A beautiful day for a bike ride

Image 3/Book of Blessings. A carefree bike riding kind of day....

Blooms of Nigeria

I listen to NPR in my kitchen while puttering, cooking or feeding my little one and I have truly lost count of how many times a lump grew in my throat as a sad story would unfurl on my radio.  I usually change the channel because I feel helpless so why torture myself. What can I do? The latest sad story involves 300 nigerian girls being kidnapped. For what?! My imagination betrays me.....As a mom, my heart breaks for the parents of these girls. IT's ever parents nightmare. What's up with men who do these horrific things in the world? How do they sleep at night? Or look in the mirror when they get ready for the day? Their evil, gross day....If they were American girls would they have already been found? I dunno....Many questions cross my mind. Here is an article about the latest findings. 

As I drowned in my sad feelings and overwhelming thoughts of anger, Artist Rebecca Bradley decided to do something about it and now she's gotten a bunch of other artists to do something too...It might not change the situation but it's putting something positive into the world. An energy...And sometimes that has to be enough. Just think if EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the world did that.

Anyway, Rebecca created a blog called Blooms of Nigeria where a flower for every missing girl resides so that we may bring awareness to this situation.

Here is my flower for sweet Laraba. 

so far...

ok...so painting is hard! This is a huge learning experience for me. After knowing how much time it takes to get the rich textures, distressing the surface and building the layers of different color variations, I have an all new respect for painters. I'm in the processs of adding a lot more detail to her dress, giving her hands, of course and a slew of other noodly things. I'm also changing the bottom design completely. Hopefully in  the end she will be all the client wants and more!

Crumpets and UN-Strumpets

Wow. I'm eating crumpets from Trader Joes for the first time and they are blowing my mind. It's hard to impress someone that loves a morning cup of joe and something bread-y but still. They are DELISH! On another note, I wanted to share some sketches I did of some lovely ladies at Dr. Sketchy's. And for the record just because they like to pose half naked and shake their little booby tassles doesn't make them strumpets...:)