Read My Other Blog For Now

Hey all-
I'm putting more time and effort into my studio blog, the one I have listed in my Etsy store and the one I use to promote new work in my shop. I've started adding more photos and stories about our family to that blog so rather than repeat the same thing in both blogs, I'm directing this traffic over to that one.

I'm working on a line of Christmas cards that will be coming out in late October. So if you're interested, hold off on buying your Christmas cards for a few more weeks and I'll let you know when they're available.

Til then, bookmark the new blog and check back often!

Spoiler Alert!

It's (probably) a boy!

For whatever reason, we were kinda thinking it was a girl. Hudson has been saying it's a sister for over a month. "It's a boy sister?" Hudson asked in confusion when the ultrasound tech told us what it was.
So though it took me a minute to switch gears from pink dresses to peewee football, I'm really excited about the idea of Hudson growing up with a brother. And we're following in true Armstrong fashion. I guess after this we need to have a girl, then another boy, then a long line up of dogs, a cow, and a goat. Shew!

Our baby is 18 weeks along. Just like this one...pretty crazy, huh!

Just too darn cute-

Hudson said he wanted to pray by himself last night as I was putting him to bed he closed his eyes and said "God, thank you for the new baby. Thank you for my sister. Help me to obey. Amen" We don't actually know if it's a girl or a boy yet but way cute nonetheless.



And who was I to argue when Hudson wanted to give mommy a massage just like daddy. I say start 'em young. Next week we're gonna teach him acupuncture. I'll let you know how it goes ; )

Family and Friends

I'm behind on adding photos of Hudson with out-of-town family and friends from the past couple months. Here are a few...

Bath time with Coop



Ridin' Pappy's tractor



Grace (unsuccessfully) trying to convince Hudson to let him spike his hair.



Taking turns with Aunt Andrea tracing eachother's feet and hands.




PuttPutt with Nanna and Pappy. Hudson was the only one of us to get a hole-in-one.

Theology 101

as I was putting Hudson to bed...
Me (Arian): Hudson, do you know where God is? He's everywhere. He can hear us praying right now.
Hudson: God builds houses?
Me: uhh, not exactly...but He made the mountains...and the trees they use to build houses
Hudson: God likes ladders.
Me: uh
Hudson: (interjects matter-of-factly) and monkeys....and eyebrows.

Amazing...so young yet he GETS it..he gets it.

Hudson Art

Notice he said it was a man changing a baby's diaper--I've trained him well.

It's a...baby!

If you haven't heard, we're gonna have a baby :) I had my first doctor's appointment/ultrasound today and they determined the baby is due February 13th. So I might be spending my Valentine's day in a paper gown dining on fruit cups and little juice boxes and cursing the day God made men...hmmm a lot like some of my other Valentine's days. ; )
It's hard to believe I'm already just about in my second tri-mester. The baby is already about 2.25" from top of head to bum. At this point with Hudson we already had 5 or so ultrasound pictures of him. Of course they're "ultrasound crazy" over there in Japan. I think that's why Hudson skips "4" when he counts and starts running in tight circles when the microwave is on. (jk)
We're excited and I'm already starting some of those "nesting" tendencies. I bought a new swiffer and I started knitting and I've been stopping women in town to ask them about their double strollers.
If you have any name suggestions feel free to pass them along. Don, I've already written down (and crossed off) "Bonnie- Lynn"..... (my apologies to any Bonnie-Lynn's reading this blog)

Happily Ever After

This past weekend was my 4th show at MLT. It was a children's musical called Happily Ever After. To see more photos check out my design blog.

Rockin' Out

Daniel and I had a 20 hour date last weekend because Hudson spent the day and night with his pal Elisha. We, along with Daniel's co-worker and his girlfriend (both UC students--yeah, representin'!) went downtown Boston for food and live music fun in the sun. A local radio station and Whole Foods put on "Earthfest"--an outdoor concert event with lots of "hippie-type" ; ) food samples like Cliffbars, soy smoothies, and granola. We got to see Mat Kearney and KT Tunstall. KT is so great live because she does all this looping stuff in her songs that you don't realize is all her when you hear her songs on the radio. Great fun! I love Hudson but we welcomed the chance to be adults for a whole day!

Coming Soon...

-------------------"Then Sings My Soul" postcard--------------------

Just to update you on my creative life, I'm trying to kind of phase out of a lot of graphic and web design work and phase into more fine arts. I realized I really miss creating things I'm INSPIRED to create and not HIRED to create. And then hopefully I can sell those things I'm inspired to create. I've opened a shop online but am waiting to get a few more things in the shop before I have my grand opening. But I've sold 4 things to random strangers who just stumbled across my shop so that's encouraging.

I've also started a design blog where I'll post my latest work, creative findings, etc. I'm keeping that one separate from this blog because hopefully there will be a lot of strangers who wander onto that blog from my online store and I don't want them to be flooded with photos of Hudson smeared with chocolate. It's kind of like the "square and rectangle" thing-- all viewers of the Armstrong blog can read the Arian's Studio blog but not the other way around. So you can check it out by following the link to the right of this blog.

Anyways, I'll let you all know when the shop is ready for the public : )

By the way, I'm still always available to do graphic/web design for friends and family. I'm just not going to persue outside graphic/web design jobs for a little bit...unless it's a really cool job, like an album cover or band poster or something like that.

Uncle Doughnut

It's been a "sweet" week for Hudson. On Thursday I had an unexpected but pretty important conference call with a couple clients right as I was getting ready to put Hudson down for a much-needed nap. It quickly became apparent Hudson wasn't going to weather the meeting well. So in a desperate attempt to entertain him I gave him the newly opened bag of chocolate chips. 30 minutes later, after a quiet and productive phone conference, this is what I found crouched down in the hallway with a half empty bag of chocolate chips.

Yesterday we had to spend several hours in the car. Early on, Hudson got it in his head that he NEEDED Dunkin Donuts. "You know what, mommy, I need Dunkin Donuts!" "I'm hungry, I need Dunkin Donuts, mommy" "Dunkin Donuts...Dunkin Donuts....Dunkin Donuts.....Dunkin Donuts.....Dunkle Donuts....Dunkle Donuts....Uncle Donuts...Uncle Donuts!" ( Daniel and I turned to eachother and nodded in agreement--"Uncle Drew").

4 hours and most of my sanity later, we finally stopped and got a doughnut.

I promise I'm a good mom. Pounds of chocolate chips and regular doughnut runs are not an every day part of Hudson's diet. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Happy Mothers' Day

Happy Mothers Day!!

Grammy Comes to Town

My mom was in town last week. She helped me finish up the set for my current show at Marblehead Little Theatre, "On Golden Pond". I took her on several walking tours of Marblehead hitting all the "must see" spots and shops like Fort Sewall, Crocker Park, Redd's Pond, Abbot Hall, Old Town, "New" Town, Devereaux Beach, Stow-Away Sweets, etc. Though it rained the whole time we also took the scenic drive up the coast about an hour to Rockport. On Friday night, she, Daniel, our friend Julie, and I went to the champagne gala opening of my show.

Speaking of the theatre, Hudson started acting classes last week. It's called "Storybook Theatre" for 2 and 3 year olds. Each week they read a different popular children's story then they dress up like characters from the story and act it out. Very cute. Hudson is still talking about it.

Well, here are some pics from the week...









Our futon is always open for whoever wants to visit next!

Guess who's fake sleeping

Mystery Solved

Just finished another show at Marblehead Little Theatre. Here are some pictures of the set. The story was about a pair of twin Mayan necklaces stolen from the Beach Hill Art Museum and the FBI rookie and her nerdy partner who have to solve the case. The platforms and flats spun around and folded open to show the two different settings--the FBI office and Beach Hill. It was a blast. I love my job : ) Remember, you can click on the photos for a larger view.

Singer/Songwriter

Singer/Songwriter Hudson Armstrong

Hey! Happy Birthday to Mindy and Karis! And for those of you who still plan on birthing children in the future, March has officially reached its birthday capacity. I think there are already like 40 March birthdays among the Armstrong/Houp/Pratt/Lusby/Leach clan. And while I'm at it, no more March weddings after Lani and Evan's. There are just too many happy occassions to celebrate in March these days and it's making the other months look rather bleak. December is all like "Waaaa, look at me. I only have Christmas and New Years Eve, waaa." and April is all "Nobody cares about Arbor Day, boohoo!" It's depressing really.

: )

Hopefully in a week and a half I'll have pics of my next production at Marblehead Little Theatre. It's crunch time right now but hopefully it all comes together. I have another show in April and then another one in May. Fun stuff!

Snowy, Chocolately V-Day

Happy Valentine's Day! This morning before it started to rain and get all slushy, Hudson and I played outside in the snow with our neighbor Elisha and his mom, Mary Margaret. See, don't they look happy to be out in the snow -->




Then we finished making truffles for our friends in the building. It's a cool recipe, just chocolate, almonds, maple syrup, tofu, and cocoa powder. I know want you're thinking--"almonds?!" ; ) They're pretty good. Don't think they'd make it in the mail or else we'd send you all some : )



Hope your V-day is filled with love and romance!

Super Hudson

Here's an inside look into the alter-egos of Hudson:


Tacky Man----------------->


Mr. Reflecto-Ear--------------->


Captain Short Bus---------------->

Hudson Scissorhands

This morning I needed to take a shower so I put a Baby Einstein video on for Hudson and left the bathroom door open so I could hear him. I noticed it had gotten quiet after awhile which meant either he was totally enthralled in the video (possible) or into something he shouldn't be (more likely). Shortly after I finished up and turned the water off Hudson came toddling in to the bathroom with scissors in his hands and large holes in his diaper. Nice.... Lucky for his manhood, they were dull scissors and thick diapers. : )