Last Days of Summer

We've been trying very hard to enjoy these final days of summer here in New England. We had two fabulous weekends in the high seventies and low eighties in a row and we spent them outdoors and by the water. The first weekend we went to Newport, RI to do the cliff walk but as soon as Alex saw the beach the walk was off the table and we were at the beach. Which would have been perfect if it hadn't been a "red tide" day with nasty algae killing some sea life (think mollusks) and just making things smell funky but not actually dangerous. My hyper-sensitive from pregnancy nose was going nuts but we still had a good time I just stayed away from the water.

Last weekend was better. We ended up in Portsmouth NH for the day and even though the cruises were all booked up we had a great time walking around and being near the ocean. Alex came back with this Viking Hat and has been wearing it nearly non stop since. The toystore it came from had some adorable dolls that my darling daughter showed pretty much no interest in, making me rather sad.





Things are well enough. We travel to the Midwest in a few weeks for her third birthday and will see a lot of family. After a couple of miserable (not to mention expensive) plane trips in a row we have decided to drive over two days.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Yay! Complete!

Fall Leaves
Originally uploaded by mlee.etsy.com

Monday is here and I had quite the productive weekend, well Sunday at least. I am pleased to say that I not only got the custom order I have been working on for the past month finished but I printed a bunch of other new stuff at the same time. The prints that I started last week are now done and I am working on getting them scanned in, uploaded and listed on Etsy. I've been neglecting Etsy lately but this month is going to be different, starting with new piece, and followed by many more.

I have a busy week ahead of me that will hopefully include finishing a collage, putting artwork up on Flickr and Etsy and getting back into regular blogging. But for now I am going to do some Wii Fit yoga and then go to bed.

Here are my custom pieces for the seasons spring through winter.

Enjoy Summer!

walk on
Originally uploaded by mlee.etsy.com

Hope everybody is enjoying summer and doing their best to keep cool in this heat.

I am doing my best to enjoy my little vacation. It hasn't been easy to shake the dark cloud that has been following me, but things are getting better. I haven't been able to take a 100% break from art as a custom print order came in and I am working on that. But that is a good thing not a bad thing! It is a fun custom representing the four seasons, I can't wait to see it completed.



We've spent a lot of time outdoors going on walks combined with going to Cedar Point amusement park when in Ohio I have gotten a bit of a tan. I always make sure to use sunscreen with blee and put a hat on her, I even have a UV reflecting and blocking parasol for really sunny days. I'm a touch paranoid about her skin as she is so much fairer than I am. I just hope that even though she seems fair she is like my little sister and tans instead of burns. I hope the tiny bit of Indian blood she has in her protects her.

I'm enjoying babywearing more than ever and continue to lose weight. I'm hoping to fit in a single digit pair of jeans come fall, that is my big goal. Sometimes I get negative comments from strangers but mostly people smile, say something nice or make a silly joke. Just today an older man commented that I seemed to have quite a load on. I just smiled and told him that weight bearing exercise is good for me! Then I kept on with my walk.

Blee is napping and I need to get back to prepping my studio to print tonight. I would like to print now but I don't want to get ink out only to have her wake up crying in the middle of printing. I need a chunk of time and I won't have that until she goes to bed.

The Perfect Morning

Poppies Seen Through Windows - ACEO/ ATC
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Just what I want when I am trying to get plenty of rest is to have road work (complete with jackhammer) just outside my bedroom window. Ah well, at least I did get a pretty good nights sleep last night and am feeling okay today. Feeling good enough to have a baby even! And the weather is quite nice so at least I am not overheated because that is very unfun when pregnant. I've lucked out as far as weather goes this summer pregnancy.

Hope all is well for everybody. Thank you to everybody for being there for me during these long and bumpy months. It certainly has been an adventure.

I didn't have any contractions yesterday just a lot of stabbing pain whenever I stood up and moved. The most disturbing part was when I had Jon google it and he came back telling me it is perfectly normal. I was near tears and this is normal? This kind of pain should only come with the baby actually coming out!

Just like I did yesterday I am going to stay down as much as possible today. I actually listed a piece this morning for the heck of it. It isn't new, but I have quite a few pieces that haven't been listed yet because I have had other things on my mind. And of course the card pictured is also available. I really like this little card. The colors and the way the shapes work together suits me. Provided I don't go into labor today, and I really do hope that I do, I am making a Post Office run tomorrow.

Quiet Days

Earthy Ginkgos
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Hello everybody. This entry could be long and ramble a bit or it could be short for all I know. I guess I would say that while I have a lot on my mind these last few days I have been feeling extra quiet and more to the point not feeling like doing much of anything. I haven't even been nagging Jon much to do baby prep stuff! As much as I want this baby to come I am not doing enough to prepare for it and I know it. It is good thing blee won't be in the nursery for months because it is a total mess with all the clothing and other gifts piled in the crib. We have two empty drawers, why aren't we using them? But for the first months she will be sleeping either with us or in the Pack n Play bassinet that is next door to the bedroom in my studio.

The mom's group that I was invited to and joined midway through my pregnancy went on a summer hiatus during July and August. And I missed most of the meetings in June because I was feeling so bad that month. I kind of had a feeling that it was over and I was correct to a degree. Last week I got an email from the leader saying that it will no longer be in her home but is being absorbed by a bigger group on the far side of Cambridge. Not a very T friendly location, and even if it was a very long T ride especially with a newborn. While I am trying to work up the courage to take small local errand running drives there is no way that I can drive across the river, especially with a baby. The thought fills me with horrible imagery and brings out my anxiety. Basically, no group for me I figure when I would need it the most.

The leader in her forever upbeat and bouncy tone wants me to sign up anyway and is trying to find ways for me and another JP mom to get there. It actually might work out. Yet I hesitate writing her and signing up. September seems so far away. A mom's group with a baby seems so foreign to me. I hesitate. She also wants us to meet up and chat and I find myself avoiding that as well. Granted getting around isn't the easiest for me right now, but as long as it isn't a crazy hot day I could manage. I've been so anti-social this pregnancy. At times moreso than others, and this is one of those times. It is one thing pulling back in the dead of a winter ice storm when I am puking and coughing. But this is different. Even when I am around people I often feel alone. Am I depressed? Post-partum depression before the baby even arrives? I know I am feeling stressed and pressured to have this baby as soon as possible. I analyze every pain wondering how much closer it brings me to the big day.

Art, I'd like to do art. I've thought about carving or even printing but I don't ever do it. I don't even list the work I do have on Etsy. I signed up for the Trunkt website and I am a little confused by it. First off I have to put my work in mixed media even though that is not what I do, because it is the closest to printmaking they have. Second I never got an acceptance email from them despite being accepted the day after I applied. I waited around for over a week, confused and kept looking through my junk mail for nothing. So I thought maybe I had made a mistake in my application and submitted a new one. Got a message that my account name already existed in the system. Go to log on and sure enough I have an account. But I can't find my account in any searches. Do you need a paid one for that or is it because I edited a few things? Does my account get deactivated for approval every time I make an edit? Do a search on the site for mlee and you won't find me. It seems like a lot of fairly successful Etsy people have paid accounts and it is tempting. But these issues along with now not being the time to invest in promotion cause me to hesitate. I think I will wait until after the baby comes and things hopefully settle down to invest in more promotion. Promotion right now and in September would probably just be a huge waste if my store is essentially going to be shut down or in slow motion mode at the very least!

So I guess this turned out to be a long post with plenty of rambling after all. Guess I made up for my lack of words yesterday. Sorry to those of you I made cry or almost cry with my last post about my mother. The thoughts just had to come out and it was cathartic to say the least. Some real good came of it as I now know to focus on how lucky I was to have her rather than the selfish desire to have her right now. I can't even imagine how awful my childhood would have been if she had died six months after the surgery like everybody expected her to.

What a Day! Ouchie!

Butterfly Surrounded by Nature
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Somehow I made it to Tuesday after one hard day yesterday. No amount of foot soaking could make me feel better after printing on and off the entire day. I think I must have gotten my ink out around 11 and I didn't finish cleaning up until 11 at night. By the time I cleaned it up the ink I had used earliest had gotten quite gunky.

Now I did not print for 12 hours solid. Far from it! More like I printed in 10-20 minutes bursts throughout the day. Sometimes taking breaks for a couple of hours in between. Honestly what I should have done is take it easy during the day while it was hot and printed at night when it wasn't so miserable. Around noon the air conditioner just wasn't helping me stay cool so I was sore and sweating bullets the entire time.

I think it was worth it in the end and here is one of my highlight pieces from the day. While I may not have 30 pieces like the last time I probably have a good dozen complete as well as a bunch of unfinished pieces. Had a couple of duds which is never fun, more than last time I printed and got blue ink on one of my maternity dresses that may or may not come out. But that is what printing is all about! Making mistakes and getting messy.

Not sure what I am going to do today. Rest for sure and maybe start carving the doodle block later on. I think I deserve to take it a bit easy today.

Here are some of the standouts that I have scanned so far. More coming on Flickr throughout today as I get them scanned in and eventually making their way onto Etsy. If you see something that interests you that hasn't made it to Etsy just let me know. Thanks for looking and reading.

Nesting Continues

Soft Coral
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Hope everybody in the hotter parts of the world like me are doing their best to keep cool this summer. Though can Boston really be considered one of the hotter parts?

Yesterday started out hopeful with a nice cooling rain, but that cooling rain soon turned to humid heat that still remains today. Bad since I got the nesting organization bug bad! Last night I was on a cleaning and putting stuff away rampage. Until I could barely move my body hurt so much and I had to limp into bed well past midnight. I decided to spring for more drawers because I just have more stuff that needs to get put away! I am fed up with having things not having a proper place. And since an entire table that is filled with crap needs to go to make room for a playpen type device more drawers are a must! Throwing stuff out is a must as well. So far I have tossed three bags of garbage. The drawers that I showed stacked under my work table are now gone from there and moved into the corner where the easel that I was using for nothing but clipping on a light and propping up woodblocks used to be. I don't paint! That is in the stairwell now. A much more productive use of that space is to have the six drawers stacked in that corner. instead with a light on top The area has more room to move around now which will be nice when printing. It is no longer super cramped like it used to be. I still may end up getting two more drawers.

The lady checking me out at the Container Store ended up chatting me up about what I was going to do with so many drawers. She was the same person that rang me up yesterday so I guess the sheer amount made her curious. When I told her about how they were for my studio not the nursery she asked what kind of art I make and seemed very interested when I told her printmaking. She mentioned how she has some intaglio prints from a Cape Cod artist and wondered if that is like what I do. I gave her a quick explanation about the two processes and how they are basically opposites. She asked for a card and I gave her one. It doesn't matter much to me if this leads to a sale, but I had fun talking about my art and processes with a random person. Sales are nice but just talking about art and sharing with people is plenty rewarding. The people at that store are always super friendly, I just love going there.

Speaking of good things I certainly have a doosy! While I adore all of my buyers and have been completely blessed by them, one of them just went over the top and floored me yesterday. Fellow greyhound lover and all around wonderful person greytlife surprised us with a package of baby goodies from a fabu Etsy shop called L'Equipe Boutique! I couldn't believe it. And I can't stress enough how gorgeous these items are. When we get our nursery completed we are going to lay out highlights from the fabulous stuff we have received from her and from many others and get a picture of it all together to share. Both my husband and I are touched by this kindness and eternally grateful. The Etsy community has emotionally adopted this baby and shown so much love for her ever since I found out and announced it on the forums many months ago. Not just with gifts but with support and helpful advice during the difficult periods during the pregnancy. When I went to Etsy to teach in May everybody was so nice to me and excited about my growing belly. I am really looking forward to bringing her there after the birth as soon as I am able to travel.

From the bottom of my heart I want to thank everybody for this showering of kindness.

And here is a piece that I consider soft and kind. It illustrates my current mood quite well. I feel a calmness whenever I look at it.

I've already written so much and I haven't even gotten to the Power of Art episode on Rothko that I watched last night. I will get to that tomorrow!

Summer Heat!

Dark Ginkgos
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

I am certainly feeling it big time. And I am sure that plenty of you guys are right along there with me. A friend of mine in Arizona told me that it has been over 110 degrees there but they don't have the humidity that we do. How much does that really matter?

Been in the mid to high 90's with high humidity here in Boston and it is miserable. Way back in February when I would tell people when I was due women would get this sympathetic look in their eyes and tell me how in for it this summer I was. They were right. The heat really has been kicking my butt so far this week. I managed to do a fair bit of studio cleaning and I finished another block but no printing yesterday. I'm trying not to beat myself up over it too much. The heat is frying my already fried by pregnancy brain. I lose track of what I am doing a lot. Yesterday morning I only had four orders to pack up and it seemed to take forever. Sweat pouring down my forehead the entire time even with the air on. I've heard the weekend is supposed to be better. That would be wonderful.

I have an important question for those of you that know Blogspot pretty well and use Flickr for blogging on it. Because I am really puzzled by it right now. I do all my blogging through Flickr and I always put in a title yet for some reason it almost always gets deleted in my Blog, but not yesterday. Once it is entered there seems to be no way for me to edit a title into the entry. If it consistently deleted titles that would be one thing but randomly letting them through when nothing about my entry is any different makes no sense.

Can any of you more Blogger savvy people help a girl out? edit I just noticed what causes it to happen. The blog is posted with a title but when I go back into it to add tags the title gets deleted! Why and is there any way to fix this? I would like to have both a title and tags.

This piece is interesting to me because when I made it a couple of months ago I really wasn't sure what to think about it. The colors are quite shocking and a lot cooler than what I tend to gravitate towards so I was tempted to upcycle it into one of my goodies. But something kept me from doing that and boy am I glad that I did. While I am sure that it would have made a lovely set of coasters or pocket mirrors I believe this is the best form for it. I go with my gut and even when I feel the temptation to destroy certain pieces I know when to hold back the decision for awhile. Now I am really loving it!

My doctor gave me a medicine to help me sleep that is baby safe and won't produce the hangover effect that the Tylenol PM does. This is key because mornings are very important to me now since I am less sore and it isn't as hot. But I wake up so groggy that it takes me a couple of hours just to shake that feeling and by then it is already starting to get hot. It will also help with the panic attacks that have been growing. I used to take this medicine before I got pregnant but went off because while it is safe now it was not safe during the first trimester. This is my first morning after taking it and so far I feel much more alert than I ever took after waking up after taking even one Tylenol PM. And hurrah it isn't very hot out at all!

Maeby Cockroaching
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

After days of rain the sun is out and everybody in the house is feeling it. Especially the dog apparently!

I'm hoping that the sun is also out in Brooklyn now because yesterday Kate finished making my one of a kind mirrors, big magnets and some other nifty items but it was so grey she couldn't get any good photographs of them.

Speaking of good photographs I was hoping to snap a picture of the Tea Noir that arrived yesterday but my camera batteries are dead and have to be charged. Yay for her living in the same state as me I got my tea faaaaast! I will be enjoying iced Lychee tea again very soon. It looks and smells wonderful.

I finally updated this blog so not only does it no longer look quite so shabby but I also updated my links on it. Now people that I respect like Jennifer Gordon,Jenn Schmitt, and
Tamara Shea are finally getting linked to! I'm trying to keep my links more artsy than craftsy. Tamara makes jewelry sure, but she makes block printed jewelry so I had to include her! I'm still tinkering with how I want it to look. Anything big missing?