Romancing the Day to Day: A Little About Me
Hi, friend!
I thought for this very first blog post I'd introduce myself.
I'm Becky. I live in Oregon's beautiful Willamette Valley with my husband, Terry, and our Bernese Mountain Dog, Bella (there's even a painting of her in my Animals Collection). Together we have four kids and nine grands.
Throughout my life I've worn many hats: mom (my most important and favorite job), personal trainer, nurse, yarn-shop owner, winemaker, and now...artist.
When my children were little, we always had an "art tub" filled with crayons, paints, paper, and creative odds and ends. Every now and then I'd try drawing something myself, but I never really had the courage to say out loud that I wanted to be an artist. I grew up in a very pragmatic family, and becoming an artist would have been considered quite impractical.
But the desire never left me.
I've always been creative in one way or another—knitting, crocheting, sewing, and all sorts of projects. In fact, I even owned a yarn shop in Oregon City called The Cozy Ewe for several years. Creating beautiful things has always been part of who I am.
Then came Covid.
Like so many people, we found a new hobby to keep myself busy. Well...I suppose I did, and my sweet husband followed right along. He's an engineer and incredibly talented in his own right.
I picked up watercolor and spent several years learning and experimenting—without a great deal of success, I might add. But something unexpected happened. Painting began nourishing a part of me that had been quietly waiting all these years.
I realized that I need to paint.
Not in a casual, "it's fun" sort of way. I truly need it. If a day goes by without picking up a brush or laying down a little paint, even in a sketchbook, something feels missing.
Then I found Milan Art Institute.
I secretly wondered if I could really do something like that. Around that same time, a friend posted that she had signed up for the program, and I quickly reached out to hear her thoughts. I think I enrolled that very night!
I'll share more about Milan in another post. For now, let me tell you what I see for the future.
Art. Much art, and flowers! 
I have fallen in love with painting flowers, whimsical animals, and abstract pieces. My husband once told me that I help him see the beauty in the world that he's overlooked most of his life.
That sentence stopped me in my tracks. Isnt' that just true of so many of us in this busy, busy, device-filled world?
Because that's exactly what I hope my art does.
God has given us such a beautiful world to live in. Creation is incredible. Just yesterday I snapped a photo of a big, fat bumblebee working hard on a bright magenta dahlia, and I thought to myself, "It simply doesn't get much better than this."
I want my paintings to help people slow down, exhale, and notice the beauty that surrounds them every day. I want them to find the romance in an ordinary Tuesday, to gather flowers, light the good candle, pour the wine, and remember that the Creator is still in control.
That's what this little corner of the internet is all about.
Art.
Beauty.
Wonder.
And learning to romance the day to day.
I'd be honored if you'd join me on this journey by signing up for my email list. I promise not to fill your inbox—think one note a month with a little about what's happening in the studio, the garden, the winery, and who knows what else.
Perhaps that's why I paint—to help us all notice the big fat bumblebees on the bright magenta dahlias before the season slips away.
Thank you for being here.
Cheers to finding the romance in today,
Becky
