A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.    Inspired by Soulemama.  

Please feel free to share your photographic moments,                                                    leave a link in the comments section for all to find and see.

How fitting that my art would be featured in a daily truth from the Brave Girls Club this week (if you have not yet joined the club, have a look and consider signing up for their inspirational daily truth emails)! On Thursday, while I was indulging in a tropical holiday with my man, I was the Little Birdie Featured Artist of the Day.  The daily truth my art adorned was all about being kind to yourself, letting yourself be happy.  And this past week I did just that, flying free of the responsibilities and tasks that can so often weigh me down, playing like a child again with free time, free choices, and such wonderful pampering.  Here’s a peek at some of my letting myself be happy in Mexico.

Now that I am back home, I will attempt to continue to pamper myself with small acts of kindness. It may not be as easy as letting myself enjoy a holiday in Mexico, but it will certainly be more affordable in the long term and thus, perhaps more sustainable.  And goodness knows, this is something I would like to make a habit of.

Here’s hoping you will also allow yourself just a bit more self-kindness.

P.S. if you need a little self-kindness reminder, this little painting is for sale in my shop.

Hey, did you know I am part of the SHE team?  I am a proud member of Schooling at Home Etsians, a group of 220 artisans from all over the world who are united by the bond of home education. I love looking to these other artists for inspiration and ideas as we travel alongside each other, with out art, with our kids….with all the creativity that we can muster, for them, for us.  Each of us has a storefront on Etsy, each of us is creating magic with a very unique approach to our art, our family and our children’s learning.  And we all have our own exciting story to tell.  Check out a bit of my story, featured this week on the SHE blog. And have fun scrolling through the posts to meet other homeschooling artists from across the globe. And hey, why not buy some of their amazing art and help support their amazing children!?

A special thanks to the leaders Linda, Sonja and Shady Side Farm who created this community of artists and help us show our art to the world via the SHE blog hosted by Linda (Mompotter).

Here’s a few peeks at homeschooling for our family….go to my interview for more.

girls doing some formal worksheets...since this rarely happens, i took a photo for our learning consultant!

girls making lunch for us - washing veggies in their own way! i love the extra time my girls have to explore their own ideas

and on sunny days we can hop from beach to beach

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.    Inspired by Soulemama.  

Please feel free to share your photographic moments,                                                    leave a link in the comments section for all to find and see.

Oh how much fun is it to try creating in a new way! Even better when it is with friends, including a silver jeweller who offers classes at the local Henhouse Studio! My hubby picked up on my frequent and not-so-subtle hints requesting a class in metal clay for my Christmas gift.  He gifted me a sparkly necklace made by Julie AND a gift certificate to make my own necklace in her class! In the end I made FOUR pendants (one will be a gift, but somehow the others I made are all for me).  Don’t you love how they turned out?

Here you can see how I reproduced the lovely flower pattern of my mother’s silver for a sentimental piece (yes, there is one for my sister, shhh…don’t tell).

Here is the piece I made to symbolize me and he, the two waves, with a bubbly sea (of love).  Sorry, could not resist….Valentine’s day is just the perfect day for such corny smooshiness (is that a word?) and this man of mine has been so good to me lately!  The ocean bubbles texture was made using a sea urchin shell he collected from the bottom of the sea.  The two “happy accident” bubbles splashing above the waves were not planned (happened when the bail was soldered on the back) but their playfulness and presence are so perfect and so clearly our two little mermaids. I wanted a piece to remember this amazing time in our relationship. A time when we have spent half our lives together (yes it will be 19 years this month), a time when my man has decided he will whisk me away for a romantic tropical holiday for two (his idea, what an amazing surprise), a time when we are finding a bit of the us again in a partnership of four hearts.

Even before the happy accident in the wave pendant, I decided to make a little something to represent my girls.  I used the bit of metal clay I had left to make two wee urchin baubles. In the end, I decided to hang these together and love how the piece turned out.

Clearly happy accidents and leftover last minute ideas can be magic!  Just as clearly, it was no accident that the man I first kissed nearly 19 years ago is still with me today.  Very soon, on that special first kiss anniversary (yes, we have celebrated it all these years), we will be splashing along some tropical shore…and I might just be wearing this special necklace!

Until then, I dream of the magic we will have and remember so many other amazing moments together by the sea….

Happy Valentine’s Day Baby….how about tonight we eat those sprinkle covered sugar cookies the kids made us and book our romantic tropical holiday by the sea?