Around the Studio

I recently committed myself to do a painting a day, which has quickly turned into, painting everyday, to painting most days. And while that sounds like I have fallen off track from my initial plan, I am really proud of my recent focus. Completing a piece in a day is ambitious, and given my full time job, kids, and house, that is not remotely realistic. Over the last few years, getting any amount of artwork done has been hard for a variety of reasons: time; space; toxicity exposure to young children. But now that I can feel fairly confident that they won't lick my paintings, drink dirty water (or turpenoid), and suck on paint brushes, I can reintroduce these elements into our environment. And while our house over the last year with the move and obligatory painting-flooring-fixing, has taken most of our time, it has also provided us the best studio space we have ever had. There is room for desks, wall space, a storage closet, and natural light! We sacrificed the "living room" for this space, but we all enjoy hanging out in here together, even absent of a couch and TV. And while I may not get time in here every single day, we spend considerable time in here most days, and that is pretty good.

Green & Gold

Light is glittering this season. There is the golden light on the fading green leaves, and also some incredibly bright moons - Our whole house was lit up the other night!  This is incredibly helpful to the little one in my house who likes to wake in the middle of the night and find his way to my bed. We've been good about keeping up our adventures, and the little one is starting to draw on paper and not just his skin (and tongue!). And we are having fun! Routine can remove pressure, so we are diligently keeping to our commitment. But really, it's been much easier doing activities with the kids these days. They can walk, and communicate, and amuse themselves to some extent. They can follow direction. This fall has really been a time to see they are not little babies anymore. They are little kids - and that baby phase is fading away. By no means is it totally gone - we've still got diapers in the house- but its clear how soon it's going.

Carefree

I cut Max's hair. He has refused this all summer, and his hair has been getting long, with adorable wheat colored curls. Lately, he has been tilting his head up to see past the hair in his eyes, so a trim seemed in order. Friday night, when he was trying to not have his hair brushed, I said "Max let's cut your hair" assuming he would as usual say "no thank you". But he agreed, and climbed up on the sink like he remembered the last time we did this -months ago. I cut an inch or two of his lovely locks off. Amira applauded his hair cut, and he was proud to show her, bending all the way over so she could get a good look at the top of his head. However, I am having a bit of trouble getting used to the new do. Maybe Max is just a long hair kind of guy. Maybe I shouldn't have intervened and cropped his carefree style. That said, I can see his eyes much clearer now, and he is just adorable.

Summertime *Not* in the City

This summer, we "staycationed" for more time than Adrian and I maybe ever have. Having moved out of the city last year, we decided to explore our surroundings. This is as good a vacation as any to the kiddos - Amira now referring to any day off as a "vacation". And we started our own adventures & art, bringing drawing materials on hikes with us, and stopping with the kids to picnic, draw, and enjoy the outdoors. I can't begin to say how much I enjoyed having some simple family time, to take the time to do what we want. And in truth, we even took some time to ride the train into the city - and that was a blast too!

Today.

 

A year ago.

A year ago, while Adrian repaired a door frame, I took the kids to King's beach for the first time. Since then we have visited six local beaches. Today -after Amira's preschool graduation!!!-we took a walk at Marblehead's Devereux Beach. Looking forward to visiting many more beaches this year!

Our First House

Is a fixer upper...This past year has been full of projects, little and big.

 All the while, our babies are becoming kids.

 Sometimes helping out.

 Sometimes not.

 It's been an adventure. It's been most of our time.

 I look forward to sharing some of the before and afters.

We're hoping for a wonderful transformation.