New Humorous Bicycle Card

{a nice snowy like sparkle finish}

{back of card}

A perfect card for a couple who enjoys biking outdoors or for any person who loves bicycles and can't get enough of them! ...like my husband! You may recognize my design from a previous one I have created. I decided to simplify the design, change some colors and give a little more interest to the text. I absolutely love how it printed on the heavyweight, sparkly paper. A very fun and creative card that can also be framed as a print. Size is 5" by 5". This card is available in my Enduring Arts etsy shop if your interested.

New Magazine Released

If you haven't already seen on Touched Creatively's blog or website, the new issue consisting of handmade creations just for kids is now available! I released the issue a little earlier than expected. Starting on Thanksgiving day through January 1st, ALL printed issues of Touched Creatively are on a Holiday Special for $4.89! They are normally $6.29. If you would like to go directly to these issues for a short preview or immediate purchase click HERE. The issue above is the most adorable issue! Wonderful talents, creative ideas for unique gifts and lots of inspiration! Don't miss out if you have small kids or little loved ones you like to shop for! Downloads are also available on Touched Creatively's website for $1.89 if your interested in that option.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had lots of good food and spent a couple days celebrating in Sioux Falls with family. We even had a family get together at the hospital so David's sister could be included. (Kathy gets to come home this Friday by the way!!!) At my cousin's house, we learned that Kaelyn likes to play and take part in the game Gestures! She was kind of shy getting in front of the crowd at first, but when everyone clapped for her at the end, she loved it and wanted to help everyone act out their words. Too funny! It was a great family filled weekend!

Thankful for so Many Blessings

I have so much to be thankful for and yes I am thankful for YOU. I'm thankful for my blog readers who are public followers and for those who leave comments. I haven't told you before, but it means so much to me!!! You are all so supportive and encourage me to keep blogging and creating. Thank you to you silent followers... yes I know some of you are pretty faithful followers too and I do appreciate you checking in!

I am very thankful for my supportive husband and beautiful daughter. The two of you make me smile every day... I couldn't ask for anything better. I'm also thankful for our home, it has been a ton of work but it sure has character and is warming up with everything we've done to it.

I am thankful for all my friends and family/relatives. I'm so lucky to have such special people a part of my life and who care about me, my husband and daughter. It is the little things they do that mean so much to us!

I thank God everyday for what He has given me. He truly is amazing!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Eat a lot and relax... that's my plan!

{above calligraphy is by Danae}

Photo Shoot and Other Happenings

Wow! What happened to November? I swear it just started and now its almost December! Yikes! Well I have been very busy with different projects. The end of last week, I simplified a design and sent for cards which may arrive tomorrow so I can put new ones in my etsy shop and then I also ordered some wedding invitation samples for a bride to approve. I also spent MANY hours working in the kitchen this last week. Although it will be a few more months until its completely finished, since my husband still has to build the upper cabinets, I have to say it is no longer my least favorite room of the house! I enjoy being in the kitchen now! David was gone hunting all weekend, so I cleaned up my kitchen mess and had some visitors over to see how far the house has come. Sunday I played photographer again. Cammy must have really liked the last photos (here and an announcement design here) I took of her girls so asked me to come back again. We were hoping to do an outdoor photo session but the weather didn't allow it. So we did what we could in the girls' bedroom. Remember I am not a professional and do no special lighting, but I enjoy playing around with my camera and Photoshop. Here are a few from the day:

Love the smiles these girls shared with me!

Monday and today I have been busy working on redesigning my website for Touched Creatively. I am hoping to have my kid inspired issue go live tomorrow if all goes well. I need to get the download file put together tonight. Hope everyone's week is going well!

Little Artist and Other Happenings

I tried blogging yesterday but for some reason I kept getting an error every time I tried uploading a picture so gave up on the idea. Works fine today. I don't have much new work to post so I'll share some Kaelyn photos with you all. She LOVES to draw and paint. The last two weeks she's been focused on circles and this last weekend she decided to do loopdiloos and lines. Thought she did awesome for just turning 21 months! And oh yes, she had to have her hood on; don't you dare take it off! She's so funny!

These two photos are from last Sunday. Pretty darn cute. She said she wanted to wear her boots to church, so she did... and of course a hat!

Other happenings: David finished his commissioned cabinets last Friday night! They turned out beautiful!!! I would share a picture of him with them, but I can't find where he put them. There not on my camera card, so will try and share that later. You can see some of his photos on his blog HERE. Since my kid inspired issue of Touched Creatively is at the printer I've been super busy on house projects. We'll see how much I can get done before my family comes to celebrate Christmas at our house. Kaelyn and I made a trip to Brookings yesterday to get some paint for items I'm making over and of course you have to do a little fun shopping since your there. We also were able to have a lunch date with daddy, so that was fun.

Enduring Arts is on Scoutie Girl!!!

{image from Scoutie Girl}

I was so surprised to get an email through etsy saying one of my pieces was featured on the very inspiring and fabulous indie website, Scoutie Girl! A few handmade items from South Dakota are shown along with my bicycle print. Be sure to check the site out for more incredible handmade talents! Have a wonderful weekend!

A Day Dedicated to My Dad

Veterans Day... so many thoughts come to mind. First of all I want to thank all of the men and women who have fought or are fighting for peace in this world. You are all amazing individuals! I want to dedicate this post to my dad. He is a man like no other. A role model that everyone should look up to and try to be like. He puts others needs before his own, HE is amazing and HE is my DAD! When he was just a kid, really, he stepped up for his country and went to fight in Vietnam. He was extremely brave, did all he could, fought in the front lines, lived a nightmare he could never and will never wake up from! How I wish I could erase the horrible things he witnessed... was part of. He did this all for his COUNTRY! I have to thank God for protecting him in an ultimately dangerous time... it was a miracle he made it out alive. God knew he had so much more to offer this world. Sadly, his return home should have been the best welcoming home but no, his country did not stand behind him... there was no welcome home!!! How I wish I could go back in time and change that. Our Vietnam vets deserved so much more... words can never express. I know my dad would rather try and forget everything. But it's all the events we are part of that shape us as a person. You are who you are today dad because of your bravery, your strength, your work ethic, because of the war, because of putting others needs before your own. Because of all this you are a wonderful husband, the best father and grandpa. I am so very lucky to have you as my dad. You have taught me so much about life, love and determination. You have touched so many people in our community and many more. I hope you realize how special you are! YOU are my HERO! And I will never be able to thank you enough for all that you do. You have made me a better person. I love you dad!

The painting above was done by me years ago of my dad. Titled My Hero, My Dad.
Happy Veterans Day!

A Bliss-Filled Weekend

A lovely weekend from weather to happenings. Since Touched Creatively was off being proof read and another freelance project was out of my hands, Friday was spent working on some of my own designs and since it was a nice day we spent a little time outdoors. I thought it would be a bit more relaxing, but when I saw all the leaves I thought we should probably make the time useful. So here are some photos to share of the leaf raking fun. Kaelyn was delighted, but was also very serious at times of getting those leaves raked up! She was a good little helper.

She was pretty much done helping rake when her furry little friend came for a visit. Our block's social cat. Loves kids better than adults... even when his tail is being pulled on! Funny kitty!

On Saturday I was able to make it to the open art studio day. Any artist from the surrounding area is welcome to come and work in their preferred medium. It is so much fun to spend time creating with people who share the same interest. We always have a wonderful potluck meal for lunch too. Chatting, creating, eating... what more could you want!?

Then on to Sunday... What a fantastic day! We went to the hospital again to visit Kathy and oh what a LONG way she has come in a week! It was unbelievable really... a miracle! She is up, starting to walk again, eating solid food... anything she desires!, and chatting up a storm! Not all of it makes sense yet but we are thrilled to hear her voice. When I asked the nurse if she had been this chatty for awhile she said she doesn't stop unless she's sleeping. I said well she must be making up for the weeks she couldn't say anything at all, and Kathy chimed in "That's right!" She has the greatest sense of humor and I hope that lasts! She's doing amazing. Now we're praying for improved speech and better use in her arms and maybe then she'll be able to come home for the holidays! (Although Kathy said she was breaking out of there this Friday! Ha!) Keeping our fingers crossed! God is Good!!!

Creative Living Spaces

{images via Dreamhouse}

I'm not usually a fan of white walls, but lately it has been growing on me. With all the additional pops of color through handmade creations, it's just beautiful and dreamy!

{image via Better Homes and Gardens}

{image via decorology}

I love the originality of these homes! Creative and cozy. Inspiring environments for sure!

More Baby Boy Announcements

Here are the other two baby announcement designs I mentioned from an earlier post. The one above was chosen to be sent out in printed form, so I decided to save some shipping time and print them on my Epson. I usually send my designs off to a printing company so the announcements are press printed on specialty papers but since my brother and sister-in-law's first choice of paper was semi-gloss I was able to print it myself.

This design was chosen for the electronic copy to send to friends and family over the internet.

Another fun project.

Well my little peanut thinks the time change should have been for an hour ahead. I'm wondering how long she's going to stick with waking up at 6:30am. I'm not real fond of that hour. I'd much rather stay up real late than get up early. Oh well she must just want me to get up and finish the next magazine issue. Only two pages left! Then I need to print it all out and send it to be proofed.

A Special ABC Moment

{canvas art by trendypeas}

We made a trip again to the hospital yesterday. Kathy has started opening her eyes, but she wasn't focusing on anything when we were there. She was in a lot of pain so her pain meds would make her go in and out of sleep. Right now we're not sure what she can see but we know she hears us and can do certain things on command. While trying to keep Kaelyn entertained by her bedside, which isn't an easy task, I decided to say the abc's with her. Kaelyn repeated the entire alphabet minus the 'w', which is a pretty hard letter for a little kid! I was so impressed and daddy said "give me a high five!" Kaelyn gave him one and then she wanted to give Kathy one. Kathy was certainly listening and let go of David's hand she was holding and raised her hand for a high five!!! It was certainly a special moment for all of us! Still lots of prayers needed for Kathy to keep progressing. It is certainly a blessing to have seen her come this far; we just pray it continues and she can go home to her family soon!

Sweet Fairy

Happy Halloween! Tuesday night I finished making part of her costume. I thought their needed to be some pink and extra fluff on the bottom so I made a pink tutu to go under the green one, then made the head piece, and wrapped some matching pink and green flowers with tulle. Wednesday I thought I would be able to take some pictures of her in the costume but she had an awful attitude that day and wouldn't allow the head piece to touch her head... which she usually loves headbands, hats and clips. I thought oh great who knows if she will ever want to wear the costume. Thursday though I found her trying to put everything on herself and was getting frustrated. She put on the head piece and said she was "pretty". So I knew I had to get some photos later that day. When daddy came home I figured he could help distract her to sit nice for the camera. She of course didn't want to sit still, was running around her room, sorting through her books and dancing. I just know I have to take a whole bunch so I can hopefully get a couple good ones. When she had finally had enough and was changed back to regular play clothes and I was going through the pictures on the computer, she went and got her wings!!! Her wings that I had totally forgot to put on for the pictures(shown above)!!! Wings make the whole costume, so to my great delight I knew I had to try all over again. I didn't think their would be any chance of her wanting to do any more that day but after her night sippy I asked her if she wanted to put her costume back on and she yelled "yeah!!!" so back to her room we went for more pictures. So here is the fairy with wings...

She took a second to see what she looked like. This shot showed the tutu the best. Then she was off to grab a book.

She would NOT look at mommy when she's busy looking at a book! :)

Have a great weekend everybody!

Hanging Inspiration

{Photo by DharmaLemon}

Fun and clever! Once my art room is finished I would love to hang cards of inspiration and other creative pieces in a corner or along a wall above my desk. A great way to add color, texture, depth and visual stimulation to a room. I'm sure I'll be hanging some of Kaelyn's artwork too. She's only 20 months and getting circles down and working on stars! I know I've said it plenty of times before, but I still can't believe how fast she's growing up. She's been saying so many words. Just this week she started saying thank you and love you... which just melts my heart! :)

Commissioned House Painting

my acrylic painting

photo of home

Usually my commissioned artwork pieces involve portraits or pets and are done in various drawing mediums. This was my first painting of a home. I used acrylic on a hardboard panel and was pretty happy with the result. There are different textures that can be seen on the original. I love seeing the handmade qualities up close!

This week I will be very busy trying to get Touched Creatively's winter issue finished up so it can be proofed next week. I need to finish up some wedding invitation designs and get them sent off towards the end of this week. I also need to finish Kaelyn's Halloween costume in the next couple of days. I'm in need of another month or at least a couple extra weeks to get it all done! Well, I better get to it! Happy Monday!

Talented Photographer Kevin Bierbaum

I was planning on sharing a family photo that the talented new photographer, Kevin Bierbaum, took of us but then I decided not to because it will be a better surprise for those of you family members and close friends that get a card from us every Christmas. I will be sure to share them on here later though for everyone to see. I was so impressed by Kevin's photos he took of my husband this summer riding his bike. They turned out amazing! I love the vivid colors and the beautiful South Dakota background! I was thrilled when he decided to practice with us on some family portraits! We have very few good ones of our family so I was elated when he got a few great ones of the three of us in the great outdoors. Although, portraits aren't one of his favorite photography subjects he will be glad to do it and he does an amazing job!!! Check out Kevin's website for some beautiful nature and still life photographs.

Here are some more shots he took of David...Thanks Kevin for all the photographs you took of David biking and running and of our family! They are such wonderful keepsakes! The memories will last forever through your work and will mean a lot to our children one day. Keep up the amazing work!

Butterfly Print Now Available!

My acrylic painting, "Spreading Her Wings" is now available in my Etsy shop! I was up too late last night getting it in my shop and then I couldn't get my detail print to upload. Just figured it out this morning that for some reason the file saved to CMYK unlike the other two RGB files. Not sure why that happened but at least I figured out what was wrong. So there are two options to choose from the full image above or the cropped image below. The original painting measures 16"x20" and was done on canvas. The 8"x10" prints turned out amazing and show the detailed texture of the canvas and vivid colors which just can't be captured in these pictures. You can check HERE if your interested in knowing more of the print details. It is a fun, freeing and whimsical painting.

Have a great day!

A New Week...

Photo by i.Anton

A bit of magic to lighten your heart... that's what i.Anton's photos do for me. Simply amazing photography! Hopefully this is a start to a much better week. I couldn't believe all the horrible news that kept coming last week. Since there was too much of it and I don't want this to be a depressing blog I will just say, health and family are blessings often overlooked. Don't take either for granted because in a blink of an eye everything can change!

So onto better news. I finally got outside yesterday afternoon to get some good photos of artwork to share this week. It took so long since Kaelyn and I were both sick this last week on top of everything else. I will soon share the finished commissioned painting with you and "Spreading Her Wings" print will be available in my Enduring Arts etsy shop within the next couple of days.

Baby Boy Announcement Design "Little Pilot"

With all of our not so good news lately I decided to share a joyful design with you. This is only one of my three designs that I sent the new parents to choose from. I'm sharing this one since it wasn't chosen so I'll post the other 2 later. They are using one design to send out through email and the other as a printed announcement for close family. Since Andrew's daddy is a pilot we went with a pilot theme for the designs. If your interested in having me design baby announcements (or any kind of announcement) email me at enduringarts@gmail.com.

Yesterday we spent a good part of the day at the hospital and plan on going back tomorrow for awhile. David found out yesterday his aunt has cancer so will be undergoing treatment for that, so hopefully she can beat that monster of a disease. My cousin is also having more tests/biopsies done today. She has internal problems as well and no doctor has been able to figure out her problems. Bone growths and horrible pain. Doctors don't know what to do so just throw more drugs at her which doesn't help! Lots of praying going on here and have HOPES for a brighter future for our family and others who are fighting for their health.

With God's Help...

... Anything is possible! My husband is keeping in close contact with his mother via text messaging for Kathy's updates. The latest from his mom said, "She moved both legs, wiggled toes, squeezed my hand, and tried to hold up two fingers on command! Your prayers are working!"
Thank you all so much for your prayers. We appreciate it so much. Let's keep them up and bring her out of this! To keep posted on Kathy's progress and offer words of encouragement and support you can follow her Caring Bridge site. Thank you!

Prayer Request!

Last night we found out my husband's sister was in a horrible car accident due to icy roads. Please pray for her and her family... her husband and two young children. We're praying God will give her body the strength to pull through. It really puts in perspective how important family is and how in one instant everything can change. Never take your loved ones for granted no matter what age they are!

Relax and Enjoy!

{Photo from Indigo Rain via Anthropologie}

This photo makes me think of the boat my husband built several years ago. Really it doesn't seem that long ago, but then yesterday seemed like Monday! Hopefully next year our family will get to enjoy the row boat more. Next time we go I think we should add some pillows and blankets! Looks so comfy! Although I don't think ours would look so nice because they are bound to get soaked some how. Have a great weekend!

Oh and if your interested in seeing how a special person/talented jewelry designer made my day click HERE! Some of her work can also be seen on Touched Creatively's blog.

Yellow Vintage Couch

I'm not sure why I'm drawn to couches and purses the way I am, but there are so many out there that like to call my name! Ha! Good thing purses don't take up too much space and Kaelyn likes to play with the small ones I don't use anymore. As far as the couches go, well I already have three and since I don't have any extra space for another I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with a photo of it. I love the cheerfulness of this color! If you want to grab it, head on over to The Vintage Supply Company before its sells!

"Inner Strength" featured in Treasury

The fashion designer of GEOmetricSTYLE featured my "Inner Strength" painting in her treasury! Thank you so much for picking my piece to be included in this beautiful collection! Below is one of my favorite creations from her shop. Her handmade items are made all the way in Argentina! Its amazing all the different places you can meet people from through etsy and the internet in general! Anyways, go check out her shop for creative handbags, skirts and dresses.

New Acrylic Painting! "Spreading Her Wings"

Happy Monday! This last weekend was a productive painting time for me. I finished my commissioned painting first. I'll show pictures of that one after it gets shipped off. Then I finished the above acrylic painting that I had started quite awhile ago at the once a month art studio day. Sorry the photo isn't that great of it but I couldn't wait to share it. I am waiting for a nice sunny day so I can get some good pictures of it in natural light and then soon after I will get some prints of it in my Etsy shop. I titled the painting "Spreading Her Wings" due to the fact it was inspired by my little girl who is growing and changing so quickly. Most of the time she thinks she can do everything by herself. It seems like she was born only a couple months ago and now she's literally flying around the house at full speed. I am treasuring the moments when she crawls into my lap to have a story read, or comes over to me to give me a hug and kiss 'just because'. Children can melt a parents heart so easily; it's a whole new world of love we had never known.

More info will be coming about the painting when I get a good print of it, so be sure to check back in a few days. Off to work on a new post for Touched Creatively's blog and then to work on the next kid inspired issue.

Creative Relaxation

As long as there weren't pesky bugs around, wouldn't this be a great way to relax? I can just picture laying on this beautiful hammock from Melange, reading a good book or magazine and drinking a favorite beverage with the beauty of nature surrounding me. Okay, heading out of dream land now to make a toddler happy instead. Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

About the Melange Collection, "We have made a personal commitment to improve the lives and communities of these artisans as we bring their unique talents to you. Know that when you purchase Melange products you are helping to change the world." Have to love that!

Fairy Sweetness... Too CUTE!

{Photo by Tracy Joy Photography}

Its October already? I can't believe how quickly 2009 has flown by! We're to the month where little ones get to dress up and be shown off in their cute costumes. I just had to share this adorable one from Hannahs Tutus. And I just have to say this model is pure cuteness!

Yes, my little Kaelyn is going to be a fairy. Maybe not quite as cute of a costume as the one above but I can't wait to see how it turns out and to get some fun photos of her in it.