Christmas craft

One of the fun things about Christmas is its a reason to make pretty things to decorate the house with, so here are a couple of things we've made this year. One is using a natural material  (oranges), the other not so natural (resin, the earlier stage shown in previous post).

For the orange decoration I simply sliced up an orange and put the slices in a low temp oven for several hours, then threaded them together with a bit of festive ribbon. Smells nice too...

resin with various designs

resin decoration with fairy lights behind

ink and glitter

   

Snoozing again

I've almost done all of the images for my "Sleeping like a baby" book... eager to get it finished but I guess there's no rush really.  I'm imagining a day when Ezra is much bigger and sleeping in his own bed, and we can look through it and wonder how sleep, and whether he slept through the night bla bla bla, could ever have been such a big deal.

Resin craft

first try..

bits and pieces

lots of ink...

blue and purple ink

with cut paper shapes

Me and Ashley have been experimenting with resin craft, which is really fun... you make it up as a liquid and can put pretty much anything in it to make little knickknacks like paperweights, keyrings, christmas  decs etc etc. The results can be a bit hit and miss.. the first one I made, I took out of the mould too early and hence it was a bit of a blob. The trial and error is part of its charm though, I think... Putting blobs of ink and swirling it a little seems to be one of the most successful creations. It sort of moves around by itself as the resin sets so its hard to tell exactly what it'll end up like.

yet more on the subject of sleep

A couple more images I've been working on. I've also been trying to put together some text to go with these 'Sleeping Like a Baby' images which is proving to be quite challenging. I'll get there though! Watch this space...

more sleeping...

These are some images I've been working on for my little project about infant sleep. I want it to be something other parent's can relate to.These images look pretty cosy but I also want to address difficulties like how hard it is sometimes to settle your baby and whether or not to co-sleep..more images to come soon!

These are all done in Parker Quink.

Sleeping like a baby (not for long then..)

I do a lot of drawings of Ez sleeping. Mainly because thats the quietest, most relaxing time of the day: nap time. I love drawing him playing too but theres something lovely about getting my sketchbook out and concentrating on his peaceful dreaming face. And I've been looking over all the different ones I've done, and they really are different, even though they are of the same thing. But actually, I don't think they are, each scene is unique...

Thinking of making it into a little project (feel like I need one) and making a series or book of images based on Ezra's sleeptime. After all, anyone who's ever had a baby knows how big an issue sleep can be!

Keeping watch

 New painting of Todd in one of his favourite places. Perfect to bark at any passers by! I wanted it to look a bit like the painting below which I did a couple of years ago. In the end,I guess they look pretty different. Maybe I was in a darker mood back then... 

more journal...

First post in a while. I guess its been a busy month... Ezra started to walk and just gets better at it every day. He had his first birthday, and his first seaside holiday (in lovely, if slightly drizzly, Bude). And his first festival (day ticket to Brisfest). 

And now its not really summer anymore. We don't mind, we're looking forward to a beautiful autumn.

journal

I've started a new journal with a real intention to do some writing and/or drawing in it everyday. I find it really helps to take the edge of the stress that sometimes comes with being  a full time mother (or perhaps just the stress that comes with life in general), to jot down a few thoughts or do a quick sketch. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, but just the act or recording something of my day, my experience, can be really comforting.

blog won't let me rotate!

 Time for reflection, thats what is sometimes lacking in a really busy day, week, month... 

Oliver and Friends

Oliver and Frends. Acryllic and pencil

Been very busy moving house over the last month but have found time to do a little bit of drawing and painting.

 Here's a portrait I did for Alice of her little cutey Oliver and his furry friends.

Summer sketching

I've been practicing my drawing from observation (rather than drawing from photos etc)... It can be hard as little babies are always on the move (apart from naptimes as you can see below), but I find drawing from life produces images with a lot more energy, you just have to be quick to capture it!

Ezra's painting from Friday's playgroup

Ezra sleeping, again

Yes, here is another drawing of Ezra. I don't know if anyone's thinking "come on, draw something different for a change"... but it just comes naturally at the moment. He's the focus of my life right now and he's changing all the time. You have to be engaged with whatever your subject matter is and I really am, I couldn't be more so. I'm truly fascinated by all the little things he does and how quickly he learns about the world around him. 

Ezra's finished name block

Ezra's name block

Its almost finished... A is for angelfish, anteater and armadillo, R is for raccoon, rattlesnake and rhino. Another post coming soon with the completed piece...

Messy desk

No matter how hard I try to tidy-as-I-go, I just can't help being a messy desk kind of person. I guess I don't really mind, it looks "creative" I hope. Anyway, we're getting ready to move house, so everything is everywhere at the moment. 

Below you can see two unrelated artworks. One is the ink and acrylic painting of  Grandpa (my Dad) and Ezra that I did for his 60th Birthday. The other is a wooden name block I'm doing for Ezra with letter associated animals..e.g E is for eagle, emu, elephant. More pics of that to come as it slowly gets finished.

Birdsong Speaker

Acrylic painting on wooden speaker, this has taken me quite a while to complete but I'm really pleased with the outcome.