Today was a typical cold Ohio winter so Little I and I made flowers of course! We painted coffee filters with watercolors and then folded the filters around a green pipe cleaner for the stem. So easy and beautiful!
First Snow Day!
Today was my first snow day of the school year. As a teacher this is a big deal! I was so happy, however my preschooler cried because her school cancelled as well but she WANTED to go to school! I hope she always loves school! 
So far today we have practiced reading, made a fairy house out of The Grimm flower stacker, and collected snow in a container to play with ( my daughter told me she ate most of it….ah gross!)
The baby is napping now so I am going to clean ( so fun!), drink some more coffee and watch some Fixer Upper, my new favorite show:). Have a lovely day!
Xoxo,
Mrs. B
In bloom
Here is a commission I recently finished. It was so much fun to work on and now I am moving on to a very challenging painting…. I am going to paint seaglass! Wish me luck:). I hope I can capture the beauty of the seaglass and actually make it look like real seaglass. I went to the art store and bought canvas and new paints. I love art supply shopping! I will post pictures soon:). I am off to drink some apple cinnamon tea and grade some projects because my kids are actually sleeping! Hooray!
Weekend at the Lake
This weekend was magical and amazing! My mom and I took my little ladies to the cottage for the weekend. Just us girls! It was so wonderful to just be away from everything and my mom also loves to cook so she cooked some yummy meals for us while I chased after the girls! Love being spoiled by my mom! She is the greatest! Well back to reality now, I have school tomorrow early so I should get to bed. Xoxo
Painting Daily
Ever since I was little I loved art. My grandma was an artist and would do lots of art activities with me. Being an art teacher means I do a lot of art but usually not for myself. After having baby girl #2 it was a real struggle to find any painting time. Lately the little lady has been sleeping a bit more and I have been taking advantage of this! I adore painting happy scenes and local landscapes in acrylic especially. Here are some of my finished paintings! 
I recently read the book Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist by Carol Marine. It was an amazing book and really inspired me to get back into blogging and trying to sell my art. So I am hopefully going to be creating more art and showing it here on this blog! Painting daily sounds like a lovely way to spend your time doesn’t it!
Enjoying the Small Things in Life
Lately with this cold winter it is hard to be happy all of the time. While I love the snow and think it is beautiful I really do appreciate the warm spring and summer that is a couple of months away (feels soooo long from now!) I decided to start taking pictures of everything that I encounter that makes me feel a sense of happiness inside. Here are some things that have made me feel happy lately.
These are just some of the little things that I am enjoying right now in my life. What about you? What makes you happy?
Winter Sky
Last night my daughter came running into the kitchen yelling, “Mommy, the sky is purple!” I ran over to our living room and saw that she was right. The pictures shown in this post do not look as amazing as the sky actually was last night. The sky doesn’t even look that purple. In reality the sky was incredibly beautiful and it was one of those moments where I saw such beauty in a day that had been quite ordinary. I probably would have missed the sky if it had not been for my daughter. Kids are so observant and everything is exciting. It makes life so much fun:)
Coffee Art Warms My Heart
Two of my favorite things: Art and coffee. It only makes sense to merge them together! I love painting pictures of coffee mugs. I find myself sketching and painting these often when I am doing art with Miss I. Usually it is because I often am drinking coffee or tea while I am painting or drawing with her. I love my art and coffee time with Miss I!
Cloud Dough
Cloud dough….just the name of it sounds simply fancy and lovely don’t you think? Last week my school cancelled four days in a row (I am a high school art teacher) due to the extreme cold and huge amounts of snow! Trapped inside with a three year old will make you quite creative. I am one of those parents who cringe at the idea of my kid watching television all day. So I whipped up a batch of cloud dough! Cloud dough can also be called snow dough (but we had enough of that so I wanted something more spring-like!) All I did was mix corn starch and shaving cream together in a container. My daughter, Miss I, enjoyed mixing the dough herself and literally played for two hours. It was super messy but soooo worth the mess with the amount of time she played and used the dough for imaginative purposes. I won’t even tell you how exactly you are to make it. Just mix the shaving cream and corn starch until it all blends together and becomes dough-like. Another favorite of ours is the moon dough. With moon dough you can mix flour and baby oil together until it almost becomes like sand. It is awesome! I enjoyed playing with it also!
Earth Laughs in Flowers
I recently made this artwork using my daughter’s letter stickers. All I did was paint a background, let it dry, place the stickers down, paint on top of the stickers, let it dry and remove stickers! Easy peazy lemon squeezy It was something I found on pinterest (I know…sounds so cliche’ but I seriously love that site!) My husband totally didn’t understand what “Earth Laughs in Flowers” meant. He thought it was kind of a strange quote but I think it is a quote that brings images of beauty and love to my mind. Flowers are such a wonderful, natural form of beauty that we often overlook. Thinking of the Earth’s laughter being in the form of flowers is kind of a cool thing. The quote is by Ralph Waldo Emerson who i personally think is a very neat, earthy writer. This artwork brings me happiness whenever I see it. I have been really into typography art lately and have been looking for something beautiful to buy on etsy to put into our home that will bring some light into our home this winter. One artist I have found that I love is Katie Daisy. I recently bought an artwork from her for my parent’s for Christmas. It was adorable! Anyways artwork really brings me happiness and joy. Either painting or drawing or admiring other artwork. My goal is to surround myself with beautiful items to make this dreary winter seem more bright and colorful:)
Fancy, Lovely Things 