A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

through painted windows

You've heard me mention my best friend and collaborative painting partner Shannon Almanzar before, but I couldn't fully show off her amazing talents until now. I'm super excited to share her newest project Through Painted Windows. Shannon is an amazing painter and such an inspiration to everyone who meets her. I know you're going to love her work as much as I do!

Check out this beautifully shot video to get to know a little about Shannon and her creative process. (And watch her paint an entire canvas right before your eyes!) I know you will be inspired! You can find more paintings in her Etsy shop here.

slipping away

It won't be long before glimpses like these will be only a faint memory. Ordinarily fall - with its crisp, cool days, changing leaves, piled on blankets, and the promise of the holidays - is enough to make me giddy with delight, but lately I'm finding myself clinging tightly to these last slipping-away days of summer.

Our vegetable garden, extraordinarily lush the past few months, now looks as weary and exhausted as I feel, without the harvest we have come to expect from past summers (not including, of course, the 2,001 zucchini we finally managed to use up last night). I don't know what happened this year. She was all batting eyelashes and peeking cleavage before slipping away into the night. I guess you learn something new every year.

Already I'm having to take a sweater along on my morning walk, and last year we saw our first snow in early October. I should be looking forward to it, I know, but I've never been all that good with change.

Yet, I do have a few ideas brewing for fall crafting. And then there's the baking and the snuggling under piles of blankets. So maybe change isn't all that bad. But I think I'll hold on to these last warm days just a little longer. While I still can.

make art...or just watch another episode

Has it been almost 2 weeks since my last post?? What a slacker I've been. At least in the blogging department.

 

So many things distracting me lately. Life, to do lists, anticipating the change in seasons, frantically working to finish up our unit on Ancient Greece so we can move on to Rome (and hopefully make it to the modern era before my kids reach high school), figuring out creative ways to use up the zucchini before they turn into compost, making as much time for art as I can scrape together, and all while trying to keep the stray dog we found from destroying our (already sad looking) garden until we find her a home. Staying up until after 1am nearly every night watching back to back episodes of Breaking Bad doesn't help either. (Anyone else as hooked on this as I am?? Or Prison Break?? Anyone?) I'm telling you, my brain is mush.

And before you know it, the holidays will be here. There's still light at the end of the tunnel, right?