The laptop arrived....

So my laptop arrived not half and hour after my last post. The party is postponed since the laptop was wiped clean.... I had no back up and since it died on me before I shipped it off I could not back up last minute. You all know what this means... EVERYTHING is gone... pictures, ART, tax info, documents.... ALL.

I had all my lesson plans in word documents, wedding pictures from our daughters wedding this January, pictures of my students art and pictures of my own art that I have sold and can never get back. Hundreds...

How do you move on???? have to take a few days to look into old emails for pictures I have mailed in the past and also the pictures I have here on my blog. Any ideas? anyone as stupid as I am and not to have  a back up plan?

Before the internet...

So here I am again with another post of non spell checked writing with my Mother in laws old laptop...I did receive an email this morning with a promise that my laptop will be back next week on Wednesday. I think I need to have a laptop welcome back party that day and just embrace each moment I can log on. How pathetic is that? what did we do before these little addictive monsters? Go to the bank evey day? spend time with the phone book way too much? buy stamps at the postoffice to mail off letters and bills.... This must have taken hours.

On the other hand (this is my Mothers point of view) we have lost contact with "real" life. Sending friends emails instead of calling or sending letters/cards, spending too much time sitting down indoors when you can ride your bike to the post office to buy stamps and go to the bank.

My point of view is.... I can still ride my bike if I want to and I do send birthday cards and letters still and I hate to go to the bank and postoffice.

So these are my thoughts on a Friday morning when the drywall crew is about to arrive to close up the walls. Next week we have the final inspection and then off we go to put up the new kitchen cabinets, granite counter tops, sink and all brand new appliances :) FINALLY

Have a splendid Friady

When your laptop dies...

There will be a time in your life when you as an addict to your laptop and the internet will face true panic.... your laptop goes green and throws up...or at least that is what it sounded like before it went black.

 After sitting at my kitchen table drinking 2 cups of coffe while on hold with hp tech support on the phone for what seemed like hours, I was told my laptop has a broken video card. That means something to most of you but not to me...only that my laptop does not work and all I want to do is cry.

I am supposed to be patient for up to 8 days while it is being repaired and happy it is still under full warranty. Rushing over to my mother in law and happy she never uses her laptop I am now online with a borrowed laptop but... no pictures and no word documents. All the art lesson planning work I am doing for Kids Art Classroom have to take a break for a few days.

So after way too much coffee in the am, dropping my youngest off at Middle School for her first day and picking up my car from the shop 30 miles away I am now ready to take a nap...

So here it is...todays blog with no pictures (I am surpirsed if anyone wants to read this) and whith all the mispelled :) words since I can't find spell check, who knows what I just wrote. I do know that tomorrow will be a better day but am affraid  to jinx it since I have the first inspection on my kitchen remodeling first thing in the am.

Over and Out

School is starting....so soon....

Almost makes me sad.... that the summer break is over. Having 3 children I have done this summer break many times and always (and I will admit it now) felt a sense of joy when school started again.

This year not so much :( ... feel sort of cheated out of a whole summer due to this stupid water leak and pneumonia. Tuesday is only two days away and my youngest daughter is starting Middle School. The whole summer break is over and we hardly did anything we planned to do.

Have to get past that and move forward, I know she is excited to enter Middle School and 6Th grade and I can spend my days driving her to soccer and piano practice yet again ;) I have so much to do with Kids Art Classroom (my brand new art lesson magazine for kids) and the upcoming Conference in Los Angeles at the CAEA Annual State Conference.

For those of you out there that can't wait for your kids to go back to school I totally understand, I have been there for many years but this summer I feel cheated and wish summer break could last another month.

Available ART

Here is a big Thanks to Kelee at the Katillac Schack for mentioning me on her lovely blog. I am so proud to have some of my ART in her hands.

Today I am posting some ART I have available for sale.... busy summer and I never get to posting it on eBay. If you are interested in any of the pieces just let me know and I bet we can work out a nice low price.

Today as yesterday I am working on the lesson plans for Kids Art Classroom , my very own magazine with the first issue due in a matter of weeks. Stay tuned for updates.

Thanks Kelee and to the rest of you out there... be safe and learn to love art...

Art Lessons for kids... school starting...

So here it is.... my pride and joy... still under some final construction...My very own logo that I created on my own with help from a very good friend when it comes to the technical part ( I am awful with that) and my 11 year old daughter who was a part of the main design.

Funny how after hours of trying to figure out that perfect logo my daughter did some sketching and.... there it was. Guess this is why I love to work with kids and art, they do not have all those blocked parts of their "art brains" like us adults and they are not afraid to try.

The website Kids Art Classroom.com will be up and running very soon, you can check back here on My Art Gallery for updates on when. I am having the first magazine issue of Kids Art Classroom published in late October with at least 5 art lessons for Elementary school aged children. This will all be available on the Kids Art Classroom website.

The art lessons are easy to follow, educational and fun for the kids. I have worked hard to make sure they all meet national standards and will be a huge help to all of you out there brave enough to home school as well as teachers trying to fit art into their hectic schedule. If you have kids at home that love to do art, put away those coloring books and spend just about the same amount on one of the Kids Art Classroom issues.

There will be pictures and plenty of directions, supply lists and standards for each lesson. Also, information on specific artists that the lesson might be inspired by and (very important) mistakes and ideas that I have come across from teaching these lessons in the past.

I am attending the CAEA (California Art Education Association) conference in November where I am teaching one of my lessons (Good Enought To Eat, cupcakes inspired by Wayne Thiebaud) and also promoting my Kids Art Classroom magazine in the exhibitor hall. All very exciting... :)

If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me here on My Art Gallery. This blog will stay active no matter what since this is where I post my own art and thoughts.

Over and out for now... hope to create some art later today....thinking about trees and circles :) what's new...

Here is some kids art... I can never get enough :)

ART Lesson for 2nd graders

I am working hard to meet a dead line .... funny how those things sneak up on you :)

The ART lesson I am working on (not the picture above, this is something I created years ago) is something close to my heart and I can't wait to teach it to other Art Teachers and home schoolers at the CAEA Conference down in Los Angeles in November.

Other than that I am still not able to live in my house after a nasty water leak weeks ago. Seems like between estimates, insurance and contractors it takes forever to get started. We hope to have the old floors removed tomorrow and the general contractor starting on Thursday. After the dry wall is hung and all the dust cleaned away I can move back home again. I miss my studio more than I can say and my kitty cries for me every day when i go home to feed and love him for a few moment. Having suffered a bad case of pneumonia this spring I am not allowed even close to dry wall dust (doctors orders).

When the lesson plan is mailed off I am starting my next project. Publishing a Art lessons for kids magazine online. I already have lessons picked out, a table at the CAEA Conference Exhibition to promote the magazine and hotel reservations for me and my daughter. She is coming for help and support. Having taught art to kids herself for over 2 years she is as much a part of this as I am. We cant wait. Plenty of work before we get there though....wish me good luck.

Those of you following my blog know I am taking a year off from teaching ART to sort of expand my horizons and finally doing something about the lack of ART lessons for kids. Being a chronic migraines sufferer and having just recovered from pneumonia I have to take this step by step and only take a day at a time. I never know if tomorrow will be a migraine day. For now I am looking forward to fall, to the ART lessons to come and a brand new kitchen...

Working on Kids ART Lessons....

I still live with my in laws due to some nightmare plumbing and remodeling happenings at our house. The kitchen is gutted and there is dry wall dust all over the house. My poor kitty is living there mostly by himself these days and I miss him so.

I have been waiting for the "FAX" with a work order for the contractors to start working for almost a whole week and if this fax does not come printing out of the fax machine today I will run low on patience.

Once they start hanging the dry wall it will be about a week before I can move back home... OH I just can't wait. Don't care if it will be months before the kitchen i done. I have now been living without my ART STUDIO and kitty for 3 weeks :(

Other than that I am super busy trying to get the lesson plan in the mail before the deadline next week. I am teaching a work shop in Los Angeles in November at the CAEA Conference. I now have in my mind that I will be able to have my first issue of the Kids ART Lesson magazine I am working on ready for publication by then and would love to spend some time in the exhibition hall promoting my ideas.

Time is of the essence but while I wait for that darn fax I can work on the lesson plans....

Keep you fingers crossed for a happy FAX day :)