On the third morning together, Deni and I started playing with makeup. Denise said she has wanted to try smokey eyes, since she rarely wears much make up. It was so fun to have this time to stare at each of her little tender expressions and the curves of her lovely face, while listening to Pandora and playing with makeup to give her these smokey eyes;) My makeup favorites: Bare Escentuals Warmth as a bronzer,Bare Escentuals Clear Radiance as a glowy highlighter powder, Urban Decay Eyeshadow- smog, chopper and maui wowie, MAC Lip Pencil in spice (Deni has this too-great neutral color) and Bare essentials baby lipstick and Estee Lauder Pure Color Gloss. I love this photograph of her-she has killer features. I have been having so much fun playing with the photos I took of her this past week. (****I am also LOVING the photos she took of me-one is part of my new banner and the other is my new profile pic-thanks darling:)
I don't think I mentioned that the day Denise came, my husband called from work that he was really sick and I had to come get him. I was so nervous Denise and I would also get sick. Luckily we dosed up on Airborne and both only got sick for maybe half a day.
When I got home my husband wasn't any better, so Sat am he went to the Dr. and discovered he had pneumonia. They gave him antibiotics and he slept most of the weekend and is now feeling better.
So when I got home there was no reentry adjustment time, and suprisingly I felt like I really needed it. LOL . It has been a year and a half since I had a night away without it involving a fertility procedure or a miscarriage. The few days away, were so relaxing and so calming. I was hoping when I got home, we could ease gently back into our being together. Ummmm that was a dilusion. When I picked him up at school Friday-I was greeted with a downturned face and "where is Grandma?". He actually wimpered and said "I neeeeeed Grandma". I thought it was cute-that he loves her so much-but it was a bit of a rough reentry. Starting with nap time, it was clear that my being away had disrupted his toddler balance. He was a bit cranky and snappy for the next few days. I noticed I was struggling a bit. I had all these creative ideas floating from my getaway with Deni. I had a ton of photos I wanted to edit and my website to work on.

I am very grateful that I am in the middle of reading Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood- a book Deni gave me for Christmas. Wow it is good. She is so open and honest about her own experience of becoming and being a parent, and shares how her years of zen practice give her some clarity and guidance. I often feel far from a zen momma so I was a bit nervous that I would feel like a shit parent if I read the book. It has been the absolute opposite experience. I have found her book to be very helpful this past week, in giving me a better perspective and helping me be more centered as a mother and artist.

On Wed my husband had to go out of town for business for a couple of days, so I have been limited to nap time and a few hours at night to do anything non toddler related.

I started working on a new website a couple of weeks ago. Every spare moment, I have been resizing photos, playing with textures, and organizing sections for the site. I have been struggling for about a year, trying to get the type of site I want without spending at least $1500. In the meantime, I have been using a simple home page that directs people to my two etsy stores, even though I was paying for Yahoo ecommerce for about 6 months. I found Yahoo services complicated, the store front templates for dummies to be very cookie cutter feeling, and it was a pretty big pain in the ass to learn - at least for me. I paid $40.00+ dollars a month since the end of last summer and never got the freakin store up. I am choosing to see it as a huge lesson instead o a huge mistake and waste of money:) It's all about perspective right?

Back to the website....A week or so ago, a gallery owner called me. She had seen my work in the coffee house and said it was hard to find my contact information. That was pretty embarassing-I don't have any contact info on my home page. Luckily she looked through my etsy and like what she saw enough to look my number up in the phone book. I am meeting with her in a week to look at the gallery. I will have a show there in June or July.

Having this woman share her struggle to reach me, sealed the deal. I need a professional web presence, where gallery owners and customers can go for all the information they need. Luckily my darling friend Genine shared with me that she had found Flashpalette , a place that sells Flash Web templates for very reasonable prices. I decided on a template and have been working on it for a couple of weeks. It is super duper easy, super duper attractive and super duper fun. Can I say super duper enough? LOL.If you need a web site for a reasonable price you may want to check them out.

So this is where I have been this week; working, laughing and trying to be zen. *****giggle*******

XO