anniversary day :)

anniversary day :), originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

we turned 12 on april 27th! 7 married, 12 all together :) yay!

...in 1997 (which is this photo) we took our first cross country road trip together in the original nellie vw bus - it was my first time west past chicago and i fell in LOVE. (well, with the mister & the traveling!) this is on the west coast up in oregon - i adore the west coast and especially the oregon coast - so rugged & breathtaking.

we never thought we'd end up out here in SF, but we moved here right after we got married in 2001. and we are still hanging on :) our ongoing dilemma is just how does one stay put in one of the most expensive, amazing cities in america on two artists salaries? (plus the art educator/free lance photo salary which really doesn't add up to a whole heck of a lot!!!) any tips on that? ;) do share!

i gave the mister a few little card and art treats for the a. day; i'll share them a bit later. on monday, we both had the day off, so we went down to the monterey bay aquarium - we had never been. i have a thing with zoos and aquariums and i'm sure you can imagine all my distraught captivity political thoughts that go swirling around in my brain (you did know didn't you, that my life's agenda was going to be to work with dolphins during my formative youth years?! oh yes, up until my senior year when i took a.p. oceanography and one - "we have to dissect what?" - i quickly became the 'illustrator' in the group. and then two - "we have to do what kind of math?" DRAT! i HATE math. boo hoo hoo....off to be an artist ;) i guess....sigh....as i curl up and read madeleine l'engle's -- a ring of endless of light"
for the umpteenth time and get lost in vicky's dolphin & boy world...)

so, yes, i have a thing for the sea animals too. it wasn't as disheartening as it could have been, and i did LOVE the jellies, but it's kind of hard to look at big fish & sharks swimming round and round and round and round...wouldn't you go crazy too?! oh, the penguins & sea otters were pretty darn rad also...

the drive down was beauteous & we had a fun time together...here's to many more years ahead for us! :) hoorah!

the other news is i'm finally finished with my k-8 students art show - the hugest event of the year that i put on - PHEW. i'll post photos soon. it's also the most rewarding night of the year for me :)

off to catch up on my sorely neglected sprout studio business; i have lots of updating to do. i've made scores of new glass necklaces just waiting to be posted - check them out in the next week or so.

happy wednesdsay lovies! (or muffins as mati likes to say...OR, i'm kinda fond of "poppet" myself!)

xxx.

ladies dinner pARTy

ladies dinner pARTy, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

i hosted a dinner pARTy on saturday night with some lovely bay area art ladies & bloggers. i've "known" some of these women for quite some time via their work & blogs, and have hung out with a few of them when time allows!

it was a super evening with lots of great chatter, musings, art talk, humorous conversation, and general good fun. i hope to do it again soon with them all :)

in attendance: diana, kelly rae, mati, shash, annie, lisa (ms dixie loo, my mister, a longtime friend and photo professor, & diana's niece.

yesterday was a great day of roaming the south bay salt marsh trails, and having a veggie Q with some friends.

hope your weekends were equally full of fun!
xxx.

mental detox week

mental detox week

unplug from the madness...take a walk instead :)

april 21-27! join me?
xxx.

oh where have i been?

a wee little painting doodle, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

...not feeling so well, painting doodles, preparing for my art show that is a huge endeavor (happens in 2 weeks - eep!), having 2, 18 year old boys in the house for a week, having a coming house guest in town for another week, thinking about summer trips, packaging sprout studio orders (always), wanting may to be here because i have spring/summer fever, having a bay area art ladies dinner next weekend, hosted a brunch this past weekend, starting up a book club, trying to squeeze in some downtime...& all those little bits & pieces of things & stuff that take up so much of ones free time.

but, during those teensy bits of free time i have been watching melvin goes to dinner & 2 days in paris -- both highly recommended. super witty & entertaining. and i have 3 books i'm reading - eat, pray, love, whale warriors" (the mister and i are reading it together), & blue like jazz ...i'll let you know how they come along.

hopefully all is swell in your worlds.
xxx.

its ok

its ok, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

mine came :)

did yours?

it's been spring break and i've been super busy hanging out with 18 year old boys! i'll post some stories or art or something interesting later!

its ok

its ok

i absolutely love everything about this. watch the video first, then buy a piece. i did!

seriously great discussion

is being held here: established craft & the alt craft movement on imogene's blog. if you make art, craft, or buy/sell/trade, hang out on etsy, have gone to school and gotten an mfa or bfa, have shown at shows/exhibits/small craft fairs, you will be interested in this conversation & comments. go check it out, it's a great dialogue.

bitty german pinecones & the spring fling winner 2!

bitty german pinecones, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

getting right down to business: the spring fling winner 2 would be ms lovely lesley who's busily planning a wedding (yay!) & because i was feeling frisky, i pulled another name out of the proverbial hat -- so the next winner, would be the inspiring lisa s!

congrats sweet ladies, shoot me an email when you get a chance and i'll hook you up (at some point - katrina, i'm still a wee behind in getting yours out -- eep!)

i'm off to the woods for the weekend to accompany some restless middle schoolers on their graduation retreat.

have a lovely weekend friends!

ack!

where does the time go?

i'll try to pick spring fling #2 very soon. you dawdlers get an extra boost to sign up because of my tardiness.

hang on, the winner will come soon. pinky swear.

xxx.

good sunday morning!

little birdie bud vase -- SOLD already ;) thank you!, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

popping in to say i'll draw another winner this coming week (got a little busy there) on wednesday or thursday, so stay tuned!

other quickie news: went to see the ditty bops at the freight and salvage friday night; LOVED them! so darling, cute & fun. the gal they played with, jesca, had an amazing voice as well.

saturday i spent alllllllllllllllll day in the studio with paper ephemera flying around me working on some collages and some new necklaces. made this amazing dish again from orangette, the spiced eggplant (the recipe is just a post or two down right now) -- but this time (because i made it last week with eggplant and it was divine) i used butternut squash in place of the eggplant -- just as yum and deee-lish!

this morning i did my hour session of yoga (sean corne; she's terrific if you are looking for a good home dvd to do). and now, i'm off to the studio - i'm kinda bummed i'm losing an hour but excited for the extra light in the evenings. i have a friend coming over mid afternoon for a tea and scone break from the collage madness. and tonight, i won a pair of tickets to see slim cessna's auto club at 12 galaxies! we've seen them a handful of times and they are amazing. one of my favorite live bands for sure. hooray, and thank you KALX ;)

have a terrific day and good start to your week tomorra!

xxx.

my weekend...& yours?

...busy busy busy. spent friday evening making sprout studio products for wholesale orders & then after a full day of my regular art teaching, flopped into bed after watching "the lives of others" (it was good, long, but sad & well done).

... spent saturday gathering & prepping & making goodies for regular sprout orders & a few etsy orders -- flopped into bed to read my special asian medicinal bible of a book to garner new knowledge on balance within my body...yin/yang and how to eat properly to get this IBS under control.

...spent sunday morning doing a yoga session & the rest of the morning & mid day shooting new products, then spent the rest of sunday interspersed with packaging the orders, putting finishing touches on the mail & making spaghetti sauce, homemade bread (i'm a cheater still, in the breadmaker even though i have grand plans of going authentic soon), & flopped into bed with my "a spoonful of ginger" cookbook which addresses eating for yin/yang. apparently i have too much yin & need to balance it out with more yang -- which means more 'fire in the belly' basically...more hot, spicy, cooked foods. i think i should take a class on asian cooking; there are a few spices & ingredients i'm unfamiliar with, i'm sure a trip through chinatown could take care of that instantly though.

how about you? were you busy this weekend? is it snowing still where you are? a guilty pleasure that i soo love is living where, on march 1st, i can wake up and put flip flops and skirt on and be a happy girl. :)

happy monday everyone! (don't forget that i'll draw another spring fling winner again this week!)

& oh! march marks 3 years for my little sprout studio - happy 3rd to sprout! :)

xxx.

spring fling winner :)

so, i let dixie dog choose the spring giveaway winner and she chose katrina!! (the paper slip that stuck to dixie loo's nosey is the one that won) so, i'm going to do another drawing in another week, because i have more goodies to give away. i thought i'd let everyone who already commented in on that deal too. but to sweeten the 2nd giveaway, if you comment again, i'll enter you *again* -- thrilling no? ;)

so stay tuned for a few more details, but CONGRATS katrina :)

xxx.

additional spring giveaway!!

over on what design(ers) i'm also giving away a pair of my birdie x2 cocktail earrings - so pop over there too & sign up for even more spring treats! today is the last day to leave a comment down there. i'll draw a name tomorrow! good luck peeps :)

good tuesday morning friends :)

good monday morning friends :), originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

...see mini post about deadline for spring giveaway.
xxx.

git those comments in :)

one more day of commenting for the giveaway! :) thursday i'll draw a name and prepare a wee package of sprout studio goodies :)

let's help spring along giveaway!

hi favorite bloggy friends,

i did a little studio cleansing and re-organize and discovered i have some sprout studio treasures i'd like to pass along to you. so to help spring into fruition and to help get a gal even a little bit more organized, i'd thought i would have a little giveaway. what do you need to do you say? well, not too much! to get a slice o' the sprout pie treat, just leave me your name & an email i can contact you at and *you* just might be a lucky duck. i have a few things, so i'll either give a coupla goodies away now or host another one real soon!

i'll leave this up for a week; so you get 7 days to enter, then, i'll draw and let everyone know who the special peeps are!

happy almost spring!

xxx.

my soft, quiet, calm faves of late

my soft, quiet, calm faves of late, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

i feel like my friday flickr faves today is pretty reflective of my mood lately. i've been trying to slow down more. be more peaceful, aware, conscious of being...centered, calm, quiet. i like that these faves reflect that seeking of restoration...it's a nice path to be on and nice path to try to follow. i plan on having a lot of down time this 3-day weekend. you?

& the folks who so freely share their loveliness:

1. winter whites, 2. a few things, 3. rainy day tuesday, 4. ghosts, 5. ., 6. winter, 7. oh snow!, 8. little yellow flower, 9. This Area, 10. Untitled, 11. Untitled, 12. Untitled, 13. ., 14. one kind word can warm three winter months, 15. cut the bonds with the moon, 16. reflecting, 17. Untitled, 18. somehow, someday, 19. holiday fog, 20. happy, 21. ginkgo!, 22. winter berries, 23. Winter decor., 24. a forest, 25. B&W #16, 26. Untitled, 27. Untitled, 28. Untitled, 29. No Tree Two, 30. Untitled, 31. Wilson Lake, 32. soft tree, 33. a gentle hum, 34. ., 35. Morning air, 36. evening

you tube music link for thursday

an unlikely pairing
james brown & pavarotti

happy sweetheart v-day!
xxx.

youtube music link for the day

the cave singers

slogging through cold world

i feel like the whole world has been sick this past month! me included. bah! we had 60 kiddos out last week on one day and out of 280 kids total k-8, that's a WHOLE LOTTA sicky. :(

this particular cold has been wreaking some havoc on me and i'm ready for it to be gone already. i had multiple plans this past week & weekend, that were cut short, altered or rescheduled because of not feeling up to snuff. i'm also ready for it to stay sunshiney and warm (we got a nice dose this weekend, but i want more said greedy me)...

in sprout studio news, we finished the update so there are lots of new spring goodies over there, take a peek if you like :)

i have gocco-ing on the brain and actually have my xerox'ed designs ready to go - i just need to find where i so trustily stashed the thing. i'm supposed to gocco with annie but again, that was one of those waylayed plans of the weekend.

in other health news, i go to my first ever acupuncture appointment on wednesday to see if they can help with my IBS. it's been super bothering me lately as i have been playing with my medication doses because i don't want to be on any! ack! hopefully, it will be a healing, restorative time & they can help me feel better on a more regular basis.

i hope your week will be well, be fun, be restorative, healing, and full of sunshine.

xxx.