A Mom’s Superpower to Combat Busy Life

You ever have times in your life where there is just so much going on, you don’t feel like you can catch your breath? Life has been busy for us these months; pretty much from April-on. It’s the kind of busy where I’ve done plenty of Instagram-worthy things, but haven’t managed the time to post about them. And then when I do have a minute to breathe, I don’t want to do anything at all.

A few years back, when I ran a parenting blog, we asked all of our writers/moms if they could have any superpower, what would it be?

One mom’s answer really stuck with me and I still think of it from time to time… mostly times like right now.

She wished she had a superpower where her body did not need sleep. Between working full-time, caring for her family, and all of the day-to-day things that consumed her available time, she realized that if she didn’t need sleep, there were so many hobbies and interests she could pursue.

In a nutshell, she never really had time for herself, and she felt this most profoundly when her children were young. Her kids are older now, and I hope she has been able to find more time to devote to her own interests.

Times when I feel overwhelmed, like there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to do All. The. Things., I think of this mom and her desired superpower and I wonder just how much I could get done if I didn’t also have to sleep.

Me with a couple of fellow kick-ass moms. Image by Michelle Craig Photography

Cuz like, I’ve done a bunch of things this year that could earn their own blog posts (and will eventually)…

• My oldest son and I had our belt graduation where we finally got our black belts in taekwondo (it’s been pretty fun to wear in class).

• I flew to the Bay Area by myself for a weekend to say farewell to the man who was a second dad to me growing up (fuck cancer).

• Went on a wonderful retreat in southern Utah with a bunch of amazing women.

Image by Michelle Craig Photography

• Family road tripped to Reno where my kids competed in a taekwondo tournament to qualify for Nationals.

• Both my kids did competition track & field for the first time and were killing it at track meets and learning new events and skills.

• I have a new gig as social media manager and graphic designer for our competition running club (follow us! @wolfpackingrunningutah on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok).

• I got some new tools for my freelance work that I’m excited to share about.

• My parents came to Utah for a visit and we were able to take my dad on a couple of our favorite hikes.

My boys with my dad on the trail to Cecret Lake in Albion Basin.

• My paternal grandma passed away at the age of 102.

• My kids both competed in USA Taekwondo Nationals in July and my oldest earned a gold medal in black belt sparring in his age and weight class.

• I dipped my toes into the world of art festivals and had a booth at two local festivals. It was really fun and I actually made a few bucks. Show #1 and Show #2. I also entered two paintings into a city art show and I won a 2nd place ribbon!

• I made the decision to begin training for my 2nd degree black belt in taekwondo and will decide when to test (either next May or next December).

• My youngest son was asked to be the main character in a short film that is both a comedy and horror and learned a ton about how films are made.

• Both of my kids are doing competition cross country and are doing awesome at meets. They both are hoping to qualify for USATF Jr Olympic Nationals in Texas in December.

• My family was heartbroken by the loss of a taekwondo friend who took his own life just before he turned 15.

So yeah… it’s been a busy and tough year, and I have had many moments where I wished I could skip a night’s sleep so I had more time. September was crazy with our kids playing three different sports, plus school, birthdays, a funeral, and lots of emotions. October has been more chill and I am hoping as the weather cools off, November will continue to be chill. Fingers crossed.

Trying to relax on Gooseberry Mesa and enjoy the view.

Draper International Arts & Crafts Festival

It was such a treat to have a booth at Draper’s International Arts & Crafts Festival a couple of weeks ago. This is only the second year that the City of Draper has put on this festival, and it was noticeably larger than last year. There was over 100 vendors selling crafts, art, jewelry, textiles, and more.

They had lots of different performances on a main stage. Here is a link to a YouTube video that the city made about the event. I’m not in the video at all, but it gives you a good idea of the different booths that were there. There were lots of different food vendors too, which is usually my favorite part of any festival.

I had my 10x10 foot tent again, but this time I was somewhat limited to keeping all of my stuff inside my booth rather than letting it spill outside a bit. I also used two of the side walls to help with the wind and to give my booth more of an entrance and exit path. So this made it impossible for me to sit down and paint like I did at Draper’s Art in the Barn.

This turned out to be a good thing.

One: the whole festival was only from 10am until 4pm, so it was overall a very short day.

Two: it rained! Right around 2:15pm, a summer thunderstorm rolled in and it started raining. It rained hard enough to for me to move all of my stuff UNDER the tent and away from the edges. Of course, this was right when my taekwondo studio (along with my kids) was beginning their performance on the main stage too. Thankfully, I was able to watch it via Facebook Live.

It only rained off and on for an hour and then the sun came back out. Overall, it was a beautiful day, Quite a few friends were able to stop by my booth and say hello and buy a few stickers and prints. I had lots of kids stop by to pick up coloring pages or to just sit and color for a while.

A new thing that I had at my booth was a handful of blank, steel water bottles and tumblers. If you bought one, you could choose any two stickers to put on it for free.

Click on this image to see the Reel I posted about my booth.

All in all, having a booth at this festival was a really fun experience and I will definitely do it again next summer. Both experiences with a booth at a festival and an art show have made me want to search online for different festivals to judge the booth fees and potential travel expenses to see if it may be worth doing more often. I had a couple of people tell me that I would do well having a booth at shows down in Hurricane and St. George.

Off to do more research….

15 Gift Ideas for Young Artists

Do you have a child in your life who is interested in art? A kid who always wants to draw or color, the kid whose eyes light up when there’s a craft project to work on, or the kid who proudly displays their artwork on the fridge? I was totally that kid growing up and nothing made me happier around my birthday than to receive new art supplies. I’ve compiled a list of items I would have loved to receive when I was a budding young artist.

Real quick…

One thing I would AVOID is probably kind of frustrating because it’s an easy gift: those big art sets that have a little bit of everything… colored pencils, watercolor, oil pastels, acrylic or oil paints, markers, and more. They are essentially a “try everything” set for new artists. I remember receiving a these sets when I was a kid and determining that I hated oil pastels or watercolor or colored pencils. I didn’t actually hate those mediums, but the quality of them in those sets was really low. They are some of the cheapest quality materials out there and when you’re learning how a medium works, they are really frustrating to create with.

Instead, find out what medium they are playing with at the moment and buy some higher quality versions; depending on your budget of course. If you can only spend $20 or $30, get a smaller set of high quality markers like Copic or Tombow. Get some fine line pens from Zebra Fude or Faber Castell. Consider some quality watercolor pencils and a brush or a dabbler set of paints from a known and easily available brand like Grumbacher, Daniel Smith, Holbein, or Winsor & Newton. You can usually buy these at Michael’s or JoAnn or shop online at Blick Art Materials. Blick even has a couple of brick & mortar stores in the US.

Still not sure what to get? Reach out to an artist and ask. I’m always happy to make recommendations!

Lots of affiliate links in this post. If you shop from them, please accept a wholehearted thank you!

Sketchbooks - Sketchbooks come in a seemingly infinite number of sizes and styles from pocket-sized to oversized with just as many varying types of paper. If your budding artist likes to do both painting and drawing, consider a sketchbook filled with mixed media paper or watercolor paper. If they are only into drawing, charcoal, and/or markers, then a drawing pad or sketchbook would be great. I’d stay away from newsprint because the paper is very low quality; think of the quality of newspaper. You can even level up on your gifting game and head to Etsy for a personalized sketchbook with the artist’s name on it.

Drawing Set - Different from low-quality art sets! It wasn’t until I was in middle school that I learned about the different hardness and softness of pencils and what I could do with them… and why I always smeared everything I drew with a No. 2 pencil with the palm of my left hand. My son was impressed when I explained why I didn’t want to use his No. 2 pencil to sketch out a watercolor painting because it would leave me with smeared graphite that I would have to erase. A drawing set along with a year subscription to Skillshare or another online learning platform would make for a wonderful gift.

Mini Canvases - My kids and I love to paint on little canvases. We have some 4x4 inch canvases right now, but I have seen as small as 3x3. And some of these little canvas kits come with a tiny easel to display the canvas. They are seriously so cute and can make for fun, custom ornaments if you can add a string or hook to the top.

Calligraphy/Lettering Book - A lot of creative kids these days are interested in learning calligraphy and stylized lettering. How about getting them a book that is geared to learn just that? This book is designed to help teens learn how to write in cursive too, since many schools aren’t teaching it anymore.

Brush Tip Markers - If you’re gifting a book on lettering or calligraphy, how about some awesome markers to go with it? Pricing can vary from brand to brand, but the ones I’ve used and love are Tombow, Prismacolor, and Copic. I have often seen Tombow and Prismacolor markers on sale at Michael’s. For black, waterproof markers I use Zebra Fude and Faber Castell Pitt. If I’m doing an ink drawing that my son is going to paint on top of, having waterproof ink is essential.

Tie-Dye Kit - How about teaching your child how to tie dye? First off, try to avoid using pre-mixed liquid dyes from Rit. Their dyes aren’t colorfast, which means they will bleed onto everything in the wash and fade little by little with every wash. Tulip makes wonderful kits that use a powdered dye that is meant to last longer after washing and the dye won’t bleed onto other fabrics when the directions are followed. This tie dye kit from Dharma Trading Co only has three colors, but it uses super high-quality dye and includes soda ash; an ingredient that guarantees more vibrant and colorfast results. When I’m doing ice dyeing, I use Procion dyes from Dharma Trading Co.

Window Crayons or Markers - Where were these when I was a kid?! I would have been ALL over these to decorate my bedroom window for every holiday. These are supposedly very washable and super fun to use. I may be getting those markers for myself this Christmas.

Scratch Boards - My my youngest son told me I needed to add this to the list. He loves these black scratch boards to draw on. He’s done a few kits that have a drawings already on there and some where he just draws what he wants and he loves them. Best of all, these are fantastic for travel as they use minimal supplies and are relatively mess-free.

Friendship Bracelet Kit - I have so many fond memories of making friendship bracelets when I was young. Most summers I had a bracelet-in-progress in my pocket or safety-pinned to my jeans. My kids recently asked me to make them a bracelet and I was both touched and kind of shocked. You can buy embroidery floss at craft stores inexpensively and put a kit together yourself or you can spend a few bucks more for a kit that includes an instruction book. I would typically opt for the embroidery floss on its own and then head to YouTube for instructional videos. For younger kids who might need help with the fine motor skills needed for friendship bracelets, I’d look at one of the looms out there, like this one.

Paint-by-Number Kits - There are loads of different paint-by-number sets out there with difficulties ranging from preschool to holy-crap-this-is-hard-for-adults. I spent a few months on a rather advanced one that I made for my son and even with my experience with painting, it was a really fun challenge. There are so many out there to choose from, so have fun. They are great for kids who don’t think they are “artistic” or they can’t think of what to paint when given a blank canvas. And this still gets them working on fine motor skills and helps them learn about color theory and using different colors to show depth.

Spirograph - I had a Spirograph when I was a kid and I would spend hours playing with it; creating fun designs. It’s a wonderful tool that uses gears to create beautiful tessellations. There are countless ways to create artwork. I remember learning about mandalas and applying them to my Spirograph creations. Drawing with a Spirograph also helps build fine motor skills and I’m sure there’s a math lesson in there too.

Travel Watercolor Kit - Multiple brands make travel-sized kits for travel that would be perfect for kids who are getting into painting. Teaching painting en plein air is a wonderful way to instill a love for painting and travel together and can teach about composition. These kits fit wonderfully in backpacks, fanny packs, and some are even small enough to fit in your pocket.

Paint Your Own Wooden Craft - Melissa & Doug makes kits for kids where they can paint their own race car, airplane, or train and the kits come with paints and a brush. There are kits where kids can paint wooden magnets, resin trinket boxes or a resin dinosaur or unicorn bank. How about a garden stepping stone or ceramic turtle? My kids have always loved these sets, but now that they are a little too old for Melissa & Doug kits, we cruise the aisles at our craft stores where they sell wooden treasure boxes, birdhouses, signs, and more. They’ll pick out an item along with a set of inexpensive, acrylic paints and a couple of brushes to make their own painting kit. We have also made these kits to give as birthday gifts.

Watercolor Pencils - Watercolor pencils are a wonderful way to introduce a young artist to watercolor painting and color theory. They draw or color with these pencils and then go over their drawing with a wet brush to blur lines or blend colors together. These are great at teaching how different colors blend into each other without having to be aware of what paint is on their brush. My youngest had been frustrated with his lighter colors getting muddy because he would forget to wash the brush when going for a new color. Using these pencils kind of skips that step and he loves getting to see how beautiful the colors blend together. These ones from Faber-Castell have an ergonomic grip to help little hands hold the pencils easier.

Craft Kits - Every craft store like Michael’s and JoAnn’s has a variety of different craft kits designed for kids. There are kits on how to make paracord keychains or bracelets, making jewelry, kits on crocheting, quilting, or knitting. An at-home pottery wheel, a kit for modeling clay, rock painting, and window sun catchers, and I have seen kits that introduce sewing, counted cross stitch, and embroidery too.

Whether your child is in preschool, high school, or in between, receiving a gift that helps fuel a passion for creativity sticks with them for a long time.