i almost gagged typing this

Caid sneezes and wipes his nose with his hand, smearing a line of snot across his face.

Ginger: Uuugh. You've got a snot trail on your cheek!

Caid (happily): Like a snail!
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(get it?)

finished my commission!

a few months ago, i started this piece for Elizabeth...
i finally put the finishing touches on it last week and here it is! done :)

head on over to my art work blog to see more detailed pictures.

on Friday morning we arranged for me to deliver it to her...here are some pictures of her and the kids with the drawing...

James trying to get one of the babies to look at the camera...

i felt like such a basket case that morning...tired and slow...but Elizabeth gave me some coffee and just in time for me to leave i started feeling better! oh well. it was lovely talking to her for a bit...sitting in patio chairs on their new lawn, watching the boys swim and the twins play...Jewel made herself a cup of tea and pulled a chair out to sit near us.
a few more pictures from my time there...

























all in all the whole process was an honor and a blessing. every chance i get to be able to make any sort of living doing what i love to do most is a gift straight from the hand of the Lord.
thank you, Elizabeth!

~

any movie entirely starring puppets that are not muppets is always doomed to be, on some level, unintentionally disconcerting.

sarah, laura, mom and i at laura's wedding shower...

i went over to pip's one evening to hang out...here he is trying to get his dvd player to work so we can watch Thunderbird 6

here is a trailer for it:


AND HERE is one of the scenes in the movie...and also one of the creepiest things i have ever seen. no joke...this is exactly as it plays out in the film...


...

and of course,
BABIES!!!

caid assists his little sister...


joey cajoles caid to eat a bite of asparagus saying: "well, it looks like we don't have to worry about crows wanting this asparagus. i don't see any crows around. it's just sittin here. crows don't want asparagus. nope, it's totally safe."

but then the crows ATTACK!

ha

this is awesome:
i took this video right after i took the pictures of caid eating the asparagus off the fork joey is holding out.
the beginning is my favorite part, purely for caid's amazing facial expressions...but the whole thing is great.



grammy

"2 snails and a squid" by caid

gwen munches on peach slices

and a letter to greenpeace.

that's all for the present!

~

long winded link

today's post

i'm seriously starting to get antsy.

kids

These are the 8th graders i helped my aunt Wren teach art to over the course of the last school year.
before they graduated, i had them sit for me one by one, drew their profiles, and made black cutouts of them. i also took a picture of each of them...but to their consternation :)
i'm putting up 12 of the pictures because they just make me really happy. all their different faces and spirits. how corny am i?? jeesh
there is cam in the first one, of course...



































dang it, i'm going to miss the kids so much.

Here is a picture of the majority of the profiles...

i'm really glad a lot of them will be going to Maranatha in the fall, because then i'll get to see them.
~

hanging with the Memphites

Jen Frazier and Kate Saunders from Memphis came out to visit last week, and we showed them some good, old-fashioned southern california hospitality...starting, of course, with karaoke in Little Tokyo!

and then a gorgeous afternoon touring hollywood, with Jef as our guide extraordinnaire...

greystone manor (aka gastle greyskull)

those are all the best pictures i have.
~

not surprised

"...The changing character of the native population, brought about through unremarked pressures on porous borders; the creation of an increasingly unwieldly bureaucracy, whose own survival becomes its overriding goal; the despising of the military and the avoidance of its services by established families...the lip service paid to values long dead; the pretense that we are still what we once were; the increasing concenteration of the populace into richer and poorer by way of a corrupt tax system, and the desparation that inevitably follows; the aggrandizement of executive power at the expense of the legislature; ineffectual legislation promulgated with great show; the moral vocation of the man at the top to maintain order at all costs, while growing blind to the dilemmas of ordinary life..."

i just took this from a history book i'm reading...they are reasons for the fall of Rome.

interesting.