Pathetic drawing skills

When Julie saw the dried penguin she made yesterday, she opened up the folded paper and squeeled excited: 'Mommy, a book!'
But when I asked her what was inside she said: 'nothing, Mommy'.
I told her that the Penguin on the cover looked dirty.
She looked at me like 'You don't like my penguin?'

I said: 'Yes, but I think he played in mud all day.
Let's put him in bath.
She got all excited while I was drawing a bath tub.
I asked her: 'what does the penguin do after his bath?'.
'Watch television, Mommy?'
So I drew a couch and a television.

The next page was full of stains from her previous painting so I told her that the penguin didn't like to watch TV and preferred playing in the mud.
She giggled when I was drawing the penguin in the mud.
Then her good best friend longneck (giraffe) ended up on the page too and she smiled from ear to ear.
After playing in the mud they had to have dinner together.

 And penguin wasn't tired at all since he wanted to jump on the bed before going to sleep.

My drawing skills are pathetic but Julie doesn't mind at all.
She loved making this book together and couldn't stop reading it since she knew exactly what was going on on the pages.
Now I'll go make her color her book...

Feeling victory

Julie loves sticking my pencils in my jar of clay slib. *sigh*

Summer is in full swing here and I have a few weeks of holiday at the moment. It's been busy with a 2 year old around but today I had an entire day that I could play in my studio. Bliss!

It had been a while that I could work non-stop and it feels good to work on new things and also on a custom feeling. A good friend of mine asked me to create the feeling victory. She came up with the idea of using a ladder that came far above the feeling.
There had to be nine steps for all the obstacles that she had to conquer. I immediately loved the idea and couldn't wait to start making it

And the number nine also has a special meaning to me as it represents completion which complements the feeling victory. I hope she will love how it turned out...

This kind of day...

It has been the kind of day to put on rainboots and stomp about in the puddles!
Yeah, it's great to be a kid! :)

Special day in sight

In about a week, we're celebrating a very special day: Julie's first birthday.
I can't believe how quick the year passed by. When I look back on it, my heart just swells. I can't imagine life without our little sunshine anymore. She's such a happy face that loves to give and get cuddles. This may sound cliché but nothing beats the moment when you wake up in the morning and see this tiny, little creature laying next to you waking up silently. And the moment when she opens her eyes you see instant smiles and misschief. The past year, she turned our lives upside down and gave it more meaning. Yet another cliché. Perhaps life with children is all about clichés? Haha!

Anyway, I decided to make here a little outfit for her first birthday. I used an extremely pretty piece of fabric made by my good friend Anna. And I made a matching crown to complete it.
We're ready to celebrate! :)

Back in the studio

Last Tuesday I started working again in my part-time job so I thought it was about time to set up my studio again too. The maternity leave passed by superquick and I thoroughy enjoyed every minute of it. The past months, I had lots of broken nights (and I still have) and busy days that I spent with baby Julie. We get to know each other so much better and every day we have new adventures ahead of us.
The good thing about working at home part-time is that I don't have to miss out too much on seeing our little girl grow up. I'm very happy about that as she grows superfast like all kids do I suppose.

Anyway, I started out with some porcelain work as that doesn't take up too much space on my table so there is still place for Julie and her play blanket & baby gym. It makes the transition to 'back to work' a little easier... :)

Part of something bigger - volume 1

Last Friday, I received a package from Ama from Miss Minoes. I was very surprised and thought it was very sweet of her to send wishes and a gift for Julie. It was a text balloon that was made with wire and yarn. There was a word in the middle & I didn't really know what it meant but she wrote that the word 'als' meant dreams and fantasy but also that it was part of something bigger...

A bit mysterious to me and I actually searched the net to find if there was a meaning of the word 'als' but couldn't find anything really. So I let it go and reckoned that what Ama said would be true and I was happy with the pretty text balloon.

Today, the postman rang and delivered many packages from all over Europe. All from people that I know via Etsy. Hmm, I was very surprised and started with opening the envelopes from Austria. Baa from Baahar and Renate from Kreativlink send me the following: (the words mean 'a')

Then I opened a package from Belgium from Sandra from Zsazsazsu. The word on the hanger is 'small rose' accompagnied with rose petals and a beautiful, tiny, crocheted rose.

 

There was also a package from Germany from Ella from P8buttonart. It was a hanger made with buttons and the word says 'door'

Swee from Swiedebie (Netherlands) send two beautiful hearts and the words on there are 'as' and 'the'...

 

Inger from Ingermaaike send a mobile with a felted tree all the way from  Norway and the word 'as' was embroidered onto it.

Up until now I don't have a clue what all these words are trying to say but I suspect that there are more words on the way to complete it. After all, they seem to be part of something bigger...
I can't wait for the postman tommorrow. Thank you all for the sweet & very unexpected surprise for Julie!!

Art journaling

For years and years I've been frustrated that I can't draw properly. At least, that's what I tell myself. Of course I can draw but I don't think it looks really good. It doesn't look like all the artists that I admire in their drawings. But then, each has his/her own talent, right?
When I have an idea, I do see images in my head on how it should look but to transfer 'em onto paper is another thing.

I remember when I was in art school, the teacher insisted that I would draw my idea onto paper even though she already understood my idea while I was explaining what I was going to do/make. She said: 'if you can put it on paper, you can make it'  Hard work for me but it somehow forced me to pick up a pencil and draw...

I love seeing people's sketchbooks and art journals and I wish I had one of my own.
I must say that I often attempted to draw something and I have sketchbooks laying around with only one drawing in them. I always give up somehow.

I started another one, and I have a feeling that I will keep up with it as I want to do this for our daughter Julie. I plan to write & draw stuff about her and her little adventures that she will most definitely have. It's a challenge for me and I will have to learn to be satisfied by the fact that my drawings are not quite as they are in my head... but I still want to capture all these precious moments so I think it's worth it!

Do you keep a journal or have you attempted art journaling?

Welcome to the world little wonder!

Julie came into this world on Tuesday, 31th of July at 2:26pm.
She weighs 2760grams and measures 48cm.
Our hearts are bursting of LOVE.
Delivery was induced, without epidural, painful but reasonably quick (6 hours of labor).
We're over the moon with our little wonder!
I'm having troubles uploading an image of her on our Ipad but will soon show you how pretty she is!
Just didn't want to keep you in suspense any longer...

'till soon!
XO
Mitsy