Summer's Gone, Carry On, I'm a Ghost in the Dawn

Hello  everyone. Summer Break officially ends tomorrow on Labor Day, and the diva goes back to school Tuesday. It's bittersweet for a lot of different reasons. First, Summer went by pretty quickly. Traveling a good chunk of July didn't help, but we had an amazing time and made some incredible memories so that's a good trade off :) We didn't get to do her annually lemonade stand which sucks because she always has a great time with friends doing it and loves to give all the money to HAWS. We may try to do something in the Fall if there's time and the weather is good.

She definitely needs to be back at school again. She needs to be on that routine again and having things to do. Plus, it'll be good to reunite with friends again. She had her open house this week and got to meet her new teacher. She technically already has met her at random moments at school so I'm pretty happy she's got her as a 2nd grade teacher. She found out she's got a few other friends in her class as well as some troublemakers. Hopefully there aren't any issues.

Thursday I had my art lessons. Micah worked on a very tricky horse for a friend while her sister did a cartoon of Harry Potter. These girls are super fun to work with. Micah wasn't able to finish it, however she'll get it complete for her friend's belated birthday gift at some point. She's a patient and talented artist and I look forward to seeing when it's complete. I picked up Mia later and we ran over to Ella's house for my last art lesson of the day. We did some water colour painting of some fish. Mia drew her dogs while we had fun painting. I haven't water color painted in a really really long time so it was fun to challenge myself as well as Ella. She did a great job and her fish sorta accidentally had this Japanese style of painting to it. I loved seeing how proud she was.

With school starting this week, I'm not quite sure how the art lesson schedule will work with my 3 students. I have others that are interested so I have to figure out how to work everything out. After Ella's lesson, Mia and I grabbed some snacks and made a quick drive to the zoo. The Summer has been so busy and I feel like we haven't been able to do much together. She was so awesome at Ella's lesson just hanging out, drawing and even talking to both Ella and her Mom so a trip to the zoo before soccer was a great idea.

We got a rare moment watching the lion and lioness roaring in the enclosure. It's been at least 5 years since I've seen that with the diva so it was pretty cool. I think he was irritated with all the kids waving at him. Mia loved watching the tiger playing in the water outside but was pretty bummed the red pandas were not out. The river otters were super cute playing down the slides as well as the baby giraffe attempting to eat the sign outside the habitat.

We had to book it home and get ready for our 2nd soccer practice. Plenty of teams were on the field and we split a quarter of the field with a couple teams. We met our newest addition Ainslee and she already had meshed well with our team. We ran our first scrimmage and went over positions so they get a better idea of what to expect on game day. The girls did really well and I'm most excited to see big improvements from Mia and Cecilia. Both are getting in the mix more and exploring their different skills. Cecilia really likes to play defense while using her loud voice to help and control the back line, while Mia actually is getting into the mix as a striker. I'm hoping the fields eventually dry up and we don't get rain this week. Our newest addition already likes playing goalie so we have a good list of talent for that position. Our two big goal scorers will be Sophie and Sofia. Both found the net 4 times. I hope to develop the rest of the girls into well-rounded players that can be assists in all positions while having fun in the process. My favorite moment was the big team hug after practice. These girls have only had two practices and already really getting along together and bonding.

Later, we went to StoneFire Pizza as sort of a "last night as a family to do fun stuff" before school starts. Over the weekend, I watched Chelsea beat the Cherries, and Sunday the girls drove to Illinois for a housewarming party. Today, we're visiting with my in laws for a Labor Day lunch before I go to work.

This week, possibly art lessons in-between first week of school, soccer and Mia's FIRST game of the season! That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Why, hello 2013!

Greetings readers both casual and loyal! Hope everyone had a delightful and safe New Years Eve. In the morning, I packed up my bag and Remi and I headed off to see my Jill & Mia back at Jill's parent's house. They were there all week and in the time I was solo, I tried to use my time wisely to accomplish some things. Sadly, didn't make the most of my time. Worked on an art project, did a little drumming, and cleaned the house some. I really wanted to visit with some friends but things sort of fell apart. I did however, get to hang my with bro and watch the Dark Knight Rises. Not as good as the Dark Knight but it wrapped up well in the end. there were some plot issues here and there but overall it was pretty great. So on my drive to Illinois I was super excited to see the girls. The closer I got to their house, the more I thought how Mia would react when I walked in the door. Would she be ecstatic? Would she be sleeping?? Well when Remi and I pulled in with Jill's Dad's car, we noticed that the entire driveway was empty. No one was home :( Turned out her Dad and bro worked, and Jill and her Mom (with Mia) went out to some stores. Remi and I were pretty bummed they weren't home. Shortly, her bro pulled in so at least he could get us into the house. Remi searching the place for Jill but they weren't home. A little later they pulled in. I could barely contain my excitement. Mia was super happy to see me and wouldn't let go of my neck for quite a while. When I was sitting on the floor with Jill, Mia did something quite cute: She got in between us and put both arms around our necks and said "Picture Daddy, GET YOUR PHONE!" So I did! Felt great to be reunited with my beloved familia.

So here we are in the new year. Every one's making resolutions and goals to try to accomplish. Today on my day off, I thought about the different things I want to accomplish this year. Last year, I didn't put together a Thrill Factory site or design a successful shirt design for Threadless. Those were the big things I didn't accomplish. They'll come together hopefully in the near future. Who knows. :) THIS year, I want to:
Play in an adult soccer league (either indoor or outdoor)
Possibly find a 2nd job
Play pond hockey before the end of Winter with my brothers
Try to complete a killer water colour picture
Maybe do a series of some really nice photographs
And of course, continue being a positive and loving father to my Mia.

This afternoon, Mia and I went by my Dad's to watch the Chelsea FC Vs QPR game. Mia was so excited for the game, she ended up sleeping through the first half. Luckily, she didn't miss much. :P

Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for sticking with me through the year peeps :)

Water Colour piece finished!

I don't know how I pulled it off, really. I somehow completed a water colour painting of a beach we discovered in Oahu, Hawaii. Water colour has never been my strongest medium, but I was deeply inspired by my older brother's work, that I wanted to get better at it. I did some practice stuff of some sunset images that didn't turn out that great, but basically said "screw it, I'm just going to go for it". I think in general, water colour isn't easy for anyone. I tend to like having a lot of control of the paint on my brush, so when you ad the water, it just takes away 45-50% of that control. It starts to spread out too much, thus making a mess and not getting what I want...Roughly, I probably put in 26-30 hours in the painting. I spent many late nights painting and drinking trying to capture the beauty and serenity of Hawaii. The clouds were a lot of work, and I put in some extra effort using soft sponges for the clouds, as well as the top of the waves to give them a spray-like look.

Overall, it was a challenging piece, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I'll be doing more paintings of Hawaii in the future.