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Frilly Draws

Self-taught artist learning to lead a colourful life again.

Tag: creative

The Magic that is Yupo Paper

The magic that is Yupo paper – first impressions, and a review, complete with a timelapse.… Read More The Magic that is Yupo Paper

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October 20, 2016November 18, 2016 Frilly10 Comments

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Finally able to bust out the #semiDSLR and do a creative #photoshoot! . Clara's finally ready for solids. To celebrate, people have been giving their babies food/milk baths. I thought it was funny and definitely didn't want #Clara to miss out! . (#Cricket was too weirded out to sit close. She decided belly rubs were safer) . . #artistLife #photography #momLife #baby #milestone #makeTimeForArt #hamontArtist #CanadianArtist

Every time I think I'm getting the hang of having Clara around, she changes things up. Lately she's been taking tiny cat naps which make it super difficult to work on art! . Here's a sketch I did over a month ago. It was back when we were watching so much Magic School Bus that I dreamt I was sketching it. . . . . Left hand: #WinsorNewton #cadmium #red hue Right hand: #FaberCastell #venetianRed #BreastfeedingSketches are done with my free hand as I alternate between breasts. . #Afrisa #frillyDraws #frilly #CanadianArtist #hamontArtist #watercolour #artistMom #artist #sketches #makeTimeForArt #artistsoninstagram #sliceOfLife

The most liberating feeling I've ever had in my adult life was when I admitted I was miserable to my husband. People tell you that babies are tough, but still to cherish the #newborn months because it's so fleeting. So I tried hard to cherish all the cute fingers and toes, the baggy outfits, the sleeping faces, and to ignore the exhaustion of around the clock feeds, the achy arms and back, the feeling that my personal space was not mine anymore. At one point I was at the end of my rope for breastfeeding and complained on my Mommy Facebook group. Someone mentioned hating the newborn phase and I realized that it was possible to both cherish the good and not enjoy the newborn months, and to feel frustration, worry, love, and pride all at the same time. . I think the #cSection positive movement is a good and necessary one. I like the message that #cesarean births are still births, and that they aren't "the easy way out". And for the first two months I felt guilty about being sad that #Clara had to enter the world that way, so I ignored my thoughts about it. A couple of weeks ago, I was fluffing then smoothing out her hair when my fingers brushed over her front fontanelle. I sobbed. It was a silly thought, but I sobbed because her body was prepared for a vaginal birth, but she never got to use all the neat features designed for it. I sobbed because she wasn't ready to leave me yet and arrived needing some help breathing. I've only recently been able to accept that I did not enjoy my #birth experience, that thinking about it made me sad, and that these feelings were as valid as the messages the c-section positive movement was sending. I'm more at peace now, having wrapped my mind around the notion that just because I'm grateful for something so necessary and life saving doesn't mean I have to like it. . And finally, I'm starting to accept that my most favourite #hat may be Clara's least favourite hat. There's nothing to accept here except to make her keep wearing it until she tolerates it. :p Mummy loves you. . . . #Afrisa #frillyDraws #frilly #pineappleHat #WinsorNewton #CanadianArtist #hamontArtist #watercolour #artistMom #artist #makeTimeForArt

We finally had friends over for dinner a few weeks ago and naturally we chatted about our earliest #childhood #memories. Mine was from less than three years old, before we immigrated. . Everything in #HongKong is some combination of concrete, tiny 1.5" x 1.5" tiles or glass. The hallways in apartments were on the outside, creating wonderful long stretches of "communal balconies". As I waited outside of our front door to leave (somewhere fun, hopefully), I saw a small #grasshopper resting on top of the concrete, tiled half wall. "Kill it!" - I already hated insects back then - "No, let's leave it, it's just trying to find its Mommy." Whether my brother or my dad was the genius behind these words is still a point of debate today, but regardless, that grasshopper lived and I learned about sympathy that day. . . . Left hand: #FaberCastell #brown #ochre Right hand: #WinsorNewton #cadmium #red hue #BreastfeedingSketches are done with my free hand as I alternate between breasts. . #Afrisa #frillyDraws #frilly #CanadianArtist #hamontArtist #watercolour #artistMom #artist #sketches #makeTimeForArt #artistsoninstagram #sliceOfLife

The view I've been looking at since 1993. It includes the sidewalk my brother walked on to middle school, twenty minutes away. The highschool across the street that we chose not to attend because it had a bad reputation. The road my dad drove on when he left to work. We would watch him return our waves even though we must have been tiny at ten stories high. . One summer day, my dad and I were chatting on the balcony when the skies turned gray. We lingered, enjoying our conversation, when we noticed the rain coming. From our vantage point we saw the wall of rain traveling down the road, the divide between wet and dry so clear and advancing so quickly. We lingered some more, marveling at the experience, when finally we dashed inside before the rain hit us. . . . Left hand: #WinsorNewton #cadmium #red hue Right hand: #FaberCastell #vanDyke #brown #BreastfeedingSketches are done with my free hand as I alternate between breasts. . #Afrisa #frillyDraws #frilly #CanadianArtist #hamontArtist #watercolour #artistMom #artist #makeTimeForArt #artistsoninstagram #sliceOfLife #memories

I started writing to #Clara a little after we confirmed her existence. Just a cute thing for her to read when she got older. This was an excerpt, written the morning of my cesarean section, . "Love is tangible. You just have to pay attention. I can feel it when your dad smiles at me. Pay attention, you'll feel it too. : )" . . . Left hand: #WinsorNewton #cadmium #red hue Right hand: #FaberCastell #oliveGreen #BreastfeedingSketches are done with my free hand as I alternate between breasts. . #Afrisa #frillyDraws #frilly #love #CanadianArtist #CanadianGoose #hamontArtist #watercolour #pregnancy #newMom #artistMom #artist #makeTimeForArt #artistsoninstagram #handlettering

My #Mom is familiar with #traditionalChinese #postpartum care. Before giving birth, I had resisted the idea of #ginger sponge baths (something to do with warming), and she had resisted the idea of showers (introduces cold wind into my body). We ended up doing both. I would shower, then holler and she would come in with her steaming little pail of ginger infused water. The temperature of the water was at the point of just untouchable to her fingertips. As soon as she first laid the hot towel on my back though, I was so happy that I had agreed. It felt amazingly soothing. . Another benefit I didn't realize these sponge baths had was providing my mother and I some alone time. In the first month of the stress and joys of a newborn, I looked forward to being "stuck" in a tiny bathroom with a little heater humming along, having little chats about nothing in particular (doctors' mental and physical strength, her own postpartum care, etc), just a long time mother to her new time mother. . While she had a lot of experience with all things motherhood, my Mom had not breastfed. Everyone in my family was learning together. I look back fondly to one of the sponge baths where I experienced my first inconvenient leak. I was standing in the tub, waiting for my Mom to wring out the towel when the drops of milk came. Back then, these drops were THE MOST precious things in the world. My Mom hurriedly got a bottle, and as I held it under one nipple, the other one started leaking. We were panicking and laughing, and laughing and panicking, as we used the one bottle to try to collect the drops from both nipples. . The day came when I informed my Mom I was about to take a shower as per our usual routine, when she told me it was over. I only needed the baths for a month. I actually felt sad. It felt like the end of a phase. I really enjoyed our #motherDaughter time. Now we spend it fawning over #Clara as she stretches and grunts and farts herself awake. . . . Left hand: #FaberCastell #sapGreen Right hand: #WinsorNewton #cadmium #red hue #BreastfeedingSketches are done with my free hand as I alternate between breasts.

You know my girl is eating well when she powers up from it. So... Every time, basically. . . . Left hand: #WinsorNewton #cadmium #red hue Right hand: #FaberCastell night #green #breastfeedingSketches . . . #Afrisa #frilly #frillyDraws #Clara #baby #newMom #artistMom #parenthood #artist #hamontArtist #watercolour #dragonBall #makeTimeForArt #CanadianArtist #artistsoninstagram #artwork #painting

When I got pregnant, we downloaded an app so that we could "see" what our little baby looked like every week. At five weeks, the illustrator used circles to represent a microscopic little spine forming, which Husband thought looked like a #stegosaurus. We referred to the #baby as #LittleStego from that point on. . We tried to buy all sorts of stegosaurus stuff. Turns out it's not that easy of a #dinosaur to find! But we had fun, and often joked about still calling her Little Stego when she's twenty years old. Sorry we kinda accidentally decided "your thing" for you. . I still called her #Stego in the hospital, but Husband suggested we call her #Clara as well (why even spend months picking a name, right?). Within days, she was solidly Clara, and Little Stego felt wrong. A funny thing happened, I think "Stego" became more of a name for my pregnancy, a secret agent codename for my unborn friend. I do still miss my Little Stego from time to time. . . . Left hand: #FaberCastell light #cobalt #blue Right hand: #WinsorNewton #cadmium #red hue #breastfeedingSketches . . . #Afrisa #frilly #frillyDraws #newMom #birthArt #pregnancy #csectionmom #artist #CanadianArtist #artistsoninstagram #artwork #painting #hamontArtist #watercolour #makeTimeForArt

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