Chasing Bluebirds

Father/daughter painters

I have posted before about how my father taught me to paint, how I took several art classes in college and felt intimidated by my instructors. My confidence was pretty much destroyed and how my dad said the right thing at the right time and I spent several years painting almost daily with him. He was (and is) an amazing teacher and I wish he would paint again but understand he has no interest right now, it's just something you have to be "in the mood" to do. Oil painting is messy and can be a chore to set up, to go through the motions of sketching and filling in, feeling the mood and trying to get it "just right," knowing when to stop and then a big clean up job after. On my days off, it seems I have so many other "things" to do I have a hard time committing to that 3 or 4 hours of time needed to complete a painting yet I OBSESS over wanting to do it. Crazy! Right now the weather is in the 90's and I need to paint outside, not the best situation so I probably won't get out there again until after the Scotland trip.

For a few years now, since my grandfather passed away, we have been clearing out his house and a large painting of my dads was unearthed, literally dug out from the garage in a state of major disrepair. He says he painted it maybe age 13 or 15 with a Picasso/Cubist influence. I see it and immediately beg everyone to please let me have it, please! Of course it's got mold on the back, a hole right through, painted on some kind of particle board and isn't even finished. Hmmm.... perfect! Let's just say everyone looked at me like I was crazy and it became MINE! I thought I might tackle the job myself but was lucky enough to find a local frame shop run by a young artist who took the project on. She spent weeks cleaning it, drying it out, varnishing it and then framing it. I have mixed feelings when I look at it now, a mix of "love it" and a "what was I thinking?" too. To me art is a very personal thing. I never thought of myself as someone who really liked abstract art, I find some of it so simple and boring BUT even though this painting is strange it speaks to me and makes me think. I enjoy following the lines and colors around, it has movement and interest. I really have no idea what a professional art critic would say, love it or hate it? Who knows but if it's hanging in my house, I want something that catches my eye and makes me sigh and this sure does! 

When I told my dad about the project he immediately said, "I hope you didn't waste too much money on it!" shhhhh... I won't tell but I hope he likes it (he hasn't seen it yet) I admit I am nervous because in the past he has felt some of his work was "god awful" in his words and I know I am biased because he is my father so we'll see. It has been a really wonderful experience to finally have a few of my dad's paintings, I find myself gazing at them and stopping for a moment here and there to take in the details. Something is coming full circle for me, finally feeling confident in what I paint and what I want to put on my walls and how I feel about the experience I shared with my dad many years ago. Feels good!

italian adventure

so we are BACK! what a long long long and amazing trip. i could stay forever, but i have to admit it gets hard to really hoof it like you mean it every single day after 25 days. i became somewhat of a zombie by the time we got to istanbul (although the culture shock was exactly what i needed to give me a second wind) i plan on giving out more details of our itinery, in case my huge following is interested so stay tuned. for now, here are a few highlights:

emily at the harem in topkapi palace, istanbul
finding frances mayes house, cortona
pompeii (!!!!!)
trulli's!!!
the kids loved to take their own photos, lecce
recycled art, ostuni
our pad in puglia (dreamy)
so along with the many other things i've got going on, i'll try to get some organized posts together in case you are interested in taking a tour of southern italy. i spent so much time on the research (which i find is half the fun) i couldn't believe how well executed this trip went, there was seriously zero glitches and our expectations were often exceeded. ciao for now!

the big 40

happy birthday chris!

a little hazy blurry but a great early dinner and sunset watching on signal hill

bryce

how do you describe bryce national park in utah? hmm... well it is just about the most beautiful place i have ever seen in my life

i promise to bore everyone who would ever read my blog as much as i bored all my facebook friends with an endless borage of bryce photos (borage? is that spelled right?)
so for maybe a few weeks or months on end i will post all the photos i took.. for now though here are the fabulous pool pics from the KOA we stayed in just outside of bryce:


our first 4 days we spent in the "luxury" of a koa with showers and a pool... then we moved on to bryce, no hook ups (no electricity or water), luckily we had a wonderful bathroom and showers for 2 bucks. our solar panel worked wonders to keep our battery charged for evening lights (loved reading before bed)... i think the luxurious koa eased us into the roughing it at bryce. a few more pool pix:

i highly recommend southern utah for your next family vacation, what a beautiful and amazing state. national parks have never failed us and i feel such pride every time i visit a new one. i wish we could get our government to run as smoothly as our national parks... :)

Acoustic Tidal Artwalk

i have posted about this event in the past, this is our second time hosting a craft table and it went off without a hitch again. i wanted to get rid of some of my leftovers from camp fire meetings, my garage is packed to the rafters with so much "stuff" so i repeated things i have done before. 

clothespin people/creatures was a really big hit (with the adults too)
friendship bracelets (didn't have a good photo of that table but it's the crowded one you see here)
and last.... the poo poo pops! i saw this here and thought i would try it. basically a take off of the seed bomb idea.
clay dirt (from my own backyard of crappy clay) + worm castings (the "poo") and water mixed with seeds (we used the natives we have collected for years: poppies and sundflowers)
mixed up and then put into paper cups with a popsicle stick
once dry, just pop it into the ground. this was a big hit but i was very surprised that not ONE kid wanted to mix the dirt/seeds by hand!! i didn't bring a spoon but after i realized no one would touch the dirt i found a stick to stir it up. i had planned for dirty hands so had buckets of fresh water to rinse and baby wipes for extra clean up. strange, huh?
some artwork on along the water. basically this is a showcase for local artists and musicians (there is a stage set up) and art is hung on huge posts along the waters edge. it's a magical event with the sun setting behind the artwork, music playing, kids running around and the fresh air coming off the ocean. the lagoon is a section of wetlands that is in the midst of being restored and the same people who have saved it are helping with los cerritos wetlands. everyone working together to save what little wetlands remains here

the bottlecap chain was my favorite i think
feather earrings and extensions are all the rage here right now

someday i hope i can have a booth of my own paintings... we'll see!

obsessions

so lately i have been obsessed with farming and homesteading and gardening (put in tomatoes and peppers this week, maybe a tad bit early but we'll see) so i thought i would put out some of the cool websites i am really loving right now:

nest and the greenhorns have interesting ideas and the greenhorns has a list of farm blogs to last me a year

while tangerine dreams and. farmama.. a little out there for me but still fascinating 

two food blogs: green your plate and dinner: a love story 

from the cookie magazine folks: momfilter and travels with clara

projects i think are great: wwoof the movie and urban roots and the loog guitar.

for you locals: backyard bees and (the vanishing of the bees movie is on my wish list)

hoping for a trip to this farm someday

just finished this book and ready for the show... the marathon starts tomorrow on planet green, set your dvr!!

so all this plus the research i am doing for a future "dream" italy trip and camp fire meeting ideas, i am busy busy busy! hope you enjoy all these websites as much as i have and be inspired as well.

can't wait for the next trip, whatever it might be.

hitting the road

growing up my family had a tent trailer and we spent many weekends camping together around southern california, never venturing farther than a couple hours away (i think mammoth was the longest trip we ever took and that was maybe once or twice). i feel nostalgic toward this kind of camping, brings back so many fun memories. my parents pulled the trailer with a little truck my grandparents owned and even with the vw squareback we called "betsy" (so cool!) when i first met chris, we acquired a tent trailer from his parents and took a few trips with it but lost interest for some reason... maybe work and a second kid plus crowded local camp sites? the trailer was swapped for motorcycles and his sister took it with her to nebraska. over the years we have wished we had kept it but it was long gone. when chris mentioned wanting a new trailer recently i immediately began to think of all the trips i'd love to take, short weekend or midweek adventures popped into my head. a quick trip to colorado and new trailer owners we became (thanks to my incredible in-laws!!)

of course chris had to send my this photo with the caption "your new trailer"
our "real" new trailer
vegas here we come! (just kidding!!) :)

the REAL roald dahl museum post

ok, so here are the pictures of the actual museum! yay!

enter between these two funny buildings
there is a really cool cafe to the right (i had a fantastic "jacket potato")
inside shots are a bit fuzzy, phone and camera are crappy in poor light and it was raining that day... several museum type rooms with fun and creative stations for the kids
i think liz and emily were the perfect age for this museum
this was the shadow puppet theatre and there were stations to stamp a book you got at the beginning of the tour

characters from the movie fantastic mr. fox (and chris, clowning around)
while the girls colored in this fun coloring room, i walked around to see what other kids had done. there were lots of stations designed to help with story telling and story writing. i thought the combinations were neat (and some naughty, just like roald dahl)


the mother of all coloring rooms, unlimited supplies
there were school children there (dressed in suit and tie, both boys and girls) so we could not hear the story telling session (bummer) but we had fun watching them play. the girls were too intrigued to notice
classic:

view to the courtyard, so nice and clean
surprisingly not much about chocolate, but still a very nice collection of his work. the gift shop was to die for (still pining for a book i didnt buy) and lunch at the cafe "twit"and then a walk through town to the cemetery made a perfect day trip.
hope you enjoyed the tour!!

i heart travel

my newest obsession is this travel blog, i have spent an hour or more on it and am going crazy with travel lust. oh to have the funds for some of these vacations! i especially like the italian villas on the coast, this site keeps me busy for hours.
 the style of these pointy topped houses is called "trulli" and is from the puglia region of italy (the heel of the boot). there are houses along the coast made of mostly rock (small rocks too, how do they do that?) unfortunately i can't post the pics from this site, but i will put a few on with links so you can see what i mean!!

one of my favorites: here

 

survived camp shiwaka

spent the weekend recovering at camp gvl...

 

lost another tree to the bark beetle...
this tree hugger is bummed at the loss...
but we carry on. loving this artist and this at the moment (special note, the marcy playground is of amazing importance because i LOVED their breakthrough album and thought they were a one hit wonder. oh was i wrong!! all their albums are insanely good... just like the dandy warhols are so yummy... check them out and enjoy!)