Kula Cloth Design Contest

I’ve been a fan of Kula Cloth since I discovered them over a year ago. They make reusable, washable, antimicrobial pee cloths for when nature calls and we’re out on a trail, camping, or on a run with no restroom around. There becomes no need to pack wipes or toilet paper and it’s better for Mother Earth to have less in landfills. They easily clip onto backpacks or fanny packs, they dry quickly, and the best part: they come in beautiful prints; many with artwork created by fellow women artists.

CLICK HERE to vote for my artwork!

Image by Zion Adventure Photog - Arika Bauer

Kula Cloth launched a design contest this week to have a new design printed and asked artists to submit designs. I submitted this watercolor painting I made from Red Cliffs National Conservation Area in southwestern Utah. It’s one of my most favorite places on the planet and home to the endangered desert tortoise, loads of unique wildlife, petroglyphs, and some truly amazing landscapes. Because it’s BLM land, it’s at risk of being developed as the surrounding cities need to accommodate growing communities. There was a proposal to build a highway through part of Red Cliffs and I don’t know if that plan is still happening or if conservationists are still fighting it.

Click on this image to get to the voting page.

Here are a couple gorgeous photos from the Red Cliffs area by Michelle Craig:

Image by Michelle Craig Photography

Image by Michelle Craig Photography

Here are a couple photos I took last year from Red Cliffs:

It’s a stunning part of Utah and worthy of protection from development!

In case you missed the link above, here it is again: CLICK HERE to vote for my artwork! Feel free to share the contest link on social media and vote for your favorites. Voting goes through May 7, 2020 at midnight. Thank you to everyone who’s voted!

Valentine's Day 2020

We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day. Both my husband and I think it’s a very commercial holiday; we didn’t even celebrate when we were dating. The fact that the anniversary of our first date is January 31st (22 years!) was enough for us to just skip Valentine’s Day all together.

Since my kids started school, we’ve done a smidge more, but still not THAT much. I do step up to reasonably-above-average in the parenting department and make custom valentines for their class parties. Every year I expect them to ask for boxed sets from the store and they continue to surprise me with wanting something fun and custom.

Last year I vowed to not send candy to school. This year I vowed to not send food at all. We scoured Pinterest for ideas and saw fun sayings to go with toy airplanes. A thorough Amazon search for inexpensive airplane gliders at different sizes, price points, and availability to get here within a few days (because you KNOW we didn’t start these until a few days before Valentine’s Day) and we found these great gliders! They came in clear poly bags (which I really liked) and had a bunch of different color combinations.

I took the same cartoon faces I made of my boys from last year and turned them into pilots and I LOVE how they turned out.

I don’t think I will be able to get away with these same cartoons next year. I’ll have to make new ones.

The card stock was printed with two per 8.5x11 page and then I trimmed them with a paper cutter and folded them in half. Two staples attached them to the clear poly bags.

We found a bunch of different sayings for these, and these three were the winners. I wanted to use “you’re so fly” but my kids had NO idea what that meant. I think I showed my age.

Price Breakdown:

Airplanes: Amazon, $16.99 for 36. I ordered two boxes total for my kids’ classes, so $36.44 including sales tax.
Printing: Office Depot, color printing onto #65 card stock, $17 including sales tax
Paper Cutter: already had one
Stapler & staples: already had those

Total: $53.44 which was just about $.74 cents per valentine. And since there are 26 kids in each of my kids’ classes, we had a few extras that we gave to teachers, neighbors, and a few non-school friends. This was definitely more than I wanted to spend, but my kids LOVE how they turned out and so do I. I may have to add these to my Etsy shop for next year!

My Favorite Books

I’m an avid reader. There’s nothing I love more than getting sucked into an amazing story. If there happens to be multiple books in a series; all the better. As a kid I loved reading what most girls read in the late 1980s: The Babysitter’s Club and Sweet Valley High. I loved Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books and the Little House books from Laura Ingalls Wilder (I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every episode of Little House on the Prairie on TV).

When my mom realized I could finish a Babysitter’s Club book in a few hours, she lent me her copy of All Around the Town by Mary Higgins Clark. It’s been more than 20 years since I read it and I can still remember the storyline. The next book of hers I read was A Cry in the Night and I was seriously hooked on her books. I probably read more than a dozen Mary Higgins Clark novels before I finished seventh grade. All throughout my teens and twenties, I read novels from Patricia Cornwell, Michael Crichton, Sue Grafton, Michael Connelly, and more that I’m not remembering right now. I remember cutting class in community college to camp out in the library when I was nearing the end of a really great novel; Patricia Cornwell was the reason for many of those days.

This week I learned that beloved author Mary Higgins Clark passed away at the age of 92. She was the author whose words hooked me into so many fascinating stories and I believe she was the one who cemented my love for reading.

I wanted to share some of my favorite books. These are the books or series that I can go back and reread over and over when I don’t have something new to read. For a very long time, I wasn’t ever able to reread a novel. So to make a list of books that I have loved enough to re-love, that’s really saying something.

All of the links in this post are affiliate links. Purchasing anything through these links helps keep my website running and me fully stocked in watercolor paint. It’s very much appreciated.

SERIES:

The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon - These will suck you in and you won’t be able to tell what day it is. It’s historical fiction mixed with romance, drama, mystery, and a smidge of science-fiction thrown in. I know some folks dislike the length, each novel is over 1000 pages, complaining that the author spends too much time with the day-to-day stuff that the main characters go through. That’s the stuff I really love; the stuff that makes me understand what 18th century living was really like, and how it could be for someone who’s lived in the 20th century. There are currently eight novels, and number nine is supposedly due out some time in 2020. Oh and there’s a show. It’s kind of amazing.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher - I was never a huge fan of fantasy books. Hard-to-pronounce names to keep track of often lost me as a reader. A long-time friend told me I’d like the Dresden Files. “They’re not your typical fantasy books” she told me. I picked up the first four and was hooked by about the middle of book two. Wizard Harry Dresden is such a grounded and relatable character in a very believable world that is both real life and fantasy. Fantasy characters from different religions, mythologies, and more all play a part. There are sixteen books in the series (!!). Book number twelve ended in such a dramatic fashion, I’ve read a few fans wonder if the author is running out of stories for our wary wizard. Gawd, I hope not!

The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness - These are awesome stories about witches, vampires, daemons, history, science, genealogy, love, action, and holy crap just go read them. You won’t be sorry. The author takes these fantasy characters and weaves a tale that makes it all sound completely plausible in our world and makes me really look at people and wonder if they’re hiding the fact that they’re really a witch or a daemon. BBC is making these into a TV show, the first season can be viewed now. It’s incredibly short, cramming a wonderful novel into just eight episodes, but they really did an amazing job.

The Anne Trilogy by Posie Graeme-Evans - The Innocent, the first book in this trilogy, was one of the first historical fiction books I ever read. It’s a wonderful story that takes place during the War of the Roses in 15th century England. The second book takes place in Brugge, Belgium and is described so beautifully. The author manages to talk politics in short enough spurts to not lose my interest and the main heroine is such a wonderful and relatable woman.

STAND-ALONE NOVELS:

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - This was the first novel I read that delved into Biblical fiction. It tells the life of Dinah; the only daughter of Jacob from the book of Genesis. In the Bible she’s barely mentioned, but this fictional tale starts with the lives of her mother Leah and sisters. I read it before I became a mom and I loved it so much that I hoped to have a daughter and name her Dinah. That never happened (I ended up with boys!), but I have reread this novel many times since becoming a mom and the book took on a whole other dimension of wonderful and heartbreaking.

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman - After reading The Red Tent, The Dovekeepers was a novel that Amazon suggested I might like. Yup, I did. An amazing story about four very different women from very different backgrounds who find themselves all living on Masada; a fortified city high atop a plateau in Israel and inhabited by Jewish people who were expelled from Jerusalem in the first century CE. The Jewish people were hiding there when Roman soldiers began to invade. Because Masada is on top of a mesa, it took months for the Romans to build a ramp. By the time they got there, 960 Jews had committed mass suicide. Two women and five children were found alive.

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant - A wonderful historical fiction (I was on a big kick in my early 30s) that I have fallen in love with after rereading when I became a mother. Alessandra (my name in Italian) is such a beautiful character living in a turbulent and exuberant time in Renaissance Florence, Italy. It goes on about how the Medici family were big patrons of art and the rise in popularity of the friar Savonarola and the eventual Bonfire of the Vanities. It’s ultimately a story of how a headstrong woman would have fared in that tumultuous time.

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins - One of my oldest friends loaned me a copy of this book one day when we were in our mid-20s. She didn’t preface it with anything other than, “it’s kind of wacky, but you’ll like it.” Yes it was, and yes I did! The author weaves a seemingly disjointed series of tales that include a Dark Ages king who decides he doesn’t want to die, an Indian woman whom he falls in love with, pagan gods, a Paris perfumer, and beets. Toward the end the stories come together in a very satisfying way and asks lots of great questions about religion and immortality.

The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry - My mom says I was named after the last Czarina of Russia; Alexandra. The story of her family has always fascinated me along with the mysteries of whether any of her children survived their execution. Steve Berry took what is known about their story and wove it into a wonderful work of fiction. At the end of the novel, he sites all of the sources for the truths in his story too. That weaving of history, theories, and fiction has made me a persistent fan of his books. But The Romanov Prophecy was the first one I ever read, and the one I can reread over and over.

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone - Probably the only biography I have read that wasn’t assigned reading for school. I have always been a fan of Michelangelo; even when I was a teenager. One day my mom was watching a Charlton Heston film by the same title and I was intrigued. I stumbled upon the biography one day when killing time at the library in between college classes. I happened to be taking an art history class that semester and checked the book out. It so beautifully explains the struggles that most artists go through, the dilemmas of creating art for oneself versus patrons and paying clients. While Michelangelo is known for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, did you know he didn’t want to do it? And he didn’t think he was a very good painter? He was a sculptor! Go read the book. Even if you aren’t an artist, if you have any appreciation for his art, you’ll enjoy the book.

What would you list as your favorite novels? Ones you can go back and reread when you want?

Traveling Gingerbread Man

My friend Jen has a kindergartener and his teacher was working on a project with the class; teaching them a bit about geography. The teacher sent out a paper to parents asking them to ask friends and family who don’t live in their town to send messages claiming they sighted the Gingerbread Man in their city or sometime during their travels. If they could include a photo, then fantastic. She even went on to say that email messages are fine, and even fictional messages are okay so long as they help the kids learn about different places on the map. They were mapping each sighting on a big map in the classroom.

I kicked it up a notch and had WAY too much fun in Photoshop. Here are the messages I sent:

“Hi Mrs. B's Class!

We are the Wong Family: Alex, Bill, Tommy and Matthew. We're friends of Jaxon's. We were exploring Arches National Park in Moab, Utah earlier this year and you wouldn't believe who we ran into: The Gingerbread Man! He must have been on vacation, exploring the desert. He was so nice by sharing some gumdrops with us and we shared granola bars with him on the trail. He totally photobombed us too! What a stinker!
Love, Tommy and Matthew Wong (ages 10 and 5)”

“Hi Mrs. B's Class,

It's Tommy and Matthew again, say hi to Jaxon for us, we miss him! We were on a road trip with our parents and we stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats in western Utah to see if we could watch some race cars break land speed records. Lo and behold, we saw The Gingerbread Man too! He was scoping out some rocket cars and enjoying the weather. Thankfully it wasn't too hot, but wow, it gets bright when the sun reflects off of the salt! Sunglasses are a must! Wonder where he was headed next?

Best, Tommy and Matthew Wong”

“Hello, Mrs. B's Class,

Tommy and Matthew saying hi and sharing yet another Gingerbread Man sighting. He must have had the same road trip plans as us this year. We ran into him in the north shore of Lake Tahoe, California and he joined us for a swim in the crystal-clear water. We bid farewell when we got wrinkly fingers and advised him to do the same. Since he's made of gingerbread, we didn't want him to get soggy!

I hope he had a great time on the rest of his road trip!
Adios, Tommy and Matthew”

“Hello Mrs B's Class,

It's the Wong Family again, Tommy and Matthew. We were hiking with some friends in Big Cottonwood Canyon in the snowy Wasatch Mountains of Utah this week and we ran into our old friend, The Gingerbread Man. He said he was hoping to get in some skiing before another snow storm came through, and we hope he found some slopes, because it's supposed to snow again tonight!

We hope you're staying warm this winter.
Cheers, Tommy and Matthew Wong”

A big part of me hopes my youngest son’s kindergarten class does a similar activity… so I could make more photos. Hahaha!

Alex's First Day of Freedom

It’s September 2nd and summer has flown by in a flash. This year I tried my best to pack our summer with as much fun and adventure as possible while squeezing some contract work in the crevices between travel, camping, hiking, biking, swimming, and sleeping in. We spent a week with family in California. We camped and hiked with friends. We went on bike rides (which are way more fun now that I actually have a bike!). We had a real, week-long vacation in Lake Tahoe (the first in many years). We spent lazy Sundays fishing in high mountain lakes with Daddy. We had shave ice dates, frozen custard dates, gelato dates, and lots of swimming play dates.

Now school is back in session and my youngest and last baby started kindergarten! Since I make a sign for both of my kids every year, I figured that after eight years of being a WAHM (work-at-home-mom) I deserved one for myself. In case you can’t zoom in, it discusses how I would like to be on vacation when I grow up. My favorite foods are anything I don’t have to share and hard lemonade. My hobbies include quiet time, hiking, reading, cooking alone, and anything without an audience. My teachers are Netflix and Amazon and I’m 40 years young. I thought it was fitting to take the photo from my hammock overlooking a beautiful alpine lake… which is where we spent the whole Sunday before the first day of school.

Next summer I’ll add this sign to my Etsy shop so fellow parents can have a sign of their own.

All summer my youngest has had nothing but positive things to say about how awesome kindergarten would be and I’m so happy that his first full week lived up to the hype. Every day he came home tired, but ready for another day of fun.

My kindergartener is kind and smart and quick to laugh off scrapes of bumps that might slow him down, but fully admits that a BandAid will take the pain away. He loves Crocs, Lego, Paw Patrol and anything his big brother is into. He often narrates whatever he’s doing or playing with and when asked who he’s talking to, he’ll tell you he’s narrating a YouTube video for his subscribers. He loves taekwondo and his flexibility allows him to kick higher than his own head , much to his brother’s chagrin.

My oldest started fourth grade and is really excited for what this year will have to offer. He is so smart and wants to know EVERYTHING and show everyone that he knows EVERYTHING. We joke that he’ll be a Jeopardy! champion some day. He continues to train in taekwondo every week and is currently one belt below a black belt. He will be eligible to test for his black belt next year. He loves history and we watch YouTube videos about random history together and discuss the historic places we can visit. He also loves to play soccer and run cross country. He adores fishing and camping and has rather suddenly fallen in love with exotic cars. He is also becoming a foodie and loves to cook and try new foods.

Since my printer is down at the moment, I had all of our signs printed on card stock at my local Office Depot (it was less than $2 total). They did an amazing job and in photos they almost look like real chalkboards. These signs are available in my Etsy shop in the summer and ready to be customized for your kids.

Happy first day!!