Thursday, February 9, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
New Site on Horizon
Today www.maryuhles.com will be down for a few hours as my new site design is loaded online. I apologize for taking my fabulous illustrations off the world-wide web momentarily. Look for the new design to go live at 3pm CST.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Priceless
The whirling dervish of my children during breakfast when they learned where we were going on Saturday: $0.00
Elephant cup to hold pleaded for, cough-syrup tasting Icee: $12.00
Two compelling, branded, whirly-gig toys pleaded for more than the Icee: $44.00
Four circus tickets plus parking, popcorn and two drinks: $157.00
Fry and Sprout's reaction to seeing the Greatest Show on Earth.......priceless
Elephant cup to hold pleaded for, cough-syrup tasting Icee: $12.00
Two compelling, branded, whirly-gig toys pleaded for more than the Icee: $44.00
Four circus tickets plus parking, popcorn and two drinks: $157.00
Fry and Sprout's reaction to seeing the Greatest Show on Earth.......priceless
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
The Highlights Reel
Ah, the ornaments have been stored away, the tree is down, christmas cards and wrapping paper perch precariously on the overflowing recycle bin. The toasts are done, and midnight has come and gone.... which means it's time for my personal tradition: the New Year blog post.
First to have a look back at old man 2011. This puppy went out with a bit of a whine as a venomous stomach bug invaded our home, causing us to cancel plans to take the kids to Grandmama's and celebrate New Year's Eve properly. So while it's tempting to look back and grumble "well that was crappy" I've decided instead to run a highlights reel of some of the best of 2011:
• In January, Jim Dear got the word that a particular co-worker was outta there. Now normally I would not celebrate someone getting the axe but this person had made Jim Dear's life - and by extention all of ours - pretty dang miserable for a considerable period of time. So seeing the back of this person was like plucking an ornery splinter out of the ball of our family's collective foot.
• On May 12th, Jim Dear and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary and the Small Fry graduated from preschool. It tickled me no end that 10 years after Jim Dear and I said our vows, we were back in the very same sanctuary watching our oldest solemnly follow the leader down the aisle in a pint size cap and gown. After the ceremony Jim Dear and I celebrated by taking the day off from life: We drank champagne in the middle of the afternoon at the pottery painting place.
• In June Small Fry's baseball team won their division championship. I reread my original post and I still remember my giddy bubble of happiness at the end of the last inning.
• for July I have only 6 words: U2's 360 Tour came to Nashville.
And I was there.
'Nuf said.
• August was an eventful month with Small Fry starting kindergarten. My professional high point of the year was the LA SCBWI conference, the highest point of which was shaking the hand of David Small. Later in the month Jim Dear and I embarked on a Caribbean cruise - the real celebration for 10 years of wedded bliss. My personal high point of the year was lying on the Paradise Island beach with the aquamarine Atlantic ocean slurping at my beach chair.
• In October a show of my work opened at the Zapow Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina. A well-stocked Uhles minivan made the trek out there. It was nice to have a another vacation, this time with the whole family, and get to write off part of it as well.
So while not exactly feature block-buster packed with good times, 2011 was not all boring ordinary-ness. Let's examine my resolution from last year: Draw every day. I think I kept this one pretty darn well. But what I really learned is that it wasn't really drawing every day so much as working on my dreams a little every day. Some nights I didn't draw, instead I worked on new book ideas, or stayed up late painting new fabulous work. But after 12 months of picking up my sketch book just about every night, it's definitely become a habit. So I will keep "draw every day" as a hold over resolution for 2012.
My new New Year's resolution is a compound sentence: Find more ways to be thankful for what I do have and quit trying so dang hard to get my hands around certain elusive dreams of illustrator stardom. Recently I read a Woman's Day article about making your own luck. One thing it mentioned was that people who turn out to be "lucky" tend not to live check-listy lives. I can say with all sincerity that I'm about the best list maker and checker on the planet. But perhaps going "great portfolio, check!", "awesome list of art directors, check!", "winsome schmoozy smile, check!" is not working in my favor. Not that I'm going to be a total slacker (and still plan on having all of the above: awesome portfolio, contacts and schmooze) but I think the point of the article was not to worry so much if you miss some rule out there but instead let what happens happen and let opportunity find you. Yeah even just typing that I feel my eyes rolling. But that tells me that I should give it a try, even if it takes me a little while to figure out exactly how.
So maybe my 2012 resolution should be "quit gripping steering wheel of life so dang tight."
hmmmmm...
either way I decide to phrase it, it will be a great thing to check off my list.
Happy New Year!
First to have a look back at old man 2011. This puppy went out with a bit of a whine as a venomous stomach bug invaded our home, causing us to cancel plans to take the kids to Grandmama's and celebrate New Year's Eve properly. So while it's tempting to look back and grumble "well that was crappy" I've decided instead to run a highlights reel of some of the best of 2011:
• In January, Jim Dear got the word that a particular co-worker was outta there. Now normally I would not celebrate someone getting the axe but this person had made Jim Dear's life - and by extention all of ours - pretty dang miserable for a considerable period of time. So seeing the back of this person was like plucking an ornery splinter out of the ball of our family's collective foot.
• On May 12th, Jim Dear and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary and the Small Fry graduated from preschool. It tickled me no end that 10 years after Jim Dear and I said our vows, we were back in the very same sanctuary watching our oldest solemnly follow the leader down the aisle in a pint size cap and gown. After the ceremony Jim Dear and I celebrated by taking the day off from life: We drank champagne in the middle of the afternoon at the pottery painting place.
• In June Small Fry's baseball team won their division championship. I reread my original post and I still remember my giddy bubble of happiness at the end of the last inning.
• for July I have only 6 words: U2's 360 Tour came to Nashville.
And I was there.
'Nuf said.
• August was an eventful month with Small Fry starting kindergarten. My professional high point of the year was the LA SCBWI conference, the highest point of which was shaking the hand of David Small. Later in the month Jim Dear and I embarked on a Caribbean cruise - the real celebration for 10 years of wedded bliss. My personal high point of the year was lying on the Paradise Island beach with the aquamarine Atlantic ocean slurping at my beach chair.
• In October a show of my work opened at the Zapow Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina. A well-stocked Uhles minivan made the trek out there. It was nice to have a another vacation, this time with the whole family, and get to write off part of it as well.
So while not exactly feature block-buster packed with good times, 2011 was not all boring ordinary-ness. Let's examine my resolution from last year: Draw every day. I think I kept this one pretty darn well. But what I really learned is that it wasn't really drawing every day so much as working on my dreams a little every day. Some nights I didn't draw, instead I worked on new book ideas, or stayed up late painting new fabulous work. But after 12 months of picking up my sketch book just about every night, it's definitely become a habit. So I will keep "draw every day" as a hold over resolution for 2012.
My new New Year's resolution is a compound sentence: Find more ways to be thankful for what I do have and quit trying so dang hard to get my hands around certain elusive dreams of illustrator stardom. Recently I read a Woman's Day article about making your own luck. One thing it mentioned was that people who turn out to be "lucky" tend not to live check-listy lives. I can say with all sincerity that I'm about the best list maker and checker on the planet. But perhaps going "great portfolio, check!", "awesome list of art directors, check!", "winsome schmoozy smile, check!" is not working in my favor. Not that I'm going to be a total slacker (and still plan on having all of the above: awesome portfolio, contacts and schmooze) but I think the point of the article was not to worry so much if you miss some rule out there but instead let what happens happen and let opportunity find you. Yeah even just typing that I feel my eyes rolling. But that tells me that I should give it a try, even if it takes me a little while to figure out exactly how.
So maybe my 2012 resolution should be "quit gripping steering wheel of life so dang tight."
hmmmmm...
either way I decide to phrase it, it will be a great thing to check off my list.
Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Top Ten Reasons Why Your Child's December Birthday is Actually Fabulous
Three years and nine months ago I sat apprehensively in the doctors office, watched him spin his plastic gestation wheel, then pronounce "yep, looks like you're due December 25th."
Great, I grumbled inwardly, another Christmas baby. Small Fry's post Thanksgiving birthday was as close to Christmas as I wanted to get. Though Jim Dear and I had been trying to create Baby Number Two for some time, we had studiously avoided red wine and Sinatra CDs on certain warm April nights.
Or so we thought.
Baby Sprout arrived one week before Christmas Day. When her first birthday rolled around - just as with the Fry - I was determined to make it something special. Now that we've had three years of celebrating TWO holiday birthdays, I realize that a December birthday is more of a blessing than I could have realized that day in the doctors office. Here are my top ten reasons why:
10. Toys are a 4th quarter business. Since you gotta buy toys for your child's birthday anyway, might as well do it when the stores are completely stocked and the sales are the best they're gonna be.
9. A December birthday is a great excuse for parent peer sympathy.... and for getting out of extra responsibilities. Try saying "yeah we have Thanksgiving, then Junior's birthday, THEN Christmas!" Watch as your friends roll their eyes in sympathy and murmur that of course you don't have to worry about collecting ___________ for the _________, or bringing _________ to the _____________.
8. It's the cleanest your house will ever be: First you vacuum up all the dirt tracked in by Thanksgiving visitors, then you vacuum up birthday crumbs, then you vacuum bits of wrapping paper. You won't have to vacuum again until Memorial Day....
7. .... or it's the dirtiest it will ever be OK for your house to be. Really, who's going to vacuum three times in four weeks? (See #9 for seeking understanding about why your house is a wreck.)
6. If you time it right you can sign up to bring dessert for your office Christmas luncheon . . . and pawn off leftover birthday cake. This year I hope Jim Dear's colleagues enjoy the Christmas "muffins" with traditional pink and purple frosting.
5. Anyone with kids knows that after a certain point, when more toys come into the house... some toys MUST go out, unless you plan to move to a new house every year. Generally one tries to put a positive spin on it: "Remember how fortunate you are," you chirp as they grudgingly throw toys in the box marked Goodwill. Unlike summer birthdays, a Christmas birthday means you only have this conversation once a year.
4. It may not be easy to pay for, but it is easy to budget for. Around our house, when Jim Dear and I talk about saving for big purchases we have a line item that never goes away. It's called December.
3. Once the front end loader has carried off all the old crap (see #5), you only have to figure out where to put all the new crap once a year.
2. After Thanksgiving, and after birthday(s), if you timed it right you'll only have about 6 days to really worry about Christmas! All you have to do is sit back, breathe a sigh of relief that at least the birthdays are done, sign a couple of Christmas cards, then wake up on Christmas morning! Voila, a hassle free holiday! (again see #9 as to why no one will expect you to do any more)
And finally the number one reason I think a Christmas birthday is a blessing in disguise.....
1. Having a baby during Advent connects you to why we have Christmas at all. As I stuff goodie bags, lick birthday invitations and reminisce about the day we are celebrating, I think about how a couple millennium ago another harried mom anxiously prepared for her baby's December birth. 'Tis the season to joyfully await God's working of a miracle in our world.
Merry Christmas to all, and Happy Birthday to Fry and Sprout.
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