Testing another iPhone/ iPad app for blogger

Hello again! 2 blog posts in a day well wowie! I'm hoping to post more often and shorter posts and a blogger app would be useful for that but def don't like how the other app posts photos, hoping this one is better!



Oh great! It. Let's me post photos within the body! Great start :). Above a pic of my boys in the park this morning. And here more Dylan on the swings.





The day actually started really badly. Dylan just would not cooperate and I got really exasperated with him. Bit when we finally managed to get out of the house it was pretty lovely AND I managed to go to hobby craft and bought some more art supplies! Yay. Anyhoo, here some more pics;







Now let's see what this looks like on the blog! xox

Work in progress

Typing this on the blogger iPhone app. Let's see if it posts in a way I like!

Here are some pics of current work in progress/ semi finished/ finished. I'm really happy with how the portrait came out with the lady with headband. I think I'm really developing my shading skills!

The blue/ green one is the first entry in my new journal! Trying to process some difficult emotions in that one. It's far from finished but I like where it is going. I finally bought some golden fluid acrylics which I used in this and I LOVE THEM. My god they are expensive but they are worth the money!

The colourful portrait is almost finished. I kinda "screwed up" a section of it but I still ended up liking the whole thing. :)

Happy Saturday groovy art gang! <3

3 months of Elliot - 2.5 years of Dylan & new art!

Well hello there faithful reader. :) It's been a while, I know, but what can I say: things have been busy. :)

I'm sitting here, unwashed with my trousers inside out. True story that. This be life with kids under the age of 3. Things like showering and wearing your trousers the right way out become lower on the list of priorities. Haha. Also, you become a bit frazzled and absent-minded on very little sleep. I didn't notice until quite a bit after I'd put my trousers on, that they were -in fact- inside out. But I'm now just deciding it's a fashion statement. Ha.

So, Andy is back! Yay! All is well in the world again. Dylan was over the moon to have his daddy back and me too! Elliot didn't really notice it much though he smiles big grins whenever Andy holds him.

Elliot was 3 months old this weekend! (And Dylan 2.5 years old! Eeek, time goes by so fast).

So, 3 months of Elliot. A huge smiley baby. Started smiling pretty much the first week he was alive. Doesn't like lying down much, wants to see things and get going, stands on his legs and kicks them hard if you hold him upright. He's already trying to roll over (Dylan couldn't be bothered at this age). Sleeps pretty well, though lately wakes up more at night. Has a droopy eye lid (or the other eye lid is open too much, not sure). Likes chewing on his fist. Is happy to lounge in the baby björn, as long as you face him outwards. Needs entertainment. Is very alert, takes everything in. When he is unhappy, he lets us know through either squealing or screeching. He's very good at expressing his unmet needs at this point. ;) His skin is soft and beautiful and his head smells of daisies and snowflakes, they should bottle this stuff! ;) He's pretty much the best, awesomest addition to our family. :D

Art Stuffs:

I've been working on a new portrait which may or may not be added to my Life Book, I might mount it onto wood and put it up for sale if it doesn't go into the Life Book. If you follow me on Facebook, you would've seen the progress shots already, but here they are again:

This piece is still not finished yet, but I was much happier with the 3rd version. The 2nd one was much too busy! Will post the final piece soon. I was very happy with the shading on this portrait. I feel like my shading skills are developing more and more. :)

I was also very inspired by something Alissa Burke did, she posted it HERE. She'd basically done this creative doodle and then pasted a picture of her baby in it! Awesome idea, so I did something similar and pasted lil Elliot into it:

Very fun to do! :) Here are some more detailed photographs from when I was working on it though it was mostly finished at that point and I used another pic of Elliot. The paints you see there are gouache. I used gouache, watercolour crayons and some of the letraset watercolour markers (which I've not found as great as everyone else seems to find them! They're ok but I was expecting them to be more watersoluble, anyhooz):

 

Lastly, I'm super excited because I found this AWESOME art journal! It has actual hot-pressed watercolour paper in it! I've been looking for a journal like this forever and could never find journals with watercolour paper in it (so I bound my own, but it's time consuming), but I found one now! It's the "Saunders Waterford Series" (tried to look for a link online, but can't find one, I bought mine in my local art store here).

I love the size of it and it's got these awesome frayed pages at the edges. I'm so glad I found this journal because I've not had one that I liked recently which means I don't do much journaling and therefore less emotional processing. Glad to be able to start journaling properly again!

Anyhoo. That's me for today. Ta-rah lovely people! <3

Self-connection through art.

New work in progress.

I have no art journal at the moment. The one I created on Rhomany's course a while ago is full up and I've got a pile of new beautiful papers lying here waiting to be bound into a new journal, but I can't find the time to bind them together. And I don't just want to buy a journal as none of the ones they sell have the exact paper I want! So I'm doing art journalling pages on separate sheets and considering adding them to my Life Book at the end of the year! I'm realising that I really need to do more art journalling. Art for the sake of processing emotions and I don't get to do that a lot lately.

I get so much out of just arting and letting the colours & paints speak my feelings. It's so therapeutic and soothing. I'm a poor processor of emotions, per default I don't process them well, but through art I do. So, I'm back to trying to make sure I do a bit of art each day, for my psychological and emotional health! :) But of course, with 2 babies, trying to run a business and no husband around I don't have a lot of time. But I really am committed to just take some time out each day to self-connect through art. Yes yes yes. :) 

The magical husband is back in 8 days! Whew, what a couple of weeks it's been without him. It was our 7 year anniversary yesterday! 7 Whole years of Andy and Tam. Wow. Amazing. They have truly been the best 7 years of my life. There has been so much beauty, love, transformation and growth in my life because of Andy. We have an incredible depth of connection. I consider myself so so lucky to have him as my soul mate. It's incredible. <3

Things have been chaotic yet really fun and manageable too with the 2 boys. Elliot is still pretty easy going though he's also had more difficult days. He likes 'not being bored' and is starting to need more entertainment now, though today he pretty much slept throughout. On other days, he's awake a lot and won't lie still by himself for more than 5 mins.

Dylan is incredible. He's 2.5 years today exactly and I often look at him and wonder how and when this little person started to get so independent already and is completely already 'living his own life'. I thought that would happen later. Like, when they are so tiny and still babies, they are simply an extension of yourself, they are, of course, someone else, but also not, they are mostly still part of you, and then all of a sudden, they turn 2-ish (or something) and they are so very much their own person, someone who is so independent from you, it's so odd. And it reminds me of the quote of 'the prophet': 'your children come through you, but they are not from you'. And I've always known/ believed that, but didn't think that that would become so obvious so early on in your child's life.

It's like Dylan, at 2.5 years old, is already half "leaving the nest".

On Children
 Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Introspection

 Detail from a Life Book page I did today  So, since I last wrote, things are a bit more in control and balanced around here. We've found some kind of groove. I have the most amazing support from my friend Beatrice and me and Dylan have a new thing going at night (he's basically sleeping in my bed with Elliot and I instead of his own bed and that is going well).

Though I still feel very tired, overall I feel less frantic and frazzled an just more in control. Yay! :)

Elliot is sort of a dream baby. He sleeps really well at night and is easy going during the day as well. Plus, he keeps smiling and giggling! Look at his little facey:

I'm entirely in love with him. Utterly devoted. He's just such a blast to have around and so so easy going. :) Dylan was much less easy as a babe, I am also devoted to him, of course, nevertheless! Ha ha!

I also found some time to do some art. Woohoo! Kylie's lesson was a paint over acrylic's transfer technique which I did quite a few of the month before Elliot was born, but I'd not done it with one of my ow photographs before! The idea was that were going to do a self portrait and surround our portrait with positive words/ qualities that we think describe us. This is mine:





:)
Here are some details;







  

It was really odd for me to work on my own face and it felt like all my features were so small compared to the faces I usually do! :) but I like the final outcome although my face feels a little stretched. ha ha!

And today I really wanted to do some art for the sake of art but still include it in my Life Book. And I worked with just feeling what was going on inside, asking myself what I was needing and creating in response to that.

And this is what came:











I liked working with the dark shadows and more contrast than I usually do. I used my graphite crayon hence a lot of grays, but it suited my mood and what was alive inside. Not that I'm feeling gray inside, just sort of introspective and calm and gray fits that for me. Underneath are loads of layers but they sort of disappeared.

Anyhoo! That is me for today. Oh, Life Book has just started on its second month, for my lesson we're doing my paint over collage method. Students are coming up with such amazing art work! :)

Love! <3

Tired, so tired

Oh God, I'm tired. Andy has been away for almost 2 weeks now and though I've had awesome support, it's not been easy. In particular, lil Dylan has not been easy and I'm going through a bit of an RA flare which means my knees, hips and feet in particular are affected. It hurts when I walk.

Dylan -in general- seems more on edge than usual, which is understandable what with his dad gone and new people arriving all the time to help me out. It's unsettling, so much change. He's also still going through learning that he has a little brother now and that he is no longer the center of the universe and that can't be easy either. The resulting behaviour is that he is more shouty, more needy, less cooperative and less easy-going. I, on the other hand, am getting more and more tired, sleep deprived, less able to be empathetic, patient or tolerant and just want to hide in a room - alone - for 5 weeks, recuperating from all this.

Additionally, doing all this, this life, work, art, living with kids without the person you're meant to do it with is rather bland. Like eating stale bread, or like wet snow, or like wilting flowers, pick your metaphor.

Don't get me wrong: I am deeply blessed. I am blessed, so blessed. But I'm tired and would like a bit more ease and cooperation from my first born and perhaps a bit more sleep and some time to art. Oh and to take a shower more often than once every 3 days. Ha.

I've not yet had a chance to work on newer pics from Elliot and Dylan but wanted to share these from a few weeks ago:


 Elliot - 7 weeks old
You can see in this pic how his eyes are uneven. I noticed from the moment he was born that something was up with his eyes. It's either that the one has a droopy eyelid or the other is too open. I have an appt for him in March with an eye guy to look at it. I'm sure it'll be fine, but would like it to be sorted for him, of course. They call it 'ptosis' on the internets and say it's only a cosmetic problem as long as the lid doesn't cover the pupil. If it covers the pupil it can interfere with sight and brain development. It may also correct itself, but I would've expected it to have corrected itself by now if it was going to. We'll see what the eye guy has to say.




And I love this picture of Dylan (29 months). There is such light in him. He has such beauty in him and I do love him so insanely much. :) But just need a bit more cooperation from him at the moment.

He's also got a bad cold/ cough and that always makes him much harder to deal with, he becomes even more needy and weepy, and though I understand it, it's just not easy to deal with. The other night, I had to force the puffer (nebuliser) on him a few times which is horrible and then he threw up in his bed first and an hour later in my bed, poor thing. Of course he's not easy to deal with with all that going on. And I try to be as understanding as I can be, but when you're physically in pain and get very little sleep, empathy is one of the first things that goes out of the window.

Here is another pic of me and Elliot that I like:

Anyhoo. In other news: Life Book is going so awesomely. I'm so loving what everyone is doing. Students are posting work, expressing themselves, connecting up, helping each other out, just being generally really wonderful human beings. So far, we've had lessons by yours truly, Juliette Crane, Bonnie Rose Bryan and Kylie Pepyat-Fowler. All awesome lessons! :)

We also had an artist interview with Jane Davenport! There is SO much to do/ see/ learn from each month, it's fabulous. I'm trying hard to find time to do Bonnie's lesson and I want to do Kylie's as well, but not sure if I can find the time!

I feel so touched and blessed to be running this course and to have over a thousand students! I know insane figure right?! Touched, blessed, lucky = the Tam. Sometimes, it leaves me tearful and speechless.

It's still totally cool to sign up to Life Book btw, all classes remain available until March 2013! So you can go back and forth throughout the year! Did you know that if you sign up to the basic package that you get access to 1 other of my courses as well? You can also sign up to other packages which give you access to even more of my courses too! It is truly a really good deal even if I say so myself. :)

Sign up HERE

And thank you to everyone who bought a Tam Art Calendar!! I was so chuffed by how many of you bought one!! :) Big hugs! x 

Printable Tam Art Calendar Now For Sale! :)

Woop woop. I finally got round to finishing off this baby. :) I know I'm a bit late, but there are still 11 months in the year so I thought there is still time to enjoy this printable calendar with uplifting Tam Art! :)

Here are the details:

Buy the printable calendar for ONLY £4.50 (approx $7 USD) and print it out or use it however way you want at home. (If you are a member of my art community or if you have 'liked' my Facebook Page you get the calendar for only £3.50, so if you really want the calendar, sign up to my art community or like my Facebook page for sure!). 

I decided to offer calendars this way as it's much more affordable for everyone this way. Normally if I have them printed by a company (at A4 - 12 x 8" size), I end up having to charge like £20 GBP including postage and many of us simply can't afford this, so I thought I'd offer my calendar as a printable! This way everyone can have a bit of my art in their home! Yay! (I recommend printing them on good quality stock paper, either matt photopaper or watercolour paper).

I've used the paintings that all have uplifting, life-affirming slogans in them, so they will help you remain connected to your inner divinity throughout the year!

Have a look at the preview - click on the image  to see large version:

How does it work?

Once you have paid, you will get a confirmation email. In this email you will find a link to a downloadable PDF file which you can then print out at home or at your local printers (they could also bind it for you if you don't know how to do it yourself!). Or you don't bind it at all and hang each individual page up each month, or you use them in your journal! The possibilities are endless! :)

Like what you see?

Buy NOW! 

£4.50

My Dream Board for 2012

This year, I hope to do as many Life Book guest teacher's lessons as possible, so that my Life Book will be big and fat and pretty at the end of the year. So this weekend I convinced Andy to take Elliot for an hour or 2 and made a Dream Board (also known as Vision Board)!

I made this based on a lesson by Juliette Crane who offered this in week 2 of Life Book! I loved the idea and thought it would go well with the 'word for the year' idea (my word is 'open').

Though Juliette's Dream Board contained mostly collaged images, I wanted to do a lot of writing and draw representative images. I found creating the Dream Board very meditative and I liked the process because I could dwell on visualising what I wanted for the year. This is my list of hopes/ dreams/ wants for this year:

• More time with family
• More community & friendships
• A summer holiday
• An open heart, open mind, open soul
• Presence
• Peace
• Balance
• Love
• Art Living
• Health
• Read more

I found it interesting to see that a lot of those wishes are quite abstract rather than concrete. But I felt quite good about that. A lot of those are inner experiences rather than hopes that depend on things that happen on the outside. :) It was quite eye-opening for me. By Art Living I meant to be able to continue making a living out of art as I do now. It is something I desired throughout my life and enjoy it so much. I want to hold onto it if at all possible! :)

Another thing that was eye-opening for me was to see how close friendships and community have become more and more important to me in life. There was a time where community and family just did my head in, now they are on the top of my list of important things. :)

And then there is 'health'. Now that I've given birth to 2 babies and am coming out of the pregnant mother phase, I'm much overweight and would love to become healthier in that respect. But food, for me, is wrought with complications, attachments and triggers, so I don't know how easy that is going to be, but I'm trying and being kind to myself about it as much as I can.

So here is the Dream Board in full:

I loved being able to create this and this will be page 2 of my Life Book! Eeh, exicting! :)

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