Rolling into the weekend

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I love age 2. There’s such a sense of an overflow of personhood. He’s somehow fully a baby and fully a little boy at the same time in one little cute body. And now he says, “Come on, Petey!” #sweeteypetey 🐌 🐶

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Valentine garden 🌸 🌺 🌹

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Sometimes I’ll paint something really quickly and I don’t even really like the end result (for example, here I needed more complex color and I don’t like the 50/50 composition) but it’s like my hands wouldn’t allow my brain enough time to even think through those things. I know I’m not alone in this. Sometimes you just get overtaken by a spirit and can’t relax til it can come through your hands and paintbrush...it doesn’t even really care how.

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Painting from the North American Wildlife book. Helen’s favorite plant is the Venus flytrap! Right now she’s painting more flies who are about to get eaten.

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The only kind of flowers that can survive in my house are painted ones.

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Museum sketching. I even got asked where I was in school! 👊🏻#30sarethenew20s

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Helen’s first score: “Great Golly” #mixedmediamonday

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I’m thankful for my crew!

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This quote articulates so much about the creative process! #Repost @mcnivenjack with @get_repost ・・・ “ A moment of complete happiness never occurs in the creation of a work of art. The promise of it is felt in the act of creation but disappears towards the completion of the work. For it is then that the painter realises that it is only a picture he is painting. Until then he had almost dared to hope that the picture might spring to life “, Lucian Freud. Self portrait, oil and charcoal on canvas, 2002. Thrilled and inspired to see this stunning, unfinished, painting in the flesh today ! . . . . . . . #lucianfreud #selfportrait #painting #oil #charcoal #unfinishedpainting #portraiture #inspiration #royalacademy #royalacademyofarts #art #faces #texturalpainting #creation #masterpiece #creative #artist #studio #london

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Helen, describing her role in the Christmas program: “I’m the Inside Keeper.” “What’s your line?” “There was no room in the can.” #hellohelen

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Advent often magnifies the brokenness of the world, the “now but not yet” of God’s restoration and my many ongoing failings, only to be contrasted with the fully redeeming, work of God. I’ve had many such moments already this month. God is gracious to send a redemptive moment not long after a broken one. He remembers us. This night of getting dressed up with a decorated house full of kind people was one beautiful redemptive moment!

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Things are becoming clear for #farrisofthemall in her new glasses! I’ve had lots and lots of glasses since I was one year old, but I don’t think I’ve ever had any that were aqua with silver bows.

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Barbecue, friends and family and a fire.

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Autumn baby 🍂 #farrisofthemall

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They may take our candy, but they’ll never take...our freedom! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

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Must be some subliminal prehistoric inspiration leftover from Scotland, because Helen constructed this circle of princesses around an onion she found in the yard. She refers to it as “the onion of power.” #standingstones

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Beautiful gold on blue glass contemporary installation at St. Giles Cathedral inspiring some latest design work.

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8 years and 364 days old #shiningchar

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Pumpkin patch season has started! 🎃 #FarrisOfThemAll

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Four hours later, we were covered in mud and had climbed around and over a huge mountain. More than we had bargained on but glad we did it!

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Victoria street, the spot that is believed to have been the inspiration for Diagon Alley. Details everywhere! Painted trim, octagonal brass knobs, real and faux flowers, beautiful lettering, tartan everywhere.

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Elephant ear growth chart. #hellohelen

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She was so excited for Mad Scientist Day that she couldn’t go to sleep last night, woke up early this morning and requested Space Jam on the way to school! #shiningchar #scientistchar #madscientist

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That confidence that comes when you know you’ve nailed your outfit. #sweetiepetey #peterpan

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It’s impossible for this girl to walk into a room unnoticed. I just love her silliness and sense of style. Right now she’s dutifully putting back on all the prisms she took off the chandelier. #hellohelen

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The girls love looking for that magic moment when the morning light casts rainbows all over the wall of the dining room.

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Picture day at the beach 🏖 #sweetiepetey

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OOTD #tiedye @umbro #hellohelen

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Daily collage with Helen #mixedmediamonday

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch: two Macs in matching @tilleyhats #sweetiepetey 📷 @scoutfinch1955

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Pool IRL @jonesvalleypool

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First time for these 4-year-olds to swim in a meet! So much spunk wrapped up in two little bodies. 📷 @katieashworthtaylor

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So excited that Ignite is now live! I’m so proud of this branding project, and @mmodernweb brought it to life on the web in a way I never thought was possible. Great visionary client + awesome web team = beautiful and beautifully functioning website! Congratulations, @ignite.properties !

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This is summer, right here. #hellohelen #bombpop

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“Wedding room,” balcony, gardens and pond. #mixedmediamonday #quiltsofinstagram @hellohelen

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Helen and I love making lakes and fields and houses and forests with wallpaper and fabric samples, and then putting all the little @fisherprice people on top.

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Giving lectures to three classes of middle and high schoolers today. I’m so excited! Trying to tap into my inner teenager and not appear totally ancient, and to show them that the term for so much of what they’re seeing around them all the time is graphic design. I’m starting the lecture with a Jessica Helfand quote that Professor Kelly Bryant used on the first day of a typography class, and it’s stuck with me ever since. Things I want them to know: 1. Design is everywhere. 2. Design is powerful. @auburnuniversitygraphicdesign

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I love painting these portraits for @hollychollon ! What a special day for a baptism. #Repost @hollychollon with @get_repost ・・・ My dear friend @sarah_robins_powell painted this precious portrait of Clementine to celebrate her baptism which was this morning. 🧡 The blessing Charlton wrote: Clementine Louise, you’re mother and I are so thankful the Lord has blessed us with you. Your name means “merciful warrior,” and our prayer for you comes from Micah 6:8: “... and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Clemmie, we pray that early in your life God would call you to himself and that you would always walk humbly with him in ever increasing intimacy. And as Clementine Churchill stood with her husband against the evil and injustice of her day, we pray that Christ would enable you to courageously yet compassionately pursue justice heeding the call of God in Isaiah to “loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free” (Isaiah 58:6). We love you our little merciful warrior! Amen. 🧡

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Flower market breakfast with Helen Camellia, the sweetest flower of all. 🌸 #hellohelen #handpickedhelen

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Look sharp, be sharp. Protected Peter in his new fave accessory. #sweetiepetey

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Father daughter dance 2019, by the numbers: 3 Easter dresses, 4 church shoes, 2 sparkly ball shoes, 2 stick-on earrings, 1 bow, 4 braids, 2 sparkly eyelids, 3 shimmery pink smiles, 3 necklaces, 2 purses, 1 bracelet, 1 handsome dad, 1 three piece suit, 1 little boy sad he couldn’t go, 1 hairspray-fogged bathroom, 10 minutes to find shoes, 30 minutes to get out the door, many decisions made about accessories, countless flashes forward to high school. #shiningchar #farrisofthemall #hellohelen

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Hand-decorated Helen hanging ornaments on the Easter tree #hellohelen #hoppyhelen

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Routine afternoon snack: goldfish and dirt #sweetiepetey 🐠 🌱

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Time to bust out the old Chi O ❤️ AU pin! #hootiehoo

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Spotted in the ‘ham. Love seeing all the art that this account scouts around town. Birmingham is such a vibrant city, and their mural game is strong. #Repost @magiccitymurals with @get_repost ・・・ Have you seen this abstract mural on the side of the new Sidekicks store @sdkcks in Avondale? They are right next to Magic City Cookie Dough at 400 41st Street South. Mural by @sarah_robins_powell. #birmingham #birminghamalabama #birminghamal #streetart #streetartiseverywhere #mural #muralart #muralsofinstagram #muralsofbirmingham #muralsofbirminghamal #muralsofavondale #muralsofavondaleal #birminghammural #birminghammurals #magiccitymural #magiccitymurals

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Baby boy in the bluebells.

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Cool factor: 💯 Confidence factor: 💯 #hellohelen

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☀️🌸🌸🌸

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#farrisofthemall after her violin recital the other day. It’s a gift to hear her play. I can’t wait to see what she makes with that sharp ear and the intuition and expression to go with it.

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