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Its where i want to be
lift me up and take me there
- talking heads


Take the Home tour: This week's drawing challenge thanks to Elisabeth!
Elisabeth, Lilli, Ariane, Jasmin, Peggy, Objects of Whimsy,
Anyone else? Comment and i'll link you!


*Next week's theme : Sky Scenery chosen by Lilli at Trollringen* let her know if you're "in".

*Last week's drawing challenge  Elisabeth at Textilspanieln , Paper Doll*



xo milady

I am so sorry for the delay...you wouldn't believe the interruptions, technical failures, the crashing computer....unbelievable and not worth explaining.

Decisions, Decisions!

It's that time of life again. That time of year. When I feel the restless seedlings of dreams awaiting birth rustle and crack somewhere deep in my being.
yes! yes! i'm still here!
What shall I be when I grow up? What will it all look like? Where am I going?
and
WHY do I have to know?!
I search the world and drink in her gifts, through others eyes, others' craft. I sift and compare.
" maybe I could do that" or "perhaps that's what i should be doing".  In other words, instead of doing I'm watching.

New Years bring new reflections. I look back at the earth's revolution that caused my age to inch up another number.
The answer is always the same..." follow your art".
The mystery continues...

xo milady

Amanda Blake's Enormous Tiny Show   damn the recession!

Paper or Cheese Doll?

my paper doll

hans christian anderson
papercuts


                                                                American "Cheese"
                                                                 my husband loves this crap!


Well, its Saturday here in the U. S.which has bought me a little time to make a paper doll per Elisabeth's challenge.  Here it is...(and i'm sheepishly hiding behind the time difference instead of admitting that i am late!)
Morgan has decided to make a paper robot out of american  cheese.  Frankly, the best use of that hideous saturated glob of an excuse for cheese! 
I learned something upon doing this little exericse.  I think too much. I stall,  I question, I critique.  My hands shake and my eyes are hating their new glasses.  I am happiest when the ink just falls from the brush, wonky and incorrect.  I didn't get to that smudgy  imperfect place where I felt satisfied and finished. But it was already Saturday in Sweden, Australia, Germany...people are waiting!
So here it is, the stiff little lady whose clothes will not fit properly because of my inattention to accuracy.
she's cute though, and her little lamb too.
Thanks Elisabeth for the nudge. Let's play some more!

xo milady

Finale

As the details were stencilled on the excitement mounted
The creatures now had rocks to stand on and plants for food.
everyone felt so proud to be the ONES to finish the masterpiece.
They even took the scaffolding down and carried it away happily.

The Color Crew and Concrete Couch   evening of day 4
what was once a plain endless wall at school is now a dream.
They voted and named it.
"Foothill, to Mountain to Desert OH MY!"
 Then ate 3 giant pizzas and ran around like maniacs!

xo milady
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Cont...

The 7 & 8 year olds came for their art time. One whole hour we got them.
We gave them the biggest task.  Connect the tiles in some way that tells a story.
A color story.

We set them up with a skyline made from their own drawn and cut stencils on recycled cereal boxes.
And had a little chat about where the tiles liked to live and how they could be masters of the universe and create a place where'd the creature would be happy.
The landscape erupted without hesitation. Blues and greens and hot desert orange appeared as if by magic.


                                                                                                        Hi Morgan.
A river flowed from a faraway waterfall in the montane making a freeway for turtles, fossils and fish.

And suddenly what was floating in isolation became at home in its world.
to be continued...
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Drum Roll Please....



We've finished the mural.  4 days. 100+ kids. A handful of adults.

Phew!

This project relies on child involvement, design and installment.  Nothing could be more fun than destroying the school with permission! The other side of this wall is the library.  We got in trouble for making too much noise.  Doesn't my boy Roscoe look great in pink?!
After the children grouped the tiles into environmental "families" they began to install them, mixing mortar and using trowels like real builders.  The story started to unfold.
They were quite sure where everything went. No second guessing. No wondering if it made sense.


After painting the mortar to match the wall we all stood back and wondered...what's next?
That would be revealed the next day.
Enter 7 year olds...to be continured.
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Im Alive!

I'm alive. I am busy. It's because of....

these kidsand their tiles
this space
this guy

100+ kids, their handmade tiles, a huge wall, a bunch of masonry mud, tools and alot of imagination = a suprise mural to be finished this friday.

not even I knows how it will turn out. its kid designed, created and installed.
stay tuned for the unveiling!

Color Crew - my public art project

xo milady

The Heart of Childhood

Its Christmas Eve day ...things are changing around here.   My children are growing up and the sparkle becomes harder to polish  We are moving into an age  of understanding, deepening the faith in things unseen, realizing that we make our own magic.  But they aren't totally grown up, just on the verge of dashing their hopes because of some dumb kid at school who hasn't had the pleasure of knowing the true tummy tickling spirit of Christmas.  I read the classic story "Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus" to the boys lastnight.  The real article that inpsired the whole thing spoke louder than ever this year. Whats life without a little mystery and magic? Whats life when growing up means you know all your stuff comes from China? A big grown up sad one.
Here's to the kid in all of us...Santa lives!...making glad the heart of childhood.

XO enjoy the spirit of giving and receiving.
       Love and Blessings
Milady - yep thats me on the left!

p.s. my kids and I agree that is the REAL Santa in this pic. :)

p.s.s. and just cos its hilarious , an e card of us

The Pile and the Glow

see the advent "tree?"
we had our party this weekend. christmas doesn't seem complete without a house full with lots of food and children running about - not to mention the motivation to finish painting walls and clean the floors.
I suddenly become Scandinavian during this time which makes me so happy.
meaning, all things elvish and vintage white come out and wrap the house with a big hug from Carl Larson.
I bring out all MY toys.
 and while i happily glitter and glow, the advent pile just grows and grows...
As we desperately await the long overdue snow.
This is totally unacceptable for Colorado mountains.

 But the Cheer was on full blast as we gathered to watch the teenagers do the "robot" in front of the fire
and stuffed ourselves silly with delectable food from my dear friends i so admire!

I promise...advent will be done by Christmas...so come back for a big "present" from me!

XO milady

The Parade I Wasn't In & Woodland Advent status

<Woodland advent pile up to appear when I've got a minute to finish them!>

So, the parade was this weekend. You know i live for parades...they allow me to go public with my
kid-ness.  Well, it was going to be great...lamb dog was going to walk with me, the Spirit of Christmas.
My boys would be adorable elf attendants handing out red and white striped confections and waving from white horses.  My friend and her girls would be the snow angels and we'd all light up everyone's believe-o-meters to full charge.


Well, we were LATE and the stress was palpable.

the blue pear's window



Let's back up, here in happier times, my star candy cane distributor elf, Morgan all suited up and ready to go

While waiting for our ride, the lamb dog ran away! And it became quite apparent that she wasn't enjoying the stress level one bit.  Scratch that.  ps im not pregnant although my festive layers suggest otherwise.

The Live Nativity we so looked forward to only had a handful of adorable miniature donkeys. Sicilian, just like the one i've always wanted. The one i'd name Luigi. Mary, Joesph, the baby...all MIA. But maybe i missed that too.

I missed everything, because of that guy in the middle, you know, the happy elf ?
The hurry up stress combined with the siren of the fire truck made him stage shy and while crying about not wanted to do it, got a huge raging bloody nose all over his elf outfit...even more tragic? his elf shoe unravelled! He simply couldn't go on. So, the parade left us in the mud way at the other end of town where nobody cared i had a glorious headpiece with stars that changed colors.

By the time we caught up with the others, we found our "angels" in the nativity.

But don't be fooled...here they are attacking an elf.

Maybe next year!

Craftstravaganza!



its in full swing...the craftstravaganza! boxes, baskets, bins and tins are scattered everywhere bursting with ribbon, velvet, beads and wire.  by this time tomorrow i will have created costumes for myself, boys, lambie and horse for the parade. i'm going for "the Spirit of Christmas"...a twisted version of Sweden's St Lucia , the christmas goat and a little Nutcracker inspired Snow Queen. we shall see....i sure hope lambie cooperates!

xo milady

Advent 5 Grandfather Fir


While foraging for boughs and berries I came upon Grandfather Fir. He let me sit under his canopy and enjoy his fragrant needles as I stared up into eternity through his branches. Grandfather Fir said I could snip some of his branches but I couldn't so I didn't. 
If you ever have a pressing philosophical question that needs answering, just have a seat under Grandfather Fir.  He has all the answers cradled in his wise roots. Be patient and listen well.

xo milady

Advent 4 - Union

Saturday, December 4th.

I saw a beautiful horse full of vigor and grace strutting astride his lovely lady, a spotted beauty who was clearly his type.  I thought of unions and mates, friendship and loyalty. I thought of compliments, equals and how two parts make a whole. I saw the stark black spots on their shining white coats and marvelled at their design, opposites in perfect union.

xo milady

Advent 3 The Owl


click me to see me
just so you know, i stayed up late and finished this just past midnight. it was a busy day out of the house.
I saw many wonderful things yesterday but it wasn't until a certain encounter in the evening that made the entire day reveal it's gift : The Flight of the Owl.
Earlier in the day we saw one of our valley angels in the clouds...it expanded across our entire town, white and gray wings spread in perfect symmetry. A meterologist would have other explanations having to do with thermals and mountain topography but we know what we saw...a huge magical owl.
Later in the evening driving home down the old country road, kid in my lap, we were swooped by large winged creature. It stood on the road until we got real close then it took flight altering its course to give us a full body show of feathers and talons.
The owl has a mysterious job - flying between here and there, where heaven and earth meet in cold night air.
We were lucky.
We got a glimpse.

xo milady

Foraging and Woodland Advent #2

Awoke to a sliver of a moon and couldn't get it out of my head. This is what i'll draw today, the moon.
And then, on the way to school, we passed a glorious stag who sauntered across the road and up onto a river bank where he then stopped, turned to check us out, posing just like the fox...the animals are posing!
Something is happening, magic is welling, animals are gathering.

its not my favorite but i said i'd do a drawing a day. so here you go.

xo milady

Woodland Advent #1

Dec 1.
Greetings December, you feel so different already.
 I overslept dreaming of foxes when my own fox-dog Pearl awoke me with her "something is out there" talk. You see, she sleeps by my head on the big pillows meant for reading. She is my guardian. She looks like a gray fox. Husband and I sat up and looked out the
window to see a real live fox, majestically posing in the drive, flanked by dark twisted oak limbs, in the halflit blue of early morning.  The fox and I locked eyes, then suddenly I knew what I am doing for Advent this Christmas...make a drawing each day of something magical I see outside. My drawing hand is rusty and in need of an assignment. I look forward to tomorrow...I'm going into the woods up the creek bed to forage greens.  I wonder what I will see?

xo milady