UPDATE: We have winners! Three lucky people who guessed correctly are going to get a free print... details later tonight! :)



Who can guess what this was painted with?

Leave me a message in the comments: I will randomly select three people who comment (with the correct answer, of course) to win a free 5" x 7" print of this painting!

Closeup:

I'm going to submit work for my local art association's member show this October. I can submit two paintings, and I (thankfully!) don't have to sell them. They might not use both, depending on space. There are awards to shoot for, but I mostly just really want to see my paintings up on the wall, eat cheese and crackers, and mingle with like-minded art lovers. Soooooooooo:

Suggestions! What should I send in? I have till maybe over the weekend to figure this out (gotta get framing!) Thanks!

♥ This just in: The incomparable Martha Stewart has a new blog. This is a Good Thing.

I've been exhibited at Gawker Artists!

Gawker Artists promotes the works of artists of all mediums. Participating artists receive free profile pages and a select group have their images published on Gawker Media titles. When you spot one of these images, click on it to read about the artist or browse our collection by artist name, medium or location.

Go click on the page and spread some love - maybe I'll move on up to the homepage, or just maybe someday you'll see my paintings on your favorite Gawker Media site (mine is Jezebel).

From my homepage of 9/11/02:

This is what I wrote one year ago; and I painted to get myself through my grief: a series of self-portaits of what I saw reflected in my studio window, some with my thoughts from each day written across them. I thought maybe I'd share them someday.

I still can't.

Which is why today you should go over and visit my brother's site and read his post; he says it better than I ever could.

Today it's the twins' turn.... All three children are at school right now. Something I have waited, literally, YEARS for. Me, I'm going to run outside and have myself an adventure. As long as I'm back in time to pick them up....

ps ~ Isn't Petey a heartbreaker in his new glasses?

Holey cannoli, we just waved goodbye after putting Sophie on the KINDERGARTEN BUS. When it pulled away from the curb, we could see Sophie and two other girls sitting together in a three-seater, with the rest of the bus pretty much empty.

Empty bus.... but my heart is so full.

My new favorite video. Feist is new to me, but after seeing her sing 1234 with muppets I had to go look up her other songs (and I figured out where I'd heard that song before) and I was completely sold on her. This video in particular is so totally me - a little quirky, girly and magical, and hello, flying toast! I love it.

We'll collect the moments one by one
I guess that's how the future's done.

ps ~ I have been drawing/painting a bunch, but I can't show you! It's for an upcoming job, and I'm super-excited about it, and all will be revealed at the proper time. (I love sounding mysterious.... )

A few days ago I wrote some haiku poetry. Here's that post, courtesy of Wordle, "a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide." They go on to say, "The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text." Hmmmm. Please, indeed.

♥ If you're coming here from Pioneer Woman, hi there! She so totally rocks.

...according to my children. I doodled this and took notes while the kids were expounding upon their theories, which went something like this:

When you eat a tomato, the fairy takes your tooth and puts it in the tomato to keep it healthy. Then they pass it on.



There is also a lamb in the tomato (who is also a fairy). The tooth fairy brings the teeth to the lamb. It's the lamb fairy that makes you healthy.



(I asked how they get out, do you eat the fairies when you eat the tomato?)

The fairy cuts a little hole, then it gets out with the lamb and then they close the hole. Then they go to another house, where someone else has a loose tooth. It takes a very short time flying.

Imagine tons of giggling going on, and you've just about got the picture. I hope they never lose that sense of wonder and creativity.

Why are you so loud?
Wish I had a volume knob.
My ears are bleeding.


Please please please please please
Please please please please please please please
Please please please shut up.


I never realized
Until you yelled together
How thin these walls are.

Test-driving the new machine.

I got an awesome birthday present - a new sewing machine! It's a pretty simple machine, but it's going to be able to do the things my old one doesn't - namely, it works. I have a beautiful old incredibly heavy, built-into-a-cabinet machine that belonged to my Grandma, a professional seamstress. When she passed away, it was the only thing I asked if I could have. I just love the idea of placing my hands where my Grandma's were, and creating something new like she did. Unfortunately, over time, either my ineptitude or just time has made it harder (and incredibly frustrating) to use. It's in real need of a tuneup, so in the meantime, I have the much simpler little workhorse to feed my sewing needs. And in time, Grandma's will be restored to its former glory, and hopefully I'll be so much of a better seamstress that I'll know how to use the myriad of attachments that it has!

I have so many projects that I've either had bookmarked or socked away (or worse - tried to do by hand) that now I just can't wait to get to. Like...

Halloween costumes! The kids want to be these guys this year, and I am just itching to get to it.



I'm starting to scout around for fur (maybe shaggy blankets will do in a pinch?) While this trio gives it a good shot, I think have a better way in mind. I want to make the Snowth heads as hoodies, so I can place the horns and the eyes in the right place, and then the kids can peek out the mouth holes. As for Mahna Mahna himself, the whole hoodie can be orange fur, and Petey (or Angela, currently the jury is out on who gets to be the leader) can wear round sunglasses with a nose attached. (Yes, we have given this a lot of thought.) Instead of doing trick or treat, they can say "Mahna mahna!" when someone answers the door.



Remember these? Waaaaay back in the day, I wanted to make each kid a doll to dress up that looked like them. We wound up getting t-shirts that we dyed in tea and they're a lovely natural color, I got embroidery thread that matches their eyes - but the machine didn't work, so I never made a pattern or anything. I am SO looking forward to making this trio (and their clothes!) This pattern looks easy enough to start with.

And then there's...

♥ Angry Chicken's 5-Minute Skirt.

♥ How fun is this Bird Mobile ?

♥ I like my skirts fast and cheap.

♥ Some wrap dress patterns here.



♥ One more link: photos of the DC trip are here. Enjoy!

Me, Kermit, and Jim at the Henson Memorial Garden on Wednesday at the University of Maryland, following a trip to Jim Henson's Fantastic World at the Smithsonian. Naturally, I'm wearing a green dress.

Today's my birthday, and what I have learned about this year is that I have so, SO much more learning to do. And dreaming. And creating. And you know what? I'm really looking forward to it.

Here's to the lovers, the dreamers, and you.

We are so totally loving the produce from our garden, scanty though it is. I'm rejoicing in every ripe tomato. (This one fell off when we were painting the side of the house.) I refuse to eat tomatoes in winter, because that's NOT a tomato.

The other morning I took a work break to grab a bowl of granola while the kids were eating breakfast, and I was singing the song that had been playing on the Beatles station, "Three Cool Cats*." As I was adding the strawberries, I sang,

Well up popped that first cool cat,
He said: "Man look at that.
Man, do you see what I see?
Well I want that middle chick."
"I want that little chick."
"Hey man, save once chick for me!"

And so on, about the three cool cats and the three cool chicks. So of course, the kids want to know why cats and chickens are eating potato chips.

"No," Paul explains, "It's slang. The cool cats are three guys and they're calling the three girls chicks, but you shouldn't do that, it's not that nice."

"I don't know," I said. "There are worse things to be called, like a tomato. Unless someone calls you and a friend a pair of gorgeous tomatoes, that would probably be okay. And in England back in the day if someone liked a girl, they would say they fancied that bird."

The kids by this time are completely confused, because honestly, they could picture actual cats and chicks walking down the street eating potato chips, that would be just fine with them, but now we've muddied it all up with people being called animal and vegetable names. They shrug it off and go back to their granola, because Mama dancing into the room singing, getting something, and dancing out is a regular occurrence and really not a reason to stop chewing. I'm just waiting to see the pictures they're going to draw based on this.

*George sings lead, and Pete Best, who got canned on my birthday, drums. I have a cassette from high school fished out of the discount bin at Sears that honest to God, says "The Silver Beatles" on it, and until the Anthology stuff came out, nobody else I met had any idea what I was talking about. As best I can figure out, it's a selection of songs from the New Year's Decca recordings. I like it better than the versions on the Anthology set which seem too subdued. My other fave would have to be their cheeky yet delightfully smarmy rendition of "Bésame Mucho" (cha-cha-boom!)

Sesame Street season 39 kicks off August 11! Check out the highlights reel from the press kit and meet the first Indian cast member, Leela.



More Muppety goodness to tide you over till Monday:

All the brand new clips that have been circulating on YouTube gathered in one place (I agree with my brother: the Swedish Chef and Beaker doing Carmen is the best one)

Other Henson projects in the works: Sid the Science Kid and (cannot wait for this) Where the Wild Things Are.

And my Muppet news sources and references (be prepared to lose a few hours) Muppet Central
Muppet News Flash
Muppet Wiki (best. logo. ever.)

Enjoy!

Many times I share a new painting because I love it, but this time it's more that I'm posting a painting that was frustrating but taught me a lot. (Which of course, I will share.)


Miss A, reading, on a blanket, in our backyard.

Most frustrating thing: after looking back at the lemon painting I had done with watercolour pencils, I decided that they were just what I needed to create a great texture for the line of arborvitae in the background. I spent ages blending colors, putting in shadows, blah blah blah, only to start adding water and realize that I was nowhere near the effect I wanted, and it was going to take another week of meticulous pencil blending. I said phooey to that, grabbed the paints, and started splashing them around. I was done with the trees in one night. Not only were the watercolour pencils a waste of time, but why did I start with the background and not with Angela, the focus of the whole thing? I was so in love with the idea of the prickly branch effect that I went straight to it. Next time, Angela first. Background later.



With my copy of The Watercolor Bible in hand, I decided to really try to apply the examples rather than just looking at the pictures. I read

"Remember to paint only as much detail as is needed to tell the viewer what an object is. Too much information is difficult to paint and makes it hard for the viewer to know what you intend as the focal point of the painting."

This is so different from the way I usually paint (anal-retentive amounts of detail) that I literally sat for a minute with the book in my hand, staring at the painting and wanting to throw the whole thing out.

But clearly, I didn't. One detail I do really like is the book in Angela's hand - there's no pencil work there, all edges are created from the edges of two colors meeting. Hand on leg, arm behind - edges of color to define them, and no leaning on an outline to separate them.



I sort of have a technique I use for hair, and it works for me. But I decided to go with the book's sample, and do washes instead. I didn't do the exercise, or use the colors they listed, just went with the general feel. Angela is in bright sunlight - you can't even see the difference between her skin and her dress at some points - and her black hair has to show it. Parts are black, parts are brown, parts are white, and parts are sort of some non-descript-un-color. I kept everything soft and built up the layers of color from lightest to darkest, adding touches of black at the end. I also added a wet brush and lifted color out in spots. And that sweet face! I went in only around the edge of the face with a sharp pencil just to provide extra definition. Had I been a better planner, I would have had that same definition of color I had around the book.



The grass was, at one point, painful. If I was really going to do it right, I should have masked some blades out. But then again, that might have been the detail-overload way. At one point, I could see myself grabbing the watercolour pencils again and making billions and billions of blades of grass.... I also was doing my media fast, remember? I usually work with the TV on in the background (I don't face it, but it's on as background noise); instead, I was so frustrated by the quiet on the first night that I literally couldn't work. I wound up putting on iTunes, standing up, and singing while I flung paint around for the grass - I had to work in a completely different way to break through my old habits. I do really like how the grass came out, though one teeny-tiny bit of masking fluid in retrospect wouldn't have been unwelcome. I like how it came out a little Brian-Wildsmith-y.

The whole painting is more in the feeling of this one - more loose, more fluffy, more flowy. I have been painting in watercolour for over 20 years. And I have so much, much more to learn about how to paint.

And how fantastic is that?

I'm going on a media fast for a week, which means I will be going online only for work. No blogs (sob!), YouTube, movies, video games, TV, newspaper, or magazines allowed; and I am going to see how long I can hold out before giving in to my regular radio station (which is commercial-free.) The rest of the Miomarmo gang and I have been working through the Edit Your Life series, and this is the last part. I plan to use my new-found time on painting, spending more time outside, and taking naps.

See you in a week!

ps ~ The month of July is my webaversary; I've had this site for 9 years now. Remember what it used to look like?

...of making this a poster. (The original is around 18" x 24", so it's meant to be large.) I'm going to send out files for a test print next week. If I like it, I'll add it to the store.



I'm toying with doing this as a poster as well.... what do you think?

If you have ever been in the same room with me and a piano (and ahem, we have quite a few of them in our house), you know that sooner or later I'm going to go play "Martha My Dear." Only my most favorite Beatles song ever, with sugar on top. "She Loves You" is a very close second, but "Martha" wins the day for me for its sheer pluckiness and relative obscurity.

My love affair with "Martha" started back when I was a teenager and taped WNEW's "A-Z Beatles Weekend", to supplement my growing desire to learn the entire catalog. My parents had no Beatles records other than an instrumental version of the Hollyridge Strings doing Magical Mystery Tour - my mom said, "Every time you turned on the radio, they were playing a Beatles song, so who needed to buy the records?"

Later in my teenage years I would start teaching myself to play songs by ear, playing my tapes (and eventually, records) over and over, writing down lyrics in a large spiral notebook and adding in my fake chords above them, in red pencil. I would even write down the date, so thorough was I. Generally, fake chords were good enough for me, but there was something about "Martha".... this was something that I might actually be able to play. I've never had piano lessons, and my big thing prior to this was studying the sheet music and teaching myself the intros to "Against All Odds" and "Honesty". But for some reason, I found myself loving this song and wanting to play it exactly like the recording.

I think I was 16 or 17, and I remember a summer where I spent a lot of time at our broken-down piano with a tape recorder by my side, playing, listening, rewinding, replaying, finally pressing the piano keys, and listening again. And finally, I HAD it. Same key, same intonation, same exact notes, same everything. I had to go back to fake chords once the orchestra kicked in at the middle section and I couldn't hear the piano as well, but the main part, the part that makes "Martha" MARTHA, I had. I owned it.

Over the years, I played it all the time - because we were passing a piano, or to cheer myself up, or once even on the radio, when I was called as an early morning phone gag and wound up taking them up on their offer to play it on the air, and they sent me prize money and a sweatshirt. I played it when I was pregnant and the kids must have heard it in utero!

About 20 years have passed since I taught myself to play "Martha My Dear." And while I've grown in that time as a musician and singer, my piano skills haven't improved - I still play "Martha" the exact same way; awesome intro, fake chords in the middle section. And I was starting to feel a little frustrated about it, because I could hear everything I wanted to do, but couldn't figure out how to make my hands do it. Oh, and the three preschoolers and the job and the lack of any semblance of quiet have put the kibosh on any arranging time too. :)

Yesterday, while looking up something entirely different on YouTube, I found a tutorial. TO PLAY MARTHA MY DEAR. This was so exactly the way I needed to see and learn this, that I swear that the sound of something clicking into place in my brain must have been loud enough for the neighbors to hear. Sheet music for this song looks like this, and while I have an amazing piano teacher for a husband, looking at that jumble of notes makes me dizzy. This guy shows his fingers, and then posts the notes of the chord above the keys. Yes, yes, and for goodness' sakes, YES already. It's like someone tapped right into my brain to see the way I'd learn best, and then made a video.



My family has been enjoying watching me running back and forth between the computer and the piano. I watch the computer.... pause it ..... say the names of the notes over to myself ... bang away at the piano, shout, "AHA! D major 7th! Yes!", and then run back to the laptop. I was watching it yesterday, grabbing Paul and yelling, "OCTAVES! He's doing OCTAVES in the left hand! Yes! Why didn't I think of that?" You would think I was discovering gravity or something to hear me go on, but my family's getting a kick out of it. Silly girl...

So in case you have ever been secretly jealous of my amazingly single-minded talent, you too can learn how to play my favorite Beatles song. And thank you to the Internet, for proving that while I may be obsessed, I'm certainly not alone.

And please see...

♥ Wikipedia's entry on Martha My Dear. Lyrics from James Joyce? Uh, I don't think so.

♥ How to Play Martha My Dear, Part 1 and Part 2. The tutorials I've been watching and exclaiming over, and he does many other songs as well. I plan to write him a thank you note.

♥ Martha My Dear performed on classical guitar. Just amazing and really lovely. If this man has an album, I'm buying it. Lots of other songs too; give him a listen.

I've been feeling blurry lately, like someone didn't color in the lines properly. And I figured out that when I draw or paint every day, and when I go for a 2-mile walk every morning as well, everything comes into focus and I have loads more energy. So:

More drawing.
More painting.
More walking.
More yoga.

ps ~ This was so much fun to paint. See it bigger here.

Hanging above my drafting table right now. Yes, yes, yes. Read the rest of the interview here and please dive in deep to The Principles of Uncertainty (the archives are now all free, so what are you waiting for?)

This painting is an exercise I did a while ago, messing around with the watercolour colored pencils. I think it's interesting that I tend to go through waves with my painting - at least once a year I get really loose, and then a few months later, get almost crazily detail-heavy. I guess it's the times in between where I hit a balance. I like the loose, I like the tight, and I really, really, really like citrus fruit.

I ♥ this guy, Mark Bittman. I'm going to see if I can try at least one of these recipes this weekend.

The beet salad especially looks easy and colorful (check out the interactive graphic in the article for a closeup), and now that I've been reading more about beets, I want to learn ways to make them that don't involve a can. Anyone have a favorite recipe?

On the subject of red foods, we'll be picking the first of our backyard raspberries this afternoon, and then we're off to the park to hear the community band's weekly Thursday night concert. We bring a blanket and trail mix, and the kids are always in their pj's for hustling off to bed as soon as we get home. (And yes, there is almost always some sort of spontaneous dancing.)

Enjoy your weekend, everybody!

The things I do to keep myself from painting:

Surf the internet looking for great crafting ideas, home decorating tips, ways to make my own detergent from scratch, see what all the past winners of America's Next Top Model are doing today.

Surf the internet looking at everyone else's work, and comparing.

Listen to my children having an altercation 2 flights below me. Get involved instead of letting babysitter handle it.

Get distracted by the TV on in the background for noise (to cover sound of children).

Sleep.

A painting exercise. I'm trying to paint every day now, because I am sorely out of practice. I may not be posting them, but believe me, I'm painting them.

Dear God,

The sunrise this morning was just gorgeous. I especially liked the way the black tree branches silhouetted against the combination of lavender sky and salmon-pink clouds. And the way it all gradually faded into washes of light blue? Masterful.

Thank you for reminding me to pay more attention to the colors all around me.

love, me

With the new 'do, and the realization that half of the clothes in my closet are not me anymore - not because of the haircut, but because all of a sudden it seems like most of the skirts and dresses in my closet are either down to my ankles or are miniskirts, which are hard to get down on the ground and help a kid while wearing - anyway, I went in search recently for some summer dresses. Or skirts. I wasn't going to be picky.

What I did find, was that pretty much anything in stores (and in catalogs) right now is meant for someone with a decidedly different figure than mine. I will come right out and say it: I have curves. Curves, okay? I more or less have an hourglass figure. I have a small waist. I also have certain rules that I have developed over the years:

• I do not wear anything that makes me look like an opera singer.


• I do not wear clothes that don't fit me.


• For the love of God, no more black. (I used to wear it all the time. I'm done with it.)


• I am not, and never will be, "sporty".


• While I am blessed in certain departments, I have no desire to show them off to the average passerby, thank you.


• I have an aversion to paying $36 for a skirt made of t-shirt material.

So it's very frustrating to hit the summer sales hoping to scoop up a sundress or two, when everything - everything! has an empire waist. Or is baby-doll-styled. Once or twice I found something workable, and just needed it to be bigger (or smaller), and lo and behold, either there were none in my size, or they were black. Or dark brown.

What's a girl to do?

After doing a little searching online, I'm thinking the answer is to find a wrap dress - I have never worn one, but it looks like that would address some of the issues. The other idea is to go find a pattern I like, and make a dress myself. Then once I found something that worked, I could go get lots of fun materials like this and this and this and make them different.

Interesting links:

Clone yourself a fitting assistant by using duct tape. Genius. Seriously. I want to do this.

Found this through Metafilter (some NSFW): I have made almost ALL these mistakes. And they're right about the correct-fitting undergarments making all the difference.

Metafilter thread: I need to dress for success, but in the office not at the bar

Beginning this week, a group of us at Miomarmo are going to work through Zen Habits' awesome Edit Your Life series together. (The parts about going through and cleaning up rooms, closets, and my wardrobe are where I will personally need the most work, as I have three preschoolers and they generate a lot of stuff. Okay, truthfully, I can't blame the kids entirely for this; I've always been the Oscar Madison of the house.) We're hoping that by doing this together, we can encourage each other, and hopefully by the end of the summer have cleaner, simpler lives. In that spirit of togetherness, we're inviting anyone who wants to, to join in and make a commitment with us to a simpler life.

The sections are:

• Edit Your Life, Part 1: Commitments
• Edit Your Life, Part 2: Your Rooms
• Edit Your Life, Part 3: Closets and Drawers
• Edit Your Life, Part 4: Your Work Space
• Edit Your Life, Part 5: Your Wardrobe
• Edit Your Life, Part 6: A Media Fast

We'll be taking a week to do each part, beginning today with the first week, Commitments. So please, join in! We'll be doing a recap each week marking our progress, and if you're doing it with us, feel free to write us and let us know how you're doing as well. (Feel free also to grab the above graphic to use for yourself.)

As Thoreau said, "Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify." Here's to less frittering. More living.

Yesterday afternoon I grabbed the kiddos, filled a basket with art supplies, and announced we were going to be painting from nature in the back yard. Everyone painted, but only Angela really took my direction to heart. She gathered up an assortment of flowers and twigs, laid them down on the big stump in our backyard, and proceeded to get down to it. Sophie and Peter lost interest after one picture, so I took their paints (glitter watercolour!) and decided to paint Angela.



Angela's tiny daisies. This is showing incredible restraint for Angela, who usually piles so much paint on that she wears a hole through the paper and I have to carry it resting on a paper towel for fear it will disintegrate. I'm rather proud of her.

More from the backyard:

I know, I look uncharacteristically serious for me, but it's early in the morning. Shorter than I've had it in 15 years. It's about time, no?

Guess what we had for lunch? :)

Cup of coffee in your favorite mug: FREE.


Library book: FREE.


Hanging out on the porch in your Kermit the Frog pajamas with your son before anyone else in the house is awake: PRICELESS.

This was the way I've had my hair for at least the last 15 years - thick, curly, and as long as I could grow it. It's been described as big, fluffy, and the more humid it gets, the bigger it gets. Sort of a hair-barometer. Sometimes I had bangs, sometimes layers, sometimes not. I wanted long flowing hair so that I could do fun stuff with it. I used to even be able at one time to do a 5-stranded braid, basket-weaves, and a hair coil that made my hair look like a piece of black rope.

But since the kids were born, I've had a lot less time to do anything much with my hair. A trim every three years or so (I'm not kidding). Mostly, I'd just pull it all back in a ponytail, and what's the point of that? There just seemed to be so darn much of it, and it was mighty frizzy sometimes. I was starting to compare my hair to Amy Winehouse's and was secretly worrying someone else was going to notice the resemblance. (Not the tattoos, eye makeup, or drug habits. Skinny arms, pointy face, big hair, yes.) So this week, I took the time the babysitter was entertaining the kids to go get a spur-of-of-the-moment haircut. I'd been contemplating a big chop for quite a while, but actually doing something about it didn't happen till I looked in the mirror, held it all up on my head like I've been doing for a while now, nodded at my reflection, and grabbed my car keys.

The hairdresser chatted up a blue streak, punctuated every few minutes with, "Wow! You really have so much hair, I can't get over it." I would just reply with a smile, "Yep."

"I'm going to have to cut this wet, there's just so much of it."

"Yep."

"I just love a challenge! You're going to be fun."

(Smile) "Yep."

So I got just the cut I wanted - the ends of my curls resting on my shoulders - which was at least 8 inches. There was lots and lots of fluff on the floor. And for the first time ever, my daughters' hair is longer than mine. I pushed for interesting haircut stories and listened while the hairdresser told with glee about getting to give someone a mohawk. He wanted it to annoy his in-laws! Even though my cut wasn't totally finished and was airdrying into a big poofy ball, I knew that as soon as I could get my hands on it, it was going to suit me right down to the ground. It is - dare I say it - cute.

So the hairdresser was finishing up when she called another over to consult about my hair. "We really think you should get it relaxed," they said. They didn't do it there, but she could give me the name of the training college she went to and they'd do it for half-price. (I could just see the students drooling over my hair. "Come get a load of this hair! It's ca-razy!") I was kind of interested, but since I couldn't do it then anyway, it was kind of a moot point. The fact that I would have to get it done every couple of months (or sooner, because my hair grows like mad) turned me off of it, because I can barely manage to cover my grays, let along make an standing appointment at a salon. I knew the cost was going to be up there, and I am a pretty low-maintenance girl. I don't need a fancy haircut, because not only can I not maintain it, but I would be thinking about how that money could buy clothes for the kids or a nice dinner out with my husband, both of which I would much rather have than straight hair. (I also read this which scared me off it further because of the damage it could do to my hair.)

But the main reason I didn't want to try relaxing my hair is this: I don't think I would look like ME anymore, if I had straight glossy hair. I'm not worried that people wouldn't recognize me (although they wouldn't!) but that I wouldn't recognize me. I like the curls. I like the thickness. I even like the color. I like being able to use a straightening iron if I want to and go back to curls the next day.

And who says that perfect hair means straight hair, anyway?

Life at our house gets divided into two main hunks of the year: The School Year and Recitals, and After Recitals. After Recitals (also known as Summer) is the part we're in now, and frankly, it's the part I live for the rest of the year. So here's my new mindset for the summer, and I swear it's working like a charm:

I AM ON VACATION FOR THE NEXT THREE MONTHS. I take a break each day to work at my job, but that does not in any way change the fact that I'm on vacation.

I could grumble about how nobody else in the family has the same schedule as me; how they're all off but I'm chained to the desk, blah blah poor me -- but I don't choose to see it that way.

I'm on vacation.

For those of you who are seeing the end of Every Day In May approaching, and say, "Darn! I want to draw and share some more!" - well, my friends, this is for you.

One day a year, the world stops to remember that joy we had when we first picked up a pencil and created our first piece of art - that's what Drawing Day is all about. The goal for Drawing Day is simple - to create enough drawings to make some noise worldwide for the sake of art. 2008 is the first year of this initiative. Our goal is definitely a long-shot, but we're aiming for 1 million drawings worldwide. We have no precise measure to know if we reach this goal. If we come close we will all definitely know. Even if we reach 10% of our goal in the first year of this initiative, it will be a great achievement but we will continue aiming for the magic million.

I'm drawing. Are you with me?

♥ I have been so thrilled with everyone's work for this year's Every Day In May - from the simple sketch to incredibly complex paintings, they all are gorgeous, and worthy. Kudos to all who are putting out more art (and more good!) into the world.