A year in review

How can I possibly summarize our very full year with just 3 photos for every packed month? So many things we experienced, enjoyed and created.

Here goes! 

JANUARY: Mexico trip and baby M turns 1

FEBRUARY ( heartbombing and valentines extravaganza)

MARCH:  Imani's magazine debut,crochet flowers and signs of spring

APRIL: handmade's and Easter

MAY:  bird wall, maypole dancing and buying a new house!

JULY:  Imani dance performance, mountain picnic and 6th birthday

JULY: diy house improvements, making a teepee and camping trip!

AUGUST: rainbow flags, bounty of the gardens and a paint party

SEPTEMBER : back to school! picking raspberries, our beautiful sunflowers and the flood

OCTOBER: leaf wreaths, halloween and drawing sugar skulls

NOVEMBER: Zions 9th birthday, turkey decorations and hosting our first thxgiving

DECEMBER: snow, xmas tree, crochet trees and fabric ornaments

It was a FULL year! 

a good year, we all stayed in good health, were able to purchase and work so hard on our amazing house, have the kids thrive in school, feel inspired, spend time with loved friends and family,

and on a personal note i am once again sleeping through the night!

Having a blog has been a beautiful way to capture and document another year of our lives,

thank you, to all of you who read and enjoy our family's endevours.

Happy New year!

Goodbye 2013, a year of great and wonderful change.

A watercolor afternoon

This is the thing, we are completely broke post Christmas, and we are on a loong school break, and 

its winter, and the weather is crap.

What to do? I just want to paint, and so does my trusty art companion daughter.

Sometimes I would like make art, like ALONE, without having to set up pots of paint,clean water, 

and paper for my children, and sop up their watery spills,

sometimes I would like to lose myself and just PAINT.

That might the parenting equivalent of say, watching a movie undisturbed, or reading a book un-interrupted by needy little people, not going to happen anytime soon.

So we painted, and this time, like many other times, my daughter tried to replicate what I was creating, see below

her version,

 i think I like hers more then mine, and that's a problem, because that's what she says to me

our kitchen table on any given afternoon

I really am amazed by the spontaneity and joy of her color and shape choices, 

mother's and daughter's

I practice some feathers

 I made the one on the left, and her the one on the right, I love them both,but miss Imani was pouting, finding hers to be "not good enough". What to do? trying to explain to her that art truly has no rules,that all art is beautiful because it is a form of expressing who we are, and that I have had 26 more years then her to practice didnt seem to do much good.

pouting

this is a painting of our island I did a few years back

and a perfect spot found for this on my bedroom wall.

I have a secret hope that my daughter will far surpass me when it comes to art and creativity, understanding of color, texture, decor and imagination, I hope what we do at home is but a mere foundation for her.

As a child I was born to 2 parents with very limited sense of  art or aesthetic, yet my father recognized my yearning, and i was taken to many museums in his native italy to observe the great masterpieces.

I particularly remember being taken several times to the Uffizi in Florence, and the lasting impression it had on me.

My mother, equipped me with pencils and paper and always supported and lauded all my creative efforts.

I hope to be able do the same.