After the storm, there is always a rainbow

After a long break, I have returned.
It's been a long strange trip.

Shortly after the last post on here, my 18 year old step son passed away. It was very unexpected and the only answers we were given was that it was unexplained natural causes. You can imagine the blow this was to my family. It took a long time for things to become even close to normal. I created some very personal type of art and then I just sort of stopped creating. I'm not really sure of the reason, but I think it has to do with the incredibly hard job of trying to make the family operate like normal when we were so far away from a normal place. We describe the feelings we have by saying "nothing has changed except everything".

So, we decided to change everything...

We left our downtown 1920s apartment and moved into a 102 year old farmhouse on 2 acres of land.
The Quirky K Homestead.
It's been a lot of hard work. We have been painting, repairing and updating the interior, digging garden beds and drawing plans for our chicken coop. We are adjusting to heating by wood only and making our own cleaning and beauty products. We have started canning, drying and preserving. We spend the weekends together clearing the neglected land and renovating the house.  Life has gotten simpler but much busier. It feels good to do everything yourself and I feel like our family is closer and more in tune with the universe. My son plays outside everyday, my preteen daughter is forced to be unplugged and be outside, we have room for animals and we take care of plants, the kids learn the value of hard work and see its rewards.

About a week ago it hit me that I only have less than 2 years till my son has to go to school and that meant I only had 2 more years of being a stay at home mom and to dedicate to making my art.

So, here I am.

I have set a goal of being ready to apply for summer and winter shows this coming season. I plan to work, work, work in my warm studio over the coming cold winter months and let all of these great creative ideas come pouring out that have been forced to swim in my head the past year.
I hope to post here weekly to share and document my creations and artistic endeavors.
I also hope to get my Etsy shop back up and running in the next month.

Keep your eyes open for me.