Life as we go it

A morning at the park. These two giggling at the same time on the swings :)

The new mirror in our front entry - it only took me 5 years to find one that I loved.

Have a nice week!

I've been pretty busy for the last couple of weeks -- preparing for our yard sale, taking Liam to swimming lessons twice a week, having family at our home, nursing Chloe 6 times a day, and now packing for a trip to the cabin -- so I didn't have time to post some Weekly Smiles photos. Here they are:

Liam loving his swimming lessons.

Framed paintings in our kitchen from our budding artist, Liam.

I recently finished a pastel for my friend Sarah and her husband Brian. Sarah has done some amazing photo shoots of Liam (she's a professional photographer - you can see her work at www.sarahdohertyphotography.com) and this pastel was done in exchange for her services. 

She picked out a photograph of tulips from a coffee table book that she had. So it's not a "true"original of mine, since I didn't take the photograph myself. But I wanted her to pick out a photograph that she loved.

I use soft pastels for my "paintings," as I call them. I don't use paintbrushes. I use my fingers to smudge and blend and paint the paper with the chalk. I discovered the technique years ago and I've been obsessed with it ever since.

This pastel took me a while to complete. Since I stay at home with Liam during the day it's pretty hard to find a good solid hour or two to work on a piece of art. So my mother-in-law made quite a few trips to our home, once a week, to give me a few hours to work on it.

It still has to be matted and framed, but that will be picked out by Sarah.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out :)