Yellow Stripes and I'm off to Italy!

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I am a terrible planner. Or maybe it's just that I've been having so much fun finishing up these feathers and playing around with other yellow stripes (for a possible new logo for my Etsy packaging). No, really it's that I'm a terrible planner and an even worse packer, even though I've been planning this trip since February! My train leaves for the airport in 6 hours and I still have to sleep before then. :) But everything is ready to go, even if it was accomplished at the last minute. And I probably won't sleep much anyway because I'm too excited for my trip to Abruzzo, Italy and the SQUAM Art Workshop with Flora Bowley!

Just wanted to check in while I drink my cup of Sleepytime tea (even though my sweet husband is reminding me that it's waaay past my bedtime) and let you all know that I won't be home until Sunday. I have a list of emails and messages that I wanted to return before I left and blog comments that I wanted to answer, but I guess I'll be in touch again next week--my time in Italy will be completely unplugged!

Have a great week/weekend, friends. Can't wait to share stories from Italy with you when I come home!

Life, Love, Family: Sometimes it's Messy!

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Thanks so much for your sweet words on last week's post! Here are a few peeks at the new heart I've been working on--it will have wings, of course. I decided to try a new design element in my collage--an intricate chevron pattern this time, rather than my usual checkerboard pattern. I think I'm hooked.

The mess on my worktable lately seems to resemble the mess of my heart. I've mentioned that my girls started Kindergarten this fall, a big change which has led my emotions on a bit of a roller-coaster ride! Even though I miss my girls during the day, having time to work has been amazing and I've been so engrossed in my new projects that it's hard to pull myself out of the "zone" to surface and connect at home and online. I suspect (and hope!) that this difficulty will pass as I develop a routine for my work life and my home life (even though working from home complicates things).

My daughters are loving Kindergarten, but I think my oldest is experiencing acute growing pains that just might be very similar to my own. She has discovered the fun and friendship of the classroom and struggles to pull herself away from her play everyday to come back home to her family and the routine of home. She is testing the boundaries in every way, leaving her Mama and Daddy quite exhausted! But I know that this too is just a phase. We will just dig deeper into our hearts to parent with love and consistency. Soon we will claim a small victory and move on to a different battle.

And this is an important thing--to remember the small victories, to hold them aloft in our hearts so they don't get covered over and forgotten in the new day's problems.

What are your small victories this week? I'd love you to share them in the comments so I can help you celebrate!


Linking with Studio JRU and Paint Party Friday.

Brain Picking's Picks

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I came across this post a while ago and thought it would be just plain silly of me not to post a link to it here. It's Maria Popova's (aka Brain Pickings) list of the '11 Best Illustrated Children's and Picture books of 2011'
I have not yet watched the featured posted interview clip with Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer who created the awesome 'The Phantom Tollbooth' but I am sure PLANNIN ON IT! And so should you!

Hans Christian Andersen's Paper Cuttings

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The other day I picked up a book titled "The Amazing Paper Cuttings of Hans Christian Andersen" and it totally blew my mind. I had never thought to research Andersen in detail up to now and I have to say that I think I am subconsciously savoring it until I resume my schooling. I have been giving 'doing my Masters in Children's Literature' quite a bit of thought in the past year and think that once time permits it, it might be an inevitability... However, when I saw this book I had to cheat a bit and immerse myself in the super magical world that was Andersen's life.

Growing up poor he really made his own luck by sticking his foot into all sorts of noble and elite doors, mastering his art of verbal and written storytelling and ...as I have now discovered... Paper Cuttings.
According to the book and it's sources, Andersen would perform his fabulous fairy tales to an enrapt audience whilst seemingly randomly cutting away at a piece of paper with a gigantic pair of scissors. At the end of the story he would unfold the paper to reveal all sorts of absolutely amazing and original works of art. They did not have to coincide with the story he was telling but did feature a steady repertoire of his established character favorites that inhabited his stories such as bakers, dancers, 4 armed - windmill type men, as well as more macabre images like men hanging on gallows, and Andersen's favorite and perhaps his symbol for himself, ... swans.

Andersen never made any drawn plans for these cuttings, they are so to say, spontaneous cutting, like you would create a drawing without prior planning. A doodle-cut so to speak. Because of this and because of their imagery they were quite different from the many other paper cuttings from this time. Paper cuttings in general were quite popular in the 1800's when Andersen was alive and many people would commission a paper cut like you'd commission a portrait so that one's image would be remembered for the next generation of one's family. Camera's were still new, very expensive and not commonly used until later.

Here is an excellent and super fun podcast on Andersen and his life by 'How Stuff Works' Podcast that my good friend Rebecca turned me onto, after having told her about my new discovery.

I am sure there will be at least one more entry on Andersen in the future here somewhere. I am quite fittingly enchanted by his own fairy tale.


Here are some sites on Andersen and his work.

one

two

And here is a small blog post on him by a very beautiful blog that I just discovered and one one the daddytypes blog here.

Ingrid Van Nyman's Pippi Longstocking

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Soon Drawn and Quarterly is going to release the original comic book versions of Pippy Longstocking which were written by Astrid Lindgren herself (!) and illustrated by the original illustrator of the Pippi Longstocking books namely, Ingrid Van Nyman. I myself grew up with the Pippi Books illustrated by Walter Scharnweber (the German version I guess) which I am quite fond of. Having said that I am super excited to find the work of Nyman and am already totally in love with her now. Such a fun feel to them, so much imagination in there and I love the colours. It's crazy to think that she ended up tragically taking her own life. What a tragedy. She was so fantastic! 

Ingrid Van Nyman's Pippi Longstocking

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Soon Drawn and Quarterly is going to release the original comic book versions of Pippy Longstocking which were written by Astrid Lindgren herself (!) and illustrated by the original illustrator of the Pippi Longstocking books namely, Ingrid Van Nyman. I myself grew up with the Pippi Books illustrated by Walter Scharnweber (the German version I guess) which I am quite fond of. Having said that I am super excited to find the work of Nyman and am already totally in love with her now. Such a fun feel to them, so much imagination in there and I love the colours. It's crazy to think that she ended up tragically taking her own life. What a tragedy. She was so fantastic!