Life of an indigenous woman, wife, mother and artista

The WEDDING

Especially for Miz Carla...

Some pictures from my neice Janasia's wedding in beautiful Florida... 85 degrees during January... UNBELIEVABLE!  I have taken some of the photos into Microsoft Picture It and futzed with them.  ART... in a dry spell. 

We spent some time at the beach after the wedding.  Zak and Conner enjoying the surf and Riley and Hannah building beautiful sandcastles and the kids boogie boarding with the jelly fish... AHHHH vacation.

Here are the beautiful flower girls.  Riley Mae and Hannah.  Hannah is the daughter of my new nephew Heizer.  Hannah flew from Germany and what a sweetie she is!  Hannah spoke minimal English and Riley spoke minimal German, but they worked it out and had a BLAST!  The girls were not actually posing for this picture.  I just caught them at the perfect time.  My sister, Shawnie,  caught them from the backside at the same time.  It was written in the stars:D!

Shawnie and I...Next is the Howes Family all the way from Northern Minnesota!  AND what would wedding pictures be without the BRIDE!   My neice Jan and my handsome brother-in- law (Adriene's husband) Jon!  Then Zakky, the adorable bearer of rings.  My sister Adriene and her beautiful daughter, the bride.  Riley and her mama. 

life as i know it right now

so, it is really very sad.  really.  i have really no time for anything.  period.  but the best part about that is that i am doing something that will make a difference.  we have had my sister and her four children living here since my birthday.  june 13th.  it has been a roller coaster at best.  absolutely insane at times and absolutely joyful at times.  i don't pick and choose, i just roll with it.  i have so missed all of my art friends and the comradrie of great ideas and the rush of creating something ooooh soooo fabulous.  trust me, i have.  i dream about it at night. 

i also just got my first full time job in 9 years.  nine years!  i am certainly just purely overwhelmed at this point, but happily overwhelmed.  i just continue to breath and most of my off time is spent sleeping or going to the lawyer with my sister who is dealing with a nasty divorce case involving child custody.  but don't worry... mom and pop have it covered with the best on the market.   but still. 

thomas, my husband also got a promotion.  hooray!  we call him the big kahuna now.  we are so proud of the leaps and bounds he has made in the short time that he has been at the Fond Du Lac Natural Resources Program. 

life is changing faster than the seasons.  i'm just wondering if i can keep up.  sometimes if fell that the answer is definitely not, but other times i feel that all is right in my world. 

all in alll, i am greatful for my life and all that is good.  i belive in karma and know that all that is coming from me is good.

i hope that my art therapy will resume soon... i miss you all so much.

chrissy

ARGHHHH!

SO, now with being sick and all the crap that goes with it I am so far behind on my "BOOK of DREAMS" project that my friend, fellow Minnesota girl, Kari has kicked off.... I hate it when I get behind.  I have three weeks to make up for, but I CAN DO it and will because this project is so cool!

THIS IS MORE FOR ME THAN Y'ALL...

WEEK ONE is pockets

WEEK TWO is layers

WEEK THREE is images

at least i've prepped my book...now to get to work.

can you hear the determination in my voice or is it just me????

CHECK IT OUT!

MY dear art sistah Angie Hall Haviland has her OWN blog now!  YOU can find at the link below!  BE sure to add her to your favorite artists lists...she creates wonderfully inspiring ART!

ANGIE'S ART FULL LIFE

I'm so proud of you Miz ANGIE!!!

Faith Mary Mae McNair

OOOH she is a doll... a living doll!  I am so in love and she is sooo tiny!  Here is a picture of my youngest sister, Shawnie, holding Faith.  Also, a picture of the proudest GREAT Uncle ever... my dear Thomas and baby Faith, too!

For more pictures, just click on the link below!

Faith Mary Mae's Album

ART to pass the time

I'm trying to stay focused until Saturday morning when we leave to go see Faith!  I did a little art this morning...

GREAT AUNT...that's ME!

My neice Nikki had her first baby this morning!  Faith Mary Mae was born at 8:09 a.m.!  She weighed 7lbs 5oz and is 17 inches long.  She has a full head of dark brown hair and an eye color yet to be determined, because right now they are a dark gray!  I will post pictures as soon as I have some and will be traveling to Wisconsin to visit this weekend...HOORAY!  I'm already in LOVE with this little cherub! 

xoxoxoxoxo

not bad for an amateur

i know this may suprise many of you, but i actually got some of the stuff on my list done yesterday!!!!

LIKE my Monet fabric chunky book pages!

AND I got the kitchen table pretty much cleared off before ANOTHER party decided it was free to claim...it has now become the laboratory of Miz RileyMae-creator of the most fantastic paper Frankenstein!   

I DID get those loads of laundry done and folded and put away.. but i'm not taking a picture of my socks and undies...HAHAHAHA!  You'll just have to trust me on that one.

I'm off to give SUPERPUFF aka MINDAA a bath... now that would be a picture... MINDAA wet... she looks like a really long haired chihuahua.

avoidance can be a good thing

i jest.   i honestly, do solemnly swear to get some things done today... to tie up loose ends.  so to be held accountable here is my list--

1.  Finish and mail fabric chunky book pages to Terrie

2.  Finish and mail ATC stuff to Northlight Books

3.  Design some kewl kits... i'm on it Carla and Marie!

AND i will do some housework, just to keep everything balanced!

1.  Finish the two loads of laundry

2.  Finish the addition to my flower garden that i started two weeks ago

3.  Clean off the kitchen table... since i'm going to be gone all day tomorrow trying on bridesmaid's dresses for my cousin Rebekah's wedding.  This is a story within itself... we picked some out and were going to order them in December, but we decided to wait a few months and guess what... the dang company went bankrupt!  so, back to square one... at least we didn't order them and loose any $$$$$$!

while i HAPPILY avoided housework yesterday and the day before... i did find time to create these paperbag journals!  You can find the images at Top Hat Design Works and the beautiful purple trim and some of the ribbon are the products of Carolyn and Marina at Carma

my new mantra

my house is riding the edge of being pretty much a disaster... i have decided that this is my new mantra (see image below).  thomas came home last night at 11 pm and i was still in the process of cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming and folding clothes...not to mention that since my studio had to be ripped apart this winter i have been creating on, YES, you guessed it the kitchen table.  which would be okay, if the stuff ever actually motivated off the table.  but, here's the thing... i said to thomas, my so intelligent and ever wise husband, "remember when i didn't have a hobby and i was obsessive about keeping the house clean... i miss those days."  He replied, "i don't... you weren't HAPPY then, now you are fulfilled, content and have something that drives you."  HE is so smart... so thus the new mantra.

so thomas was gone last night.  he had a meeting concerning the mines in northern minnesota, most of which are owned by US Steel.  As the watershed specialist for the reservation, it is his job to enforce the water quality standards for any body of water that enters or exists within the reservation borders.  US Steel is attempting to dump some crazy amount, like 7 million gallons of "dirty" water into the St. Louis river every day.  Their defense is that the water does not contain mecury, but what they are neglecting is the fact that once the "dirty" water mixes with the crap that has already been dumped into the river that the nastiness will methylize and thus the water will then be drastically contaminated with mercury and who know what else.  i'm sure he could explain things more scientifically.  the plain and simple fact is that although the st. louis river does not begin on the reservation, it flows through the reservation, where many tribal members fish, etc and then continues on to flow into LAKE SUPERIOR.  A drip can definitely start a FLOOD... by infesting the river with all sorts of contaminants US Steel is essentially affecting miles and billions of gallons of water.  JERKS.