The Mischievous Mommy

You know that disheveled mom you spotted stumbling to the closest coffee shop, sporting a rats nest up do, bloodshot eyes and toddler in tow, well that was probably me.

I have been caught in this vicious circle for the better part of my life that consists of biting off more than I can chew and then sacrificing my very valuable sleep to try to make sure I achieve my dreams. Now couple that with someone who is a fly by their pants type who has a severe lack of organizational skills, toss in a kid and I have become that hot mess. Just for the sake of being honest I have to admit an embarrassing portion of my time is filled with procrastination and an unhealthy amount of watching the latest shared videos. My fiance has come home to me bawling my eyes out just because I watched another dog rescue video....It gets me every time.

You might laugh but my craving for stability hit an all time high yesterday during that stumble to Starbucks. As I carried Eve, who was still in her pajamas, at 2pm in the afternoon, it began to dawn on me that I needed to make some serious changes. After all, it wasn't just me who was suffering but Eve. Here I was trying to kick start my day at 2pm, my kid wasn't even dressed yet and somehow I had managed to throw some jeans on, although I don't remember when so I may have slept in them?

Ugh.

Now I love change, organization and structure or at least the ideas of them. They have always been these elusive, unachievable goals of mine that I know would drastically change my life for the better, but until now have avoided me. For the longest time my concept of not stressing about the small things and focusing on living life in the moment have worked out great for me. However, I'm beginning to understand that lovely lifestyle that I previously thrived in does not work with motherhood. I am exhausted.

Currently my day sort of goes like this:

7:30 am - Feed the kid
8:00 am - Curl up in her bed and play "put mommy to bed"
8:30 am - Convince Eve I am not sleeping, just pretending
9:00 am - Pull myself, somewhat, together and do something productive... perhaps I'll get dressed.
10:00 am - Head outside with Eve otherwise I'll stay in sleep mode, plus they have coffee out there
12:00 pm - Lunch
2:00 pm - Officially wake up and begin being semi-productive
6:00 pm - Create something edible for supper
8:30 pm - Eve goes to bed and it's time to tidy the hurricane of destruction that must have passed through my house today.
9:30 pm - I am fully awake, house is "clean" (Don't look in the closet) and I'm ready to start catching up on painting and correspondence
2:00 am - Realize that once again I am an idiot for staying up so late and have to be up in 5 hours to do a repeat

*Facepalm

Clearly I am bound for a massive burn out. It's happened before and let me tell you it wasn't pretty.

Although I have planned to plan to set aside a time to plan to organize a schedule, it has never successfully happened. Our lives are so all over the map since neither of us work 9 - 5's but shift work with odd hours, making it difficult to pin down something stable. However I know that I MUST make this work, not only to be a better mother, fiance and artist but to achieve the most that I can out of life.

I have tried the day planner, I lost it. I tried the table top calendar, that lasted maybe two weeks before it got covered in paint and doodles. I tried the erasable fridge calendar which accidentally got erased once and I forever lost faith in it.

So I sat down and thought about what would work for me.

Remember back in the day those fridge magnet words that were all the rage? You could create all sorts of messages to leave for roommates to discover and make up random stories that made no sense because you ran out of the necessary words, well I loved those. I figured why not find a way to make up my own words and create a custom magnet calendar where I could rearrange whatever I needed to at ease. And so I did.

Word Magnet Schedule

First thing I had to do was find the perfect template. I may be an artist but I lack in the graphic design department especially since I have no program to even begin to create something. So I headed to Etsy to find something I could work with and found the PERFECT template at Nixie Knox Designs.

This was the first template I purchased (only $3.46 CDN!) and after some thought I realized a half hour interval template would probably work better for our lives.

I contacted Sarah, the store owner, and she graciously worked with me to create a custom template in under a day! What is great about this Nixie Knox Designs template is that once purchased you can download it directly to print out at home and don't have to wait for the mail.



Down below is the one she had custom made for me and it is now available in her shop along with some other amazing organizational templates.


I printed this out at home on an 11 x 15 thick paper (I actually used watercolor paper) and it came out gorgeous. Obviously if you are trying this out you can create whatever size works best for you and can always get it professionally printed for larger sizes.
The next day I brought it to Staples and had it laminated for only $3.00.

The next stop was finding magnets.
At our Canadian dollar store, a.k.a Dollarama, I picked up some of their photo magnet sheets measuring 6 inches x 9 inches. (You can usually find them beside the picture frames)
I love these sheet magnets because you can peel off the adhesive backing and lay your paper directly onto the sticky side, no messy gluing!

Once you have your supplies ready go ahead and open up Excel. You want to create a spreadsheet where each column and row height measures a little bit less than each square on your printed out schedule.


You then choose your desired font and start filling in each square with your daily activities. For example, if you want to put "LUNCH" on your schedule make sure to fill in 7 different boxes with the same word. When you feel like you have all the daily tasks you may need go ahead and print!

I skipped changing the font color, but looking back I would suggest getting creative with the font coloring and color coordinate certain tasks.








Cut off any of the excess paper and then carefully lay it down onto the adhesive side of the magnet sheet. You may either use an X-acto knife or a strong pair of scissors to cut out each individual square. This is probably the most tedious part of the process so throw on a good movie, pour a glass of wine and get to work.


Another step I skipped was attaching magnets to the laminated template itself. I decided to just use some DIY animal magnets Eve and I created, although I was worried about how well the magnet words would stay attached it seems to work perfectly.


The best part about laminating the template is that you don't have to worry about creating every single word possible, if some random event is coming up you can just write it in rather than print out the perfect word.

 I absolutely love this concept because it adapts so well to our all over the map schedule. I don't have to rewrite or constantly erase the next day's events, all I have to do is rearrange a few magnets! The above picture is my attempt at a structured schedule, it has a long way to go and plenty of rearranging before I find what works for us.


Tips:

- Get creative with the font coloring and color coordinate certain tasks.
- Create a word magnet for daily chores and place them at the bottom of each day. For example Sunday night I have "clean the fridge" as the chore because on Monday I know I will do my grocery shopping. 
- Print out your template on regular paper until you get it the size you want, this way you aren't ruining your good paper.
- Measure the row / column box size of your printed out schedule and make sure to edit your EXCEL spreadsheet accordingly before spending your time typing everything in.
- Buy an extra magnet sheet or two, just in case.
- Don't stress about getting it "perfect", the great thing about this is you can go back and print out any missing tasks or activities!
- Pick up some colorful, erasable markers to add some more fun to your calendar, perfect for writing in the dreaded dentist appointment.
- Why stop at making word magnets just for your schedule? Make some for your child to help them learn their letters, shapes and colors... there really is no limit!

Now I know this isn't just going to solve all of my problems, it will definitely take time and for me specifically, lots of time. But at least it is a start and I am excited to see how much more productive I become with some added structure to our lives.  

If you have any questions about the process let me know and I will do my best to answer them :)
Happy creating!

If you are looking to start off slow when it comes to pranking then this should be your go to. All you need is nail polish and someone who is sleeping, preferably someone you know, to prevent any awkwardness... and a potential criminal record.

Today I found my hubby passed out on the couch ever so peaceful. He was on daddy duty and I quickly realized he fell asleep at his post when a little munchkin trotted into our bedroom and interrupted my work.

I decided to go ahead and let him sleep but leave a small reminder that falling asleep on daddy duty has consequences....

So there you have it, one of the most simple pranks you could pull. If you are looking to live dangerously and up the ante you can "lose" the bottle of nail polish remover or paint the finger nails immediately before someone has an important meeting or leaves for work.

If you happen to try this prank out send me a picture, I'd love to see it!

After being sent over 17 unique collaborations by some very talented duos we finally have an official winner. While I am absolutely amazed and inspired by every single one we eventually had to put it to a vote and the results are in...

Drum roll please. <insert drum roll here>

The winners are...

Today Eve and I had a fabulous adventure when we visited a Grade 2 and 3 classroom after being invited to share our story and talk about our collaborations. 

Before we had a chance to show some of our paintings I wanted to make sure they got to see Eve's originals. I asked the students what they could see in Eve's drawings and I really wish I had been able to record the results. All of the answers differed and I couldn't believe what some of them were coming up with! The minute they told me their own unique vision I could see it begin to form in Eve's original pieces. I stressed to them that none of their answers could ever be wrong since we are all created to see things differently. The important thing is to learn how to share what makes us unique with those around us by using our individual talents.

 After we were done speaking, all the students picked a partner and created their own collaborations. They each received a white piece of paper where they scribbled and doodled, when they were done they passed it off to their partner to paint. I can't even tell you how ecstatic I was watching these young minds work together and discuss how they would create together.

Even Eve got into the collaborating process by participating in some of their pieces!

Each of their paintings were so unique and creative and I am so grateful for being able to share this with them.



Thank you Mrs. Gautreau for inviting us to your wonderful classroom!

A man stumbles in the pouring rain, the city lights reflecting off sidewalk puddles that are responsible for his waterlogged shoes. Cars fly by and pedestrians can be found huddling together under any dry refuge waiting for the storm to pass, but not him.

No. He will face this storm head on, armed only with a newspaper that lost it's purpose several blocks ago. He no longer understands why he even continues to hold on to it, perhaps it is the need to feel protected. The need to feel like something is worth holding onto.

The storm has reached a rage now and still he walks on, alone. Even his tattered newspaper is falling apart in the wind and the words of yesterday's news begin to tear away.

But still, he walks on. 

And then despite everything, a small smile can be seen hidden at the corner of his mouth, for he knows something we do not.

He knows that to walk bravely in the storm and feel it's rage is to truly understand the peace and understanding that is sure to follow. He chooses not to settle for a temporary escape from the storm but to press on so he may experience a lasting refuge.



This is mine and Eve's latest collaboration titled, "Yesterday's News."

The inspiration for the stormy night came from Eve telling me repeatedly "Rain, Rain, Rain" as she drew her part of the collaboration. As I sat there trying to figure out how I would turn her drawing into a rainstorm the piece sort of took on a life of it's own.

I began to see a top hat, then a coat collar and part of a man's arm. From there it just took off and the story above is what came to me as I painted. I tried to imagine what this man was experiencing and his life story.
 Where was he coming from?
Was he running from or to something?
I began to relate to this fictional character and the storm became more of a symbol of what each of us go through in life and the refuge we all seek.

Here is Eve's original sketch.


I was able to try out a new technique in order to create the newspaper effect. I didn't want to just simply use watercolors but transfer actual newspaper ink to the painting instead. The ultimate goal was to create a look that had the newspaper ink literally flying off the page into the storm, they would become lost words... yesterday's news.

To achieve this effect I ended up using a blender marker, shown in the photo. You place the newspaper face down onto the paper and press the marker on top to slowly transfer the ink. The more times you go over the more ink that will be transferred.

Although this was the first time I got to try this I am definitely looking forward to using this technique in future pieces!

Hope you enjoy this piece and make sure to check out the time lapse video! If you listen carefully you can hear Eve's adorable voice saying, "Rain, Rain, Rain."

"Yesterday's News"

I can't even begin to tell you how exciting it was to see all of these collaborations come in. Each piece is a fantastic display of parents and their children coming together to create something so beautiful. Every single one is as unique as those that made them. 
A HUGE thank you to all those who participated, I can only imagine how many people will feel inspired to try this project just from looking at what you have made. I hope you enjoyed the process!


 Take a moment to look through each collaboration and decide which one you would like to vote for. In order to vote please write the # of the piece along with the artists' names in the comment section down below.  
UPDATE: In the event you do not have an account or do not want to sign up to vote you can always send your vote to ruthoosterman@hotmail.com and I will tally them up there as well as here.