Showing posts with label friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friday. Show all posts

Friday, September 12, 2008

Friday Feature - Une Petite Etoile (one little star)


A star is what blee feels like when she wears one of our many luxurious bibs by Etsy seller Une Petite Etoile. My love for her clothing started when one of my favorite customers sent me a gift package filled with bibs and onesies back when I was pregnant. Now I have everything from blankies to diaper covers.

But now is not the time for me to shop for myself. Now I have a friend who is expecting a little girl at the end of the month and I need to find her something special so here I find myself back drolling at little frilly yet hip dresses and more bibs than I could ever need even with my messy eater. The things that keep me going back are her flawless craftsmanship combined with a beautifully seductive array of fabrics. The hard part is choosing what to get!

I'm getting a fabric covered headband for myself because I can't resist.


Friday, August 31, 2007

His Final Days as the Baby




Love Bug
Originally uploaded by m.Lee
I actually had to put something in the bouncy seat for the baby just to keep this little guy from crawling into it. Cute as it is seeing him in it he needs to be kept out of the babies things because soon he will not be the baby anymore. I got him in June of 2000 and he has been with me through a lot and boy is he one moody little guy! But I love him and I hope he handles the adjustment well. Especially since now he is the only cat we have left. Burrito would have been fine with the baby, she was always rather indifferent to changes as long as she had the back of a sofa to sit on she was happy.

I'm ready to have my body back. I know that the labor will probably break my body even worse, but at least then I can start the healing process. Right now I just feel stuck. The idea that I could actually print yesterday was such a pipe dream! It wasn't hot like it is today so I started tidying my studio so I could either print or carve. My press had some junk on it that had to go and so did my desk. After about fifteen minutes of this I was completely exhausted, my hips and back were killing me and my joints hurt. Even sitting wasn't good enough, I needed to lie down. It is very frustrating to say the least. And i feel so guilty for being such a slacker.

Today is my last appointment with the midwife. I'll get checked out to see if I am any further along but I doubt it. Since my midwife Lara wasn't on the schedule I probably won't see her again until after I have had the baby. But the other midwife I have taken a real shining too will be inducing me on Monday so all is not lost.

Today is Jon's last day at work before he takes leave for the baby! At the latest even with a difficult labor we should have her by Tuesday! I get chills thinking about it! We will use these last two days to go over the house for any final preparations and then on Sunday we go in to get things started. I could go into labor then but most likely I will go home to sleep then come back in on Monday for an inducement.

I hope everybody has a great weekend! I will keep things updated as much as possible! Expect baby pictures soon!

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Now playing: Jens Lekman - A Sweet Summer Night On Hammer Hill
via FoxyTunes

Friday, July 20, 2007

Apparently I am Trendy!


Two Russian Dolls
Originally uploaded by m.Lee
Squeee! My Russian Nesting Dolls were featured on Modish yesterday! This is my second time on them and the first in a number of months and it is always a thrill and an honor since it is such a nice blog that features such awesome indie items! Apparently I am part of a new trend with these spontaneously created Russian dolls! I did them on a total whim when I was pulling myself out of a productive and create drought and started doodling and I came up with these simple forms rather quickly. I wanted something simple, graphic and fun and I knew just from the doodles that it was time to start. Unfortunately I decided that since I was doing an image that was a bit different I would use wood that was too. Some of the hard solid woods that were given to me many months ago. This was carved in cherry wood, a gorgeous wood that is so much harder than shina! It was a hot day and I was not feeling the push of energy that I am feeling now so this simple carving took four times as long as it would have on shina and once it was done I was sweating and exhausted. People used to hardwoods like this complain about getting detail with a wood as soft as shina but I am so used to it that I am very good at bending it to my will. I had a very hard time bending this wood to my will! But I have this piece to show for it and am not featured on a blog. Hopefully there will be more Russian doll pieces except I have to change the elevation of my press to print it since it is twice as thick as shina and that is a hassle that makes me less likely to use it.

Yesterday was pretty cool. First the UPS fairy came with the Pack n Play and after some struggling and getting some help from some Etsy gals I managed to get it set up except for the bassinet part which has me a bit puzzled. But I am loving how it looks in that corner. Sharing such a bright and creatively inviting space with a young one makes me happy. Especially since she is my young one!

Following that shortly the UPS fairy came with my Dick Blick order. I now have some cool papers. A nifty large archival flat box for storing paper including the super cool paper I ordered. Some methyl cellulose for finally giving hanga a go and a small portfolio that matches my large one to help me not lose stuff ever again! That portfolio was my original reason for ordering but I just kept going!

Exhaustion and soreness soon followed but I was too emotionally up to sleep so I did some cleaning and opened up a profile on this promising looking site I found though a friend. I am fairly impressed with the design and overall ease of use so far.

This feature on Modish has me considering getting a holiday ad spot on the site. It isn't cheap but for Modish it could be worth it. The big question for me is if it does work will I be able to keep up? I don't know what blee is going to do to my life. Jon wants me to keep doing what I have been doing as much as I can since it is going so well and plans on helping out. But Christmas was crazy last year and this year it could easily be bigger especially if I buy a two month ad and feature. Where is my minion? Blee is gonna be way too small to be a minion for a long time and the animals are useless.

After just nearly having a heart attack searching for a sold piece (yes, the one that I just uncovered after a year of being tucked in a piece of discarded cardboard) and nearly having a freakout heart attack before finding it I realize that I have three things to focus on today and for the weekend. First, I must be a sticker making fiend. Second packing and shipping orders (including said stickers) and last but not least my artwork needs to be just as organized, nay more organized, than my studio. I have my pieces scattered about in too many random places and pieces get stuck together and I can do better. I have a plan!

Hope everybody has a great Friday and a great weekend. Saturday we spend all day at a baby birth class! Time to be terrified by learning exactly what is going to happen to me in a month.

Friday, July 13, 2007

I am so proud!


Compare and Contrast
Originally uploaded by m.Lee
Friday the 13th oooooiiieeeeeooooo! Bah Are there any good horror movies even coming out today? I haven't heard about anything. The weekend is coming and I doubt that I will be up to much excitement this weekend, as usual lately. I'm so boring! I hope others have more of a outside life than I do. Especially on weekends. The pregnancy certainly isn't helping, but honestly I was pretty lame to begin with. I am going out to dinner with Sweetestpea Jen on Tuesday and that will be fun. It has been a couple of months and I always love spending time with her.

My foot certainly did not turn into a sausage in vain because my studio is looking fabulous! Especially looking at the before pictures. What a sad display that was. I felt like I was totally disrespecting my work by how I kept what should be precious to me like my carved blocks of wood. At least they are very durable! Now those before photos are very extreme and show the worst it ever got. But it was never very well organized and didn't look that great or function all that comfortably or efficiently even when it looked "good". The set up I have now is worlds better than it ever has been before. No more useless items like an easel taking up space, everything is very functional. I'm a little hesitant to use it fearing I will mess it all up. But I do want to test it out and see if it runs as smoothly as I hope it will.

Once I finish cleaning off my work desk I will be ready to print again. But I think I am going to work on a carving I started last week before I do any printing. Printing is very hard on my feet and will almost definitely lead to a sausage foot. My days of printing for five hours or more and pumping out thirty pieces from start to finish are over!

My happy place is back and I am looking forward to spending as much time in there as I can now and with the baby!

PS. I made it through the night last night without getting sick. Maybe I need everybody to do a little chant for me every night before going to bed because it seems pretty random to me. Sometimes the medicine settles my stomach, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the cider vinegar does the trick, sometimes it makes it worse! But last night was fine, except for oversleeping which is probably good for me.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Stamps!


More carved blocks
Originally uploaded by pinkbathtub
Thanks to everybody that wished me well yesterday. I had a much better night sleeping last night and feel much better this morning as a result. It is a amazing how much more rested one can end up feeling when you don't wake up to puke in the middle of the night!

Anyhow, I am inspired by this gorgeous set of stamps by pinkbathtub and the stamp making photopool on Etsy. Stamping is so similar to what I do yet so different.

The cheap Speedball stamp material I picked up at Michaels sucked just like I feared it would. I made a decent "thank you stamp" but it isn't very crisp and it really does feel like it is about to fall apart if I don't treat it very gently. A corner (that is not part of the design thankfully) already broke off. I knew the pink stuff is better but they didn't have any plus it is so much more expensive I thought I would give this stuff a go. Plus these inspiring and well carved stamps are not pink so maybe it isn't so bad. Found out they are not carved in the white (actually off white) Speedball material but a totally different brand. A brand that Dick Blick has so I picked up one small block of the pink stuff and one small block of this stuff so I can compare.

My replacement gocco supplies came in the mail yesterday so I can get back to experimenting with that. But of course my studio is too much of a mess right now for goccoing. But I will clean it and get back to messing with it because I would like to see it work! If I do ever get it to work I have this thought of combining gocco printing with stamping. I think it could be cool.

Jon is working from home today and is going to come with me to my appointment with the mid-wife. Just a standard visit. He'll get to hear the heartbeat again and that will be cool. It always is.

Yesterday I decided to raise the price of the piece I blogged about. I've never sold a piece that size for more than $15, but I have grown to love it so much that I just won't part with it for less than $20. I was rather nervous about it when I first made it, about the colors that is why I started with such a small piece. But being a bit daring with color paid off and I ended up with some really strong pieces and that is one of them. One thing I am loving about that ginkgo block is how it works so well for so many different sizes of paper. Anything up to 9"x12".

I hope everybody has a lovely weekend. I'm probably not going to post again until tomorrow. I have a lot to do and have been quite tired lately.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Baby Appointment

And I am heading off to see my mid-wife in a few moments. This means I get to hear the babies heartbeat yet again and that little connection really means a lot to me. Especially since I missed my last appointment and couldn't get in for over a month. I should be going every two weeks at this point, but forgetting that one appointment really messed things up. Everything seems perfectly normal and good at this point so it isn't a big deal. But I am not missing this one for sure!

I am going to try and see if I can get another ultrasound since the only image I have is the one from what I call the "wad of chewing gum". When we had the last ultrasound the images were very detailed but their printer was broken!

She's kicking more and more every day. We're starting to get anxious to meet her.

My new camera finally shipped on Wednesday or Thursday. I got the email saying it shipped yesterday but the money came out of my account on Wednesday night. I don't think they can take the money until the item ships can they? It doesn't really matter since it is on its way now!

Jon and I watched the Picasso episode of the Power of Art Wednesday and it was just as enjoyable as the Van Gogh episode. I'm really wanting to own that series now. It looks like Caravaggio is next on Monday.

In other news while I have been longing to go back to Cedar Point amusement park all summer now I don't think I ever want to ride a roller coaster again!