Making A Move...

Tallahassee graffiti 
This beautiful bit of Tallahassee graffiti is just one block up College Avenue from my office. It was painted by the FSU department of Art Education, and I love it! I'm enjoying having an office smack dab downtown and so close to my alma mater. So far in my journey of transitioning to my new job in Tallahassee, I've been living in a little apartment while I look for a house for the family. And guess what? We found that house! It's a great house with a super laid back owner in the school district we wanted for the girls. It's actually bigger than our home in Jacksonville, but alas, there is no river in the backyard. We'll have to paint mural on the back fence!

Benny and the girls are on their way over to Tallahassee as I write this, so we'll do the Springtime Tallahassee Arts Jubilee tomorrow and then move my things here in the apartment over to the house on Sunday.  That'll give me a couple months to get a feel for the house and neighborhood before the family moves over this summer.  As Sarah says, we're all still "nervousited," but I'm looking forward to this time of working half the week in Tallahassee and half the week from home in Jacksonville to be over.  As much as I'll miss living in Jacksonville, I'm ready for us all to be back in the same place all week!  A very dear friend of mind will be living in our home once we fully make the move this summer.  She travels quite a bit so that'll give us the opportunity to come back home and enjoy our happy little shack on the river once a month or so.    

Best Shot Monday: Meet Honey

Honey_A902653

Okay, so it's Tuesday, but who's counting? You need to meet Honey. Honey is a special girl. She's a spayed female, tan and white American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a cute little wiggle butt walk. She loves being next to you and could use a few more pounds on her bones. She even has her own "featured pet" room in the lobby...and she's been at the shelter since December 17, 2014.

So why has such a great dog been at the shelter this long?  That's what I want to know, too. That cute little wiggle butt walk comes from an old injury that's left one of her back legs deformed, but it certainly does not slow her down. I suspect that may be the main reason she hasn't been adopted.  But she's a playgroup rock star and a volunteer favorite.  She's incredibly sweet and friendly, both with people and with other dogs.  And seriously, doesn't she have the sweetest face?  The shelter staff think she is about three years old, and she'd really love to spend her fourth birthday in a loving home.  How about yours?  Her ID number is A902653, and she's at 2020 Forest Street, Jacksonville, at Animal Care and Protective Services.

If you can't adopt but still want to help, considering fostering until our next Mega Adoption event April 17-19.  You can find a foster application here. Print it out and bring it to the shelter, and after a quick approval process, you can be fostering! 

2015 Documented Life Project: Weeks 5-8

Still chugging along on the 2015 Documented Life Project! Here are Weeks 5-8!

Week 5's challenge was "under papers" (below). I love to use my under papers, so this was an easy one for me. I picked a piece and then just started adding to it. The leaves, white circles, pink circles and purple circles were all additions. I outlined them with the Stabilo All pencil and a water brush. Finally getting the hang of that!
Week 5-3 Kelly 72

Week 5-2 Kelly 72

Week 5-1 Kelly-72

Week 6's challenge was "when not to stop" (below). I really had fun with this spread. I just started pulling pieces and parts of whatever was around me on my work bench and collaged them in. That beautiful face is from a page from an old Papaya Arts day planner. I added to it with some pen work, butterfly stickers and other collaged papers. I kept every piece of that planner because it was full of such beautiful artwork! The door in the bottom right is my front door; that's the same photo I used for our very first challenge in 2014 Documented Life Project. I added torn receipts, stickers, 3-D butterflies, all sorts of stuff. I topped it off with some Wild Honey Distress Ink blended in with Liquetex Matte Varnish (a technique I learned from Orly at An Artful Journey).

Week 6-2 Kelly 72

Week 6-3 Kelly 72

Week 6-1 Kelly 72

Week 7's challenge was "cover up the good stuff" (below). I'm not what all I covered up here, but I just kept layering and layering. I started by squishing around some hot pink and orange paint and inks and then added some stenciling, stamping, die cuts, and pen work. I even included some spray painting in there, done in the wee hours of the night in the garage. That should keep the marsh rats away!

Week 7-3 Kelly 72

Week 7-2 Kelly 72

Week 7-1 Kelly 72

Lastly, week 8's challenge was "repeating elements" (below). I started with a barely used piece of under paper and spread some white gesso on it. Then I added repeating circle elements of various sizes in different color paints and doodles.

Week 8-3 Kelly 72

Week 8-2 Kelly 72

Week 8-1 Kelly 72

My new job has kept me crazy busy, so I while I'm trying to keep up with this project, I don't have much extra time to photograph and share my work! I just returned from the state basketball tournaments, will head to the state Brain Bowl tournament on Thursday, and then that will be followed by the Student Government Legislative Rally, the state Tennis tournament, the state Softball tournament and the state Baseball tournament, all between now and the first week in May. Whew!

Catch up with the 2015 Documented Life Project and all that the Art to the 5th girls have to offer on their blog here!

New Gems and Jewels

Fairy Garden 2 

I have Springtime Tallahassee coming up the last Saturday in March, so I've been working on building up some jewelry inventory. This piece is not on my website yet, but will be soon.  Springtime Tallahassee is always my favorite show of the year. I guess it will have a different feel to it this year since I'll soon be living in Tallahassee full time. My family will come over to help me for the weekend, and then we'll get me moved from my apartment over to the house we'll be renting. Big moves!

Best Shot Monday: Girls and Graffiti

Girls and Graffiti

We had a day trip over to Tallahassee last Saturday for the family to check out the house I've found for us. All thumbs up, so hopefully we'll be signing a lease soon! While we were there, we went to the Artigras Festival over at Railroad Square Art Park. The festival still has some growing to do, but it has the potential to be a great one if they can work out the parking issue.

The benefit of having to park several blocks away and walk was that we got to check out some great graffiti! I think this photo not only shows great graffiti, but for those of you not following me on Facebook, it shows how the Daily Dose of Awesomeness are definitely diverging in their fashion senses. Sarah is most definitely still my little fashionista, while Olivia is taking a trip down the uber casual route. I swear the girl would live in flip flops if I let her, no matter how cold it is outside. I guess I can't say anything there as I'm a flip flop girl myself, but I'm in socks and sneaks or boots when it's cold!

Since this quick trip gave us the opportunity to spend a little time in Tallahassee experiencing one of its many fairs and festivals as a family, it served to give the girls a little dose of what's ahead for them beside football games and Barnaby's pizza.  We are all still apprehensive about the move and very sad to be leaving our little spot of paradise on the river for a while, but I think everyone felt at least a little better after seeing the house we'll hopefully be living in. Baby steps, I guess.