People like to tell you all the horror stories about having a baby, the sleepless nights, the crying, the spit up. But what they don’t mention is the wonderful sunrises you get to see when your baby suddenly becomes an early riser. I’ve certainly seen my fair share since the birth of my baby in February. The photo above looks out across my backyard and it is my favourite sunrise so far.
this post is a contribution from alli, an aussie lifestyle blogger over at The Girl in the PJs, and one of my sponsors. thanks for filling in for me, alli! that photo makes me miss springtime already.
falling in love, living in the big city, getting married, moving to a new town, finding jobs, buying a house, making it a home, having a child, taking risks, becoming entrepreneurs and small business owners, finding a place in a community, experiencing fulfillment while also trying to keep our selves together under crazy schedules and stress. that’s essentially life in a nutshell for jp and i from the beginning to this current moment.
it’s been fast and busy and demanding and rewarding and confusing and oh so lovely. and maybe you’re sick of me talking about how busy i am but let me know if you feel the same way: those days when you hit the ground running and don’t stop until just before you have to put yourself to bed and you can take a moment sit in your comfiest spot in your home with your favorite drink in hand and just pause to take a look around yourself and feel really good about all that’s getting done or that you’re wisely choosing not to do. those days that zoom by and are filled with life and cleaning up after babies and completed tasks and networking and community and dirty kitchens and playrooms. those days, with the promise of that quiet reflective moment in the evening, are what i live for right now.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
Greetings A Denver Home Companion readers! Amanda here from The Petrichor filling in as “Emily” for the day.
I think it’s safe to say that autumn came and went. Here in Denver, we got to enjoy a little bit of a longer fall. I feel like the leaves were changing for over two months! It’s my favorite time of year, so I won’t complain.
As winter begins to settle in, I thought I would make a promise to myself to enjoy the outdoors more during the cold. The thing about living in Colorado is that we do get all four seasons. I’m originally from California so I need to take advantage of this. Winter is a wonderful time to go outside, sled, visit mountain towns, drink hot cocoa during a snow storm, and just sit and bask in the night glow reflecting off the snow.
To give myself an extra reminder this winter, I made myself a new desktop background to decorate my home and office computers. Hopefully this serves a little reminder to go outside and appreciate the season. You can download the wallpaper by saving the image to your desktop. Hopefully it’ll give you a little extra motivation.
i am not the only one who is busy with small business ventures. lovely readers, click through to see what is keeping amanda so busy these days: The Kin Collective (her design company that redid my blog!) and Our Mutual Friend Malt and Brew (just down the street from The Populist!)
thanks, amanda! that wallpaper is definitely what is on my mac’s background right now.
phew. it’s done. it’s open. and it was busy and so so good.
there’s wrinkles to iron out, for sure. but to see people eating and drinking and enjoying themselves in the space! oh man. it was a labor of love to get to this point and it feels really really wonderful. i cannot even imagine how JP and his partners feel, as they put in a lot more blood, sweat, tears, and time than i did!
i’m still recovering from the crazy schedule i had this week (office work for the populist in the morning, being a mama to ramona and a caregiver to max in the afternoon, and then jetting back to the space to function as manager/host/presence in the evenings). today the powerdriver family had a lazy brunch at the universal then went home and cleaned our homestead inside and out. finally, we were able to kick back and relax with some chipotle, bota box, board books, and play time with our little girl who hasn’t gotten as much of our attention as she deserves this past week. this is exactly what we all needed.
i’ll be back in full force next week here on the blog. until then, enjoy some more great guest posts.
and congratulations to cora who was randomly selected as the winner of my blog redesign giveaway! i can’t wait to see what you pick out (and i’ll also be updating my shop soon now that i have more time.)
Hello, I’m McKenzie of Oliver and Abraham’s. My husband and I are part-time sheep farmers. I also draw, so with the slowing-down season this year, I decided to focus my energy on opening an Etsy shop to sell some of my art, and eventually, we’ll be able to offer handspun yarn from our sheep and alpacas.
Over the past couple months I’ve learned a lot about my own creative process, and I thought I’d share a little bit about it here. I would say the most important aspect of having the inspiration to draw lies in my surroundings. The view from my desk is full of sheep. Grazing sheep, sleeping sheep, thirsty sheep, headbutting sheep, humping sheep… From my window, I am always able to get a little dose of reality, no matter how wrapped up in my head I get.
When I start drawing, I rarely have a goal in mind. But when I do, I use pencil to sketch out the symmetry. I prefer diving right in with a .005 Micron pen though. Then I erase my pencil lines and start filling in with watercolor using these tiny brushes. I’ve had the same old watercolor paints for years now, but these seem to be pretty close. I usually mix the colors up on the side. Adding gray to any color gives it a softer look. I also recently discovered the most perfect 5″x7″ watercolor block. The nice thing about it is that there’s no grainy texture. That used to bother me a lot about other watercolor papers. It’s pure white and is glued together on all four sides. One corner is free so you can tear out the image when it’s dry. Because of the tightness of the paper to the pad, there’s no warping.
A lot of people have told me that using watercolors is hard. I guess in the sense that if you have no initial lines to define your image, it would be challenging to create them using only watercolors. But filling in Micron pen lines is relatively simple. It’s time consuming, but if you consider it a form of meditation it becomes addictive. You learn as you go. I remember the very first watercolor painting I did. I must have been three or four years old. I painted a cottage in the woods on a tiny square of paper. I remember being sofrustrated that the lines in my head were bleeding together on paper, but there must have been something appealing to me about the medium, otherwise I wouldn’t have picked it back up.
Today, I find it fun to experiment with color and texture. I also love to finish a painting with white India ink. It adds a much needed sense of dimension and brightness. You have to practice with it first though! It spreads really easily so you have to control your hand to the max. But don’t be afraid! Sometimes your mistakes can turn into the best part. In the birth announcement you see above, the flowers with the big black centers were a mistake. I opened up a pen and the ink came spurting out. At first, I was devastated (read: threw the pen across the room in a fury) since I’d spent the entire day working on it. I stepped away, came back to it calmly, and at second glance realized the dots had fallen among the leaves in a beautiful way. I think art should be embraced with the Japanese philosophy of “wabi-sabi.” Finding beauty in life’s imperfections…
Emily, thank you so much for having me over to your blog! I can’t wait to see your new restaurant grow! 🙂
welcome
