photo challenge: HAPPY

I thought I'd kept the challenge simple. Photograph what makes you happy. Even amidst chaos & mayhem, there are things that make you happy, right? Or, there should be, to keep you grounded. The important thing is, you should never stop looking for things that make you happy, especially while in the jaws of disorder and dust bunnies, both actual and in the form of dislodged bits of settled life.

And I do actually still see the happy! I would be lying on the floor in one big blubbering heap by now if I didn't. Honestly, yes, I am that dramatic in the face of Big Change. But Squirt keeps me firmly planted in the Now, most of the time. I like to think I'm more realistic and practical these days, since becoming a mamma almost 2 years ago. But still. All I ended up with was a photo of a pizza cooked from frozen (with added banana and jalapenos), after a hard day of sorting, discarding, packing, cleaning...

& a bowl of fresh home-made pesto. So apparently, as far as visible records go, my happiness is in food these days! But it isn't, not really. Although it helps, food. Especially the not quite responsible, greasy kind. My happiness is - as always, really - in the small gestures, the funny remarks, the Big Hugs I get at times. The stuff that doesn't photograph well at all. So I emailed Mridula, and told her I was out of the challenge till the move - The Move - is complete, somewhere near the end of November hopefully.

But my creativity isn't locked completely - granted, it's a tangled heap at times, these days, but it's definitely part of what's keeping me sane(-ish, some might argue)!

And also, I think there is nothing wrong with responding to a challenge saying; 'well, there it is. This is the best I can come up with right now.' So, I'm not out! I'm still in! I can't promise to meet exact deadlines at the moment, but I'll be there with what came up, whatever it is, to publish when I can!

Please look at Mridula's post to see how she interpreted the assignment! She came up with the next challenge, SHADOWS, and the deadline is the 8th of November. I'm going to try to make it there :)

real-ish-m

In Dutch, car (auto) rhymes with peacock (pauw) - sort of. If you want it to. And add some letters here and there.
I wanted it to, of course. I didn't take a course in Silly for nothing, now did I?!

(the watercolours didn't come up so nicely in the scan)

arrival

Horrible scan. The page is bigger than A4, and that never works. But that's not the point. This is the front page of the sketchbook I put all the Silly Stuff in. I had decorated it before, but I never liked what I did. You see, I went into it without a plan, and while that may work for everybody else - I don't know, does it? - it doesn't for me. Too many non-combinations of colours for starters. I needed to do something about it! Seeing that Silly has officially finished, and I had all this time on my hands, I decided to go in the way the Professional Journallers do.

And that's what I mean, there you go! I have arrived as a modern crea chick! I have GESSOED my way out of a pickle and got to come up with a whole new design, on top of the old one - which you can still see a little through the gesso, but only in a two-toned winter-wonderland way, which is quite acceptable! I'm so proud ;)

*also a first: lettering in acrylic paint, with a brush, that is! but seriously, who cares? ;)*

blauwbador

it's a bluebador with yellow dots who poops in the wheelie bin, of course

Brain still mushy. Not expecting a change there before the Move is complete... Somewhere in the middle or near the end of November. Soon-ish, so, but it all feels like trying to look through a dirty window by banging your head against it repeatedly. Yeah. Don't ask.

Thank the stars for Carla Sonheim whose silliness has saved me from actual screaming and the tearing out of hairs. Until now at least, because the course is done and that's it. I have to come up with my own stuff again...

But I did! Already! Well, sort of, anyway :) Squirt is inventing words, these days, and this morning's random blurt was 'blauwbador'. In a true enough dialogue, we decided it had yellow dots and lived in the wheelie bin. Or at least, pooped there. Of course ;) You're never too young for those kind of jokes ;) And I could just see it, a friendly monster in the bin.

So I had to draw it. And here it is. Make of it what you will ;) I'm sure there are a lot of things you could come up with. If you're in any way drawn to the Freudian side of things, I'm sure you'll worry about me. But don't! I'm actually quite happy this came out when I least expected it!

photo challenge: NUMBERS

The latest assignment in the photo challenge Mridula & I set up a while ago - numbers...
It was another tough one, but that might be just me. There are numbers around, plenty of them, but I have this silly notion numbers need to mean something. So while it's always fun to scout for photo opportunities, I wasn't easily satisfied with what I came up with. Most numbers in the collage above might make sense to their owners of sorts - though still not to me - but the number 75 on Squirt's top means nothing! He wasn't born in 1975, nor were me or Man, and he, nor us, nor his grandparents are yet 75. We don't live at number 75 and I can't think of any other way this number will soon make sense to any one of us. That's what I mean, it's wrong. Which is why this top is already on its way to the second hand shop (we're about to move and it's clear-out time, by way of an excuse, and anyway - it was a very cheap 'needs must'-buy of the diaper-wearing-related kind, but that's all by the by)!

So I kept looking for numbers to speak to me, and then I saw this! A car of sorts, one of Squirt's favourites! He calls it 'red weird car'. He also has a yellow version, so that clears that up ;) But the number! It's 32! We'll be living at number 32 in the new house!

But that was all I could come up with, as far as physical numbers are concerned. Like I said, me and my odd notions (yes, I count steps at times, too!)... It doesn't make life easier, at least not all the time :)

But then I saw how Squirt liked walking around in my shoes :) And I decided that, like with SPARKLE, I could take it out of the literal and into the illustrative of sorts! He had fun here, I promise - no little kid got hurt in the taking of these pictures ;) - and I got ample opportunity to take as many shots as I wanted!

The caption would read: Size is but a number. Sometimes, numbers matter. Does this count?

Please pop over to Mridula's to see what she came up with!

I know it's my turn to come up with a new assignment, but I haven't. Not yet. Sorry! Brain mush... I'm going to take today to come up with something and add it as an edit to this post tonight. The deadline will be Monday 25th October, and you're very welcome to join if you want to!

Edit, three days later...
I didn't forget and I didn't flake out as such. I have been racking my brain to come up with a new theme, and it's just not happening! So frustrating!!
So I've decided to keep things relatively simple: this round, photograph what makes you happy. Either constantly and long term, or something fleeting like a ray of sun - as long as it makes you feel good :)

sight

Silly assignment, to decorate a pair of glasses.
Isn't this so cute, in a weird, almost disturbing way?!

fish

More silly :)

for a better view, click the image!

foot

I've had this shot in my head since I found out I was pregnant... It just took me untill this beautiful warm, sunny late Summer Sunday to take it!

There is something infinitely touching about a bare baby foot dangling...

colour

Silly-inspired

What a buzz!! I haven't drawn with our local version of (cheap!) Sharpies since... forever!

muddled

I overestimated growth spurts, I think. Or I added too much of Squirt's personality into the mix and expected the shoes to fit! I don't know why I thought this was a good idea. I do remember vaguely that I thought I was being a responsible parent on a budget. But I will deny that when confronted!
I'm sure they'll fit on his first day of school...

This drawing might not seem so silly, but I was when I bought these shoes! So there, that qualifies me ;)