What did you do during your Memorial Day Weekend?

I spent some time organizing my art and scrapbooking supplies. I was only able to do a little bit of organizing each day, but I think I got a lot done.

I got some organizing drawer thingies at K-Mart and now I'm able to put adhesives in one drawer, stamps and stamp pads in another, scissors in yet another, and so on. Organizing can blow your mind....like why and where did I get 10 pairs of scissors?!? You don't realize how many of certain things you have until you actually get them clustered.

Then I had the job of sorting through memorabilia and photos. So many drawings by my kids and the hard decisions about which to keep and which to throw away? I also ran across momentos and photos of my dad and of my husband's mother (she passed away in 1978 at age 35). Many of her things are ephemera, even a few cancelled checks, her passport and her Master Charge (looked very different in 1978). I had also received things from her mother, like some of her childhood medical records, her autograph book, etc.
All these things are important to get scrapbooked for my kids, because it's all they'll 'know' of their grandmother. When it ever gets done, I think it will be the most awesome thing...more like a dossier than a scrapbook.

But so much stuff has piled up here, I decided the best way was to just get sorting. I took some large kraft envelopes and labelled them for each project. Even if I can't do the scrapbooking right now, just getting the stuff sorted out will make the scrapbooking much easier later on. I then started putting things in those envelopes as fast as I could, trying only to touch each thing once and not getting sidetracked. I also gave myself some priorities...because what is currently changing is my kids, I will focus on keeping up to date (once I catch up!) on their scrapbooks. Someday when I have time I will work on the scrapbooks of those who have passed away.

Blog Carnival
A group of ladies I know - along with myself, are trying something called a "Blog Carnival," and that's what yesterday's post about how I became a work at home mom (WAHM) came about.

I had never heard of a Blog Carnival before, have you? But hey I'm game to try it. Hang on for dear life, like the lady in the photo. LOL!

Here's how it appears to work: a subject is suggested as a blog prompt, then those of us in the group who blog will post something relating to the topic. Then a blog post is made at the 'home' of the carnival, which includes an overview of the submissions.

I'm not sure I completely know what to do yet, but so far it has been fun. The idea behind it is to learn new things about people in your group, to share information with the world at large, and to increase hits to your blog and business website.

How I Became A Work At Home Mom

By the year 1999, I had been on the lookout for something I could do from home for awhile. Our twin daughters were 6 years old, and I was longing to be able to be home with them.

I had tried selling Mary Kay, and that was a total waste of time for me. Probably not Mary Kay Corporation's fault, it's just that it wasn't the right fit for my personality. Later on, I realized that I should do something art-related. I had played around with calligraphy before the girls were born, maybe I could try that? I bought Fred Eager's book - Italics Way to Beautiful Handwriting - Cursive & Calligraphic, and armed with a lightbox and my Schaeffer calligraphy pens, I started addressing wedding invitations. It was actually more stressful than you'd think. I had a client with about 1,000 invitations and she kept calling and giving me more. 1,000 hand cramps later, I decided that just maybe that wasn't the way I wanted to go with art.

I started dabbling in learning how to draw portraits from photographs. I drew a portrait of my daughter that was so awful it's unbelievable. I didn't give up though, and I drew a portrait of my neice that I thought came out really well. I shared it with friend in another state by email. My friend had 3 boys and asked me what I would charge to draw his sons' portraits. I felt embarrassed to even ask for money for them, but he insisted. We finally settled on $60...I can't remember if that was sixty dollars each, or sixty dollars for all three!
But the main thing is that it made the proverbial light bulb appear above my head as it dawned on me that I could do THIS! Oh and I like it! Omigosh!!!

I was still working the day job at the time, and I continued with it, to see which would get me somewhere...the day job or the art. It was apparent that neither choice was going to get me financially wealthy, but that doing art would at least give our family time together and I knew I'd be happier.

Chocolate Ice Cream & Terrorists

Wouldn't ya know it, a friend called me yesterday...said her whole family had just gotten over a rough time with stomach flu, and today I am feeling really bad...might just be the chocolate ice cream I had last night or it could be the flu.

The problem with someone talking about stomach flu is that when you start feeling bad, you wonder if you are really getting something or if it's because the idea of it has made you feel sick in a psychosomatic fashion. I also have suspected a movie I was watching that dealt with the September 11th terrorist attacks. I don't think that's ever going to stop making me feel ill.

All I know is I'm feeling pretty blechhhhh and it might be a good idea to stand back.
Luckily only computer viruses are transmitted online, not the human kind! LOL

Oh! On the good side of things, I did get two commissions completed (YEE HAW)...let me tell you how I did it! Day One, I needed to take Car A in for inspection, tune up, tire rotation, etc. It took several hours and you know how boring those waiting rooms are. Perfect for no distractions. So I completed one artwork there (an age regression portrait). Then Day Two, I needed to take Car B in for a recall of the ignition switch, an oil change and getting a key made. That took 2 hours and I did another portrait there. Sweet! The key is good old uninterrupted TIME.

So although I'm feeling kind of sick, I'm also elated to have gotten some work done.
Have you ever felt sick and elated at the same time?!?

Happy Sunday morning!

I finally feel a lot better today. Maybe I was fighting a virus, who knows?
Just glad to be feeling better, because I sure have a lot to do. If you remember what the 7 Dwarves' cottage looked like in Snow White before Snow came in and cleaned it all up, that's kind of what my kitchen looks like now. But I don't know if I want birds and squirrels helping me wash dishes.

I am still working on distributing a bunch of stuff from my garage to people on Freecycle. I learned a good lesson...don't try to Freecycle 20 things at once. The emails were madness! From now on, I'll just give away about 2 items a week. After all, clutter got into the house gradually and it'll take regular but gradual effort to get it out of the house!

I still haven't gotten any more artwork done. It is very frustrating to want to do something that you just can't get to. Forunately, I have the coolest, most understanding clients in the world! Wish I could afford a housekeeper to come in once in awhile or a little bit of daycare for the youngest kids - just a couple mornings a week would give me so much additional sanity! This summer will be really interesting. Let's see if Darla can hold it together LOL!!!

I am really tired from that garage clean out. I'm sure today's post will be kind of rambling, as is the way I get when I get really tired.

This week has gone so quickly and it seemed like every day there was so much to do. I didn't get to the gym to workout at all. I have gotten kind of used to going, it has really helped my back a lot. I have gone 3 times a week for the last 3 weeks, but this week was totally shot. But at least I have the Terminix work out of the way. I got a lot of junk out of the garage.

I Freecycled a ton of stuff. The non-greedy part of me is lifted up and blessed by giving to others. The hungry, perfectionist side of me thinks I should have had a garage sale. But I don't have the time for that. I barely had time for Freecycling. I probably received a hundred emails asking for the stuff I posted.

I haven't gotten any work on commissioned pieces done, and I haven't done any more work on the VanGogh reproduction of Starry Night. I beat myself up over not being able to get stuff done.

The maintenance of the inside of the house: dishes, vacuuming, picking up, and laundry - sort of fell to the wayside while I worked on the garage. But I told myself I would be able to catch up.

My new good friend Amy came over for a little while with her cute lil daughter. She could use some of my giveaway items. She expressed a lot of the same burnout and guilt as I have about not being able to get art accomplished at the rate of speed we would like. It did make me feel better to be reminded that other people are going through the same thing...although of course I don't wish that on my friend!

This afternoon I finally got a chance to clean up the living room a bit and vacuumed it while I had Little Guy asleep and Little Man (2-1/2 years old) played on Noggin. I've put him in bed but he's having a tantrum about it and crying his eyes out. It would really tug at my heartstrings if I wasn't so exhausted and it's nearly 9 pm. I mean, go to sleep already!!!

This past week has also seen a surge in the tantrums. They certainly aren't the worst tantrums I've ever seen in any of my kids, but they are new for Little Man. I am lacking in energy overall. I think trying to do everything is wearing me down.

I will either need to get some help around here in the house or have Little Man go to preschool a few mornings per week I think, just to give me some time to recharge. I haven't had a really decent night's sleep in several years. But I always feel a little down when I'm tired. By morning everything will be great again! :)

My week has not turned out like I planned it. (wahhh!)

I had Terminix come out and do a termite inspection and treat the house. They trench close to the house where there isn't concrete, and drill holes where there is concrete. The holes are drilled about 12 inches apart, then Termidor is put in, then they put in a little plastic plug, and then they fill the holes with cement...they are really not very noticeable...you'd think they would be.

Now we have a big job on our hands of moving everything either toward the center of the garage, or moving it out of the garage entirely. So we'll have a perfect episode of Clean Sweep
going on right here in Snellville! (really, I should submit our house for the show, whenever I get the sudden urge to be insulted by an Australian professional organizer and TV host, I will).

Anyway, I am really glad I have the termite prevention program going now, it is a real load off my mind. If you know Georgia's climate at all, it's summed up very well in one short word: humid. Termites just love the climate here. We do have a slight bit of termite damage on our garage door, but the treatment is going to kill off any active termites within 90 days (will kill the whole colonies, any on our property). I know God created the little munchers to be wood clean-up and composters, but if God could just teach them the difference between houses and plain old wood, that would be really nice. When I get a new garage door, I'm going to get an insulated metal one. Imagine the termite's surprise.

So I'll be working on cleaning out the garage to get the treatment totally finished ASAP...time is of the essence in something like this. I'd so much rather be working on art, but this is the way it goes sometimes. It's a great investment to take care of the house.

The air conditioning has gone out in one car, the other car needs to go into the dealership because of a recall of a faulty ignition switch (no biggie, my hand could just catch on fire suddenly, that's all).

So I'll get these things done, get the A/C fixed in the car, have tires checked, rotated, and a tuneup, and possibly go for a little trip with the kids to Savannah soon.

ART HAPPENS...
(a perfect Mother's Day)

This is what can get done when I actually get both my little ones down for a nap!

Yesterday, they napped from 2 - 4 pm. I jumped at the chance to start working on this reproduction of Starry Night by Van Gogh. This is the largest thing on canvas I have ever painted... about 36" x 40". The stretched canvas is actually supported with extra wood, it's so big. It is not finished (scroll down to see the photo) as you can see at the bottom area, I need to put in the buildings, and then there is some detail work and refining to be done plus varnishing, but all in all, I think a major amount of work was done in the mere 2 hours. I am doing this painting in acrylic paint and using brushes - VanGogh used his palette knife to paint with a heavy amount of paint (called impasto painting) . On occasion I tried to use my palette knives to texturize, but acrylic paint simply dries too fast for that. The basic palette is Ultramarine Blue, Black, and White. Other colors are Burnt Umber and Brown.

I did find out some interesting things while painting this...or, should I say, I theorized some things while painting this...I think VanGogh created a lot of the colors in this artwork partially by accident. One color brushing against another in the flow of movement created a new color or tone, which he might not have meant to do, but the results were wonderful. I found that I made the same 'accidental' discoveries while trying to mimic the strokes. Some artists second guess themselves all the time and get overly perfectionistic ...but look at how lovely these possible mistakes can be! After all, chocolate chip cookies started out as a 'mistake.'

My other theory regards the burgundy color that is at the center of many of the stars...it's a color that is not part of the basic palette, which leads me to think he had another palette going from another painting that may have had that color mixed on it, and he just grabbed it from the other palette (working in oils, that would be easy and very possible...an oil palette would take months to dry out).

I will have more photos to share soon - I'm having trouble uploading pictures today.

Pen and Ink Miniature Portrait of Orson Welles

http://darladixon.com

My brother suggested I start writing some books - he thinks I could be a modern Erma Bombeck. He must be right - after all, he's my older brother! :-)

I have all the perfect material right here every day. The only 'difference' is that Erma's kids were complaining that they couldn't find any bell-bottoms to wear to school and my kids complain that they can't find any clean flares to wear to school. That's right, same stuff, just different names and different decades!

I think I have an idea why Erma started writing. It was a way of expressing her frustration in dealing with the often unappreciative children and husband. It was probably a way of keeping herself sane, finding the humor in the everyday, and there's nothing wrong with that. I can't remember how many kids she had...I think it was three. I have four. I think Erma Bombeck was probably a much cooler, patient mom than I am. Probably getting her thoughts out kept her from screaming at them.

It is interesting being a mom myself, after reading all those Erma Bombeck books when I was younger! I remember reading "If Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing In The Pits?" and "The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank," among others. There is so much truth in those books.

I want to write these books:
(the following are geared for parents of toddlers)

"Play-Dough STAYS In the Kitchen!"
"We Only Draw on Paper!"
"Please Don't Eat the Dog Food" (in homage to Jean Kerr's Please Don't Eat the Daisies)
"Big Boys Go Potty On the Toilet, Not In Their Pants"
"Apples Aren't Balls"

The following are geared for parents of pre-teens:

"Don't Leave Cereal Bowls on the Floor"
"Wet Towels Don't Go In the Closet"
"Where Did You Use It Last?"
"Whose Shoes Did I Just Trip On?"
"Underwear Shouldn't Stand Up"

Finally, this one applies to parents of children in all age brackets:

"Can I PLEASE Go To the Bathroom Alone?"

I'll be on the Home Shopping Network someday, hawking my books. You will be able to recognize me easily. I'll the the one in the white strait-jacket.

An auction to suit all you brainiacs out there LOL
CLICK HERE TO SEE Albert Einstein Portrait Miniature Card 2-1/2" x 3-1/2"
One similar in art style is going on auction tonight - Orson Welles.

I think I broke the land speed record this morning....

6 am.
Fixed a baby bottle, put load of dishes in the dishwasher and started it, emptied the dryer, put more clothes in the dryer and started it, put another load in the washing machine and started it.

Back to the pile of laundry that I dumped out in the first place, folded and hung up those clothes and put it all away.

Checked email.

Changed baby diaper, gave bottle, burped baby, cuddled and played with baby, reciting at least 6 nursery rhymes while lifting baby up with my shins.

Toddler wakes up, gave good morning hug, changed his diaper, fixed him a chocolate milk.

Baby went back to bed.

Dragged my tweens out of bed. Threatened one of them. Got those two 12 year olds off to school, forced hugs and kisses on them. Reminded them only a few more weeks of school left.

Watched daughters roll eyes.

There is some kind of head cold thingie going around...my daughter brought it home with
her as a gift from school. For older kids and adults it's a head cold
with a lot of congestion. Fever if at all is minimal. For toddlers
like my Little Man it can lead to ear infection and croup, and my 6
month old is miserable but doesn't have croup yet. I have congestion
in my head and sniffles but with my allergies I can never tell whether
it's a cold or just the usual.

A cute one from Sherrill

I was in the Express Lane at the store, quietly fuming. Completely ignoring the sign, the woman ahead of me had slipped into the check-out line pushing a cart piled high with groceries. Imagine my delight when the cashier beckoned the woman to come forward, looked into the cart and asked sweetly, "So, which six items would you like to buy?" Wouldn't it be great if that happened more often?!

The reason congressmen try so hard to get reelected is that they would hate to have to make a living under the laws they've passed.

All eyes were on the radiant bride as her father escorted her down the aisle. They reached the altar and the waiting groom; the bride kissed her father and placed something in his hand. The guests in the front pews responded with ripples of laughter. Even the priest smiled broadly. As her father gave her away in marriage, the bride gave him back his credit card.

Three friends from the local congregation were asked, "When you're in your casket, and friends and congregation members are mourning over you, what would you like them to say?" Artie said, "I would like them to say I was a wonderful husband, a fine spiritual leader, and a great family man." Merle commented, "I would like them to say I was a wonderful teacher and servant of God who made a huge difference in peoples lives." Don said, "I'd like them to say, 'Look! He's moving!'"

Smith climbs to the top of Mt. Sinai to get close enough to talk to God. Looking up, he asks the Lord, "God, what does a million years mean to you?" The Lord replies, "A minute." Smith asks, "And what does a million dollars mean to you?" The Lord replies, "A penny." Smith asks, "Can I have a penny?" The Lord replies, "In a minute."

A man goes to see the Rabbi. "Rabbi, something terrible is happening and I have to talk to you about it." The Rabbi asked, "What's wrong?" The man replied, "My wife is poisoning me." The Rabbi, very surprised by this, asks, "How can that be?" The man then pleads, "I'm telling you, I'm certain she's poisoning me. What should I do?" The Rabbi then offers, "Tell you what. Let me talk to her. I'll see what I can find out and I'll let you know." A week later the Rabbi calls the man and says. "I spoke to your wife...spoke to her on the phone for three hours. You want my advice?" The man said yes, and the Rabbi replied, "Take the poison."

Another great one from Lori :)

A. A. A. D. D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden.

As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it
needs washing.

As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the porch table
that I brought up from the mailbox earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay the car keys down on the table, put the junk ma il in the garbage can
under the table, and notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage
first.

But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the
garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check
left.

My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my
desk where I find the can of Coke that I had been drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so
that I don't accidentally knock it over. I see that the Coke is getting
warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke a vase of flowers on the counter
catches my eye--they need to be watered.

I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that
I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the
flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and
suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the
remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to
put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I
pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the
spill.

Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

* The car isn't washed.
* The bills aren't paid.
* There is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter.
* The flowers don't have enough water.
* The floor is soaked.
* There is still only one check in my check book.
* I can't find the remote.
* I can't find my glasses.
* I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
* The yard is flooded.

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled
because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this
is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll
check my e-mail.