[i] LoveLife

Bonus day.

Dan says that... Hug it out. It makes me laugh. It's also morphed into all kinds of baby-sized things like, Burp it out and Poop it out. All funny, but Hug it out is still the best and it still makes me laugh.

February 29. That's a bonus day. I once met an eighty year old man that said when he woke every morning he looked at the clock and said, "Yesssssss. Another bonus day," because as far as he was concerned - he had lived more than his fair share of good life. I like that. And I like bonus days.

Today: I'm heading out into the sunshine for a walk on the river and then the afternoon is wide open. I'm still not feeling that hot but the warm cup of coffee in my hand is clearing my head and making some space for potential goodness. There's a package waiting for me at the post office. Sweet. Short post today, but it's a bonus day and I gotta get out there and take advantage of it...

I think this calls for some hot chocolate in the middle of the afternoon. With marshmallows. GO.

From here to there.

Yesterday was a day when we let the wind blow us... and that was cool. I got a couple of new Tiny Art pieces complete. I was trying some new things and testing out some new papers. That's the WHOLE IDEA behind Tiny Art - play and make. The piece above is Tiny Art 28. I stapled together a bunch of the coffee holders to create a slightly bigger canvas to work from. I had a lot of fun. I'm also visiting and revisiting this whole coffee phenomenon... what is it about? I've been keeping a little bit of a log/journal and I think I'm getting closer. OK. It's partially the coffee, partially the warm fuzzy and mostly just the simple idea that the first sip of that latte is just for me. The smell. The warmth. It's not a rushed shower or lunch with one hand... it's just for me. It's pretty much the only thing out of my whole day that I do just for me - for guilty pleasure...

I tried a few new things with this piece... I started the way I always do. Ink straight onto paper - no plan. BUT, this piece is made on Botanical PaperWorks plantable paper made from recyclable office papers. It's cool. I inked it and then I dunked my brush right into my coffee and used the coffee like I would watercolours... then I inked again. Tiny Art 24. I tried some other substrates with my coffee in Tiny Art 25 and my thoughts about my Saturday mornings with Dan.

It's not that I'm obsessed with coffee... a like a nice latte and I like a good reason to get out of the house - or a friendly detour on a busy errands day. I like it. I'm also really, really feeling guilty about the number of DISPOSABLE CUPS I come home with. Shame on me. So, I'm working on recycling... with Tiny Art 23. It's painted on a cup that I took apart. It worked PERFECTLY. I was worried that it wouldn't flatten - but, it did. I was also worried that that cup would be to waxy - which it is not. PERFECT.

I was also inspired by the romantic notion of three beautiful things: 1. The Valentine's Day shoot from Maile at Relish Photography. I loved the one with the rose petals in the air. 2. This book that Martini Momma Kathryn Gompf wrote about in this post. And 3. This vacation photo. OKAY and 4. The Botanical PaperWorks flower petal paper... to make Tiny Art 27. It's got kind of a romantic beach getaway feel. The flower petals are real. I used acrylic paints watered down and applied like watercolours.

I also finished Tiny Art 22. And Tiny Art 26 for the bucket lovers. Go ahead and check them all out - Tiny Art is available as an original for $100 and a laser reproduction print for $30. First come. First served. I don't have as much time to paint large pieces now that Pilot is around... but, I still have lots and lots of painting inside me. These are quick and they are done WHENEVER I can snag a minute. If you're interested in a piece - send me an email.

Today: I'm off to Starbucks to meet Heidi and Sophie. I'm hoping to get out on the river ice with Pilot and Crash again this afternoon. Girls Night tonight and we're having a little Caribbean feast... ooooh, la la - that's heaven! Throw in some Tiny Art and I'd call this a nearly perfect day. Sweet.

GO!

And I'll call Rusty.

Let this image sink in a little. I'll explain later.

I did not take this picture. It's a stock shot (of which I try to avoid like the plaque) BUT there's a giraffe theme following me around lately. I have a soft spot for giraffes. Absolutely NOT a decorate-your-nursery-with-the-critters kind of soft spot. NO. But, a soft spot nonetheless. I'm 100% ANTI-animal print... I just hate it (sorry Mom). BUT, seeing the giraffe get it's 15 minutes of fame around the fashion circuits makes me smile...

This adorable hat came in the mail yesterday. I ordered it on Etsy. From Baby Rocks Mohawks. It's handmade and wonderful. Adorable.

Today: We're letting the wind blow us... that's it. Maybe some Tiny Art. Maybe not. We're running a no-pressure kinda household today.

That top shot: is what I have been working on lately... you thought I had a coffee theme going on before? I just finished a few paintings done with coffee and ink. Yes, that's what I said. A little pen action and a little java-as-paint. I will post them soon.

In reference to the post title... Look way up - and I'll call Rusty. If you grew up Canadian, you know that that line. Show me some love.

Rock and roll. GO.

Paint away...

Five different people yesterday wrote in with different questions about the brands of supplies I use (one of them was the very, very talented Claudine Hellmuth getting some details for her upcoming book!). I think it's really cool when things line up like that so I wanted to address it. Nicole had an excellent question... she asked if cheap paint from dollar-rama would be good enough for her to play around with and I CANNOT SAY THIS ENOUGH (this is my own personal opinion so don't send me paint hate mail):

USE ANYTHING. USE EVERYTHING. JUST. MAKE. SOMETHING. Go on. Go ahead. Really. Use whatever it is that makes you comfortable enough to crack it open, get messy, and get making things. If you have expensive paints, but you're afraid to use them - then they have NO value... but, if you have cheap paints that make you feel loose and free enough to whip them out and use them up - THEN THEY ARE OF GREAT VALUE TO THIS WORLD.

To me, art is about the moment we are in. It's about using what's handy and using the energy that moves you before it's gone. I have many, many different brands of paints and brushes. But, the ones I prefer are the ones I know I can use up and not feel like I didn't USE THEM UP GOOD ENOUGH (which is not proper English, but I don't know how else to say it). If I have RELEARNED anything with Tiny Art - it is that CREATING SOMETHING - is much more fun than NOT CREATING AT ALL.

So do what works. Try all kinds of paints and see what you're comfortable with. Try different brushes and supplies and find a balance between what you can afford and what AFFORDS YOU the opportunity to dig in and spend time with your inner artist.

I am not afraid to admit that I:

• use student grade acrylic and a variety of types and brands
• use the same kind of paint brushes I used in kindergarten
• use the yellow HB pencils
• use a black rollerball ink pen that Dan brings home from the office and leaves around the house
• don't give a rip about acid-free archival crap.
• wipe my brushes on my pants and my fingers on the back of my painting shirt
• use margarine lids as palettes
• only buy and use BLACK, WHITE, YELLOW, BLUE, and MAGENTA and mix every colour I need from those primaries
• will not hesitate to paint on cardboard, garbage, coffee cups, boxes, etc, etc.
• DO NOT CARE if people think this is HACK. Get over it.

And this is why I will never be given a contract with a paint company. GO.

Aloha Monday.

HA. I just know this funny face must have been sent for me specifically because I love a good stick-your-tongue-out photo. Big thank you to Dan for grabbing the camera yesterday (without prompting) to capture a few shots of Pilot and I goofing around.

SIGH. It's amazing outside right now. The sun is rising over the rooftops in a larger-than-life kinda way... the birds are loving these new warmer rays. I'm not getting ahead of myself - there's still plenty of time left before a spring thaw - but, you can actually hear that the bird-chirping has changed from HOLY CRAP IT'S COLD into something more like GOOD MORNING!! GOOD MORNING!! I love a morning like this...

AND - I am really loving blurry photos lately... I love that they whisper of movement and this is beautiful to me because - life moves...

Today: I'm fighting a cold. Achooo. I'm off to do errands this morning and to pop in for a few visits. Then - I want to settle in to some GETTING-CAUGHT-UP and some Tiny Art this afternoon - I am currently waiting for a few prints to be ready so if you ordered prints - they are on their way tomorrow. Please be patient with me. If you are waiting for an email back from me - I'm on it. I'm ALSO working on clearing out the junk around here and finding ways to STORE-SMARTLY our ever-expanding collection of SO-MUCH-STUFF.

It's a beautiful day for GO.

Oh, YES!

Friday! Yessssss. This was a short week after our Monday holiday and it was a serious death-match between me and the Universe. I got kicked around a bit, but, I totally win after a day like yesterday. T.K.O.

First. Oh, man she's CUTE. (Lots of pictures for the Grandma's and Babaluba today.) Pilot and I have had a marvelous week together oooohing, aaaaahing and sticking our tongues out at each other. She's a funny kid and I'm happy to report that she takes after HER MOM in that department. ;)

Second, I JUST KNEW I was getting something in the mail yesterday. But, I didn't KNOW I was getting TWO radical packages! My diaper bag arrived yesterday and it's pretty fancy-pants. Petunia Pickle Bottom - whoever she is, makes a pretty SWANKY diaper bag. If you know me - you would know then that I am pretty particular and pretty NON FANCY with my bags. I've been carrying around an Eddie Bauer messenger bag from 2001 FOR SEVEN YEARS. This is a step UP for me. This is a WALK ON THE WILD SIDE actually. Very, very excited to carry this pretty thing around and elevate my level of SWANK.

I also got a great baby package from Leslie in Japan! Thanks Leslie. The baby spoon is very, very cool. Japan has cool things. You rule. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

Remember my MARCH 20 DEADLINE FOR THE CARGO & WOOT BOOK??

I seriously CRUSHED IT IN THE ASS yesterday by finishing the writing, illustrating, design, file preps and book creation. DONE and DONE. I used a site called Blurb to upload and print the book. I used them because I can post the book on their site for ANYONE ELSE in the world TO ORDER THE BOOK if they so want. Seriously. That's cool. You can go to Blurb, order my book (or any of the other cool books) and have it shipped directly to you. IT'S MIRACULOUS! It was also seamless and EASY. I ordered a hardcover and a couple of soft cover versions of the first book in the Cargo & Woot Series... it's called Cargo & Woot Eat Beets. When I get the books delivered (in about 14 days) I will post pictures, make sure everything is to my liking AND THEN MAKE THE BOOK AVAILABLE ON BLURB. I am so excited about it I WANT TO TYPE EVERYTHING IN CAPS AS THOUGH I'M SCREAMING FOR JOY. I CAN'T HELP IT. I'M SO EXCITED.

SERIOUSLY. If the quality of the Blurb books are half as good as their book program - this is simply a dream come true. I can design - upload and THEN MOVE ON. No endless trips to the post office. SWEET. SWEET. SWEET. I am working on three more books in the Cargo & Woot series...

Couple of other random things:

TINY ART 18. It's sold. I'm sorry. It sold in about 4 minutes flat. To the 22 people who wanted to buy the original - I only have prints and they will be shipping on Monday. I'll catch up on my Tiny Art emails this afternoon and post what I get done today.

LOTUS PAPERIE is using a few of my art pieces as inspiration for their scrapbooking venture over the next couple of Fridays. Check it out. I will be lurking around that site to see their progress.

BLURB. DUDE, I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH ABOUT HOW GREAT THIS SITE IS. I am not being paid to say that. There are no Blurbites holding weapons to my head. I am just pleasantly surprised at what a great idea this is.

Today: I stayed up WAY too late last night to get the stuff I needed to get done today - DONE... that means I am going to do a couple of FUN tidbits today LIKE SEND MY DIGITAL PHOTOS TO BE PRINTED. I have so many great shots of Pilot and her progress on this earth. It's a beautiful day for a walk. AND A SHOWER. I'm also going to poop out some Tiny Art this afternoon and I am going to SMILE ALL DAY LONG. I'm feeling INSPIRED and pretty jacked up after tackling the book yesterday.

One more photo. I know, I know... I'm turning into one of THOSE ladies with all the pictures of Pilot today. TOO BAD for you.

I'm SO FIRED UP this morning. Get up, get up - let's GO!

My body's too Woot-i-licious for you babe.

Sweet deal. In one swoop yesterday - I designed and put a magazine to bed, edited the last of a corporate photoshoot, packaged books and artwork AND nearly finished the first Cargo & Woot book of what I decided will be a multi book series. Without skipping a beat, a bottle, nap or a smile from Miss Pilot. WITHOUT ANY COFFEE AT ALL. GET SERIOUS. That was pretty awesome. Even for me. ;)

So - off we go on an little adventure to find coffee and bide our time while the cleaning lady comes to take care of the dust bunnies and greasy stove - of which I do no enjoy. So I do not DO. Life's too short to burden yourself down with the stuff you can pay people to do FOR you. Took me a long time to learn that.

Today: I'm going to make some Tiny Art in the afternoon in between patiently waiting for the mailman. I JUST KNOW he's bringing me something good today. I can feel it.

Off in search of yummy high-powered lattes. GO!

It's STILL okay.

When I was little, my Baba would line up her daily dose of vitamins and minerals beside her breakfast plate. They were beautiful - colourful little pills and capsules. Then she would swallow them one by one by one - usually somewhere to the total of twenty. I was definitely thinking of her this morning when I took my daily dose of getter-throughs. One multi-vitamin, two advil for a sore hip, one iron supplement. GULP.

I ordered a small custom-stamped silver ring from Lisa Leonard and it arrived!! I love it. It's for Pilot. I thought I would tie it up into a good luck ribbon and hang it in her window and give it to her when she gets OLD. Because I know she will get OLD. Sweet Lisa also sent me a few little TREATS...

This very, very adorable baby spoon and some swanky cool pearl drop earrings. Thank you Lisa - that was SO SWEET. Thank you.

Dan found these great little shoes for Pilot that say SWEET. He says that's my current word. I guess I alternate between 'SWEET', 'WOOT' and just a few clicks and grunts to get my points across these days. (Good job Dan - they're awesome!)

Yes. The It's Okay painting is leaving today. Just a few more pieces of paperwork and away it goes - TO TEXAS. And yes, I hang the artwork - I breathe the artwork. It's is wholly and completely mine... AND when it leaves I sort of enjoy the dull pains in my heart because I know it was something that meant something to me - and I know that it's always with me anyways. So the pain is semi-sweet. (I put this graphic up for Maile because she likes it.)

And it spawns stuff like this..

Tiny Art 18. My small tribute to It's Okay. Tiny Art is tiny art. It's small stuff that I've been making with the small bits of time I find through my day. SMALL. It, however, makes me feel very big and very alive. And I find it very necessary to feel those things in my day-to-day life. Which seemed to ignite quite a bit of discussion from mothers everywhere - which is cool. You do your thing - and I'll do mine - and I'll see you on the other side. We'll probably even be friends.

There are four new pieces of art for sale at TINY ART.

Today: Staying indoors. BOO. It's cold again and we really have nothing outside of the house that needs to be done. Pilot's choice - and Wednesdays are her days to choose. I am looking forward to hitting my weekly shower. ;)

Get. Up. And. GO!

It's okay.

Back to the work week. Nice. I love the way a weekend just pushes the PAUSE button - and I also really like when the week resumes. Tuesday and Pilot is fed, bathed and napping a short nap until we head out to great the AGAIN very cold world with some errands. I love our little system of GO.

TINY ART: I have the rest of the orders packed and ready to roll out this morning. AWESOME. That way I can spend a good part of the afternoon creating some more. I have some really neat pieces on the go. I will also have a post this week to answer some of your questions regarding what I use for Tiny Art.

These aren't good pictures, but I was experimenting...

This shell-shocked looking person is, of course, Pilot. The painting behind her is It's Okay. Also written about here. I thought I might be able to beautifully and artistically capture a photo of my creation the painting with our creation Pilot in front for scale. BUT THAT WAS NOT THE CASE. I didn't have the right lens handy and she thought my idea was pretty stupid (as you can see from her expression). It's Okay is now SOLD. I paint and then I post and then I hang the painting in my house... and then when someone wants to buy one IT GIVES ME A SMALL CORONARY HEART ATTACK. It does. I talked myself through this one yesterday... It will be fine. This painting really is better off taking a journey to someone new. I GET THAT. I'll just miss it... and I guess that's okay because it's okay.

Pilot's face in this picture sort of looked like she was terrified of the lady-with-the-camera... OR that she was kind of sad that It's Okay was leaving, too. OR maybe she was just thinking of a way to get out of the sheer torture of what was coming next... A BATH.

Today: We are hitting our usual errand circuit this morning: post office, Starbucks, UPS. We might stop for some treats here or there but, we're booting back to get working on some Tiny Art this afternoon. Watch for more art to go up late tonight.

Terrific. It's settled. Let's GO.

It's a holiday!

I totally forgot that today is a NEW HOLIDAY Monday! How they can just dream up and declare a holiday - I DO NOT KNOW and for that metter I DO NOT CARE. All that matters to me is that we are hanging out as a family on the couch.  (Except for Pilot who is hanging out as a very small family in her room having a nap.) Reading. Playing. Drinking coffee. Getting ready to go out for an afternoon of skating. I've been enjoying taking "pictures" with my Mac. I've been enjoying this new-found long weekend in the middle of winter. I've been actually really enjoying winter. I've been ECSTATICALLY enjoying my painting afternoons. I've been enjoying Pilot. I've been enjoying life.

Three cheers to a holiday! MORE TINY ART WILL BE GOING UP TOMORROW NIGHT. Sweet.

GO.