6 months of making

Sewing a leather purse for a 5 year-old's birthday

Potato stamping with Hazel

Fire building over winter

Many pots of tea

Almond meal cocoa biscuits for my peeps

Bread making a few times per week

A bit of painting in quiet moments

Monster magnets...

...star keyrings...

...and felt checkerboards  for the school Father's Day stall, these were a labour of love but a real crowd pleaser!

Art Fair excursions, wishing I had a few spare thousand $ to shell out

Helping Leo cast his hand in plaster to display his loom band mitten at the Royal Show

Learning circular knitting!

Growing broad beans...

...and beets

 

Making spinach pie

Did HEAPS of yoga, online at Yogaglo and at Dance of Life in Fitzroy

If you have been following me over on Instagram (@emmagreenwoodmakes) you would have seen all these pics already, but for those of you that I only stay in touch with via Blogger, here's what I've been up to!

I have been on domestic duties for most of the year, helping my family stay on track as Daddy/Sam works ridiculous hours making new sculptures. We have all been very busy, happy and healthy, and are looking forward to seeing Sam's work in new galleries over the next few months.

We also got married in May on a rainy day at the Registry Office...

...and I had a big haircut!

Hiatus

Hello all, I'm just letting you know that I'm having an extended break from blogging, as I have too much on my plate to keep up with everything at the moment.

As you know I am no longer a frequent blogger, and I prefer to keep the subject matter shoe related, but the honest truth is that I am not doing much making right now, and probably won't be till Hazel is at school, which is hopefully next year.

We are planning some home renovations, so I'm working at my desk job late into the night when the kids are asleep, to earn some extra coin.

My daily exploits are still visible on Instagram @emblueski, so do come over and say hi.

Fun times

 Went to the beach and pretended to be Old Gregg

 Rearranged my colour-coded books

 Did some mending

 My kids both made art with their Dad, this is Leo's...

 

...and this is Hazel's

 

 Scored some Villeroy&Boch at Savers

 Ate Bento Box 4 at Ito

 Went to the NGV

 Made festive beverages in glass jugs, this one is a strawberry basil margarita

Turned 40 and had a huge party!

Science Kids

 

We are big fans of Usborne Publishing around here. 

Quite a few of their colouring/activity/puzzle/sticker books have found a happy home on our bookshelves, in fact I have my very own colouring book of patterns that the kids know they are FORBIDDEN to touch. So when Granny gave Leo this set of 50 science cards we were all smiling.

On weekends I can sometimes be an organised parent, suggesting that the kids find an experiment which we can create together. The latest one is the 'growing bicarb crystals' card, actually we've been letting them grow for about a month.

 

On a tray we have a plate, two jars, and a piece of wool suspended between with a paperclip on either end. In each jar we poured a cup of hot water and added four heaped teaspoons of bicarb soda, stirring till dissolved. The wool wicks the solution up from either end and as the water evaporates you can see crystals growing over a period of time.

 

This is the day after we set up the tray. The water drips onto the plate from the lowest point of the woolly 'skipping rope', and you get different crystals forming on the plate.

 After a week or so.

After 3-4 weeks. There is almost no solution left in the jars now, the crystals are starting to dry out and they are quite firm to touch. They are about the size of cauliflower florets, and are so beautiful. You can see that they are also growing all over the rim of the jar and down the sides.

Next time we might put food colouring in each jar, maybe a different colour in each, to see what blends we get along the woolly rope. I'll be sad to dismantle this experiment but there are so many more to make. I'll keep you posted.

Making like a mofo

 Sampling some new things. Playing with old designs/materials and reinventing them. I will never get tired of circles!

 Sending samples of new things off to magazines in the hope of some press.

Every night I am at the kitchen table making work by incandescent light. Not my favourite, I prefer daylight, but I need to make the best use of my kid-free time. Here are some pinwheels on the go...

...and here they are finished. They've found new homes at Craft Vic, Five Boroughs and Klopper.

Thanks for the feedback regarding my previous post, I know it often appears that other people have it all, when we are probably all a bit guilty of painting the best possible picture of our lives, despite the mess and chaos.

We are battling coughs and colds brought home from daycare, interrupted nights with the small girl, last night we struck a deal that she would spend all night in her bed, lo and behold it worked!

I've got a few new projects on the boil which are very exciting, I'm also in full production for my little Christmas range, and I'm doing the Finders Keepers in early Oct, so it is full steam ahead!

August!

Seems I lost a month, I haven't checked in since June.

I've been busy on Instagram @emblueski, and chasing my tail on a day-to-day basis, wondering how the rest of you keep up with kids, domesticity, creativity, beloveds, family, work, life.

This seems to be a major topic of conversation for me, musing upon how others do it, why I struggle with it, how it appears that everyone else is kicking goals and really making progress with their work, while mine seems so painstakingly slow and frustrating. Excuse my miserable tone, I was up at 5:30 this morning with a sick girl and feel like a zombie, entirely unprepared for the huge week ahead of me.

I have been wondering about blogging, what's it all about, why do I feel like I'm talking to myself, should I continue to use this space for shoemaking chat etc. I haven't decided.

So while I launch into the busy Sunday evening routine of bathing kids and somehow stopping them from constantly arguing, here are some images from July.

Split personality

After spending all day in the studio I find it very difficult to go back to being a Mum.

Last week everything in the studio took longer than anticipated, and when it was time to get the kids from school and daycare I was very reluctant to leave.

I was out for about an hour, including time at the supermarket planning meals on the fly, then in the car the kids commenced their bickering which is far from pleasant, and really tests my somewhat flimsy state of zen.

At home it all became chaotic. Small girl doesn't sleep during the day, and after a big session at daycare she is a hungry whingy banshee. The big kid dives into his Lego pond and is self sufficient, and I am left looking at the manky kitchen which I have hardly seen since breakfast. In my head I'm still in the studio, trying to follow through on making an item, photographing it, uploading tweaking and emailing to potential buyers. Gotta pay for that daycare somehow.

So this is where I find myself torn.

Before any food can be cooked the whole kitchen has to be cleaned - unappealing and time consuming. Before any leather goods can be sold the images have to be tweaked and formatted - time consuming but infinitely more appealing than domesticity.

Essentially I'm constantly shocked and disgruntled that my kids require feeding at the end of each day. It is my least favourite scenario. Sure I can cook, I'm not unfamiliar with my kitchen, but I want to eat Tom Yum soup at 8, not kid friendly stuff at 6.

The irony was not lost on me that this particular evening it was me that turned into a banshee. I have apologised to my family, but during dinner I was unbearable. Somehow I made a huge spread of tacos and vegies, all very colourful and not slop at all. But I kept moaning about being interrupted from my work, I ate so fast and wanted to hurry everyone off to bed or into an activity that didn't include me.
Part of me was internally screaming 'just enjoy time with your family, damn you', and the other part was already out the door and into the studio.

It reminded me of The Divided Heart all over again. Rachel Power's book of conversations with creative mothers essentially boils down to this principle - to be creative you need to be selfish, to be a Mumma you need to be selfless.

And that's me there in the middle having a meltdown.

The fruits of my labours this week - luggage tags featuring big beautiful stamps. These went to a friend who is, you guessed it, an equestrian fan.

The lergy and the muse

 

 The small girl brought home a virus from daycare. We have all been afflicted with the entire range of wintry symptoms, with the added bonus of loads of night time coughing keeping us all awake. Our humidifiers are running constantly, there are rivulets of water running down our windows from the humidity. I really wish we could go to Cairns and eat tom yum soup and get lots of sunshine.

 For a few days she just sat on my lap in front of ABC Kids, all day long. It didn't help that she had an ear infection, plus molars coming through. My world shrank to the walls of our house. Amongst all of this Sam and I have so many deadlines, meetings to get to, or to cancel when Hazel is home from daycare.

 There are so many things on my hand stitching list: knitted gnomes for daycare, a cardigan for Hazel, embroidered boot uppers for the Needlework Needleplay show in August, and these embroidered brooches I've been planning and sampling for a workshop later in the year. I've been getting in as much stitching as I can, in the car while Sam is driving, on the park bench while the kids play in a briefly sunny window, constantly on the couch in the evenings. My TV viewing is all about Game of Thrones, Mad Men, West Wing and Treme, my current projects will always remind me of these shows.

 I'm also applying for a few grants, which require a lot of succinct writing, support material, and searching for co-funding and sponsorship. It's taking up a lot of time. There are not enough hours in my day!

 Each day Sam and I reach a point where we are exhausted and fed up with the relentless routine of small children; the MESS, the reading bag, the mealtimes, the getting them to bed, the night waking, and the inevitable co-sleeping. We look at each other and say 'how are we meant to be creative, to skillfully make things of beauty during this constant chaos?' There is no answer for this, we simply have no choice, shit happens and things are unpredictable, not just for us.

BUT we did get to see Prince again, which was so darn fine, I wish I could see him every fortnight. I tracked down some great tickets on ebay, you can see how close we were to the stage. The camera police were super-vigilant in our area, I only got to take this pic because The Artist wasn't on stage at the time. Bloody great show, I lost my voice for a few days and am still exclusively playing Prince tunes around the house.

I hope that you're all faring well, getting things done, keeping warm, eating good food. I'm wishing for  a bit of sun to dry my laundry, a grandparent to look after the kids for a while, a personal assistant to write emails and submissions for me, and a chef to whip up some inspiring food that will clear my sinuses.