it's friday. i've skipped a week or three.

another friday five dedicated to things i'm super stoked about :)

1. since preparing my studio as a place of inspiration, inspired i've been. i don't mean to minimize the experience of bi-polar but i feel manic. i know this wave, this high, like anything, is temporary so i am being present and mindful with it and grateful for it. every. single. day. i have painted more or finished more unfinished projects in the last two weeks than i have in the last two years. i feel that another big shift has occurred and while i'm still going to swear and i'm still going to sometimes rage and i'm still ME, i feel like i am finally really listening to and following my heart. i, haven't, however put away three loads of laundry still sitting in my living room, or even started the other three loads in the hamper, in that time.

2. i'm finally shooting my DSLR in manual mode. i'm going to admit that i could not wrap my head around the relation of aperture and shutter speed for a very long time. even once i felt i had a grip on it, i was still too unsure to shoot in manual and used the aperture priority mode, instead. then i got a copy of your camera loves you: learn to love it back and stuff clicked in my head. i went to town shooting in manual after the first chapter and haven't looked back. (and fewer of my photos look like crap. omg. this is good.)

3. this week i discovered papermama. not sure why it's taken so long but i'm happy i've stumbled across the wealth of inspiration and beauty that is her site. who needs pinterest when there's papermama?

4. this week, my husband, the boys, and i have gone on evening walks. we've gone every night since father's day. even when i didn't to want one night because sprout had just thrown the most epic of epic fits ever. even when it was dinnertime when the boys and i got home from the bookstore and the sun had gone down before we could get outside. i am loving not only how i feel but the time we have, that we've dedicated to ourselves, our children, and our health. it may only be twenty minutes but it's packed with a a lot of goodness <3

5. and back to number 1. i'm painting. A LOT! i am picking things up and adding the finishing touches after not touching them for months. it's amazing. this is one of my favorites that i knew where it was going, i just wasn't feeling the need to work on it - it's as good as sold, i just need to finish it - but it's also very dear to me, with lyrics from one of my favorite modest mouse songs. which, y'all might hear a lot because since tool and sage francis, modest mouse is my favoritest band that's formed in my lifetime (all the others were well established by1979). and because i have an entire series of sketches that i want to turn into paintings based on their lyrics. i'm so original like that. anyway, i've got one more side to fill in and will post more pics when it's complete.

the song is: life like the weeds ;) you should totally check that out.