quote love

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‘And the time came

when the risk to remain tight in a bud

was more painful

than the risk it took to blossom’

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… beautiful words by Anais Nin, teamed with ‘My Fertile Garden’ artwork. 2010.

Just what I needed to remember today.

C xx

the countdown is on

The last week or so has been pretty manic – lots of nesting, hormonal tears and fluffing about trying to get everything ready for the impending arrival of Max Bear. And then there’s the exhaustion. Crikey. No wonder though … check out that growing bump! 34 weeks this week :) The countdown is on!

 

He’s sitting down low … low .. low and making me take an excessive amount of trips to the loo … loo … loo.

I finished up work this week too – my final day was today which included some more filming of me doing some craft activities with the kiddly-winks for a kids TV show on channel ten. Way to go out with a bang! By the time it airs, little Max can sit and watch the show too from my arms. He’s already famous in-utero.

So in other news, our studio-come-nursery still looks like a bomb has hit it, but it’s slowly coming together. I had a huge bawl yesterday for the simple reason that I saw this beautiful nursery online here and loved it … but because we’re relying mostly on hand-me downs, Maxies’ room looks nothing like this. *Sigh* Isn’t it just beautiful?!

For some reason I have an insatiable need for everything to match. But it doesn’t. Oh the conundrums! If nothing else, he’ll be well loved, and that’s gotta be better than pretty stuff, right?! (But then again, matching turquoisey stuff is pretty awesome).

Finally, I updated my website this afternoon, as I’m slowly getting everything organised to take a few months off for maternity leave. I’ll still be making art and blogging – just closing down my shops for a few months while I get used to being a new Mummy.

My shops will be open until 15th August – only 2 more weeks, so if you’ve had your eye on any prints, artworks or sale items, now is the time to snap them up or get yourself some early Christmas prezzies. I’ll likely re-open in the new year

   

Anyhow, I’m off to put my feet up for a while, so wishing you a beautiful, relaxing and joy filled weekend ahead.

Love C x

amazing artworks and inspirational illustrations

At risk of sounding completely up myself here, I just had to share this beautiful treasury I’ve put together, featuring some of the most amazing artists I’ve come across via etsy.

It’s called Amazing Artworks and Inspirational Illustrations. and you can check out the full feature here  … and click away to see each of the artist’s delicious online stores.

C xx

hooping hooray with my fabrics

Okay, so like a gazillion years ago now, I nearly peed myself with excitement over receiving my very first batch of custom-made art fabrics. It was such a dream come true at the time – I’d been imagining my art on fabrics for years.

However …

Since then (ahem - December last year), they’ve been tucked away in a little plastic bag in my studio, waiting oh-so-patiently for that perfect idea that is ‘worthy’ of their specialness to me. Roughly translated, this means I’ve been procrastinating all year about what to do with them.

Then this morning, my usual 4am pregnancy-induced insomniatic episode produced some wonderful results … I had a brain wave!

!!!

I can frame them in embroidery hoops! Yeah!!

That way I can just order a few custom fabric lengths at a time, make some limited edition fabric hoopy thingies with them, then move onto the next fabric design so I don’t get bored! And I can make them as seasonal prints (think Spring)! And they can be mixed and matched in clusters! And the financial outlay is kept at a minimum for me this way!

And … and … YAY!

Set aside the fact I’ve never used an embroidery hoop before – that’s okay, it’s time to do some research! Oh golly gosh I’m excited! This is gonna be cool. I’ll upload some pics once I get some together!

Yippee!!

C xx

arty displays

You might remember me bangin’ on here about a rad new indie arts + design shop in Ipswich called Cultiver, run by my two lovely friends Bec and Kyla. They’ve been operating for a couple of weeks now and the space is looking fantastic! I love how they’ve displayed my artworks and fabric jewellery bits ‘n’ pieces …

Art Prints

Framed Prints and Fabric Rings

Fabric Jewellery and Art Cards

The way they’ve set up the shop is pretty awesome, particularly because almost all of the furniture and displays are recycled, reclaimed and/or revamped. You can check them out on facebook or over on their blog – there’s some seriously awesome and unique indie design goodies to be found in store!

C x

original art clean out

The beginning of this week has heralded both an exciting, yet difficult milestone for me. It’s time to give up my art studio to make way for our baby’s room.

I admit I’ve been a bit spoilt over the last 8 years or so; always having a specific room in my home to spread my artsy things everywhere to create freely. Now, it’s all getting packed away and my beloved studio-come bedroom is looking like this in the meantime. (*shudders*)

The biggest job has been culling years of my accumulated art resources (you know, all those ‘just in case’ things you collect) and get a bit more creative with the space we have available in our two bedroom unit. It’s actually kind of empowering though – I’ve realised I need a lot less than I thought, and that I was hanging on to a lot of artworks and items that feels good to let go of now.

So as a result, I’ve created a massive SALE album over in my shop.

Loads of my large and small scale original mixed media artworks (and other artsy things) have been reduced, some by over $300, as I need to make space! As I uncover more artworks in the studio conversion, I’ll be adding them to the sale album, so keep checking back if you want to get yourself some massively discounted original artworks and take advantage of my obvious nesting period.

The sale is over here – share it with your friends if you feel so inclined.

Love C xx

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slowing down, listening to self

This week has been an interesting one. On Thursday at a routine scan at 32 weeks pregnant, we found out that there's been some changes in my body that indicate Bub could be coming along much sooner than expected. Like anytime from now on.

It's not definite - we may still go full term, but in the meantime I've been told to rest up as much as possible and put my feet up whenever I can as a prevention measure.

Although intuitively my body has been giving me some little signals to slow down for some weeks now, it seems that my old habits and old beliefs about 'getting things done' and 'not letting other people down' have meant that I've pushed through much of it and kept hard-at-it, even if I've felt utterly exhausted.

Now after finding out that this kind of behaviour could actually increase our chances of going into early labour, I've been confronted with the opportunity to reassess my priorities and actually say 'No' a lot more, purely so I can slow down instead.

And that means I'm gonna be letting some people down. And I'm going to have to pull out of things I said I could do. And I'm actually going to have time to tune in and listen to what truly feels right in my body, rather than in my mind of 'shoulds'.

It's funny, this evening we cancelled catching up with some friends of ours and although there was a glimmer of procrastinating on the decision and even old twinges of guilty shoulds, it actually also feels empowering to say, you know what, I just don't feel up to it tonight. I need to slow down. And that's okay. 

So instead, I had a nice Nana nap this afternoon, a long, warm shower and now I sit here in my dressing gown, catching up on many of my favourite blogs and seeing that so many other people seem to be experiencing a similar need at the moment to slow down as well. Listen to self. Listen to their bodies. And remember that the world won't fall apart as a result.

It's a nice change.

C xx

32 weeks preggers

He’s getting bigger!

Love you already my Maxie Bear xx

♥ Mummy

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taking stock: sold artworks and private commissions

Every now and again I think it’s always good to stand still for a moment to take stock of how far you’ve come. After selling a few more originals over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been feeling that my artworks are finally starting to take off in a way that feels good to me, without as much effort as I’ve needed to put in previous years.

So to take stock of how far I’ve come, I put together a little folder today with all the original artworks I’ve sold, which now adorn people’s homes and businesses both within Australia and Internationally. Quite the self-indulgent exercise, I know. But it was a really good one for me to do, because it’s so easy to ‘go go go’ without taking the time to occasionally give yourself a little pat on the back.

If you’d like to take a little looksy, you can find them all in the album below …

Sold Artworks & Private Commissions

Unfortunately there’s quite a few artworks missing from before I had the sense/resources/time to properly photograph them before they sold. Now, they only exist for me as a vague memory, like little orphans artworks out yonder with their new loving new families, which I’ll never see or meet again. There’s also a few I’ve left out which I would have rathered I didn’t document, but I guess if they’ve brought people happiness at some stage, then that’s a good thing.

C xx

new beginnings

I’ve just come back from a lovely day of antenatal classes and collecting my New Beginnings art exhibition from Urban Grind. Both experiences have left me with a feeling of freshness, renewed confidence and excitement about the possibilities of the future. This has been a wonderful change, ‘cause it’s actually been a shit-of-a-week at times.

As my pregnancy with Baby Max progresses, my body is starting to feel exhausted more easily these days, and it’s become apparent to me that I need to start prioritising what’s really important and how I can best utilise the energy I’ve got to get things done. I think this’ll be a great pre-cursor lesson to having children!

One of the main things I’ve been grappling with this week in terms of energy stores is how much time I waste on worrying about what everyone else thinks of me. With work, with friends, with family, with the pregnancy, I seem to do it with most people in one way or another – always worried about offending or hurting someone in order to do what feels right for me. Compound this worry on top of hormones, full time work and a baby who’s happily taking my lovingly donated energy reserves for his growth, I’ve realised the hard way that it’s time to let go of things that no longer serve me – or I’ll end up an exhausted mess! (Me by Friday evening = not a pretty sight)

So as best as I can, I’m turning a new leaf. I’ve taken the plunge and contacted people who I’ve been concerned about and just been open and honest about my feelings and insecurities, rather than wallowing in my own worrisome thoughts and guesstimating. That feels better and a lot more constructive.

And I’ve taken this timely advice from an article on worry that magically came my way on Friday evening - “Just as worry uses the imagination, so does the antidote to worry. Next time you find that you are worrying, imagine the best result instead of anticipating the worst outcome.”  (from the Daily Om blog). I’ve known this all along but when I get myself all wound up and tired, it’s easy to forget sometimes. And also nice to remember.

So all in all, this week of struggle has taught me that inside I’m a good person, I’ve got a lot to be grateful for and I have the power and strength to do what’s truly right for me and my family. Because at the end of the day, that’s now become my number one priority, and if I can’t look after myself, I can’t be the Mummy and partner and friend I want to be.

To add to my newfound inner strength and optimism; when I collected my exhibition this afternoon from the Urban Grind, I found out these two original artworks had sold during my show, and that there was loads of fantastic feedback to the staff about my art and the meanings behind my works.

‘Let’s Make Dreams Together’ and ‘Where Unicorns Live’

Because my work is based so heavily on my feelings and being honest about my strengths and vulnerabilities, I feel so wonderful that in a way, it feels like even strangers accept me and appreciate me for who I am, warts and all, through my work.

The challenge I’m now ready to take on is to accept, honour and love myself unconditionally as much as I possibly can, when I can – and to know that sometimes, enough is good enough.

C xx

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new artwork – do what feels right

Here’s a newbie I’ve been working on for the last week or two. It’s called ‘Do What Feels Right’ and I just put the finishing touches on it last night. It’s an artwork inspired by feelings, pregnancy and making decisions based on my sense of ‘what feels right’ as I journey into Motherhood.

I began this artwork after I met my doula a couple of weeks ago. She’s agreed to swap me her baby-knowledge services for some of my art, so this is one of the designs I’ve come up with for her. Soooo soft and floaty!

If she doesn’t like it it’s absolutely okay with me too – you never know how someone is going to receive an artwork commission – whether it’s what they had in mind or not. Regardless, I’d be more than happy to hang on to this one, I feel strangely connected to it. It feels ‘truthful’ for lack of a better word.

Anyhow, before last night the canopy of the tree didn’t have much definition (see pic above), so I added in some scrummy metallic copper paint as well as a few metallic flicks here and there in the leafy area. I also slightly softened the top area of the aqua-ish doily looking object in the middle left area with some cream, so it sits a bit nicer in the overall composition now.

 

I’m not sure whether you can see in the pic above, but the coppery/purply/red tree tendrils are actually raised about 4mm off the surface ‘cause I’ve drawn it on with some of my trusty squeezy sealer and let it dry proud. Just like the old days, when I made this one below, called ‘Orienne’

As much as I’ve loved working with watercolour over the last 6 months or so, it’s been really really nice to come back to using my acrylics and textures again. It’s like coming back to an old friend with new tricks! In fact I feel like painting again now! Yippee!

If you like these textured artworks, you can find more about ‘Do What Feels Right’ and ‘Orienne’ in my shops here (etsy) and here (madeit).

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