More hours in a day please!

Vacation week here in Maine. It went by quickly and most uneventfully. I had 2 sick children for most of the week. Needless to say, not much work getting done, but lots of cooking, movie watching and planning our future. As a family we are pretty environmentally aware, we recycle, repurpose, use solar power for our electricity & hot water, drive an efficient vehicle, turn lights out, heat down, sweaters on, buy local.
But we realize we need to do more. We are planning our spring garden. Hoping to grow a good portion of our food and planning on buying locally grown & raised foods. We decided to compost more, learn to can and put up our surplus veggies. So I have been searching for other ways to store veggies, aside from the vast amounts of sauce I make each year. I will be looking for new ideas like this. We will be looking for new recipes to utilize all our garden's bounty. I am so excited, just another reason I cannot wait until spring.

Funny Valentine

My daughter loves to bake! She found this recipe for cute little valentine treats here littlewindowshoppe.com and whipped up a batch for her friends. I was also the lucky recipient of some fab Valentines today from my kiddos & my husband. Hope your day was filled with love.

I Love to Print

It is a fact... I love to print, on fabric, paper, books, you name it, I Love to make my mark on it. I am taking a great class at MECA ( Maine College of Art ) called Repeat,Repeat,Repeat, learning the basics of repeat pattern printing and exploring various relief printing techniques. Needless to say for me it has been a blast. I particularly am loving the Xerox lithography. Who knew you could print right from paper? Not me. Here are a few from Monday nights class. The pink one at the bottom will be going to my Valentines!

I miss getting ART every day from my children.

At 14 & 11 the days of my children hanging out in my studio every day while I work are gone. My daughter will visit on occasion to make a dress, sew a quick something or chat. My 11 year old guy will come up to make a duct tape wallet, a Funkster (his stuffed creations) or visit with a friend to draw or paint. The visits are fewer & fewer as they age and become more involved with friends & sports. I miss the busy little fingers, the oh so joyful voices declaring how great & special the drawing is and who they would be giving it to. I have boxes & boxes of their artwork. I cannot part with them. And even though I still get the ever-so-cherished handmade birthday & mother's day cards I do miss the daily fix of their creative energy, so GLORIOUS & PURE.