I Love my Creative Life!

I've taken some time over winter break to dive back into playing with sewing and such. I find that I love to embrace messiness in all that I do. I love leaving in mistakes, being loose with my work, and I especially love to create functional art that I or someone else will use.

Here's what I've been up to.

I made a tunic out of 3 t-shirts.

I made a bag out of one t-shirt...features my art from 2011.

I turned a scarf I knitted last year into a winter cap.

I made a messy stitched an old canvas bag with more of my 2011 paintings.

I had a number of old t-shirts with my art printed on them.

Now those shirts and my art have a new awesome life!

The bag is officially Ruby tested and approved.

Meow!

I had the best time with girlfriends Saturday night. We cut up old sweaters and made cozy cat hats. Here are mine! Perfect for wearing at the march at the Capitol if I decide to go...sometimes peaceful rebellion comes in the form of a homemade hat. "Meow!"

Winter 2

I heard the most delightful thing last night! My son's wonderful girlfriend told me that she can't buy reproduced art any more. Ever since she met me and now has a number of my original paintings she simply can't go back to mass produced art. I love that!


I painted this as a delightful warm-up. It's a companion piece to "Winter" and I've given this one to the same beautiful person who bought the first one. Giving my art away is one of my favorite things.

"Winter 2"

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

I'm running a big sale on my paintings through the end of August. Almost everything in my gallery is 60% off. I'm only keeping my most current work (paintings on page 1) at the listed prices. If there's something you'd like, please let me know by message or comment so I can manually adjust the price. Thanks!!! http://www.dailypaintworks.com/artists/kali-parsons-3935/artwork

Twisted

Sometimes pure perfection happens.

I was in the laundry room, which just so happens to be a very tiny room, and my little guy showed up. "Twist and Shout" streamed out of his phone...and that precious kid of mine started to do the twist and sing loudly into a vacuum cleaner extension tube "microphone". Well, of course I had to join in! And the two of us twisted and shouted for the duration of that magnificent song.

Hanging in the laundry room has never been more fun!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Feels Like Winter

I cut Hazel's hair a week or so ago. Hazel is our big awesome dog for those of you who don't know. Ever since her haircut she's been a little shivery at night as she sleeps at the foot of our bed. So being the nice doggy mom that I am, who also happened to be woken up by Hazel's quivery shivers, I got up, pulled her up to my spot, lay her head on my pillow, got myself in bed, snuggled up beside her and covered us both up.

And I must say that it was the most delightful, cuddly, shiver-free night's sleep ever!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Things Happen at Night

Sometimes I think I miss out on stuff by sleeping at night.

I woke up this morning to find that every single plate and every single cup and mug that we own had been used. And while there were tons of forks left in the drawer, there was only one spoon. So I'm going with the assumption that a soft serve substance, spoon and plate-worthy something that induced great thirst was on the midnight menu.

This delicious mystery must be solved...stay tuned.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Winter

Funny thing about winter. Historically I'm so not a fan. I've got years worth of complaining about it under my belt. Years. But something's changed. I'm rather in love with the overcast skies. The trees' beauty fills me with awe. And the chill in the air makes me feel alive.

Perhaps it's age...you know, all that woman approaching "the change" stuff. Maybe it's that once we decided we'd retire in the northwest my mind/body/spirit decided it better start adapting. Or it could be that I'm just happier now than ever. 

Whatever it is I'm loving it. 

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

That Chicken Look

I walked out to our chickens' yard holding a bowl of goodies. They eagerly ran up to me clearly expecting cottage cheese or at least some yummy seeds. So when I put the bowl of fresh organic green beans down for them they gave me the same look that my kids used to when I'd give them green beans.


Chickens: "Um, really? This is what we ran over here for?"


But being chickens they went ahead and ate it...unlike my kids.



I was looking at Juliet Crane's work on Pinterest and found myself inspired to take a left-handed stab at painting my chickens.

 Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Chickens say, "No Problem!"

We've had freezing temps lately, mid 20s freezing temps last night. So of course I worried about my chickens. I lump them in the "pet" category rather than the "wild critter" category, and so I assume that they need to be brought inside to stay warm so they'll be OK....in spite of the articles I've read and the chicken owning friends of mine stating that they're fine left outside. But I was still super nervous last night as I was about to fall asleep.


Me: "I hope the chickens will be OK."

Dave: "They birds. They'll be fine just like all the other birds sleeping outside tonight."

Me: "Alright."


And by golly they did survive. Relief washed over me when I heard their cooing when I let the dogs and cats out this morning.

"No problem!" said the chickens.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Got Wind?

Sometimes things are not as they appear...or smell.


Dave and I went on a romantic date to the grocery store. Here's how the next few hours went.


We got in the car.

Dave: "Did you fart?"

Me: "No."


We got home and put the food we'd bought in the fridge.

Dave: "Did you fart?"

Me: "No!"


I got the broccoli out and put it in the steamer.

Dave: "Did you fart?"

Me: "No!!!"


And then we noticed that the broccoli was rather mushy and a bit on the liquidy side in the bag...and totally smelled like the worst fart ever.


Um...thanks for the romantic scapegoating, darlin'. Good thing I know that Dave totally loves his vegetables.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Fair Weather

Conversation as we were walking to the car in the grocery story parking lot. The little guy was pushing the cart as he always insists upon doing.


Me: "I never pushed a grocery cart until I moved out of my parents' house."

Little guy: "Mom, you know you live with a bunch of control freaks."

Me: "We're going to put gas in the car next. Are you going to insist on filling it?"

Little guy: "No way."


Fair weather control freak....

 Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Love and Light

We've got lovely family joining us for the next couple of days, and for the first time in years we don't have a tree to decorate. I didn't even drag our porch plant in and put lights on it like I usually do. My inner voice just kept shouting...

"No tree, no tree, no tree!"

So "no tree" it is. Instead, this year I just tacked strings of colorful lights up, down, and all around on our living room walls.


Perfection!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Blissfully Frozen

Due to the kid's athletics schedule these days we find ourselves out and about during the wee hours of the morning when it's still around freezing temps.  We heat up a blanket in the dryer, get in the car, snuggle up, and we're off.  And we always...always...see tons of people working out on our way.  Some are running, some are doing yoga, and some are doing some sort of boot camp/crossfit thing. 


Little guy:  "I'm concerned about these people's mental health, mom."

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Birds of a Feather...

...it turns out, really do flock together.

Especially when it's cold outside.  While we have four chickens that happily live in our back yard, we really know practically nothing about them.  So when I realized that it was supposed to get almost down to freezing last night and below freezing tonight, I consulted my chicken lovin' friends.


Me:  "What do I do?  What do I do?"

My friends:  Basically..."Nothing, they'll be fine.  They're birds and birds are designed to be outside."


OK, so nothing it is.


But I had to peek just to be sure, and those chickens were having an adorable group hug.

Chicken love....

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Funny? Hmmmmmmm...

I'm constantly forgetting what I said.  Such is the case from last night.  I cracked what I was convinced was a really funny joke.  But my audience did not share my enthusiasm.  Decidedly did not.


Little guy:  "That's worse than a bad joke...that's a dad joke."


Wow.  That is bad. 

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Post Revolution

So a year later my big guy finally saw the clip of me on NBC's "Revolution". 


Me:  "It's on Netflix now, check it out."

Big guy:  "No, mom, I'm busy.  I'll look at it later."


Later...and by later I mean about an hour after I'd fallen asleep and was happily dreaming-n-drooling.  A puddle on my pillow is a sign of some good sleep happenin'.


Big guy:  "Hey, mom!  I just watched you...that was cool!  You looked a lot like the star of the show."


The star is in her early 20s...he was instantly forgiven for waking me up.


Until...

Big guy:  "You both looked dirty."


I'm good with it.  This forty-seven year old broad is happy to look like a dirty chick in her 20s any day.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Seeing Orange

Last night on my walk I passed the cutest fella.  He was a total ginger, hair a lovely shade of light auburn.  And he was wearing a Longhorn orange polo shirt.  And the icing on the cake?  He was walking an equally ginger Golden Retriever.

They were awesome...and I told them so.


And when I did, he looked down at his shirt and at his dog, and appeared to have had no idea that they shared the same shade.  That made them even more awesome.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Texting...Leaf Blower Style

When it comes to texting, I'm like that nutty guy with the leaf blower.  There's that one leaf that just won't comply and go where the dude wants it to.  Does he just lean over and pick up the errant leaf?  Nope.  No way.  He blows it this way and that and this way again.  I get it.  He wants to use the tool he's got available, right?

When it comes to texting I'm so like that nutty leaf blower guy.  You know there's that really cool little microphone feature there so you can just say what you want to have in your text.  I use it all the time.  And it's far from perfect.  I wanted to tell someone to get bean and cheese burritos, and even though I said it as clearly as I could muster, it kept on coming up, "being burritos".  Did I just take a second and manually type in "bean and"?  Nope.  No way.  I tried recording it over and over and over again.  I had the tool available and I wanted to use it.

Me?  I get that nutty leaf blower guy.  Yup.


P.S.  Yes, I did eventually manually type in "bean and".  But I didn't like it.

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World Travelin'

Costco style, that is.

After I worked out at the gym today I hit the Costco because we were out of everything.  Figuring there'd be no samples available, or at least none that I could eat with my finicky diet, I scarfed a couple dried pineapple slices from a bag I keep in my car for just such emergencies, and head in.

Well, I tell you what...I had the best Costco sample day ever!

Stuffed grape leaves, the most delicious lentil soup, hummus, and dried mango.  I was in Kali appetite heaven.

And now that I think about it, I didn't buy one thing I sampled.  Ya, I have no explanation for that.

Click here to purchase this painting.

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Quick Learner

I'm constantly learning lessons.  And they're nearly always because I've made a mistake.  But, hey, I rarely make the exact same mistake twice.

What was my mistake this time?   Well, as part of the little guy and my volunteer work, I end up with a big bag of bird nesting material in my car every week.  (We do weekly work at a Purple Martin Sanctuary, and one of our duties is to clear out sparrow nests so that the Martins may have their designated spots.)  Anyway, we did our work Sunday morning and I put the bag of nesting material...with a generous coating of bird poo on everything...in my back seat.  Last night the kid and I went shopping and we wondered what the heck was off about the way my car was smelling.  This morning I opened the back seat of my car to put my backpack in and WHOOOOOSH!!!  I got hit in the face with some serious nasty.

Will I be accidentally leaving a bag-o-bird stuff in my car again?  Decidedly unlikely.

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