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!