More Introductions

Silly Amarie, I forgot some of the most IMPORTANT introductions in my life, my munchkins!





This is my Emmy, head of my munchkins, She's a very grown-up 8 year old who is a book worm and loves tea parties (ahh a girl after my own heart) She is trying to grow up to fast sometimes, so I like to bring her back with silly stories, dance parties, and just general silliness. She is always choreographing dance moves and theater productions for her little siblings, and makes me so proud!







This is my Natty, oh my what a character she is, her imagination soars and she loves to make friends with everyone she meets, we get very into our make-believe stories, and at 6 years old she is constantly surprising me with how creative she is, she would much rather take a story from the cockles of her mind then read a book (unlike Emmy) Her silliness makes her a handful but she always makes up for it :)






(her dinosaur face)

Oh my my my, this little girl has me by the heartstrings and she more then knows it. Miss Molly loves to be the center of my attention and gets to quite often actually, when her older sisters are at school and her brother is napping. She is a very creative 3 year old, shes always asking me if we can, and I quote, "craft something pretty" she is my little artist, always drawing me pictures and wanting me to show her how to make things, she is a crafty little girl with such a bright future. She knows how to mix all sorts of colors and her drawing skills and ability to craft impress me daily, I love her so much she can do no wrong in my eyes, but being 3 years old does come with difficult moments and she is going through all of them, she has taught me so much about patience and unconditional love!








The final Munchkin, Tyty. hes 2 and loves to tell you that. This is by far the most rough-and-tumble little boy I've ever met, but what can you expect, he has three older sisters! He LOVES trains, can tell you all about them, and always wants a book on trains read to him. I've loved watching his personality develop over the last two years and I'm excited to see who he becomes later on in life. He speaks like a little old man, its so sweet!







So no, these aren't my children, but I've been taking care of them since the day Emmy was born, I can't imagine my life without them, they're my munchkins and I love them as if they were my own, and being there all their lives I get as over protective of them as their real mamma. I'm so proud of them and it still scares me how fast the last 8 years have just flown right on by, I take no moments for granted and if I can teach them anything in life I want it to be that they should be happy just as they are and love themselves dearly.

The first thing I've ever won!

I love to enter giveaways and contests, but I never win, its still fun to see what people was to give others, I can always tell its the things they are most proud of :) anywho, I digress, I WON SOMETHING! what makes this better is that it was a give away from OzmaOfOdds , I have an affinity for loving her and her blog, I might as well say it, I LOVE the original Oz books, and Ozma is my favorite character, I'm even getting her portrait tattooed on my arm soon :) so the fact that this blog is suuuper duuper cute and her name is from the fairy girl princess of OZ just makes me love her more! but she did a sweet little give away and picked me as the winner!!! I feel so special!!! Thank you my fellow OZ lover!

I won some yuuuuummy looking candies, AND a pretty pretty slip like this one:


yay!

Children

It's amazing how fast they grow up,



This is how I picture him!


But then one day I blinked...and he grew into this!

Home Decorating

Just wanted to share some pretty pictures with you.




Don't have any flowers? sometimes lettuce can be just as pretty on a table :)


I LOVE these pillows, ones embroidered, one is felt













{all pictures are my own}

Picture a day

I've been doing this picture a day thing for 49 days right now, and I'm thinking I'll post some every now and then, I personally don't think I'm a photogenic person so I rarely took pictures of myself, and I wanted my new years resolution (one of them) to be to change that, so I've been taking a picture of me each day, and I did start a little early (December 8th I believe) so here are a few of ones in the past, just to get caught up to date



December 8th



December 10th


December 12th



December 24th


January 11th


January 16th


January 24th


I encourage everyone to try Picture a day, it kinda forces you to dress up a little bit and try to feel pretty, I think my fashion sense has greatly improved since I started this little project :)

Red Velvet Art's blog party

Red Velvet Art is hosting a 24 hour blog party in honor of their 1 year anniversary! I respect and admire these women so much, they're truly living the dream! Go over and check it out on Elsie's Blog. Rachel posted a suuuper awesome tutorial, and I used mine for my school notebook! yay!

Artists I Respect and Love

There are so many artists whose work I admire. And there are even more artists whose work influences me, not only in the style in which I paint, but also in the way I view the world, certain artists inspire me to see things from a different perspective or with a different train of thought, and it makes me happy to be able to learn from them. Here are a handful of my favorites right now:

Laura Berger






Katya Hutchinson-Tiner










David Weidman

Shoe Pictures!

I love taking pictures of feet and groups of people's shoes! Its fun because it shows a different angle on the world and lets face it, everybody loves shoes, they're functional art :) so I wanted to share some of my favorite shoe pictures!
My best girlfriends and I in a vintage store in Long Beach

















My kids I babysit, My little girl loves taking pictures!

Painting painting.

I started painting when I was 9. My mom took me to a frame shop to get something framed and I was wandering around and noticed there were a bunch of people painting in the back room. This nice man named Ed gave me a tour and I was very taken by this boy who was building a robot out of boxes, so my mom signed me up to be a part of the studio, Ed really took me under his wing and let my creative juices flow, I took apart old computers and old frames and got really into making 3d art and sculptures. One day he asked me if I wanted to try out oil painting and I said sure!

This was my first oil painting I ever did, I was 9 years old and loved it! since then I've done about a hundred paintings, ranging from abstract to pop art to whatever popped into my head.
(I was about 13 when I painted this one)

It relaxes me a lot to just sit down, put on some good music and paint what comes to my brain, but I do have a chronic habit of rarely finishing paintings I start lately,


This is one I just started tonight, I actually kind of like it at this stage so I may declare it finished already.

My favorite art project to this day is a large scale pop art piece I did in High school, based off the simpsons donut, made with old bed sheets, hair curlers, house paint and a LOT of gesso.