[i] LoveLife

Happy.

The black & white of it all.

GREAT & NOT GREAT.

GREAT: seeing my busrolls on Wantist (one of my favourite sites!).
NOT GREAT: never hearing back from Mat Kearney about the script work I was hired to do for his new album cover YOUNG LOVE and his single release HEY MAMA.

GREAT: a happy 1700km road trip with a three year old, a two year old and an almost 3 month old.
NOT GREAT: seeing 3 dead moose (man, that sucks).

GREAT: spring is finally here!
NOT GREAT: devastating spring tornados in the southern US.

GREAT: hearing from 4 different people on Easter Sunday that my book was on Oprah
NOT GREAT: finding out it was actually a different "LoveLife".

GREAT: the sweetness of the hour before I knew the truth
NOT AS GREAT: feeling like a bit of a fool for thinking it could be true.

GREAT: Enjoying an amazing sunset in our backyard for the first time since we bought house90 last year.
NOT GREAT: Hearing the forecast for SNOW this weekend!

Today: I am taking my Mac to get serviced - which means that I will have the push I need to pour paint and get to work without being distracted by online shopping. Whoops! I have an art show rapidly approaching. I have a list of appointments to make and other things to accomplish in the name of spring. Yay spring! Yay Friday! Yay Happy Hour.

GO!

The long road home.

The girl tribe.

These shots are courtesy of my mom. While the real photographer was working her magic - BabaLuba was in the chily spring background snip-snapping away with her point-and-shoot. She's kind of a renegade that way. But, I'm glad she is because it was a busy day full of logistics and coordination of my girl tribe. We were the lucky models of a spontaneous photoshoot and if I have learned ANYTHING AT ALL it is that if someone offers to take your picture - TAKE THEM UP ON IT. Totally. Best gift ever. It constantly blows my mind to see MYSELF with my ladies. Because in my head I'm just my regular single self. One person. But we are a total tribe. And I am a mom with three kids. THREE. Which is totally weird because I don't feel like a mom. I don't think of myself as a 'mom'. I sure don't own mom-jeans.

But I sure like that part about the three kids. They are so great. Each one of them.

Today: We are on the road - heading back to our male counterparts: Dan, Crash + Norman. Yay! I have no expectations other than to make it home in one piece and preferably before dark. Big thanks to everyone in my family for hosting us and entertaining us and working around our schedules and needs. Thank you BabaLuba, Grandpa, Kam + Jen. Thank you.

My coffee is XXL and we are really to roll. GO!

Take these broken wings and learn to fly.

Blackbird from Jordan Popowich on Vimeo.

Last week my friend Kristen asked me if Pilot + Penn could be filmed for a video for a fundraiser. I was game and I recruited two of their BBFs named Cait + Anna, too. I was not sure what would become of our trip to the park with a handful of toddlers and a baby strapped to my chest. It was a cold day. I was sweating before we got there. The girls were a little grumpy. It was windy. Someone had to pee. Someone took a poop. Pilot was being shy. No one was really following the instructions of the very, very nice camera guy. The spring wind was blowing. It was one of those moments where it seems like a WHOLE LOTTA WORK and not enough cooperating. It was pretty much a typical day.

And how amazing it is to see just how beautiful a typical day is. Thanks Kristen and Jordan!

Today: We are unstyled + unprepared but Janna from Swoon Photography asked us to model for her camera. The girl tribe. It feels a little funny to be here without our hounds and especially without Dan. But the ladies and I have a bond of our own and i think it deserves some remembering. It's our last day before we hop onto the long highway home.

(My mom's coffee is terrible.) GO!

My chicks + me.

Chirp. We are knee deep in the awesomeness that is collecting rarities and oddities of family holidays. Like the one where my mom busted into a closed petting zoo AT THE MALL and casually opened a cardboard box full of baby chicks for the girls to play with. And almost got us banned from 4H traveling mall petting zoos for life. She's crazy like that, but Happy Easter! Penn was pretty close to heaven surrounded by animals. This trip has been so full of mind boggling things for me that I feel like only tequila could even things out. I joke. A little. Moose, muskrats, Oprah and the Universe in full effect. Surprises around every corner. It's a strange, strange world out there.

But, we like it.

Mother's Day is coming and they really like mini busrolls (so I have been told). ;

GO!

Oh, no she didn't.

YES. Yes, I did. I was so jacked up by last weeks DIY post that I felt compelled to share another do-it-yourself project with the craft-craving world. Indulge me if you will because this one starts out in a round about way, but when I finally bring it home - I really, really bring it. As in it has been BROUGHT. In technicolour. Eggs. Fabric. Weapons. Coffee. WOW. THE ULTRA COOL DIY starts one morning this week when I was not feeling like working AND also delighted and inspired by the girls Easter egg project they did with the nanny (see above). I guess their work had an impact on me so here is the story of how a small DIY project became a poignant coming of age tale inspired by an "I can do that" attitude, a cool gift on Wantist, and a bunch of cracked eggs. 

STEP1: be totally inspired by a toddler art project + spring + Easter
STEP2: enjoy a dark black coffee straight up
STEP3: moments later find your jacked up self wandering at Home Depot

STEP4: browse the paint swatches (like usual) and pocket your 'choices for the day' to add to your random swatch collection
STEP5: wander for a while

STEP6: totally get sidetracked by the pretty door handles that would look so nice on house90's front door

STEP7: get back to the task at hand and search out the HAMMER AISLE
STEP8: choose the prettiest, and cheapest wood handled hammer

STEP9: take artsy photos of your feet and said hammer in the parking lot of Home Depot
STEP10: ignore the contractors loading their trucks nearby and quickly jump in your car and speed away when you hear them chuckle

STEP11: take one more artsy photo of the hammer after you have washed the Home Depot grime and barcode away to prepare for painting
STEP12: think about sanding and priming AND THEN LAUGH AT YOUR OWN SILLINESS because this is an ultra cool DIY - not a mega complicated time-wasting DIY

STEP13: crack open your favourite water-based enamel paint with a small pair of crafting scissors

STEP14: give the handle of the hammer a basecoat of white semi-gloss paint
STEP15: decide on a colour scheme and challenge yourself NOT to use light blue
STEP16: get frustrated because come on YOU LOVE light blue and can't think of anything

STEP17: get distracted by the toddler swimsuit you forgot to put away and reminisce about how much you love your toddlers and how pretty their clothes are
STEP18: hold hammer in your hand while noticing the pretty coloured swimsuit

STEP19: feel paint peeling off the hammer because the surface wasn't properly sanded or primed
STEP20: swear loudly
STEP21: paint stripes inspired by the eggs + swimsuit + toddlers
STEP22: blow dry the first coat
STEP23: recoat
STEP24: notice how time consuming and tedious this project has become

STEP25: get frustrated and abandon the hammer to do other things let it dry completely

STEP26: Don't forget to take an artsy AFTER photo to show off your radical display of creative genius and skill.

Voila! Not only is is crafty, but it's pretty. Pretty awesome. AND MAN IS IT TOUGH. I might hang it on my office wall with a small sign that says IN CASE OF EMERGENCY... or STOP! HAMMER TIME! OR I might just lose it in the piles and piles and piles of stuff around here. Truthfully, I was originally inspired by these hammers because the juxtoposition of pretty and tools was funny.

I guess you had to be there for that one. Either way - it got my hands dirty and my paint cans open and my painting hands into action. Sometimes, that's all it takes is a push.

Estimated time for this DIY: approximately 3 hours
Cost: $5.99 hammer + left over canvas paints...
WOW-factor: seriously?
Difficulty level: 3 (painting straight lines is harder than it looks)
Frustration level: 3 (mildly annoying)
Level of ease: not rocket science
Results: the jury is still out

Today: me + the girl tribe are going to attempt a long, long drive to the west. Very long. We have family to visit with and Easter eggs to search for and adventures to be had. I'm asking the prairie winds to bring me patience, good luck and smooth sailing. And coffee.

GO!

Handing my story.

These are my hands. I have been thinking a lot about my hands as I watch them age. My skin is dry and cracked from washing bottles and paint brushes. I have scars and marks. I haven't had a manicure in 4 years because in my books - perfect nails mean my easel is bare and I'd rather be painting canvasses than fingernails. My hands are cold. Always. They are clammy and red. They are sore a lot of the time and lately they are looking very tired. Like me, I suppose.

All my life I've tried to hide them. I avoid shaking hands and holding hands with people because my hands are cold and clammy. The get sore and swollen. So gross. They are sensitive. None of my boyfriends would hold hands with me. When the girls were newborns they would pull away and scream when I would change them - Pilot especially. She would shriek uncontrollably. At my touch.

Last week I took some accidental photos of my hands at work - and to my surprise these old hands of mine looked very, very happy. The might have even looked beautiful... but I guess they should - they were doing what they love. Art.

Messy, ugly, awkward, perfect.

I think I have learned to love my hands.

I am going to try to take photos from time to time to document the hands that help me do what I love - wrinkles and all. They are my story. My Baba had arthiritis in her hands and my Grandpa has it as well. It breaks my heart and it runs deep in our family so I expect it will catch me some day, too. Not if I can help it. Every single day I can paint or draw - is a real gift. I am pretty grateful for these ten fingers.

What have you learned to love about your yourself?

Today: it's Wednesday so my girl tribe and I are going to make a memory and take a trip to the IMAX to enjoy a morning movie. And a special lunch. And an experience I hope they will enjoy as we kick off our Easter weekend of goodness. You just never know how a plan like this will go so my fingers are crossed. Sweet.

GO!

Hands painted.

My hands were not made to model, but I have learned to love them anyways. Especially when messy with paint.

Mind mapping.