Back to work (art work, that is!)

I'm about to life-update y'all, so before I do that, here are few important things:

•  My Etsy shop will be re-opening later this week. New stuff and pretty spring gifts! If you're looking for wooden eggs, you're in luck.

• Also, I'm encouraging you to go follow smilingturtlene on Instagram! This is the handle (is that what you say on Instagram?) for Smiling Turtle Art Spot in Omaha, which is one of the shops that carries my work. I'll be instagramming for the artisan collective out there as well as on my own (link to the right) so I'd love to have you follow and see lots of great Omaha artwork, as well as opportunities for classes and the like, if you're local!

Now... on to the post:

Hear ye, hear ye - I'm back to making art in a regular-sort-of-way, at long last. :-) Since welcoming the fantastic Mr. Ren, it has been a daily experiment, figuring out the balance of mom-life, work, art, and time to just relax.  The thing is - the balance I've had to strike is completely about me - not about Ren. I have the world's easiest, happiest, generally most-agreeable baby. He has slept through the night for months now and we've had very little stress with him at all. The challenge for me is parting from him for even a little while when I come home from work in the evening. When we've been apart all day, going up to my studio has just not been a priority (or emotionally possible). That being said, I've missed painting something terrible, so over the last few weeks I've been working to carve out a little more time for it that doesn't interfere with my mom time. I've been evaluating a lot of the ways my days are spent, and that's still a work in progress, but I feel good about the direction I'm heading and the changes down the road. Momhood is a life in constant flux, so I'm embracing it!
Here's my happy owlet:

So, what am I making now? Well, I'm at my best when I'm jumping from project to project. I've been working on a REALLY big, acrylic canvas for our house, which is intimidating and forces me to step back and think about it... a lot. But it's fun and challenging in a good way. And I'm plotting some spring watercolors with birds and flowers. And I'm working on new cards and notebooks to get out into the shops. I have several ideas for my pretty blue typewriter that are going to come to life over the next few weeks.

Pretty significantly, last weekend I CLEANED MY STUDIO. Any of you that make things know that there are times when just walking in the room could result in injury, and I was totally there. Now it's better and I'm feeling so good about the possibilities in here. Happy art on the horizon.