white picket fence

well, what would you do?

So many ideas, so little time to execute. Feeling a push and pull with my work. Do I doodle and mess around and do all the things that come easily for me and make me content? Or do I push myself and produce something to sell or a portfolio to market?

I think I'm doomed to a life of these questions. It feels like it never ends. But in the meantime, I get to fill up pages with weird drawings and that will never not make me happy. So it's a good problem to have. 

one year roller derby-versary

It was one year ago today that I put on my dorky little bike helmet and suited up in a bunch of borrowed pads and skates at a Derby Lite Get In Gear Day. It's hard to think back and remember what my reasons were back then. I guess I was just excited to roller skate, and try a new kind of workout, and maybe meet some people. What has happened in the past year are all those things, and WAY MORE. 

A little back story: I have never been good at sports. Ever. At all. I played basketball in third grade and didn't know the difference between offense and defense so I just continually blocked people until all the 8 year old girls yelled at me. I quit tennis in ninth grade after 3 days because the coach intimidated me. When my high school gym class did a unit on volleyball, I was put in the Auxiliary Gym with a few other unfortunate souls to practice serving so the rest of the class didn't have to deal with us, a humiliating experience I liked to call "Remedial Gym." So yeah, a lot of grimness in my athletic past. 

But discovering Derby Lite was like finding a hidden door inside my body that opened up to an entirely different way of living. It's challenged a lot of my preconceived notions about myself and who I am. Do you know I actually like working out now? If you would have told me that 2 years ago I would have laughed in your face. PLUS, it just makes me so happy to skate every week. I've made one of my best new friends in a long time through Derby Lite (hey Luce!). It's made me excited to get stronger and get better and keep myself in shape. In short, it's become this bizarrely but amazingly integral part of my life in the last year. I'm so thankful I took a chance on it. 

aaand... this is me in all my "June Cleaver" glory. Yes! 

 

three and a half, one and a half

This was going to be a post about messes and whining and how much I detest (DETEST!!) sippy cups. But I can't do it. I can't complain*. They really are good and cute kids most of the time. 

(*Okay, maybe I can complain about one thing? David says the word Mommy at least 500 times a day. I counted and once he said it 37 times in the span of 3 MINUTES. It is probably about the most annoying thing in my life right now.)

Alright, complaint done. Now for some pictures.

Plus, the back of Norah's curly head is my most favorite thing in the entire universe right now. 

flowers, encouragement, wings, & prayers

these are the things in my tiny sketchbook this summer.

(a little excercise from Pages and Paint)

cute bits from the Paper Source catalog

I've been really inspired by Robyn's Circle Series paintings lately

And sometimes David likes to have a chance to play in the sketchbook, too. 

Happy Friday!

 

subtle patterns paper pack

This weekend I added a few new packs to my etsy shop. In the last few months I've accumulated a pretty impressive range of graph and ledger papers, and I thought it would be fun to make a new Subtle Patterns Paper pack. I really love this one. 

 

the all night flea market!

What do you get when you combine: nighttime, the smell of fried foods, every kind of junk imagineable, and a dizzying array of humanity? It's the all night flea market! My favorite night of the year. 

So everyone knows I love old junk. But you might also know that I hate clutter. So, I love looking at old junk but I'm pretty choosy about actually bringing it home with me. Which is why the flea market is more of a fun adventure for me than an actual shopping trip.

The people watching is primo. Living in the suburbs, I feel like I often see the same types of people over and over. But something about this flea market brings out all kinds of people I don't see in my normal life. You guys, I saw actual Gothic Lolitas, in real life. I thought they only existed in Japan or fashion blogs. I saw TONS of teenagers, which I guess makes sense because kids are always looking for things to do at night. I actually witnessed a girl get hit on by two guys who high-fived each other afterwards. I laughed out loud and then hoped they didn't hear me. 

I love that it's held at the fairgrounds too. Less than one month ago this very building was filled with rabbits and chickens. 

If you wanted a milkglass collection you could have found a pretty sweet one at this table. 

Part of the fun of this flea market is that almost everything is just piled in big jumbles. If you're looking for something specific, it's kind of horrifying, but if you're up for a surprise, it's great. I love the title of that book in the center: The New, New Can Opener Cookbook. Which makes me wonder... seriously, who buys any of this stuff? Humans produce a billion tons of trash and miscellany, that's for sure. But I guess the economics of a flea market are, if you offer it for sale, maybe someone will buy it. 

Here is my one treasure from the evening:

An entire album full of portraits and snapshots from the late 30's, early 40s. I've been looking for something like this for AGES. So happy to finally call one my own. I'd share more of the pictures, but I know some will make their way into my art journal pages and vintage paper packs in my etsy shop. I couldn't possibly keep all this loveliness to myself. 

So. Do you go to flea markets? What do you look for? I'd love to hear your secondhand stories. 

nutella & dark chocolate cookies

I think this is the first time I've posted a recipe on my blog. But this one was such a winner I wanted to share it with you. First of all, Nutella. Second of all, dark chocolate. And of course, cookies. Three of my favorite things. All together. Hooray! 

(recipe adapted from Lovin The Oven's "Chewy Nutella Cookies")

Ingredients:

• ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• ½ cup Nutella
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 ½ cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• generous ½ tsp. salt
• ½ cup dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks* (about 3/4 of a 3.5 oz chocolate bar)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cream butter with both sugars until light and fluffy. Stir in the egg, vanilla, and Nutella.
3. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt into the wet mixture until just combined. Fold in the dark chocolate chunks. (Scrape all the chocolate bits straight from your cutting board into the batter. You don't want to miss any of the teeny chocolate pieces!)
4. Using a small scoop, drop tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Notes:

• Anytime a recipe calls for chocolate chips, I automatically substitute finely chopped high-quality (read: expensive) chocolate bars. I used about 3/4 of a dark chocolate Perugina bar for this recipe. It is TOTALLY worth the cost. My weird little international grocery store stocks these in the checkout aisles, but I'm pretty sure Target has them in the bulk candy section. 
• In general I don't mind too much about my baked goods looking "perfect," but I do find that using a scoop like this one makes my cookies more uniform, and bake more evenly. 
• Definitely watch these cookies the last minute or two of baking time. They do have a nice chewy consistency, but you should remove them from the oven before they feel "done" or they'll get too crispy. They'll puff up in the oven but flatten out slightly when they cool. 
• We ended up with 24 cookies but I'm pretty sure David ate at least 3 cookies worth of dough while my back was turned, so your yield might be a little larger than ours!
• They're really rich. I ate at least 3 right away and then kind of felt like I needed to go lay down for a while. So watch yourself! 

Such a great texture: slightly crispy on the outside but chewy and melty on the inside. 

David ponders the majestic combination of Nutella and dark chocolate.

Norah-approved. 

screenprinting. and other things you should just DO.

Are there certain things you think about all the time, but never take action on? Maybe it's taking a dance class, or asking someone out, or learning to cook a certain kind of food. Everyone has something.

For so long I have yearned to screenprint my own work. I've thought about it for YEARS. I researched the heck out of the benefits of buying a kit vs. purchasing/making your own screens. Read tons of online tutorials. I enviously studied gig posters and tried to zoom in as close as I could on printed pieces on Flickr. I listed it as an ambition anytime I made a list of ambitions. 

But all those things never got me any closer to actually DOING something about it. Last week in my bible class, our pastor was talking about growing in faith, and he said, "Let's say you want to become a more generous person. Do you sit around thinking about being generous? Or do you go ahead and give, and see how it feels?" You just have to give. You just have to DO. 

This is a theme that runs through almost everything I've learned about myself and the world recently. You have to show up, do the work, learn to enjoy the process, KEEP WORKING, repeat. Sarah Ahearn talked about this in her last online class, Pages and Paint. David Foster Wallace speaks at length about it in the interview turned book, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself. Pretty much everything Keri Smith has ever done or said leads to this concept at some point. There's this famous list by Sister Corita Kent and John Cage, 10 Rules for Students and Teachers (and Life). Rule Seven is my favorite: "The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things."

So I bought a printing kit. I knew if I tried to make my own it would never happen. So whatever! I stopped feeling like it was dumb for someone with a fine arts degree to buy an art kit, and just did it. My first test prints this weekend didn't turn out great. I have a LOT to learn and lots more to try. But I feel deeply satisfied and crazy excited about finally making this happen. 

So, are you waiting to do something and have no good reason not to try it? Just go for it. Don't give up, be patient, things take time, keep working, & don't get discouraged. Seriously. Go!

(I'll share more details about my first printing experience tomorrow, but I needed to get the heavy/philosophical stuff down first. That's me!)

splish splash.

We've been doing a little too much of this lately. I think spending so much time inside when it was 95-100 degrees out for weeks put us in a bit of a rut. But we all feel much happier when we spend more time outside. So yesterday I put out our little kiddie pool and the kids had fun. 

Norah's hair is ADORABLE these days, but so unruly. It's not quite long enough for pigtails and she always pulls barettes out. Any tips from moms of older girls?

Playing in the pool is fun for the kids but it makes me feel like all I do is sit nearby and repeat the same three things. "Don't drink pool water!! Don't splash your sister! Put that hose down!!" Over and over. 

And also, "get that water away from my camera!" So. The camera doesn't stay out for too long. 

working (a.k.a. playing)

I have a million ideas right now. And I'm actually DOING them and following through on projects. (Usually this isn't the case.) It has been SO MUCH FUN to feel like I'm in a good place with my art again. 

My goal for August is to get as much work done as I possibly can. I told my husband the other night, "I'm trying to get my hustle on." There is so much I've wanted for so long. And I'm flat-out fed up with myself for always thinking about things but never accomplishing anything. So it's time. And I'm excited.