Naptime Worktime

The baby suddenly started taking normal naps again yesterday.  And, by normal, I mean more than fifteen to thirty minutes long.

A thirty minute nap is one of two things.   One, it's annoying in the sense that it takes almost as long to get the baby to go to sleep as she actually stays asleep.  Two, the baby stays asleep just long enough to get me really into whatever I'm doing before she starts stirring.

I'm one of those slow-build kind of people, so when the little bean falls asleep, I make a cup of coffee, have a snack, start doing dishes...then I get into the cleaning and I start doing laundry, and then I've got the vacuum out and the mop... then WHAM! She's awake and the floor is half mopped or the laundry is in a pile.  If I was working on my shop, maybe a listing is half-edited, or I was in the middle of a batch of photographs that needed to be tweaked.  Then, I hear that gurgling sound that means she's up and I think two things. One is too profane to post here and one is just too gushy.

Needless to say, I am very glad she is sleeping for one to two hours at a time.  But it now presents a new problem:  I have so much to do, that I haven't done in so long, I don't know what to do with myself or how to do it.  This morning, I finally photographed some new items for my shop which were designed and made mid-way through my pregnancy.  But I hadn't used my camera in so long, I couldn't remember the best settings and most of the photos turned out meh, so that's going to take a few tries to get right.

Mostly, though, I just sort of wander aimlessly from one chore or spot of work to the next (the same way I'm kind of rambling through this post).  The way my brain works now is this:  I see the bouncer needs to be moved back into the kitchen, so I do it and as I'm doing it, I see the dog bowl, so I feed the dog.  While I'm getting food, I see dirty dishes, so I go to do those, but I realize my brayer for rolling ink is drying in the rack, so I take it to my desk.  I see on my desk a half-finished design, so I sketch a few lines, look up and see a dirty glass...you get the point.  I get a little of everything done, but nothing really gets completed.

Maybe it's going to take a few naps to figure out the settings on my camera again and a few more to get that print design finished, but there is one bright spot:  that smile I get every time she wakes up.

The Long Absence

Soooo...you might have noticed it's been, oh, eleven months or thereabouts since my last post. "What have you been doing?" you may ask. "Where have you been for so long? I missed your treasury posts and tutorials and seeing what you were working on!" Or maybe you didn't. Sorry I disappeared for ever so long. I was working on my largest and most important project yet:

Her name is Amelia and she is now two months old.  I hope, now, that you understand my absence.   If that is not a good enough reason for you ("Why didn't you post during pregnancy?" you ask, indignant).   Well, I had morning sickness worse than you can ever imagine.  By the time that was over, there was a baby to prepare for, and by the time preparing for the baby was over, there was, well, a baby.  

So what does this mean for my blog? My art? My life?  No worries.  While little A has become the center of my world, I refuse to become one of those moms where she is the only thing in my world.  It does mean the scope of my art will probably change, and certainly how much time to create it (I've already experienced the thrill of speed-printing while rocking a whimpering baby with my foot).  And certainly this blog is going to change.  After all, I find it hard enough to schedule a shower these days, let alone blog posts.  

From here on out, things are going to be a lot more freeform around here.  No more Treasury Tuesdays and Feature Fridays, or whatever I had going before. Besides, did you really enjoy all those Treasury Tuesdays?  It got a little tedious, didn't it?  Yes, yes.  I thought so.  

So, now, I'll write when I write and I plan to actually write.  It will still be about art and craft, but now it's going to be about art and craft while trying to juggle being a mom.  Also, I've been nagging my wiz of a graphic designer husband and hopefully we'll have a new look (and new location) coming soon.  

Big changes are coming, friends.  And some are already here.