How was your weekend?  I have a love/hate relationship with Monday.  On one hand, the weekend is over, enough said.  On the other hand, the house is quiet and MINE for a whole six hours or so.

I added a few new paintings to the floodline, if you are interested and more will be going in as the week moves forward!

]

I am so excited to announce that I will be hosting a ‘Girl Crush Art Workshop and Tea Party’ in my studio along with the lovely lady behind the amazing blog The Jealous Curator.   The idea for these workshops came out of a post she did for sfgirlbybay here and a  ‘post about how fun it would be to have an artsy “girl crush tea party”.  The day in my studio will be on Saturday, June 9th.

The why of it:

To walk away from our computers, and actually meet in person for a glorious, creative, pastry-filled day. To figure out a way to break through artist blocks. To get inspired, and recharged. To celebrate being women artists… and obviously, to have a reason to eat lots of pretty little cakes & tarts in the middle of the day!

The artists she has lined up are pretty amazing (Allyson Fox, Lisa Congdon and Samantha French)  and I feel pretty honored to be chosen as the Portland artist to host.

You can go here to sign up and see more about what we will be doing that day, I can’t wait.  I hope you can make i!

I just came across this artist working with soot on pinterest, which led me to this video on design milk.  You must watch.  Even though the method I use in my floodline series is very different, I find myself inspired to continue pushing my work, always a good thing.

We have snow in the forecast this weekend (though I always take that with a grain of salt around here).  It would be nice to have a light dusting so we can sit around with hot cocoa in front of the fire.  Other than looking with hopeful eyes to the sky, my goals for the weekend are:  a lovely breakfast with almond croissants and dark coffee, some time to finish up a couple of portraits, work on some new floodline pieces and watch this movie.  Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?

image via

Sometimes I get pie for the family to have for dessert just so I can have a piece for breakfast the next day.

I’m having quite the love affair/obsession/fascination with creating these pieces.  Here are a few more…

I was just doing my daily look around the blog world and came upon one of my pieces (boy in the black bow tie) in Victoria’s house, which also happens to be featured in the current West Elm catalog!  Double yay!

How’s your Monday going so far?   I finally feel back up to speed after the holiday’s.  I plan to do an update in my floodline shop this week, so check back!

Happy New Year!  I took the last week or so to just completely unwind with no expectations on myself.  It felt good.  Now, I’m ready to look forward again and be inspired and make new work.  Here are a few pieces I just completed in my floodline series.

 a wonderful holiday!

via

I’m nearing my last few days of getting orders out before I can relax and enjoy the holidays!  Tonight I’m hosting a little dinner party for a group of moms I have been friends with since my daughter was just a baby, so ten years!  I am so grateful to be able to count this group of women as friends.  We have evolved over the years from a weekly playgroup for the kids to a book club.  We’ve seen each other through births and deaths.

So I thought I include my favorite holiday tradition for our party, Christmas crackers.  This year I decided to make my own and while more work, definitely worth it, I think.  You can find a ton of tutorials on the actual process. I watched a few on you tube and I bought supplies from here.  The fun part, though, is filling them.  I bought fun cocktail rings for each cracker and included the traditional crown and joke, as well.

My days lately are filled with a little bit of this

and a little bit of that

Where did the week go?  This weekend I have many a plan.  The first being to work and work some more.  I want to have everyone’s portraits in the mail this week, so I’m gathering some movies/shows/music to push through a couple of late nights.  I also want to stop by this and do a little shopping.  Also, we got our daughter this book for Christmas so I’ll be stopping by to get it signed!

Have a lovely weekend!

Have a beautiful weekend!

(a quick pic taken while bringing a horse in from the pasture)

All the gift guides out there got me in the mood to do a few of my own.  These are things that I have come across and loved.

FOR HER (aka as things I’d feel lucky to find under the tree;)

sconce  / oval cabochon ring  /   earthenwear pitcher  /    brown leather doctor bag

edit: btw I know that sconce is rather indulgent, but I’m having quite an obsession with it, so I had to add it

FOR HIM

astronomical drawings  /  wood headphones  /  to my health flask  /  audio lightbulb

FOR KIDDO

draw your own flip book  /  bank  /   feather clips  /  horse print

Happy December!  Though I’m not quite ready to decorate for the holiday’s (I like to wait about a week into December), I do rather enjoy the planning.  Pinterest has been a wealth of holiday inspiration this year, what did I do before it existed!  When we do decorate for the holiday’s, this is what I’m going for: simple, beautiful, a bit of a scandinavian influence, and of course, the new She and Him Christmas album in the background.

1.  perfect table via here  2. clean and simple  via here  3.  my favorite wrapping paper of the season (and maybe of all time) via here  4.  paper yarn found here   5.  brilliant little wreaths (perfect gift tags/table seating) via here  6.  favorite new holiday music here

more on my pinterest holiday board here

I’m finding our dark days here really beautiful lately, as well as, an empty house and the quiet that comes with that.

Also, loving this video…

I have a little sale going on in my etsy store, 20% off all purchases!  This will be good through Sunday.  Just enter FRIDAYNOIR at checkout!  Also a few new prints have made their way to the shop, happy shopping!