A few little odds and splashes

Hello there! Whoever is still with me after such a long break;)
There has been a lot going on with me recently, and hopefully soon I will be ready to share my story with you, but I am not quiet there yet. So bare with me if you will.
I have only a few new paintings to share, but I try to keep them coming at least a bit at a time. Stopping completely is a disaster, so I try to paint at least a tiny bit each day.
Summer is here, we are finishing yet another year of homeschooling. Andrei will be in 3d grade next year and Anna will be in Kindergarden or in 1st grade (I have not decided yet).
Here a the few I have created recently.

Another year

I am glad that this year is almost over. It had it's tears and it's laughs and friends new and old, and a new cat, and lots of books, and even a new toaster oven;)
I am hoping that next year will be better than this one. I wish all of you a good wholesome year to come!

Saying Good Buy

It is very hard to write about this...

I will use this blog post to say good buy to my 3 unborn babies. Two of them I have lost this year, one very recently. I have not been blogging well this year, and I have not been painting well this year. I have not been doing many things this year.

I will never see them smile, and I will never be able to hold them. I will not know what color their eyes were. I will not know if they were going to be good at math, or drawing, or dancing....I will not get to watch their first steps, and I will not be able to watch my older kids become big brother and sister. But this is life, and it keeps going. I am blessed to have 2 children, who could have easily not be here as the rest of them. Sining a lulluby to the little ones, I know that they are being taken care of. However for me pictures always spoke better than words. The one above was painted today.

Life is Good Blog Award

A few days ago I received a blog award "Life is Good!" from my dear virtual friend a puppet master from Bulgaria -Rossichka. I simply can't leave this unattended, so here it goes:

1. If you could go back to the past, you would like to spend one day in (with) ...
Our old house in Lviv, with my great grandmother who knew a million stories and was the kindest old lady and my childhood friend. That house is my eternal mental happy place.

2. You have a dream...
To write and illustrate my own children's book. And to have a house of my own with some lilac in the garden.

3. Your favorite scent is ...Jasmine in bloom
4. Your childhood was (is) ...The best time of my life!

5. Your favorite books or characters from the children's literature are ...The Moomins and the Little Prince.

6. You miss ...Having friends over in the evenings and good long talks over the cup of tea.

7. Your secret talent is ...math

8. Your favourite season is ...Spring
Passing along the award to Rima the amazing artist in her house on the wheells, Nakisha the Master of Rabbit creations, Melissa my wonderful art student and fellow homeschooler, and last by not least Jessie a wonderful artist, mother and a great inspiration to me overall. Take it from here ladies! Please answer the same 8 questions.

It was Snowing

For the second time this winter we had snow. First they were big and fluffy snowflakes dancing slowly from the clouds down. Then the snowflakes became smaller and sharper and the wind started blowing. And finally it was more like little flies trying to bite you.
We caught the first part outside and managed to take some photos and play in the snow. The best part of winter in my opinion is being home in the evening, drinking tea and looking out the window at the street lights with snowflakes around them.

Holiday mood

Getting the house ready for the holidays, getting into the festive mood, trying not to be overwhelmed with the mundane.

Happy Thanksgiving from our Family

To all of you who celebrate this holiday--Happy Thanksgiving.
To those who don't--just wishes of all the very best and my warm thoughts on this day when we remember what we are thankful for.
Be well and happy!

Getting Personal

Photos above: chess and guitars are the usual attributes of our camping trips, climbing trees with a friend (Andrei), Anna is posing with a new ribbon, and last but not least I am playing badminton and looking surpsingly slim (thank you Andrei for the blurry photo:))) )
I have not wrote anything personal in a while, and that is because I was going through a major "I-can't-decide-what-to-do" phase. Making decisions about someone else's lives is the most difficult thing to do, even if they are your very own children.
I have committed to another homeschooling year with Andrei. Anna stays with us of course.
Trying to decide if I can /want/will home school this year, was very very very difficult for me. Having been brought up in a very "schooled" environment I am still battling with the stereotypes of strangeness of not attending school. I have met lots of wonderful families who home school,and are very comfortable with their life style and confident in their decision. I wish I will get to be that way at some point. We even attended school for one day in the beginning of the year (I could hardly sleep the night before). That turned out to be a very refreshing experience. After spending the day with Andrei the teacher told me that he has nothing to do in first grade, and he should be tested on weather he needs to be in second grade or possibly higher. No way. He is 5 years old. Some day --may be, but not now. So now I have an official excuse why I home school him. I do not think he is ready to be among 7 and 8 year old kids.

Also we have been camping last weekend. The last outing for the season, and it was wonderful as usual. I will post some photos of that, since that was the last time I really photographed anything. But I promise to get better with my blogging, and will even try to systematize it. May be something like Inspiration Tuesday, Family Wednesday etc...Not sure if it is a good idea or not, but I need something to motivate me to keep going. The business so far had slowed down to a scarily slow speed, and I need to do something about it.

Summer bubbles

What is summer for you?

For me this summer is about:
the Ocean, camping,sand and dirty feet,cherries,ice cream in the park,bubbles, hot streets, bicycles, more of the Ocean, Brighton Beach food, chess, fun colorful animals in my Art.

This is a wonderful "make your own bubbles" receipt that I wanted to share with you. It makes HUMONGOUS BUBBLES. And I mean it. But beware of the wind, try to experiment on a quiet day. The receipt is from a Klutz book How to Make Monstrous, Huge, Unbelievably Big Bubbles


You will need:
12 cups of water
1 cup of dish soap (Joy is the best they say)
1 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons of baking powder
Have fun!!!

On 13 of July three years ago

I had my baby girl.
She makes me smile, whenever I look at her. "A princess?" "No, Mommy, I am a cat"
I love having girly talks with her, drinking tea together and reading the same book over and over again. We can spend hours together drawing, and I so love sitting next to her and sharing brushes with her. She has a wonderful eye for detail and color, and I am endlessly impressed when she makes miracles happen on paper. She is only 3, but I believe she has lots of talent in her and I wish I can bring her up so that that talent grows and blossoms. Happy Birthday my dear girl!
this is her masterpiece

Out of the City

For the long weekend we went out of the city . Finally! Our first camping trip for this season. I can not describe how different the air is in the mountains. It has dozens of smells in it, and it is not the smell of dust or cat urine(pardon the details). Several friends of ours with families came with us and it was just wonderful! We built a fire every night, sang with the guitar , baked potatos in the ashes and watched the stars. Going back was harder, the messy apartment was not something I was looking forward to. The next outing will be towards the end of summer. And I already can hardly wait for it.

My Men Love Chess

Can you find one thing in common in these?
I have started a series of these, playing chess wherever we go...
Andrei carries a chess set with him almost all the time.

In love

The first photo is of the Old Armenian church. The second picture was taken at the Opera House, Anna is really enjoying the beautiful architecture.

I promised to tell of my homecoming, so here I am. Confessing my love for the city. Lviv, Lvov...I am in love all over again. It was an amazing experience to go back to the place that I have dreamed about for 13 years. The experience almost surreal, since half the time I was walking on the streets I expected myself to be able to fly. That's what happens in my dreams when I go back there. I did not fly, but I feel wonderful. Something that was missing all this time has come together. The city I left as a child has grown. Like an old childhood friend. It is the same, but it is not the same. And I love it, with all the changes and all the imperfections that it has. My husband can't quite understand my connection to that place. In fact he is the professor of the theory, that we should not get attached to places. Yet I realize that I am deeply attached. And that place is the only place that I can relate to on an almost cell deep level. I am not making much sense here, but I am trying to :)

The kids had a great adventure as well. We spent a lot of time walking, down the streets to the city center, in the parks in the garden. So much fresh air after New York was a big change:)
Everything was in blossom, lilac in particular. It was everywhere, and I was so happy to find it in the most unexpected of places. It is so hard to spot in these parts.

May be people thought us a bit too much on the adventurous side to go into such an adventure with 2 little kids, but I think we did great. May be they will not remember any of this, but perhaps a little trace will remain, and that's all I am after.

This is at the museum of old Ukrainian architecture. wooden bee hives

A Ukrainian hippy at a fair
At the Opera House, tickets $8 each, best seats possible!
A pig in the street, a brilliant idea of some local businessmen. To take a photo 25c
Old Armenian church. The most beautiful thing I saw throughout the trip.
A still life made up by our hostess(Mom of my childhood friend). As a child I always thought that she has impeccable taste, I have come to the conclusion that it is really true.

Back from childhood

we are back! My dream has come true:)

It was the most amazing trip I could imagine. So much to tell, so much to rethink, so much to paint now! I am still collecting my thoughts and figuring out which time zone I am currently in, but I am positive that there will be lots of new images to share soon.
So for now just this still life from a lunch we had and the terrace I spent a lot of time on as a child. Many more to come soon. Thank you all for the wonderful comments and messages, I really appreciate all of them!

What do we do here , anyway?

As we are getting ready for our big trip to Poland and Ukraine at the end of the month, I've been getting this feeling that I need to make as much Art before we leave as possible. Probably because my watercolors will have to stay back, and I will be able to sketch and photograph only. So I am on a roll, ACEO after ACEO and some new ideas for big pieces.
I am super happy that Andrei started to enjoy Art! He has a good take on things, original vision and not a bad hand, but he definitly could use more practice. So I am proud to share his last painting, a copy of Van Gough's Postman.

A story of a 22 year old doll

The doll in this picture is about 22 years old. I might be off a year or so, but it is still very close.
Where we lived owning a German made doll was the biggest happiness for a girl. They had soft stuffed bellies, their eyes had real eyelashes and they had faces that looked almost real. This is all compared to our native made Ukrainian/Russian dolls. My family could not afford to buy such a doll for me. They were expensive. But how I dreamed of one!
At that time I was about 7 or 8 years old. I was attending drawing and sculpting lessons for several years, and our teacher taught us how to make sculpey figures. Little funny looking creatures, that you would bake in the oven to make them hard and then you could put a lace in them and wear around the neck.
And I had my first business idea. A whole bunch of kids from our street made many many figurine necklaces and went to sell them to the nearby park were there were lots of tourists.
We did it on weekends for several weeks in the summer, and made money. Real money that seemed huge at the time. At the end of the summer I had almost enough for the doll. My parents added the rest--and here she was! A true beauty! With golden hair and beautiful blue eyes. I adored her. Dressed her, washed her, made clothes for her. Brought her to the USA when we moved. One of the few things that travelled across the ocean with me.
Anna , my daughter is her new Mommy. She takes good care of her and tucks her in at night. I am so happy that this doll has such a long and rich life. The first money I made back than made me feel that being an Artist can be a real job. And I still tremendously enjoy using sculpey clay.
Is it a coincidence, or is it my imagination that Anna looks like her?

Making your Own Sunshine

I read this phrase on one of my favorite blogs today and loved it! What makes spring real?
Is it spring yet? In my mind it is!
Everything is growing:


I see sunshine, and I see greensI see animals wide awake after their winter sleep:
It is spring all right!

The Carousel of Life

sometimes spins too fast for my taste.
Where is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for that matter? I am not sure. It is almost 9pm Wednesday evening, the kids are in bed (finally!) and I am supposed to be ready to do some work. I have a custom portrait I need to finish, and 2 other works that have been ordered that are half way done.

The day is over so soon, that I can barely account for the hours that were in it. Breakfast, homeschooling work, soccer in the city, library, swimming class, grocery shopping, dinner, bath, bed time story...PAINTING...sleeping....and from the top again.

I don't mean to complain, I am just sometimes totally amazed at the qualities time has. It tricks me into thinking that I still have it (time), but instead I don't .I need to visit that Mad tea party, where it was always 5 o'clock.:)

P.S. just wanted to share this shot with you. Mommy paints, and the little butterflies works hard to cut as much as she can. (she is cutting the "oops" prints)