Entries Tagged as: baby

Happy New Year!

January 3rd, 2014, Comments (4)

Here's to another year of fantabulous creating, exploring, connecting and living!

On New Year's Eve, Annabelle and I created some fun fireworks art with white chalk and glitter glue on black mat board. Fun! 


If you're looking for a way to wrap up 2013, plan ahead for 2014, and a great a way to explore this month's "past, present, future" theme, then I recommend checking out Leonie Dawson's 2014 Create Your Amazing Year Workbook, which you can now get in a physical book format or in a download and print yourself version. I've done this workbook for years now and it's a great way to focus your goals and action steps, while honoring all you've accomplished in the year previously. Enjoy! 

Have you selected a word for the year? This is another ritual I like to do each year. This year I chose the word "live" because I want to really live all the big and especially the little moments this year. 

Let her Sleep

March 8th, 2013, Comments (6)

I saw this Napoleon quote in a variety of places in the last year, on wall decals and a variety of etsy art, including an embroidered piece, sign, and a print. Even though Annabelle has never been one I've had to "let sleep" (she is a super duper early riser and not the best sleeper. Oy!), the quote still made me think of her, my little fire ball, who I think will move mountains for sure.

I wanted to do my own version of the piece and since the theme is black and white this month, I opted to do it in ink. It makes me happy. I think I'd like to do it bigger with paint and grays and purples. We shall see. Time is limited these days! 

Anthology of Babes

March 1st, 2013, Comments (4)

Today is the launch of Anthology of Babes: 36 Women Give Motherhood a Voice, edited by Suzi Banks Baum. It is a collection of writings and art about mothering by women who are also artists. Do you pause during the course of a normal batshit busy day to wonder, “Will I ever finish a full sentence again?” or “Is it possible to resurrect my own voice amid the din of this crowd that persists in following me, even unto the bathroom?” These 36 women have finished a few sentences for you to be inspired by and to assure you that, yes, it is possible and even, really important for you to finish that row of knitting or write that story. In the words of Audre Lorde, “The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives." 

You can read more about and purchase the book here. Tonight there is a celebration of the launch with new readings from mothers in the Berkshires. More details here. How exciting! I wish I could be there too. I'm honored have my writing and art included in this anthology. I can't wait to get my hands on it! 

Hearts

February 15th, 2013, Comments (8)

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day. My day was fantastic. Sure, there were a lot of tantrums going on (we're going through a dramatic phase), but in the morning, A asked me to pick her up, then she petted my face gently and said, "Mama pretty. Pretty Mama." Heart melt! And then this evening, Andrew came home with a delicious dinner, my favorite chocolate chip cookie on the planet, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I surprised him by telling him I got us a sitter for an upcoming evening, so we can enjoy that couple's massage gift certificate I got him for our anniversary (back in October!) All in all, a great day.

I had some fun making Valentine's Day related crafts this year too. One on my own and one with A's help. On my own, I used my best friend's heart hole punch (I must have one of these) to cut heart shapes from old playing cards, scrap paper, and some paper I'd painted. They made such a pretty garland. I really wanted to make some vertical garlands, so that's what I did, but next year, I think I'll make more and make a regular long garland too.

With A, I wanted to make a Valentine's Day card for her daddy. I saw a great idea on Pinterest for making a hand card that made a heart shape when it opened. I wanted to adapt it, so that she would be more involved by letting her paint the paper we made it with. We spent one day while she was home sick, playing with red and white paint, so she could see how the colors mixed, making a new color, pink (one of her favorites.) I let the paint dry and on another day, I traced her hand on some paper. She loves doing this and she likes to see me trace my hand too. Then when she'd gone to bed, I cut out the shape of her hand and used the cut out to trace her hand onto her painted paper, which I'd folded in half.

Cutting the paper with her pinky finger and thumb touching the fold, creates a card with a heart shape in the middle. What a sweet memento. And her daddy loved it.

Sending love out to all of you. Have a great weekend!

Projects done in the dark of night

January 25th, 2013, Comments (8)

Going along with the dark theme, here are some projects I've been working on in the dark of the evening and a project I want to start bringing to light!

We did a very late Christmas celebration at my house this year with my family. I'd been wanting to make wreaths for the first time this year and I'm so glad I gave it a go! The first one, I'm so excited about. It was kind of tediious, but I didn't mind it at all. It was kind of relaxing tying all those ribbon bows to fill up this wreath for our front door. I ended up using a lot more ribbon than the instructions suggested, but that may have been because I just eyed the length of the ribbon for each bow.

The second was a simple cardboard frame with paper layered on top to create a pattern. I used it to decorate our wall of holiday cards.

This was a gift made for my step-mother, who likes my Itty Bitty Kitty paintings and once owned a Himalayan cat. It's just 4"x4" on panel. I've got other Itty Bitty Kitties for sale here.

And this...was my childhood dollhouse build by my grandpa for my third birthday. It is in rough shape. I'm hoping to clean it up and have the beginnings of decoration in place for Annabelle's 2nd birthday in May.

Celebrating the Holidays and Other Good Stuff

December 19th, 2012, Comments (3)

Something about the holiday season makes me feel crafty. I am not particularly good at crafts because I'm a bit sloppy, but whatever, I'm diving in! This year, it's been fun making some crafts with Annabelle's help, like these salt dough handprint ornaments that I made of her hand and one each for two of her buddies. I found the instructions here. They're a little warped, but with some acrylic paint and ribbon, I think they came out kind of cute!

I'd also like to say a big thank you to folks for spreading the word about the 20 Little Lights print, which I'm selling to raise funds for the Sandy Hook School Support Fund. I've been touched both by the kind words of those who were moved by the image and by the print sales. Thank you! I was really affected by the tragedy, as were so many and I felt the need to do something. Even if it was a small something.

I've loved some of the other "small somethings" people have been up to. I saw via Facebook and Instagram that people are committing to doing 26 acts of kindness to honor the 26 lives lost that day. What an awesome idea! If you're on instagram, check out the hashtag #26acts to see what other people are doing.

I also saw via Facebook, that my friend Suzi Banks Baum had joined up with a group called The World Needs More Pie to bring free pie to the people of Newtown, Connecticut yesterday. How awesome is that?

It's always nice to see how people can come together and do beautiful, kind things in the world. It makes a difference.

Celebrating the Holidays

December 11th, 2012, Comments (3)

I'd like to get into the holiday spirit with Annabelle and do some crafty stuff this year. Trying to contain the mess is a challenge! I do like how these ornaments came out though. A friend saw the idea on pinterest (I think) and I copied her, so I don't know where the idea originated from, but it's cute and simple and a nice craft to do with little ones.

I bought some plain red ornaments (some matte, some shiny) and then painted Annabelle's hand with white tempera paint (non-toxic). I pressed her hand on the bottom of the ornament, then repainted and did a few few more ornaments. (Be sure to have some extra ornaments, they won't all come out great.)

After cleaning up Annabelle and letting the ornaments dry, I used permanent markers to draw in the snowmen details and write Annabelle's name and the year. Sorry for the spoiler, grandparents! :-)

Now when Annabelle sees them, she says, "hand!" and puts her hand up against them. It'll be a nice memory of how small her little hands once were!

Day 2: Mother Daughter

November 2nd, 2012, Comments (17)

To honor my sweet little girl, who turned 18 months today, I did a piece of Mother - Daughter art today, a simple pencil drawing.

The first year was a challenging one with A, mainly due to lack of sleep, but I really love this age she's at now. It's still kind of exhausting, but it's so much more fun for both of us. I delight in how quickly she learns (a little sponge!), her love of alphabet letters, her love of people, her bright smile, her silliness, her endless energy, her intensity, her sweetness. I could go on and on. She's a little sparkler, this one.

Here's my sweet girl, twirling in her tutu.


 

Annabelle’s One Year Slideshow

May 9th, 2012, Comments (7)

I showed this to family and friends after her party. It's a bit long (17 minutes), but I loved making it (and watching it over and over.) :-)

 

Guess Whoooo Turned One?

May 8th, 2012, Comments (26)

My daughter, A! Here's a whole lot of pictures of the party and the decor that helped us celebrate this big milestone. Enjoy!

This party was a labor of love with lots of folks involved. I went with an owl them partly because when I was in labor with A, I kept seeing little owls in my head. I knew that owls represent wisdom in Greece (Andrew's father is Greek) and that Sophia means wisdom. And I just knew that should be her middle name!

I asked my best friend and partner in crafty crime, Judean, to help me out with the party because she is amazingly creative. I sent her a drawing of an idea I had for the invitation and she brought it to life in paper, with moving wings. So awesome! And then our friend Lis at Butterqueencakes.com took the invitation design and created a stunning cake and cupcakes that simply blew me away (and tasted delicious!!)

Judean also created the beautiful owl art above the timeline and the tissue paper one on the front door.

I also created owl lanterns, decorated branches with little owls, hung a "Happy Birthday A" owl banner, and created a clothesline style timeline with pictures of A in the same chair from 2 weeks through 11 months.

I made sweet little owl stuffies as favors for the kiddos. They were my first attempt at stuffies and they were a little wonky, but very cute.

A had a great time and was a real trooper with all the attention. She looked so sweet in her little dress, I could have just eaten her up.

I think she wanted to take pictures too. :-)

She wasn't quite sure what to think of the cake, her first sweet! She's a bit of a picky eater and likes to play with her food, so at first she just made faces as she squished it around in her fingers. Then she tasted it, made quite a face, and dug in for more! Mm, butter cream frosting!

She also had fun playing with the other kiddos and telling one little friend about her favorite toy, Ernie. She actually shouted "Ernie!" so loud at her, which cracked me up.

Here's our happy little family. We made it through our first year together, which was one of the fastest and slowest years of my life. I feel so lucky to be A's mom. She's a beautiful, bright shining light that makes the world a better place! Happy Birthday, A!