what happened?

Yeah, that's right. I'm a jerk. I said that i wanted to blog more, then i go for weeks without posting. Well, i'm not making excuses but i want you to know what happened. Ok, for about a week, i was just lazy. I didn't post because i didn't want to. Then i woke up one morning and thought, I'm gonna blog today. Wouldn't you know, that would be the day we lost the internet at our house. We were switching over to a new provider or something and we had to wait for our new router (or something) to come in the mail. So that was a few days. Then as soon as we got our internet up and running, I took a trip to Kansas City with my friend, Rita, to visit my sister, Courtney (a.k.a. Nourtney). And I just got back yesterday. So here's a short little blog post, let's call it a "bloglet"...

my told my sister-in-law, Sarah, that I would paint her anything for her birthday - her choice :-) she wanted something to go in their kitchen and she found a vintage advert for orange juice. here's the finished product...

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? the original poster

oh baby!

I've had the privilege of creating paintings for some of my friends nurseries. Some of them have been gifts, but some were commissioned (and bought) by the baby's mom :-) I like being able to give my paintings away as gifts, but it's an honor to be requested to paint - and a little scary! I've had 2 friends now, that have requested a picture for their nurseries and just gave me the colors and told me that they trusted me. I'm always a little nervous at first but once I get an idea, I start to get excited! Plus there's something fun about painting for kids/babies. One of my biggest influences is Mary Blair, and a lot of her art was for children's books, cartoons (Disney), and advertising for products for kids. Always very whimsical and fun. As I'm trying to figure out exactly what I'm to do with this gift of painting, I'm enjoying being able to use it to brighten up some baby rooms - maybe that's it :-) Feel free to contact me if you know of some more nurseries! Anyhoo, here's Evy Rankin's painting...

these are a few of my favorite things...

my friends, Rachelle and David, asked me to paint something for their new baby's room. i was excited because a lot of my paintings end up being child-like and whimsical. They already have the painting now, but I thought i would share it with you...

that's their dog, Jake :-)

i was so excited…

We went to Kruger National Park! Oh, it was so great! Me and the Hodge family spent last Saturday at the park. We saw quite a few animals,but i'll let the photos speak for themselves...

… we also saw a leopard but weren’t fast enough with the camera. I think (and hope) we will go at least one more time before I go!

how to know that you're not in the states anymore...

...when you see a sign indicating that hippos may be crossing the road. apparently they migrate from pond to pond at night. who knew?