Happy belated New Years! I spent most of December dealing with health issues and then the beginning of January recovering from minor surgery. Now pretty much fully recovered I feel like my year is finally beginning. 

I've been spending lots of time making things for around the house, like this rug that I finally finished. I had been working on it on and off for about a year now. It's perfect under our feet for the arrival of this cold weather we've been having.

Happy Saturday.

We've been travelling a lot lately, and just spent a lovely, relaxing weekend in Karlsruhe in the south of Germany. I don't remember a time where I've played so many board games. Thanks E. and T. for being such wonderful hosts!

I've never really used this blog as a forum to vent, but I've been feeling the crunch lately. I know that the beginning of a new year is all about turning over a new leaf and excitement for what is to come, but I have been feeling totally overwhelmed and as a result haven't felt like this new year is off to such a fresh start.

I'm not sure how other Moms juggle their children and all of the other things that they have going on in their lives. Most of the time it seems like many of you out there in blogland do a wonderful breezy job of it. I've been finding it hard to get to my projects, which other than spending time with my family and friends are some of the things that really make me feel good in life. I have to go back to work, after having a wonderful year off, at the beginning of February. I'm both fearing it and looking forward to the structure of it all. I have a feeling though that the structure will be good and I'll be more effective in organizing my time.

Anyway, I appreciate that there are people out there that have stuck with this blog through the sparse posting. I really really hope to be more active this year, and I have many new projects floating around in my head that I'll want to share with you once they come into fruition.

Here are a bunch of random photos that I didn't get a chance to post over the holidays. I hope you enjoy them.

Happy Wednesday.

Speaking of Markets.

Here are some photos of the printing demonstration that I did for Missy Magazine at Hello Handmade a couple of weeks ago. It was a really nice market and I was pretty happy to be a part of it in some capacity.

You can check out the Missy website for more photos.

Happy Thursday.

Anu Tuominen.

I came across Anu Tuominen at Sautter + Lackmann in Hamburg last year. I love the simplicity of her work. I can't believe how beautiful that string of beads made out of shaved pencil bits is.

If you're in Hamburg I would definitely pay a visit to this amazing bookstore. It focuses on art books and has an amazing selection. Give yourself an hour or two!

Happy Tuesday.