Kiss

She's back!
In an attempt not to miss Mother's Day (yes, I released Bun the day before Easter- woops!) I've put Butterfly Skies back into the shop. Printed on crisp white card stock in a bold red Gocco ink, the Nouveau lines and turns make for one brilliant print. It feels good to have more and more silkscreen items around ouou these days.

fast moving clouds

Here in PDX we are having one of those classic spring days; rainy morning gives way to beautiful, dappled sunlight, clouds move in, hail, wind, then the sun breaks through again, crisp blue skies, followed by more fast moving clouds on the horizon. We've been getting about one of these days per week, and I absolutely love the dramatic swift changes.

Another thing like fast moving clouds that I'm noticing is my own flit from project to project. Although on the blog I'm trying to project the confidence gleaned from my self-imposed release schedule (releasing new designs and sets in the shop)... around here I had been suffering from some *crazy* vacillating. I have the pen & ink designs to show for it, and this makes me happy, but I've started countless projects in pencil, gouache (I really love gouache, though it has been almost 9 years since I've used the media), watercolor, colored pencil, and the beginnings of projects in Photoshop. Oh my gosh. Exciting to have these plates spinning, but a little confusing, too. Through some brainstorming with my sister, I was able to give myself an outline for what tasks I have ahead of me in regards to the shop, and what directions I'm headed in terms of creating a portfolio (hence the other works).

Ah, that feels nice.

One last thing regrding handmade... the brownies we tried last week from here were divine. I even got them put together in the mad-dash between dinner and my nephews' bedtime, so not so hard to make! I find brownies from scratch often to be too flour-y, but these were quite good, and not too sweet.

growth

MNJ

It has been a week or so since I've reported on the house, the twins, and our unified efforts concerning sleep training. We are back in one of those long-lasting cycles of sickness, having happily graduated out of the flu symptoms into this uncomfortable respiratory cold. This has lasted longest with my sister, making sleep itself hard enough to come by. But sicky or no, the clock was ticking on our parents' imminent visit, and the urgent need to get both boys on a healthy night's sleep schedule was its own motivation. So I took a break from the blog through the third, triumphant, attempt at sleep training.

For three nights I stayed with MNJ, who C had started with. He is doing just fine at putting himself back to sleep if he wakes up at night, we even got through one of my notorious migraines together. C, meanwhile, worked with SL in a separate room. Somehow the whole deal, much shorter in duration than with MNJ, unfolded with a more sweet sense of normalcy. Right from the first night SL got more solid sleep stretches than he had since our moving in, two months ago, and the arrival of teeth.

SL

It really does take days leading to weeks leading to stages to see the routines that eventually get set, those that fail, and those that either cause stress or are delightful. Cues from the boys sometimes take days to decipher, and most predictably~ once a patten emerges it is *very* hard to critically review it, perfect it, unless a change occurs to insight observation. The boys' babysitter came at night during the "witching hour" of bedtime/ dinner, allowing us an hour of transition time that was truly precious (and scrumptious!) for three nights. Having help, too, at an hour that is usually really intense for the mama, boys, and Aunty, as we all juggle each others needs, helped us to see how we can reorganize the time into 1/2 hour increments... by my estimation starting at 4 (dinner prep) and ending at 7 (bedtime).

***

MNJ

I want to talk a little bit about the stage the boys are in, too, since it effects so much of our days, and since both C and myself have been reporting about sleep. Other things that are happening with the twins are more teeth, more skills, and more ridiculous noises from MNJ. MNJ got his first tooth what must be about a week ago now, though the anxiety his teething caused took several more days to clear. We are waiting on the next round from either one of them, but for now the sight of those pearly whites is more heartwarming than I ever, ever thought possible. He is practicing a variety of noises, incorporating his tongue as often as possible, and seems to be finding a new noise of interest every two or three days. He no longer growls, for example (which I really wanted my dad to witness, damn!) or spends the day shrieking... this morning it was raspberry raspberry, "dit", raspberry.

SL

SL, owner of two teeth and scooter-across-rooms (in order to use them) is into doing push-ups on his toes right now, or any number of gymnastics that prove his agility and curiosity of his body's abilities. A couple of times while talking very closely with SL, he has reached out his hand and gone straight for my teeth. A look like, "Wow, you've got those too?" written on his face. You can see him comparing his internal world to the outside; discovering teeth and chewing, feeling texture on our clothes or between objects, grabbing at 2D pictures, peering over the edges of things. Both boys are delighted by clapping, the only thing that consistently works for me if they're both in a crying jag, MNJ just yesterday attempting for the first time to slap my open palm in between claps.

MNJ & SL, both a little bored :)

At 8 months, discovery is the name of the game right now, for both boys, and it's taken the pressure off of the constant, constant, constant entertainment phase they were going through last month. Just a little, but enough that those moments of watching them with growing patience to explore this or that has become part of the daily routine, discovery is a welcome addition to playtime. They are both mad about books, MNJ with his favorites (only the favorites, please) and SL more open to new stories, pictures, playing with them when other toys won't do. This makes their bookseller/ book artist Aunty *beam* with pride.

***

There has been a lot going on over here through the last month and a half, and hopefully night sleep has turned a corner.

behind the scenes

This is kind of an addendum to the posts regarding The Schedule, a subject that is ongoing in our house of creative entrepreneurial endeavors, job seeking, baby care and day to day surprises. This list of all the plates we have spinning is loaded with emotional content, from the lows of frustration in the job search to the sweat and pitch of artistic inspiration of the many, many, many emotions that come from every little thing my baby nephews do. So, if you are trying to fit your head and your heart around a lot of shifting energies, I hope some of this will prove to be beneficial. The links should all open a new window (I hope!) if you wish to jump around.

I'll start with inspiration through commiseration, a link to a guest article from HeartHandmade. Adele's article outlines perfectly the inner dialogue when events in your life begin to compete and quickly overturn owning a business. Read the article "Navigating the Storm" here.

One of the most basic steps to creating a routine (that took me a while to figure out) is that our daily/ weekly schedule in the house was easier to make after a week of putting off making the schedule in the first place. Ah ha, sometimes in the not having you begin to get more clear with yourself about what the *have* would feel like. So my sister and myself observed and made note for just about a week as to what a week looked like already, what time spent together was productive, and where the traps were. The next step, which we ourselves are coming up on, is to check in after around two weeks and see what is working, what needs work. Personally, and as this pertains to my Etsy/ ouou time, I've applied these same guidelines to my shop itself and my time spent working on new products, and I feel much more clear with myself as to when and how often this work gets done.

We are lucky enough to live in a house with an extra room, and I can't express how incredible it is to have a study, studio, a room of one's own... we have named ours the "Room of Requirement". This serves as a work space for both of the working adults in the house, who are often using the space at opposite times of the day. I use my own room for the folders, stacks, boxes and organized chaos that comes along with the working half of an Etsy business, and the Room of Requirement houses my computer, shipping material, and the Gocco. I find it extremely helpful to do my computer work in a separate room, and even the Gocco printing I've done was quick, fun, and efficient.

I stumbled upon this blog post about having a catch-all room in the house, even more eye opening as it is geared toward children and parents (or Autnies, depending) sharing the space. Just reading the words Playful Learning made me feel inspired about the potential behind shared spaces. Follow the blog here.

C brought my attention to Modish Business Tips, a sideline blog by the curators of the sleek and stylish Modish. I've found these short articles to be very accessible and thought provoking. Last year at some point The Small Object had a post about using NOLO as a resource, but in my first year of the shop I found it very intimidating. Somehow with the people-person speak of Modish I've felt confident in going back and doing more research there. Certainly, as this spring I've begun selling wholesale and consignment to local shops here in Portland, these business structures and facts are helping to guide my steps like never before.

I've got to step away from the computer for now, so I hope this has brought some new links to explore and inspire. Feel free to leave any others in comments- I'll pick up where I left off here next week!