Ok, I'm Back

My gosh, where have I been lately? What month is it? June? We moved from Minnesota to Maryland last summer? Yes. So...here we are in Ellicott City. It's a lovely little town just minutes outside Baltimore. The transition was...uh...a little rougher than anticipated due to a variety of things. The mortgage approval process was a bear. We first had to move into a small apartment while all the paperwork got sorted out, which was seriously like fax us just these 2 more things again and again and then fax another signed form and three more months worth of this and that, etc.

I had to start the kids in one school in September, and then a few weeks later when we finally closed on a house, had to move them to another school. Let's think about that a minute. Middle school kids. Starting a new school. TWICE in a month. I felt like I was really letting them down. Ugh.

Then just before Thanksgiving, I lost a friend to cancer. It's very hard to talk about. Very hard. So anyway, I've been very focused on who I am, what's important in life, my kids, being available to them, what sort of mother I need to be and become. The blog sort of faded away. Sorry this is such a downer.

All of this is not to say that I stopped making stuff. On the contrary, I really let the crafting and designing and planning projects save my mental state. You know those precious minutes at night, when you're done for the day, everyone is safely tucked into bed, and you have serious, real, relaxed alone time, just you and your own creative thoughts? That's my favorite part of the day.

So I have a lot of stuff in the works, but here's what I've been dabbling with for the past few weeks:

Gold dimensional paint. I call this series "Ma Vie en Puffy Paint". I'm addicted to this stuff. I can't stop. It's dried up under my fingernails as we speak, and the ideas keep coming.

First, there was a jellyfish.

We visited the National Aquarium here in Baltimore, and I fell in love with the moon jellies. I researched what's involved in keeping them in a tank at home, and I think that's not happening. Those little suckers are VERY hard to keep. They have to have special round tanks and fancy filters because they can't bump into anything and their tentacles are very fragile. How do they survive the ocean? Anyway. The gold dimensional paint squirts out in wiggley blobby lines just like their silly tentacles.

And then there was a golden longhorn.

Again with the blobby paint to highlight the strange characteristics of this animal. Can you tell I'm homesick for Texas? I miss you, University of Texas. Hook 'em! With golden squirty horns!

I hear they raise ostriches out in West Texas.

With semi-grotesquely realistic birdy legs.

I also got on a preppy kick and made this striped whale. Of course, I had to highlight the weird baleen mouth stuff. It's preppy eclectic. Prep-clectic?

And an elephant with gold tusks.

Are there any other animals with strange features to highlight in gold?

Of course. A pink plaid buck with crazy antlers.

A duck who may have had had a bit too much to drink. Somebody take his keys.

A horse (sketched by my daughter) who got the gold treatment from me. She's minty floral and probably needs a cutie mark to complete the look.

I had a rugby shirt this color once. I wish it'd had golden suckers on it. 

And most recently,  a golden jack rabbit. I think his floral pattern looks like a vintage sheet. My dad refers to the time before a person was born as "out chasin' jackrabbits", as in, "hey, where was I in this photo? Oh, you were out chasin' jackrabbits."

So I put these prints in a new etsy shop I've started called 4th Floor Housewares. Have a look!