Samy and Leo Painting

My friend and taekwondo master Samery asked me if I’d recreate this photo of her with her husky, Leo in watercolor and I was more than thrilled to do it for her. Corona Arch is one of my favorite hikes in the Moab, UT area as is apparent with how many times I’ve painted it.

This photo proved to be an interesting challenge with the position of the sun and shadows. Samy and Leo are sitting in the shadow of the arch with the sun behind the arch itself, but the shadows have been brightened up considerably. I chose to scoot them forward a little so I could give them a nice cast shadow. This grounded them to the rock better than when I tried to put them in the shade on an early sketch.

Of course, then I was left with what to do with the arch itself with the sun right behind it. The arch should be much darker than it really is and the sun causing a flare on either side. Rather than figure out how to do this in watercolor, I just gave everything a rim light; the arch, Samy, and Leo.

There’s just something cool about a rim light and a cast shadow.

What do you think?

I still go back and forth on whether these were wise decisions and I have debated brightening up the sky in that space where the sun is supposed to be, but the end result is still something I’m happy with. I’ll cut a custom mat for it before giving it to Samy.

Below you can view a TikTok video of the process in time lapse. I did continue to make a few changes after I stopped filming, but it’s pretty close.

10 Signs Your Child Might be a Foodie

How many of us start out this parenting gig thinking we’re not going to “let” our kids become picky eaters? We introduce them to a variety of flavors and textures early on and make sure they are encouraged to try everything. You try expose them to foods from different ethnicities, then watch helplessly as they spiral into the threenager stage and will only eat mac n cheese, chicken nuggets, and foods that aren’t “noisy” or “squishy.” What went wrong?!?!

I think most of us can agree, even the most devout of foodies will have kids who go through picky phases. We just have to do our best to keep showing enthusiasm, rule out or work with any allergies or sensitivities to textures or flavors, and do our best to muddle through it; hoping for change as they get older.

My kids went through very picky phases. For a while my oldest wouldn’t eat beef because “it takes too long to chew.” As a toddler he LOVED broccoli, peas, and spinach and then at age four he refused to eat anything that was green.

My husband and I are both big foodies. We try to make a variety of different foods at home and now that our kids are well passed the toddler stages, we usually include them in meal planning. When we travel, what we can eat plays a big role in deciding where we go and we make a point to not eat at restaurants that we have at home. 

I’d love to think that our enthusiasm when it comes to food played a role in how un-picky our kids have become, but I know a LOT has to do with their personalities. We have plenty of foodie friends whose kids are still struggling to outgrow their pickiness.

HERE ARE THE SIGNS:

1. In their head, trying new foods is an adventure rather than a chore or something to fear. Almost ALL samples are tasted at grocery stores and Costco. Latest discovery? Pâté. Our grocery store was sampling a rosemary and duck pâté, spread on little toasts and my son literally closed his eyes and moaned with his first bite. Then he asked if we could buy some for Dad, not knowing that he already loves pâté. 

2. Ask them their favorite food and it will be something many kids (and even many adults) don’t care for or think is gross or weird. My kid? Salmon sashimi. Shoyu ahi poke (raw, marinated tuna). Deep fried chicken livers. Lengua (beef tongue) or cabeza (beef head) tacos.

3. It’s library day at school and your kid checks out cookbooks instead of books about Fortnite or soccer.

4. Their birthday is coming up and rather than ask for a party at the local trampoline park or playground, they ask for a Chopped or Iron Chef-themed party at the local grocery store that has cooking classes. 

5. “What do you want for dinner?” is followed by requests for Japanese teppanyaki, Korean BBQ, Indian curries, or Hawaiian plate lunches.

6. Trying a new recipe? During dinner your foodie kids critique the dish with an assessment worthy of Iron Chef: “The texture is wonderful, but I think it needs to be seasoned a little more.” “I love the blend of flavors, but maybe a side of rice would be better than pasta.”

7. Foodie kid opts for summer cooking classes instead of ninja warrior camp or taekwondo camp.

8. While on vacation you have to explain to your child that they cannot have salmon or tuna for six days in a row… because there’s a mercury thing. I have actually had to have this conversation with my oldest. 

9. When having dinner at a sushi restaurant, your foodie kid ditches their family to sit at the sushi bar and chat with the chef about where the tuna came from or different ways to prepare salmon.

10. Your foodie child skips the cereal or candy aisle at the grocery store and instead browses different spice blends and the meat counter to see what’s on sale. 

I’m so, so grateful we’ve left the picky phase with my kids. Every day I count myself lucky that there are almost no foods that my kids won’t at least taste. They’re still working on foods that are even remotely spicy and raw veggies and salads are still a no-go, but we’re getting there.

Laura's Holiday Card - 2021

Laura never disappoints with unique and creative ideas for her family’s holiday card. Every year she jokes about doing a “normal” card and freaking out their friends and family thinking there’s some kind of hidden Easter egg of kookiness. Nope!!

This year Laura had fun with Photoshop and some fun, fake book cover ideas. I helped out with some Photoshop too; especially getting her son’s head and their pug, Mr Bean into the Last Action Hero poster and coming up with the book type. I also threw together the plaid background and the actual books that each cover is part of. This was SO much fun to work on!!

A little zoomed-in action. Thanks for this EPIC holiday card concept, Laura!!

Black Belt Graduation

My oldest son and I both earned our Kukkiwon 1st Dan black belts in taekwondo back in October of last year. You can read about my taekwondo journey and me feelings regarding the test here and here’s a rundown of the test itself and my thoughts afterward (spoiler alert: it was really fucking hard).

What does that have to do with art or graphic design? Nothing. But this is my blog and it was pretty cathartic for me to write out my thoughts, so there we go.

We were finally able to have our graduation ceremony a couple months ago in March. Apparently it took a long time for the official certificates to get here from Korea.

Friends and family were invited to attend. Our master instructors were there along with a few studio instructors who were integral to our training. This was seriously a team effort!

The beginning of the graduation involved a trail run up a pretty steep hill where we were all presented with our black belts. I was the LAST one up the damned hill because I didn’t see which direction the group went and I went the wrong way. Also, it was ridiculously muddy, I almost fell multiple times.

We took lots of photos at the top of the hill and then headed back to our studio.

This photo is me with my husband. Anyone who has parented a child through the physical and mental preparation that goes into a martial arts black belt test would agree that there should be a black belt for parents. We have watched quite a few parents go through it and we wholeheartedly agree that they've earned their own kind of black belt.

Compound that with supporting your spouse going through the same-but-different preparation too and you have the level of awesomeness that my husband achieved. It took me a long time to put these feelings into words; which is apparent since our black belt test was months ago.

Part of me didn't want to test alongside my son because I worried that I would focus too much on his training at the expense of my own. My husband was the rock that supported our preparation and it took on multiple forms... Pushing our son when he wanted to quit or refused to listen to me anymore (which was a lot). Commiserating with me and offering ice/heat/massage/ibuprofen when I was in pain. Humoring me when I questioned why the hell I was doing this. Cooking dinner pretty much every night, including the 4-5 nights/week for 2-3 hours we were at the studio. Encouraging me to go to class when I didn't want to, but in a way that wasn't a guilt-trip. Coordinating with other parents to make sure we had support during our black belt test. Making sure uniforms were clean, sparring gear was accounted for, and belts and weapons were always in the car.

I don't know if I would have passed if I hadn't been able to put parenting (and sometimes adulting) on the back burner many nights and I feel like my husband earned this belt almost as much as me.

Wholeheartedly, thank you babe.

Back to the graduation…

We headed back to our studio and changed into uniforms. Our master instructor said a few words about what being a black belt means and how hard we worked for them. Then we all got our belts, one by one.

Actually, there IS a tiny bit of graphic design in this post because I do most of the graphic design for our studio. Here is the printed program I created for our graduation. These were 8.5x11 inches, folded in half, and printed on card stock at our local Office Depot. I kept the color scheme simple with black, gray, and red.

The back cover had a bunch of messages that I asked parents to write to their kids and there is one message from my husband to Rachel and me (the two non-kids). I felt it was a bit too personal to share publicly, but it looked beautiful too.

Lastly, here’s a video one of our master instructors made about our test. She’s pretty darned good at it.

So, that’s it.

But you know the crazy part? I’m thinking about testing for my 2nd degree black belt in October of this year…

Mourning the Age Gap

*I wrote this post in the summer of 2013 when I was in the thick of trying to get pregnant with my youngest son and we were approaching the 2-year mark. I was processing my feelings and writing them for a parenting blog I ran at the time. Since that blog no longer exists, I wanted to save many posts I’d written because writing them back then served as great therapy for me. This is one of them.

A couple of months after my son turned two, I was ready to get back on the baby-making train. We got pregnant with TJ very easily, so I had faith that it would happen for us again within a few months. Little did I know that the universe had other plans for us.

I’m the oldest of four kids, all born about two years apart. Sure, we had our fights when we were young; sharing bedrooms will do that to any siblings. But we were all pretty close and I think we had a pretty rad childhood.

Cut to now, we’re all in our late 20s and 30s and living pretty far apart from each other, yet we are emotionally closer than we have ever been. We constantly support each other the best we can, given our distance.

Even before my son was born, I wanted my kids to be around the same age gap as I am to my siblings. The quantity of children was undecided but I knew I wanted them to be two to three years apart. I felt that the closeness I share with my siblings was due in part to our closeness in age.

Do siblings who are further apart in age still have fantastic relationships? Sure! I just use my own childhood as reference.

We’ve been trying for almost two years to conceive a sibling for TJ. The age gap that I thought I wanted, that I thought was perfect, is now gone. If I were to get pregnant right now, my kids would be more than four years apart. And I have no idea how much bigger that gap is going to get…. whether we conceive a child of our own or look to adoption.

More than 4 years apart and they likely won’t be in high school at the same time, looking out for each other like I did with my brother. They may not like the same generation of kids’ toys and music. Heck, I don’t even know if I will be able to use the same car seats before they expire.

A few months ago, I literally had to mourn the childhood I thought my son was going to have with any siblings… hoping it would be just like mine. I know it’s a silly notion, but the pain I felt was real.

It’s embarrassing to admit, but I was really down about it for a while. One could argue that I have no right to feel so down about my “unexplained infertility” since I have been able to have one amazing little boy when so many women are still struggling to have their first child.

To some extent, that’s true. I feel incredibly blessed to have my son.

But you know what? I’m not done yet. My family isn’t done yet. I know it’s selfish, but I want to experience pregnancy again (even the crappy parts). I want to experience childbirth again. I even want to go through the newborn phase again, no matter how much I will think back to this very moment and say, “what was I thinking?”

As time heals everything, the pain of not having my children when I wanted has lessened. As TJ grows more independent and communicates more effectively, I am seeing more and more how he is going to make an amazing big brother some day. I hope he will be able to cope with the big change that comes when a new baby joins a family; a change that probably would have been much harder on him when he was just two or even three.

Does my heart ache when TJ asks me for a baby brother or baby sister? Hell yes. I still fight back tears when he tells me, “Mommy, try harder.”

But I feel more and more at ease with the fact that the universe will choose the right time, not me.