On Our Way!

We're leaving in an hour to go to the hospital. I'm scheduled to be induced in the morning. We knew little Armstrong had been "in the oven" too long when his kindergarten teacher sent us some of this makeup work so he won't be too far behind his class once he's born : )

Grammy just arrived from Ohio to keep Hudson company and already Hudson has painted a pretty scary picture of us as parents...

Riding home from the airport:
Hudson: "Um, excuse me, Grammy?"
Grammy: "Yes, Hudson?"
Hudson: "I've got straps on my bed."
Grammy: "You do?"
Hudson: "Yeah, it's so I don't move around in bed."

(Alright, wait a sec. Hudson's been fascinated with astronauts recently and saw a video clip of them straping into bed in the shuttle and now likes to pretend HE has an astronaut bed. We do NOT strap our son to his bed)

Then as we walked in the door...
Hudson: "Grammy, I have hookers in my room. Do you want to put your coat on my hookers? They're in my room. Wanna see my hookers?"

(Coat HOOKS, Hudson, they're called coat HOOKS)

Then Grammy presented Hudson with her trademark array of tiny presents--an egg that hatches a tiny dinosaur when in water, a tiny tiny Bible, and tiny hammer on a key chain (aka choking hazards ; )

While Grammy was getting settled in, Hudson took the tiny tiny Bible into nap time with him. After awhile I could hear him singing and talking instead of sleeping...
Me: "Hudson, go to sleep."
Hudson:" But I'm singing about the Bible!!"
Me: "No, you need to go to sleep."
(a few minutes later, still more singing and talking)
Me: "Hudson! You need to put down that Bible and go to sleep!"
Hudson: "But I need to read..ABOUT..JESUS!!!"
Me: "PUT..THE..BIBLE..DOWN!!"

Great. What kind of mom am I?

Baby pics coming soon hopefully!

I'm A Maaaniac, Maaaniac.

I think we're all goin a little crazy waiting for Baby Armstrong to come...currently we're five days past my due date. This is what happens when you mix a 3-hour nap, Starbucks chocolate milk, and the anticipation of waiting for a new brother...that and an innate ability to get down.

Capturing the Soul

How is it that when I take a photo it turns out, well, just like a photo? Then someone like this guy can take a photo of the same people I've photographed a hundred times, with nothing more than a camera and a bare room, and somehow capture their souls on film. I must have missed the "Capture Essence of Innermost Being" setting on my camera. I'll have to check the manual again.



Anyways, these are some of the photos for the Artists&Authors album cover I'm working on. Isn't my sister beautiful? Tye chose wisely. The photographer, Michael Wilson, is a humble genius and has an impressive list of famous musical clients. Despite his world-renownedness (yes, that is now a word) he was also gracious enough to drive down to my 87-year-old grandparents' house last year and do a little photo shoot of them for next to nothing just so my family could have REAL photos of them. Sure, my grandparents are spiritual and wise. But how come they don't come across as such in MY photos of them ; )




It's definitely a gift. And I'm so glad Michael has been willing to share it with my family.

ps-- two days past my due date and still no baby. If you've got any "baby-bringin'" tricks, I'm willing to try them : )

Collaborating with Music

So many of my illustrations are influenced by music, often specific songs. So I love when I get the chance to do cd covers--listening to the music and putting it in picture form. Here are a couple cd projects I'm working on now...



Here's the cover I just finished for my friend, Tom Conlon's, latest cd project. You can find out more about him, his music, his tour schedule, etc at his myspace page--such an amazingly talented singer/songwriter/guitarist. The art for this cover was taken from jewelry pieces designed by his friends from Figs&Ginger. Check out their work too!



The other cd project I've been working on that's nearing completion is for Artists&Authors (aka my sister and her husband). Their next cd is scheduled to be released shortly. Make sure to listen to the sneak peaks of some the tracks on the upcoming album.

PS--two days from my due date and no baby yet, hopefully soon : )

Etsy Brooches

I haven't been very bold in my attempts to sport brooches yet. I have a couple small rhinestoney ones I got from thrift stores and from my grandmother--nothing too daring. But they often catch my eye when perusing through Etsy shops. One of these days, when the right outfit, the right mood, and the right accessories aline themselves, I'd like to try and pull off one of these...



This one is from lalalaurie's shop which I came upon through on Design Sponge this morning. Check out her shop and the photos of her home--beautiful!


This one comes from vaivanat's shop out of Edinburgh. Cute and small and a great "hot cinnamon" color. She also has some really cool felt necklaces. It wasn't til I started seeing all the great felt jewelry on Etsy that I realized that felt is not just for finger puppets and other pre-school crafts. You can actually make some pretty classy pieces of jewelry with it.



This one comes from Pequenio Craft in Argentina. She offers quite a collection of illustrations, collages, jewelry and stickers so make sure to check them out.




And how cute are these from soleil girl. Make sure to check out all her fun little felt creations.

Thanks, ladies, for letting me feature your work : )

"Emotional Roller Coasters"--the cutest saddest story

(little story for the fam--)
A three year old who stayed up way too late watching the Superbowl mixed with a very pregnant, night-owl mom at 7:00am can make for an emotional morning...

Recently Hudson has been waking up in time to eat breakfast with Daniel before he goes to work--kind of their morning ritual as of late. So this morning when we woke up just in time to see Daniel leave for a breakfast meeting, he lost it. Daniel reluctantly dropped the heart-broken, sobbing, kicking boy into bed with me on his way out.

And when I couldn't console him I started crying.

"Why are YOU crying, mommy?" he said, tilting his head to one side and laying his hand on my knee.

"I don't like to see you sad." I cried

"Now we're BOTH SAD!" and he threw himself crying into my lap.

We fell back on the pillow, hugged, and cried for 15 minutes. (I know, it was ridiculous).

Then we drowned our sorrows in bowls of Koala Crisp cereal and were ready to start the day.

Now I have visions of a 14-year-old Hudson watching "Steel Magnolias" with me someday amidst mounds of wet tissues and empty Ben and Jerry's containers--oh, brother.

A Bunch of Garbage

Our Christmas present to ourselves finally arrived. Daniel is an avid TreeHugger.com reader and I think he saw it there over a year ago and now we're the proud new parents of, that's right, an indoor composter. Check out our new bundle of...rotting....food scraps...