are you kidding me?...3 more months?!

at the end of february, my only thought was, "are you kidding me?!  three more months to go before meeting baby #2?!"  i'm not counting the month of june at all since baby's due date is june 2, so at that point in time, i still had all of march, april, and may to look at.  has anyone else felt like they've been pregnant forever with their second pregnancy?  then i thought--ok, i have got to finish  art project #1, start and finish art project #2 (because we all know projects will be put on hold for another 4-6 months once baby comes), and finish pace's baby book (because shouldn't baby #1's baby book be finished before baby #2 comes?!).  Three projects for three months.  i can do that.  and voila--here we are with only 8 weeks to go!  

art project #1:  16x20 mixed medium (acrylic and oil):  my brother's sister-in-law asked for a tree with a bird cage and bird flying out.  i used a photo of a tree i'd taken years and years ago, made b+w copies and turned them into acrylic lifts.  i cobbled the lifts together to make a single tree.  cage and bird are also lifts.  i put shredded pieces of dictionary pages under the tree because i thought it'd make it look "barky". 

art project #2: 30x40 oils, van gogh rip-off.  my brother requested a reproduction of van gogh's irises.  when he asked, my first thought was, "is that legal?!'  but i guess i will be signing my name, not his...so, here are a few shots of the work in progress.  my deadline is to get in done by april so it'll have enough time to dry and mail out to them, and i can use may to finish pace's baby book.  i'm happy with it so far--i like the brilliance of colors.  it seems like a happy canvas to me.  pace has been great walking around the new addition in our library/computer room.  he knows mama is painting "bowers" (his word for flowers), and knows not to touch it, and happily walks around the easel to get to the window or his toys and books.  

so...cheers to 8 more weeks!