It all looks perfect from a distance

My little lemon tree looks so pretty from a distance. The leaves are green year round and it is either in bloom while also holding lots of beautiful lemons. I love to paint in my yard which also allows me to really notice things when they go amiss. I see this lemon tree everyday, walking by it several times without really noticing a problem.

I know, so you're thinking big deal, if you've seen one lemon tree you've seen them all right!? Well, as I got closer to draw and paint it, I could see the twisted, discolored leaves. From this closer position I can see the lack of fruit and blooms. I can see the twisted curled leaves and weird growth. I notice it's stress and see that something is terribly wrong. Since I have had this little tree for many years I know it suffers from an internal parasite called leaf miner. Leaf miners wait for their opportunity to attack a tree and then wreak havoc unnoticed unless you're looking for the signs.

This little tree is a lot like us, a lot like me! From a distance we may look fine, attempting to set fruit and bloom as usual. Trying to appear like all is fine but underneath something might be terribly wrong. Unless we are willing to get close enough to see it, it will go undetected. At the same time the tree has to be willing to allow people to get close enough to see the problem which it is working so hard to cover up and deal with alone.

The good news is that it's so treatable with some extra attention my little tree will be well on its way to a full crop of lemons. As the tree grows it gets stronger and the ugly curled up leaves will be replaced by green glossy ones. 

More lemons

Now you have to figure out which one are you, the little lemon tree or the artist painting the tree. Maybe, today you're both. If you are the tree you might need to allow people close enough to see you, exposing some of your weaknesses. If you are the artist you might need to really see the problem and be able to offer some help in the supporting the recovery or solution. The blessing from the experience is that the tree produces more fruit from which the artist, the tree and others gets to enjoy!

We all want to be a Happy Little Lemon Tree!

Being who we are meant to be means embracing a title

I think as artists we are blessed with this unsatisfiable need to create beautiful things from simple supplies. Just some blobs of paint and a piece of paper, maybe just a pencil and a napkin. I can't tell you how many times I have grabbed a napkin to do a quick sketch of something that had to be captured at that moment. We often are not understood and thus the crazy artist stigma.

This crazy behavior reminds me of the time a group of us artists were having dinner at a little restaurant in San Clemente. We had all ordered our meals and we were having a glass of wine and laughing when the sun came into the restaurant through a small window during sunset and lit up a shelf full of colored jars. As if we had choreographed it, we all jumped up at the same moment and ran to the shelf to start taking photos, trying to capture the moment, the light.  Well you can only imagine how we scared everyone in the restaurant including the chef and owner as they watched us all jump out of our chairs without a word and stood in a doorway taking tons of pictures. Within minutes the sun was gone and regained our composure and looked around to see everyone staring at us and we couldn't help but laugh. They had no idea what drove us to do that, they didn't understand that need to capture a moment. They were clueless and so we did look like a bunch of crazy people. I have so many of those crazy "artist" moments when I just have to pull over and take in the scene or capture a moment.

 I know that many of you, my artist friends, find it uncomfortable to call yourself an artist. That you can't even say the word, let alone feel like one. But why my friend?

Do you have that desire to create? Do you love to experiment and play with different types of supplies. Do you see a painting in every sunset and sunrise, in every tree, driving down the street or just sitting in a restaurant? Does it feel like you have all these projects or paintings inside of you and you don't have enough time to do it all?

Now ask yourself do you feel inadequate, untalented and not worthy of the title "Artist". Do you think people will judge you and you are not good enough? Well then congratulations, POOF, you are an Artist! You need to sign all your work and appreciate your talent now and use it more often. One of the biggest artist stumbling blocks is not practicing your talent! Go forth my artists friends and create! If you haven't viewed the little video on the right side of my blog you should take a few minutes to do so, it is well worth it!

A brand New Year, but first a look at the craziness of November and December

I love the beginning of the Year, it is a time to reflect on the things I accomplished last year and to set goals and make plans for this year. I haven't shared much this last few months as I have been deeply committed to finishing up some projects along with spending time with my family.

Last year I worked on revamping my artist look, redefining myself and my different looks as well as getting organized.  I took a few online classes, attended some seminars and that really helped me with the business side of my art, the uglier side of business that many artists, including myself try to avoid like money, expenses etc. I first took a class with Jennifer Lee called "The Right Brain Business Plan" the book is available on Amazon but its also as a online class. Great insights and help in tackling some of those business issues. Then to help conquer the "beast of STUFF", I took a great class with Alyson Stanfield on How to Organize my Art Biz, a step by step that really made my demons more manageable, like the monster piles of paperwork and piles of other things in my office that I don't know what to do with. I hope it will help to keep me better organized so I can be a better artist. The link is an affiliate link but I wouldn't recommend anything unless I truly believed in it. I am still working on completing many of the organization things I learned through out my studio, my closets etc. Its hard work but well worth the rewards. Check this out....

From this to...

THIS!

I know, impressed right!? I have more just like this but I will share later. I started this in November and worked on a new class every few days. It was great but tough during the holidays, I added some organizational apps on my phone too. Its all part of the new me! 

Before Thanksgiving arrived I made time to finish the new baby's room and mural! Barely made it since they were doing a C section the day after Thanksgiving. I did manage to find time to cook Thanksgiving dinner for 16 people and the next day welcome our newest grand baby to the family. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jennifer holding Bryce

I took some time to be with Melissa and the baby as Matt dealt with Blake being sick and then him getting sick. It was nice since I was so tired and needed the rest, holding the baby was very relaxing!

 Before the craziness of Christmas was in full swing I had a Art quilt show in Poway to attend, I had two of my art quilts accepted into this amazing show. It was a beautiful exhibit and I was able to connect with some very talented women! 

Then, in a flash it seemed like it was time for Christmas! Did it seem like that extra week we usually have between Thanksgiving and Christmas makes that much of a difference? It did this year, I couldn't believe how fast Christmas seemed to come. I managed to get a bit of baking done,snowballs and peanut brittle are a must have for when my mom arrives. Its her favorite and I love to have it ready for her, she always notices it!  I also received my Twelve Days of Christmas ornaments that hit the shelves for sale this year! I was able to get a few sets from the manufacturer and gave them to my kids for their family tree. I also got the ornament from the Riverside Art Museum that I gave them also, it was my year for ornaments.

Snowballs, a family tradition in our house!

One of my ornaments from my Twelve Days of Christmas design

My mom and sister came down from northern California to spend the holidays with everyone. It was wonderful to see them and to have a few weeks to just be with my mom! I would try to paint in the mornings but really I just spent most of my time with her, shopping, baking, visiting. She is such a blessing to our family and I love her so much! Here she is opening the gift the girls made at the ceramic shop for her and they are so excited to see her reaction.

Mom even got an iphone and finally gave up her flip phone. It is proving to be a challenge and we ended up doing lessons throughout our days together. Then my sister arrived and we all had some wonderful time together, visiting and baking and eating! After mom left to stay at my brothers, my sister and I sat outside in the sunshine one morning and I gave her an art lesson as we had our morning coffee. She loved it and took home her little masterpiece after first making it the wallpaper on her phone!

She was painting berries off of one of my trees.

Christmas Day was full of family and it was close to perfect. I managed to finish the painting for my niece and she loved it!  She is so beautiful and tall everyone thinks she should be a model and she is my moms shadow. She just sticks to her like glue!

I know you are thinking wow, how does she do it all. I am sure if you were to sit down and write down all the things you have done over the last few months you would shock yourself. You will now better understand my need to be very organized and structured. My time is so valuable and limited since I am a full time caregiver on top of it! Phew, enough already. Well with all that was going on I still found some time to work on my new website!! I am happy to see it become a  more professional looking site. After all is said and done it appears that I did manage to still have an artsy Christmas, full of blessings and creative energy. 

My new website for my patterns only is ready to launch and I will be working on my new art website soon, its all very exciting! I will be teaching more this year coming up with all new workshops and letting go of some other things as I make room for these new projects. I have been busy designing, creating and making art for some deadlines that are coming up but I can't share the details yet, its a secret!

I am so excited with all the changes and things that are happening, many blessing to all of you! I so appreciate your visits, the time you take to stop by and comment. To look at my art and read my thoughts. I hope that 2014 will be even better! More posts, more art, more insights and tutorials.
Blessings!

The Quiet after the storm

I don't know about you but the older I get the more work the holidays seem. Don't get me wrong, I love doing it, making dinner, having the whole family over, shopping, sewing gifts etc but that next day I find I just want to chill. This year our weather has been amazing, warm, sunny days and cool nights are perfect but you don't want to be inside around a fireplace! I dream of white Christmases but love the fact that I can still sit outside in the warmth on Christmas Day! Today is the 26th, the quiet after the storm of activity and the rip and tear sessions as we call it here. A day when all my guests can sleep in, where Randy and I could sneak out for our early morning walk, where I can grab my paints and journal about our Christmas together. After our walk I took my coffee and went over to the side yard where the trees are still colored up and dropping their leaves. Where the morning sun shines on the stucco wall and casts wonderful shadows from the surrounding foliage. It is somewhere I can sit in the dappled shade and enjoy the morning.

My mom and sister later joined me and we just visited for awhile. My mom asked me, "Does this relax you?" Yes, it does, I said. I thought about that for awhile. What is it that I do that totally relaxes me, takes me to a place of calm and quiet, a peaceful bliss. It is definitely when I am painting.

They both left to shop the sales but I decided to stay home, finish my painting in my journal and then play Boce Ball with Randy while I drink expresso from my new expresso maker!

It makes for a perfect day! What are you doing after all the rip and tear is over, after the busyness of Christmas day is over and the quiet starts to settle back into your home? For those of you who spend Christmas alone, do you look forward to the day after sales with all the commotion and excitement? For me, it is also a time to reflect and then look forward by setting some goals for the New Year!

Happy New Year to all of you that visit my blog, leave comments and have become such a special part of my life.

Merry Christmas! 2013 is coming to an end

With so many wonderful things happening this year I am taking the time to go back and take a look at all the things I have accomplished and look forward and make a list of all the things I will work on in 2014. So many blessings, my art quilts featured in a book, publishing my first quilt book, fabric designs, solo art exhibit at the museum are just a few. By taking the time to really look back at what I have done I can see where I have done well and where I need work. I am looking forward to bigger and better things this art filled year coming up, bring it on 2014. Here are a few of my holiday memories this year, tiny snapshots of life in December. Enjoy

The kids making mom a holiday plate

Our newest grandbaby was born, Bryce Scott

Kids making cookies

Chloe at Target pretending to be Santa

The skies as we did our Christmas Shopping

My Twelve Days of Christmas designs are now ornaments!

My mom being able to come down for the holiday and meet Bryce. 

Our Tree

My gift to Janae

Marta's beautiful Mantel

Snowball cookies waiting for people

Pillowcase gifts 

This is an actual picture of a rainbow over my house, I truly feel like the rainbow has left me a pot of gold. Merry Christmas to all of you who have made my year so special!

The Colors of our Christmas

This month on the Sketchbook Challenge the theme is colors of the holidays. I have so many colors that come to mind during the holidays that I took some time to think about this one. At our sketchbook class we painted ornaments, our favorite ornaments. In years gone by I have had many ornament parties for my artistic friends. They had to handmake their ornaments, actually twelve of them. At the party we all got to talk about the technique we used to make our ornaments and then everyone is given a box to collect one of each handmade ornament and take them home. I have so many wonderful ornaments that each year when I take them out of their tissue paper I remember that person that made it and pray for them. It is a special time for me since many of these friends have moved away.

I thought that I would share something very personal and special to me this season. It is a memory that is bittersweet, brought to forefront by a special remembrance that I bring out every year. Some of you may not know this story, some of you do, please forgive me if this is redundant.

Back in July of 2000, Jennifer, our third child, and only a week away from her 24th birthday, was hit by a drunk driver. It devastated our family, it changed all of our lives forever. She was critically injured and there was little hope she would live, but she did. She fought to stay alive and we fought for her! That Christmas, in 2000, Jennifer was starting to come out of a 4 1/2 month coma, the holidays were going to be hard at best. My mom, hated that fact that Jennifer was still in the hospital for the holidays and wanted to make sure she had a tree. She got these three artificial trees, more of forest type trees that came wrapped in burlap. She put lights on the trees and filled it with things that were special to Jennifer. A dove at the top to signify hope, a praying mantis since she loved bugs and to give her something she loved, an ornament with her name and lights to help her feel festive, an angel because that is what she was to all of us and we knew she had an angel watching over her. This little tree was delivered to Jennifer in the hospital and we plugged it in and enjoyed that little piece of Christmas when we didn't feel like celebrating at all. It reminded us that we still had so much to be thankful for, Jennifer had survived and we were Thankful to have another Christmas together. 

That tree has been set up every year in her room, as I plug in the lights I think about that horrible year and then the blessing of her surviving, something that many people thought was not survivable. It sits in her room today, a gift from my mom, that will always be so appreciated. That year we even sent out Christmas Cards, we had to hold Jennifers head up for the picture but we sent them out with the fragrance of thanksgiving. So I guess for me, the color of Christmas is this painting of a little tree that was given in love, to celebrate a life saved. It is multicolored and full of hope and love and blessings. 

Today Jennifer is a walking testimony to God's Love and Mercy. Jennifer has been telling her story on her blog, from her point of view, with our help since she was in a coma for so many months. If you are interested in reading about her amazing journey you can do so by going to http;//acrackedvessel.wordpress.com and go to the bottom so you can start at the beginning. She is an inspiration and her story is powerful. It is a story of hope, forgiveness and survival! We hope this Christmas you will remember what is really important and hug someone close to you, there are no guarantees that you have tomorrow.

Our family Christmas Card 2000, we have much to be thankful for, what is your color of Christmas?

Last minute art gift ideas

A Christmas Plate for mom

I'm not selling anything but instead sharing something I did recently with my grandkids. I want them to start thinking of the giving part of Christmas and not just the getting part of Christmas. I know that these lessons take time and it would help if they had chores where they made money to actually buy somethings but oh well. I also like to make gift giving creative and something personal so I found a local shop that does ceramics. You go in and paint or actually apply glazes and then they fire it and you have a gift. I happened to have the twins and their brother Nathan before Thanksgiving and I took them over thinking it would be fun. It was actually fairly expensive as you pay per person for the studio time and then you buy the ceramic piece to glaze but decided to do it anyway. I first picked a plate and had all three of them paint the plate and when they were done we did hand prints on top. The underside of the plate is full of their finger prints and they each signed their names! It actually looks like a mess of colors but it is perfect. Thank goodness I limited them to Christmas colors thinking this would be a great holiday plate, as messy as it looks to everyone else, I love it! I can see their handprints, their names, written in pencil first then I went over with glaze. Rachel tried to paint a tree, Nathan wrote "I love you Mom", Megan painted hearts, It's perfect! A plate made with love, and some arguing, for their mom this Christmas. They wanted to do more but I needed to limit my expense so I found 4" tiles. I thought these were cheap and they could paint several for gifts as coasters for other grandparents etc. I was surprised to see how much they loved doing this  and really got into it. We ended up spending 4 hours there! Jennifer even painted a few things as did I, I couldn't resist! Although it wasn't a cheap way to go, it was by far the most memorable. This gift will not be forgotten in the years to come but cherished, they will relive that day and compare their handprints every year as they unpack their Christmas cookie plate.

The back of the plate

Their painted coasters that are painted on both sides so are actually reversible!

Create everyday in November plus more!

I did actual accomplish the challenge, unfortunately I was unable to always get to my computer to post so I will catch up now. Life just happens sometimes and good intentions fall by the wayside. I had a fabulous month and Thanksgiving! The next day our youngest daughter gave birth to our last grand baby, Bryce Scott at 11lbs 5 oz., what a butterball! The following days were spent consumed in the excitement of our newest member of our family, the blessing of new life and the wonder of all things possible. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, a special way to start that special holiday season.

weird lighting in the hospital but I finally got to hold him once he was released from the NIC unit!

The warm fall colors are now giving way to crisper temps and barren trees. I have some last bits of fall to share before I jump into Christmas! So many projects are on my table and with limited time these days every moment counts. I am taking an "Organize your Art Biz" class from Alyson Stanfield. It has been great since things have a tendency of getting away from me in the flurry of creating. I hope to start the New Year off all put together! Its a process and taking some extra time too. I hope you all are making plans and setting goals for next year. Things you want to do, things you want to accomplish, things that you would like to start. Time has a way of slipping away if we don't plan and set timelines, just like my last week in November!  Now for my painting, I happened to be on a walk and collecting all the colored leaves I found, everything seems to be a blaze of color. Here is my latest leaves from my walk and of course my new grand baby!

Bryce Scott Meyer, our littlest butterball.