mamaAyanna

come flying like a bird

A plane passes by ...

"Ooohh zoooeeeeefff, opa zoef, oma zoef, Ja? to Ayanna? ja?"  and then she has a big smile on her face. Soon opa and oma will come "zoef" with a plane from Europe to Ayanna and she is very excited.

But today is not the day. So we talked about the plane flying like a bird and I folded her a bird from a paper.

 

When I was young someone gave me an origami book and I tried everything, loved it, but the bird (crane) I made out of every little paper I could find. Even when I was older, drinking cups of tea in little cafes around the world, I made many teabag covers into these birds. It became a habbit, something to keep me creative even while talking.

I am pretty sure I could fold one with my eyes closed.

So the plane is like a big bird. That made me think of a fun project for a special occassion.

Today opa (my father) has his birthday!!

Opa, I think, would like to fly like a bird and opa always arrives here with the plane.

So we made opa a special bird mobile. Ayanna's painted square papers were folded into birds and we hang them all together.

 
Happy happy birthday lieve lieve lieve papa/opa! You are SOOOO special!

This mobile will be waiting here for you (to come flying to us like a bird.) We can hardly wait and will be eating cake on arrival.

While making one, we made another special one for our friend's birthday today as well... lots of birds!

 

xox

little artist

 
 
 
 

 

Little artist big mess...

 

behind the clouds there is sun!

It was one of those upstate NY spring days where the sun is hiding behind the clouds and the temperature dropped to nearly freezing again. Crazy! A week ago it was like summer. 

Yesterday the skies were grey and white and we saw some lost snow (YES) flakes!

So we stayed mostly inside and Ayanna painted for the first time with a brush and watercolors. She did amazing (proud mama speaking!)

These will be framed, for a while at least.

Anyone have a good system to share for children's art work? Before I know it my home will be totally covered in it.

It was fun, even the cleaning up...

Today the blue skies are back, yet it is still awfully cold.

Winter coats can definately not be packed away yet here. Last week was just a "teaser" or "a sign of hope." 

  

one day at a time

I am so inspired these days, everything seems to be just unique and beautiful, I am filled with ideas, with images, with thoughts and words...it doubles daily, the list gets longer and my dream world more beautiful, more dynamic.

 I am a wife , a mama, a daughter, sister, friend and pregnant. All of those come first in life. Those are far most important.

Yet, I long to be creative, to have more of that artistic time without cutting down on my sleep. I long to have more time with just me and my art, to find my own style within my work. To make my art, my blog; to what I would like it to be.

I am taking it one day at a time and I am glad the sun is out!

To really be together as a family, enjoy early spring outside, get things in perspective, make some choices, walk in the wind, enjoy new surroundings (more inspiration!) and to not think of daily things;

 we have planned a short outing in a few days. 

Time for more laughter too

...

(See the "victory" smile on Ayanna's face, when she decided to win by just laying on top of papa's head.)

 

Until I am back I will be finishing up some work, visiting friends, replying emails, packing and cleaning. I am already excited to share my new experiences, thoughts and maybe some artwork with you soon!

More time for art

I have been getting up early these past weeks. Early morning around 3 or 4 a.m. Whith a reason though, I have been making time for art. I did go to bed as soon as Ayanna did around 7.30 or 8 at night. It was challenging, but nescesarry. Portrait deadlines that were way passed due, new projects I took on and my blog (s).

For Rehema home, a charity of a friend of ours, there was a fundraiser. I made three sets of cards and necklaces for the fundraising event, held at the amazing artisan works . Truly inspiring, the event and the surroundings. It was a wonderful night and I was glad, very glad, the sets of art I made got auctioned off well.

I created a new linoprint for the cards.

The necklaces were like the ones I usually sell for our schooling project. Simple hennep rope with glass beads.

Then I also finished three portraits by commission. I will be able to show these as soon as I hear they have arrived at their destination, this time in the Netherlands. One for my aunt, who is an artist herself.

So now that all these projects are done I will have some more time to figure out all I want for blogging, my etsy shop, our new baby to come and there will be time for more sleep and naps....

I feel good! Very good!

 
  

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

May these days bring you peace, rest, light and lots of sweetness,

memories in plaster

We received an early Christmas gift from Josiah's grandparents. It is a nativity set made out of plaster. The set came as a craft project for children, plain white plaster figures and paints (and a really bad brush). As long as I can remember I have had a love for crafts and art. These plaster figures brought back memories from childhood birhday parties, where my dad would make figures out of plaster for me and my friends to paint.

 
On the right is me, when I was around eight or nine years old, painting the plaster statues! 

So seeing this early gift made my heart make a "happy jump!"

In between daily chores, while Ayanna was playing around... drying on my things-to-do-list...

A Magic picture

While being artistic early in the morning, I hear these strange sounds. I realize it is our neighbor shoveling snow. SNOW! Our second snow for the winter. When I open up our curtains I see the morning beauty. The photo I quickly take through our window is a little magic picture with the lights of our Christmas tree reflecting in the glass. ALL the inspiration I needed for this day.

Have a magical day,

The way I would draw a Christmas tree

Our tree is up and decorated. Mostly with handmade ornaments. But I must admit I did not stay totally within the challenge. We bought a few balls and the Christmas tree lights!

The tree we choose ends up being a "perfect" tree. One that looks like the one I would have drawn when I was young. One that could be found in coloring books. It is so symmetric! It really is a Christmas tree. Besides the looks, I also LOVE the smell of fresh pine in our home.

Some of the handmade decorations, in better light. These are foam balls and scraps of old fabric/clothes/socks etc. VERY child friendly!

Have a creative day!

Finally it did snow!

Winter is really here, it finally did snow up here in NY! We made a happy dance.

Yesterday there were some flurries of snow during the day. It barely lasted long enough to run and get my camera, but it was snowing! My sister in law captured us looking at the "oooooohhh pitty" snow.

The evening started out with bright skies around sunset.

Our window candles were lit inside and we kept the blinds open to still enjoy our neighbors decoration as well

Cozy, yet the diningroom table is still a creative mess  when we go to bed.

And after a good night or sleep we wake up with snow! YEAH! Right away Ayanna is taken outside, where she barely moves and just looks around with big eyes of wonder. First time standing in snow.