Aria turned 2 years old this week! We celebrated by taking her back to one of her favorite places – the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum. It’s one of the best indoor educational playgrounds I know. Not surprisingly, her favorite part is the area with the easels and paints. (Obviously the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree!) It was very entertaining to watch her at work. She threw her whole self into it… including painting her hands and her face with all of the colors!  If there is such a thing, it looks like Aria has inherited the Artist Gene from Grandma!…

It’s been quite a busy and eventful week with some really great moments. First of all, I want to send out a big “Thank You” to everyone who visited my booth at last Saturday’s Night Market in Market Square. If you haven’t yet visited the Night Market, you don’t know what you’re missing! For me, after a long summer of being wrapped up in family matters, I was happy to be out in public again, meeting people and talking about art. It felt wonderful to finally be stepping out… but I wasn’t the only one! The twins made their first…

Finally (with plenty of encouragement from friends and family), I’m painting again! As you can see, I have been working on Santa’s hands – one holds a glass of milk, while the other holds letters from children all over the world. I feel as if these hands tell the whole story of the developing painting. I wanted to show you these small sections of the painting so you can see the great detail that goes into it. As you may already know, the medium I work in is soft pastel chalks. Everything I paint is in chalk. It’s not like…

The twins are home!!! Life is finally starting to settle down a bit since the girls came home on Tuesday. They still seem so tiny, but they’re steadily gaining weight. Autumn is almost 6 pounds now, and Abigail is not far behind her. Here are two of my favorite pictures from Homecoming Day… Abigail in the car seat looking like she’s waving and Autumn just looking beautiful. (You’ll have to forgive me for being a proud grandma!) Today Tom and I took Aria to her new favorite place, The Children’s Museum! Here she is, showing Bop Bop the finer points…

As you know, Tom and I have been eagerly awaiting the birth of our twin granddaughters, originally expected sometime in August. However, as time passed, our daughter developed more and more complications in her pregnancy. Alyssa was admitted to the hospital, and for the last week and a half, we’ve been in crisis mode as we prayed for our daughter’s life and the lives of her twins. The situation changed minute by minute, with the actions being taken based on the precarious state of her health and the babies’ well-being. Finally, the decision was made to deliver the babies at…

Well, I’m back from vacation, and what a vacation it was! We avoided the touristy parts – no Zoo, no Sea World – and other than splurging on a few movies and restaurants, Tom and I did just about every free thing there was to do in San Diego. Much of our time was spent just enjoying the ocean, the boardwalk, and the bay. We walked, we talked, we people-watched, and we especially loved watching the seals and sea lions! Balboa Park (shown in the photo above) was our favorite place to hang out. The part I liked best was listening to…

Vacation must really agree with us – Tom and I are super relaxed and enjoying our time away. A change of scene is something I highly recommend for everyone. Even if you can’t leave town, just spending some uninterrupted time with your loved ones is energizing for your spirit. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to have a great vacation experience that stays with you for the rest of your life. Other times you might have an experience that’s memorable… but for the wrong reasons! This actually isn’t our first visit to La Jolla. We vacationed here once many years ago when…

  Tom and I are in San Diego for the next two weeks getting some much needed R&R! And San Diego is definitely a great place for that. It’s really a beautiful city. The historic Gas Lamp District (as seen in the photo above) is one of those places I would love to paint, especially the unique trolleys. Since we arrived two days ago, we’ve been focused on putting our feet up and basking in the sun, but soon we’ll get out and see all the sights we’ve heard so much about. Of course I couldn’t leave work completely behind… so I’ll…

This week I had an opportunity to do something I love but don’t get to do very often. I spent an entire day visiting the beautiful garden of one of my clients to paint a plein airpastel. Claire’s remarkable garden is an exceptional, very personal expression of her love for landscape design and the beauty of nature. There is a unique gate and a wooden fence, both handmade by Claire herself, and they’re quite striking. They became the essential elements of the painting, but I also made sure to include the bird feeder, which is one of my favorite features. I…