36/52

eloise: spending the last dog days of summer with Mama’s childhood best friends up north. You explored these tide pools happily for hours, dancing, throwing rocks to the waves, collecting shells and poking seaweed. A true  kids summer day, if I ever saw one.

It has been very difficult keeping up with this blog. I think about it often. I want to come back here daily, like I was doing so long ago, but finding the time has become such a trial.  I’m either busy with day to day Ellie and Me things or crafting, or painting, or re-watching Outlander for the 30th time (or reading the books)… it goes on and on. The fact is, I just need to make time for documenting in this space again. I thought I’d start by catching up on photos from our summer. It was such a busy, wonderful three months. I can’t believe autumn is only weeks away now. However, you can already feel it in the evening cool air.

Our summer started off with the busiest month, June. After my husband’s birthday in late May, my mom and I were invited to New York City for a quick weekend to be apart of a fantastic charity event.

After returning from NY, Jeff, Ellie and I headed up to San Francisco for my dear friend and mentor’s wedding. We enjoyed our mini vacation in beautiful northern California. I showed Jeff and Ellie my Alma Mater (San Fran State University), went into the city to enjoy some sightseeing and stopped in Monterrey on the way home, for a trip to the aquarium .

And believe it or not, the following week, we all got on a flight and headed to Boston for a week long trip to see Nana and Papa.

We came home after a whirlwind month of June and I celebrated my 35th birthday, with lots of fun Scottish goodies. Yes, everyone knows these days that I am a little obsessed with a certain show called Outlander.

July started with a bang! Ellie rode her bike for the first time all the way through the annual push me pull you parade and then she got to stay up for her first ever fireworks show. She was very excited!

After the fourth, we enjoyed the lazy days of summer. Lots of beach days, swimming and summer play.

August came quickly and with it, Ellie’s fourth birthday. She’s heavy into Disney and Princess’ these days and so we thought a first trip to Disneyland, despite the scorching heat that an August visit brings, would be a fantastically fun way to celebrate.


(painting of Ellie by my Grandmother)

Well, now you’re all caught up! It was a really nice summer. Busy but lovely and fun. Hoping I can get back into the habit of writing in this space. I so miss documenting our days.

27/52

eloise: On our way to the Annual Fourth of July parade. This is the first time you rode on your own bike, all the way through!!

28/52

eloise: The Princess Days. I thought we would make it out unscathed by Disney but you are in it. Deep. Trying to embrace it and roll with it and make sure there are lots of other influences as well. You do make a lovely (albeit messy) princess though.

29/52

eloise: It wouldn’t be summer time without a messy fudge sicle photo!

30/52

eloise: Happiness is your first Disneyland parade! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

31/52

eloise: One thing that makes me feel better about the Princess thing, is that you have always managed to wear that ball gown AND want to help Dada hammer some nails in the garage at the same time. I love that about you.

32/52

Eloise: You are so curious about animals lately. You want to know more about the Tasmanian devil and the Aye-Aye and are getting more into the monthly birds, Mama makes for you. I love helping you extend these interests and watching you explore the world in a new way.

33/52

eloise: Bug girl extraordinaire!

34/52

Eloise: It wouldn’t be summer without the throw up bug. Fighting this yucky bug for the last week or so. Off and on not feeling so well. I hate seeing you sick but you are a sport and we do get to catch up on cuddle and movie time.

35/52

eloise: End of the summer water play at our local splash pad. You sure are a ham! (notice the giant boo boo patch that you insisted on having after getting a slight scratch). You are quite the ham but also quite the dramatic. A true four-year old.

Busy, busy, busy… I can’t remember a time I wasn’t this busy in my day to day life. Making things, selling things, parenting, preparing for homeschooling, planning, and more making and parenting and of course throw some cleaning and laundry in the day to day too. I don’t know how mothers do it all, because I’m certainly playing “catch-up” constantly.

One more thing I’m behind with… this year’s Portrait Project. Let’s try catching up shall we?

22/52

eloise: You are taking an American Ninja Warrior class on Friday mornings. (i.e. gymnastics or jumping around on big pieces of foam). You are very serious about these classes and listen intently to the instructors. It’s fun to watch you learn new ways to move your body. And of course, the outfit is ridiculously cute.

23/52

Eloise: A bright and warm day in San Francisco. We stumbled upon this Frida garage door and Ellie immediately did a Frida dance in front of it.

24/52

Eloise: Another shot from our trip to San Francisco. This little one loved the wedding selfies she could take. She kept going back for more. I love the scraped knees and sneakers. Classic Ellie.

25/52

eloise: The following week in Boston, at Nana and Papa’s house. This kid was all about the pool. Swimming like a little fish and loving it!

26/52

eloise: One more crazy girl swimming photo from Boston. Food in the mouth, excited beyond belief to be able to swim and adorable in her new swimsuit. This photo says Summertime if I ever saw one. (p.s. Doesn’t her face in this one mimic the swimmy she was wearing in the last photo?) 😉

Catching up with our artists-in-residence, after Frida Kahlo came and went, we had a little special guest from Beatrix Potter. She came right after Easter and of course around that time we were also heavily into Potter’s stories. Our favorites being (Peter rabbit, Jeremy Fisher and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle).

We read some lovely books about Potter and learned all sorts of fascinating things about her. Mama had her own Potter books too!

We sketched things we found in nature, like Potter did. And painted our own bunnies and favorite animals.

And with this Potter set I put together for Ellie, I kept getting inquiries about a full set for sale. So, after working with the ever wonderful Raeshaun from Monkey and Bean Designs, who came up with the beautiful wooden figures, we created a set for sale.

After Beatrix Potter, we moved on to Claude Monet. We talked  a lot about lily pads and blues and greens and what we felt when we looked at his art. We worked on a large Monet inspired painting for quite awhile. Adding a bridge with tape and then removing it when we finished painting.

You can find a Monet set for sale in my shop as well. We’re really enjoying our artist series and it’s been great fun to create these kits for sale as well.

We went to the Ventura BioBlitz at our local sea center this past weekend. It was a fun little event. We got to see a live dive via video and did some arts and crafts regarding fish and other sea life. And we got to take a little walk though the sea center’s botanic garden (which was in desperate need of rain, it was pretty dry) and played a bingo game while we walked through. A fun outing for our nature girl!

eloise: you were so fun to watch the other day at the butterfly exhibit at the museum. You were told the rules before heading into the butterfly space and you listened carefully and were very serious about following them. “Stand very still and maybe one will land on you. But don’t touch the butterflies.” We stayed in the butterfly pavilion for over a half hour. You were desperate to have a butterfly land on you! You stood very still and walked slowly and reminded everyone else of the rules. And then, one finally did land on you. It was a fun day. You are quite the butterfly girl!!

It was Turtle Day at our local museum this Sunday. We’ve been talking about turtles and frogs and pond inhabitants lately and so this was right up our ally. Ellie got to see lots of different turtles, make a turtle craft, watch a turtle movie and play dress up in the Native American garden. I whipped up a little tank top for Ellie with one of my turtle paintings (printed the image out on fabric and sewed it onto a stained T). What a fun outing!!

So, I know I have been a terrible blogger. I’ve turned to the dark side (otherwise known as Instragram). You will find me there posting a heckuva lot more than here. But, I think about this space so often and so long to come back regularly. I just can’t seem to fit it in as often as I did before. But, I’m trying. I miss all of my bloggy friends. If you are still out there, know I’m thinking of you!

Anyway, this post is a long time coming. The incredibly talented Aly Parrot sent Ellie and I an amazing gift earlier in the year. An artist doll she had made. A Frida Kahlo doll. The most beautiful Frida Kahlo doll I have ever seen. We were both thrilled when she arrived. I had a stack of Frida books for Ellie and I to delve into and we started our activities to get to know her and her art soon after. Frida Kahlo was quite the artist to introduce to a 3.5 year old. She had quite the life and many of her pieces are quite dark. Some of her art, I just couldn’t share with Ellie because of the content. I stuck with the basics. We worked on self portraits.



I found some downloadable Frida Art cards online and these paintings were the ones we concentrated on.


Ellie’s 2016 Self Portrait

We talked about how Frida was in an accident and had to stay in bed for a long time. She would paint while in bed. Ellie really wanted to try painting lying down, so that’s just what we did. She worked on another portrait as she half-laid down on the couch.




After she was done, she wanted to try it before bed. We never got to actually do that, but this was a fun and interesting way to paint and Ellie seemed to really enjoy it.
We did some more smaller projects with Frida. Looking through the microscope and then drawing, like she was said to have done. One of Ellie’s favorite things though was to listen to Frida’s story on this great little app about her. I wish they made them for every artist.
We will definitely be exploring Frida more throughout the years. We barely touched on her extensive work. We will be back to explore in the coming years. But our introduction to Frida was a great start.

And please, check out Aly Parrot’s amazing art and creations here.

18/52

eloise: You are enamored by the tiny creatures of the Earth. Together we are navigating gentle touches with wildlife (including the dogs, who you never bugged before, but now are the most interesting thing in the world), how much handling wildlife can take and the wanting to bring animals home. It’s an exciting and often challenging new fascination.

19/52

Eloise: A glorious afternoon at the beach with you. Here you found yourself a “broom” and pretended to be Glinda the Good Witch sweeping her house out.

20/52

Eloise: Taking a hike up in the Santa Barbara hills. You are enjoying yourself so much more in nature. Climbing, paying attention and asking questions about the plants and flowers around you, discovering all the amazing things nature has to offer. It’s so much fun to watch you!