about moving

With my husband, we moved a LOT while studying. At least 10 times in four or five years. It was mostly moving around Prague, from one end of the city to another. For me, this was very stressful: it was hard to find an affordable place, and the moving itself was pretty difficult too. We dragged along all the crazy stuff we had: flowers, heaps of books, clothes, sleeping bags, computers (and a printer, scanner...). It was insane to see how much possesions we had, and that we had to move from one place to another. At first we didn´t have any furniture, so it was a bit easier, as we could carry our belongings in our bags. Traveling with heavy bags on our shoulders, emptying them and then going again. I always thought about divorce, because 90% of the stuff was my husband´s :). But no such luck for me, and there we were, moving and moving again. Sometimes we stayed half a year, sometimes two months. Our longest stay was one year, before we moved where we live now. We lived in strange places: one time we stayed for the holidays in a house that belonged to organisation caring about youngsters. We stayed in one room, the rest was also used by punk bands to do their rehearsals. Once we found a stranger in the shower, which was covered in mud, or we came home to find a running tap while no one was around, sometimes our food was missing... We lived in a tiny room in student dermitory where we shared three toilets and a shower with many many students living on the same floor. There was a hole in the bathroom´s wall, and one night, I sneaked in there with my tempera colors and painted a picture of two divers exploring the hole :). I have so many experiences living in all those places, and I could talk about our "adventures" for hours. There were certainly good and bad times, but the memories are mostly nice. It was nice to live in different places and to explore the neighborhood during long walks. There was always some park nearby and interesting things to see. But I was terribly longing for a real home. To have a kitchen or bathroom only for ourselves is still a huge luxury for me :).
I painted this blue house with windows to our Prague homes. It feels very nostalgic to me, I loved to live in Prague. I plan to make another painting with our previous homes, with the rooms maybe more detailed (we usually only had one room where we slept and worked). I think it´s nice to remember and somehow organise my memories.

blank canvas

Such a great thing to look at a new, white, blank canvas. I bought four in various sizes and can´t wait to paint. Painting on a canvas is such a different experience after years painting on paper. It feels luxurious. I have a lot of plans, but it all comes together slowly. Sewing for myself seems to be quite far on my "to do" list now. I´m working on a summer dress, which I hope to fihish soon, but there are always other things to do as well. Also, I realized I just don´t need too much clothes, haha :).

another cap for Marie

I finished my second crocheted cap. Unfortunatelly, I ran out of the yarn I worked with, and couldn´t find the exact colour anywhere (it´s generally quite bad with the color selection in shops here...). I finished the cap with another shade of dark blue. I´m quite pleased with the cap, but I´m still not sure how to make some things. There is i.e. visible line on the side of the cap where I finished each row... I think the cap should be smooth all over when done right. Also, I don´t know how to finish the whole thing off properly. I tie it somehow, but don´t think I do it the right way. Anyway, I like it, and I like the flower (although I think I didn´t follow the instructions very well :).

more doll photos

So, I decided that the middle one is MINE. :) She´s sitting on the piano and looking gorgeous. The red haired one is standing on the wardrobe in Marie´s room and the blond one (who is broken) was given to Marie to play with, for now. I plan to repair her and replace the leg with a fabric stuffed leg, I think.

new old doll!

Look what I got! A friend gave me three old porcelain dolls and this is one of them. I love it so much, I have never owned anything so special, interesting, old (or at least old-looking, I don´t know how old it really is), romantic, cute and creepy! :) The other two are not so special, they are nice too, but they are more ordinary looking, I may take a photo of the them some day. One of the dolls is broken; I would like to repair it, but I don´t know how yet (I have to replace a leg). But this one is so gorgeous, under the dress there is some kind of blouse I think, but I haven´t examined it properly yet. Her hair is a mess, someone tried to dye it and it´s ruined and falling apart. It´s darkish green now and looking awful, let´s see if I can do something about it. I suspect the doll is really quite old, as it´s made much better than the newer ones - the body construction and all.

to stress or not to stress

That is the question! Since my child was born, I´ve found myself in a strange kind of stress - a nice stress, I would say. Millions of ideas and plans were pouring into my head. It was pretty crazy. Long long time ago there were times when I e. g. didn´t know what to paint. Could you believe that? I was just sitting there and thinking, what the heck should I be painting? Not anymore. I could be working on ten paintings at a time with no problem (and almost I am, in fact :). Of course, when Marie was born, I was not feeling very well, both physically and psychically, plus I was writing my thesis and had the state exams ahead of me... Now that´s all of that gone, I enjoy doing what I want, but often I feel like my head will explode from all the things I would like to do. And sometimes it results in myself sitting, staring in the wall doing nothing, and feeling badly about wasting my time. I wasted so much time in my life already that I don´t want to anymore. But I´m a naturally lazy person, so I guess I can´t be as productive as I would like to be :). I´m sad that things take me very long time to finish. But is it really that bad? Does it really matter if I manage to complete one or five or ten paintings in one year? Or how many clothes or other things I can make? Probably not, as everything has it´s own time, and it´s important to enjoy every day without feeling like I have to accomplish something.
Anyway, yesterday I really wanted to make something very quick and instant. I made a leather bug for Marie, and it was completed in about two hours. Very rewarding :).
Also, I saw a beautiful beautiful blue house in Prague today. I should take a photo, but I´m not used to carrying a camera with me... I should change that :).
We´re attending a wedding in July (my childhood best friend is getting married), and I´m thinking about the right gift! She suggested that I could make them something, which is awesome, but I don´t know what could that be yet. (I could give them a painting! Ha! :)
Have you seen any good films lately? We´ve been to the cinema to see Melancholia (new film by Lars von Trier) and I really liked it. I was amazed by the intro, so artistic.
That´s all from me for now :).

update: I found a picture of the house online! here it is:
(a house in Nekázanka, Prague)

black dress

I finished making this black dress - it took me quite a lot of time to make it. More time than I would like, actually. I guess it´s not a good thing that I want everything to be completed as soon as possible... most things need a lot of time to be finished. It´s similar with painting: I have to learn to make things slowly, be patient, pay attention to details. Sometimes I wonder if there is some point in the things I do and make. Am I doing it right? What´s the use of it all? What if I´m wasting my time on something? With sewing it´s a bit easier, of course, because I like that it´s practical and the result is useful usually. Mostly you also save money when sewing. But, isn´t sewing these dresses such a vain? After all, I don´t have many occasions to wear them... With painting and many other things I do, I´m sometimes quite unsure whether it´s good for something. I hope it is, at least for myself and my friends who like to look at the paintings.
So, here´s my new dress. The fabric is lovely cotton and linen blend. I made this dress while watching the fabulous Love and death by Woody Allen - his funniest film I think. I could quote it all day long. I love everything about this film. "I never want to marry. I just want to divorce." Hahaha! Great film, highly recommended :).

free time

My daughter is at my parents´and I find myself with a LOT of free time. So I´m catching up on painting, sewing, and thinking about some other things to do.
A new painting from my "Adam and Eve" series...

Erika Bornová in Benešov

As soon as I found out there is an exhibiton by Erika Bornová in our town, I was desperate to see it. I went to the exhibiton today with my daughter, and I loved it. I was just a bit sorry that there were only a few objects - I wish there was more to look at. Erika Bornová makes typical polystyren figural oversized statues, it´s something pretty unusual and refreshing. I liked the smaller one on the green background the most, unfortunatelly there was only this one from her collection. My second most favourite are those four heads - busts.

summer dress for Marie

I know I´m changing my plans all the time. I´ve said I want to make a faux Crepe dress, than I said something about my black summer dress, and also that I don´t have any time for sewing, because I have to paint... And then I start sewing something completely different :). My daughter has a pretty big collection of shabby sweatpants, but almost nothing nice and cute. So I decided to make her some clothes for the spring/summer 2011 :). I love the fabric for this dress. The pattern is from Burda 3/2009, which I lenghtened into a dress. The smocking was a bit of a nightmare (despite Burda´s promises how easy it is :), but I think next time I will be more confident. I love the way it turned out, so I think all the work paid off. I´m making her a hat too, but despite the label "very easy pattern", it´s giving me a hard time sewing it :).
I´m also crocheting a second cap, and I´m curious about the outcome.
There are so many plans, ideas, and projects that are on my mind and on my hands.