This has been a crazy month.  I thought to have some downtime between the end of my drawing time and the start of my painting class, time I could spend continuing with my drawing practice, improving and cementing what I learned.  But life had other plans.  I got exactly one drawing in.

With the two Easters celebrated here in Lebanon and Ramadan, ( Read more... )

With our trip to France and the subsequent fatigue and need to get back into a rhythm, I did not finish the cover for my illustration workshop in a timely manner;.  However, I have been slowly working on it over the past month and today reached "Done."  The instructor has given me the same verdict.  Hooray.  I did not like the feeling of having ( Read more... )

These are some random things, in no particular order, that I want to jot down for myself

-- I learned that the "blue light" filter on my glasses falsifies paint colors, which can give an artist serious angst!  I kept insisting that the colors on my floor were not right, and everyone else said they were fine, not jarring, etc.  Finally, I took off ( Read more... )

I am still a little fried from my week, which not only involved an intensive workshop, but two nights of almost no sleep (yes, being an insomniac sucks), so this summary might not be very eloquent.  I'll break it down day-by-day and include some images.  It was, after all, a visually-rich experience.
( Art process this way )

I have dedicated as much time and energy as I could this past week to prepping for my workshop with children's book illustrator Maya Fidawi.  Her beautifully-colored work is fun and fresh, full of heart, whimsy and glimpses of Lebanese life.  I am very excited for the opportunity to learn from her.

( Some things I got up to this week on the creative front )

I seem to be on a crochet kick these days.  This is mostly motivated by the fact that it is cooooooooold here.  Look, we had snow:


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We could go with:  "Ti'Loup's Crocheted Baby Blanket, Five Year's Coming,"  OR "Well-Traveled Yarn," OR "Better Late Than Never"  OR "Ça Tombe à Pic"*

For each of my babies, I made at least one blanket, and I wanted them all to have one I crocheted.  I so loved Farmer Boy's blanket, featured here (hello, old Egyptian apartment!):


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...take and post a lot of photos.

Just scrolling through, looking for a photo I posted during our Mayotte days of our coconut grater--which I couldn't find--keenly reminded me of that.

I must do better.  For my sake, for the sake of my kids.

Like these New Year's Eve photos from a year ago (2019):


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To paraphrase from The Princess Bride, There is too much; I'll sum up...about our trip to Oklahoma, that is ( Read more... )

Junebug is 3 months and two days old.  On June 3, he rolled over on his tummy all by himself.  He also rolled off his Montessori bed. Good thing it is very low and there is a nice, thick rug to cushion him.

Today, J and Sprout brought home croissants and pains au chocolat from the bakery, and we picnicked at a freshly renovated garden spot* just ( Read more... )