The Amazing Adventures of Us

Photos from the Department of Skateboarding-  

I went out photographing with Austin yesterday (he's one of the advisors at school).  It was so much fun.
He drove and I got to enthusiastically say "stop, go back" every once in a while to get a good photo - here they are.  The final photo is of my friend Lily and her dad, they spent the afternoon at our house.

 

We were off recording an album this past weekend with the Free Choir.  It was a lot of hard work, sometimes pretty boring, but so much fun.  I'd do it again.  I'll let everyone know when the album comes out and then you can all buy one!

We made frog heads today.  Tomorrow we (almost the whole school - those who aren't on the camping trip, a lot of the parents and a few grandparents) are going to be in a parade through downtown Portland.  I plan on taking as many photos of us as I can while wearing my frog head.

Chris Lutter spent the day with us helping us design and build the frog heads.  It was one of the funnest things we've done in a while (we spend this weekend painting the dining room, so of course it was more fun!).
I'll post more photos from the parade as soon as I can. 

basket of monsters

  basket of monsters 
  Originally uploaded by artfulblogger.

I've been hard at work making many many monsters.  Here's a peek at few of them.

Yesterday was Open House at the kid's school and it was a good one.  We had about 20 families show up and most of them seemed really interested!  It was good.  It was billed (for the kids at school) as an extra day of school, most of them seemed to like that. 

We followed that up with one of the kid's friend's birthday party at a local skating rink.  That was cool, loud, but a lot of fun.  And the chocolatey-est cake ever, yum.  Needless to say, all of the kids fell asleep early what with all the playing at school in the morning and rollerskating in the afternoon.

  yellow cupcakes - old 
  Originally uploaded by artfulblogger.

We went to Saint Cupcake yesterday - very cool.  I love their decor, and the cupcakes weren't bad either.  I did ask if I could take photos before I whipped out my camera.

It rained here all day and it was lovely.  I must say I'm not missing the heat in the slightest. 

I spent the afternoon sitting on a friend's sofa with a few other moms while we learned how to play D&D.  My character's name is something like Alahandra and I'm a warrior (or something - I forget really).  We meet again next week to really get started.  In the meantime I'm thinking of making my character into a doll I can take to D&D games with me. 

Open studio this Friday should be fun, I may have more people coming and we're thinking of setting up a class schedule.  Melanie is interested in teaching an art journaling class, I'd love to teach doll making, and we'll see what other people have to offer.

studio 2
Originally uploaded by artfulblogger.

Here's the finished studio space (ok this is really only my part of it, but still, here it is!). I've been working out there making pennants to hang from the ceiling (and since I had a lot of extra fabric I made some to sell in my Etsy shop). I love it out here. So do the kids, they say it's even better than the studio space we had in our old house. I agree.

This Friday will be our first open studio night (I'm thinking decaf and rice krispie treats). I'm so excited! If you are planning on being there (Melanie, Leslie, Jenny) - leave your kids at home, bring your stuff to work on, dress warmly, and bring your bathing suit cause we may want to take a break and get in the hot tub!

Joy and Amy I wish you could be there to join us, we'll certainly miss you (well, I will anyway).

See you Friday!!

market chilis
Originally uploaded by artfulblogger.

Not much going on here, same old same old.

The kids are still loving school, Robin is getting into D&D big time, taking archery classes, karate, Japanese, sword making, and making friends.

Stu is also taking archery classes, going horseback riding next week, the ballet this week, listening to books on cd, playing Uno, and making friends.

I'm making a photo book so that my sister can take it into a local cafe because she asked them if they'd be interested in hanging some photos (I'm lousy at selling my stuff, I need help with that part. The photo above is part of the book). So I may be getting work out of that - keep your fingers crossed. I'm also going to two evening meetings at the Free School this week - busy busy.

Jeff is still subbing and enjoying it for the most part - some of the jobs are weird, his last night tutoring is tonight (until this summer when he's been asked to come back to work - YAY!).

That's about it, like I said, same old same old.

pink tree house tree
Originally uploaded by artfulblogger.

Spring is here (it's actually been here a few weeks) and our tree house tree is gorgeous! When my dad was here he kept asking what kind of tree it was and we kept telling him that it was a tree house tree. We're thinking now that it's also an ornamental cherry tree.

This week is all about finishing the painting in the studio. There's a lot of painting to do and I'm not terribly excited about it, I've injured my elbow somehow (probably all that heavy lifting I've been doing) and now I'm having a difficult time picking up anything with my right arm. Of course that means that I'm not called on to dishes very much, so there's a plus to the pain.

Yesterday was so beautiful here. The sun was shining, kids were happy (for the most part) and it was almost warm. We ate dinner outside, sat in the hot tub, and just enjoyed the warmth of the sun. Great day.

Last weekend Stu and I went to a huge Earth Day celebration at a park here in town, the Free School had a booth set up and we helped stencil some shirts before it started pouring rain. It was fun, but I'm thinking that Earth Day would be better in the summer when it's warmer, I'm such a wimp.

I have more meetings coming up for the kid's school, thank you letters to write, kite paper to find, and a shadowbox class to flesh out. We're aiming to have the studio up and finished by the end of this month!!

I've put a lot of photos of the stenciling at the Earth Day booth the school had on my flickr site if anyone is interested in seeing them - www.flickr.com/photos/artfulblogger .

faucet nose
Originally uploaded by artfulblogger.

I'm not ignoring my blog on purpose, we've just been incredibly busy.

Yesterday we had the hot tub installed (the elctrician comes on Wednesday to hook it up - YAY!), today and the next two days we are having new windows put in, and Jeff and I are hurrying up finishing the dry walling in the garage/studio so that when the inspector comes on Wednesday it's ready to be inspected.

WHEW!

But here are photos from our train trip last week to Seatlle -

The one above is this huge animated trippy faucet nosed guy. The one below is the hostess of the Grossology exhibit, she's kind of creepy.

And then just random photos from the trip -

The Grossology exhibit really wasn't worth the trip, but the Pacific Science Center is great! Being on the train was fun too (although we almost missed the connection back because we couldn't get a bus - we ended up taking a taxi back to the train station and JUST made it in time), we watched movies (Dream Girls and Stranger Than Fiction), ate breakfast going and dinner coming back, and visited with all the other homeschoolers (2 cars worth!).

It was a good day.