Lately

Illustration by Rachel Levit

30 weeks pregnant.

I'd be nice to feel like the lady in the illustration. She seems to me relaxed and focused, exercising and stuff. It has been different here as I'm feeling particularly tired lately!

It's so weird and funny how the last months of 2016 I was so focused, so energized, so productive and now I feel completely the opposite. I believe is the third trimester of pregnancy hitting me hard and oh boy, can't wait (NOT) to see how it goes in the following weeks with this lack of sleep and feeling so utterly unfocussed and distracted, not to mention tired. 

Anyway, other than that, which is normal (just frustrating anyway), I'm feeling good. i'm having SO much fun with this unborn baby, who is so freaking active and keeps me looking at my belly at all the alien-like movements and making me smile, wondering what the heck is he doing in there.

In other things, I'm starting to feel the nesting instinct kicking in and I just want to give the house a huge cleaning and work on the baby's room and organize his clothes and go buy a stroller and stuff. I was so lucky my neighbour gave us so much clothing and baby things! She had a baby boy less than two years ago so she had all these things that we could use; I am so happy I won't have to buy them, it's so expensive and most get so little use, plus it feels good to reuse instead of buying and buying! now I need to go through all that and organize. We don't have much things from Amelia's baby years save the crib which I need to see if it's still in good condition and buy a new mattress and the carseat which probably has expired already. I saved a lot of blankets which is awesome and also almost all her clothing, unfortunately won't be of much help because probably half of it too girlish (yep, there was a lot of pink and ruffles and little dresses back them with my Amelia) and not many things gender neutral. I think I always felt I would have another girl if I ever became preg again but I was obviously wrong, this boy shook me and now I can't wait to meet him.

And about family, I am amazed by how loving and protecting Amelia already is with the baby bump, she's just SO sweet, so interested in all what's happening, reading pregnancy books with me and checking the Baby Center app. She's so curious, I can't wait to see her with her brother, I wonder how is going to be, but judging by how's she's acting right now, I believe she'll be a great big sister. Fingers crossed!

So now, let's hope that I find a bit of energy somewhere to at least do some stretches like the lady in the illustration.

Instagram for creatives: Interview with Norma Andreu from Cara Carmina

As part of the Instagram for creatives series, I made a little Q&A with 3 of my favourite Canadian Instagrammers. Last week was the turn of amazing Natacha Castonguay and this week, I'm honoured to present you the one and only Norma Andreu from Cara Carmina!

Norma is an illustrator and doll maker that, like me, is originally from Mexico and now lives and loves Montreal. I meet her a while ago when I found her gorgeous dolls on Etsy and we became friends, relating to each other's stories about our native country and finding our way in the creative community. 

Following Norma on Instagram is delightful and kind of comforting: she cover you in a blanket of familiarity and looking at her photos turns into a daily ritual for the soul. Her posts are a mix of her works in progress, current projects and peeks into her daily life and her cats, of course! One of the things I find more inspiring about Norma's IG story is her capacity to create content and post steadily, some of the most important aspects to grow a loyal following. So, come meet her!

Norma Andreu

Illustrator, doll maker from Cara Carmina

IG @caracarmina

What do you love about IG?

I love the visual instant impact of it.  I'm a very visual person, I love illustration and photography, instagram is my favourite social network due to this, is so inspiring to see all this images of all over the world of so many different things!

How do you use IG, as a lifestyle or business account (or both!) and why?

I use it as both.  I love taking photos, I love the beauty contained on an instant.  During our daily life we have so many beautiful moments, memories that fade away and that we can capture with a photo.  Of course as an illustrator and designer my images and my work can be showed and shared in IG so easily and also my process and behind the scenes process plus my daily inspiration.  I love it for both!

For you, what are the basics to have a successful IG account?

Style, consistency, honesty and narrative.  You can talk about anything you want in IG, food, art, travel, DYI, books, ANYTHING! everything can become a successful IG account if you give it the right amount of the 4 things I mentioned.  Also tagging properly and interacting with other IG people you like, admire or follow, is a 2 road street here too, #sharingiscaring :)

What is the best advice you could give to an independent designer that wants to use IG to grow their business.

Work on a style and be creative.  Share with your followers part of yourself that are not ONLY part of your work, let them know your journey, is very inspiring and shows the person behind the work, gives the work a soul, a humanity that we all have but not all show to others, that's the HONESTY  I'm talking about!  :)

I particularly admire that you always find content and keep your account moving by posting often. What would you advice to an independent maker that struggles to find content or/and don't post often on their account?

I personally LOVE taking photos and don't discriminate, it is part of my day, taking photos, collecting moments, keeping memories, I love doing it! but if you are not like me try to make it a habit, start with 2 daily photos and keep doing it until you find yourself in this exercise, is a creative outlet! and of course a great marketing tool for you work, and is FOR FREE!!!! plus is easy, you just post a photo!  there are no rules, you make your own rules, some days I don't post and some days I post 8 photos, I try to do it daily but I don't have rules... you get your own style to do things and people will start liking your style as long as is honest.

Thank you Norma, for sharing your experience and advice!
Follow Cara Carmina at:
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
Or visit her Website!

Stay tuned for next and last part of these series + interviews! coming up on Instagram for Creatives: Key points to improve your Instagram account and reach a bigger audience.

Thanks for reading this!

Iveth

Hope

Illustration by Yelena Brysenkova

I'm about to launch a very special collection and I am super happy to show it to you but first I want you to know more about it, because this new collection has two very important purposes: one, it intends to make the person who wears it happy, and two, it is created in the hopes of helping some very special people in my life. 

Some weeks ago, an unfortunate event took place in my family, thank goodness it was nothing to be sad about, just angry, because it's anger you first feel when something unjust happen to innocent people and when there's not much you can do about it. I tell you that, putting aside the hardship that is having my family away, I feel very lucky to have left Mexico almost a decade ago. 

So here's what happened: After finding hard to work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week and taking care of two young children, my brother and sister-in-law decided one should stay home with the kids and the other will go to work. Having worked for a company for several years, my sister-in-law was the one whose job seemed more stable and so my brother would stay with the kiddos. Everything went good until a couple weeks ago the company she worked for had a security breach an a fraud was committed among their employees. Without making a proper investigation, they accused my sister-in-law to be responsible of this fraud, threatened her, humiliated her and let her go of the job without any payment. She is a honest, hard working person and by no means she was involved in the situation. As the only source of income of the family was cut short, came lawyer bills to pay to be able to defend themselves and not to mention all the household expenses and the anguish of the situation, they are having a really hard time. As I told you before the first thing I felt was much anger and despair, I was worried, you know and once again disappointed of my own country and the disgusting work practices of so many employers, low ethic lawyers and social injustice everywhere. And as hard as it was to keep that awful feeling out of my head, my mind cleared up and then came hope. Hope because I know that even when the sky is darkest there's always light up there and eventually we'll see it, specially when you have a kind word from the ones you love and strength to carry on and find calm, happiness, stability, security, health, acceptance or what ever you look for. 

The only way I can help them beside being there to talk is to put my hands to work and offer them a little financial support while they find jobs and this problem gets resolved. So I decided to focus in the positive things and make a little collection where the sales of the jewelry will go towards them. My brother's two year old daughter name is Luna, which stands for Moon in Spanish and from there the collection was born in my head. It's all related: the moon, stars, the night, the light. 

I'll launch the collection very soon, I hope you love it! And if you love it enough to purchase a pair of earrings or a necklace, I'll be forever grateful for your kindness and not just me, but a little fun and loving family in northern Mexico :)

Thanks for reading this!

Iveth

//

Lisa Congdon 

Things I love today

What a great surprise to see Seventy Tree Etsy shop open again! Although Kerry from Seventy Tree had her Big Cartel shop open all this time, as I spend so much time on Etsy, it's great to be just "around the corner" from Kerry's wonderful, quirky, cute illustrations!

All images via Kerry's Seventy Tree shop

Other thing my eyes are happy about is that Erin Dollar has a new line of hand printed pillow covers and tea towels and they are extremely cool. Check them out:

All images via Erin Dollar shop

That's all for today! I hope you are having a great week, thanks for stopping by!

Today's words

Image by Matt Taylor. Found at Erin Dollar's pinboard.

"To hell with luck. I'll bring the luck with me."

— The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway.

Extremely cute things

Minifan

Awesome new shop find via Imaginative Bloom

Pinkrain

From where I got my Mini house brooch!

Snug.

On my list of most desirable objects.

NYrika

Cuteness on the extreme!!!

How are you today?! I hope really good :) And in case you are a bit overwhelmed by the everyday trouble, I hope my cute picks make you smile a bit :)

Things have been nice over here, with easy days and overall calmness, so not much to say!

Oh well, I do have something to say, now that I think about it: that I'm working on new jewelry and I hope to put it on the shop all at the same time, sometime soon. And also I'm working on some changes here on the blog that I hope I can finish soon, too :) You know how lazy I am sometimes to get things done ;) But I'll try to be efficient ;) hehehehe

Sending you best wishes,

Iveth

:)

Hello Dala Postcard by Seventy Tree

Hi there!! I hope you are very well and excited because it's Friday, yay!!

I've been so busy with the little one lately, her terrible 2's are kicking in, stronger by the minute and everyday is harder for me to concentrate on things, that's why you haven't see me around as often. But all is good, I'm happy she's so full of life and energy :D A bit tired, but happy, hehehehe.

Thank you all for you lovely comments on my latest posts, It makes me so happy to know you like the things I publish :D

Ok, just wanted to say hi and wish you all a lovely weekend :) I hope to see you next week!

Hugs :)

Iveth

A new favourite: Clare Owen

In love with Clare Owen's illustration right now. It's so nostalgic and beautiful.

Dream press

Bon Iver flume

The ladies adventure

Ukulady

Shabby chic

The sewing threads

So gorgeous! and the colors she uses are just delightful. For more of her work click here. Thanks for stopping by!!

Toska

I just received my copy of Toska by Lizzy Stewart and had to share it with you.

I'm delighted, the illustration is beautiful.

How are you doing? I hope really well :) All is good over here. Today is rainy, but the temperatures are on the rise and that's super good news :) I'm so looking forward to spring!

Today's Words

By Lizzy Stewart

Lucky

Iveth, Amelia & Alex: Los corazones!

I really am!

This is the beautiful textile illustration by Cara Carmina I won a couple weeks ago and I'm over the moon, I love it!!

There, you can see me, the little one and husband holding hands and the little bunting says "corazones" which literally means 'hearts' but in this context it's something like 'loved ones' :)

I'm so happy it now lives on my wall and I'm very thankful to Norma, from Cara Carmina for making such a special, beautiful and unique piece of art for me!!

Please visit Cara Carmina shop, You'll be blown away by her wonderful dolls, textile cards and illustration!!

Thank you so much Norma!! :D

Perspective

By illustrator Yelena Bryksenkova

I wish you a lovely weekend!

Today I love

Hi there! how are you been? I hope really well :)
Lately, i've been obsessed with leather. All i can think about is to get myself a lovely saddle colour leather bag. But then i feel kind of bad to spent the kind of money those bags cost. Regardless, i'm just waiting for a moment of weakness to buy it (of course i'm also in the search of the perfect one :).

Other thing i've been loving as of late is gold jewellery and this is strange because i use to hate gold jewellery! But there are so many lovely, sweet golden things around that i ended up falling for it :)

Well, this are some of the things i'm drooling over today:

The Libro pink leather pouch by Scout & Catalog

Pine cone charm necklace by Armelle

Gray days boots from NBDG

Flora and Fauna by Lizzy Stewart

Vintage leather cases by Trampoline

Gosh the week went by so fast! I hope you all have a great weekend :D

Colors and shapes

It's white and beautiful outside, but regardless, i need some colour to keep me sane!

Fine Little Day

The Small Object

Seventy Tree Big Drop by lovely Kerry. I'm proud to say i own one of her Big Drop prints, i love it!

Wooden blocks by Serena Mitnik via Poppytalk

I hope you all have a lovely week! Oh, and stay tuned for my Giveaway winer today!

Today I Love

Everything Sandra Juto.

Wrist Worms

Illustrations

Blog and Flickr

Softies

All images by Sandra Juto

Pure awesomeness.

Julie Morstad

It's been a while since i've been in love with Julie Morstad work. Her illustrations inspire me and make me feel all sorts of things when i see them. I recently bought the illustration book Milk Teeth And Others by Julie and now it's one of my little treasures.

Before having this book, i possessively loved my little one's abc cards by Julie Morstad. I didn't even want poor girl to play with them and the time she folded (and bite) the "B is for banjo" and "F is for fort" cards, i was like: "nooooooooooo". But now that i have my book she can have the card set all for herself and i'm sure she'll be happy because she loves JM illustrations as much as i do!

The B has a serious bite on it!

For more fantastic Julie Morstad illustration, visit her website here and her shop here (And in case husband read this, can i have this and/or this for my birthday? ;)).

Have a great day!