Placemats

It's officially in my hands, it arrived in the mail today, the latest copy of GreenCraft magazine.  I submitted placemats that I made out of brown paper bags from Sprouts, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.  And they made it in the magazine. 
I am......excited right now!!!

Redescovering myself

Since the kids started school on Monday, and they are now both in school full day, I have found myself alone for several hours before I start work myself.  This was something I was looking forward to for many years, and it's here now, and it's been great, but also a little bit uncomfortable.  I can hear myself thinking, I can hear myself breathing, I realize I exist and I can get to know myself again.
Today I even went to church.  I am not a religious type, but there is a Catholic church in my neighborhood, only a 5 min walk from the kids' school.  It has a little Chapel and it's open from dawn to dusk.  The quietness inside is what appealed to me.  Sure my house is quite now too, but there are many distractions (the darn computer being one). 
I sat in one of the pews, the dim light inside and the sound of the ceiling fan were comforting.  I sat and daydreamed for some 30 min.  Then I came home, made lunch, and ate quietly by myself.  I liked the feeling of being by myself, with nothing that needed an immediate attention.  And I felt guilty about it at the same time.

I worked on my Book of Tea for a little bit too. 


And was doodling in the white space of the monoprints I made the other day.



And it's now time to go to work.

Monsoons!

We've had several storms in the last couple of weeks, but somehow I am never at the place where the storm is.  That changed on Saturday, when I stepped out to go to the airport to pick up my husband.
There was a warm but eerie glow on the front patio when I opened the door.  I looked up and the sky was heavenly.

But there was something brewing in the back.  I turned around and my house was engulfed in dark heavy clouds.



It poured hard.  I barely could drive at 35mph on the freeway.  Lightning was everywhere.  Maggie counted every time she'd see a bolt light up the sky.  Then she fell asleep in the car.
We waited a little bit at the airport as there where multiple delays, but husband got home safely and that's all that matters.

Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sometime when life gives you an opportunity that you are petty certain it won't come again, you gotta go for it.  Even if that means that you have to take the risk of getting stuck at an airport with two little kids (which I didn't luckly).
So this is what happened:
Few weeks ago I found out that a friend that I grew up with in Macedonia, that I've known since I was about 8 yrs old, is in Seattle.  He was there for work and was staying only for a few weeks.  Being on the same continent with someone you grew up with, it's not something that happens to me every day.  I knew I had to make it happen especially since I work for the airline that calls Seattle its hub (Alaska Air).

I was off this Friday (yesterday) and noticed that I needed one person to oversleep and miss their 620am flight to give me enough seats for me and my kids.  I took the chance, and I got on the flight.  The last 3 open seats.

Seeing someone from my childhood, was almost like going home.  And it was even better that I can introduce my kids to an old friend.  This was special to me to show my kids to someone I knew when I was a kid.  My friend took us to the beach (who knew Seattle was a beach destination) where we all had a great time playing in the water, running, playing hide and seek and having a picnic on the grass.

I must have exhausted them, because when I took them to get something to eat at a nearby mall, they fell asleep on the table before they got food.

I wished the day had more than 24hrs to better catch up with my friend.  I changed my flight from 7pm to 9pm which gave us time for a cold beer to wrap up the day.  It wasn't 'Skopsko pivo' (Skopsko beer), but we opened it with a bottle opener from Skopje.  Good enough!
Cheers!!!!

School time

On Monday both of my kids will start school.  This is the first time that they will both be in school all day.  It will be quite a change for me.  Every morning after I drop them off to school, I will have a few hours alone, before I have to go to work myself.  And then I won't see them until their bed time when I come home from work. 
Right now, I am not sure how I feel about all that.  Excited to have some time to myself, and yet sad,  to be away from them most of the day.  But they are growing up, and I am growing up along.  I am not a mom to babies anymore, but to school age children. 

Kids

There are many reasons why people have kids.  As I grow older, trying to raise my kids to the best of my ability, I am becoming more convinced that in turn they are my guide into adulthood as much as I am their guide into childhood.  They make me be a better person.  They are capable of giving the best words of wisdom, true, unfiltered, raw words that you can't always get from adults.  I appreciate them and I hope they stay like this for a long time.

Marie-Claire and a birdie

I've been playing with some stamps I got last month.  These are a collection of stamps by Colette Copeland from Stampington.
I hand-stitched and added hearts with zentangle designs on shrinky dink plastic.

On the birdie, I added a new stitch I learned, french knots on stalks.  It's currently my favorite stitch.

Circus book

I've been warming up to work on some gelli printing at home, but I've been finding many excuses not to do it.  Including making my first book project. 
Occasionally I find myself not knowing where to start, what to do next.  This comes from overthinking, which I tell myself over and over again that 'overthinking kills creativity'. 
Anyway, I still didn't get to play with gelli printing at home, but this last week I started and finished a Circus Book.  Made with fabric, stamped fabric, shrinky dinks, stamps, embroidery, sewing machine.

May I present you the 'Circus Book'.