white picket fence

quietness

I've finally accepted that Restlessness is just a part of me. And now that I've accepted it I'm learning from it. Learning to work with it, not against it. I always want something else, something better. And in the past I've tried to fill that with mindless internet searching and being unsatisfied with things I can't change and worrying about the future.

Well, let the future worry about itself. Let the mindless things go and let the unsatisfaction lead me to meaningful and honest changes in my life. All my empty moments do not need to be filled. If every part of my life is packed full, how can any new good things find their way in? 

I guess all of this is just a winding explanation for why I'm taking a break from Twitter and Tumblr for now. I'm taking some of my time back to see how it feels. So far, so good. 

go back to your first love.

I've been spending a lot of time drawing lately. And thinking about Etsy. And rebranding. And illustration. And what I should do, what path I should follow, the next steps to take. All that thinking was making me a little dizzy and unfocused. 

So I went back to what I know. I made some collages in my Walls notebook. It feels good to cut and paste again. 

Though of course this started a whole new flood of projects and ideas. And I'm left with more to do, more to think about, more to imagine. But I'm refreshed now, and that's exactly what I needed to be. 

(I've decided to start posting images to flickr again, and these look way better there.)

january days

pigtails. runny noses.

long hours playing outside on the unseasonably warm days ("mommy! stop taking pictures please!!") 

long baths when I can't think of anything else for us to do.

art projects that are really more about making a mess. and then eating paintbrushes. and then having a meltdown when I take the paintbrushes away. sigh....

and that's what we've been up to the past few weeks. 

december patterns

I never fully commited to Anika's "Let's Make Patterns in December!" project, but I did make a few here and there. 

There are lots of things I do EVERY day. Make the coffee, pick up the toys, change the diapers. I can't ever fully commit to any real "thing a day" creative project though. While I'm not one that really believes in the necessity of "inspiration," some days just don't feel like drawing days. I have reading days and cooking days and collaging days all jumbled around. It works for me and it feels right.

But hey, hats off to those of you that accomplish daily projects! Last month, Instagram was full of pattern inspiration from so many artists. Thanks for working hard and sharing