Triathlon Sunday

The day finally came for David to attempt his very first triathlon! Although the day was pretty icky, with rain and cold, and the transitioning between events didn't go quite as smoothly as David would have liked, he did AWESOME!!! Keep in mind he just started swimming a couple months ago for the first time. He had a couple friends coaching him in the mornings before work and boy did it pay off. He got 9th out of 95! Way to go hun! Your amazing!!!...in so many ways. Your one of the most determined individuals I know. Your always pushing outside the box and learning new things along the way! Your such an inspiration to me and I'm so thankful to have you in my life! I love you a ton. Congrats!!

While daddy was out on his bike ride, Kaelyn was busy flirting. Oh my! At least he seemed like a sweetheart and was the same age. Ha,ha!

Touched Creatively Coming Soon and Updates!

Wow! Have I been busy! Sorry to those who have been checking my blog and haven't seen an update for awhile. The last couple of days I spent some much needed time with family, which was a lot of fun. Now that I'm back home, I'm overloaded with work. Of course I bring a lot of it on myself! That's what us artists do. Our brains never turn off. So that brings me to tell you about my new adventure. My husband and I are always bouncing off ideas with one another and due to that I am starting a magazine. David sparked this idea on April 1st. In one day I had the name of the magazine, Touched Creatively, with all the ideas of what I wanted it to include. Several artists from across the U.S. will be featured and I only have a couple more to hear back from and I will have a full issue! Very exciting! I can't wait to share these amazing talents with you! So, not only do I have to design the magazine, I have to be the editor, design and launch a website, and promote it as much as I can. There is so much information I want to share but you'll just have to wait until the website launches by mid-May and the first published issues will be up for purchase hopefully by the end of May...keeping my fingers crossed(and praying!) that everything goes smoothly! One thing I will share with you now is the logo. (colors will vary)

We'll be watching David do his first triathlon on Sunday. Will be exciting! Have a great weekend!

Featured on Pecannoot!

Talented Artist, Jess Gonacha, featured my "Inner Strength" acrylic painting on Pecannoot today. She is a sweetheart who has a fun blog idea involving art showing abundance. She also has such a creative imagination for her own paintings and design work. Here is one of my favorite pieces she has done. Your awesome Jess! Check out her etsy shop or website to see more.

the bird lady by Jess Gonacha

Weekend Full of Family and Food

Happy Easter! The busy weekend is over. My tummy is still over flowing with all the goodness I ate Saturday and Sunday. We definitely weren't hard up for food with the three family Easters we attended. There were lots of Easter baskets, eggs, food and chatting. Kaelyn was sure entertaining this Easter and enjoyed many firsts like going on an Easter egg hunt and dyeing eggs. You would have thought it was Christmas with all the goodies she got from her relatives! Can't imagine what it will be like next year! Here are a few shots of the fun...

Friday, I spent almost all day in the kitchen making food for the weekend festivities. Thought a fruit pizza would be good for the Saturday brunch. A bunch of good fruit always looks so refreshing. Then there is Kaelyn on her first egg hunt, but it took her awhile to get the hang of it as she just wanted to play with grandma's cat!!! She had lots of fun dyeing eggs and liked being able to throw the egg into the colors!

Then a photo of one of the most memorable parts of this Easter was the exciting news Kaelyn shared with an egg she had received earlier in the week from England. She's having a new cousin in September!!! We are all excited to meet the little one!

And we definitely can't forget to thank the Lord for making all this possible. We are so very blessed!

New Painting "Seeking Your Path"

Here's my newest acrylic painting I completed early this last week. I was struggling with the colors because every time I look at anothers artist's work with bright colors it makes me want to go brighter, but after three tries I ended up back to my earthy color palette. I thought maybe it was just my style but when I painted at the open studio yesterday I did come out with a brighter painting...its not finished yet. (that one is going in the direction of being a kid painting...Kaelyn loved the colors) Anyway, I guess these colors just fit my theme the best, and was just meant to work out the way it did. I titled it "Seeking Your Path" and it was inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote, "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." We need to be inspired to make our own path in life and not just be a follower. Sometimes it takes a lot of encouragement and faith to follow our heart and dreams, but life goes by so quickly so why not take the chance and leave our own trail!? No matter what happens you will learn something new and you won't have to regret not trying it in the future. Hope you enjoy it. Prints are available in my etsy shop if your interested.

Open Studio Art Day!

If you live around the Lake Preston, SD area and love doing art(painting, drawing, collage) or even if you've always wanted to try it, bring your own supplies and meet at the Lake Preston Community Room this Saturday. You can work on a project from 10:00am to 3:00pm. If you're unable to spend the whole day, come when you can. Another open studio will be held on May 2. So mark your calendars! Also this time a potluck will be held over the noon hour, so bring a dish to share.

This event is hosted by the Prairie Lakes Area Arts Council.

The cute spring graphic above is from house of three.