Wordless Wednesday: Chives

List: New Mom

You know you're a new mom when...

• you spend more time sitting on the floor next to the play area than you do on the couch
• you change your shirt almost as often as the baby... or you find yourself at the end of the day, wearing pyjamas covered in dried spit up
• taking a shower is the most glorious thing ever
• you celebrate when you're able to sleep in until 7AM
• you find yourself spending the night looking through pictures and videos you took of the baby during the day (or listening to his snores in the monitor)
• you sat in the backseat next to the carseat for at least a couple of weeks to make sure he's ok
• the best part of the day is seeing his smile when daddy comes home
• you find yourself logging every feed and dirty diaper for months
• you name all the baby's toys and know exactly who your husband is asking you to bring over
• all you want to do at the end of the day is spend a few hours alone with your husband... and both of you end up falling asleep on the couch
• your whole world is turned upside down by one little person... and you wouldn't have it any other way

Sketchbook Pages: Week 19

We've reached a point where I'm working in my sketchbook daily. Success! So I'm going to start posting one week at a time, twice a week until we're all caught up. Week 19 is the second week of May.

5/8 Quixotic switch
5/9 Summer bird

5/10 Springtime showers

5/11 Watercolour tulips
5/12 Wash

5/13 Circles
5/13 Citrus peel

List of supplies:

• various papers, including scrapbooking paper, instruction manual, book pages, paint chips
• washi, decorative and masking tapes
• stickers
• pencil crayon
• Sharpie paint pens (gold, white)
• Sharpie pen (purple)
• Faber-Castell PITT artist pen (indanthrene blue 247, orange 113)
• Staedtler triplus fineliner (light blue)
• Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons
• Pilot Precise V5 pens (black)

Little Moments: Outdoor Carpeting

The best part of spring is when everything starts to bloom: tulip and daffodil bulbs, forsythia shrubs, cherry and magnolia trees. Gardens bust out their bright smiles and make my walks so very enjoyable. As with all living things though, these blossoms have their peak and then the petals and seeds start to fall - creating a lush carpet for me to walk through. Those small things often bring the most joy.

     

4 Months Old

Our little monkey turned 4 months old yesterday. I know I say this all the time, but holy hell the days are flying by! Before I know it, Marc'll be cruising around the house, eating all sorts of new food and talking up a storm. At the same time - and again, I know I say this all the time - it feels as though he's been here the whole time. I can't remember or imagine our little life without him.

This month, Marc made quite a few more developmental leaps. He started rolling over (from front to back - the other way is a bit trickier, but we're working hard at it!), wiggling around, really grabbing at and mouthing toys, giggling (the sweetest thing ever), blowing wet raspberries and "chatting" away. We also figured out our naps - it took a few days of "fussing it out" but he quickly got the hang of it. I can now put him down drowsy but awake and he'll put himself to sleep with little to no fuss. And he stays asleep for at least an hour, often longer. What a difference that makes for this mama!

He's getting so big! We recently started pulling out (and shopping for) 6 and 6-9 month clothing  - the 3 month pants and sleepers are getting a bit short. It amazes me how much variation there is to baby sizing though. He has some 6-9mo onesies that are smaller (or at least shorter) than some of his 3mo ones. But that's a whole other blog post...

We introduced Marc to Disney this passed week. He was quite enthralled for over half an hour; it was pretty cute. He's getting more and more independent in his play too, which again makes things much easier on me. He wants to be sitting up more now, so we've been working on strengthening to sit in the bumbo. He still doesn't like the swing very much.. I've pretty much given up on it.

His little expressions make my heart smile. He saves the best smiles for me and Pat - they make every hard moment worthwhile. He just loves his daddy and gives the biggest smiles when Pat walks in the door at night. I love my little family so much! Here's to another month of joyful growth!

Sketchbook Pages: Weeks 17 + 18

Sometimes I use my sketchbook to plan out bigger ideas or to practice with new supplies, but most often, I'm just playing and letting out some creative energy. I really do want to explore and experiment with more of the art supplies I own though, so in that light, I pulled out my water soluble crayons at the beginning of May. Watercolours aren't something I use very often, so it's been fun dabbling.

Here are the pages I created during weeks 17 and 18, which encompasses April 23 to May 6.

4/22 Blue bird
4/24 Citrus tape

4/27 Monkey
4/28 Our schedule (currently)

4/29 Spring cleaning
5/1 May flowers

5/2 Spring bulbs
5/3 Some days are hard

5/4 Red, yellow, black
5/5 Rain, rain, go away

List of supplies:

• various papers, including scrapbooking paper and paint chips
• washi and decorative tapes
• Pilot Precise V5 pens in various colours
• pencil crayons
• Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons

Throwback Thursday: Grow

In order to reach my goal of blogging more often, I've decided to revive or create a few new regular features. This is a new one, although the concept of "throwback Thursday" is not original. I'm sure you've seen these posts all over social media. For me, since I have so many sketchbooks, many of which I have never blogged, I'm going to go back and find an old page to spark new inspiration. I'll try to use new photos, but to make this even easier on myself, I can also browse my Flickr feed and find old photos of favourite pages.

Here's one quick doodle that makes me really happy:

Hmmm.. I may just have to pull out my sketchbook now! Success!

Wordless Wednesday: Blooming

Little Moments: Open Windows

I've been thinking about blogging. I had to check - I started this blog 10 years ago come September. 10 years. I just skimmed through some of those first blog posts... I sound 10 years younger, if that makes any sense. Anyway, through the years I have blogged in waves, sometimes frequently, sometimes not so much.

Lately I've had an itch to blog more. So if you follow along here, you'll start to see a few subtle (and not so subtle) changes. For starters, I'm aiming to blog more frequently... and to reach that goal, I'm looking through my archives, reviving some old features and adding a few new ones too. Some will be weekly, others more sporadic. On that note, enter Little Moments.

One thing I really want to do more often is record the small things - the little moments - that bring joy to my days. And so this feature was born. A small glimpse of my here and now.

Last week, we were finally able to throw open the windows and air out the house. When I ventured downstairs that morning (after leaving the windows open all night), the smell of fresh air greeted me with a smile. That scent is indescribable - a mixture of dew, sunshine, and blooming green - it reminds me of mornings at the cottage. That one glorious week of childhood summer vacations, visiting my grandparents at their cottage on an island in the middle of a idyllic lake. Spending the days lazing in the sun, swimming at the beach, climbing rocks, reading comics and Nancy Drew... spending evenings in the gazebo, playing cards, going for midnight swims, sitting around the bonfire.

So much happiness in one deep breath.

Sketchbook Pages: Weeks 15 + 16

Here's a look back at the pages I created during weeks 15 and 16 (April 9-22):

4/9 What to pack for Easter
4/10 Jellyfish

4/11 Our current routine
4/12 2.5 hour nap

4/17-18 Happy Easter
4/19 Blue Skies

4/21 Century schoolbook
4/22 Bright trajectory

List of supplies:

• various scrapbooking papers, paint chips, book pages and ephemera 
• washi, masking and decorative tapes 
• stickers 
• Pilot Precise V5 pens in various colours 
• Sharpie paint pens (white, gold)
• Staedtler Triplus Fineliner (light blue)