Building a Park!

Our community is building the first all-abilities playground in the county, and I'm the Art Team Lead! I have awesome people on my team with mad art skillz, and it's been a pleasure to work with such creative souls! The funnest part of this project is that it is all community-built by volunteers in our area. As soon as I heard about it, I couldn't help but get giddy with excitement! How could I not do this?!

This is what our playground is going to include:

There's a pirate ship, train, mountain castle, rocket ship and more! Our job as the art Team is to take the features and bring them to life through our artwork, and I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

There are teams for PR, materials management, fundraising, child care, food, children involvement, and building, among others. If you want to be involved and live in Utah Valley, you can find the volunteer form here.

I'm totally going to be playing on this playground along with my kiddos because it's going to be so awesome! Also, we can say we built it, and there's no better feeling than making a big difference for someone in your own backyard!

Crystal Classic Race

A while back we visited my sister, our kids had some quality cousin time, and we cheered on the dads in a cold 5K race:

The kiddos loved cheering and watching the runners and the dads got excellent pace times. Growing up, our whole family supported every track meet, swim meet, baseball game, and art show! (And there were a lot of us, so we spent a lot of time supporting one another!) I loved the sense of community and support and want our fledgling family to have that same sense of love for one another.

Kirk has been a master supporter of all my crazy ideas, even if they require a lot of hard work. He built the booth for the upcoming local makers show that will be showcasing art by Feather & Fir, and he's always been a big believer in my dreams. I love that guy and want to reciprocate and teach our tiny posterities how important it is!

I've been pondering lately about how best to teach support for others' endeavors. What did/do your families do for that?

You're Invited to Meet the Makers!

My art and goodness from other local vendors is going to be available for browsing starting next week, and the Salt & Honey Market.

They have a special Meet the Makers Party the evening before the show opens for everyone else, and you're invited:

Discounts, goodies, meeting cool people? Yes, please! I'll be there, too and would love to see you that evening!

Road Trippin'

My sister is an angel and took our kids for a couple days so Kirk and I could hear ourselves think without tiny voices ringing in our heads. Sometimes you don't notice how noisy your everyday life is until you take a break from it for a bit, you know? And guess what? We held hands. Without being used as a jungle gym. It was amazing.

We drove through the canyons and forests around Flaming Gorge, and be still my heart! There is just something about the red rocks and the snow that I cannot even get over:

It was a good break, and it was good to be reunited again. We need to take breaks so we can appreciate the many gifts we forget about when they occur on a daily basis.

Color This Bear Coloring Contest

Guys, around here we have been stricken with the plague. It's been an all-hands-on-deck situation over here, but it's finally under control, we've finally gotten enough sleep, and we're most likely not contagious anymore. All good things. We've had a lot happening in the last little while, and I'm excited to share some of our latest adventures! One of which involves this wild guy:

Right now I'm hosting a coloring contest of the grolar bear illustration I made. If you have caught the grown-up coloring book bug, this will be a fun contest for you, friend! It's running on Instagram, and here are the details:


1. Download the bear coloring page for an amazing introductory rate before it goes up to full price April 15. Secret pricing rewards for friends. That's how I roll.
2. Print it up and color like there's no tomorrow! I have some fun treatments to show you and can't wait to see what you can come up with too.
3. Post your creation all over Instagram using #colorthisbear.
4. You get a bonus entry for each post using the hashtag #colorthisbear and for each person you tag in those posts!
5. A winner will be randomly picked from the entries. Will you be the lucky person?
6. If you win, you get to pick your favorite animal to be turned into a similarly-styled coloring page! How neat is that?

This contest runs through March and into April. A winner will be selected April 15 because coloring takes time, right? I can't wait to see what lovely things you have in store for this little guy!

Wild and Wondrous Series Update

It's birthday season around here, so I've been a busy little bee drawing illustrations for the birthday peeps. This year I asked everyone what their favorite wild beast was and then drew it coloring book style. I've been calling it my Wild & Wondrous illustration series. It's been fun so far and it's been interesting to see what animals are picked! Here are a couple more additions:

There are more in the works, and you can see the entire series here as it gets updated.

I like to shake things up every year and do something a little different to celebrate birthdays. I find it helps keep things interesting and meaningful. In the past I've created art, organized a large family gift, gathered heartfelt notes from everyone in the family, put together a photo album, taken the birthday boy/girl out for a one-on-one lunch, given a meaningful gift, or even given gag gifts (haha, suckers!). You never know what you're going to get with this wild card! (Unless your birthday is later in the year, then hopefully you can figure it out based off of the pattern from previous birthdays.)

What do you like to do to celebrate the birthdays in your family?

Family Sledding Adventure

It's funny how something so simple, like sledding, can bring such happiness! We recently took our little family on a sledding adventure, and it blew tiny minds:

Our kid was so elated with the experience that she wants to go several times a day! Although it can take a lot of work to bundle everyone up then dry them off, these kinds of adventures are worth it to us. I believe spending time in nature during every season is important for a healthy lifestyle and open perspective.
 
We think opting outside together as a family helps our family grow closer, so it's one of our default family activities. What do you like to do with your family during the winter?