SAN FRANCISCO, CA

David and I took a long weekend trip to San Francisco and had a blast!  I had to get my Dutch passport renewed so we turned it into a baby moon as well.  I was a little worried about  being 31 weeks pregnant and having to walk up and down those steep hills, but you know what?  It wasn't all that bad!  I've been going on daily morning walks at home so maybe that helped a tiny bit?  3 days was not long enough, and now that I have had a little taste of California I most definitely will go back soon.

Fisherman's Wharf

One of the many views of Alcatraz and the bay. 

These were probably the sweetest and tart mandarins I've ever tasted. 

I think we walked for 4 hours this day.  It was such a beautiful morning. 

A LITTLE PIECE OF SPRING

Spring is my absolute favorite season of the year.  I love the freshness, the spring showers, the first time you see bits of bright green buds popping up on trees and bushes followed by beautifully vibrant colored flowers.   The Texas state flower is the bluebonnet, so I thought I would paint some to commemorate Spring!

LITTLE BIG DOG

This is my latest commission I completed for a fellow soon to be second time mom.  The little dachshund in this picture is her dog who last year thought he was such a tough guy and chased after a bunch of cows.  His ego grew extremely big after the chase!

MY FAVORITE ART SPACE

I'm a big fan of the Menil Collection.  In college I used to love it because it was free. (the front desk requests donations)  Of course I also enjoyed the fabulous collection of modern art!  Now, it's the whole experience of quickly making my way through the travel exhibitions before Amelia gets bored and when she does, we head to the park right next door where she gets to run around and play for a bit.

Currently on view: Lee Bontecou: Drawn Worlds,  which was my favorite, while David loved the expansive travel show, Memories of a Voyage: The Late Work of Rene Magritte.  Who knew Magritte incorporated so many self-portraits in his work!  Amelia's favorite was a painting with the ABC's painted on it, while she was singing her little heart out in the quiet museum.  Never a boring (uhh silent) moment with a toddler!

MARCH WEATHER

Like the rest of the country, Texas weather has had its issue with mood swings.  One day we will be running around in our shorts and tank tops and the next day it freezes and back come the boots and winter coats.  Amelia and Jordan had their share of fun today in the big puddle or what I call our backyard lake.

HOWDY GATOR

I recently visited Brazos Bend state park again.   The park inhabits about 400 mean looking alligators, so with that in mind I thought I would draw a happy one instead.

PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS

Here's my latest watercolor painting inspired by the many prickly pear cacti in Texas.

SUN CATCHER

Amelia and I created a colorful Valentine's Day craft yesterday with pink craft paper, contact paper & a variety of tissue paper.  It was a fun, simple project that didn't require glue that could potentially get all over the little one!

 

VALENTINE'S WREATH

Last weekend David took Amelia to a place called Jumping World for a couple of hours which meant I had a few moments for some shopping and craft time!  Oh Joy!  I love a little bit of time for myself. 

I ended up not using this pretty striped ribbon, but I'll be sure to use it for something!  Even if it's to wrap a gift with. 

 

MR. NIGHT OWL

TINDERBOX: HOUSTON

I'm happy to announce that I found a super cool shop called Tinderbox in Midtown that will be selling my Texas prints and original watercolors!  This shop is so special because the majority of the art sold is of Texas artists.  The work ranges from handmade bags, purses, jewelry, prints, cards,  screen printed shirts, etc. They also do weekly workshops and invited me to teach a watercolor class in March.  Dates to be announced!

LOVELY BEAR

I've been wanting to update some of the art in Amelia's bedroom, so I painted a bear today that would also work well next to the woven piece I bought in New Mexico last summer.

22 WEEKS

Woah. I can't believe my pregnancy has been going by so fast.  22 weeks along!  So far all has been going very well.  I currently have a lot more energy during my second trimester.  The ultrasounds have been showing a healthy baby with all ten fingers and toes which I'm very happy about.  : )

MAGIC

Welcome to my messy "hoekje" or corner where I occasionally create art.  I prefer the kitchen table since there's more space so this is more an art storage area for me.  When we moved into our tiny 900 square feet home it was actually meant to be a walk in closet! OH, dreaming of my own studio space one day when I make billions of dollars!  

NEW ART

I bought a bouquet of yellow flowers yesterday to display in a couple of vases I have on our night stands.  The flower color inspired me to paint a simple abstract painting to hang above it.

MY NOT SO UGLY LAUNDRY ROOM

Wowsers!  The last post on the progress of our laundry room was back in September!  A few things have changed as you can see in the pictures below.   We tiled the floor with some pretty tiles from Lowe's, painted the walls in a light shade of green (even though I still need to re-do a few areas), and  finally painted that ugly old pipe by the doorway in bright white.   I'm not quite finished yet, but I sure like to see some things have changed and that I don't have to walk on ugly concrete anymore!

In September..

5 months later!

FINITO! FINISHED! KLAAR!

I'm finally finished with my little art automobile.  Now I send it off to the judges! 

PROGRESS CONTINUED..

This little project has been taking a while since I've been feeling too sick to work on it, but I got a bit
done today!

SICK

I've been under the weather since this monday, so I've been trying to take things easy.  Hard task to do with a toddler that moves non stop!   I bought some new paints for her so we had a nice long painting session this morning.

ART IN PROGRESS..

ART?

SO I've decided after 2.5 years of being a mama it's pretty much impossible to keep a house meticulously clean and create the amount of art I would like to.  Since I've been in my nesting mode I've put my art work on the back burner but last night I just had to pick up my pen and CREATE. Anything!

This is the beginnings of an illustration I started working on for the Houston Art Car Parade. It's a contest for local Houston artists.  The winner's art will be the official emblem of the 2014 parade.  Pretty nifty huh?

WINDOW

Texas has been a bit dark and gloomy these last couple of days, but I sure am thankful I have my little kitchen window I can look out of while I cook and do dishes.

NESTING

When I was pregnant with Amelia I never had a chance do some good ol' nesting.  We lived in Malaysia up until I was 7 months pregnant and didn't get to move into our new home until 2 weeks before she was born.  Even then I couldn't prepare the nursery myself because I was on bed rest due to pre-eclampsia!  It was a rough time.

A couple of days ago I started applying another coat of paint to David's childhood dresser, which now belongs to Amelia.  During her introduction stages to crayons she decided to create beautiful drawings on all of the drawers.  I also bought some boxes from Ikea in which I could store all of the toys and rearranged her bedroom.  I'm not sure if I'm completely happy with the set-up but I can always switch it up!   My dad built Amelia's crib and he's now in the process of building a matching twin bed for Amelia so that Baby K. can move into the crib.  Excitement.

WELCOME 2014

Happy New Year's everyone!  We spent New Years Eve in the Texas hill country, reading books, watching Epic with Amelia, listening to the neighborhood kids blow up fireworks and eventually going to bed at my new pregnant bedtime, 9:30 p.m..  I think this is the second time in my adulthood life that I missed out on new years eve celebrations  (the first time I had food poisoning in Malaysia).  I really didn't mind at all though!

Below are some of my favorite snapshots from our 4 days out of the city and back into nature.

The three of us after a cold night camping at Pedernales Falls State Park.  

The night after we camped we decided to warm up for a couple of days at a cute one bedroom cottage in Wimberley, Texas. 

Pretty close-up.

This girl LOVES to throw rocks.