EKjourney Backup

Friday, we took a Field Trip up to Portland to attend the 10 Grand concert.  It was a beautiful concert with 10 grand pianos on stage featuring arrangements of all pianos at once as well as solos pieces.  The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall is amazing.  I could be a Portland dweller, in an old brick apartment, eating out at fine restaurants multiple times a week, and going to all things artistic, museum, performing arts, and culturally related LOL.  (Incidentally, I could also travel the world as a free lance photographer and writer for a magazine like National Geographic or be a national/internationally renowned artist traveling for inspiration to use in my latest art work and teaching classes.)  However, I love me a "quiet" home, in a small town, with a house-full of children, and a conservative boy that I love with everything I am!  And in all my visions of living out a dream, my husband and children are always with me.  For now, I think I can dream s...

This week is the official public school Spring break but we are taking our family Spring Break, week after next.  Phil has a "quiet" school to himself to work in and is catching up on his administration courses this week as well as taking the children into work with him for playtime in the gym in the afternoons, freeing me up for crafting time.  All of our normally scheduled activities are canceled so it is just a nice slow week at home.  I am thoroughly enjoying it! A friend (Jenn) posted on facebook a picture of a lego scene that her daughter had put together representing "mom".  It was a lovely scene of a lady working in a flower shop.  I hope the above doesn't represent me.  LOL! We went to our church's baptism.  It was such a privilege to see so many of our friends baptized.   Our room, overflowing with things that belong in an art studio! Studio items in the playroom as well. A friend (Jenn) gave me this lovely bouquet and while it is nearly...

I am pondering vendor faires for the Summer/Fall months.  I haven't done the inventory that I had hoped for this Winter but I would still like to do a couple of shows this season and apply for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Portland.  Most of my stock is at the White Oak gallery and I have been pleased to at least be selling on a monthly basis.  I am certainly not making my fortune LOL but I have been able to buy a few "luxury" items like journaling supplies, oil pastels, and watercolors with my proceeds.  I am thinking of the Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire and the Oregon Country Fair ("retro" event in Veneto).  I have to apply and then be juried in so I am working on the application and photography. I need a multi-product picture.  I have been playing around with designs and have been trying to create a "vintage trunk" theme.  This particular picture still needs the correct lighting but I am trying to find a way to make various product look cohesive....

Leap Year, 2016 Our wonderful piano teacher, Tracie Richman, hosted a Leap Year Frog party for a few of her students and friends with families....I was so grateful not only for her generosity and hard work to put this together but for my homeschooling community - other homeschooling families, my church homeschooling community, our co-op, 4-H group...they are separate yet often intertwined and together they make up such a supportive network of friends and encouragement, not just for me but for my children!    A "army" of frogs (that is actually what they call a group of frogs), listening to the Bible story about the plagues on Egypt and the exodus of God's people. 5 green and speckled frogs.... ...sat on a speckled log.... Frog drawing and mapping out frogs around the country.  There was also jumping songs, origami, and a math activity.  Tracie did such a great job making it interesting for all ages and keeping the children from getting too wiggly with movement activi...