Jennifer Love Artwork BLOG

Roses, Peonies, Iris Summer is here! We had a wet, wet, wet spring (an unusual amount of rain for Utah). But, thanks to all that water, I have some beautiful flowers in my yard. This year has also been my personal project push to finish the KonMari tidying and decluttering method to my home. I started KonMari in 2015 (long before the Netflix special)...but, I paused in the middle due to life commitments. (I accepted the nomination to V.P of the Utah Watercolor Society 2016-2017, then President 2017-2018, then Past President 2018-2019).  With the 2019 UWS year closing out at the end of May, I decided I would push through to finish the tidying event in my home that had been on hiatus since 2016. I know, I know...that's not what the book says to do. "Tidy all at once, quickly, in one go." But, life happens! So January 2019 came, and I said to my husband "We're going to get this done!" and we jumped back in to the Komono (miscellaneous) ca...

I know it's cliche, but it's so true. Time just gets away from you! My kids are growing right before my eyes...time marches on! Some goals are accomplished, and some are left unfinished - to accomplish another day! I am still in the middle of my #KonMari tidy event. Even though I haven't followed her direction to do it "all at once"...I also don't feel that I quit in the middle. I just had to take a hiatus. Two years of commitment to the Utah Watercolor Society, first as the Vice President, and then the President. My "free time" was non-existent. Now, I am Past President and Communications/Webmaster. But, the demand on my time is significantly less. Last fall, I remodeled my master bedroom, including new paint, pulling up carpet, screwing down squeaky floor boards, and laying carpet tiles. (and yes...I did all the labor). We have an older home, rambler style, built in 1967. It needs a lot of fixing up, and we are slowly trying to work our way thr...

The following is a blog post I recently published on my LinkedIn site - with a few minor changes and updates. I have been moving through life in the past few years in a constant state of stress. I’m sure many of you relate. Not that there aren’t moments of joy, but the demands of my professional career and my personal roles as mother and wife are often hard to balance, let alone try to find a few minutes of serenity and quiet for myself. My brain is constantly buzzing with “to-do” lists: things I need to take care of when I get to the office, things I need to remember to do on my way home from work, things I need to do when I get home from work…and how to cram it all in two the 2-3 hours I have in the evening for preparing dinner for my family, packing school lunches for the next morning, getting my children into PJs with teeth brushed, and (most importantly) story time and snuggles for bedtime. And, let’s be honest, even though I have a huge laundry list of items (and act...