doesn't every mommy artist love to make the costumes herself?

I am in middle of ruffling a gazillion yards of chiffon for petticoats that will be worn by my girls on Halloween this year.  I am sure that I will need to delegate an entire post to this particular costume making experience but tonight I just wanted to post a little about Halloween from years past. 

When Yasmeen was born nearly 11 years ago, I couldn't wait until she was old enough to have some fun with dress up and costumes.  I didn't know how to sew back then so my first attempts were OK but the real fun began when I started sewing.  Yasmeen was 7 so it wasn't that long ago.  I'll share some pics of the past 3 years and then I'm back to ruffling chiffon.

This was the year Yasmeen was 7, she was a spider by day (for school)..

and a supermodel/ ballerina  by night..

When she was 8, I upcycled a "lovely" women's jumpsuit that was given to me by my dear sister Dru (she wore it for a costume some years before) and a teen-age Pebbles she became..

she had a BamBam with her but he was not a teen at all ; )

At 9 she became a teen-age hippy (yes, she is obsessed with the wonderful teen years) ready for a wild night out with friends (and lots of candy)..

we tied died little brother and gave him some war paint too...the baby had a tie died onsie on but that was about it and there are no pics!  I'll be sure to get pics this year. 

A skirt to match the pants..

So I haven't been super busy with creative projects over the past few weeks because as I mentioned in the last post, potty training has been in session for the past 4 weeks.  During these weeks I also nursed a very bad cold, celebrated my birthday with family and friends, and got hit with a very bad stomach bug.  Somehow I did manage to eek out a skirt for my youngest daughter that would look good when worn alongside the grey pants I made for her brother (the ones I posted with felled seams).  So here it is:

So the skirt came out a bit different than I had envisioned.  I was hoping for a lighter, fluffier kind of skirt that would have more movement but instead I got a somewhat stiff full skirt.  It will have to do for now because the week ahead is all about Halloween costumes... every year I say that I will get the costumes together early.... every year, I end up working round the clock trying to get them all done 2 days before hand... maybe next year things will be different.

in the thick of potty training..

So there are just some months when the most creative thing you do is help your three year old boy to use the "big boy" potty.  Yes, I made a potty chart complete with tons of stickers to earn for sitting on the potty but it wasn't so cute so I am not posting a pic here.  I did however come up with some great reasoning for using the potty instead of his new underwear.  Thomas the train does not like to cry, nor does he like the stench of human waste... can I tell you, the boy bought it hook line and sink.  He is not having many accidents now but when he does, he is quick to tell me that we need to clean Thomas up right away!  Hopefully I will have more interesting things to post in the coming days..Halloween is around the corner and I have yet to make the costumes..wait a minute, I don't even know what the boy is going to be!

about me..doesn't everyone have a post with this title on their blog?

My name is Wendy, hence the name of my blog "haceviento" (really two words hace viento/ it's windy in Spanish).  I have three children, Yasmeen who will be 11 next month, Moses who turned 3 this past June, and Evelyn who turned 1 in August.  I have a husband and I really do like being married (bad days and all ; )  Before children I had a lot of jobs over the years but my drawing and painting has been mainstay since I was a very small child. 

Motherhood is great even with all of the insane challenges of each age group and allthough I spent the first number of years feeling as though I would never get to live out my passion for art and creating again, I have found that to be the furthest thing from the truth.  The driving force in art is your creative mind and that comes in rather handy when you are juggling work, children, a marriage, and a shoestring budget.  Somewhere knee deep into parenting it dawned on me that I should stop worrying about when I will be able to paint with oils again and start enjoying the creative process that is life.  In doing so, I have learned how to ice a cake with a little flare, sew my children's clothes, decorate the house for a party from scratch (meaning no store bought decor allowed) and so much more.  I find the victories of learning how to work with each new medium quite delightful and I plan to share many of them here...just bare with me as I figure out how to post photos, I haven't figured out how to get them laid out in any particular kind of way yet so for now they will pretty much be slapped up here where ever they land. 

I will leave you with my ever so small but sweet victory of this week, felled seams.  I have wanted to try my luck at them for months now and I finally did it!  Couldn't contain myself all day yesterday as I babbled on and on about them to everyone who would listen.  Oh, I should also mention it was a double victory as I had never made pockets before yesterday either, oh the joy of finally overcoming the fear of trying out something new and having it actually come out OK.

when surrounded by crayons..

so crayons are always being found everywhere these days.  Sometimes in the bin they belong in, often times on the floor, on the kitchen counter, in my carry all bag but hopefully not in the car as that could get pretty ugly on any given day in our climate (which is almost always hot).  So crayons, as my previous post suggested, have become quite the medium of choice for me these days.  Some time between my oldest child being born and potty training she began to color often with those lovely little pieces of color saturated wax and I found myself enjoying coloring along right next to her. 

She is almost eleven now but my younger two are just beginning their love affairs with crayons.  It's fun to lay on the playroom floor with them and see how fast I can jot down there images.  It is quite the challenge as they move about freely, incapable of holding a pose for more than five seconds.  Sometimes you love the outcome, others not so much but every time provides plenty of laughter with the kids.  My son who is 3 thinks it's hilarious to watch me try to get the image down as my youngest (all of 1 year) climbs on top of me or better yet, stands directly on the page I am drawing on.  I think the memories alone are good enough on those days.

goodbye oils, hello crayons..for now

so I will start with a hello. This blog has been up for a good while but I haven't the faintest idea of how to use it. Tonight I just decided that if I don't start typing I will never get it so here I am.

I imagine this blog will center around how I keep my artist soul fed while parenting 3 children from small to almost tall. Before they came I could paint until the light of dawn and fall asleep with out putting away all the brushes and such...that is no longer my life and while a few tears were shed as I adjusted to the new me (OK, maybe more), I have found that it is possible to be the artist you always were while parenting your small children even if you don't have a studio to paint in.