Oh goodness...

It may be obvious to you by now that the end has come for this blog. It has served me well over the last few years, but I think I've outgrown it, and I have plans for a new online space, which I will share in time, for now I'll leave up the old posts and archives, but I may in time make them private as well.

As the kids grow I wonder more and more about bringing them up with so much of their lives online, and though I think of them as my most important works of art, (always in progress, always moving in some unforeseen direction, always more astoundingly beautiful than I could first imagine...) it doesn't sit well with me to share so much of their lives when they have little control over it themselves. For surely they are their own most compelling works of art in progress, even more than mine; they are busy creating themselves, and imagining themselves, and I want them to be in charge of what the world sees of them, (not yet of course, someone has to filter out the six year olds' fart jokes and the moodiness and angst of being three and half, if she had a blog it would be all manic depressive control issues, with a few rainbows and unicorns thrown in for good measure...though it would probably be very entertaining).

Thank you my friends, for sharing this space with me, it's been much more than just a way for me to share images of my kids, garden, art and passions, it's been a way to build community when I've been in my isolated early parenting years, and a safe space for me to explore my interests and passions. I hope to read more of all of your adventures, and to share some more of my own in another space soon,

Take care- Angela

Lately

We've been living, and planting and enjoying the wonderfully warm spring so far, but we've also been fighting off colds, and not fighting them off, and teaching clay classes, and mowing grass and figuring out how to adjust to the spring weather, and coping with spring fever (as said by a certain five year old before she goes wild, screaming and running around).

Spring is a particularly fraught time around here for some reason, it's lovely and enjoyable but it also tends to bring out the sensitivity in my super sensitive spirited child, clothes itch, and labels annoy, sounds seem way too loud,( I think because we've lost the acoustic cushioning of the snow) and we have to deal with so many new shoes and coats and routines. It's all a little much- though I notice as she gets older how much easier it all is- how many coping mechanisms she has now, where she used to just scream. I used to think all kids were like that, because N is our first we just assumed they would all take 5 minutes to fix their socks so that the seam was just right flipping out about it until she was inconsolable, but then her tantrums went even crazier (in spring, I used to joke that we needed a poster that counted how many days since the last tantrum- except ours would be counted in minutes) and I read  this book- it's a game changer.

She still gets frustrated- but I can mostly talk her out of it, and she usually doesn't tantrum at all, this spring she's had probably two a week, but that's nothing comparatively. She also plays by herself, and is pretty much self contained doing crafts or playing games, or writing little books (her last one featured Rose, a girl who goes into the woods and gets chased by wolves, who she then teaches and in return the wolves teach her to howl at the moon.) She also staged a wedding for our two male cats- When I pointed out that they were both boys, she was like "but they love each other and they're best friends, and I remember you said that boys can marry each other if they love each other", So we showered them with flower petals and threw them a party, and made them say their vows, and I was so proud of my little open minded girl. She also knows that Nelson and Ferdinand (the cats) can't have kids naturally, but she's holding out hope that they'll choose to adopt a kitten.

I also got a new camera and it's really fantastic- I ended up with the nikon d3200, which came with a zoom lens- but I bought a 35 mm prime lens to go with it too- and I'm so glad I did- the photo quality is just awesome.  I haven't even gotten into the program that comes with it to adjust them after- all these photos are not edited at all (except for size), the light and colour quality straight out of the camera is amazing.

In the garden the rhubarb is growing already and the asparagus is up and Little A is eating all the rhubarb she get her hands on, all winter she was pining for the days that she could "walk out to the garden and eat rhubarb" and now those days are here. She was helping us plant potatoes and throwing them in the ground a little too hard so I said to her, put them in the ground gently like they're babies, she promptly cradled the wrinkled seed potato in her arms and said "awww he's so cute, I will take care of you and be there for you in the morning when you wake up" to every. potato. she put in the ground. Adorable, and time consuming. But mostly how great to be at an age when you think treating something like a baby means to whisper sweet things to it and cuddle it close to you, Precious.

March

Oh hi guys- if anyone is still out there- here is a monthly report of how things are out my way...

My camera is broken- which really gets in the way of blogging, and also takes up huge amounts of time in research- WTF is wrong with it? (still no idea really- but I think it's got something wrong with it's shutter speed/iso connection- it's basically turned into one of those really crappy cameras they used to give out with happy meals at Mcdonalds- it has to be in super bright sunlight or it won't work.  But it's still working sometimes- usually just on my test shots and not when the kid is smiling, sun is setting, cat is being cute, of course)- Can it be fixed? (no- I don't think so)- What kind of camera do I want now? (I think Nikon- and I'm stepping up to a dslr- looking at the d3200 which is not super high end- but probably enough for my needs, unless I can find a d5200, or d5100 for a good deal- I'm not spending 700 bucks on a camera since the lifespan of such an item seems to be about 4 years around here). Oh and also what am I using my camera for anyhow?

N is losing her first tooth! It's been wiggly for a while but now the adult tooth is coming in behind so I'm sure it will force it out at some point, I can't quite believe that she's old enough for this to be happening, also she gets report cards from school, and it's sort of hilarious the things she needs to improve on ( not that there's much) but skipping is an 'area of focus'- not jumping rope- but actual 'tra-la-la' skipping, I never knew it was so important. Also counting backwards from 10. Big things to work on here- meanwhile she's ahead in other areas- like reading and writing, and she has a "kind and quiet demeanor" which I thought was such a lovely way to describe her. The cuteness of her writing is epic, and her journal is a treasure.

I'm looking at website builders, Squarespace, and Wix are sort of leading the pack at the moment- I looked at wordpress and I just don't love the rigidity of it- but maybe I'm wrong- what do you think?  I want something that allows me a space for a gallery of works, and works for sale, and a blog, and artists cv, bio and statement. Maybe I should just forgo selling stuff on my own site and open an etsy store and link to it from my website. Any thoughts?

And of course in order to start up a website I need to have some work to sell or show, I'm working on it! So far I've got a huge portrait of N as summer on the go- it's almost ready to give you a sneak peek, and some clay stuff that is waiting very patiently to get fired- April is going to be a clay heavy month because I'm teaching a couple of classes, and so I must get things in order and also summer is coming!  I would love to have more work finished to sell locally at markets. Things are busy around here despite my blog silence, and Spring is on the way and seedlings are sprouting, and grass is showing, and kids are mucky, and the fresh smell of spring is upon us, enjoy it my friends!

Happenings

Is there anything more festive than tissue paper hearts that accordian out?  The girls watched me unfurl it like it was some sort of magic. Love is in the air. I think Valentines Day is the biggest school holiday, so much preparation is involved, and the excitement is un real. Or possibly any holiday celebrated in February would be a big deal- it's so wintery- and the novelty is wearing off slightly.

My studio however has been seeing a bit more use- My easel is set up- the paints are laid out- the brushes are wet- and today- Canvases stretched- I haven't stretched a canvas in a few years- but it really is like riding a bike- and so satisfying to methodically staple it all down so that it's drum tight and utterly transformed into a surface worthy of paint. Lovely.

These books were my latest Amazon scores (does anyone elses recommended reading list from amazon scare them- it's like some sort of alternate universe in which you are an extreme version of yourself), I loved "Steal like an artist"- it's small and short- I read it in one night- but full of good wisdom. You know how sometimes you know something- but you don't really act on it- or people tell it to you all the time but it doesn't make a difference and then someone says it and it just clicks- either you're ready for it- or something about the delivery makes you take notice- or whatever and suddeenly it becomes a big truth. This book has lots of moments like that in it. It's good. (I also love it when advice books give me the advice that I'm already acting on from my own intuition- makes me feel like I'm awesome, even when the advice is pretty basic).

Happy Valentines my dears! hope you're all enjoying some slightly sticky kisses (or is that just me- the kids are pretty much coated in a film of chocolate of sugar these days...)

In the New Year

Hi Folks! Happy new year- oh what's that you say- it's almost February? Hardly new year territory anymore? Well- yes that's true-strictly speaking- but I think it takes at least a month to get into the new year's groove. And I've been busy with the kids and the surgery healing and all that stuff. Plus it's been amazing weather wise here, above zero some days and that must be celebrated with snowmen. And there were a lot of snacks to be consumed...so... I was busy.

Anyhow- on to the blog, new year, new changes, we're renovating at our place right now, so things are sort of mayhem-like. This renovation has been in the works longer than I care to say- and we've been attacking it the same way some people make knitted projects- (you know small bursts of intense making, followed by longer periods where it sits in a bag and gets forgotten about- only to be dug out decades later almost complete- but woefully out of style, or is that just me?). Anyhow it's exciting to be getting this reno on the road, and we're such die hard do it your selfers it's bound to be entertaining for you too. It's a kitchen project mostly- but as with most old houses the projects do tend to balloon
into other rooms, so far we've only had to re-wire the entire house, as a side project- it's almost done- but not quite.

In other news I'm also hoping to switch this over to, or connect this up to a more serious professional website, I'm not sure what shape it will take- but I want my online art presence to be a little more, well, um, present to start with. An etsy shop or some other shop will likely be involved, and so that means I need to make more work. I think a main theme in my art making is that I need to make more work, always. But in other art news I think I'm going to start making some new paintings- I haven't painted since I left school- but it's my natural medium, so I'm going to do a series of portraits, I've got to get some canvases made and then I'll be off- the above photo might make a return as a painting- a 'Madonna of the cats' sort of image- we'll see- it's early stages yet.

I'll probably post a bit of my inspiration posts too- but I'm aiming for a more organic blog this year I think- one that doesn't feel like a chore, and also allows me to spend my creativity off the screen, instead of squandering it here (that sounds negative- what I mean is- I want this space to to feed my real life creative endeavors, not take the place of them. I think that's possible- I will try anyhow.

Hope your new year is ticking along well, and you're enjoying the winter so far- what's better than scarves and boots and hot chocolate anyhow?