Brush in hand again!

We did a crazy thing today as a family - declared a "snow day" for our homeschool! There's not a single flake in sight and the sun is shining brightly. Call it playing hooky. Call it a day off. Call it whatever you want, but we all needed a day off so we thought it'd be fun to surprise the kids this morning by announcing there's no school! Hooray!!! 

I spent this morning painting - and oh, it was so wonderful to spread colors across canvas again! Dear brushes, you have been out of my hands for too long!

Bright summery colors were calling to me.

Winter grays are close at hand, but this bouquet will never fade! 

It was so much fun layering color upon color. I have no studio space, so our dining table was temporarily converted into a studio. No paint dripped onto the carpet (yet)! Last year my kiddos gave me a table-top easel that folds up into a neat little briefcase sized package. I feel like Wiley Coyote with his array of expanding Acme products every time I set it up! 

Recently I've been studying Dutch genre art, floral still lifes, and Vanitas paintings. So much beauty there. I was inspired to create my own version, minus the skulls and dead animals. 

Peek-a-boo! Snow days mean it's a no-makeup/don't do your hair day. This is all you get to see, glasses and all. No glam shots today! 

I will be back behind the easel soon; several blank canvases await!

To celebrate our snow day without snow, this painting is FOR SALE!

Find it in my etsy shop.

Settling in for Autumn

Autumn's colors are finally touching the leaves in our neck of the woods. I could sit by my kitchen window and marvel at the oranges in one tree alone! There's something about Autumn - a feeling of settling in, drawing comforts around you. The quilts and pillows have been coming out over these past few cold mornings. Hot cocoa consumption has increased. And soups grace my menus more frequently. Everyone is getting cozy for a long winter.

I found our Tufon Quilt I made awhile ago and decided it had been living in the wrong room. It was in my husband's library/office snuggled next to some dusty tomes of theology, but seemed so much happier listening to my kids read aloud on the sofa in the living room. I decided it needed a friend, so I made a quick pillow cover out of the quilt scraps. (I knew I had been saving those for a reason!)

I haven't sewn in quite some months; it was very soothing to create with fabric again. Almost like meeting a long lost friend. I got a bit caught up in digging through my fabric stash, pulling out old treasures, bits of lace, and other goodies. A few other projects are under the needle - I'll show those to you soon, after a few last touches are added.

Other touches of the season are showing up in my house. I never realized how much I used orange in my decorating! The outdoor colors must be influencing me.

Here's a corner of my mantle, slightly Halloween-y perhaps. I look forward to setting out "Cinderella's pumpkin" every year.

This afternoon I drew up this quick chalkboard art to fill a dead spot on a wall. This is chalk cloth, which really isn't that nice to write on. Must remember to find a real chalkboard sometime...

I spotted a small 4x6" canvas at the thrift store - some mama had donated her child's (very messy/abstract??) artwork! Well, I couldn't leave it there, so for $0.75 I picked up the world's cheapest wrapped canvas. I messy-painted over it and doodled a bit - now Jr.'s cast off art project has new life.

What do you do to welcome the fall season? The kids and I want to perfect a homemade hot cocoa recipe, learn to make marshmallows, and do some leaf collecting.

Happy creating!