I'm alive

Yes, it's true! I'm alive and still painting/drawing/making journals. I'll tell you this, I'm a perfectionistic procrastinator if anything. So, while I've been away I've been thinking about this blog and reasoning if my writing skills & content were worthy of posts or if it was time to just delete the experiment and move on. Well...I'm here! I do want to continue this project and I've determined that it will be more focused on my creativity and the inspiring people I come across. Be on the look out, more posts and artwork to follow. Thanks for checking in friends.

Jen

Five Favorites for Friday

There are so many talented artists I'm amazed and inspired by. Thought it would be fun to share 5 great pieces I'm excited about and would love to have in my home:

Whenever it's our time for a family I want this in the nursery. Find Rae Dunn here

Wish I had an event important enough to need her gorgeous writing. But she also sells custom address stamps, how lovely bill paying will become with her handwriting gracing the envelope.

Abagail Halpin, this woman inspires me to keep drawing, I love her images!

Will be tracking the days in 2010 with this beauty. It gets better, they provide templates to turn the pages into gift boxes and file folders once the month is ended.
Belle and Boo artist, Mandy Sutcliffe, beautifully sweet and simple

Yes, we're officially ready for the commencement of Fall at the Anderson's. After Dan and I both had a bummer of a day {I swear a week of rain must be contributing to the glum} We decided to cleeeeann the house and put out the fall decor. Well, I decided the decor was in order, Dan needed the clean to feel whole again. You know how you get that crampy, crabby feeling when things start to pile up around you? So do we! So here is our fabulously clean and freshly bedecked home. The stoic Mr. Hooters {my granny made him back in the 70's} making his annual appearance

The mirror is a recent IKEA purchase, I'm trying phase out my "flea market" stage to more clean lines and modern. It may take a while people.

Now all that's needed is the return of Sea Salt Caramel Hot Cocoa at Starbucks, The Office {starts tonight!} and a slight dip below 80 degrees so I can sport my new scarf.

can you see the little threads of silver woven into the scarf, mmmm....nice

And to get you pumped about the return of my favorite tv couple...

What I did this summer...

It was a summer of memorable moments for sure. Of course, it passed too quickly like everyone else. This past spring I took a gardening class through our church, we were lucky to have two happy master gardeners in our congregation sharing their knowledge. Inspired by our new mentors and the high price of bell peppers this summer, my friend Julie and I shared two boxed plots of veggies!

My backyard is mostly shade except for the very middle, Julie kindly offered a corner of her yard for our first experiment with gardening, I think we did well for a first go.

Check out our cukes
and this ginormous Zucchini {however, it was our one and only for the summer} I picked it on my way out of town the 4th of July and gave it to my friend, Tara, in Birmingham. Hope it was good girl!
We enjoyed fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, squash and jalapenos through the first part of July. An accidental lack of watering when Julie and I left town at the same time did us in. Oh well, there's always next year! And I've heard Fall gardens are fun.

Dan and I traveled through 10 states to visit his family in PA.

We got a pic of each Welcome Sign except PA, it was too dark when we rolled into town. The Sheetz pic is our homage to PA. {Next time you find yourself in Pennsylvania please enjoy the best gas station in the world, Sheetz.} Wow, it was heaven eating our meals outdoors, surrounded by Pennsylvania farm land. Dan's mom has an amazing talent for making a home welcoming.

Her flowerbeds overflow with color and joy, the cooking and clean up are not the least bit boring with everyone talking in the kitchen. We spent an afternoon riding bikes along the Ohio river under a verdant canopy watching rafters paddle by. {I know I'm laying it on thick, seriously it was the best 2 days of my summer}

My college roommate, Kelly drove up from DC with her husband Michael and my Godson, Luke. Every little boy needs to spend a day at the farm.

Have you ever ran up and down the hill to touch the apple tree 30 times with a 2 year old?! It's the best! The reason summers, hills, tall grass, bird houses, wild daisies and apple trees were invented.

Was wonderful spending the afternoon with ya'll Kelly. Love ya'll so much.

A few projects I've been working on...

Does the bird look familiar? He was inspired from this sketch.

For my sweet, chubby cheeked nephew. Currently, it's lost in the mail, a complete bummer after all the time and love put into this painting. Won't forget the tracking number next time!

I've come up with a couple ideas I'd like to introduce to my paintings and journals, think it'll be a big hit. Can't wait to make the first sample. I've been struggling with time management lately, so I'm trying hard to set aside time just for being crafty. Often it gets pushed to the side and I'm scrambling to finish projects. No fun.

Good luck everyone getting back into their school time schedules. Cheers to the return of football, sweaters and cocoa around the fire! Am more than a little pumped about Fall this year.

A Little Sketchy

Two projects I've started today. The first sketch is bits and pieces of an idea I'm hatching for Caroline's hot pink + pink +green + brown nursery. We'll see what comes of it. And the cowboy theme is for my first nephew, Luca! Am headed to Houston tomorrow to visit my Aunts and cousins, have a great weekend!

Sunday Afternoon

A break from the rain finally! Enjoying a peaceful Sunday afternoon. A few things found on my to do list today:

* bake plum-berry whole wheat tarts

* plant lucky clovers for the kitchen window

* peruse the Sunday ads

* start a new painting...and maybe finish it

*pray for my husband as he attempts to hang new sheetrock in our linen closet. (we enjoyed a lovely week of mold demolition after a leaky pipe last weekend)

Photoshop drives me nuts

I've been making new buttons and banners for the website and blog and have learned all kinds of new tricks today about photoshop. One tip: save your files as .png (pronounced ping) instead of .jpeg if you'd like your lettering to stay crisp with no pixeling around the edges. I thought the note to myself was funny and wanted to share, originally I was going to use my handwriting for the new banner, but my hand had other ideas.