tea party with cupcakes

hallow lovely world. :-)

quick update!

dylan has had 2 nights now in which he slept SEVEN whole hours! omg! i haven't slept that much in a row since he was born!! crazy. he's also done 6 and 5 hrs on some nights and other nights he wakes up every 2 hours again but it's going in the 'right' direction. :)

motherhood is possible THE most incredibly beautiful thing that has ever happened to me! every day i wake up filled with such wonder and love for this little boy, ohmygod.

look at his smoochie facey!!!



i just overflow with looooooove ♥ eheehh.

oh, i recorded 'silent night' in dutch and english, listen to it ici if you like;





and i did new art! (dylan sleeping 7 hours is giving me renewed energy! wheeee!):

i enjoyed doing these sisters a lot, the beige/ pinky salmony colours were just lovely to work with;



and some new whimsy art;



all originals are still for sale! (msg me if you're interested) and prints can be had too! check out my etsy shop for prints (although the pink girls aren't up yet).

oh, just a quick reminder! if you want to buy a calendar and have it arrive before xmas pls order before 30th nov!! (thanks to all that have bought one so far!!) :)

ok, gotta go to bed now and hopefully have another 7 hour sleep with dylbee!!

hope everyone in the states had a lovely thanksgiving!
big hugs. x

masquerade mask, willowing calendar and xmas cards! :0)

hellooo! :D

so, here is my latest youtube art video in which i make a masquerade mask!









it is for sale in my etsy shop!

and as promised, here is info on the calendar and xmas cards!

BUY A WILLOWING 2010 ART CALENDAR!

PRODUCED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME! :-) yay! I'm so excited!



This calendar is an exclusive calendar which contains a
whopping 22 images of my most popular paintings!
(I will only be producing this calendar once, next year will be another one)

Its simple and sleek design will fit nicely in any home, office or bedroom!
(Scroll down for images & behind the cut)

10% of each sale goes to "Friends of the Earth" a UK based charity that aims to;

"Make life better for people by inspiring solutions to environmental problems"



www.foe.co.uk

Order before 30th November to receive this calendar in time for Christmas!
(pls allow for 2-3 weeks for delivery as I take pre-orders first before ordering a big batch)

Any orders after 30th November may not arrive in time for Christmas,
but will definitely reach you in January!

Buy Now!
£20 + Shipping

-front cover-
(pls note; box will not appear around title!)

Size: 21cm x 28cm (approx. A4 or 12" X 8")
Paper: 250gsm premium card
Pages: 13 pages
Layout: Month-by-month view
Bind: Spiral bound
Art Images: 22 images

When the year is finished you can cut out the images, frame them and hang them up or use them as postcards!





(pls note; box will not appear around wording under images)























aaaand i now sell xmas cards! i created these 5 little xmas girls especially for this year's xmas! packs are sold in sets of 5 or 10. if you want to order many more, email me; tam [at] willowing [dot] org













you can buy them HERE

i'm also doing some special xmas offers in my shop! you can buy multiple prints for reduced prices!

and here endeth the xmas offer announcements! :) x

reasons why i love life

.reasons why i love life.

the expansive feeling i get when driving in a car with andy and dylan, the music on loud, darkness outside, streetlights going by. unsweetened apricot jam on crunchy warm toasty bread. fluttering butterfly wings and bumblebees on lavender branches. soft andy beard hair tickles on my cheek's skin. dylan's beautifully rounded button nosey. clay on my fingers. messy mixed media layer art. the excitement that comes from new artistic ideas bubbling up on the inside. dylan's heavy, warm, sleepy body sleeping on me and his curled up legs. vanilla perfume scent sprayed all over me. rain showers. packages in the mail. making clay puppets. autumn smells. fake fights with andy. compassionate friends. daddy & dylan over the sea songs. finding inspiration in beautiful children's books. orange, brown, red, golden and yellow autumn leaves. percussion. compassionate heart connections. feeling cosy inside while violent rain storms rage outside. making smoked tofu with avocado and pine kernel salads. finding and using new art supplies. crisp winter days with bright blue skies. roasted chestnuts. snow. soft windy breezes. sparkles & glitters. purple little whales. kindness. topaz, lapis lazuli and rose quartz. little clay birdies. floral patterned fabric and felt. the way dylan looks ecstatic when he breastfeeds and his soft, porcelain skin. tree bark. laughter like bells. andy's care, compassion, kindness and love. soft kisses. preparing and sending packages to customers. soft graphite pencils. basil. nonviolent communication and its potential and power. scissors. heartshaped everythings. gustav klimt. the beaches on ko nang yuan. dylan's eyelashes. finding freedom in the present moment. unconditional love. a busker playing an irish folk song on a violin in hove.

***
we're moving! :-) we found a 3 bedroom semi-detached house in brighton (a little more inland than we are now). it has a huge garden with a pink blossom tree in it, the rooms are spacious and the living room is big too. we're so excited! it will give us a lot more space than we have now and we really need it with dylan who brings so much stuff with him!

otherwise, sleeping has been very tough in the last week and a half. even though he's now 13 weeks (nearly 3 months old), he's actually become worse sleep wise! they say that babies tend to sleep for longer in the nights roundabout this time, but dylan's has become worse! for the last week and half he's woken up every 2 hours! it's really tough when that happens. i can cope with 2-3 days of that, but more really means i walk around like the living dead. last night he did a stretch of 3.5 hours which was encouraging, but it may just have been a fluke again. we'll have to see. andy helps out here and there feeding him formula, but we don't want to do that too often, particularly now that he's just had his 2nd set of vaccinations. i want the breastmilk to help boost his immune system ... so we go on. it'll change, i know. so i'm too down about it. :-)

***
i've also been going through a phase in which all the suffering in the world just really gets to me. i couldn't even watch the news without bursting into tears reading about boys raping boys, then; children with leukemia, people being murdered, suffering in asia etc. at times, i just don't know what to do with this information and can get quite down because of it. i feel so helpless and incapable of changing it.

byron katie & eckhart tolle helps with this though, a lot. last night i had a real clarity moment; when i read about children with leukemia and i don't want them to have leukemia, i suffer because i resist reality. that way, i cause more suffering on top of the suffering that already exists which is useless and only makes the world a more miserable place. if i accept reality, i am in a place of strength, calm, love and acceptance and can do a lot more to alleviate other people's suffering.

***

i've done some new art in misty mawn-esque style, i'm on her current course which is inspiring. so far no new techniques for me though, but that's cool, i enjoy just being on her course to see how she melds all her work together, i look forward to when she's going to add portraits.



i also took this macro shot of dylan's beautiful face yesterday which i just love! ->



and, i've been making little clay sculptures which i've enjoyed doing, but must admit; painting on rounded surfaces is much harder than on flat!! :D





i have also been making a masquerade mask! but i'll only show one pic of it because i'm doing an art video of it and don't want to spoil all the fun! :D


pretty no? to me it looks venetian. :-)

lastly, i am now selling a willowing 2010 art calendar (10% of each sale goes to the charity; 'friends of the earth') and willowing christmas cards! but i will be doing a separate blog post announcement for those soon. if you want to take a peek in the mean time clicky on the links.

big love to everyone out there.

♥

the science of motivation

finally someone who speaks out on how punishment and rewards stifle creativity and work as limiting! this is one of the reasons why we will NOT use mumbo like star charts/ punishment and rewards for Dylan.

this video looks at what motivates people from the angle of business & economy, but is also relevant to the human spirit and what it is we all really need in life.





to read about this from a parenting perspective, read anything by Alfie Kohn, in particular his heavily researched book: Punished by Rewards

bear mama, starchild

by; susan seddon boulet

this is how i feel; i am like a ferocious and strong, beautiful, huge bear using my massive paws to protect this miraculous, starchild. he; like a bright light in the dark, me; a force, strong, powerful, my sole purpose; to love, caress, care for this child of light.

***

oh hai! it is i, mummy tam, boob machine, milk producer, lover of dylan, lover of andy, keeper of a huge heart full of love, artist, pram pusher, rain watcher, autumn leaf admirer, silly song singer, smiler, luckiest lady in the world. ♥

the above painting really speaks to me. i love the mysticism in it and the magical style. i might try paint something in susan's style. wow, she made amazing paintings.

so, what's up with tam? well, dylan slept his first 6 hour stretch this week! it was a one off so far, but i'm keeping my fingers crossed that it may continue. i've been told that when babies reach 3 months old stuff changes! for one they tend to sleep for longer periods at night, and for two their digestive system will have matured and they won't be bothered by gas so much any more. so i'm eagerly awaiting his 12 week birthday which will be monday a week!

this week was mostly a really really rough week, most nights he just kept waking up every hour or so, on top of that, i got some bad rheumatism flare ups which make the nights even harder because my shoulders, arms and hands are in real pain. i can hardly pick him up then. so i'm watching my food intake (certain foods can trigger RA) now and that seems to make a bit of a difference, but, like babies, RA is also unpredictable. if the flare ups continue i'll have to talk to the rheumatologist for a new cocktail of meds. there is one other meds i can try which is ok while breastfeeding.

i took a load of beautiful macro shots of his little face and hands yesterday;







i've also done a new piece of art inspired by tascha & danita type whimsical girls;


i call it; "fly free little birdie"

as i was mucking about with my macro lens i took some macro close ups of this piece of art which i love, because you can really see the texture & "bumpiness" (ha) of the paint in some of them;








i love the little shoesies i did! ee! :D

other things i'm excited about.

has commissioned me to make a painting for his girlfriend for xmas! :) i look forward to creating this painting as they have big lovely fur family and snails too! :D

and, i have signed up for an online art class with misty mawn whose work i've admired for quite some time now. i hope to learn a few new mixed media techniques.



i'm also excited about rhomany's 2 courses, 1 is a coptic binding course in which you learn to bind your own book! and the other is a new art journalling course which she's running on my ning site; www.willowing.ning.com (people can still sign up btw) with the aim to make a 'soul book'. the coptic binding one is an ongoing one and you can still join that too, it's run over here; www.debcompany.ning.com

even though dylan is either attached or on top of me most of the day, i manage to do bits of art here and there and i've been making cute little clay statues, but none of them are finished quite yet, here are pics of them in progress;



sooo, that's me for a while, here endeth the mammoth art post. hope everyone is well, i know i'm not around much, but having a nearly 3 month old baby is taking up about 80% of my day! :D (and i'm lovin' it!)

remember, i'm on twitter & facebook; willowing

big love.
♥