Creative collaboration

See, this is why I have to admit I LOVE iPad. I've made this drawing simply because I loved this polka dot fedora hat, even with the omnipresent hello kitty that my little girl paired with her currently favourite Marimekko dress. She liked the result, but made me promise her not to colour it, for she would complete it on her own. What a strange idea, thought I. She kept insisting,  so I've simply copied the file and let her play around with that, saving some interesting steps that she made on the way before it all got unrecognizably re-painted. Fun, simple, and inspiring...and collaborative.

Work in progress - stationery

Here're some results of what's been made today. I'm preparing a couple of new stationery products, the folders. And as it had to be related to something finnish, thus  they come along with the most known of Marimekko motifs - the "Unikko" motif. They are drying, and waiting to get a couple of prints and paint coats. And there's also the final layout for invitations for upcoming birthday party for my little girl - all I need now is to put the adress/time into the orange circles and the guest names onto matching envelopes. 

About all things changing

In fact yes, I knew, the things were meant to change, but they change now way too fast, so that I have to take time to keep up and not miss all those important shifts. My little girl is all of a sudden growing up so fast , and I keep wondering about everything she's thinking on family, baby issues, future. The little boy's getting bigger and stronger day after day, the whole family structure is still moving and getting to settle. And I'm filling my sketchbook with all sorts of drafts and project ideas and somehow find it difficult to choose what has to be done first. 

A quick decorative project

Today I'm gonna share here a quick and easy decoration project - I'm thinking about putting those to the nursing corner of our bedroom, or maybe develop it into something more elaborated. Right now I'm happy with the result, and it took me exactly a couple of pauses between baby care to put it together.

I've made the wreathes from birch twigs and coated them loosely with some acrylic paint. The rest is the usual patchworked fabric pieces, chosen to create contrast in colour and texture - a nice eye-catcher for a baby. A good idea, by the way, for crafting with kids - that could become one of the next projects for my serie "Children make art"-tutorials. I'll keep you posted.

Random thoughts...

I'm working... Like about between twenty minutes and maybe up to one hour a day, if I'm lucky. And if this amount can be called working - I'd rather name it squeezing a couple of seams here, printing a half dozen papers there. So there're gonna be some new projects in the next couple of weeks that I have to get finished. Thus I'm waiting, for I do not want to share the right now seemingly endless in-betweens. And honestly, it's not the priority for now. The priority is here, on this little drawing, that I've made this morning on my iPad.

As easy as I can get frustrated for the work flow speed gets stuck and all my projects are still in limbo, I still recall myself, that it's just a matter of time, that having a healthy family is most important, and finding myself in a new role as a mother-of-two (hey, how fast did this happen?) takes time.

So I have to let things get settled and not over-rush with what and how I might expect them to be. There're lot of things I'm unconfortable with, and lots of other things that I'm so happy with, in this new condition. And each day brings new discoveries, joys or defeats, that I cannot help but feeling myself overhelmed and lost, and tired... and then grateful, and stronger, and sort of enlightened, for this is what the life is about -  learning, improving, finding out what trully matters and going for it, about focusing on positive things and making them happen, for we have always choice how we interpret things and how we deal with them, how we influence other people's minds, no matter if they are three weeks old, three years or thirty three...

Slowly getting back to work

Remember, I've once written about my aversion towards ToDo lists. Well, it was all great while having one child, old (and encouraged) enough to be independent in many ways (as far as an almost-four-year-old can be): there's always been a bit of chaos, but it has been all manageable. Without too much organizing. But since there's another human being in our family, quite a demanding one, and like tenfold as many issues (in my subjective and still hormone-driven opinion) that need to be handled, the time is coming to make serious thoughts on being and getting better organized. 

My disposable time is now limited to little bites of 15-30 minutes here and there, and when it's over, it's definitely over, for you cannot negotiate with a two-week-old newborn. 

So when this precious bite of free-time comes, I cannot afford myself anymore to go get a cup of tea, sketch and procrastinate, because it's otherwise gone in a wink. Thus I spent last week (besides of reading tons of books on baby care, browsing on washable diapers, knitting baby jackets, getting back to learn finnish, and searching for new knit projects on Ravelry) figuring out how to organize and get myself of that procrastination mode out to work mode. 

Not easy, my friends, not easy...and I'm still dealing with the issue. Thus no practical advice for now, besides of learning by doing!

P.S. Here's something new - a new piece that I'm currently trying to working on - I need an eye-catcher for my little baby boy to look at after nursing. We're now having a perfect white wall in our bedroom, and I'd like him to stare at something more interesting as wall plaster reliefs. I've got a couple of frames, rectangular and circular, all I need is some paint, free motion stitching, needle felting, and LOT of focus and concentration during those time bites to get'em finished.

 

Designing the invitations

And slowly getting back to work....to make invitations for upcoming anniversary party for my little girl. Since she's taking the whole celebration project very seriously, I thought, I should pay more attention to how we're gonna organize this very important event in her life. So I thought of handmade invitations. Nothing too fancy, only some of my favorite techniques, quick execution, just to get myself started/warmed up for work after the pause.

I've taken some heavy 200g/m2 textured paper (water colour quality), rolled some greyish blue paint and light pink hue over it. While it dried, I've hand stamped some white cream paper sheets with the FOREST FRIENDS stamps from this post. Those sheets would build an additional layer on the top of cards, to put all the details about where and when later underneath, simply because those details are still not set.

Further I've played around with some circles of orange banana paper, tags from previous projects, and other stripes/scraps/hearts. So as for now, it's a mock-up. Now I'm gonna write something like "we're gonna party", or "save the date", or something else. I've made a couple of trials, but was not quite satisfied, that's why it's still a mock-up and not a final result.

I'm thinking of letting my little girl writing a couple of words as well as colouring the stamped shapes, or to let her make the layouts on her own with the elements, that I've prepared...