Family Portraits!

 For the second year in a row, we took part in our talented friend, Jon Willis's, Simple Portrait Project.

 As much as I love last year's photos, I think these have to be my favorite family photos ever!! I love black & white photography. Jon always does an amazing job.

 I mean, look how studly my three men look!

Jude's face in this one below cracks me up every time. That kid.

And Jon took this shot to match my sister, Tye, and Dexter's family photo. Hilarious.

This week I have lots of printing, packaging, and shipping to catch up on.  Hudson's 6th birthday is later this week so I'm hoping to do lots of decorating too!

Hope your week is off to a good start!
Arian : )

The Girl Has Style.

My son, Hudson, got to be in a music video today! And my sister, Andrea, was the style genius behind the video shoot's wardrobe.

(above 2 pics by Andrew Peters)

The kids looked amazing and I can't wait for the video to come out. Hopefully I can show you!

The day was a fun venture into the movie-making business. It's not quite as glamorous as one would think---lots of standing around in the cold and waiting. It makes you realize how amazingly talented movie-makers are to be able to take all those bits and pieces of footage and weave them into a beautiful film.

(Hudson and one of his little co-stars, Avery).

(before)

And Andrea, being the rockstar that she is, went and got herself a rock star mohawk this week. The girl has guts AND style.

(after)

She inspires me to be a bit more adventurous in my style. I'm feelin the need for a little style re-mix of my own : )

Arian

Get Your Crayons

I have an insatiable love (addiction) for art supplies. They are like my crack. And Suder's is my crack house. The rows and cubbyholes and stacks of neatly-organized rainbows of colored pencils, oil pastel, acrylics, papers.....must....color....something...

And how amazing is it that's it's been in Cincinnati since Cincinnati looked like this! It's seen three generations of artists through its doors! Seriously, makes me want to never step foot in a giant chain art/craft store again.
I LOVE taking Hudson there. He's becoming just as in love with art supplies as I am. And of course we had to stop by yesterday to stock up for our vacation.





It's so beautiful and grungy inside....old, uneven floors...parts where the ceiling is so low you have to duck...





Sooooo pretty.

And LOOK! I made you guys a coloring page to keep you occupied while I'm away! Click on the image below to get the high resolution version, then right click or drag to your desktop. What are you waiting for! Go get your crayons!

Arian : )

The Good vs. The Great

Any day that calls for a paint smock is a great day in my book : )

We're getting ready to head out of town for a whole TON of adventures-- white-water rafting, camping, the beach, the road, tons of family, poolside sketching and reading.....YAY!





But, of course, I had no problem ditching the packing and cleaning today for a little crafty fun....adding a little "love" to one of my t-shirts : )



I'm trying to wrap up the last couple freelance projects I'll be taking for a while. I've just been feeling a deeper prompting to slow down, focus on my family and my own art, and stop spending so many late hours at this here computer screen trying to meet deadlines. It's going to be a good but hard transition. I'm really bad at saying no to fun freelance projects. But I think God has new plans for my art and family life on the horizon and I need to get on board with His plans. Even if it means forgoing good things for the sake of great things.



Part of it is that the reality of my first son entering full-day kindergarten in less than one month is really sinking in. It made me want to hug him longer before bed last night and I kept sneaking in to his room to watch him sleep. And freelance work often ends up meaning I spend less time with my boys. I think I'm just realizing that there's no time to spend less time with them. You know?

I hope you're having a great day and spending lots of time with the people who mean the most to you : )

Arian

Brought to you By...

Here are a few pics from the weekend... brought to you by "Hipstamatic"-- the new, pretty addictive photo app I downloaded for my iphone last week. Just to warn you, you'll proooobably be seeing a lot more Hipstamatic photos gracing this blog : )





They're a lot better at crazy faces than I am .



I got to spend a lot of time with my sister this weekend...always a plus : )



Urban Outfitters...yay : )



a little thrifting at Red Polly



She looks like such a glamorous rock star in this one (which she is, of course)...but I'm pretty sure we were discussing office supply organization and the intricacies of ikea shelving assembly... very non-glamorous stuff. : )

Hope your week gets off to a great start!!

Arian

Crazy-Talented

I played around editing a few more of the pictures from last week's photo shoot with my crazy-talented musician cousin, Clint. I'm definitely an amateur photographer and don't really know what I am doing but it sure is fun!



Speaking of crazy-talented musicians, if you have two ears and a heart you should know and love and buy Josh Garrels music because it is awesome.





We here in the Armstrong household have been big fans for a while and are super-pumped to start working on merging our art and his music on a fun project in the near future. Can't wait!

- Arian : )

Second Shooters

I did a mini photo shoot this morning with my cousin, Clint, to try and get some good promo pics for a new business venture he's taking on. It was a ton of fun and he was a very patient model : )

And of course I took along my two trusty assistants who braved all the walking and waiting in the 90+ degree weather like pros!

( Jude: "Mommy! Wook! We hold hands! Awww." )


I'm pretty sure they enjoyed the adventure,


trying only occasionally to sneak into the shots : )



Overall, they are a pretty handy duo. I think I'll keep them around ; )

I'll show you the best photos from the shoot soon!

Arian