Summer mornings

I love summer mornings!

A garden painting

We looked at one cozy condo and we both fell in love with it instantly. An older couple opened the doors to us and gave us a tour. The woman grows gorgeous flowers and you just want to spent the whole day admiring them. I wish I could grow flowers too. Alas, I have no patience.
I can only grow them in my imaginary garden :-)

Oh, my dreams!

What an exciting time is summer! Days are long, flowers bloom, nights are warm. I have big hopes for this summer. We're house hunting at the moment, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed we will find our cozy nest before another cold winter hits us. Packing scares me though. But I'm very happy to move into my new studio in my future house where I will definitely have a little corner for my little girl and her little hands soon will be holding paints and brushes.

Matilda has something to say here...

I caught sunshine

Happy day!

Mother's Day or Mother's Night?

After the big words in my previous post here I was spending the whole night rocking and holding my crying baby all night long. And I really mean all night - 8 straight hours! I don't know what have been happening inside her body last night - tummy or teeth, but that was my Mother's Night :-)

Happy Mother's Day

Hope it was a day full of sunshine for you! Mine truly was!
Last year on Mother's Day I brought home someone very little but very dear and important - my bundle of joy Sabrina! The year have past so fast, although some days (and nights!) seemed so long and never ending. Being a mom is about to give as much as you can, but also to never loose who you were before your life has changed. Luckily I have very great mom figures in my life - my mom who has been sacrificing herself for us for as long as I remember, and my sister - who is a young but already very experienced mom and who has been helping me with her advice.
I made these little paintings on wooden teapot plaques as gifts for my mom, my sister (and myself) to remind them how loved they are and how awesomely they carry their role as moms!

It's approaching!

More pinks here :-)
Last year on this day I was at the hospital all hooked up to the IV. I thought I will come and have my baby in one day like I've seen it in movies and have heard from my friends, but instead I spent 3 days before Sabrina was born and 3 days after.
This year, I'm all excited to celebrate her coming up first birthday! She such a bright kid who learns so fast and surprises us every single day. We are super proud to say we have started potty training and so far she is doing excellent! I get all cheered up every time I get a load there :-)) Lol! Only if I knew I would have this life a couple of years ago I would never believe anyone!

What's your name

I hope you guys didn't miss the call for entries on Uppercasegallery.ca Today is the last day for submissions and as usual I wait till the last minute to submit mine. They ask to decorate your name just as it represents your personality. This is who I think I am - warmer tones, swirly, flowery lady :-)

Lovely time together

I hope you had a lovely weekend! We sure did! Although the weather wasn't as worm as we'd like it to be in April, but days were bright and full of positive spirit. Only 1 week left until Sabrina's birthday. I'm busy finishing handmade decor, ordering cupcakes and... painting our toenails :-)) 

Promotional pieces

My stamps have arrived! I don't know if you remember, but a while ago I wrote about RubberStamps.net. They do such an awesome job!
So this time I have found some guts to prepare a few promotional envelopes  to send to all kinds of art directors and creative studios for them to consider me for their freelance jobs. It is sort of a fun game to see who will reply :-) I keep my fingers crossed!

emails

Oh gee! Just when I thought I was on top of responding to my personal e-mails, I have discovered a dozen that were hidden in a bulk folder! How did I miss them, or how did they get in there - I have no clue! But if I haven't respond to you, I will do so tonight after my little monster is asleep! I promise!

Earth Day

I celebrate the Earth Day (April 22) by saving the water, recycling and painting plants! How about you?

Happy Friday!

Uppercase No13

Hurray! Here's my little contribution to my favorite mag Uppercase - my illustration "White Cloud Dream"

Birthday Invites

Another restless night and the invites are all finished and ready to be passed around!
We're not having a big party, just family and close friends, but I never give up an opportunity to design our personal invitations. It just brightens my day.

May 5th is approaching very fast!

May 5th is the day my little Sabrina was born. Time truly flies! So very little time left until her First Birthday and so many things left to finish for her celebration! I'm a busy busy busy bee! And I've lots to share and show you, guys! Please check back on this blog and you will see what I'm up to.

Happy weekend!!!

Sabrina is 11 months old!

Hurray! Today my baby Sabrina is 11 months old! The big day - her First Birthday is approaching very quickly! So let's the count down begin!!!

By now she can stand unassisted, tries to take her first steps all by herself, loves to play peekaboo, loves to dance, loves to play with water, loves our cat Matilda, loves reading books and I can go on and on all about things she loves! It's so funny to watch how things start making sense in her head and how she figures out the world she lives in. Right now she's in that stage when she enjoys opening and closing and hiding and finding things. I'm so amazed watching her playing with my kitchen casseroles and putting her toys inside and covering it with a cover and then opening it and taking her toy out.

My only wish is to get some more sleep! zzzzz Especially on Sunday mornings! Zzzzz

Easter Eggs

Easter is right around the corner! I'm not religious, but I like painting Easter eggs! So I find any excuse to grab a paint brush and free draw what first comes to my mind.

 And these are from the previous years that you can find (here) and (here)

The spring has sprung!

It's been soooo nice out that I got spoiled by the gorgeous weather! It feels like everything blooms! Sabrina is taking her first steps, she has to hold onto my fingers of course, but she is very into walking now. My cat Matilda enjoys baking her fuzzy belly in the sun. As soon as the blinds are open she is right there on her back stretching her paws. And I enjoy picking new bright dresses from my wardrobe and not worry about the socks and the tights and all those extra things we layer ourselves with.

P.S. I was planing to turn this illustration into another paper cut. Stay tuned, I might she the process.

The bow ties

This weather is really weird this year. It was a winter just like yesterday, but today it is so hot! I didn't get a chance to wear my spring jackets and bright tights and went from a winter coat straight to summer sundresses.

Here's another piece for Sabrina's book I'm working on.

Four Fun Bow Ties

Just like everything is in life - there are quiet days and you complain from being bored, but then there are super-duper crazy days. Although I'm trying to catch my breath right now, I'm very thankful for busy days.

With that said, I'm officially running out of time with this new book project for Sabrina's First birthday.
Another sneak preview.

Cheers!

Boy, I can't resist to not post another illo from my new book! But please note that this is just a fragment of it. The actual spread will be shown after I'm done editing the pages.

Two elephans

My fingers itched to post another illo from my new book. It is still in the construction mode, but I might be posting a few sneak previews. Boy, I'm telling ya, this book makes me so excited.

Hello March!

Hello March! I have been waiting for you and you have come!
And let the count down begin - 3 months left before Sabrina is turning ONE ;-)))) That means lots of preparations on my side for her First Birthday Party - invites, guests,  favors, decorations, cake, outfits, photographer, presents, clowns etc, etc... I'm preparing a photobook that captures all the moments from her first year. And also I am working on this top secret project for Sabrina at the moment - I'm illustrating a book that teaches numbers. And I couldn't resist and here's a sneak preview.

Hurray to spring!

Just a few more days and I tend to think it's spring! I don't care that officially it doesn't come until March 21st. It my world it starts as soon as the month of February is over. Hurray to spring!

Grow!

Happy weekends! Yes, I'm still alive. I survived the worst first two days after the wisdom teeth extraction. People have been saying it really hurts, but I never knew it will be this bad! What makes it even more painful is that I'm trying to stay away from the painkillers as I'm still nursing. Well but this evening I started feeling much better. My husband + I + Sabrina even took a short walk around our apartments.
It is still cold. I can't really complain as there is no snow. Days are sunny but cold. I'm so in the summer mode already, I'm counting days for winter to be over.
Despite the cold weather I still take Sabrina out in the carriage. We have one of those flat bed ones where she loves to nap. She sleeps so much better in the fresh air and that leaves me some opportunity to doodle. This sketchbook is getting filled up pretty quickly since I had Sabrina. I rarely have time to get to my computer anymore. So it's pretty much the color pencils and this sketchbook.

Pencil flowers

I'm sitting at home today thinking about life :-) Today Sabrina and I have something in common - our teeth. Well, while she is teething, I got all four of my wisdom teeth pulled this morning! So right now I'm all drugged up and miserable. All I can do is just surf the web and post about my pencil drawings.. Why do people come with teeth?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Be my Valentine!

Here's a lil' bit of my love for my niece and nephew and my friend Lila. I made only six Val cards this year. Three of them are going to be sent out tomorrow. And I have other tree left. I'd love to send them to the first three people who will leave me a comment on this post and later e-mail me (dinara2209@yahoo.com) their address. Cheers!

Happy Friday!

This weekend I am planing on working on some handmade valentine cards, how about you?

New Personal Stationary

It's time to refresh my stationary. When I sell things on Etsy I always try to include a few nice notes along with the package.

More color pencils

I wanted to share my excitement - my new color pencils that have arrived last week. So many gorgeous shades that make me want to draw all day long.

We are 9 months old!

We turned 9 months today! Time truly does go by so fast! My little Sabrina has got 8 teeth, she learned how to dance, clap her hands, wave good-buy, point at characters in her book, say "Mama", say "Mah" for Matilda, say "Emo" for Elmo and I can go on and on! She amazes us every single day. We look at her and wonder who is this little person we created :-) She sure does have her personality and her "likes" and "dislikes" :-)

Here's the fabulous photo that Traci Ryant took. I can' wait to receive the prints and to hang the photos on our walls.

This was the place I grew up in

I did this map for They Draw and Travel. It is about the region in Tashkent city called Chilanzar where I grew up in. I haven't visited it for a very long time and I'm sure today it looks nothing like it was when I was seven. Even this map is probably not the most perfect, but this is how everything was located in my little head -all the places I often visited and all the paths I often took.

We lived in those tall apartment buildings, but we weren't very high - we lived on the second floor. Right across the river there was my elementary school and the school of music next to it. Every morning my mom walked me to the school and back. There was a beautiful alley of trees and in the fall those trees were of all colors. My mom taught me how to spot the most brilliant colors and shapes and we would collect them for our herbarium. The panorama was breathtaking so that many artists would come and paint the scenery and I really loved watching them working with oils.