mail from berlin

At the beginning of the summer I subscribed to Peter’sMail me something” project. I made a small donation (I wish I had paid more!), and then proceeded to get lovely things sent to me all summer long.

Here they are:

 

A tiny alphabet book,

We got to assemble it and make a tiny cover for it ourselves.

The 4 seasons in German.

 

And a gorgeous full moon calendar (my favourite).

We even got a postcard from Oliver, he said the 2 on the front reminded him of Sosi and Ila. 🙂

I hope this is something Peter continues, I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

 

 

Last 2 barns

 

Here are the last 2 barns.

All together I painted 6 barns this summer in Catherine’s Studio. I’m so happy she chose  me to watch her space. These barns would never have been painted if she hadn’t. She’s back now and it’s time to hand back the keys, and I feel a little heart broken about it. I think it may be definitely time to find a space of my own…

oh, the things I do for free chocolate…

When I was contacted about participating in the “perfectly tiny” awards, I wasn’t sure it was for me. There was talk of photos… press… I cringed (pretty shy and awkward over here!).

The more it sat with me though, the more I began to think “why not”?  A year’s supply of chocolate and getting recognized for some of my favourite paintings? Doesn’t sound that bad! Also, how often do my kids get to see me awarded a gigantic trophy? Not enough times, I’d say. 🙂

(Thanks Nicole and  everyone at Reese for making it such a fun experience!)

table rules

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Our “Table Rules” poster has worked wonders around here. Especially for the smallest person in our house, who you can see, was my major inspiration for the poster.

I whipped it up in a fit of desperation one night before supper. Nothing else was working or getting through to my temperamental little 2 year old. Every night she was making dinnertime stressful with her crazy behavior, I couldn’t take it anymore.

I’m not sure why I haven’t made anything like this sooner… maybe because it just seemed too easy. If your kids aren’t listening to you when you ask them something 100x why would a picture work? Well, it does. When someone  is breaking one of our “rules” at dinner time, we simply point to the picture and  (mostly) they stop.

It’s also been a big conversation piece with visitors to our home  (most likely thinking to themselves “what kind of crazy house is this?!”). People seem to like it …so I thought if this helped us, maybe it might help some others in the same situation.

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So I redid the poster and made it into a PDF (b+w, so your kids can colour it in if they want). You can download it by clicking on the button below.

P.S Sosi is pretty horrified I drew her throwing food and wanted me to make it very clear she doesn’t do that. I just couldn’t draw Ila doing everything .

download

these days

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These days have been full, very full. A lot of going back and forth…

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from things like this,

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and this,

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to this,

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and this.

In July my attempt to get more childcare backfired…and I ended up with no childcare. My children were both miserable in the new places I put them and begged to stay home with me. After weeks of fighting them, and lots of tears and stress, I gave in. I ‘ve had them home for 2 weeks with me and it has worked out amazingly. I ‘m with them during the day and my husband is with them in the evening and weekends (when I whisk myself off to my (Katherine’s) studio, aka heaven). I’m actually getting lots done and more importantly …

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look how happy these two are (man, I love them)! It’s been nuts, but so totally worth it.

Chirp summer

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Standing in line at the Superstore last week I was surprised to see the Summer issue of Chirp. In the busy-ness of life I had forgotten about the super fun insert I did for this issue (way back in the dark of winter).

I’m really happy how it turned out. The past 2 summers we’ve done a black and white on newsprint insert, but this colour one is so much nicer looking. Hope you get a chance to check it out.

sweet surprise

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I made this logo last year for a woman starting up a macaron bakery.  At the time there was mention of some free samples once she got up and running, but I wasn’t holding my breath… I know how life can get crazy and these things easily forgotten.

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So you can imagine my joy when out of the blue I received this sweet package in the mail last week. A box full of these delicious treats. I’ve never had French macarons before, and boy, they do not disappoint! They were so good that they all got eaten before I could get a picture of all the different kinds.

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I love getting surprises in the mail, sweet surprises… even more!

Love confection website here.