New Work: My Own Elephant

This is something new I have just put in the shop. You might recognise the elephant from my banner -well now I have finally finished the full print! It's called 'My Own Elephant' and it can be customized with the little boy or girl's name that will be getting it - or any other word for that matter. Yashar loves it when we read his name on his door or when we say things like 'Who's elephant is it? Yashar's!' I think it would make a cute present for a boy or girl that loves animals or for a new baby. I hope you like it!

I really like this little elephant and am thinking of making some party invitations with him (or one of his brothers!) on them. What do you think?

A Mixed Show

We were lucky enough to make it over to Beyoglu to have a look at the exhibition Karisik Sergi - 'Mixed Show'. You can find out more about it in this post on Rose Deniz's blog (one of the artists featured in the show). I loved the beautiful vibrant colours that Rose used.

My husband likes to describe the area we went to as a mess of beautiful buildings. Many of the buildings are crumbling. There is plenty of things going on in the area - some 'cultural', some interesting, some seedy. It is definitely a place with plenty of atmosphere.

Packages and Presents

Things have been exciting around here - I have made some sales - through Etsy and to people here in Istanbul. Yay! So I have been packing up parcels and wrapping some of the prints for some lovely people that bought them to give to loved ones.

I have kept the wrapping simple and flat -I don't want big bows damaging the prints in the mail! And I have learnt a little more Turkish - 'Katlamayiniz' - Do Not Bend!

Making Mondays: Sunprints

The weather over the weekend was bright and sunny -perfect for getting out the Sunprint Kit my Mum had sent us recently. Sunprints use a special paper that goes through a chemical change when you expose it to light. I think she got it from a bookstore. I found a lot of them online hereand we used this one.

Yashar and I had a lot of fun doing this and I really liked how they turned out. At 18 months Yashar needed close guidance the whole time -it would definitely be more suited to kids that are older than him. Here is how we did it:

1. We went on a little walk and collected some different plants to experiment with. I think the plants with the finer details, lots of small leaves etc turned out to be the most interesting. And of course this was Yashar's favourite part of the project!

2. We then set up in a dim room (so that the Sunprint paper wasn't exposed to too much light while we were arranging the collected objects on the paper). First we put down a small piece of cardboard (this didn't come with the kit), then a piece of the Sunprint paper -blue side up. We arranged the collected objects on top of the Sunprint paper and then put the acrylic sheet that comes with the kit on top.

3. Next we quickly took it outside and left it in the sun for about 1 minute. You should leave them in the sun for about 1 - 5 minutes depending on how much sunlight there is.

4. Then make sure your 18 month old son throws a little cup of water on it -oops! Just kidding - but the print still worked -yay!




5. Then we quickly rinsed the Sunprint paper in a little bucket of water for about a minute and left it to dry flat overnight.



We experimented with all sorts of things including lace, crochet and some of Yashar's toys. At the end I picked one out and put it in a simple white Ikea frame. I think the vibrant blue and white are perfect for Summer!


PS. To all the new visitors here - I'm having a giveaway this week!  Entries close June 8!  Click here for details.

Yashar weekly photo: exploring

As predicted, we have been going back to this peaceful little park as often as possible. It's so nice for Yashar to just be able to wonder around -without the need for 'don't touch this', 'come back here' etc. Here he is free to chase the birds and explore!

Eagles and watermelons?

I have been busy doing things for the new shop. It has been so much fun, but it has meant I have been missing out on some of my regular blog reading :( Over the weekend I was finally able to do something that I have been feeling strangely compelled to do for a while now- revisting my guardian eagle. This time in a watermelony type pink with a cream background.

Speaking of watermelons, the trucks with them loaded up at the back are starting to appear all over the place here - Summer is coming!

Opening doors...

For a long time now I have been dreaming of living a more creative life. This week I took a huge step towards that.


Yes! I have finally opened the doors to a little place on the net called The Light Garden where you can buy my artwork and illustrations. At the moment there are prints and I have plans to put some originals and also some party invitations and cards in there too. I am running the shop using Etsy - a great website where people around the world can buy and sell handmade.

And of course I'll keep on dreaming...illustrating a book for children is the big dream waiting patiently at the back of my mind.

So I hope you make it over to the shop to have a look and thank you all for your support and encouragement along the way. It has meant so much to me.

Yashar weekly photo: some grass to roam in

I was so happy to make this little discovery. Up in the backstreets, a few minutes drive from our apartment is an area rented from the Government by Yeniköy Doğa ve Çevre Koruma Derneği (Yenikoy Nature and Environment Conservation Association)

It looks like a beautiful private garden – it is all fenced in and has a couple of friendly resident dogs – but it is actually open to everyone and the resident gardener, a friendly old man, even welcomes you as you arrive.

The park is carpeted in wild grasses with little flowers dotted all over the place and there are lots of shady trees – perfect for Yashar to roam around in. Otherwise there is only a simple wooden swing set and a few benches and tables –which I think suits the feel of the place well. I think we will be spending a lot of time here this Summer.

A present for me?!

What is clutched in that little hand? Could it be a present for me?

It was my birthday last week and Yashar gave me a beautiful necklace made by Riki Inukai from RikiCraft on Etsy.

Riki has a workshop in her home in Takarazuka, Japan and made this using a real apple geranium leaf. She explains that she painted the leaf with PMC, a fine clay that becomes 99.9% silver when fired. The process sounds so interesting and I love the necklace!

It also came in a gorgeous package with some cute little notepaper as an extra treat. Lucky me!

**The gorgeous photo of the pendant is from the RikiCraft shop on Etsy.

Making Mondays: Fabric Bread Bag

The typical bread you get here is delicious on the day you get it but no good by the next day. So when I saw this post about making bread bags over at Soule Mama I knew I had to try it. Apparently fabric is ideal for storing bread!

I made a simple rectangular drawstring bag from some linen and a piece of one of Senol's old shirts. I love this shirt so was very happy to use part of it! The stripes and buttons gave it some colour and detail without me having to spend extra time on it - yay!

I made my bag pretty roomy to accommodate the different shaped loaves we get. The typical bread you get everywhere here (this is the bread poking out in the photo on the right) is fairly long and I am also hoping some of the round breads I get will also fit. Interestingly, the bread that we refer to as 'Turkish bread' in Australia is actually only widely available here during Ramadan -which is a pity because it is so tasty.

Fingers crossed that this helps the bread to last a little longer. I hope you like it!

ps terrible light for taking photos today so these were the best I could get :(