IF-Haunt

Happy Halloween!!!!
The word this week is "Haunt" - rather fitting.  I had trouble thinking of something to go with Haunt, so I turned to the world of literature.  This image is based on my hazy recollections of the haunting that occurs in Michael Crummey's "Galore" - one of the best books of 2009 (in my opinion).  Turns out I remembered it all wrong.  Oops.  I'm pretty happy with the picture, though :)

Bedtime

Our bedtime routine of the moment goes something like this:

After dinner, if there's time, Griffin and Holly have a bath together.  Jai holds Holly while she flips and flops all over the place, Griffin practices cleaning himself, and I try to put some laundry away before Holly falls asleep in our closet.

While I put Holly to sleep, Griffin and Jai head downstairs .  Tonight they played Candyland for the first time.  (It didn't go super well, in terms of actual rule-following, but I think they had fun.)  I come back downstairs and help get Griffin ready for bed, then we head up for stories.  We feed his fish (all 23 of them, and counting), and pick out two stories.  Every night he gets two stories.  One out of bed, and one in.  Then we turn out the light, and I give him a big snuggle and a million kisses, and leave the room.  Jai stays with him for a little longer, depending on how tired he is, and how willing to stay in bed.  Tonight, as I was leaving, I heard Griffin ask, "How come fish can't blink?"  (Whew!  Dodged that one!)  Sounds like a night where I will have time to sit and write a blog post before Jai makes it back downstairs.

Holly is getting to the age now where she will need a new bedtime routine soon.  Right now I nurse her to sleep almost every night, but she is currently waking up five to seven times a night.  So that's not really working any more.  I think she would happily nurse all night long.  We ended up doing the whole "cry it out" thing with Griffin, and it totally worked, although it was very hard to do.  Holly is another story entirely.  She doesn't cry, she stands at the end of her crib, and SHRIEKS her little head off.  Sounds that a human being should not be able to make - especially one that is so small.  More thought is needed on this subject.

Usually, if Jai doesn't fall asleep trying to put Griffin to sleep, we have time for one t.v. show before we go to bed, too.  I try and do something with my hands while we watch t.v.  Sometimes I sketch in my sketchbook, sometimes I do some needlefelting, once in a while I pick up some knitting.  Some nights I don't have it in me by the end of the day.  Lately I have been spending too much time on Etsy, daydreaming of all the wonderful toys I would like to buy my children.  Mostly, I ignore the mess.

IF - Sky

There is a story I read somewhere of an old Goddess named Mother Holle.  They say when it snows that it is because Mother Holle is shaking out her feather pillows.

The Illustration Friday word this week is Sky.  This seemed to fit!  This picture I painted as a couple of different parts, using watercolours again.  Then I put them all together, and finished the colouring on the computer.   I like the painted parts better than the computer parts, but overall I'm happy with the picture.  It's almost what I had in my head.
I'll try and get back here soon for an actual update!

IF-Water

Hello!  I made it for another Illustration Friday!  This week the word is Water.  I've started a sketch of Sedna, an Inuit Sea Goddess, but it's still just in sketch form, so far.  So instead, I pulled out this drawing that I did a month or so ago, which will fit the bill.  This has been a super busy week, so rather than stress about it, I decided to allow myself to call it in. (Just this once!) Here it is:

IF - Mirror

Every Friday, I check out the new word, and then let it sit for a little bit.  Some weeks a thousand ideas go through my mind.  This week was one of those weeks, but somewhere, lurking in my subconscious, this image came up.
When I was a kid, I had this Enid Blyton book of short stories, and one of my favourite stories was about fairy mirrors - the dewdrops that get caught in the lupin leaves.  Now that we live in Nova Scotia, and have lupins everywhere, I think of that story often.  I have no idea what happened to the book - I've tried to find a new copy for years, but I've never seen it anywhere.  But I do remember the stories!

I tried to capture it a couple of times.  First, in watercolour.  I loved it, right close up, but as soon as I got more than 10" away, felt like the colours were just a little weak.  I don't think I was meant to be a watercolourist!  I tweaked it a tiny bit with the computer, so I'm happier with it now.

Next, I had a few minutes while Griffin and I painted together, so I snuck this painting over my initial drawing.  It's painted with Griffin's little pots of acrylic - he was kind enough to share.

If I had more time, I would probably try it again.  I'm not sure which one I like more, and I think I could probably get it better still.  Anyway, I thought I'd put them both up here, and put it out there... which do you like?
P.S. If you know which Enid Blyton book I'm talking about, could you send me the title?

Finally! An update!

Hello!  It's late here, and I need to go to bed soon, but I wanted to stop in, while Jai is at band practice, and the kids are sleeping.  This Fall has been passing so quickly!  I think maybe it's because summer is hectic, but unscheduled, and Fall is hectic, but in a more regular way, and the time seems to just zoom from one thing to the next.

Griffin seems to be growing in leaps and bounds now that he is in Preschool, and other people are teaching him things.  He thinks it's pretty neat to be able to show me something that he learned, and see if I know it.  Last week when I picked him up, he had learned how to pinch his thumb and his two fingers together, and the first thing he asked me when we got in the car was if I could do it, too.  Like this? I said, and he laughed and laughed.

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend in the city.  I had a wedding to photograph with Emma and a couple of meetings with future brides, and in between all that, we had some great visiting time with Grandma and Grandpa, and I got a great price on a pair of linen pants (regularly $285, on sale for $35!!!  Who pays $285 for a pair of pants?!?  But apparently, if you do, they will not shrink in the dryer (cue eye-rolling clerk!))

Holly had a horrible cold for a while there, complete with fever and full-body rash.  Poor munchkin.  She's feeling much better, but still not back to her regular sleep schedule (waking once or twice a night, as opposed to three to seven times)!  It all makes for one tired Mama.  But we are starting to gain a little bit of independence from each other, here and there, which is always fun.  I have a hard time believing she is coming up on a year already.  How is that possible?

 Anyway, I am SUPER behind on our family pictures, but these are some fun ones from the summer.  Bye for now (back soon with a new Illustration Friday!)

IF - Book

Here's another Illustration Friday.  The word this week is "Book" - a subject near and dear to my heart. 

This time I drew the sketch, scanned it into the computer, and did the colour digitally.  It was fun, but not as meditative as painting.  I think I'll try some more that way, though, as I'm pretty happy with the result.  I printed one out onto cream-coloured paper, and I just love it.  I think I might frame it and put it up in Holly's room (when she gets one!)

IF - Crooked

Well, here it is, Illustration Friday #2 (for me.)  This week the word was "Crooked."  So I made a crooked owl, trying to eat some little fellows hiding beneath a crooked branch.

 I'm thinking I may have to step away from my struggles with watercolour paints for next week.  I like them because I have this little kit that fits in the palm of my hand, and I can just whip it out and paint.  But I don't know anything about watercolours.  This kit comes with two greens, but no black.  No black?  Is that normal for watercolours?  Isn't it just a basic mixing colour?  Sigh.  At the very least, I suppose it's good practice, but I definitely feel like I'm over-labouring it a bit.  It's probably not a good sign that the paper I'm painting on is starting to ball up into little nubbly bits!
Anyway, this is the result (most of it, anyway - I lost some bits to the size of my scanner bed - smaller paper next time, too!)
I'm already looking forward to the new word tomorrow!

More photos (a link)

Hey!  Just wanted to stop in and let you know that I posted some more pictures from our trip to Ontario, over at Lauren Kaye Photography.  This one, though, might be one of my all-time favourite photos.  That chub!  That band-aid tan!  Love.

Topping the List

Hi!  I just posted my first post for Illustration Friday.  I'm going to commit now to trying to get one up every week.  There.  It's in print.  Now I expect social pressure to help me keep it up.  That means you!

Things are going well here - busy, as usual.  Griffin had another week at preschool.  He started crying as soon as I parked the car, but apparently only cried for about five minutes, and then was off playing.  We don't really know, of course, because he mostly likes to talk about what they had for snack ("I had crackers but I didn't eat the cheese"), and how he didn't go on the slide.

Holly is a going concern.  (I don't really know what that means, but I do like the way it sounds!)  She's crawling and flapping and ga-ga-ga-ing up a storm.  She's into everything.  She eats a lot of random things off the floor.  I've just about given up trying to pull every little thing out of her mouth.  How many furry tongues does it take before she will learn?

We're trying to enjoy these September days as much as possible.  We spend as little time inside as we can.  These pictures are from Hantsport, a small town at the top end of the Valley.  Griffin loved the splash pad, and completely agrees with me that we need one here in town.  That'll be my next project!

 Other than that, I've been busy dealing with the crazy amount of tomatoes, zucchinis, and grapes we've been harvesting out of the garden.  And Christmas is starting to loom on the horizon, as we consider just what we'll make this year.  Spinning tops and felted gnomes are currently topping the list.  But the list....!  Gets longer every day!

Illustration Friday - Burst

So I'm going to try and challenge myself to participate in Illustration Fridays, just to try and do at least one drawing a week.  This week's word is "Burst" and this is what I came up with late last night (I expect many of these things will happen late Wednesday night!)

It's not great, but it's my first try, and I've decided that anything I can come up with is better than nothing!

End of Summer Post

Hello again!  How does the end of summer always seem to slip away from us in a haze of beautiful, swept away days?  When home is just a stopping point, on the way to the next thing, and the end of the day arrives with all of us worn out and ready for bed.  I love it, and I love when the quiet returns as well, as we look forward to finding our regular schedules and routines.

Griffin started pre-school this week - his first day on Friday, and then today.  From now on, it will be every Tuesday morning.  About the first day, he had this to say: "I cried.  A lot."  This morning, all through getting dressed, eating breakfast, and driving to Paradise (yes, that's the name of the next town over) he was crying, "I don't want to go!!!!"  Then we arrived, and he clung to me and screamed as the daycare lady (Miss Cindy) scooped him up in her arms and said "Bye Mom."  And so I left.  I called fifteen minutes later, when Holly and I arrived home, and was told that he was still crying, but stopping once in a while to check something out.  When I picked him up at lunchtime, he was all smiles.  He had played, and sung songs, and had a snack.  He wants to go back already. Whew!

Holly is a speed-crawler now - giggling away if she's crawling toward something she's not supposed to touch (mostly the potty).  She giggles all the time now - she thinks dropping things is hilarious, pulling off her bib is hilarious, the word POP is hilarious.  And, of course, you can't help but join in - is there anything so infectious as a nine-month-old baby giggling?

We had an amazing time in Ontario (where all these pics were taken).  Griffin just loved being surrounded by family, playing by the lake every day, and meeting his cousins for the first time.  He still talks about it all the time.  Both kids handled all the travelling really well - Griffin said "Wheeee!" every time we went through turbulence.  All in all, it was a successful first family trip!  And, of course, I took a million photos.  Look how gorgeous it is!

Look at these two, only days apart.

Popsicles

Hi!  Um, I'm still hours behind on photos, so I'll just put some popsicle pics in here for now.  Holly is crawling.  Griffin is colouring.  Jai is being sick.  I am doing laundry.  Now you are up to date.