work, I hope to be able to get at least one post in a week! I have been working on a cute little album to highlight our first month with baby Liam which I will share in my next post! Right now one 4 by 6 inch page a day during my half hour of free time a night is about all I can accomplish...but, hey, it's better than nothing!!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend...can't believe that summer is officially around the corner already!!

Just Be...

Just be...creative*original*sincere*. I purchased this wooden block at Aaron Brothers a few weeks back for about $2 and challenged myself to do something creative and inspiring with a plain wooden block. This is what I came up with:

A few old spools added to the top to make it visually interesting....

My favorite side!! I used the Danita Art stamps that you can buy on the new Crescendoh site and some of the new Dear Lizzy product line...so cute!!
Right now it's sitting on my desk in my studio...reminding me to "just be"...I cannot be all things to all people at all times....all I can do is be me... be present...be mindful...be thankful.

Have a great weekend!!!!