Here I am!

To post or not to post. . . well for the last few months, you can see where I fell in that spectrum. But here I am again, wondering what I have to say. I think I've been using up all my words in a new writing jag I've been on. I have one manuscript for a children's book done, but I'm working on the illustrations for it. I have the first in a series of early reader books done. I'm in the beginning stages of a young adult novel -or it might just be a novel novel, and I'm trying to round out an essay I'm submitting. When I put it all down like that it sounds like I've been getting a lot done, which is comforting since I don't have anything to show for it all yet.

In writing I miss how immediate the results are with painting. I saw a documentary recently on the life of Georges Remi aka Herge the author/artist of Tin Tin. In it there was a point where he discussed wanting to be a fine artist rather than a cartoonist but he lamented that to be a fine artist he would have to live the life of an artist and that he couldn't fit two lives into his one. Something to that effect. It made sense to me.

My idea of starting an art collective has settled into a great Tuesday night tradition of painting/sketching/experimenting with a few friends and this has been a nice way to keep the creativity going.

On the farm here, spring is springing. It's all so beautiful it's almost cliche. This year I got ambitious about the garden and I also tried to design it a little more interesting than plain rows. The teepee you see in the center here has morning glory and moonflowers all at it's base and it should fill out to be a nice spot for the kids. Also the garden is made up almost entirely things that they could eat right off the vine. This is handy since Tully has developed a taste for mint, wild onions, sage and garlic chives. Her breath most nights, when I haul her in from the outdoors, is atrocious.

Project wise I'm still recovering from a bout of furniture painting that took me over as I sanded, primed, and painted two bedside tables as a welcome home present for Eric. Notice how sturdy these things are. The kids could climb all over them and they aren't going to tip over. I couldn't believe what they were charging in stores for the flimsiest little things. The shape of them is sort of classic seventies but with the paint I thought it looked stylish. I also found an old window in a shed here and I taped off the glass, spray painted it black and mounted pics of the kids, dogs and us to each pane and hung it above the bed. I think it looks fabu, but he didn't notice it until I mentioned it. I thought it would be nice to have our room look more like our room and less like the place we shove stuff not meant for the kids, only to have them drag their stuff into our stuff and leave all the stuff lying around. -Of course that only happens when you're blatenly neglecting them to finish silly over ambitious projects.