first cabbages, and now boats....

so much for the cabbage obsession I seemed to have been experiencing lately...
(go to my gallery, and you will see what I mean....)


...I now seem to be into boats!

i'm still afloat...

...it was time to leave town (too much gossip going about..), and she had to choose.




...she had far too many things to bring along. what should she leave behind?
...in the end, the thought of bread for dinner without any cabbage soup made her decision an easy one.

I am still afloat on my own little boat over here, as I row closer and closer to my upcoming show at Renegade (details to come shortly...). Each piece has taken its time, as I try ever so hard to slow things down and let them develop as they should. I have to admit that the thought of filling an entire room with my own pieces was at first quite overwhelming, and I immediately reacted by trying to make as many pieces as possible.

It didn't work. I was uninspired, and left feeling at a loss at how I was going to pull this thing off. I have not done a show like this since my days as a painter back before I had children, and oh how much I was anxious to do it again. I really wanted to do a wonderful job, and realized that I had to shift my focus a bit.

Yes, it's an entire room....but would I rather have it packed to the ceiling with mass-produced work I hardly cared for, or would it be best to let smaller groups of pieces have the space they need to be read and enjoyed for each unique story they possess? It was an easy decision to make once I allowed myself to step back and ask myself this very question.

I am excited. I am inspired.

I am afloat.

milk trucks and mustaches

An English country girl met a small-town US girl and they decided to collaborate on a fun new set of prints! I am thrilled to introduce this limited edition collaboration between Pistachio Press and mummysam.

These lovely pieces were printed on bright white 100% cotton paper, which creates a beautiful impression. All of the inks were hand mixed and each piece was printed by hand on an antique Vandercook No. 4 letterpress. Each print measures 8"x10", which is perfect for framing. Only 100 limited edition prints were made of each design.


Pricing is $30 each or $50 for the set. Check out our shops for more information:
Pistachio Press and mummysam.

he wasn't so sure....

Charles knew she was interested in him....
apparently she is quite the catch....
if only she didn't like birds so much.


Marge knew he was interested in her....
apparently he has been so for quite some time...
If only he didn't keep wearing that silly crown

I get cold...

is it just me, or do you get cold when tired as well?

...it has been especially hard as of late, considering the long week we have had with two bronchitis ridden little boys. With the last week spent mostly taking care of their sore chests, I have had precious little time to focus on what needs to get done work-wise. I would like to just go ahead and blame it on the cold. The cold I feel once the kids have gone down for the night, and I decide to just sit for a little while and make the mistake of wrapping myself up in a blanket kind of cold. The cold that keeps me incubated under the blanket just "ten more minutes and then I will work" kind of cold. The cold that extends my start time from 7pm to 8pm because I am too scared to pull off the blanket kind of cold. The cold that keeps the blanket wrapped around my shoulders as I muster myself to the computer kind of cold. The cold that keeps the blanket wrapped around my shoulders, which inevitably makes it too complicated to sew at the machine kind of cold.

....the cold that makes me realize that I am getting colder and that the only solution is to retire under our thick down-comforter kind of cold. The cold that tells me I am too tired and should just give up trying to work tonight at all.

...the cold that tells me it will be warmer tomorrow.

a preview of something just perfect!

:: I have a little secret to share.....



....one that involves the perfect collaboration with an amazing letterpress printer..




...and will be launched next Monday. I cannot wait to show you the results!

(how's that for a teaser?)

a bit of the morning in a day in the life....

:: It's ten o'clock at night.

:: The kids are in bed, I am tired, and drinking too much coffee in an attempt to trick my body that what I just said isn't true.

:: I try to work and find myself distracted. (which shouldn't come as a surprise....all I have to do is see something "shiny" and my focus is gone) I pull out my old doodle diaries ,which I created to document a typical day with my (then) two little ones, and start giving it a read.

:: I forget my current work and start to draw. I decide to break up the day into pieces and illustrate each part of the day on a separate piece of paper. The above illustration was a typical morning from 5am - 8am.

:: I shouldn't be tired. I don't change diapers every 2 hours. I don't feed and rock to sleep. I don't clean up potty accidents (scratch that. They may be older boys now, but they still are boys.) I don't chop up all of their food. I don't clean up the floor after my baby throws all of his food off of the highchair. I don't keep stepping on cheerios and sweeping them up. I don't scoop out pieces of paper and rocks from their mouths. I don't run to the stairs when I realize they figured out how to move the boxes out of the way (still haven't gotten around to buying that baby gate).
I don't go to bed wondering what time they will get up in the night. I don't do any of that, and I am tired.

:: I should make new doodles. That way, when I look back at these drawings five years from now, I can react to those the same way I reacted to these today. Then I will understand why it is that I am now typing this post at 10:30pm and all I can think about is bed. The boys will be up at 6am and ready to play. They will want breakfast. They will need help finding their missing favourite sock. They will come to me to inform me when the other one has done something wrong. They will knock their milk off the table by accident. They will inform me that they no longer like sandwiches cut in half. They will no longer leave trails of cheerios on the floor, but rather hard little lego pieces that one only finds when painfully stepping on them in the middle of the night.

:: It's 11pm.

:: I am off to bed. Let's hope I got all of the legos picked up this time.



(note: I posted this print in the shop, and will sell them as a limited edition print. Every few days I will post the next chunk of day, in hopes that by the end their will be several prints that you can put together! My goodness, it's amazing how much I did before 10am!)

Any fans out there?

:: I must admit that I am a bit overwhelmed.... very solid (and I say that proudly)
1980's Atari computer skills are apparently not enough when deciding to open up a facebook account. I am sure what has taken me three hours to do, with frequent breaks to bang my head against the desk, should probably just be a quick "click and done" type situation.

I have been a bit reluctant and nervous to join the rest of you out there, but feel it is now time to come out from under the desk and just give it a go. With the fabric line coming out this Spring, and book soon to follow, I want to be connected with as many of you as I can. I have set up a mummysam facebook page, and invite any fans out there to join! The only problem is that I am not quite sure if I have done this correctly, so any suggestions will be openly received.
(does anyone know how to add this link to my blog? Oh how much I need to learn...)

...and please let me know about your pages...I would love to come and pop over for a visit :)

as I passed through...

as I passed through the hallway en route to the kitchen, I finally saw what was keeping such an abnormal amount of brotherly peace in the household: a basket, some string, a bunch of legos, and an older brother satisfied that he can always get his little brother to go empty the basket and put his requested items inside. The boy never had to leave his spot.

remembering back.....

remembering back....., originally uploaded by mummysam.

Horace often wishes he could be 8 again..........

speaking of "remembering back" (yes, that horrible segue has returned...), I remember back to the beginning of the school year when I swore that I wouldn't walk to the bus with my jammies on. I was so good, you must believe me, as I took such pride in walking my eldest to his bus stop every morning with a proper pair of pants and shoes on. Weeks went by, and I thought nothing of it.
Then it happened.
One accidental sleep- in caused such a hurried madness, that I had to rush him to the stop with my pajamas on. Mind you, I still managed to get my shoes on. It wasn't so bad, as my winter jacket was long enough to cover most of my pink reindeer flannels. And there was something nice about returning into the house with the ability to cozy up onto my chair with a hot cup of tea.
Then it happened again.
This time, it was my husband's pajamas...Way too big, and clearly not mine. My husband gave me the stare as I walked our son out the door, but I just decided to shrug it off. Besides, I was wearing proper shoes...it wasn't that bad. I was starting to like the pajamas, and the return back home to my cozy chair was becoming a welcome ritual.
It happened yet again.
Thursday I drove my youngest son to school with my pajama top on. This time I was very confident in my decision, as I defended my actions knowing that I had put on jeans, shoes, and a jacket. No one was to know, right?
Now it has to stop.
I got too comfortable. Arriving at the coffee shop post school drop-off to meet a friend, I took off my jacket only to suddenly realize that I was indeed wearing my pajamas. This wasn't my cozy chair tucked in the privacy of my own home, but rather a very open chair welcoming everyone that came through the door. I quickly zipped the jacket back up and proceeded to sweat under it's thick lining while trying to act "too cold" to take it off.
I will never wear pajamas to the bus stop again :)

will she show?

will she show?, originally uploaded by mummysam.

(hildy promised to meet him at the cafe for a coffee....will she show up?)

....speaking of "show" (I know, it's not the best segue....), I am just so elated to announce my upcoming solo exhibition at the Renegade Handmade Gallery in Chicago this coming February! I was (and am) extremely honoured that they asked me to put together a solo show as part of their Spotlight Series. I promise to update you with more details as they come in, but what I can tell you is that the show will open on Feb. 19th.

Thanks so much Renegade!

have to get the supper ready....

:: whilst the kids run off to play in the fields, hildy dashes out to the garden to pick the perfect cabbage for the evening supper......


:: my editor's question today asking whether or not our family cooked any bubble and squeak over the holidays, must have prompted this little addition to the above doll I have been putzing around with. ( For those new to the meal, it's a British staple after Sunday's roast dinner that consists of shallow fried patties of leftover cooked cabbage and potatoes mushed together. This is definitely not something to cook when all members of the family decide to stay in the house for the night........a childhood memory I choose not to visit for a while! )

Pop back in tomorrow for an exciting "solo" announcement about where this lovely little will be heading in a couple of weeks.......

_

mr. milkman yearns for bed

as he goes about his daily milk route.....


...mr. milkman can't help but think of the lovely quilt that is waiting for him on his cozy bed (made by his lovely wife).

...oh how ready he is to curl up in bed and rest his weary arms (those glass bottles can weigh quite a bit you see)....

to sum it all up....

:: pre-holiday teacher gifts ( add a touch of panic to the scene when viewing this image, as we suddenly realized that our "plenty of time to do it" attitude wasn't going to work at 5pm the night before our last day of school....)


:: enjoying our freshly popped crackers at the table for our Christmas feast (note to self: the cheap ones may have some questionable little gifts, but the crowns don't slip down over little ones' noses, thus eliminating any potential dinner meltdowns...)


:: just enough food to feed the bellies....


:: Another "injured" foot appears that also needs plenty of rest and a pair of proper crutches like grandad's ...(my broken down swiffer sweeper version of crutches was just given the evil eye...)


:: a new striped floor finally comes in, just in time to greet the new year.....

::and there you have it. It may have been a holiday full of stress and worry, but there were enough of those little moments in between to still make it a very special one (and not to mention memorable......)

Happy New Year everyone!