Are We There Yet?

I can almost see it if I stand on my tippy toes and squint real hard . . .  
the faintest hint of  . . . .
wait for it!  -

photo credit

AUTUMN
 My absolute FAVORITE time of year.  This golden season slips by waaaaay to fast every year for my liking so I try to enjoy evey minute of it.  
So these last few mornings as I wake up to temperatures that begin just a hint cooler than a broiler oven the usual heat wave at 6.am, and a wad of kids' school supplies receipts replaces most of the money in my wallet, I find myself hyperventilating  eagerly anticipating the big yellow school bus (my kids don't ride it but that's not the point) and the parental happy dance that accompanies the return of my sanity  the First Day of School, which marks my favorite season.  ;)

THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO:

crisp sunny days and crisp crunchy leaves = perfect jogging weather

baking apple pies

picking out pumpkins and carving them

three words:  Pumpkin.  Spice.  Latte.

some new decorating DIY projects around the house with my fantastic kid-helpers (it's not child labor if they're having fun, right?)

a fun road trip to coast planned (photo adventure time!)

Halloween costume parties

Thanksgiving (I LOVE TURKEY)

Coming up with a fun birthday party for my son who turns 11 this year (any good ideas for a pre-teen's birthday please post your suggestions in the comments! )

Christmas present shopping ( I like to start mine in fall and be FINISHED by December 1st)

Dreaming up new Christmas dinner recipes to try ( Mmmm MORE TURKEY!)  If you have any good ones please feel free to share and I will post on this blog (to your credit of course ;)




What seasons and their accompanying activities/festivities  do you look forward to?

Standing on my tippy toes and squinting really REALLY hard,
-J







 

Weekly Friday Favorites

woot woot!  It's my favorite day of the week again! Somehow fridays are always more productive for some reason. Maybe there's motivation to work harder knowing there's a day off coming? who knows, haha. 
here's some favorites of mine this week:

These handmade "coffee cozies"

photo credit

Besides keeping your hands protected from the scalding hot coffee to-go cups, it's re-usuable  (aka enviro- friendly) and personalized - so you can tell your drink apart from everyone else's ( helpful when you buy a round of coffees for all your friends or coworkers!) and TOTALLY ADORABLE ( who doesn't love puppies?)

I want one!

 

 

THIS perfume has been my favorite wear-it-every-day-'cause-it-smells-divine scent for years now

photo credit

I actually have almost run out of it (again) and so I'm trying desperately to limit myself to just wearing it occasionally until I can get more. In the meantime, I've just been wearing a good 'ol standby, vanilla oil from The Body Shop.

 

The three little words:

 

 

For some strange reason my kids don't like these words nearly as much as I do, hahaha!  But the school supplies shopping is a fun part, and we always have a back-to-school party with, you guessed it - CUPCAKES!

 

Speaking of school, that brings me to my next favorite,

This painting: by one of my favorite artist's, Elsie Larson of Red Velvet Art

 

Photo credit

I wish I could fill my entire house with her paintings. Love love love!

 

The kids and I are still mid-way through our painting project so that still has to be finished up this weekend. Tonight is our regular "Friday pizza and a movie" night (can hardly wait!) and hopefully tomorrow we can finish painting the walls and do some grocery shopping down across the line in "the Americas". School supply shopping might get postponed till Sunday, and I still have preparations for the baby shower next week. Oh, and at some point I have to reorganize the supply closet in my art studio, and a few home closets as well.

That concludes my to-do list for the weekend. What are your plans?

 

Weekends fuller than my unorganized closets, 

-J

 

 

 

inspiration.

I didn't take these photos, these are some things that are inspiring me lately...

 

 

Last week I watched Tim Burton's "Alice In Wonderland" . Twice. I'm in love with all the colors in this movie and all the bizarre concepts Burton comes up with!

photo credit
If there's anything I love more than cupcakes or pie.... it's cupcakes that LOOK like little pies! Awesome. (and a little bit '"Alice in Wonderland"-seeming, don't you think? ) I'm going to try this idea out. Maybe for the baby shower I'm hosting next week? We'll see...

photo credit
This tree swing makes me want to spend an afternoon daydreaming.  These days I've been feeling a little restless, creatively speaking.  Sometimes an afternoon spent out of the studio can be good for the soul. But seriously, who am I kidding? When I feel restless I usually just wind up re-organizing my kitchen cupboards at 2.a.m.!  What do you do when you're feeling restless and you need to get the creative juices flowing?

photo credit
This artist's loft.  I could totally imagine living in something like this one day!

photo creditas always, seaside sunsets and surfboards inspire me to keep my goal of finally learning to surf one day! haha 

I 've been loving the hot sunny weather we've been having here these days. But I can't say I'll be too disappointed when we get the first cool drizzle of rain either, I've been craving an evening to stay inside and wear cozy pajamas, eat crepes drizzled with butter and powdered sugar and listen to music while I stay up late working on a new painting project!

What's been inspiring you lately?
-J


 

The Two-Day Work Week Is My Favorite

Since we went camping last week, I actually had one of my dreams come true: a "two day work week" ! My only regret is that it was a one time deal and I wished it could be like that every week, hahaha! ( although I'm sure my bank account wouldn't like that very much ;)  Thus, my dream was short-lived, haha.
 Ok!  So since I had alot of work crammed into a short work week I only just finished my draft for my weekly favorites today, 

Favorite #1  the Artist Rising website

                                                                           (sreenshot)

I'm all registered and ready to start selling my photo prints, as well as some original paintings, Whoo hoo! I should have my artist profile and listed items showing up on the site by next Monday. I'll post a link here on my blog as soon as I see it up ;)

Favorite #2 Feather Earrings.... make unique rearview mirror decorations!

Yup, I hung one in my car of all places. ( I know, I'm a weirdo!)
My friend and business partner Kendall (whom I've featured here before) was window shopping last weekend and spotted some gorgeous turquoise feather earrings.  And she just knew they needed a home - with me! So she picked them up for me ( thanks again, girl!)   I love feather earrings so much I've already done a whole blog post about them before hahaha. (click here to see the very first one I bought and the story about why I love them so much) .  I thought I would share with you a photo of the newest ones I got to add to my collection this week. I only ever wear one at a time ( I usually wear a silver hoop earring in the other ear for added "unique-ness") And, since I tend to lose more earrings than I can count, (the other reason why I usually wear mismatched earrings, haha)  I hung the other one from the rearview mirror of my car so that if I lose the one I'm wearing I always know exactly where my spare is hahaha!
Personally I like how it looks with my miniature wooden surfboard!


Favorite #3 Watkins Bite Balm

photo credit
My most important "must have" item for camping - especially when you have kids!!  I haven't found anything that works as quickly as this stuff when it comes to instant relief from pesky bug bites. (note: this stuff works wonders on horse-fly bites too!)

Favorite #4 -  latte art
I saw this and thought it was too adorable. My friend Ashley loves giraffes so I sent it to her cellphone cause it made me think of her.  I was a barista once upon a time ( a very very long time ago, in a land far far away) and I was pretty good at it but my talents fell far from drawing animals with milk foam!

(photo credit)     I found this on Elsie Larson's blog, somewhere in the archives one day.(I'm obsessed with her blog lately - She's incredibly inspiring, I love love love her creations!)


Favorite #5   handmade nail decor from cut vinyl.

My creative genius friend Barb "kidnapped" me on my lunch break yesterday and surprised me with a lovely lunchtime manicure/pedicure while we visited and caught up on each other's lives. She is so sweet the way she surprises me with things like this, just to make me feel special when she knows I've been stressed or worn down. I couldn't ask for a more thoughtful friend! She cut the hearts from crafting vinyl, painted them with nail polish and then set them on my freshly polished nails, and added a little flower on top for added cuteness.
She doesn't know it yet, but I'm working on a little surprise for HER as well!

I'm off to finally learn how to do canning (I'm canning yummy Okanagan fruit to stock up before the season in over!)

I  hope you all have an inspired week!
-J

More Favorites ....

Time for this friday's favorites again.  I hope you have all enjoyed your week, and if not, cheer up because it's nearly over!  We've had an especially busy week around here and it's going to be busy right on into the weekend a bit. But you know what? That's okay because first thing next Monday morning I'll be packing up the kids to go camping for a few days! Really looking forward to that and you can count on a post with the camping pics once we're back.

Favorite #1 - THIS FACE :)  I was looking through photos to add to my photo gallery and I came across one of my adorable sons at age 10 months. Look at those cheeks! mwaaa!

Favorite # 2  - Red Velvet cupcakes

photo credit

My longtime obsession with these delicious southern treats was only deepened this week after making a whole batch of them and topping them with fresh local cherries. I would have posted one of my own photos of the ones I had made, but in all honesty we ate them all before I even thought of reaching for my camera, haha!  

Favorite #3 - peaceful places to think (or read!)

Doesn't the branch of this tree look like the perfect "chair" to sit on and think deep thoughts? haha. It's right along one of my favorite running routes and each time I run past it I tell myself that I'm going to sit on it one day and read a book! (I sense a new year's resolution brewing)

Favorite #4 - tiny baby birds!

My mom took this photo - I've never seen birds this young before, she took this photo right after she watched them hatch!   Way to catch a photo op, mom ;)  I'm so proud!)

Favorite #5 - good friends ;)

My girl Jocelyn on the right, my former roommate and one of my good friends, with whom I have shared many adventures with over the years is coming to visit this weekend, yay! Yes I realize this photo is not in any way professional and ridiculously unflattering, but I love that cause it makes me laugh every time I see it!

What are some of your favorites this Friday? Comment below!

More hugs than cupcakes,

 -J

Friday Favorites

Fridays are usually bittersweet for me. It means the end of the workweek (yay!) and it also means I have to say goodbye to two my amazing children as they go to their dad's for the weekend ( awww man!) . It means  I finally get precious alone time spent and alot of that time winds up being used to take care of mudane weekend tasks/chores that still need taking care of ( awww man!) .
In light of this I try to keep focused on the postive and so I'm proposing a Friday Favorites weekly post, to keep everyone's spirits up as the weekend approaches and hopefully challenge YOU to pick out your top five ( or heck, even ten) favortie things!

#1 - funky cellphone camera options

Take a look at this simple beautiful yellow gerber daisy. I played with my phone camera's options and settled on the "negative" option for this one. I thought it looked kinda funky.  Here's the "normal" (aka "boring" shot)

BUT I love love love the actual color of this flower. I wish my cellphone had a better camera to capture the intensely rich yellow, it's one of my most favorite colors!


#2 - frozen blended lattes
a yummy and much needed pick-me-up during the summer to help pull me out of the mid-afternoon slump ;)

(all you awesome girls at JoJo's cafe totally rock!)

#3 - the beach

I joke that I've become a "local" in the destination resort town that I live in because the summer is half over and I've barely been the beach at all, and not even once for a swim! haha

#4 - this fun card!

The adorable card was made by my beautiful, creative mentor and friend Barb - who is one of my most favoritist people on the whole planet! Make sure you head on over to her blog  to see how she made it, and for all you digital scrapbookers out there, she has lots of freebies as well as amazing elements you can buy! 

#5 - These guys ;)  These two are my ALL TIME FAVORITE ever! xoxo.  I consider myself the luckiest, most blessed Mama on the planet to be blessed with the privilege of growing these two sweet boys into strong, compassionate men!

Ok! well I hope this inspired you keep your thoughts on all the wonderful blessings in your life as you head into the weekend.
  I'm headed into the city to rescue some friends from an hour-long channel float, and then make them feed me,  haha!