Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be.

The luxury of anonymity. I'm ever so grateful for the ability to fade into the background.

"Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be."

- Princess Diana

"Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be."

This is an 9.5"x7.5" piece in my art journal. Prints available on request.

(Printed image will be slightly cropped for printing purposes.) 

All works are copyrighted and all rights are reserved by the artist.

My original paintings are available in my online gallery.

Prints of many of my paintings are available in my Etsy shop. 

Let me know if you're interested in prints of my paintings.

  I welcome commissions.

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"With Wand" Part 4"

Me: "Don't have a cow about it."

Little guy: "What does that even mean?"


What?!?! The youth of today don't know what that means? I considered referring him to the urban dictionary site, but I'm sooooo glad I checked it before telling him to look there. I nearly had a cow when I read what that site said.


All of this might mean that I'm officially getting old.

I finished this painting. It was a great learning experience. It was originally a much bigger piece of paper, but I trimmed it to 12x9. 

"With Wand"

I painted her dress two shades of blue.

I added some purple and darker blue as well.
And before the final version I painted her wand
and per ponytail holders as well as giving the
top of her dress a lacy effect.

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"With Wand" Part 3

I received a text this morning.


"I see an elf at the bus stop! Is that your little guy?"


Well, of course it was! My little guy wore his elf costume to school all week long. So awesome!!!



I continued working on my painting. With each stroke I can see her personality emerging.

I gave her pupils and a sparkle in her eyes. I also
outlined her irises and her upper lids.

I painted her hair black. For some reason
this took a really, really long time. I guess
I wanted to make super sure that I stayed in
the lines. The shine is from the flash. Her
hair is a solid black.

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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"With Wand" Part 2

Last night when I was walking my dog, Hazel, a fellow passed me on his bicycle, got a little bit ahead of us, and made an attempt at a jump. Well, he ended up flipping all kinds of ways, mostly sideways. He turned and looked at us right away and took a deep bow. Hazel and I caught up to him and asked if he was OK. He was fine, though perhaps a little humiliated. I told him not to sweat it and that it reminded me of the time when I tried jumping something and flipped in front of a whole crowd at the state capitol building. And I suggested that maybe he might want to start wearing a helmet. I'm such a mom nag.

I continued working on this painting. It's so fun watching her come to life.

I used a wet paintbrush to smooth out the marks.

I added some brown marks...

...and smoothed them with a wet paintbrush.

I used white acrylic to highlight parts of her
face and added some color to her lips.

I added more definition to her mouth and
painted her eyes blue. She's coming to life!

Click here to view my gallery.

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

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"With Wand" Part 1

Elf outfit update...yes, the kid wore his elf outfit to school again today. I wish I'd been that comfortable in my skin when I was seventeen. Not that I was meek or anything. Rather than wearing a whimsical elf outfit, however, I was shaving my head, sporting combat boots, and tempting fate each day with the school dress code (I was only sent home once). A bit of a difference I suppose.


I started working on a practice piece for the class I'm taking. We're going to do several of them working on different skin tones and shadowing. This one is caucasian.

I sketched out the character. Note that my pencil
eraser is pretty much gone. The length of my pencil,
however, is still substantial. Guess this means I
make more "mistakes" than accurate marks. :-)

I used watercolor pencils to lay down some
color. I took a wet brush to the color and
evened it out. I also changed her skirt
and added a wand.

I added a layer of color with water soluble crayons.

Click here to view my gallery.

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment

Hammer Time

So it turns out that if the guys are out hammering in the back yard it's absolutely, positively not received well when I break out into song with "Hammer Time".

Furthermore, it's absolutely, positively, without a doubt not received well when I break out into dance to go along with it.

And now I'm consumed by the urge to get some bloomy pants.

This painting has been donated to the Carver Museum as part of a benefit for them.

It will be auctioned off to benefit the museum.

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Back in Roman Times

Seems like we've gone back in time every few days.  The thing is this.  Our kitten loves catching cockroaches.  Really, it's a beautiful thing.  But he goes a bit ancient roman times on us and I end up cleaning up his mess...though I don't really get on his case about it.

From the evidence, here's what I've concluded he does at night:

- He spies a ridiculously large cockroach.
- He catches said cockroach.
- He takes the cockroach to the bathtub (which turns out to be a spot from which cockroaches cannot escape...his own personal arena).
- He"plays" with the cockroach for some undetermined amount of time.
- He gets in bed with me and wakes me up by tapping my face with his paw.
- I find the massacre evidence in the morning when I want to take a shower.

That second to last part really grosses me out after I realize what his dirty little paws have been up to.

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Who you sayin' has wee little mousy muscles?!?!

My little guy has been going to the gym with me lately.  He's rather funny.  Sort of.  He zooms around doing his own thing and then checks in with me when I'm doing the weight machines.  Really, it's quite lovely.  I mean how many moms have fifteen-year-old sons who don't mind hanging out with them?  I shouldn't complain...really I shouldn't.  But the little toot, along with stopping to chat, always, always makes sure to point out how light the weight is that his mom is using. 


Me:  "Um, dude, you weigh thirty more pounds than I do."

Me:  "Think about it, I'm thirty-one years older than you."

Me:  "Hey!  Check out these guns!"  <me flexing...and hoping I don't give myself a cramp whilst doing so>


I figure this conversation we keep having is simply one of those things that we just do.  He smirks a bit, but mostly smiles.  I complain a bit, but mostly I feel loved.

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Eating my Words

OK, so weirdly enough, I'm writing two blog posts in a row that involve gray hair.  Perhaps it's because I recently had photos taken of myself and my delightfully sweet husband zoomed one up super close and pointed out that I do, in fact, now have a few gray hairs (I say they're just a lighter shade of blond than the rest of my hairs, not that going gray is a big problem for me or anything).  Perhaps I've just been lucky to run into some slightly older-than-I peers of late.

Anyway, as Hazel and I were running up a hill tonight I caught up with a woman.  I didn't see her face as I only saw her from the back, but she had salt and pepper hair.  I had the silly thought to myself, "Hey, I'm still faster than someone."  And then Hazel had to pee, so I stopped.  I heard the pitter patter of feet approaching us...and than that lovely salt and peppered woman ran right by us, full tilt.  Hazel and I started running again, at our regular pace, and that woman totally left us in her dust.

I love surprises.

I love eating my words (or thoughts).

I love running.

I love.

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Pain on the Periphery

Driving in my car...the kid turns on the radio...

And it was Journey.  Now I am a child of the 80s, after all, so of course I still manage to hold on to at least fifty percent of the lyrics.  I start singing along.  The kid hates it.  I decide that today, just today, I'll not make a sound.  But I am going to act out the song as best I can.


Little guy:  "You're hurting my peripheral vision, mom."


And throwing caution to the wind, I kept it up for the whole song.  I figure on Monday morning I'll schedule an appointment with his optometrist.

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My Fanny Pack...I love her so!

Because I'm so fond of sassing it up, and because I really want to have my children driven to hang out with me, and because I'm all about being a trend setter...I am personally bringing the fanny pack back.  Yes, it's sassy.  It's the same awesome black and pink one I've had since the late 80s.  Yes, my children jump at the chance to join me when I'm wearing it.  OK, that's a lie.  And yes, I am personally bringing the fanny pack back. 

You know, it's one of those things that purely reeks of utility.  It doesn't even try to be anything else.  It's hands free, it holds stuff, it rocks.

And to complete my evening look (atop my delightful spandex), I've decided to attach a blinky light for when the sun actually sets.

Yup, sassy, useful, safe...it rawks!

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Feelin' Fancy!

Ya know, it's the small things, it turns out.  It really is.  You see, the other day at work I decided that I really, really needed something to eat on.  OK, back up.  I always eat my lunch in my classroom when my class goes outside with my assistant.  Now I could go to the lounge, but I really, really love alone time, so I gift myself with some of that every day at work.  What I used to do was sit at my desk, place my food on top of spiral notebooks or some such thing to keep containers that had condensation on them from getting all over my desk which has a freakish problem with being damaged by the tiniest bit of water.

Anyway, the other day I decided that I was special enough to deserve a better scene...so, being my crafty self, I got a large piece of construction paper, tore up many, many colorful pieces of tissue paper, glued them on the paper, and then laminated it the next morning when it was dry.

And I tell you what, this girl is feeling mighty fancy with her one-of-a-kind Kali original place mat.  Yup!  And it goes perfectly with the cloth napkins I pack in my lunch. 

Fancy is as fancy does, people.

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Home Sweet Home

In spite of the fact that we have a fabulous clothesline that I love and adore, we end up using our dryer a lot.  Seriously, it's a surprising amount of laundry I do and it often builds up into mounds of clothing and towels...luckily mostly clean.

Well, this morning I got a wild hair and decided that our dryer, that serves us so well with nary a complaint, deserved a bit of T.L.C.  So, I YouTubed a bunch of "care and feeding of your dryer" type videos and found one that suggested a delinting.  Off went the kickplate.  Off went some whatchamacallit cover thing.  And then I found out where all the dryer lint that manages to escape the lint catcher goes to live out its life in bliss.  There was the hugest ball of tough, cohesive lint I'd ever seen!  I picked that sucker up, briefly considered dissecting as if it were a huge owl pellet, and then gingerly carried it to the trash...after I picked out the $1.73 that was in it.

SCORE!!

Hey, I wouldn't be me without a little picking!

Home Sweet (and safer) Home

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Warrior Princess

If you know me, you likely know I'm fart phobic (click here for proof)...particularly when it comes to yoga.  Seriously, it's on my "won't do" list.  But last night I conquered my fears.  I downward dogged, I child posed, I warriored, I saluted the sun...and I got through it with nary an issue.  Oh, and did I mention that they also had us in partners, actually touching strangers?!?!  Well, I got through that, too, without hyperventilating and passing out or anything.

Seriously feeling like that warrior I posed as.  Can't wait to do it again!

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Our Castle is Almost Complete

We're just four tiles away from having the kitchen/office/laundry room floor from being completed.  Not counting grout and sealing, and moving everything back in from the back yard and carport, of course.  I've been in charge of cementing and placing the tiles.  Dave's been in charge of doing all the cuts that are needed.

And, of course, Dave has come up with the word that totally defines our D.I.Y. project.

"roughstamation"

Yup, that's when you make a rough estimation of all the laying out and cutting.  And, I must say, it looks awesome!

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