Finally

 I finally have had a decent amount of time to just draw today. Seems like its been months. Definitely feeling a little rusty. I sat and stared at the empty sketchbook page for what seemed like hours....drawing a few lines, erasing, drawing a few more lines, erasing...

 (Jude obviously doesn't feel the need to stay within the boundaries of his paper)

But conditions are perfect... a quiet storm is beating against the giant window in our room, I've got a rainy day play list running on itunes, and the boys are busy making pizzas downstairs. It's going to be our new Friday night family tradition...pizzas made mostly by the boys and then snuggle/movie time. Perfect.

Dinner time!
Happy Friday!!

Arian ; )

Fried Yard Clippings

 Jude and Grammy have been enjoying spring today-- spring weather AND spring flowers!!

Grammy taught Jude how to fry dandelions and wild onions from our yard.

First, remove the stems and discard. Then soak and rinse the flowers with salt water to get rid of any dirt or tiny critters.

Dip the dandelions in flour and seasoning (salt, garlic powder, pepper, etc), then in a raw egg/milk mixture, then back in the seasoned flour.

And then just fry them in a pan of oil til lightly browned and crispy

And there you go!

Pretty tasty!

Date night tonight! So excited!! Daniel and I have been working on a detailed weekly family rhythm.  Being artists, we tend to be weak in the "planning" area and tend to just go with the flow. But we've really noticed that our family could benefit from some structure in our week. It's going to be great. Things like "date night" and "family night" and "art with friends" will hopefully become regular weekly occurrences in our home.

Do you guys have a regular weekly family schedule or do you just take one week at a time?

Either way, hope you're week is going well!
Arian : )

Cases

Last weekend I left my iphone on top of our car and drove off. Luckily it was found the next day by a kind stranger, unharmed, in the middle of a busy intersection a few blocks from our home. It's an iphone miracle! This is why people like me need hard cases for all their expensive hand-held devices.

But for the rest of you more responsible folks, may I suggest GelaSkins! They've got hundreds of amazing images to choose from or you can upload your own. We got one for Daniel's mom's ipad for Christmas customized with this picture of my boys playing piano (she's a pianist). She loved it!

And my lovely friend, Mandy, used my "Snowy Night" print for her ipad. I think it turned out great!! Thanks for the photos, Mandy!!

If anyone else is interested in using any of my prints for their smart phone or ipad or nook or whatever, let me know! We can work it out! As for me, I will be sticking to hard cases for now : )

Arian

I'm still here : )

 Hey! How's it goin? It's been a little while!  We've been unpacking and getting settled as quickly as possible. Nothing like hosting a party/house concert to motivate us to get things in order!

 We're loving our new home. I love the way the sun pours in at different parts of the day. The sun rises in the dining room and sets in our bedroom...lovely.

 And there are plenty of pretty details, like the vintage door knobs and the dark, refinished wood floors.

 We're enjoying the spring weather.  Our outdoor spaces are in need of some TLC. I see lots of trips to the hardware store and garden center in our future.  I picked up this patio table set for free on Craigslist and am excited to transform it!

Loving the spring flowers!

 I've got a growing collection of inspiring home images over on pinterest. Is anyone else as addicted to pinterest as I am? It's like my crack.  Must... Pin... Pretty....Pictures.

So many ideas and color schemes swimming in my head. Gotta get crackin!

Arian : )

Settling In

 We're slowly getting settled into our new home. I think it's going to be such a blessing for our family!

 We're maybe 1/3 unpacked and they are still doing work on the house (like putting in a new kitchen!) so we're in that "cold cereal out of Styrofoam cups for lunch" and the "I need a glass of wine but don't remember which of the seven 'kitchen' boxes has the bottler opener in it" phase.

 But the boys are loving it. Their room is like a cozy tree house. I can't wait to finish it and show you pictures!

 And my mom, who stays over once or twice a week, has been working on her little sunny sleeping nook.

 We're so grateful for our friend, Eric (on the left) who bought this place just two months ago when it was in quite bad shape. And when he heard we needed a place fast, he and his wonderful crew worked like crazy to make this house beautiful and available for us!

 (And still managed to have fun in the process) : )

Plus we welcomed home Tye and Andrea yesterday from their adventures in South Africa!

 So happy to have them back! We've already made plans to hit up one of our favorite Cincinnati spots tomorrow morning. Yay!!

I hope your week has been beautiful!

Arian : )

Happy Birthday, babe!

 Happy birthday, Daniel!! We'll have to postpone our celebrations for a weekend when we're NOT packing everything we own into a giant UHaul. But I just wanted to say you are the best one. For real. The BEST. ONE. I'd be lame without you. You are a rockstar of a husband, friend, son, and dad. And I'm so grateful to be on your team.

(Our wedding day and the long wig my mom "double dog dared" our friend, Dan, to wear during the wedding....which he did.)

(I don't know what is happening in this picture--I wasn't there. This is what happens when I'm not around to keep people in line. Mayhem.)

Love you!!
Arian : )

Just Around the Corner

Sometimes making art is more restful than sleep for me. So I traded in a couple hours or so of sleep and ignored the packing boxes tonight for the chance to do a little "just for fun" sketching. It's just a little scene from our busy day.... a moment when we stopped to smell the newly blossomed flowers.

I came across this video about a month ago (I'm probably the LAST person to see it, it's been around for awhile!)  But it reminded me to take heart! I love winter but this one has been a particularly hard one. My heart is ready for a new season, new growth, fresh air!

Well I guess it's finally time to crawl in bed with sleeping beauty back there ; ) Shhhh...

Good night!

Arian : )