her vision. family. art.

Life Dream

Ready to ring in the new year, and it's proving to be new beginings. The past couple of posts I've introduced you to my mom, and told you the impact she's had in my life with Art. As of last night, my brother's real dream is a new reality. He had his grand opening of his new business. Millhouse AEP When my mom died, Chris was in college. He was put in a position that he had to finish his masters on his own, and struggled a lot. But he finished, and accomplished what he went to school to do. He started his Strength career coaching baseball; his passion, at a local community college. From there, he went on to be a Strength and Conditionioning Coordinator for the minor league teams for the LADodgers, then as the Strength Coordinator for the KCRoyals. From there, he went out on his own and is now training players who hire him independently. My brother has always loved to teach the fundamentals of baseball, and to work with ball players on all levels; major league to little league. He also believes that an athlete should be taught the all-around right way to be successful, and that includes the conditioning element as well.

So last night, after many many days and late hours of getting his building ready, he had his grand opening. (notice the mark above my brother's eye...   yea, well he almost took a drill in the eye the night before grand opening! It fell, he looked up as it was falling; need I say more ?- just typical, accident prone true Chris fashion) For the locals, you've probably seen this all over the news and papers throughout the week, and the facility has 4 indoor batting cages with the other side of the building weight equipment. My brother is the best instructor, and is very well respected. If you google Chris Mihlfeld, you'll find a very impressive background! Albert Pujols is one of my brother's clients. Well, that's an understatement really. Chris drafted Albert out of high school to play for Chris' JUCO baseball team. From there, Albert was drafted with the STLCardinals. Albert and Chris are soulbrothers. Understatement. They have mutual love and respect for each other. And let me just say this to you, if you didn't know that Albert was a "rock and roll baseball player", you wouldn't know it to meet him! He is a fab guy who is just that- fab. Realistic and humble. Just like my brother. To him, it's about baseball. No fame, or glamour about it, just for love of the game, and his eternal friendships he's formed along the way.

So this is the second phase of my brother following his life dream. He will be successful in this as well. He knows baseball and conditioning folks! He's the best, and if you experience one of his instructionals through your son, you'll understand what I'm saying. Millhouse AEP/Kansas City. He doesn't have a website up yet, but you can get contact info from me or directory assistance. His grand opening was a success, and he not only has individuals coming in for instructionals, but little league, high school and even some college teams who are familiar with his career and him. Check it out! *partial inside visual of Millhouse AEP.                                                                                     *blonde is Jo, my sister n law who is about to give birth to my 3rd niece, Sophie, and has totally exhausted herself helping my brother get this gig going! Also, her parents have helped out immensely as well. Next to Jo is one of my brother's best friends', Kyle, who my brother played ball with through high school, college, and Kyle was one of my brother's asst. coaches at Maple Woods CC where they took the team to the school's very first JUCO World Series.

So this post is to celebrate my brother's dream, and to express my pride and love for him unconditionally. slm

SHE gave wings to fly

Beeswax/canvas collage that I did featuring my mom. I knew that I wanted to do something "art-ish" with her photo to hang on our wall. So I can see her every day in the concept that she encouraged me to persue.

I covered the canvas with RED acrylic, then added the embellishments; RED velvet leaves for the wings, diamond studs, a charm from her jewelry box that has CANDICE engraved on it. The book text flowing over the top of the velvet wings says assuring us of always being there, watchful, even when we do not hear her. I finished this with beeswax;covering the entire surface, and reinforcing the added elements. When the beeswax was still warm; pliable, I used an embossing tool to handwrite 'She gave wings to fly'. I filled this in with more red acrylic, wiping away the excess.

I'm loving this on the wall. This is a tribute to her inspiring us to express our strengths and passions. My ARTwork is one of my strengths, as well as a strong passion.

Celebrate my Mom

This is my mom, and today is her birthday. She was the most beautiful person that I know, and man do I seriously miss her. She left us unexpectedly 15 years ago; 4 days before Ethan was born- and let me tell you, if I can get through that week of my biggest low and biggest high happening at the same time, then I can make it through ANYTHING. Everything happens for a reason- The good die young......     but why? Her name is Candice, and she was so full of life at all times; all 5'4"-100pounds of her! haha....... so petite and cute, and very hip let me tell you. She would sacrifice and do anything for anyone that she knew, or even didn't know, to help that person. However, she could kick your butt if she had to ;-) I strongly remember one specific happening........  Mom took Chris and I to the movies, Chris and I were just little kids. It was the old fashioned type theatre, and we were standing in line to get our tickets. Well, there was a teenage boy sitting against the wall of the theatre, and he was crying. My mom walked up to him and asked what was wrong, and he told her that he lost his money to get into the movie. So, mom gave him money to buy a ticket. Well, later we saw the little Player laughing about it with his friends. He hadn't lost his money, but Mom said that she didn't regret giving him the money, she had done what she wanted to. Hopefully KARMA had a play in this later in his life ;-) She was so cute with this; her birthday 2 days after Christmas, she refused to open her birthday presents with Christmas presents! She demanded that the two were kept separately, and made sure of it! She did lighten up as she got older and was okay with her birthday presents being wrapped in left over Christmas paper! She loved hot tea, wine, and Hershey chocolate bars. And her favorite color was RED.

My mom was the one who, from a very early time, noticed my Art abilities, and constantly encouraged me to persue a future in art. She had beautiful handwriting, but her creative gene was a miss! Love her! She'd tell you that too!! When I work, I think of her. I laugh. I cry. I pridefully remember and cherish her, and am thankful that I've discovered and have the strength to live out many of her characteristics. Visually and internally.

Embrace her as a fab daughter, wife, mom, "granny", aunt, friend, INDIVIDUAL. The best.                               I love you mom, happy birthday.

life this week

Is very good. Ok...   well, it's just Monday, but so far the holidays are fun traditions. Proving new beginings;re-establishing. and hope. Tis the Season, and yes, Virginia, miracles are possible;-)

..... getting back on my life track

Tradition, annual holiday shopping with this person who I count on and consider her friendship as a required element in life; my best friend Kelli.She has put countless hours into listening to my life drama, and I can always count on her to be realistic and supportive in her feedback. It works both ways.Real friendship. Funny ...    sometimes her husband just looks at us, shakes his head and walks away! HAHA! You know that saying, -"you'll always be my best friend because you know too much"! laff........... yep. Kel. Seriously, she's the best.

The tree is down (as of Christmas night!), house clean, laundry caught up and looking forward to fab New Year's Eve!!! ;-) I'm having fun catching up on everyone's holidays through their blogs! some fun stuff

The holidays; it's all fun, but there's something to be said to getting back to your normal routine.

Christmas creativity MAXED

Finally... COMPLETE. Here are the collage tile coasters that I made. I kept them pretty simplistic. I wish I would have taken individual photos of this grandkid coaster set/4. Afterthought-

Wa-La !!!

creative flow, sickness, 5 days until Christmas

The fabulous thing about life is the fact that we have CHOICES. What's not so fab is some things happen out of our control that we don't choose.. like SICKNESS. sheesh. Again, I've procrastinated in getting my holiday gifts made, and fighting the flu isn't helping the creative flow~!   But...  I did make this fab tin for my grandmother. I am loving the end result of this. In a recent issue of Legacy or Somerset mag, there were junked up; jeweled altoid tins. I can't find the mag so I can't give the fab artist credit! But when I saw her tins, I thought of my grandma and her passion for jewelry. I also thought of how still to this day when I go see her, I go through her many jewelry boxes looking for costume jewelry to use in my artwork! When I started this tin, I knew that I wanted to take that embellishment concept and collaborate it with photos somehow. The photos pretty much describe it all, but just a few facts. The female image on top of the tin is adhered to a slide holder. Inside are cut out book text and glass slides were added.Inside the tin, the photo slide holders act as mini photo books. This is mostly a collaboration of photos of her great-grandkids. Mine and my brother's kids. She's always asking for recent photos of us "grandkids", so I added them in the bottom slides. She'll have fun taking this out of her "handbag" and showing it off to her "girl"friends! haha. love it. I used red acrylics. red alcohol ink. red glitter that I added to the hot beeswax on the top of the tin. The color of choice is RED which is her favorite color.

the bottom slides are adhered into beeswax, and the slides are held together with jump rings. This is the visual when the lid is removed. The other 2 images are visuals when the slide holders are lifted.

I'm thinking this is the coolest thing I've made! So fun. She'll love it

Remember/weekend happenings

15 years ago. This is probably my most favorite Santa photo of the boys. This Santa was so realistic, and who Rich and I took the boys to see every year. I'll never forget this visit, Bobby was 5 and Eth, 5mos., when Santa asked Bobby if he'd been keeping his room picked up.? The surprised look on Bobby's face. It was so perfect because this had been an issue at the time (still is) So funny. I love the way Ethan is visually fixed on his brother. What I love the most, is the fact that he still looks at his brother that same way. Total admiration. This is a portion of a layout that I did for A Season of Giving. This layout is hanging on the door of my living room armoire. So fun to display your artwork throughout your home.

What the heck is up with typepad?!! My last 3 posts were lost for most of the weekend! So frustrating.

Snow and cold in KC! This morning I woke up to take Eth to school at 6am to catch the bus to go to his wrestling tourney, and it's SNOWING. Great. Then, we couldn't have a local tourney scheduled for today, it has to be about 30miles from our house, and It's snowing/crappy roads on the way there at 830am, and on the way home at 330p! Yes, it continuously snowed all day long! Sometimes 4WD just isn't good enough! Ice-packed roads are the worst. Long day, but a great day. Eth won another tourney. So proud of him. But seriously, it's so exhausting as a spectator to sit on those bleechers all day long! Sheesh-  Then, Bobby has carried his passion for competition and "strength" into his grown up world, and competes in arm wrestling tournaments! I know, what  the  heck?!! Well, he's GOOD. He also won another tourney tonight, placing first in the left-handed competition, and 2nd on right. He's having fun. I don't have to understand it.....   right?

Hanging out at home tonight. Fighting a cold- inspired by HER work.

So Christmas is a week away...    guess I better get to shopping next week! So out of it. I need to get over this Grinch -thing. Bring on January!           -Night.

Christmas Past

I have to be honest, I never have been a huge fanatic of Christmas. However,I love the spirit of the season. To me, Christmas is a time to be with family, a time to respect and appreciate the people that we love. Time to be together. A time to watch my boys' wrestle around together and bump into the Christmas tree, to watch my nieces totally undress their Christmas tree from the midsection down, and to sit and watch them stare into the tree lights in total awe. This photograph is my brother and myself Christmas morning, 1969. When I look at this photograph I see simplistic times. Times when I remember still to this day when our parents would take us to "town"; what we called the shopping area in the small town that we spent half of our childhood growing up in, to see Claus. Those were the days when he sat in his little wooden house on the town square and still gave the little kids candy canes. The town square was lit up with lighted Christmas wreaths on the light poles. Yep, just like you see in the movies. At that time, most people still embraced the real reason for the holidays. Tradition. Homemade gifts. When you walked down the streets, people would pass and naturally say hello and happy holidays. When I saw this photograph, for some reason it made me think of a lot of Christmas pasts'. What's important to me and for my family, the person that I know I have evolved into today, from this little 2.5yr old girl in the photo. I think that some people just get caught up in the season, and forget that these holiday elements are something that should be continued throughout the year. I think to some extent, we all are guilty of this. Call this a "moment"..    but call this real.   And hey, check it out...   the flowered pants are back in style again! somewhere.              Happy Holidays

Joyeux Tree Trimming

So here it is......      the end result to letting your kids go get the Christmas Tree by themselves -a 12ft. Frasier Fir that is almost equally wide! OUt of control. The boys love the tree, and were like little boys again -they were so happy with their purchase! They were actually a little miffed that the top didn't touch the vault, but hey- there's next year-! Every Christmas, Rich sings his traditional "OH Christmas Tree" song...  using the wrong words of course, and this year was no exception; the tree was blessed with "OH Christmas Tree, OH Christmas Tree, how lovely are thou branches- laff. What the heck?. So funny. THIS little baby worked out fab tonight! I bought the Cocoa Latte machine when we were in the middle of our snow storm last week. Ethan still loves to come inside after being out in the snow, to a cup of hot cocoa/marshmallows! Both SNOW DAYS I had at least 6 teenagers coming in/out for hot cocoa, and the cocoa machine works perfect, it has a spout, and when the cocoa starts to cool down, the machine automatically heats it back up!! FAB. and convenient. You can use cocoa packets with this, but I always use milk and choc syrup, and last night added vanilla and Starbuck's peppermint syrup. It was really good. So check it out! NO more empty cocoa packets and mix laying on the countertops!!! Bonus.

Any-who...   here's some tree trimming pixs. Oh yea- when we got the lights on the tree (800), then the tinsel, the boys decided they loved the tree as is, and it didn't need any ornaments ;-) works for me!

Coach's Thanks

These are the coach's gifts that I made to be given to them at our Football Banquet (4). The players all signed their names/#'s on a piece of white paper. I scanned the paper and printed right onto a piece of acetate/transparency. I placed the transparency over the top of the 05season photo collage that I put together and framed in a black photo frame. In my true "Steph" fashion, I couldn't leave it "as is" (it was too black/white), so I used a stencil, our school mascot, and spray painted in our school colors right on top of the glass to jazz it up! After the spray paint dried, I used a rag and scraped some of the overspray off to expose more of the collage underneath. I really need to work on this photograph glare issue/apologies ;-) -always in a rush! but, Serious dimension going on here. LOVE that

My only hope is their initial thought is WOW.  if not, they just don't get it

***AFTER banquet followup/I'm not sure what the coach's remarks were, BUT....... the players were fighting over the framed collages! And actually, that's a bigger compliment to me than the coaches! Good night! It's funny- these big boys freak over Eth's scrapjournals and everything else I do with his sport photos. 9/10 either ask me to "show their mom how to do it", or they just ask me to do it for them!!! And that, my friends, makes this whole scrapbooking thing worth it all...