A warm cheer into the universe!

New York has gone through a terrible hurricane as all of you probably have heard already. My family is fine, but what we have seen the past week was something we will remember for the rest of our lives. But like one of my friends said , New York is strong and it will make it through the toughest of times. Cheers to my fellow New Yorkers who have accepted this last challenge with such dignity and kindness to one another. I have found a wonderful little animation that I would love to share with you. It is called "The King forgets", and in summary it is about a king who forgot what he went out of the palace for and got his army together but instead of fighting ordered them to sing..and thus the war ended. Peace to all of you!

New pieces

I have been neglecting this place lately. Please , please , please dear freinds if you are on Facebook join me there--I am much better at posting short updates and pictures . You can find me at HERE. I will be be so happy to reconnect again!!! And as promised a few new pieces some listed on Etsy already and some not listed yet

Moving into the Summer

And here we are -June already! Days are long, sun is making the city hot again and we are venturing out to the parks and beaches more. I am still mostly taking care of the little guys, although every now and then I manage to get some painting done and do a custom piece here and there. The littlest guy is getting to be not so little anymore. And the oldest one is starting to get an attitude of his own and I'm struggling with that. But otherwise everything is wonderful. Life is full of colors and busy moments, but I like being busy.

Growing with love

Growing, growing, growing...that's what everything around me is doing. A few little watercolors from last week.

May days

This is also going to be a photo report mostly. It's finally warm and sunny here and we try to spend as much time outside as possible. Kids found a bird's nest next to our house and we have been quietly observing the mothers comings and goings from it. Waiting for the babies to start coming out from the nest. I opened up my sewing machine (it only took 8 month to get it out of the box!) and so now I am trying to remember the long forgotten days when in our sewing class in school (6th grade I believe) we were taught how to sow underwear. That was the most funny and ridiculous thing back then, and the boys had the best time taunting us about it (they did woodwork at the time) but I think I remember how to thread the machine and how to press the pedal and that is a start. And the kids love the mere fact of having a sowing machine. A few little painting here and there. I went back to my old technique of coffee/tea dyeing the paper before using the watercolor, it gives it a nice soft color and a very gentler look. And as far as books go, I have really loved this one. Lots of wonderful projects for the family, simple yet tasteful designs and fast implementation (which is crucial in our case when there is always not enough time for something BIG to happen) And here are the photos. Please visit my Etsy shop for the newest watercolors and felted animals!

Here goes another month

Still not much time to write. Most of the time I spend teaching the older kids and cooing with the little one. Time seems to be playing tricks with me. Sometimes a week feels like a day. I try to enjoy and take in every moment with the baby, since now I painfully realize how fast that time goes. Ilya is a true bundle of joy in all the sences of these words. Andrei and Anna turned out to be excellent older siblings and my heart sings when I look at them together. As for me....It looks like a new awareness of the environment and the food that we eat has come toward me. We have always tried to eat healthy , but lately I keep bumping into various resources regarding animal cruelty and treatment of cattle on big farms. For example I never knew that cows were fed a diet with an addition of other dead cows. It struck me as such a horrific truth, that I am still getting over the fact. Probably many of you know this, but for me it was a very scary revelation. It looks like I am heading toward a vegetarian lifestyle, or something close to that. Also I have been discovering more and more of Waldof education and I must say that I am very pleasantly surprised. What was just a hint of a vision somewhere inside me turns out to be a well developed phylosophy and I am eagerly reading more and more about it. Here are a few quick pictures of us and the work that I managed to get done:)please visit my etsy shop for new pieces.

Movie Monday Shuman

Trying to prove to myself that I still exist in other ways than feeding and changing diapers and checking homework, and cooking breakfast lunch and dinner. I hope I will retain some of the drawing abilities and brain power to create-- when they are grown up enough to give me some free time. Here is a long forgotten Movie Monday for whoever is around to look at my blog:)

Photos and no words

This will be a photo report, since I hardly have time to write properly. So here it goes. This is our life as it is today and a few new pieces listed on Etsy.

1 month

Time truly flies these days for me.It's been almost a month since I posted last. The month was full of burping, changing, feeding and teaching with some occasional sleeping and very very occasional painting. I did manage to squeeze in a few hours of painting and as a result a few new pieces have been added to my shop.

Here are a few glimpses into our life . Sorry for being so brief, but the little man seems to be needing me almost all the time. I need to grow an extra pair of hands .

The excellent photo is by a friend Nataja Katsaga, who did a wonderful photo session in our living room. She needed a baby model and we were happy to help out. In return we got these wonderful photos.

All the best in the New Year

Happy New Year my dear ones!

I am sorry I have disappeared for so long....The past month my brain was elsewhere and my body was not doing so great.

I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year! For those of you who celebrate Christmas--I wish you a wonderful Christmas or Rozhdestvo which is the case for us.

My big news is that my third born --Ilya Alexander is here. He was born on Jan. 5, after a very short but intense labor. My first natural delivery (which I am extremely proud of). I thought I would die, and I never knew I could scream like that. But--it is all over and the little guy is here. He seems to be doing well, eating, sleeping and doing the rest of the important things babies his age are supposed to do.

I am reopening my Etsy shop today, and will be happy to see any of you there!