Turning 30

Earlier this week I turned the BIG 3-0!

That happened fast, but I am excited for my thirties.

The past month I have reflected the last decade of my life and I have been greatly blessed and it's been fun to look back to see what all I have achieved. Dustin and I started dating when I was 19 so this has been ten birthdays together. We got engaged, got married, had Thomas 11 months later, and graduated from college 3 weeks after that. Several moves, a house, and more kids. This past decade has been mainly birthing children, ha ha. But I'm excited for this next stage in my life. Anyway, here are some pictures from the last decade.

Wicked and Waco Texas

April was such a fun month!

A couple of weeks ago Dustin and I went to Wicked!!!! You have no idea how excited I was about this. I practically was running to the theater and jumping up and down while we were waiting for the show to start! I saw it eight years ago and have been wanting to see it again, I told Dustin I will probably go again when it's in Dallas again. And I cried during the show!?! Ha ha I was that excited, I don't know why I was so emotional. And I get goosebumps every time I listen to the song Defying Gravity, so good.

Then last week, my friend, Kelly, and I went to Waco Texas to go see the Magnolia Store, from the "Fixer Upper" tv show.  We left first thing in the morning and stopped at a yummy bakery that we came just in time for because when we left there was a line wrapped around the building. 

Then Magnolia! The store was adorable of course, and I wanted everything! But ended up getting a shirt, which I thought was funny because I really wanted to get something for my house but ended up with a shirt. Then afterwards we hung outside the outdoors which is also fun. There is a grassy area that you can play soccer or any sport, and by that they had some swings that were adorable.  There were also picnic tables all over and food trucks; it was a really cool hang out place, and later the workers brought these really cool bean bags for people to lounge on the grass. 

Kelly and I ended up getting some crepes which were delicious, I would highly recommend that if you ever go.

Then after we had to Harp Designs. There was also a lot of cool stuff there. I really want the candle sticks from there.

Then we hung out at a park and our last stop was cupcakes that we knew Joanna would get all the time. Then we headed home. It was so fun we are planning on going down again during the fall/Christmas season!

Being an Artist is Hard, Being a Mother is Hard

(This is a post I started last week but never really finished so I'm posting now)

This week I was really bad at taking pictures of the boys and our daily lives, so I thought maybe this would be a great opportunity to flush out some thoughts I have in my head lately, so this posts in mainly for me and probably will be random.

I don't know where I want to begin with this post...

Being an artist is hard, it's emotionally draining sometimes. Being a mother can be hard, and emotionally draining as well, so when you combine the two, well, it's emotionally draining.

I love art, it's such a big part of my life, and I honestly feel like it's my calling in life.

Speaking of calling in life.... This year I really have felt like I need to push my art, which has been a scary and frustrating thing. It's scary to put yourself out there and get rejected or have the fear of getting rejected. I don't think people know how much soul one puts in their artwork and it's hard when people don't appreciate it.  It's frustrating when I plan to paint that night and I end up having to take care of sick children. But I try to put all the negative thoughts my head and keep going.

This past Saturday our Stake had a Relief Society conference. And the theme was "women who know" and women who create. And they wanted sisters to bring something to display what they like to  "create" so I brought over some framed prints.
In the conference they talked about all the women in the scriptures. Then afterwards they had some workshops and one of the workshops the speaker did a wonderful presentation about the Female Mormon artist Minerva Teichert. I'm pretty sure I was teary-eyed most of the presentation because I felt like I could really relate to the artist. She gave up a lot art opportunities to be a mother and for her children, and that she would paint between chores and late at night when the kids were in bed. She was rejected a lot in her career but at the same time had a lot of success. She painted huge murals in her living room, it made me feel better about my studio in the corner of our bedroom:

And it was something I need to hear and I'm so grateful that I went. Anyway, I have more thoughts, but one is busy. Anyway here is some homework that I have been working on this past week. It's been hard but I'm learning loads.

Also this past week I helped a friend with a photo shoot for a bunch etsy shops to show their produts. I said I would only do it if I can put one of my prints in the shoot ;) anyway it was a lot of fun, since I love staging things and taking pictures of it.

I'm Still Here

I feel like it's been a while since I have blogged, so a little catch up.

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging, I have been busy.  All of a sudden I have been busy doing a lot of photo shoots. In this past month I have had five people come up to me to do their pictures. So I have been busy finding new photo shoot locations, taking photos, and editing photos.
So people ask if I'm a photographer? I'm leading on "no" I don't love it as much as illustration, but as I have been having more clients, and have done more photo shoots it has become more enjoyable for me, but it's something I haven't been pushing to get more business, so I don't advertise but I don't say no either. Ha so I don't know what to say? Yes, I'm kind of a photographer....

Another reason I have been busy is I really want to push on my art career this year. I have an Etsy shop open now, thanks to my AWESOME brother, and I'm hoping to make an announcement about it soon on social media (I guess blogging is social media but I feel like this is more a journal that close friends and family read, so like five people) and I'm in the process of looking for an art Rep.  since lets face it, I'm no business person so I think I will be more successful with someone representing me. But before I start contacting a bunch of people and say "Hey look at me, please be my agent!" which is a very scary thought for me, I want to add a few more portfolio pieces on my website, that I also have been working on... So I have been working on a few paintings VERY SLOWLY because I'm a mother as well and life happens, but I'm very excited with my new ideas and I'm hoping with an Etsy shop I will have something to drive me to do more art, and hopefully having a rep that can find me more art jobs. It's very exciting and scary at the same time. I already feel like I'm busy and not sure how this will all work out if it does work out, but I really feel like art is something I need to do with my life. Motherhood is amazing and I love it so much, at least most of the time ;)But I also have been having promptings to work on my art and I guess I'm just trying to follow those urges and promptings.

I have also been busy with birthdays, this past weekend we had two Birthday celebrations (more on that later). And this coming week I will be doing an art class for the Relief Society sisters in my ward, and again I have another photo shoot. So yes, it's busy and I'm wondering when life will start slowing down.

But here are some pictures of the past month, just some from my camera I have more on my phone but I'm trying to catch on the blog so I might have to add those later.

Quarter of a Century

Two weeks ago I turned 25, yep, quarter of a century! I'm getting old, just kidding.

I had a really good birthday and got spoiled.

I woke up that morning with Daisies and balloons from Dustin, and Oliver with a big grin saying "momma!", and Thomas sang Happy birthday to me. It was perfect.

My in-laws watched the kids that night so Dustin and I could go out to dinner. Then we met up with them and had cake from Nothing-bundt-cakes, which are AMAZING!

Dustin and the boys got me a clock that I have wanted from Ikea! And I love it! I was surprised to get it!

Then my in-laws, who are AMAZING people got me a rocking chair. I have been wanting one for a while and they found this one and fixed it up (it was broken) and recovered it with cute fabric! I was so touched that they did all that work for me.

Then yesterday my brother, Michael, and his family watched the boys all day for us so Dustin and I could do something with just us two! We decided to head to Six flags and ride a bunch of roller-coasters then we had dinner. It was so nice and  fun! It was the longest I have been away from Oliver. So that was another great Birthday present.

Then last, but not least, Dustin got me an I-phone! And it's on it's way! So it should be coming sometime this week! I'm very excited! I've been holding off getting a smart phone for a while but the last little while I have been talking about wanting one so Dustin said to pick one out!

It was a great birthday and I'm excited for this next year!

Final Art Homework

A couple weeks ago I finished with my gesture drawing class, and already miss it. It was such a great class! It also got me drawing a lot more, so I hope I keep it up.

Anyway, our last assignment was to come up with a character and look at the model for three minutes and come up with little "stories" using our character/story, and we did 2 sessions of this so that's why I have two stories going on. We could make up a character but I decided to do Peter Pan and Hermione from Harry Potter, because I love both of those stories and they were the ones that popped in my head when I started drawing the model. Again, these aren't finished, perfect drawings, they are exercises but it was a lot of fun. O, also we were allowed to change the pose  a little bit to tell a better story, so our main goal was for the audience to know what's going on first glance, so here was my final assignment: