All over the place
I am so tired. Amelia just didn’t want to be in her own bed last night. There was much howling between 1.30 and 4am. So today I am being lazy and doing an update on the very disparate things that are going on in my head.
Nicole and Jud head home from Japan today and I am demanding a slide night upon their return. Jud has seen a Yoshimoto Nara doll in a shop window and is going back to find out how much it costs for me.
Amelia J has a crush. The recipient of her attentions is the four year old grandson of our next door neighbour. He came over for a visit late last week with his grandma and was not prepared for the likes of my daughter who immediately became a kind of bizarre, extroverted showgirl, dancing about in front of him, backing her huge nappy bum towards him saying “lap! lap!” as she tried to sit on his lap and get him to read her a story and bursting in and out of her cardboard box cubby with shouts of glee. He shot the occasional panicked look at his grandma as he sat trying to fit shapes into the holes in the shell of a plastic turtle with great and valiant concentration while Amelia leant down and looked up into his face calling “hello! hello!” in a high pitched voice. I lamely tried to convince our neighbour that Amelia J is NEVER like this and that she is usually a very normal toddler whose main interest is what toys she can spread across every possible surface. After he left she spent the rest of the afternoon saying “A boy! A boy!” and that night I was woken at three am (uh-huh) by a little voice coming from her room saying “A boy! OOOh a boy!”. This does not bode well for the future — we are very afraid.
I like these recently discovered (for me) blogs: Rainbowcake, Pinku Rocks and loosetooth art/work blog.
The weekend was pretty good with a huge sleep on Friday night, a work related trip out to a movie set in the country on Saturday afternoon, Calendar Girls (good viewing! Especially the dvd extras) on Saturday night while I swatched the yarn for both the upcoming sweater project and the hot water bottle cover, hot chocolate and the good chatting of Miss Erin and Kylie on Sunday morning, bagels by the bagel master for Sunday lunch, and a slow Sunday afternoon when I got a good chunk of the secret present project done. Throw into this heady mix some banana milkshakes, homemade pesto, confident driving, watching Amelia J play happily with (not just along side) Jasmine and Oskar and it really was a a top notch, peaceful weekend. This coming weekend promises dinner out at Dr Beard’s followed by bowling and cocktails!
Also, while I am in the ongoing process of designing my folio site, I have put up an interim portfolio site which has some of my more recent things in it. It’s a bit clunky and slow but at least it’s up to date.
Not to worry about Amelia (yet). My daughter used to do the same thing and she’s now 9 and thinks boys are gross(but I’ll keep you posted!) By the way, don’t know whether to thank you or slap you for passing along that Gingerbread cake recipe way back when; it’s become a family favourite.
Isn’t it funny when little girls have their first crush on an “older boy?!”
well that put a smile on my face:)
Yay! A new portfolio site, and stunning as usual! Great work, Claire, and thanks for all the stories. Give Amelia J a big hug from me!
Great portfoliosite! One little point of critique. I think your thumbnails are too small. I tested it on my husband. Showed him a picture and let him find the thumbnail. Took him twelve seconds. So unless you want the site to be a puzzle, I think they’re too small.
That’s too funny about Amelia!! I’d be very afraid too!!Love the portfolio! How much of an inspiration are you??!
O Claire! Chock-a-block with the arty goodness today! I’m amazed by your portfolio…it’s so lovely to see what’s me going on behind the scenes with so many astounding illos we haven’t seen before! They are all wonderful, but my faves are “Jeremy & Renee”, “And I snipped and snapped” and “Midnight Picnic” which are so delicious, I want to bite them! And Amelia J and the boy…O dear! Too funny!
oops…was suppose to read “it’s so lovely to see what’s BEEN going on behind the scenes…”
And can you stand further comment from me?! I just wanted to say that when I first noticed a change in your style, I wasn’t sure i liked it as much. I was so in love with your previous style…but it was so much fun to watch your new style evolve and now…now I just love your new style. It’s so rich with texture and infused with such warmth and character. And it feels completely unique to you. I think it also conveys some of your interest in fabrics and patchwork and knitting…it has that chunky, dimensional tactile quality. You want to wrap the illustrations snug around you or shrug them on like a favorite hand-made sweater. Bravo!
Yes, yes! Very warm illustrations. Like warm dry clothes after a long cold wet day in the snow. Incredible and inspiring work, Claire! And I LOVE “lap!” “lap!” and “OOh, a boy!” Very funny. Love it! She is such a cutie.
Claire-Your work is always so awe inspiring! I absolutely adore the “midnight picnic” series.
Sounds like little Amelia is going to be a heart-breaker some day! 🙂
Oh! I intern at a contemporary art museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA… We just closed a big show on Nara, and we also have some dolls, in case you’re interested… they’re a bit pricey, though (or maybe it just seems that way to me, since I’m still in school.) Here’s a link: http://www.icaphila.org/shop/nara_prods.php
I’ve been reading your site for ages, but I’ve never said hello… It’s funny–hearing the adventures of Miss Amelia J simultaneously reminds me of my own childhood (or the stories I’ve heard about it from my parents) and makes me (sort of almost start to) consider the possibility of getting married and having my own blissful little family unit like you do. Thanks so much for the stories…
Claire, thanks for visiting pinku! I was in Melbourne in Feb and the more I think about it, the more I want to move to Melbourne – there just seems to be so many talented people there, including a bunch of knitters (much to my delight).
BTW, if you need to ‘get’ any crazy Japanese goods – let me know. My brother is constantly sending me lists of ‘must buys’. I gave him a Nara book on my last trip home!
So… out of all that my mind is still concentrating on the fact that you wrote “Amelia just didn’t want to be in her own bed last night.”
She is in her own bed now? How did you do the transfer? What made you decide to make the switch? Any advice?
As you can see, I’m a little scared of the process. I’m worried it will be the end of my blissful sleep.
hehehe.. maybe you two should have a boy so she can not be so fascinated by boys. 😉
aw, fascinated with boys already? amelia j is a cutie pie. 🙂
i’m with kat. i wanna move to melbourne too! you make it sound so much fun. hope amelia is letting you get some sleep now. isn’t sleep deprivation absolutely awful???
I love the Pinku Rocks site!thanks for the tip!
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as a fellow lover of nara, i am always on the search for interesting things to add to my (very small) collection. check out this listing. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=378&item=4206712996&rd=1#ebayphotohostingi enjoy your musings as soon as you post them! thanks!
Oh no Ada! No sign of a bed yet. I should have said “cot”. I am not intending to move amelia into a big bed atleast until we move out of my parent’s place and even then I am in no rush.
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