My Art on Display and Festivals

We are very lucky here Ottawa, to finally have a true Scandinavian home design store "Truly Swedish Design". And I have been very fortunate to have the pleasure to connect with Annika Ek who's the owner of this store, and she has given me a great opportunity to display my work in her store.  Its located right in the middle of the great Westboro area of Ottawa {west end}, this area is full of tea shops, restaurants and unique shops and boutiques.  The area also has wonderful older and historic buildings and homes with pretty little gardens and parks where you can sit and sip coffee and enjoy the area {or like in my case, sketch}.  Needless to say, one of my very favourite areas of Ottawa and if you ever come to Ottawa, this is one of the many areas of our city you should visit.



My art at Truly Swedish Design Store

I just love Scandinavian design, and I love both traditional and modern styles, but the modern designs have for some reason always been more me.  I like clean and simple lines, unique designs and natural textures and materials {I also like mixing modern with the old}.  And Annika has brought in so many amazing pieces from Scandinavia, beautiful iron work, natural linen table runners and towels, trays, rugs, bags and furniture. 

Two of my paintings

The store is new and this summer Annika will be holding the grand opening to her store {link}
and I offered to design the invitation and she was very happy with it and this is the end result of it.
The grand opening is held during the Westfest {June 8-10, 2012}, its when the main street is closed off to traffic and the street becomes packed with vendors, music, entertainment, food stands and of course lots of people having fun {and hopefully great weather}. 

Its exciting and I have to say, I'm so glad I found this store...   Not only for great things with in it, and for the wonderful opportunity given me to be able to display my work there {Tusen tack}, but also for a great friendship that has grown from this...  And its always fun to be able to speak in my own mother tongue and lord knows I need that {have become a bit rusty with it}.

I will be busy this June, there is the grand opening of Truly Swedish Design, Westfest and then I'm taking part in the annual east end Orleans Arts Studio Tours {my first year to take part} and then of course get ready for the great move {lots of packing} to our new house.  

Here's to June!!!

Mari

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Mix of EmOtioNs

 The months of February and March, have been a mix big mix of emotions, and this is why its been a few weeks since I posted last.  Not only has the weather been some strange, and I think we have so far had every weather condition thinkable all in one.  First it snowed, and it looked and felt like winter, then it has gone back and forth every day, then one day we had bitter cold winds (-9c) and the chill just went right down to the bones...  But that same evening, we ended up with severe thunderstorms and hail and now today its sunny and it will be +16c and they are calling for sunny and +23c for tomorrow.

So besides from a unpredictable weather conditions, I have spent a lot of time home with my daughter who has been sick a lot.  And if we have not been home it has been us going to different doctors appointments, and we are still trying to figure out what is going with her.  As most of you know, my daughter has severe autism and even though she can talk a bit, she cant tell us everything about how she really feels.  She can tell us that she feels sick and that her head hurts, but other than that its other clues that we have to go by.  She rather stay down in bed and lay down on the sofa, she doesn't eat normally most days (and she loves food) and shes not able to go out or to school (and she also loves school). 

 So I haven't been able to do too much when it comes to art, even Lindsay doesn't draw like she always does (I love watching her drawing), and the few times that I have been able to sketch a bit, it has been while we sit in a waiting room and while Lindsay layed down.  In my note book I sketched something I thought of in between jotting down medication charts and some personal journaling, not sure why a seed pod came to mind, but I like how it turned out and I think I'm going to work on it later and use it for a design (maybe try out fabric printing).

 Then when we were in the ER for over 10 hours and Lindsay was sleeping, I sketched a bit of the things around her room we had finally been given after sitting 5 hours in the main waiting room (sandwiched between screaming and couching kids and stressed out parents, ugh)...  Then I started to think about summer and fresh air (anything but hospital air), so I drew a picture of the action on the beach.  I think I have all these different topics just pop up in my head due to lack of sleep.

 Not all has been about sickness and appointments, there has been good days in between.  But one of those low days and when we came home late, I checked the letter box and there was a letter from PAMO and what a wonderful letter it was.  Totally made my day!!!  Lindsay went back to bed, I brewed my self a big pot of tea and sat down to read what Pamo had sent me.  She had created a fantastic Zine and its hilarious, she has a great imagination and the whole story is brilliant. 
You so have to check this out in Pamos website here

 Thank you Pamo, thank you so much.  I totally love it and you sure made my day, hugs!!!!

And like I said before, we have good days in between and today is good for Lindsay, she is again head ache free and she ate some breakfast.  We are now going out to the back yard and sit on the deck and enjoy the warm weather and watch the last bits of the snow melt away. 
I think its safe to say, spring is here and its the weekend, so in between catching up to work that has to get down in the house (we are doing some repairs and soon getting some renovations done), we are just going to take it easy.  Yep, watch winter melt away!!!

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