Thankful.

The week is already over? It's already almost Thanksgiving? It's gonna already be December? Where? Did? The? Year? Go?! I wanted to pause today to be grateful. Shouldn't we alway pause like this?

I am asking way too many questions here.

Aren't we always thankful for the stuff that we know we should be thankful for? (Another question- what is with me?) Of course we are always giving thanks for family, friends, home...but what about every day? It's good to be grateful for the big aaand the small. To delight in every day thankfulness.

Here are 10 of my thankful's TODAY.
1. My best friend is home. He is the smile and heartbeat of this house and has been missed!
2. Sleeping in. (and having self-sufficient kiddos in the a.m.)
3. The get-well fairy waved her wand and I am on the threshold of feeling better. Hallelujah!
4. Being in the presence of angels (who are blonde and live in the same house as me :) every single day.
5. Subway steak and cheese sub with chipotle sauce, loaded up with every single veggie.
6. Comfy sneakers for my bruised toe, a furry companion and fresh air at the park with my lovey's.
7. Doing what I love and making money doing it.
8. Conquering 5 loads of laundry and my favorite sweater smelling fresh from the dryer. (Yes, THAT one.)

9. An abundantly generous, helpful, and cherished friend.
10. Being blessed by the Grace that holds on to my life each and every day.

Check out what Lauren did on our mudroom dry erase board. Her interpretation of a turkey I guess. One in jail. One pondering being cooked. One ninja turkey (with mask and all). Thankful for a cute, creative soul in the family.

"Serious art is born from serious play."~ Julia Cameron

 I will confess. These mornings I have been waking up as a grump. (I know many of you are saying....what else is new, Stac?) It has taken every cell in me to smile, encourage, and pack extra love in the girls school lunches this week. Shame on me. Well, I've been icky-sicky Momma AGAIN. Se-ri-ous-ly? Same symptoms September. October. Now November? I disagree with the doc and don't think I have allergies. There's some weird connection with the pattern of Josh being in Denver and my achey, sneezy, coughy, headachy, sniffley bod when he leaves. I'm just Josh-sick I suppose.

 I finally "put my big girl panties on", started up J's power drill, toughened up like a trooper with Kleenex in hand... and finished my work. Here are some of the quick and simple 25 cheery, gifty and colorful designs I did on canvas board for the local sale. (That top one is a big canvas and love the way the abstract design turned out!)

Gresham Barn Sale

I'm getting ready to sell some of my colorful canvas panels at the "Christmas in the Country" Gresham Barn Sale from November 18-20th. If you go to the blog you will see more info about it and a small write up on me there. It's a unique type of Christmas sale; including antiques, vintage items and handmade, high quality gift items. It's all arranged beautifully in a cute and festive setting. Sure to get you in a holiday mood!

Still chuggin' along with custom goodies. Here are two cuties:

This name sign was done for a nursery with soft silver sage colors and simple look.

This one was done for a nursery with more modern, fun and simply sweet flair.

To do's.

I know I'm not the only one that feels the to-do's getting larger and larger as the holidays approach. Mommy's out there are queens of them. The lists. I am one of those crazy list makers. If ya tell me something that needs to be remembered, it will be written down somewhere (yes, even my hands at times). Lists in my car. My purse. Next to the bed. When I work.   You name it.

This past week I have felt like a big list. Aaah the things a Momma has to remember. The this and the that seem to be never ending at times really. On my list every day is starting/finishing paintings. I certainly don't want this "100 paintings in 100 days" to be stressful. I want it to be enjoyable. Enlightening. It needs to be a bit of a release and I'm excited play around with them most days.

Speaking of painting canvases and to-do's. There still is this big huge blank canvas of life before us, and to be honest, it seems to be eating away at me a bit lately. The "huh?...now what?...really?...well..?" is getting real. God's purpose is totally and completely in the whole Colorado transition AND we are ready for it! In the meantime we're here, we're blessed and I need to trust every day. Every day seems to be exciting and scary at the same time. Is that possible? Sure is for me.
Speaking of selling this house and Co. journey before us (I'm getting carried away with the writing on here I suppose). Here is my mess in Josh's workshop. I do have a studio upstairs all decked out with piles and piles of creative BUT, I've never really liked it up there. Spoiled I tell ya. It's dark, no windows, lonely...so I paint on the kitchen table once in awhile (not good when your house is up for sale) and now I'm in hubby's cool, open, light, music blaring, workshop. I now officially have my art-stuff ALL OVER this house!

catchin' up on this...and that

Been about a week. I try to post something at least once a week if I can. So here ya have it. My Mom was in last week (when Josh was in Denver!) and us girls had such fun. Don't ladies always seem to have fun together? Lot's of talking, laughing, shopping, eating.... all the girly stuff that we miss doing together. Mom's in such a happy spot in her life and it was a treasure to have her here. We all love her to pieces and pieces.

Edom Art Fair is a collection of fabulous artists in a teeny tiny town around here. It's what the town is known for once a year. About 80 awesome artists? I/we are there. Fine artists come from all over to sell and I ooou and aaaw and get totally inspired. Here are the girls at a canvas-kid-painting area...

Ah, our little Lauren. When she gets her mind to something- well, she does it. So she had this kind-of-not-really-wiggly front tooth (mind you, it IS late for losing those) and she just kept wigglin' and wigglin' one day after school. A day later it got to a point where it was just hangin' there and she was looking like this crazy haggle tooth girl. Here's the thing...I WANTED TO HAVE FAMILY PICTURES TAKEN before this!
Too late. We just told her to yank it. So she happily did.
The tooth fairy had to come and leave some serious cash ($2!) for this one.
Hello empty space.
It really is so cute!!
(BUT, maybe we can Photoshop a tooth in for the family pics:-)

Enough about that. On to Halloween:
-Girls picked a favorite book and painted a pumpkin of the book character for a school contest.
-Made witches hats and ghost cookies with Nana.
-Painted faces at the Trunk or Treat community service project for our church.
-Pumpkin carving party at a friends house. (Super cute annual thing; over 100 pumpkins carved and then lit up around the yard.)
-A bonfire, yummo soup and caramel apples at a friends then, "trick or treat!" I think we have over 5 lbs of candy to consume now, friends. I suppose we have to store up some extra padding for the winter!
-Every year since the girls were itty bitty they have "coordinated" with costumes. Well this year they had their minds set and didn't like that idea. Boo hoo. So we had a very blonde 98% good witch and a doctor. Josh said they certainly are coordinated this year...as a Witch Doctor. (hee. hee!)