Autumn Leaves Please Fall by Me...

It is officially Fall this coming Sunday...and it is in the high 90s.

I remember watching Casper (the one with Christina Ricci and super-cute-at-the-time Devon Sawa) and wishing that when school started leaves would be bright colors of green, yellow, orange, and red.

My home still looks and FEELS like Summer. And what makes me really confused is seeing all of the seasonal décor at Michael's and Target. Or worse---the coats and scarves! As if! It's like as if we live in Alaska and the sun just keeps on shining so you have to pretend that it is night and just go to bed. Here we have to pretend it's a crisp Autumn, but really we are just baking like crisp bacon.

In honor of the rest of you glorious season-changing states and countries I give you my own watercolor clip art of fall leaves, pumpkins, and flowers:

And then here is a new one:

Here are two free leaf PNG / clip art images for you :) The blue one is not part of my set in the shop, but the green one is.

Here is a picture of Clara nearly 3 years ago! These were taken at the end of November and she was only a month old...I am a horrible mother and put her down on the grass amidst fall leaves in our front yard. But only for the sake of the cutest fall pictures ever!! I can't believe my little girl will be a big THREE year old next month!

Colorful Desert Painting

My dear friend is moving to Arizona...

While I am so happy for her and her sweet little family, I am so sad to be 5 and a half hours away from her. We met in college thanks to her cousin and my dear friend Jamie. We've been there for each other as we've gotten married, had kids, made homes, and lost dear ones.

I told her that when she moved I would paint her a painting for her new house. I was shocked when she told me she wanted a desert painting. I imagined a boring, desolate desert and knew that there was no way I could paint that. My desert would have color, plants, be original, and idealistic.

And of course, after I was finished I wished I could keep it!

It's name is "Jackie's Desert" and it was painted in acrylic.

Till the next time we Skype, dear Jackie!!

Happy Birthday, Jamie!

Jamie has been my dear friend since middle school! We went to high school, college, and even church classes together! Now we are mommies, so instead of having One Tree Hill and Gilmore Girl nights with Del Taco, we ESCAPE from our children and husbands for dinner and movies. I love how life can change, but good friends never do :)

Butterfly collection

Unfortunately, insects and butterflies creep my husband out. Therefore, the butterfly painting remains in the garage over my work area (that I never work at because it is too HOT!).

Sitting pretty in the country field

This painting is nice and big. It hangs right above our couch...just close enough for my 2 year old to knock it crooked ;) Although its colors are muted, it is one of my favorites!

A tall, sturdy tree

A tall, sturdy tree. Orginally created to hang in our dining room. Nothing spruces up a room better than a big painting!

What's that glare?

My original vision for this painting was to have the sunlight look reallyreallyreally awesome, but after I started painting the white I totally began to regret it. Now my pretty picture looks like I was trying to paint the coming of an angel or prophet...and was very unsuccessful.

 Oh, well. You win some, you lose some--right?