Paint in My Hair

A Mystery and a Winner

The question remains...How much sugar was in there before I found it in Grant's bed??

Time for a winner!  And the winner is...

Susan, "I would cherish it!"

I'll be doing more giveaways next week.  

Free as a Bird--A Giveaway

To celebrate finally getting my Etsy shop up and running I'd like to do a few giveaways.  Today I'll give away the Turquoise Bird print below.  Leave a comment and I'll enter you in the drawing.  I'll announce a winner tomorrow!

50 Items In My Etsy Shop!!

I know I keep talking re-opening my Esty shop.  I've been working at it for months.  I had some very specific goals in mind.  I wanted my prints to be really beautiful--something I could be proud of--and I wanted to have at least 50 items in my shop.  

About 15 minutes ago I posted my 50th item.  Hurray!  And I am really proud of how the prints have turned out.  They look like original watercolors.  Tomorrow I'll give away a print.  Tonight I will sleep.  Maybe. Here's a link to my shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/lauragunnstudio

Alive, Not Quite Kicking

Some bugs just linger and linger.  Everyone but Grant has been sick this week.  Dave and Luke are still in the thick of it.  Poor little Luke has had a rough week and missed out on all sorts of fun stuff.  He's so cheerful through it all.  That's how Luke is.  Even as an infant, he smiled through everything.  His only complaint has been that when he is sick and gets special stuff it makes Grant think he's sick too.  Actually Grant is beyond stir crazy.  I sent Lily out to run him around the neighborhood this morning.  He seems better.  Another day at home.

Lily and I also recently returned from my neice's wedding in SLC.  Beautiful!  I'll try to get some pics to share.  

At the risk of grossing you out here is my proof of Luke's smiley disposition.  He was about 9 months old in this picture.  Anyone who can smile through that has a gift :-)

Friedensreich Hundertwasser

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I taught an art appreciation lesson at Lily's school this week. We are assigned the artist for these and I discovered Friedensreich Hundertwasser for the first time. How is that possible?  I was fascinated. Can you believe these are real buildings? Now I have to go to Austria to see them in person.  

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Apparently he was quite a character. In addition to changing his name to the above mouthful, he gave himself a few nick names--the English translation of which are Rainy Day and Darkly Multicolored. What?! I have this imagined dialogue running through my head, "Oh, please don't call me Friedensreich, Darkly Multicolored will do." He also said straight lines are the devil's tool and something about carrying a ruler being immoral. Every time I think about that I want to giggle.

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Lily's class was great. They seemed almost as interested in Darkly Multicolored as I was. But when I finished the presentation no one could recall his last name. I even offered to give a dollar to the first person who could. Nope. But later in the lesson, after a lot of drilling, a few hands went up, and I was a dollar poorer.  Phew.  Note to self, if your going to change your name, keep it under 7 syllables.  

Rag and Bones Trunk Sale

Check out these beautiful books and albums from Rag and Bone Bindery. LOVE!

They are having a trunk sale this week (25% off) and will be featuring some books covered in my fabric. Aren't they yummy. I'd love to carry one of those little albums in my purse.  Organizing the family photos is definitely on my short list of things to get done.

On a a different topic: I went ahead and threw those mashed potatoes in the freezer. We shall see. I also learned a great trick with sweet potatoes this week. You can peel and slice them days ahead of time. You just immerse them in cold water with a little lemon juice and put them in the fridge. It totally worked.

I actually got a little carried away with the cooking this week and made more than we could eat. But thanks to my deep freeze I think we'll manage. It just means I have less food prep for the coming week. Good thing cause last week was a bit overwhelming. Still, it has been so nice to have everything ready ahead of time. And the family loves it.  On to week three.

Pink Snow

Ellie asked for pictures of the pink snow.  This is our front lawn.  Our neighbor actually picked up and bagged all the blossoms on their side.  I cannot imagine the amount of work involved in that.  We think it's really pretty (and less work) to leave it there--although it is less pretty when tracked into the house.  

So having all my meal prep done ahead of time has been AWESOME!  I just love that no matter how busy or tired I am, at 5pm we can still have a yummy, healthy meal.  I'm definitely going for week two.  By the by, I made and peeled 20 hard boiled eggs.  TWENTY!  And they were eaten in three days.  Grant had like four in one day.  He was insatiable.  

Important question: Can I freeze mashed potatoes?  

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I did three birds.  But you can't see the other ones because they are pretty funny looking. I keep trying to make them work, but I think they will go in the trash.  But I love this one enough to keep at it.  I just need more paper.

It's been such a nice morning.  Dave and I went for a walk.  The blossoms are crazy in our neighborhood. I've never seen anything like it.  They've fallen off the trees and now it's like we are dusted in pink snow. So pretty.  Now Dave is back to the books and I am back to yesterday's dirty dishes.  Sweet!  

I actually did this crazy thing yesterday where I tried to do as much of the weeks meal prep as I could in one shot.  I did get through most of it. Lily is ecstatic about all the sliced veggies, hard-boiled eggs, and washed and ready fruit in the fridge.  I don't know anyone who loves raw veggies like she does. Hilarious.

Lily and her friend made two batches of banana muffins.  We froze some.  I tried my SIL Wendy's method of freezing biscuits before you cook them.  We'll have those on Sunday.  I tried this method of cooking and peeling HB eggs I found on Pinterest.  AWESOME!  I made two soups, homemade croutons, and started tacos. 

Then I CRASHED.  Hence the dirty dishes.  In theory it will be worth it at dinner time.  

P.S.  I've finally made the Twitter plunge.  It helps that we got our sweet iphones.  I'm @lauragunnstudio.  

 

The Winner Is...

All this laying around has reignited my love for watercolors.  I painted a few butterflies over the weekend. I think today I'll paint some birds.  I'm feeling much better.  Thank you for all your sweet comments!

Without further delay....The randomly selected winner of the Shabby Apple dress is....

Sarah Pabody

Congrats Sarah.  Shoot me an email and we'll get you that dress. (lauraatlauragunndotcom)

Still Here...

Just checking in to say we're alive. Just lounging around. I don't know how much more lounging I can take :-) Luckily I have amazing friends who have been entertaining the boys. In fact, I think they're having more fun this week than usual. Lily is playing hard too, when off duty as mom's helper. She amazes me.

Real blog post coming soon. So much to blog about. Really will announce winner. More giveaways to come. Bla bla bla. Goodnight!