Sometimes Here Sometimes There

Family Photos

Here are some fairly recent shots I've taken around the house of the kiddos, the dogs and myself using my iPhone and Instagram. If you follow me on facebook you may have already seen these.

Liam has quite the time trying to look like a normal child in photos! I sure do love my little clown!

Elsa all dressed up for the outdoors. Elsa's aunt Monika made her that fabu hat! Can't believe I just typed "fabu"!

Yes.... I really am THAT weird! And here I am showing off my supreme weirdness. Funny story, I once made this same face except with my tongue sticking out to the side in a family picture. A family picture that consisted of most of my mother's family, many of the aunts uncles and so on and so forth! I obviously was a kid then but I think if I were in that same photo now I'd do it all over again! You only live once and if you don't have humour what do you have?!

Liam hard at work on his first collage! My little bug is quite the artist!

Elsa playing in Liam's room.

Elsa and myself

Liam and I being silly!

 
My little girl sound asleep in my bed.

Boo enjoying the comforts of my bed. I woke up to find this silly dog in exactly this position on top of my covers :)

Mr. Bingley looking pretty.

 
He's always beautiful!

A little sleepy

Heading out for a walk! OH the excitement!

 
Bundled!

He fell asleep on the couch with an apple slice in his hand :)

Devouring her daddy's fruit veggie smoothie and NOT sharing!

Me :)

Elsa wearing the pajamas given to her by our Super cool friends in BC :)

At the grocery store

Even little bunnies need to go to the grocery store every once in a while!

Elsa sleeping in her daddy's arms.

Oliver and Elsa all tuckered out!

She loves to sit in the toy basket like a little doll :)

This little monkey stole my heart almost five years ago and no matter what sort of mischief he gets into I just love him more and more every day!

How Liam eats a donut! He bites the icing off the top all the way around and leaves the rest lol!

HUGE News!

 

I have been wanting to post my great news for a little while now but you know how it is, busy busy busy! So here it is! Remember how I had sent in an exhibition proposal to a local gallery hoping to get my first solo show underway? Well..... I was accepted!!!! I will have about three whole weeks in August and September for my very own solo show! There will be 29 paintings on display, all different sizes and all but one will be for sale.  I'm SUPER happy about this news of course! We're just working out the details right now. If you're on the island this summer please PLEASE stop by and take a look! I'm unsure what day the opening reception will be but I'll keep everyone posted. I would LOVE to meet anyone and everyone willing to come out and take a look! Oh! Ha ha! I forgot to mention where the show will be held lol! My loverly wonderful super fabulous exhibit is going to be held at The Guild on the corner of Richmond and Queen Street in downtown Charlottetown PEI. I can't thank The Guild enough! LOVE you guys!!!! SUPER FABULOUS!!!!

The above image is of a very small portion of a new painting to be revealed at my show this August!

A Collage

 

This collage is the only creative thing I did all weekend. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. I think my uncertainty stems from this being a very different sort of artwork than that which I'm normally used to and it's simply throwing me off. I've been SO inspired by the collage work of Mark Hearld lately and the other night I just felt driven to get off my bottom and create a collage of my own! So here it is in all of it's maybe possibly glory. I might do more of these if other people like them or if I warm up to this one myself. It's definitely a great way to get through some of the smaller scraps of patterned paper I have on hand! Feel free to let me know what you think of this piece by leaving a comment I could use the feedback!

New Artwork!

Close up taken with Instagram on my iPhone. I LOVE Instagram!!!!

My newest little mermaid is swimming around on an abstract mixed media background! This painting was done on a collaged 16" x 20" stretched canvas. I'm loving this combination of colours!
Notice how all but one of my mermaids so far have had red hair? They're redheads in honour of my own little redhead Elsa.
An acrylic 12" x 12" stretched canvas portrait of my sweet little bunny rabbit Elsa in one of my favorite outfits I've dressed her in so far. I painted her holding her favorite stuffed toy, a little grey monkey.  Obviously this painting will stay with me forever :) The stars are done in metallic gold paint and look super neat when they catch the light!

Another painting made specifically for our home. This one is mixed media on a 16" x 20" stretched canvas. It reads "In this family we PLAY hard DREAM big SMILE often LOVE deeply". I'm going to be adding more inspirational wording to my work in the future.

Note to Self; I am NOT a Failure!

There seems to be quite a few moms out there making it big with their own creative businesses. This tends to give me false hope. It's very easy to instantly compare oneself to someone else because you may have something in common with them. Completely ignoring the fact that your situation differs in a million other ways. When I see these other women succeeding in the way I want to succeed I immediately think I can do that too only to become flustered when I can't make it happen overnight. I am not a failure just because I have to take things slowly. I have to constantly remind myself of that one, CONSTANTLY! Most of these stay at home mums are not completely alone. They may have a paid babysitter, a helpful relative to take the kids when need be, or maybe daycare, preschool or some other program that gives them some alone time to work on their craft. I dont have those options. Right now, at least until my little ones are of school age I am a full time 24 hours a day 7 days a week mum. That doesn't mean I have to quit trying to succeed in my artistic endeavors though. It just means that my artistic endeavors will take more time than they may someone with more resources available to them. I am coming to terms with this. I am starting to relax! Starting to give myself a break. Life is too short to spend it disliking oneself and feeling like a failure. I am NOT a failure!

Another Christmas on Prince Edward Island

Christmas this year was far better than last. Last year I had just given birth to my beautiful little Elsa and was rather bloated and sore. Because of that I was far too tired to make the most of the Christmas season. This year however I did better. I still had those lingering bah humbug feelings, I'm just not the holiday celebrating sort. But with Liam being four years old and finally understanding that the 25th is something a wee bit more special than any other day I have to get over my hum buggery and be jolly with the rest off them. So Oliver baked chocolate chip cookies, I decorated our nicest tree yet and we watched all of the cheesy Christmas movies in between bouts of Bing Crosby singing Christmas carols.  I think we succeeded in making Christmas special for Liam and hopefully each year we'll do even better! I hope everyone out there had a very happy Christmas as well! Here are some pictures of our little Christmas celebration, enjoy!

 
Elsa amidst the Christmas morning chaos. Picture taken with Instagram on my iphone.

This is what I get when I ask Liam to smile nice for me!

Totally unimpressed! Boo and Mr. Bingley napping on the couch. Picture taken with Instagram on my iphone.

Oliver and the kiddos playing with Liam's new Handy Manny toolbox. When asked what he wanted for Christmas Liam would always shout "HANDY MANNY!"

Still playing with the toolbox!

Vintage mercury glass balls and the Union Jack! Just some of my pretty vintage Christmas treasures on display. Picture taken with Instagram on my iphone.

The Christmas wreath I made years ago using yarn, vintage doilies, mercury glass balls, and other vintage treasures. This is the first year I've had this wreath out. When I first made it I didn't like it so I put it in storage. This year my feelings changed and now I finally have it out :) Picture taken with Instagram on my iphone.

My vintage deer collection. These guys only come out for Christmas which makes them even more special! Picture taken with Instagram on my iphone.

More New Work

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper. What can I say, I LOVE bunting!

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper. This was inspired by Jennifer Murphy's creations :)

Coloured Pencil on 100% recycled paper.

More mermaids! Acrylic on a 9" x 12" piece of watercolour paper.