children

A Taste of Art for the Holidays

| davinabehinjones

I had my first “in person” art show at the Half Moon Bay Library on December 7th and 8th with the Colony of Coastside Artists. It was a blast! I had never met and spoken to so many people about my artwork – and they were all so supportive and kind! My husband, Nick, acted as my spokesperson when my shyness threatened to send me inside my shell and I was honored to make connections with so many fascinating people. I even got to hear an octopus story!

The library is gorgeous. The natural light from all the windows showed off our art beautifully. And the librarians were hospitable heroes! They made the entire event seamless and fun.

The first day was rainy.

I made cranberry and pecan pinwheel cookies! And chocolate chip cookies too, though they’re not as photogenic.

A heartfelt THANK YOU to all the visitors who came, all the artists who participated, and all the library staff who helped pull off a wonderful show!

Lula at the Park

| davinabehinjones

My beautiful niece turned one in June!

LulaPark_web

To celebrate her coming into our lives, I made a Crayola crayon portrait of this beautiful soul. She has the sweetest hugs! She has given us more love, more joy, and more DANCING than we know what to do with!

Keep dancing, you sparkling star!

 

If you’d like a look into how I made this fine art portrait using crayons, take a look at my patreon page:

Familiar Oddlings on Patreon

Happy Ayyam-i-Ha!

| davinabehinjones

Today is the first day of the Bahá’í holidays of Ayyám-i-Há! It runs from February 25th until March first.

Literally in Arabic, “Days of Há” (“Há” being a letter with the numerical value of five), are intercalary days — meaning days that fall outside the Bahá’í calendar year of 19 months, each of 19 days. They’re a special time for hospitality, feasting, charity, gift giving and spiritual preparation for the month of fasting to follow.

We have a lot of fun things planned over these four days, including cookie baking, puzzles, and a trail clean-up with my three-year-old nephew.

Help us kick off the festivities by downloading and coloring this page I drew for the Ayyám-i-Há party!

AyyamParty_web

To print a copy, click this link and download the pdf file: Ayyam-i-Ha Party coloring page_print

Please post your colored pages and let us all see!

Kaleb Sleeping Portrait

Image | | davinabehinjones

I drew a crayon portrait of my twin sister’s oldest child, Kaleb, for Christmas. This spirited little one is such a fantastic bundle of energy, it’s these rare quiet moments that catch me by surprise and squeeze my heart even tighter. I adore this guy.

He turned three on December 30th.

Kaleb Asleep in Crayola crayons on illustration artboard

Paul and Andrew Portraits

Image | | davinabehinjones

For Christmas this year, I made crayon portraits of my two nephews on my husband’s side of the family. These adorable little guys are the sparkle in the family! Paul is three years old and Andrew will be two in February.

Portrait of Andrew, Crayola crayons on illustration artboard
Portrait of Paul, Crayola crayons on illustration artboard

 

I’m so happy to have them in my life. And on December 26th we welcomed a brand new little nephew into the family! I’m looking forward to drawing another portrait for baby Tyler.

Belly Painting

| davinabehinjones

My twin sister is expecting her second child and to celebrate her pregnancy, I painted her gorgeous belly. I used the Proud Body Pregnancy Belly Painting Kit. She wanted a floral design and after looking through Pinterest together, we came up with this painting:

Painting the belly
Right side
Painting the next day
Left side
Older Brother cuddles close

 

Working on an art project with my twin is a great feeling; working on art project ON my twin was tremendous fun! The little one inside kept moving, responding to my brush strokes. I have never done any body painting before and it was a challenge to work quickly enough that it wasn’t uncomfortable for all involved. Older Brother, only two years old, simply could not wait until it was done for cuddles.