Safe in my Arms

I am just about to put this second print in my Etsy shop and I realised it is one I haven't shared before on my blog. This is one of the first little drawings I completed last year but it has been an idea in my sketchbook for much longer.

When my little boy (who is now 3 and a half) was a baby, he wasn't much of a sleeper and woke frequently at night. I read books about self settling and 'crying it out' but I chose to simply pick him up and cuddle him and watch his tears disappear and a look of contentment come across his face. I felt like a big strong tree and my arms were the branches. He was completely safe and happy in my arms.

And so I made a little sketch about this at the time which last year turned into this picture. The bars were for my baby's cot. The droplets for his tears. The flowers were ones we had passed on our walks together and I wondered if he dreamed about them. And the big tree on the side - that one is for me. Even as a big strong mummy tree, I also feel the need to be protected and safe. Perhaps that is Daddy tree!....

Master T sleeps soundly now at night. This print is for my friends with little ones who are going through the sleepless nights. There is an end to it, so hang in there.

And here it is!

After weeks of procrastinating and weeks of work, here it is: my first little print in my etsy shop!

I spent Sunday afternoon trying to make friends with my husband's camera and lenses. I am not sure we will ever be best friends but I would like to think that we could come to some kind of arrangement where I speak nicely to it, and it does the work! Unfortunately it doesn't matter how flash your camera is or even if you switch it to the auto mode - you can never take a great photo unless you know what you are doing with it and what is is you are trying to photograph.

As I have probably said before on this blog, photography was never my best subject at uni and I still have visions of doing whole assignments and having the slides developed only to discover the battery in my light metre was flat and my readings were all out!

The weather was not the greatest yesterday and although I picked the brightest room for the job, by the end of the shoot I was chasing the light and reaching for the tripod. The images are far from perfect but for now I will be content with what I have produced and keep working on improving them.

From here it does not matter what happens - it is just the fact that I have started that is important. Now I have to keep going.....

Almost out of Excuses!

What a week it has ended up being. Who would have known last Monday in Japan as eveyone trudged back to work for the week, that by Friday their houses might be floating on water and they might be running for their lives. Few things shock us on the news anymore but the images coming out of Japan at the moment are truly horrifying. It is so surreal for us to sit and watch from the comfort of our homes these images of loss and devastation; trying to empathize with people when we really have no idea. I have felt a couple of magnitude 5 ish quakes while living in Japan which had me running for cover under our kitchen table but I really can't imagine how frightening an earthquake of this magnitude must have been.

Fortunately for us, most of our family and friends are located in central Japan and have not been affected by the quake and those that are near Tokyo are also okay. It really puts our lives back into perspective. We run around in our material world climbing imaginary ladders and filling our homes with all the latest thinking we are quite in control and quite clever. Nature knows better and recently has been reminding us of our vulnerability. These are the times when we feel helpless but can at least take the time to reflect on things that are really important to us. Life is affter all very precious.

On the work front this week I had a long list of things to achieve and have crossed off a good third of them. I am pretty happy with that. My husband keeps asking me when I will put my first print in my shop and I am now excited to say that I am running out of excuses as to why that hasn't happened yet. Some packaging arrived this week and I have just spent tonight updating my shop policies and shipping details to include prints. So really now I have just two things to do: take some photos of a real print and make a listing for it. So it will be soon, very soon.....

The Start of Something New!

Recently, I find myself caught up in the admin side of running a little online shop. I spend the little time I have to work searching online for supplies, appropriate packaging and estimating postage costs etc. I am itching to get started on a new drawing and would love to start on a piece in colour, however, progress is also slowed by my littlest poppet who occasionally still wakes in the night and will not go back to sleep without a hug from me.

Since March has arrived, a crispness has crept into the night air and I wonder if Missy Muffet wakes because she is a little cold. The other night I was working away when her desperate little cries came from her cot. Yes, it was time for a hug from Mum and as I sat with her I started to imagine how that image might be represented graphically. A hug is such a simple gesture but so warm and comforting. It got me thinking this might be a theme for my next print. I made a few quick rough sketches and have filed them away for a time when I can see past all the little jobs I need to do first. Hopefully soon, very soon I will be able to list my very first print in my Etsy shop. If it doesn't happen in March then it will definitely be April - I hope!