Last push of the year

Another magic-phone post. Finished up the year of easing into "making" with some holiday etegami. Xoxo Char

San Diego Urban Sketcher Reporting!

With baby Kai and Jeff in tow, I went to the Urban Sketchers Meetup in San Marcos today. I exercised better time management than last time and actually got color onto my sketch, but Kai's nap time came a lot sooner than I anticipated so I was not able to sketch any of the really cool cars. As I wore Kai through the parking lot, I was able to snap a few photos of my favorite cars.  Nonetheless I am quite happy with my art day, and am still on a high from it! :) 

Happy Sketching
Xoxo

Char

You are my sunshine

The things I accomplish when my husband and baby are both in bed by 8:30. Two additional sunflower etegami  did not make this photo. By the time I was writing in quotations, it was 11:30pm and my tired brain would not allow my tired hand to write what my tired eyes had read. The "mess ups" will be used in a collage.  Stay tuned!

Xoxo

Char

P.S. This is my first attempt to post a blog entry from my magic-phone. "Hold onto your butts!"

Tomato & Mango

Here are my latest etegami creations.  I've been setting aside time every week to do some etegami and other drawings, and this is what I created on Monday.  It took all week to get them scanned and ready to post on the blog, but this is a time frame that is much easier for me to live with (compared to my recent 3-12 month turn-around time).

mangoes and tomatoes, all in a day's work...

"yoropiku" it's an inside joke with my auntie

Summertime...

heirloom cherry tomatoes from the la jolla farmer's market

  

We had some visitors last week and ended up doing a lot of site seeing.  As soon as I saw the first local tourist map, I planned to repurpose them as envelopes once we were done with them.  I got the idea from the members in my Etegami group who make their own envelopes from maps and old calendars. They are so much fun and turned out pretty cute. Can't wait to mail them out! 

 

san diego map envelopes

xoxo
Char

Japan Expo in Issy les Molineaux

I participated in an etegami call in France for the Japan Expo organized by an etegami friend of mine, Valerie, for the Pigmets et Arts du Monde.

This is a link to the video with all the etegami submissions for the Japan Expo:
Japan Expo 2013 Issy les Moulineaux
I hope you take a moment to watch it because so many awesome inspiring pieces were submitted!

I submitted 3 pieces which you can see at the 4:26ish mark.  One piece I included, despite the lack of words, was this camelia I made in Japan.  I created the two other pieces here in San Diego, and this call was just what I needed to get the creative juices flowing again.

xoxo
Char

a mistake!

 Today I set out to catch up on posting some stuff that I've made over the last couple months...  my previous post was actually created 3 months ago on April 13!!!  These asparagi were created on April 19th.  As I was searching my images to upload I came across a critical error;  I forgot to scan each individual final etegami so this is all I have to share, folks.

pre-gansai

asparagus on linen paper

modified quote from pablo neruda

xoxo
Char

back to basics

It's been quite a while since my last post... in between then and now I've been consumed in child growing, then child rearing, an international move, "healthy cookie" making, and finally a few days ago back to etegami and other things I've been neglecting like my love for tea, shortbread, and chocolate.

I'm still consumed in child rearing and healthy cookie making, but it's finally getting easier to juggle my responsibilities and the things I'd rather be doing instead of playing house.  Don't get me wrong, being a domestic goddess is very much a part of who I am, but the house stuff was being prioritized as something that I "must" do and the art stuff as something I just "want" to do... Well, not the case.  I need to create artwork as much as I need to feed my family delicious healthy food and I can do both if I just make the time to do both.  It's a simple adjustment.

I made these two drawings with one friend in mine who has been waiting about 9 months for a reply!  Sorry Emily!

As for the "healthy cookie" that I'm obsessed with, a friend of mine shared the recipe with me and I've named it Oat Nugs because they look like little oat nuggets.

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas

1 C quick oats (Old Fashioned Oats have worked fine for me)

1 Tbs peanut butter 

some chocolate chips (and/or cranberries and pecans!)

Do this:

Preheat the oven to 350

Mash bananas, stir in oats, peanut butter and chocolate chips. Drop on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes.  And there you have it, Oat Nugs.  Let them cool for about 10 minutes before you taste them.

I've had friends use pureed pumpkin and honey instead of bananas; and I usually chop up some tart dried cranberries to balance out the sweetness of the ripe bananas.  

xoxo

Char