Never-ending laundry

Seems like I am either always doing laundry, thinking about laundry, putting off doing the laundry or complaining about the laundry! Here are two stacks that sat around downstairs while I watched the Grammys with M…who is inside right now doing laundry as I write this. It can sit in the basket for a week before I get around to putting it away. By the time I get to it, it is half-unfolded from rummaging around it in looking for the one or two black shirts that fit me ok! M usually folds and I end up putting it away…eventually. Better get inside and help — or just watch T.V.

Dark chocolate + coconut filled

My fourth trial-sized Mounds while watching the Grammys.

{pen + digital}

HM's art gallery

Sitting at the kitchen table while my kids were napping, I was looking around for something to sketch — just an everyday object. Anything. What could be more ordinary than the fridge — which doubles at HM's art gallery? She is really into coloring lately. One of her favorite things a few weeks ago was to draw a "sky blue windshield butterfly." I have no idea what that means, but it has come up repeatedly. I wonder what goes on her little head when she's coloring one of these! She is getting better at drawing figures. I can make out the face, body, arms, legs, hands and feet. So cute! Her zigzags are "writing." Often a big letter "H" can be found on the backs of her drawings from preschool — an "H" she has drawn herself! I love to see her little art skills take shape!

I couldn't get the perspective quite right on the butcher block, but decided to keep it in anyway.

Swim + Hydrate

Finally…back to the pool with my pink water bottle!

It's been way too long — about 4.5 months. With the new year, comes a renewed excitement to exercise again (and drink more water!). Just getting to the Y last night was an accomplishment to be proud of! 14 laps. I'll work on less rests and more laps, but for now, it just feels good to get back in. E was left with M and did his usual 9-10ish fussiness and didn't go to sleep until around 11:30 pm. I like to think that perhaps I had a bit more energy to get him down since I had finally gotten to the gym.

2.5 months : sleepyhead

I could never get HM to sit or stand still for long enough to sketch her (except for in the bath...see first sketch ever posted)! It's easy with a sleepy 2.5 month old!

2.5 months since my last post. E was born the next day! I knew he was coming soon…and he must have known I was finally ready. It was perfect timing. Contractions started at 11:45 am at church. Raced home. HM's auntie was over within minutes of getting home. Then off to Swedish by 2 pm. Walks with M around Capitol Hill and the hospital to speed things up. The possibility of going home then having to come back. Thank God that didn't happen! Things finally sped up…and Ezra was born at 8:17 pm, Sunday, October 26. 8 lb, 9 oz at birth. He is such a chubby little boy — already 16 lb at 2.5 months!

I had not planned that a sketch of E would follow my last post, but how fitting that it turned out that way! I was reminded that each sketch doesn't have to be a masterpiece…especially when I just have a few minutes as I'm waiting for my leftover pizza to heat up for lunch. I had to sketch quickly since E was waking up in his carseat. I never draw babies. I think I got the chub factor conveyed though. He watched me intently as I quickly threw on some color in the studio. First time he'd seen me paint. HM's old orange sweatshirt and green blanket are keeping him cozy.

5 cm

Had to get something up here before E enters the world! Again...it's been too long. My excuse this time is going through my last months of pregnancy, trying to get all my design work done, getting ready for E, being a mom to a 3 year old girl experimenting with her independence (along with dealing with her own little feelings of great anticipation at being a big sister), spending time with my husband, cooking, cleaning, living. Now...just waiting. The relief of completing projects. Painting done. Having E's & HM's closet cleaned out — room ready. Soup made. Fridge stocked. House clean (even the laundry room!). Carseat in car. Bag packed. Waiting. Even though November 10 is 2.5 weeks away, we all feel like it could be any minute. 5 cm. Ready for you, E!

Lucile & Airport Way S : blackberries + Ford 750 + Castrol

It was perfect! I had about an hour between dropping HM off at MK's place (last Thursday with her Auntie before her first day of preschool next week!) and getting to the Central Library for a West Coast Paper + Mohawk presentation (not to mention the delicious box lunch provided from Gourmondo — grilled vegetable panini, mixed greens and a powdered sugar-dusted, shallow, muffin-shaped brownie — the last of which I saved to have with my coffee back at the studio).

A couple weeks ago, walking past this scene with M, I mentioned that I wanted to sketch it — this scene...among others still on my "to sketch" list for Georgetown. There was a parking spot right in front. I stood against the car for about an hour for this one. I love the industrial, forgotten, fallen apart, rusty bright colors paired with with on-their-way-out blackberries (the blackberries were better a couple weeks ago). It has the same colors and quality as the stacked up containers I have been meaning to draw for so long — the ones at the Port, along W Marginal Way, Airport Way S, etc.

At first I was going to watercolor it when I got back to the studio. Instead I used colored pencil since I haven't used them in a while. Plus, it was quicker.

Hope to do more of Georgetown soon.

Tip: Did you know that clicking on the sketches (or other images in posts) lets you see them larger?

Lake Kachess camping

I will skip all the excuses I could make for not sketching for almost 2.5 months! Finally, a new one!

Went camping last week for four nights at Lake Kachess. HM's first camping adventure! It was a beautiful spot. A refreshingly cold lake to swim in. Not far from here. Despite a couple nights of rain and a lot of mosquitoes, it was a great time. Will definitely go there again...but next year with a 4 year old and a 9 month old baby boy (how will THAT work out?!)! Discovered that camping with a 3 year old is quite a bit different than when it was just me and M! No long hours of relaxing and reading by the campfire at night, much less time to sketch. HM and I did manage to get in a quick sketching/watercolor session before it started raining one day. I tried to teach HM how to mix colors — different hues and shades. Greens. Blues. How to make pink. I got the sketch done before HM woke up from her nap, but finished is just now with my Winsor & Newton travel watercolor set. The one I took to India almost 10 years ago! I haven't used it in so long — amazing to think that some of those dried up colors on the tray were mixed on the other side of the world in a different lifetime.

Hopefully I can get back into sketching again after too much time off.

Olympic Sculpture Park : Friday afternoon

Stopped in to see if M could have lunch with me. Busy until 2pm, so I got a snack to hold me over and walked down to Olympic Sculpture Park. I envisioned a little painting of the big orange-red sculpture (Alexander Calder's Eagle) set amid the blues and greens of its surroundings. I've given up for now carrying my paints around with me (yesterday the strap on my purse broke from too much stuff...even without my paints). I should carry around that new watercolor pad though to at least get the drawing down, then have the right surface to paint on once I am back at my studio. I painted this one with gouache in my studio — wishing I had done the drawing on watercolor paper. The sketch paper gets so wrinkled — not right for water. I kept debating if I should include a person in the foreground — for the contrast. In the end decided not too. Thought it would be too much the focus. Wanted the bright sculpture to remain the focus. Nice to get outside for this one. (I've always wanted to draw one of those giant barges!)

.18 fl. oz. x 3 : mini mani-pedi

9:30 - 11:45 : Swam 17 laps at YMCA / get ready / HM happy in the kids' room
11:45 - noon : Drive through bank with HM
noon - 12:30 : Giannoni's pizza slices { carmelized onion/sausage slice & Diet Coke for me, pepperoni/pineapple slice & apple juice for HM }
12:30 - 12:50 : Sally Beauty Supply — no luck with hair product so 3 mini Sally Girl nail polishes for HM { she picked them out — buy 2, get 1 free } and one mommy-size one for me
12:50 - 2:10 : Home / teal nails for me / HM nap
2:10 - 3:00 : Multi-colored mini mani-pedi for HM / story while drying
3:00 - 4:00 : Southwest Library { the orange one } / lots of books and movies for HM — a couple movies for me
4:00 - 4:20 : Tony's Market for fresh produce / blueberries for HM on the way to Safeway
4:20 - 5:30 : Roxbury Safeway / HM a little rascal with her pigtails and tiny, colored nails — lounging with flip-flops off and feet up in the kids' car eating rice cakes / no to Curious George fruit snacks / no to Coco Puffs
5:30 - 5:40 : Fill-up at Safeway gas with HM
5:40 - 6:10 : Make salad / HM watches "Big Bird Sings"
6:10 - 6:40 : Dinner with HM, M @ work { fried chicken, salad, rest of blueberries, milk }
6:40 - 7:00 : HM bath
7:00 - 7:40 : Jammies, pull-up, milk, new library stories, snuggle, songs, prayers, sleep

I think we set a record — 8 places together in 1 day! And...up until 12:30am in my studio.

"Daddy will be so surprised at these books!"
"Daddy will be so surprised at my nails!"
"I am putting lipstick on to get ready for my mani-pedi..."

Medium: pen & nail polish { photographed, not scanned }