Very Happy (but also a little sad)

**Firstly a quick note - the sale over at the Light Garden shop ENDS TODAY!  So if you have been thinking about getting something don't miss out!**

I was very happy to see that the wallpaper designs I did for Studio Nommo have already got a little fantastic press - yay!

Tammy Everts wrote a lovely, lovely post over at ohdeedoh.com (you probably already know it, but if not, it's an awesome site with lots of great ideas and design for kids), with an excerpt of the article also featured on their sister site apartmenttherapy.com   I love these sites and was pretty damn excited!

Which was good for cheering us up around here, because Mum left to go back to Australia today :(   We had such a wonderful time with her here.  She helped us to make the most out of every day, to do lots of yummy cooking and baking and to enjoy the little things.  One of the most wonderful things was seeing her and Yashar get to know each other better.  He has been asking where she is many times since she left - wanting her to tell him goldilocks and to play with the puppet dog and reindeer with him.  We will be missing her lots, but we are so happy to have her here for the time we did.

We spent some of last day together at our favourite park, on a rug under the mulberry tree, with homemade apricot cake, and strawberries delivered to us on a fig leaf by the dear old gardener that works full time there.  It was so lovely.

These are the strawberries in the dappled sunlight - even though they are partly white they were totally ripe - and delicious - I googled and found that there are quite a few varieties of white strawberries...I never knew!

The Fez: Crafts Around the World

The tutorial for the Fez that Yashar and I made is now up at the Crafty Crow!    If you are interested you can check it out here. 

Here are some 'action' photos! 

And of course Yashar ready to rule the Ottoman Empire!

And welcome to all the new visitors here coming over from the Crafty Crow!   I hope you enjoy looking around.  You can find lots of crafts to do with and for kids in my series of Making Mondays posts here and you can find out more about my artwork and illustrations here.  Thanks for visiting!

Making Mondays: Something Turkish

Yashar and I have been busy... making him a fun little something for dressing up - which he loves doing at the moment!  The very awesome Cassi over at the Crafty Crow (a great resource for crafts to do with kids) asked me to put together a tutorial to be part of her celebration of crafts around the world during March.   Of course I jumped at the chance!   

As soon as the tutorial goes up on her site I will let you know and will post some more photos here of the Yashar 'in action' with the craft.   I can't wait to see what the other guest bloggers from around the world came up with!

In the mean time here are few great things to do with kids, all found via the Crafty Crow.

These building discs from Made by Joel.  They look a little mid-century modern to me - which of course makes them all the more cool ;)

This amazing cardboard horse stampede - definitely on our to do list - from Ann Wood.

And this cute heart hair band from Katie Did Journal.

All images are from each of the respective makers.

So you can see why I am excited to be guest blogging at the Crafty Crow.  I will keep you posted (so to speak)!

Secrets of a Butterfly and Gift Certificates

'Secrets of a Butterfly' is a truly gorgeous blog.   Kat manages to find the most beautiful images.  Dream like, soft, ethereal, gorgeous.  She also finds the most beautiful things to buy ...I don't know how she does it!  And she just happens to be a wonderful, lovely and unique person.  And so I was truly honoured when she featured my cards and gift tags on Secrets of a Butterfly!  You can read the post here.

In other news, I just created these gift certificates/vouchers and am off to put them in the shop now.  They came about because I am a bit of a last minute shopper...I often get to the last day before someone's birthday and panic because I still can't decide which of so many lovely things I should get them!  

So these can be sent off via mail when you have some time but can't decide...or want to let the parents pick something to match in with the new nursery!  Or they can be sent via email (within 12 hours) for a last minute gift. 

Thank you also for all the lovely comments recently...I love reading each and every one of them!

Featured!!

I just wanted to say a heart felt thank you to everyone that has featured The Light Garden, my work and/or my blog on their websites or blogs! It has been so exciting!

Just yesterday one of the Making Mondays projects Yashar and I made was featured on Apartment Therapy's ohdeedoh.com. Carrie McBride wrote such a lovely piece on the little sunprints activity we did and on my blog and prints. It was such a thrill to be on a site that I adore! If you haven't visited this site before you should head over there quickly! Loads of inspiration and gorgeous design for children.

A little while back my Make a Wish print was featured on Droolicious.com -modern design for modern parents. Yay!

And earlier in the week the father's day card Yashar and I made in the post Father's Day Cards Kids Can Make on The Crafty Crow - a wonderful resource for crafting with kids. So many ideas! And all the hard work Cassi puts in there is amazing too!

And a huge thank you to every one that has featured my work on their blog! It really means so much to me. Here are some that I know about (please let me know if I missed you!):

Eighty Days
Kelly + Olive: Ideas you should steal
Heidi Rosebud

***There is also a wonderful blog that will be having a giveaway of my work coming up very soon. Stay tuned for the details this week!***

The World According to Mom: Around the World in 80 Clicks

As today is Children's day here in Turkey I thought it was an appropriate time to post this.

I was recently asked to be part of 'The World According to Mom: Around the World in 80 Clicks'. Basically it is about finding at least 80 bloggers in 80 countries to describe 5 things they love about being a mother. It all started with this candid post at Her Bad Mother.

And like 'Her Bad Mother' I do not love everything about being a mother. Sometimes it is hard, sometimes things don't go according to plan, sometimes I just want a break. But it is all part of a package, a life changing, all consuming package that I don't regret opening.

So, apart from the obvious...the love I have for Yashar, the strong bond we have developed and that basically I think that he is the most amazing and wonderful being on earth...here is the top 5 things I love about being a mother (in no particular order):

1. A rediscovery of the simple joys in life. The pure, untainted emotions. Stopping to look at a flower, or a rock, or a piece of grass. Taking things slower and being forced to live in the moment.

2. A connection with my community. Turkey is a very special place where children are truly adored. Because of Yashar I have been able to feel connected to a place so different from my home. Because of him I know our neighbours, local shop keepers and baristas. Whenever we leave the house we are stopped by numerous people wanting to say hello to Yashar, to have a quick chat, to ask how we are. Because of him I have been able to build new relationships with so many people, people that I can meet with if I'm having a hard day, or if Yashar needs a playmate, that help us when we need it, people to enjoy our life with.

3. Having Yashar has allowed me to live a more creative life, to give me time to explore what it is that I really enjoy. Of course, at times it is hard to be creative when so much time is taken up looking after him. But for the most part he drives my creativity, both in my limited spare time and through being creative and playing creatively together. I no longer work for the man and that is something I love!

4. I love that, because of Yashar, getting outside every day is mandatory. We go to the park, go for walks and soak up the sun every day we can. I'm not in an office, in artificial light, that I don't leave until after the sun goes down. We notice the seasons, breathe the fresh air and listen to the birds.

5. The smiles, the love, the hugs and the laughter.

I was also asked to nominate other mothers to participate so I have picked three women who have given me inspiration and support as a mother:

Keryn from eightydaysdesign
Simple Answer
Tanya from forty-two

if you have time (and I understand if you don't!), I would love to hear what you enjoy most about being mothers.

Another favourite...

One of the highlights of our trip back to Australia was being able to see an exhibition of my great grandfathers work on at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Before moving to Turkey, Senol and I spent many weekends with my Dad framing prints of my great grandfather's work. It was a wonderful time for us - up in the mud brick studio, which is surrounded by gum trees and garden, far away from the noise of the city where we spent our weekdays. The only sounds would be the birds calling out, the occasional possum on the roof or the classical music that would usually be on quietly in the background. Senol would cut the glass and prepare the backing boards, Dad would make the frames and I would cut the mounts. We would spend time together deciding which frame would suit a particular painting and which mount would bring out the colours of the artwork. And of course there were plenty of coffee breaks.

Now every Sunday we go down to our favourite coffee place and I love that they usually have Mozart playing and I think of Dad and miss our weekends framing together.













After spending so much time framing prints it was wonderful to see so much of great grandfather's work 'in the flesh'. The vibrancy of the work is what struck me most. And I was able to see many paintings that I had never seen before. I also loved seeing the development and change in his work when he started painting the Flinders Ranges.

This is the little summary from the Gallery's website:

One of Australia's greatest artists, Hans Heysen (1877-1968), is celebrated with the first major retrospective of his work in three decades at the Art Gallery of South Australia. The Hans Heysen exhibition features more than one hundred works created over the artist's seventy year career.

Born in Germany in 1877, Hans Heysen emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia with his family at the age of seven. After four years studying in Europe, Heysen embarked on one of the most successful careers in Australian art, becoming synonymous with the Adelaide Hills town of Hahndorf, where he worked and lived.

The Art Gallery of South Australia holds the largest and most representative collection of works by Hans Heysen, including more than two thousand drawings, oils and watercolours bequeathed by the artist himself. Included in the exhibition are many of Heysen's greatest oil and watercolour paintings, alongside rarely-seen
preliminary sketches and studies.

Testament to Heysen's national standing, the Gallery has borrowed masterpieces from every major collection in the country as well as from many regional and private collections, to tell the story of Heysen's art. In addition to his iconic ‘gum tree' paintings, the exhibition takes a fresh look at Heysen's lesser-known themes. Hans Heysen traces the artist's development from early student days painting in Europe from 1899-1903, including images of Paris and Venice, to the revelation of barren
landscapes and ancient mountain forms in the Flinders Ranges from 1926.

The exhibition will be touring Australia for about 2 years, including going to the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Australia.

PS. Recently Sharon, creator of the website Expats Moving and Relocation Guide, contacted me about putting one of my stories about living in Istanbul on her site. The end result - 'Manyak Misin?' - a post I wrote after one of my early driving experiences here is now on her website. Sharon sounds like she has many interesting stories to tell as well - she has been an expat in the US, Venezuela and Canada.

Thank you!

I wanted to say thank you for all the comments about my latest illustration. They made me so happy and were so motivating - I think I might do some more!

And I also wanted to thank Shannon Lowe, a contributing editor at BlogHer and writer of the blog Rocks In My Dryer for mentioning me and my blog in her recent article Expat Moms Chronicle Raising Kids in a Foreign Country. What a nice surprise and a great article!

Flowers for you all!

Interview with expatinterviews.com

I am excited to say that the people over at expatinterviews.com recently came across my blog and asked if they could interview me for their website. The site is run by Victor Volder, who lives in the Netherlands and Lizza Capucion, a freelance writer who lives in the Philippines.

They interview expats and are particularly interested in "what motivated people to live in another part of the world, how they generate their income, how they manage to live there, and what they’ve learned from their experiences in a land that's become their new home."

To check out the interview, including some of my thoughts and tips on moving to Turkey, click here!

And a big thank you to Victor and Lizza.