Rite of Spring

A German Easter egg tree

lovely collection of rare vintage european cards www.sharonfostervintage.etsy.com

Miladyproductions.com

Easter makes me want to have a baby.

xo milady

Happy Easter

arabbitgirl.

amberalexander

sweetandlight

daphnedellophane

.zeng.etsy.

Have a wonderful Easter, cheers to new life, growth and renewal.

xo milady

Into the Blue

We picked up our piglets yesterday. Drove miles out across what seemed like the dried up bottom of a lake with mobile homes stranded on cinder blocks. Dirt, dust, more dust and then the pigs. I am still struggling with this whole deal, the committment to 4-H, the inevitable exit of my new farm friends...the dusty, nasty image of pig farming etcetera, etcetera.

Now that the 3 little pigs are here I am feeling a little better. You can't deny that they are CUTE and I guess its a good thing that they don't really like me. I am slowly learning how to let go of kissing everything and be a real farm girl who by the way is not a vegetarian - yet. Im getting so hard and rough that i've decided to raise a few turkeys and chickens too. Stay tuned , i may have ALOT of pets come fall.

UPDATE - they are starting to like me. uh oh.

xo milady

Spring cuteness

I've been working on a post about my blog travels to Italy & Sicily the past week and am having such troubles getting it to look right that i've given up. Instead, i'm sharing a little fun something i bought the other day...for $1.99 ... a Golden Book illustrated by Richard Scarry that i've never seen before. (impossible!) It is so cute it make me chuckle inside which is good cos its snowing again and im soooooooooooooooo ready for spring. My son helped me select the pages.

Chuckle chuckle!

xo milady

A little trip to the North

calder's circus
camilla engman

Elisabeth Dunker

Elisabeth Dunker

Camilla Engman

Elisabeth Dunker

Elisabeth Dunker

I went on a little cyber trip to Sweden this morning and found such delightful things. revisited Red House , Camilla Engman and my newest favorite, Fine Little Day about Elisabeth Dunken's family adventures when she's not designing and photographing (for work that is). Felt like i had lunch with lovely old people and wore my best clickity heels and fashionable hosiery. And wouldn't you know? Elisabeth and Camilla are collaborators and friends :) and are working on a circus themed creation just like me and my 4th graders at Ridgway Elementary! Studio Violet is their shared shop where their circus acts will soon be for sale. I can't wait to photograph my little friends' amazing creations when we install next month. My favorite? Probably Big Mama the red elephant and the motorcycle made out of a spark plug and bits of this and that. This is my third year doing Calder's Circus with a bunch of kids. I come into school with a big box of crap, give them a little talk about making something out of nothing that expresses your vision and then open the gates.... raw art.

Makin' art outa junk, surreptitiously travelling through cyber space and watching free movies on you tube...tis a sign of the times indeed.

Enjoy your life - its free.

xo milady

Daily Bread

Sunday blessings
xo milady

Busy Kitchen

"i want the grass to by flying by mom" says morgan as he sketched

Roscoe sketching the Hungry Fox

Birdy-Cow by Morgan

Horse Chase by Morgan Tate Rogers

The Hungry Fox by Roscoe Stone Rogers

Portrait of Lucky by Stephanie Morgan Rogers

The last few weeks have been crazy in my kitchen. I gave up trying to compartmentalize different activities in different rooms and invited it all into my main digs...the kitch. Accounting for 3 businesses took up one long table top while the table we're supposed to eat on was getting a new Jackson Pollack makeover from the little brothers as they created their masterpieces. The cat joined in by laying on and proceeding to eat important documents, while the dog stepped in blobs of paint and tracked it all over my stone floors. But Dad Gummit....look what we achieved!

I'm so proud of my little boy's BIG art. They really got into it...stood back and pondered, added a bit of this and a dab of that...until the magical moment of i'm-doneness made itself known.

I can't wait to take the show down and find homes for these on my walls...they are so awesome, some of the best folk art i've seen in a while. hmmmm(evil paw rubbing) maybe an etsy shop is in order? college funds? ok...maybe just a trip to the movies!

xo milady

Big Dreamer

nathan gibbs flickr

I live in a traditional red state cowboys and all that...thank goodness our librarian is so with it!

Frustrated Artist Mom

In the last few days i've been on a few fieldtrips to bloglandia, commenting, oggling, searching and communing. Here are snapshots from one of my avorite getaways...the amazing D Sharpe's most excellent blog I am honored,truly.
Next a long schpeel about the setbacks and remedies for art blocks on Pikaland's coming VOICE IT OUT column. Here's what bubbled out of my head:
This is a GREAT addition to the wonderful world of Pikaland!

Q: What is your biggest stumbling block to creativity (or expressing yourself artistically), and what works for you in overcoming these setback(s)?

A: Well, now, where do i start?!
One of my main blocks is time management. i have alot of beings that depend on me from the second i wake up til the moment i lay my head down to sleep. I remember feeling like I had to choose an art life over a family life. I'm not naturally a super organized person but more of a dreaming fly by the seat of my pants type who does her best art in this mode however, as a big grown up with big grown up things to attend to, i feel like my day is swallowed by "duties" which requires tremendous energy and focus often leaving no time for selfless (or rather super selfish!) absorption into my "real work" which is always calling me. Now that my babies aren't cooing in the backround but rather needing rides across the state to go to sports events , i feel i never have the TIME to produce quality artwork. I doodle a bit here and there and hope for more time.
What to do? I am learning, as my family and their needs grow, that it imperative that i carve time for myself everyday to do something artistic. As i get closer to a show i naturally take the time i need because of the impending deadline but the family rythmn does suffer...everyone puts up with it and is glad when it is OVER..esp in the meal dept.
My blog is a way to committ to a snippet of artistic indulgence on a daily basis. I may not post an entry everyday but i do go there and check out my ever growing list of Esty loves and sites.Go on a little field trip to Pikaland :) Here's another time management issue...i can't stop!!! Following one link to another, excited by the visual sense of familiarity and adventure...is what keeps me going. Hence the COMMUNITY of artists all over the planet gives me the incentive to keep trying everyday to squeeze in my art.
In the grand scheme of things, I am simply taking a sabbatical, my children need me and i signed up for them, pledged my time the day they arrived. Once a wise lady told me..."your art will always be there, your children will be young for just a short time. You decide."
So, I suck at juggling all the bills and hopelessly unartistic and boring duties but make really awesome birthday cakes and host insane birthday parties, i volunteer in the school and bring in boxes of junk and get the kids to sculpt high wire acts out of corks and wire and tell them about Calder's Circus, point out the ever amazing shapes and shadows of the clouds and mountains, light and birds, patterns of hay and the way snow crystallizes on every tiny bare branch in the dead of winter.
So, as i transition into a more organized person who can guiltlessly report to her studio (her husband made for her) and be a "real" artist, I will keep flying by the seat of my pants and in the grand scheme of things, add YOGA to my routine, calm down, do the bills quickly so i can get back to LIVING, exploring, evolving and know that i am always doing my art even if it doesn't end up on canvas.

xoxoMilady

Stephanie Morgan Rogers
miladyproductions.etsy.com
miladyproducitons.com
miladyproductions.blogspot.com

February is Short

Hello friends,
what a naughty blogger i've been, letting such a long time lapse. life is full to the brim with daily to-do's , so much so that i haven't been able to sit down and get my projects completed. excuses, excuses. hmphhh.
Valentine postcards to look at for now: at my
Esty shop!

xo milady