Lately

The days after

::Painted sugar cookies
::Drawing on the Christmas Cards
:: Feeding the birds
::A very fancy surprise Christmas gift
:: Forcefeeding Nana the traditional goldfish crackers from the stocking
:: a day that was so warm + 2 celcius!
:: the new dollhouse took no time at all to furnish with odds and ends while we wait for the 'real' furniture
:: warm enough for a new snowman, who clearly needs a kiss
:: Lego mania
:: A baby who knows exactly where the cookies are, and isn't afraid to help herself
:: Sisterly love

Lately

The days here are cold, so cold that it makes you wonder about living here -30 (that's Celsius, before windchill), too cold to go outside most days, so cold that the houseplants are living on the dining room table as we try to cold proof our frigid front porch ( I think 5 degrees is a little cold for hibiscus, no?), with plastic film and heavy drapes- I'll let you know if it works. We've been baking, and cleaning, and visiting, and there's been quite a bit of elving going on too. Hope your Christmas is Bright and Sunny and warmish, I'll be back to post after the 26th.

In the Studio

the spectacular mess of removing wallpaper-
but this is the last bedroom with wallpaper upstairs! yay!

I love finding the layers of old paper and paint under wallpaper,
this bright teal blue is really lovely. 

It's that time of year again, time to get working on some art (actually it should be that time of year all year right?). I found that doing a studio related post once a week as I did last year, really held me accountable- I had to get something done if only to post about it, and I felt like I made a lot of progress, even if it was baby steps it was nice to have it all laid out for me, so I'm going to start those posts up again.

In keeping with Emily's making it happen in 2013 challenge at  Bluebirdbaby here are my art related goals for 2013:

• make a more consistent model for mugs- I love hand building but I find it hard to get a really uniform product, and while I like the unique quality they have- there is room there for a little more uniformity- there is a fine line between unique and weird- especially in functional ware.
• get my base glazes set- a good gloss and matte base that can be coloured using both oxides and stains.
• Get my studio set up so that I can easily slip into it for a few minutes and make some work. I find that caring for small children makes it really hard to find any solid chunk of time to make work- so I need to be able to work on something for 10 minutes then put it aside and come back to it later. If I wait until I have an hour to devote to something I think I'd be waiting a few years. 
• Get my little ones into a schedule that includes some devoted studio time for me- even if that time is interrupted by forty thousand requests for milk and pee breaks. 
• Set up a space online where I can start to sell a few pieces at a time, as I make them, I think that craft sales and farmer's markets are a great way to sell product, but it does require a large amount of stock that is constantly updated and ready to move. I have a hard time making that much stuff (because of aforementioned milk and pee breaks). Also by the time I make enough product (sometimes a year or two!), It feels like I want to move onto something else, and the older stuff seems not as good as the new stuff, and that is not the type of sale I want to have.

I think that's all of it. This week I'm doing a bit of a face lift in the studio- taking down wallpaper and ripping up carpet- I'm excited to see what the space looks like when I'm done- hopefully I'll get it done in the next week or two, and then I can get down to work. 

An Abbreviated Countdown Calendar

So I thought that some sort of advent calendar would be good for N this year- and I looked at all the cute ideas on the Internet- there are thousands- (and also as an aside- I think advent calendars on the Internet are generally misnamed- they're really countdown to Christmas calendars, we're not really religious, so we don't technically celebrate advent- which is the 4 Sundays that lead up to Christ's birth). Anyhow- our countdown calendar starts at 12- not 24 like most of the ones you see- because I think 24 days of anticipation is really too much for a three year old (not to mention a whole month of a chocolate a day). And also it's just got chocolates in it- no activities- even though I think that's where the future will lead us, it's just a bit easier to organize chocolates.

It's very easy to put together- just roll wrapping paper into a cylinder- secure the long ends with tape, and then sew each edge shut so that they close in sort of the opposite way, making a pyramid shape, don't forget to stuff the treat inside first, (as I almost did). Write a number on them from 1-12, then hang on a ribbon with clothes pins.

This Week

 

 

::Learning to wink, because of Toy Story, where we also learned the phrase " I don't remember eating that!"- said after you burp. Burp jokes were sadly missing from N's (mostly gas and poop related) joke repertoire, but no longer...

 

::Enjoying the fresh marshmallow, starting to become a Christmas tradition.

 

::Rows and rows of marshmallow cookies ready for their chocolate bath, mmmmmm

 

::Decorating sugar cookies as a family, on a Monday evening- what a great way to start a week.

 

:: N's first year actually being old enough to decorate the cookies, and not just eat the frosting.

 

:: Little touches of sunlight and shadow in the mid morning, as we get closer and closer to the shortest day of the year.

 

::Making corners of the house into Christmas, slowly, slowly