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Beth and Bruce shocked the Turtles last week when they showed up with their new secret surprise-a baby!

Their beautiful son, Kalen-born a few months ago. Beth flies off to warmer realms for the winter, so they managed to keep the entire pregnancy and birth invisible to the whole community.

What a couple of tricksters! We couldn’t believe our eyes when she walked in with the little boob-nibbling cutebug. What a sweet baby-he flew all over the dance floor, bourne aloft by his parents loving hands and the ebullient adoration of the swirling, revolving Turtles.

Hurray! Welcome to the world, Kalen. May your dance on this planet be a glorious and propitious one. I’m sure you will be as much of a sweet, creative imp as your parents are.

I had a fabulous tween weekend.

Sam and I missed Rowan’s birthday last week, so we celebrated(and said goodbye to her for the summer) by having an all weekend campout in the backyard.

Thanks to Jim’s palatial tent, we all had our own rooms too-perfect for privacy and connection, teleportation optional, but highly recommended.

It was blazing hot, so we filled the hot tub with cold water and the kids tested their Popsicle Samurai endurance skilz.

What a full weekend! We went to WALL-E(good movie that), took the Bday girl manga shopping, tromped around town in search of desserts… There was marshmallow-roasty bonfires, late-nite manga madness, stormy gusts blustering the tent, giggly morning conversations about god, the universe and everything and a lovely trip to the Dobyn’s trampoline.

Where Rowan trounced us all with the sheer power of HAIR.

M’kehla chopped hers off halfway through the weekend, to emerge looking all cute and shorn and elegant. Fortunately, Rowan has enough hair for all of ‘em and then some.

And, apparently(according to Sam) it has rejuvenative powers. It wouldn’t surprise me-she could put the fear of hair unto a horde of rastafarians.

More campin’, trampin’ and hair power here.

..pulls up to the curb, rolls down the car window and says hello.

It was a very strange moment for my brain. As completely familiar as the details of her face were, I’d never met the woman before. My neurons flailed for context-which obligingly rushed to the rescue in the form of Scott(the client who commissioned the portrait), the driver of the vehicle.

Fortunately, I rather like having my mind blown and so it was really fun to say hello in the flesh to my Moon Goddess. I’m happy to report that she likes the painting-’tis always an uncertain thing to paint someone you don’t know from ittybitty besunglassed snapshots.

I felt quite tipsy with delight on the way home. Being an artist isn’t always fun-especially when the car insurance is due-but sometimes, it’s the best thing ever!

A fun illustration assignment for my friend Sophie’s upcoming class.

Such a cute booty!-if you don’t mind all the bones, muscles and nerves.

Ah skin, with all it’s intricate, marvelous sensation receptors.

I’m sure it will be a fun class, too.

The Snow Lion is one of my favorite mythological tibetan buddhist beasts. It’s also one of the Shambhala tradition’s Four Dignities.

The Snow Lion represents unconditional cheerfulness, Earth and East, a mind free of doubt, clear and precise. It has a beauty and dignity resulting from a body and mind that are synchronized. The Snow Lion has a youthful, vibrant energy of goodness and a natural sense of delight.

They are a regal, like a lion, but visually resemble dogs, much like the temple guardian of China, the Fu dog.