white picket fence

december minibook, part one

I am super glad I won this little book from Jamaica. I doubt I would have made any kind of memory book this past month if I hadn't been so inspired to use it. And I'm really happy with how this is turning out. The kids love it too! Anytime I take it out to work on it, they want to flip through the pages and talk about the photos. That's truly gratifying. 

The materials I used are pretty basic: minibook from Jamaica, screenprinted papers from Tina at Life Love Paper (side note: my first order from her shop appeared to go missing at the Anchorage post office, so she kindly sent me a whole new set for free... and then the original package showed up the same day. Silly post office!), a few gold glittery sheets of scrapbook paper I picked up at Paper Source, random other papers I had on hand, and those ubiquitous washi tapes from Target. Oh, plus sheets of gold vinyl letters I buy from a local art shop (I think they're meant for labeling mailboxes and stuff but I love them on art projects) and text typed out on my old typewriter. 

Here are a ton of photos:

The recurring themes for the month seem to be: cookies, church, wine, and cute little kids. And that sums up my life for the past few weeks pretty accurately. 

a very Licht-y Christmas, mirror portrait style

if any of us could ever make a normal face in a photo, it would be a Christmas miracle. 

I hope you had a great day yesterday, too 

 

26 pink postcards to the president

Earlier this week I was tired of feeling restless and helpless and dragging my mind across the same sadnesses over and over. What can you do in the face of this kind of unthinkable tragedy? Or, on a more personal level, what can I do? 

Well, I have paper and pens and stamps. I can write a letter. This is America! I have the right to reach out to the leader of the free world and tell him what I think. So I did. 

I feel a little sheepish about this project. It's SO SMALL. And I'm like 99.5% sure Barack Obama will never see these postcards. Also, this was just one tragedy. What about all the other acts of meaningless, lethal gun violence? I started to look up statistics and my head filled up with images of me at Paper Source, grabbing armfuls of pinks cards, decimating entire shelves, calling in reinforcements from other stores. I feel heavy hearted about how little I can do. But. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. 

***

I've had trouble feeling festive this Advent. It's not just last week, or the weird weather. It started to bother me, how little cheer I've felt. But I took a step back to think about the season of Advent. It's not really about cheer. For the first time in my life, I really thought about the words of this hymn:

O come O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lowly exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

I don't know about you, but I do feel like I'm mourning in this lowly exile. I'm looking forward to Christmas Day and pondering the fleshly presence of our Messiah in this broken world. There's a little blanket of snow today and that feels like a fresh start. I'm praying for Connecticut, for mourners everywhere, for all of us. Peace to you, my friends.

handmade holiday show

My little craft show set up.

So, it went well. I think even if I hadn't sold anything, I would have considered it a success. It was a success for me to get out there and sell some things in real life. It was a success for me to actually MAKE some works to sell instead of just keeping everything in my sketchbook and hard drive and instagram photos, you know? 

I left my display to the last minute but it came together really well I think. One trip to Ace Hardware yieled this $15 pegboard and some wooden clothespins, and the ribbon was left over from my brother's wedding. I printed out my signage on some Paper Source cardstock I'd found at Salvation Army for like 45 cents. Altogether I don't think I spent more than $20, which I'm pretty proud of. It makes me wonder how people make set ups for bigger fairs; it gets expensive to create all the work AND figure out a way to display it properly. 

Overall people were really kind about my work. There were a few little kids there that just kept looking and looking, and THAT made my heart sing. 

I had a few different postcard packs, an 8x10 print, some alphabet originals, and some mixed paper packs. All of these things will be in my etsy shop.... eventually. Let's say this weekend? The photography/styling part of etsy is my own personal challenge, and that's the only thing I have left to do, but it's a big task for me and doesn't happen without some toil. 

Thanks for reading this far. I knew a few of you were curious so I wanted to post a little update. And another thanks for all your support. I honestly don't know if I'd feel as confident about my work as I do with the kind words and comments I've received from online friends. Thank you.