bucket list progress

awhile ago i posted some bucket list items here and here.

well....a few of those things have been checked off my list.  hard to believe, but it's true.


1.  get married in the Salt Lake City temple

August 25, 2006.  i married my best friend.

2.  become a mother

my sweet princess...the second time i became a mother.  

18 weeks in utero...2009.
i have the two most amazing children i could ask for.

3.  confront and forgive my abuser

4.  dye my hair black

october 2010.  i kind of miss it.  it made me feel exotic.  

5.  play Frank Lloyd Wright's piano 

may 2004.  i played "polonaise in G minor" by chopin.

6.  own red high heels

bought my first pair this month...february 2013.  i LOVE them.

7.  have my own gallery show.  even if it means building my own gallery in my backyard out of refrigerator boxes and inviting the neighbors.

8.  visit europe...paris, london, venice, florence, prague, rome.  at least.

9.  see a rothko, pollock, and klimt in person.

the first time i saw a rothko painting, on my birthday...december 30, 2012.  

i cried, it was so beautiful and i couldn't believe i was finally seeing one.

the first pollock i saw...happened to be the same day i saw an original rothko!  

it was amazing.

10.  feel beautiful.

11.  be able to sit for five minutes and feel nothing but peace...no worry, anxiety, depression.  just peace.

12.  watch my children grow up to be happy people.

13.  finish an associate's degree.  finish a bachelor's degree, maybe a graduate degree.  in art.  

graduated with an associate's of science with honors, may 2012 

14.  feel like a real artist...not an amateur pretending to be a real artist.

15.  have a room in my house that i can hang art prints all over, so when i'm depressed, i can walk into that room and be surrounded by joy.

16.  find out the secret to being happy.

17.  go to the smithsonian, moma, louvre, musee d'orsay and any other art museum i can get myself to.

18.  see a broadway play on broadway.

19.  fly.....

20.  watch a sunset that takes my breath away from beginning to end.

21.  write a book.

22.  learn to play clair de lune.  if not perfectly, then at least accurately.

23.  take more piano lessons.  get better at playing.  find time to practice.

24.  learn to make those around me happy.  with no reservations.

25.  speak another language passably.

26.  purchase an original work of art that i love.  buy a couch to match the art.  inform couch salesman that it is ridiculous to buy art to match a couch.  it should be done the other way around.

27.  paint something i am truly happy with, that i can look at without second guessing or critiquing.

this one is pretty close....january 2013.

28.  own a four-poster canopy bed.

29.  dress up in a regency ball gown.

30.  be a good person, wife, mother, daughter and friend.

31.  sleep under the stars on a clear night; learn to identify a few constellations.

32.  finish my kids' scrapbooks

33.  play roller derby

34.  mail something in to post secret

35.  put blue highlights in my hair

36.  own as many animals as i can--including a giant fishtank

37.  have another baby.  before i'm 30.

38.  inspire someone to do something great.

39.  figure out what i really believe about life and religion, without worrying about what anyone else thinks.  (this one is a work in progress.)

40.  hire a maid to clean my house top to bottom while i sit on the couch and read a magazine and drink an ice cold coke.  pretend i'm a millionaire.

41.  find new friends and be comfortable in our new home--we are moving cross-country in two months.  acclimate to a totally different region and culture of the US, and support my hubby in graduate school the way he needs and deserves. (this one is also a work in progress.)

things i love

being the kind of person that i am, i feel passionately about things.  typically this means i either love something or hate something....or am totally ambivalent.  there aren't many "in-between" emotions.  and, sometimes, i can feel passionately about something and both love and hate it.

it is (generally) in my nature to be an optimist.  often this drives hubby nuts...because he worries, and i just say, "everything will be fine."  or he's stressed about something, and i just say, "no worries, relax.  everything will work out."  we balance each other pretty well in that regard, i think.

there are a lot of things i love.  a few days ago, the kids and i made "things i love" hearts.  theirs turned out pretty awesome, i have to say.

here is mine.  of course, there are a thousand more things i could have listed, but these are the things that stood out to me that day.

but of course, the thing i love most...my man.

studmuffin hubby + cornnut forever, baby.

so what do you love?  what would you include in your heart?  make one and share!

blackbird

this song is so beautiful to me.....listening to it makes me feel so happy, and so inspired.

just thought i'd share a little of that inspiration with you.







(if you haven't seen Across the Universe, you definitely should....LOVE that movie.)

rainbows and books

 this art journal thing is pretty awesome.  i'm really enjoying myself.

found this quote on pinterest...turned it into my own work of art.  i like this...it's good to remember.  the hard times, the scary things, the unknown--they all lead to the good things in life.  new experiences, new people, new chances to learn.

another idea from pinterest--these are my children's hands.  optical illusion....they bring color and life and a thousand shades of emotion to my life.

and this one is just self-explanatory.  :)

anyone else out there use an art journal?

5th birthday

today my little buddy turned 5.

exactly five years ago at this moment, i was holding my brand new baby boy...only 3 hours old.  and marveling at the tiny creature that had come from me.

today i held my big five year old...and marveled at how grown up he is.  how intelligent, and sweet, and sensitive...and that he came from me.

i am so proud to be the mother of this amazing little boy....who isn't so little anymore.

five years old.....

art journaling: the beginnings

a few days ago i decided that i was going to start creating more art.  i've been a bit more prolific with my art production in the last few months with my painting (more on that in another post), which is awesome, but pulling my paints out and getting everything together isn't very convenient sometimes.  hauling a sketchbook and prismas around is more so.

i've posted about how much i love pinterest before (it's a creative person's paradise).  after seeing examples of art journals i decided i wanted to create my own.  many of the art journals i've seen are very beautiful--and very elaborate!  i don't have hours a day to devote to an art journal entry, not to mention the right kind of sketchbook and supplies.  so i'm doing an art journal MY way, with my choice of materials.

this sketchbook is a really nice one--and one that my AP art teacher gave me when i graduated high school in 2004.  (yes, i've been holding on to it that long!)  when i opened it up there were two drawings in it (rather ugly ones, i might add).  out they went.  i typically don't like to rip pages out of bound sketchbooks but i made an exception in this case.  it has probably 200 pages of plain paper in it.  perfect.

my choice of media is pretty typical for me as well--prismacolor pencils (both standard and verithin) and sharpies.  i LOVE sharpies.  colored sharpies, black sharpies, thick sharpies, thin sharpies, angled sharpies, paint sharpies, fabric sharpies....i love how smooth they are on paper, and the way they smell, and the brightness of the colors.

and thus my art journal was born.

this was my first page--an illustration of what is most important to me.

it is true...what i love most about my home is who i share it with.

my handsome, genius, hardworking husband.  my sweet, intelligent son.  my spitfire, loving daughter.

my home wouldn't be HOME without them.