Lucy’s coloring book

Color me brightly

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Artist, pattern designer and believer in healing powers of art making.

  • July 2023

    Hey, it’s time for the annual update. LOL!

    I had a real crisis beginning of the year, basically falling apart from anxiety that I created for myself trying to achieve too much and not managing and beating myself about it. I promised myself that I will try to slow down and I am still trying…

    It was a very hard winter, long and moist and we moved very little and spent very little time outside and we all feel the consequences. We were cold and damp and stagnant and sweaty and bloated and feeling really weird.

    Between the last post and today, Lola got spayed in November just after we came back from holiday. She developed mucometra and there was no choice but to go ahead with an emergency spay surgery. It went well. The dogs also suffered the damp and cold winter and Lili started her allergy in April, but was quickly out of it thanks to the help of Chinese nutritionist who helped explain what is happening and what to do about it. Subtle changes did the trick and Lili was feeling much better in matter of weeks. After that Lola developed interdigital cysts, followed by vaginal abscesses, ear infection and a massive hot spot next to her left ear, which was probably related. She is still not well. She suffered from stagnation this winter and I was experimenting with some herbs to help move things and in my opinion, may have moved them too much. She also got her rabies shot which probably didn’t help with anything.

    The weather is finally hot, but still humid. It took a lot of time to warm up. We suffered cold and damp now we are suffering hot and damp. Never mind. This too shall pass.

    The lake house proved to be damp too. It was impossible to heat during winter and impossible to get the moisture under 65% which is terrible. We used huge amounts of electricity trying to dry and heat the space, but it did little. Now I am waiting for the electricity bill…

    Last week we were there for a week and it was really pleasant, we enjoyed it and I have to say I am glad that we bought it. In the meantime we were again in Croatia and finally decided that we do not want to go there again and we are selling it. I have some plans with the money, but it may take a long time to get to that point, so I will not elaborate,

    During my period of anxiety I started thinking how I want to continue with my social media and whether I want to continue at all. I already mostly dropped out from Instagram, posting just occasionally on dogs and main account and almost not looking at anything except dogs accounts. I realized that I was pushing myself to do stuff that I didn’t feel like doing any longer and that I didn’t want to post about what I really felt passionate about at the moment because that would mess up with the ‘theme’ of my page/account/blog. It took me awhile to realize that it was a wrong approach and that it was pushing me away from my own being and my own journey just to try and keep the followers because I realized that people have very narrow specific interest and I was afraid that I will step out of their specificity.

    I still believe that I was not wrong about it, but I have to proudly say that I really do not care. My creativity is big part of my identity and I cannot be myself if I try to satisfy someone else’s needs. So things have changed on all fronts.

    Anyway. Probably this was enough for my annual post. Let’s see what the future brings… it may be just a bunch of dandelion leaves from my garden, but that’s ok…

    A bunch of dandelion leaves from my garden, freshly picked to feed my dogs and make powder and tincture for later use.

  • November 2022

    It’s really funny that even monthly posting did not work, so next year I might switch to one post annually, LOL… how difficult could that be? Probably VERY, knowing me.

    Anyway… just read a couple of latest posts and must say things did not change much. I still don’t know where I am going with this. And it looks like I have too many interests and too little time and probably nothing will ever come out of everything except that I will have fun and keep learning and creating. And is that bad? I would think no.

    So, let me think what happened while I was not writing my monthly blog posts…. I bought a house on the lake. Had some money, needed to invest, this was close, only 130km from the house and it was new and we liked it, so now it’s ours. I ordered a fence and car gate and now waiting, I mean still waiting, since July or August, don’t remember. Hoping it will get delivered soon.

    There was another kitchen shopping in Ikea, now I had much more experience and hopefully did better than the last time. The house is small and the kitchen is cute. And I love the whole place and hope to spend many nice moments there.

    Then Mama got sick with shingles. It was short but painful and now it’s over and I hope she will be fine. We traveled to Croatia and we are spending two weeks here. The weather was great and very worm. Then it was raining for two days and now it’s sunny and warm again. We mostly love it here, meeting friends and enjoying long solitary walks. It’s mostly great this time of year. Except the people and lots of primitivism that we cannot stand, but hey, it’s just for holidays and luckily we don’t have to stay if it gets too much.

    Lili was really ill from April to July, having terrible itchiness, which finally ended with food intolerance test that mostly showed nothing, because I am sure they switched her sample with Lola’s. So after many phone calls and fruitless discussions, I just made one red list out of two and no dog received anything on the two lists and it did the trick. They both feel much better.

    I learned to sew. I am still a beginner and a messy one for that, but I made couple things for myself and I wear them and it makes me happy. Then I took a course in natural cosmetics making, and loved it. Currently I am taking a course in essential oils safety and loving that too. Some months ago I stopped posting on Instagram and that turned out to be a really good decision. It was making me unhappy because I could not get enough exposure and that was really killing my creativity. Besides, all the reels that they forced people to make were spoiling my feed with too much movement, which made me very anxious when looking at it, so I just stopped. It was easy, because it stopped being enjoyable.

    So, it was a very busy and stressful year and I feel it. I am tired and nervous and have no wish to do anything until spring. Have no money anyway, LOL… My plan is now to calm down, do some house decorating and try to make space for more art. And to write blog… who knows, now I am rid of Instagram, this may get revived. No promises, though. I am anyway just writing for myself, which is a good reason to continue, because I really enjoy looking back to the old posts.

    Girls in Croatia

  • March 2022

    Ok, yes, it’s April, but that’s ok: I am just a day late and anyway nobody’s reading. I got well again and all is fine. My sewing education is going well. I bought myself an overlock and cover stitch machine and I manage to thread it, which is apparently a great achievement, as most people just give up and never use their machine, which I really cannot understand. Yes, this machine needs to be converted and rethreaded very often, but in comparison to what you get when you use it, it’s really worth the time and effort. There are videos on YouTube for each type of threading, and I watch them reverently.

    I ordered my new fabrics from Spoonflower. Here’s a photo of some of them – those that are based on one of the stamps I carved recently:

    Fabric based on stamp I carved.

    And I already used it for making this beanie:

    Beanie I sew for myself

    I made some other things, hand warmers that did not really turned out very well, because I made two right ones, lol… and some place mats out of some other fabric samples, those were easy and look great. Only I did not take photos of those.

    On Instagram I continued my 100 day challenge, but mostly played with old stamps and new ways of printing them:

    Some new patterns from old stamps…

    I did several Lino prints which mostly did not turn well. I tried new ink – Caligo safe wash. It did not improve my printing skills. In thinking what to do with so many misprints, I started making collages. Here’s what I did:

    Print collage 1
    Print collage 2

    So, this was how I spent my March. Going into April and looking forward to learning new things…

  • February 2022

    So, it’s the last day of February, I almost missed my monthly post. LOL…

    The thing is, I’ve been sick for three days now, having a cold which I got who knows how despite all masking and sanitizing. Anyway, hoping it will not develop into something nasty, I am laying low and pretending that all is fine. Hard thing is sleeping with blocked nose of all things cold related that is the hardest.

    As for the art: I was really regular on my printing Instagram account – posted every day since 1st December. Currently I am doing the 100 day challenge – nothing special, just posting a print every day for 100 days. I started carving lino again and did several prints. Here are the two I like the most:

    HOUSES part of my 100 day challenge
    FLOWERS part of my 100 day challenge

    I also fixed my sewing machine and started a course on Domestika and already did my first sewing project – a drawstring bag, which I made out of two pieces of fabric I used for trying out fabric printing. Turned out ok, nothing really to be proud of, so I am not showing a photo. I am really glad that I started sewing. It was on my list for last year, but it did not happen. So yeah!

    Somebody bought a roll of wallpaper in my Spoonflower shop! I really didn’t expect that, but hey! So I decided to put some more effort into updating it, especially now when I can actually use the fabric I am making. I created five new patterns. Waiting for five more and I will order test prints.

    On the private front, it was LIli’s birthday end of January and then mine beginning of February. I bought a coffee machine for myself and we are happily caffeinated since then. I got promoted at work, which came together with a nice salary raise, even though my job is not very fulfilling, this will help bring more meaning to the whole thing. Thinking about art supplies and stuff, of course.

    Although I make effort not to write about politics and society, I really do hope that the war will not spread to Europe. I’ve seen one and I do not wish to see one more. Here’s to a better March!

  • January 2022

    Hello. Long time no post, right? So, I have tried daily post, did not work, then I have tried weekly post, did not work. Now obviously it’s time to try monthly post. Twelve posts a year, that should be feasible even for myself, right? Let’s see…

    I have been doing art in the past six months, not too much of it or not as much as I would have liked, but nevertheless. I made almost a year long break on my printing account on Instagram because I was intimidated by other people’s good work. That was a new feeling for me. Also, I started counting likes and followers, which was also very unpleasant thing to do. So, I decided to give it a break and see. That was in February 2021. I returned on December 1st to participate in #carvedecember challenge and I had a good time. I continued to post every day since then. I did a lot of quick carves on plastic erasers and that was very relaxing and carefree activity, and then I did even more prints by combining and overlapping those blocks. Such as this one:

    I also decided that it’s time to get myself a printing press. I opted for woodzilla press because they are truly beautiful to look at unlike most others that look really terrible. It arrived before Christmas and I tried it several times already. It’s working really well and will be extremely valuable when it comes to printing lino carvings. Here it is:

    During my long break from printing and Instagram, I spent a lot of time thinking what I want to do with my web site and managed to come up with a rather clear picture, so I started restructuring it again. I want to make space for the diversity of my art, because that is who I am. I like to do many things and I do not see why I have to limit myself because I would like to perfect just one and gain certain group of followers and make a business out of it. It could be nice, but maybe it’s just not for me. So I will just continue to do what feels right. At this moment it’s experimental printmaking, digital collage, digital illustrations in Fresco and occasional coloring page to offer on my web site. I also plan to do some sewing and fabric printing and to update my online shops.

    Here are two more photos of things I did in January:

    Digital collage in FRESCO
    Block printing on a T-shirt

    In private domain, things are mostly the same, the only exception being Lili:

    Lili the puppy

    Lili is now almost one year old. She came to us on 30 April 2021. She is gentle, soft and adorable and has brought much joy and stability to our lives. She is helping Lola overcome her timidity and anxiety, she is also helping me calm down and be a better human to both of them.

    That’s it. Have a good month, until I, hopefully, write again.

  • 13-14/2021

    13-14/2021

    It’s hard. I missed a post last week because I simply did not feel like sharing. I still don’t. But then I remind myself that I also do it for myself, to remember what I did and how it felt, so here we are.

    I was busy at work. I did some art. I missed the last Spoonflower challenge and I will miss this week’s one too and probably the next one. Because it has little meaning these days. I feel lost and undeserving. I mostly just doodle. I do collage because it calms me down. I work on Life Book lesson one, little by little it takes shape.

    Spring is here, we are locked down and it is not improving. Lola is having some paw infection probably fungus, I started adding immune boosters again. We don’t walk these days because her feet are painful, so we mostly just spend time in the garden, doing some little gardening and spring cleaning. It’s cold. I am grateful for the garden and sun and time off work for Easter. That’s all.

  • 12/2021

    12/2021

    So very late with this post. No time. Too much work. I made three patterns and started a collage on the cover of my altered book journal. And that’s all. Too tired even to write more. Hoping for more time… which probably won’t happen soon…

  • 11/2021

    Oh, it’s already Monday! Two hard weeks behind me with two hard audits at work. But, it went ok and I am here and no audit until end of April, YAY! Hungary introduced even stronger covid restrictions until 22 March, with most shops closed. There are around 8-9 thousand people getting officially sick every day. We are still ok.

    I do very little art these days, so nothing much to show except this pattern which I made for this week’s Spoonflower challenge:

    The theme was cryptozoology and I tried again to turn something basically scary and ugly into cute. Don’t know how well I managed having it swimming in a cup, but anyway, seemed like a good idea.

    I took a holiday on Friday and today is a public holiday, so I had four days to relax, which is basically what I did. I rested, walked, went to the market on Saturday as usual, did some little cleaning and some drawing and some game playing. It was helpful. I am worried and stressed about the situation, seeing how weather is improving and we are still locked and prevented from moving freely. Mother’s surgery is even not possible at the moment because all elective surgeries got suspended.

    OK… Take a deep breath… and try to flow gently… Nothing else would make any sense at this moment…

  • 10/2021

    There was a 5 day long audit at work last week. It was terrible, so no time for anything really. The madness continues tomorrow with another audit on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then I plan to take holiday.

    This is the pattern for this week’s Spoonflower challenge:

    Otherwise, things are depressing. Lockdown is extended and measures are stricter. Mother’s surgery is nowhere to be seen, and she is getting more and more anxious, which is making me anxious too.

    So, hard times. I will be here waiting and drawing. Here’s the dancer from last week on black background. I would not mind it on a tshirt.

  • 9/2021

    It was a busy week and a busy weekend. I missed to write my post yesterday, so I am doing it now on Monday morning before I go to chiropractor. I was working this week on a drawing for the next Spoonflower challenge which is themed Rococo. I am so very impressed by those enormous dresses and hairdos, wondering how much time women spent on dressing and making themselves presentable. What a strange age and fashion! Here’s my entry:

    It took ages to draw, but I am really happy with it.

    And that’s all. I did not do anything else, only started drawing another dancer figure because I really enjoyed this one, so I would like to try another one. I am learning more about Fresco and I really love it. I was also researching Behance and Adobe Portfolio because I realized I would definitely need to make a portfolio sooner or later. Today a new Immersion course is starting. I hope there will be some instruction on Illustrator for iPad.

    Weatherwise, I think the spring is slowly coming, we are having nice sunny weather and for a few days it was really very warm, but now it’s more like it should be. I met with the gardener and discussed upcoming works. They will come this week to start – one tree needs moving to another place, the big tree needs trimming, raised beds need finishing and so on. I am so much looking forward to all plants and grass starting to grow. It was a long ugly winter.