luna moth design

new luna moth design for Seed & Sky. 

Seo woke up at 4 am saying "Owy" and couldn't fall back asleep. As I was rocking him in the dark downstairs he threw up. He got sick a few more times during the day, but he still managed to dance with Lili and play normally~ kids are amazing like that. One barf for me and I would cry and be down and out for the day. As it was, Alex and I took turns feeling like zombies from the lack of sleep today. I am hoping all will be quiet on on the home-front tonight!
xxx
Kelcey

pretty gosh darn lucky.

I got to have my day today.
I wrapped up some loose ends, packaged some orders, and worked on a special project creating a logo for a client's doula business. It was a lot of fun. I hope to find more fun and challenging jobs such as this in the coming year. :)

Journal page #2   2012

I also read THIS post today & it made me smile. It is long, but she captures the complexity of life with little ones so well. Perfect timing, since yesterday I felt very challenged by the job of motherhood. Not motherhood itself, ( I love being a Mom) but the day-in, day-out job is the hardest thing I have ever done. When I get to have a work day such as today, it feels so fluffy compared to parenting.

I feel pretty gosh darn lucky to be able to straddle the fence between being a stay-at-home Mom and working doing something I love for the rest of the time. 

kids, work, art, farting

In my mind, January started with me in the studio, having time to paint and create. However, Alex has worked every day this week instead. Financially we need him to work when it is available since it can be unpredictable in the winter. So painting has not come to fruition just yet. With the little ones at home it is always a balancing act. Some moments I feel lucky and blessed beyond words, and some moments I simply feel frustrated and restricted. It just depends.
I do love being home with the kids though. How many moments during the day I wish I could capture forever... but they pass through like water. The kids will say something profound and before our conversation is done I already can't remember the sweet inflection of voice or the sequence of words that made me giggle.  As much as I want to be selfish and go in my studio and paint for days on end~ I want to be present to witness my children grow more.
As I said, and as many of you know firsthand, it is always a balancing act.

In other news, Lili and Alex are trying to convince me to put a shiny "Who Farted?" bumper sticker on the front bumper of our car. The sticker is compliments of my Mother-in-law, (typical) and it evokes peels of laughter from Lili every time it surfaces.
We shall see. 

seed & sky feature

Here is the Seed & Sky feature/interview
from the online style magazine Fashion Ledge :: December Issue. 

Pretty sweet. :)

happy first monday...

first journal page of the new year

I am not of follower of Sai Baba, but A friend of mine posted this on facebook and it spoke to me:


"HAPPY NEW YEAR ....2012
Do not waste time speculating over what would happen in this New Year. If your actions are good, your future is bound to be good. The future of the nation depends on your actions. God is a witness; He neither protects nor punishes you. Each one is responsible for their pleasure or pain. In this New Year, develop new and sacred feelings and make everybody happy. Do not struggle for money; strive for love. Once you develop love, there will be no scope for evil qualities like anger, jealousy, etc. If your thoughts and actions are good, your future will be good. Then the whole country, nay, the whole world will prosper. Pray for the peace and prosperity of the entire world. Peace can be attained only through practice of human values."

- Sai Baba

Velija 2011

A big bowl of bread Alex made for our annual neighborhood Velija celebration on that we have on Solstice.  My favorite was the olive loaf.  
The rye bread was also very tasty. In fact, they were all delicious. As was the whole meal. There is something magical about having a tradition~ even if the tradition is altered heavily from it's origin.

(Okay, I just googled last year's post about our tradition to give a link, and here is what I said: "Bread Alex made for Velija. My favorite was the olive loaf." So, Yep. I guess I am THAT predictable...)

Moving on.

Here's to the dream that 2012 is the year we build our outdoor bread oven! 

I will start with the bad news:
Lili got sick on Solstice night.
Alex got the hard core stomach bug on Christmas eve through Christmas day.
I got hit the following two days.

So here is a photo of our lone stomach bug resistor:

Despite all the sickness sweeping our home, our holiday was really nice. In this time of year when the nights are long, it is special for me to have so many traditions fusing together to honor and trust that the light will return. My Mom & Paul are here visiting for the week so there has been a lot of time making food and opening gifts and reading books together too.  I am missing all the rest of our family though! 

We (with the exception of Alex) spent Christmas day at my sister Becca's and her partner Dave's house. The kids treat their home like it is their own which can be good and bad.  It's good because it is indicative of how much time we spend together. Bad because they feel at ease to smear their dirty hands and boogery faces into the nice white couch, and run around like crazy people, ect... But, everyone is always kind in lending a hand to the little ones for which I am always grateful. Paul even propped himself up on the bed with the kids and watched an episode of Barney. It melted my heart to see that~ for an adult to sit through Barney is true love. 

We received so many thoughtful & heartfelt gifts this year.  One of my favorites was my Dad and Amy giving a goat and a flock of 20 chicks in our names to Heifer International. We also were showered with nice socks, soaps, clothing, new shoes for the kids, toys, childrens' books, and chocolates. 

diy advent calendar

I stayed up until two in the morning one night making this advent calender. They are felt pockets mostly held together by hot glue, and strung from the ceiling (so no little hands can touch them). Each pouch has 6 m&ms and a little note. It isn't an exact sort of thing. For example, there are 2 days until Christmas and we have four left (???). And Lil can't read yet, so when we open it up and the note says to make something incredibly messy on a day that isn't flowing for us, I make something else up. Like "Oh! it says we need to read a Holiday story together!"

I had envisioned taking on some more meaningful family things this season~ like visiting a nursing home for example... but I haven't been able to pull it together.  The advent calander has been a sweet reminder each day to honor this time together. I am doing a pretty good job of letting go of how our home isn't tidy and all decorated etc, and I haven't done all the projects I dreamed of doing. We are just doing what feels right and do-able for that moment and for that day. It has been good.
Also, you wouldn't believe the thrill of three m&ms...

One of my more ambitious days:
We took up the rug and made potato print wrapping paper the other day. The kids were beside themselves with excitement.  I was smart and drew a bath before we started the project. :)

 I hope wherever you are that you are enjoying what really matters to you!

O christmas tree 2011

When I was growing up one of my favorite days of the year was the day we set up our Christmas tree. We would go pick it out as a family... we lived in rural New Hampshire... so it was snowy and picturesque in a New England-y sort of way. While we set up the tree we would drink egg nog with nutmeg out of special tea cups~ and listen to Christmas music.  A lot of ornaments had stories, and everyone had their favorite ones.
My Mom had a monkey that she got as gift when she was in the hospital with rheumatic fever when she was a child. My Dad liked a delicate glass reindeer and a piece of foam (from an old couch I believe) that he thought looked like a Star Trek ship. He attached a hook to it and tried to find a prominent spot for his foam (If you are wondering if it looked like a piece of garbage hanging on our tree the answer is yes). My sister Becca and I liked the same small porcelain angel~ and we would fight over it every year.

When we were asleep after our wonderful day my Mom would rearrange all the ornaments (gaudy and star trek in the back of the tree) so the tree looked perfect (to her).

Fast-forward to our sweet tree of 2011. I had it in my mind that I was not going to follow in my mother's footsteps and rearrange the tree to perfection. I was going to just let it be.  But it turns out that Lil favors certain branches while she is decorating. One branch had 4 ornaments on it. I was holding myself back from stepping in until I couldn't take it any more and I convinced her to spread them out.  When we were done decorating our tree it looked a tad jumbled, but sweet.

The next morning I realized the tree had been rearranged. All those ornaments I had convinced her to spread out were back on that one branch again. Ha! I couldn't help but smile. 

Speaking printmaking, HERE is a link to a printmaking class that my former professor/friend Gwen Diehn is teaching entitled: Letterscapes: Making Artwork with Wooden Letters

. She used a print I made in 2004 for the class promotion. It was part of a series of prints I made using the letter O.

old work

Visiting my friend Caren a couple of months ago I took a photo of a print I had made for her wedding in 2002. 

I had forgotten about it~ 

I made this print using a large piece of Styrofoam. When the print was dry, I highlighted some of the details with water soluble crayons.  

It has been way too long since I dug out my print supplies... 

There are certain sounds, smells, and textures that "get" each artist. I have a long list of these that make my heart skip a beat. But on the top of that list is the sound and feel of ink being pushed across a pallete with a brayer. It gets me even just thinking of it...

Prints make thoughtful gifts!

♥

(and don't forget about my 20% off blog reader discount with the coupon code BLOGREADER)

a contact sheet of most of my prints from my shop

Speaking of reasons to be happy...
Sorting through some of this year's photos for a present ideas I found this one of Alex and I from the summer. It was only taken a few months ago but it feels like years for some reason.

xxx