Fairy Scroll for Miss E

Mountain Mural Cubby

I really need to paint more.
It's like an addiction. If I don't get a good fix, I haphazardly start throwing a brush around when there is a two minute time span in the day...and largely regretting the results.

I loved this Ron Swanson project and was wondering a good place to paint it https://ace_hotel_dev.s3.amazonaws.com/images/PDX-RMS_Standard_front_green_owl_art_20130710_1722.png .
It looks amazing in this boy's nursery http://www.willscasa.com/2014/06/mountain-mural-the-makings-of-a-ron-swanson-nursery/#_a5y_p=1892266
Our cute play kitchen cubby (as sweet as it is) was making me cringe with it's colours that clash with the adjacent room.
So much brightness with Swedish green and Angel Fern!
With this mountain mural, I could entertain the idea of bringing in some of the hunter green I love in other rooms of the house, and subdue the brightness a bit with a chalkboard background.

So I went to work one afternoon, mapping out the mountains with painters tape.
The painting itself was easy. Applying the painters tape was not.

But once I roughed in all the area's, fine detail could be applied to the edges to give the mountains their sharp peaks.

Fox Print

Polystyrene Put to Use

Ahhh. 

Art.

It's been a while since I got to creating something.

My eldest daughter and I have started experimenting with print-making, so I took advantage of this time, to get my own creative energy flowing.

We had been sketching on mural paper taped to the floor. 

I often leave this out for a few days and little sketches are added turning it into a large brainstorm. 

I was using shapes to make creatures, when I designed a Fox out of triangles. 

Later in the day, when we were testing out polystyrene for print-making, I etched the Fox.

We used an Olive sampler tub of paint from Home Depot, meant to test or touch up wall colour.
I placed the print in the center of large card stock, the results looking decent enough to frame.

Been a while, Honey Bunny

Honey Bunny

How long it's been!

Thankfully, a dear friend, met and made in Shanghai, put in a request for a painting.

I managed to pull off a piece before meeting the newest addition of their family this weekend in Michigan.

And she is a honey bunny!

The theme was left up to me, which sometimes proves more of a challenge than meeting a specific request.

However, I had completed a piece for her eldest daughter two years ago, so I made them suitable to be seen as a set; changing up the animals and slogans.

Big Sis's Piece

Wonderful weekend with an adorable family!

Chestnut & Biscuit's Name Canvas

 Little Monkey

Little Lion

Besides my Canadian customers most requested Jersey Canvases, Name Canvases are the next most popular request. Since all work is custom, including a child's name add's that extra touch of personalization.

With some gift-catching up to do, I prepped two small pieces for friends son's Biscuit & Chestnut; boys who are just as unique as their English monikers! Sticking to neutral tones allows the paintings to be hung in a variety of locations where they will easily blend in, while little pops of lavender are visible in the animals polka-dotted bowtie's.

A Little Dear

 A little deer...

...and a duck!

We have been lucky enough to make lifetime friends here in Shanghai.

Ones that we can continue to connect with when we are all back West!

We were lucky to connect recently to celebrate our matching "Bumps" and the second birthday of their daughter, who we still call 'Baby S'! So we brought along a custom canvas for the occasion.

Together Again!

Labour Of Love

24 hours of potatoes

I really do love my little sister.

She set me to the challenge of making 4 canvases for her firstborn's Eclectic Nursery.

Her and hubby decided on some song lyrics they love, picked out some bedding for colour inspiration and forwarded their favourite font.

Lettering is tricky and I debated taking the project to the printers.

Instead I cracked down, made potato stamps and mapped out how the letters would fit on each, different sized piece.

 Halved & Held in H20

The potatoes have to be cut carefully so there is as flat a surface as possible. 

Otherwise the paint will not adhere evenly.

They also have to be kept in water from going brown, or worse, shriveling and changing your font shape.

 Felt Stencil

Then I took a piece of heavy felt and cut it into a square, the maximum size I had planned to work with. 

To figure this out, I had to measure how many letters would fit into each line on each canvas. Urgh!

 Lettering

Fortunately, my sister chose a font that was all capital letters and fairly square.
Letters have to be cut backwards in order to be read correctly when stamped.

The first round of stamps turned out to be too large and would not fit onto ANY of the canvases. 

So I started again.  

Cutting each letter off the original stamps, we cooked them up for our daughter to have alphabet potatoes!

Water Tray

I laid the stamps out in alphabetical order on the lid of one of our totes, so they could sit in a layer of water.

 

Mapping & Stamping

Though I tried to cut the potatoes carefully, I still had to blot off the water and paint each stamp before applying it to the canvas, so each letter was completely covered with paint. This also prevented giant paint blobs smudging the font. When I applied the stamp to the canvas, I had to run my hand along the back to help the canvas and stamp make complete contact. 

There are still a number of "holes" in the font, but I think it gives it a little character.

Chocolate Brown

The white lettering went first and was fairly 'clean'.

The brown lettering required hand washing in between so I would not get paint all over the rest of the canvas.

The end result, I liked much better than the white, despite the extra time it took to wash up.

Still have one circular canvas to go, but that will be script free-hand.

Now, we just have to wait for my nephew to arrive!!

 He's Here!

April 21, 2013

Wyatt Dawson

 Lyrics Canvas

Look at the beautiful nursery his mom and dad made!!

Twist on the Classic Family Tree

Fingerprint Family

O's nursery had a twist on the classic Family Tree. We found a wedding idea to replace the typical guest book: a fingerprint tree. We took this idea and changed it to a Family Tree and tied it into the Woodlands theme.

Signed and sealed

We had family members place their fingerprint on the branches and sign their first and middle names.

Family members that have passed received a special symbol in their honour (Green Apple for Granny Smith, seagull for Grandpa Harold, bluebird for Uncle Warren...)

Big little signature's

 

Growing Girl

Hide & Peek Fox

Every year about the time our daughter is about to have a birthday, I tend to go craft crazy. The paintings that are half done and hanging around the house get pulled off the wall and finally tackled. It's actually nice to be able to work on pieces at my own leisure; they seem to turn out best when I have no deadline, wake in the middle of the night with Ah Ha! idea's and go running for my brushes.

Our woodlands nursery theme is my all-time favourite projects, but we ended up never using the nursery, so now our whole house looks like a childs room! The pieces are spread out bringing bursts of tangerine and sunshine yellow to all corners of our rented abode.

The idea for our height chart came before Olivia turned one and I was feeling a bit blue about the fact that we have no permanent place to call home; no doorways to mark up with her height progress, or tree in the backyard to grow along with her. In the end, I decided to stick with our woodlands theme and paint a tree that could travel along with us wherever we go.

The fox was once a raccoon, but he seemed kind of drab.

So last week before O's party, raccoon became a fox.

The owl, now up top was not there until last week either even though the painting has been hanging for a year now! Owl was inspiration from an aspiring artist here in Shanghai, whose work I saw last month. She paints with lovely strong outlines (something I love to do and my art teachers always scolded me for) blocks her colours like a stained-glass window. She goes by the name Keok Ke, but has no website for me to introduce to you. We purchased a mouse pad with Keok Ke's art on it and she got down to O's level and gifted her an artsy button for her coat.

O was very proud to stand against the piece for her yearly 'height mark' and compared it to last year (a whole 9 centimeters taller!) and the day she was born (37 centimeters taller!). And so, our Canadian woodlands follows us around the globe;)

Birch Baby

 Little Orange Owl

 Birch Tree-Stage One

Birch Branches & Leaves

Owls Galore!

 Tiny Tot

Owl Friends

Whoooo is getting a new painting this week!?

None other than our beautiful friend Tara!

Lollipop-like blossoms of teal, tangerine & cotton candy pink, sprout up to the sky while three little owl friends flit around like bumblebee's.

By request, Tara's name is scripted in the top corner to further personalize her one-of-a-kind art.

Big hugs to our friends here in Shanghai!

WHOOO?

Oooh! How I've missed you!

It has been SO long since I have sat down to paint, I started hanging unfinished pieces up on the wall because I could not handle the stress of seeing a pile of half-complete canvas stacked in the closet! Painting is my passion, but something else trumps all; Olivia. Painting is now reserved for the days that Daddy is primed for pillow fort productions which keeps Olivia in a state of bliss for at least an entire half hour!

This weekend the living room was transformed into fortville, while I got my hands a dirty with bits and pieces left on said unfinished works, as well as start (and complete) Miss Owl above. She was painted with a sweet toddler in mind who's mommy happens to be a fan of pink and yellow. Sadly, they are leaving town in the weeks to come. Both Olivia and I will miss them and their good company dearly, but wish them happy trails on their new journey!

Big Bad Numero Uno

Very bubbly birthday baby!
'oh happy day' banner in background.

ONE!

Vegan Carrot Cupcakes; only a mother would love!
The week before the big bash, I baked a batch of these vegan carrot cupcakes as a trial run. Olivia turned up her nose and shook her head 'no!'
Since I am not much of a baker and she is not much of an eater, we went with them anyways!
The results are pretty.
I ate about 5!

Using her party invites as the favor cards, we bundled up Shanghai's pretty teeny tangerines in cellophane, added a little IKEA snake (green), moose (orange) or dog (blue) & a chopstick waving bunting flags with the guests initial.
Dada added a lime green pot of orange marigolds to the table;)

The tee pee adorned with bunting flags.
Olivia's newest paintings in the background.

Lo and behold..our baby turned ONE!
Little teeny tiny Olivia is now a wobbling toddler!

Thankfully Shanghai is full of shops to get my craft on, so down to party business it was, in the week's before the big day!
Since her nursery has never been used and the colour palette still keeps me day-dreaming, I stuck to the tangerine, turquoise, chocolate & limes.
And voila!
Bright and bold baby birthday!

Retro Busy Bus

Lovin' me a Retro City

I have an addiction to design.
Very late at night I will leave baby and hubby in our cozy bed and sneak downstairs to paint.
If I start surfing my go-to sites (Project Nursery, Ohdeedoh), hours whittle away with no shut-eye.
There are worse addictions.

'Busy Bus' above, caught my eye because it is especially simplistic and has that homey Richard Scary child-like illustration going on. It is sometimes a real challenge in a painting to stay simple, but the results are bold and beautiful.

Favourite elements;
-plump fig-shaped trees
-street scooter
...and of course the old school camper attached to the station wagon:)

Swinging Koala

A Swinging Day at the Beach

Joey & Sea Turtle

Ahhhh!
Nothing like a finished piece of art for baby-to-be!

In my first piece to a customer since our daughters arrival, we have some of my favourite elements of children's design combined; brilliant colours, fun-loving characters & pops of pattern.
Fortunately, I had the opportunity to work, via email with a lovely and patient customer in America. She has been generous (and organized enough with her nursery planning!) to allow me the much-needed span of time to complete a piece with baby in tow.

This 2x3 foot canvas is meant to bring a little Down Under to a baby boy living Stateside, who is set to make his grand arrival in the New Year. Since his nursery is going to boast a few pieces of work from an Aussie painter, mom wanted to stick with the Australian theme; landscape, beach & animals. Mama & Papa kangaroo are set for a day on the beach with their surfer koala baby and Joey. Sandals, surfboard and sea turtles suit the ambiance and bring in pops of tangerine, lime and turquoise.

Babies love patterns and it keeps them occupied just long enough to change a diaper. Above you will find polka-dots on Papa's surfboard, Hawaiian style Hibiscus on Koala's board shorts, coppertone rings adorning the inside's of the kangaroo's ears and bellies, not to mention spots on the sea turtles. Loads to look at 'eye-spy' style.

Wishing a beautiful and healthy final trimester to the mom and dad-to-be.
Pleasure working with budding families near and far!

DROOL-Sister Site

Little Olivia is three months old tomorrow!
(By far, the best three months of my life has been the first three of hers!)
To celebrate, her journaling junkie mama has opened a sister site...
DROOL
www.mamadrool.blogspot.com Lessons in Mamahood...as taught by a Little Miss.

Pictured above: My "Teach" in my fave tee, with our fave guy!

Olivia`s Woodlands Nursery

Roots & Wings-Mural by Mama
~Ahhhh! Finally a mural for my own baby girl!
Group of Seven styled tree trunks, baby owl in nest with parents perched on the branch above. Framed in cherrywood, here in Shanghai.

Paper Lanterns
~Dada worked hard to find these! (Crazy to believe it is so difficult to find paper lanterns in China!)
Nursery colours; turquoise, lime & tangerine. Placed near the change table for occupying Stinky Pants. LOVE them!

"OLIVIA" Letter Animals
~Each letter of her name coincides with a Woodlands animal/motif. Frames painted in the three nursery theme colours: turquoise, lime and tangerine.

Woodlands Crib Decor
~"Love" "Foxy Baby" and Retro Felt Fox adorn the crib between naptimes.


Woodlands Mobile
~Owl, Fox, Doe & Hedgehog surround a woodlands tree with bell.

Olivia has arrived!!
Her Woodlands themed nursery is complete.
Now we just have to think about one day moving her into it! Maybe in the Spring...or when she is 20...or something like that;)

BLISS!

olivia grace
December 4th, 2010
8:32am
7 pounds & 13 ounces
Shanghai, China

Simply cannot express the happiness Adam and I feel since the safe arrival of our baby daughter, Little Livie Grace! There is absolutely no feeling that compares to this kind of bliss:)

This morning Livie and I headed to the market & I reached in my coat pockets to find a pair of her socks in one..and a diaper (a clean one!) in the other!
Finally...I am a mother:)
Life is good.

Happy New Year to your and your loved ones! Our hearts are bursting...we are so grateful & in awe of the miracle of life.