motherhood

I haven't been able to keep up with much this past year, but I am happy to report that I have survived the first year of motherhood! Baby is growing strong, using those fine chubby legs to walk and dance to Iggy Pop. There are kisses being blown, dogs getting barked at, and some sharp little teeth poking their way out for that grin I love so much. It has been hard though, being a working mum, but thankfully it's summer now.

I have done so little drawing and travelling that I haven't felt that I could add anything interesting or of value here. Sometimes it crossed my mind to write about my favourite baby soup recipes— I had no idea I could get so passionate about making baby food— but that's not what I want this blog to be. To be honest, I don't know what I want it to be, nor what it is anymore. In any case, I know that I have missed writing, and sharing my photographs and drawings with you.



So this is for the mums, new or not. At the end of each exhausting day, there's a little one who thinks the world of you. I am not known for my sense of humour, but I'm a riot to Baby. It's all pretty awesome.



Fernando Botero. Maternidade. 1999. Bronze. Jardim Amália Rodigues, Lisbon, Portugal.

light through a straw hat

Tilly hadn't been to the Botero exhibit (and if you haven't, hurry up— the show ends on the 18th of July!), so we sauntered down Istiklal towards the Pera Museum to swoon over the luscious curves and colours of lovers and circus clowns. We stopped along the way for a quick lunch at Helvetia in Tünel. For a mere ten lira, you get to sample five mouth-watering dishes on display from about a dozen. I went with lentil patties, or mercimek köfte, meatballs, a carrot salad, some simmered greens and mücver, a vegetable fritter. Two lavish dollops of yoghurt, and I was in heaven.


As we wandered through the gallery, we fawned over brush strokes of cadmium yellow and red, impossible pinks and greens. With our minds spinning, conversations ran from travelling to crushes, to those fleeting moments in life that can be called nothing but perfection: the first sip of tea, lying in cool grass, the light filtered through a straw hat over your face while dozing in the sunlight. Life is full of these small, seemingly insignificant moments, and if we take the time to notice and appreciate them, our life is coloured a little more vividly.

In a little over a week, I'm off to Nepal— a place I've dreamt of since I was a little girl. I'll be volunteering at a school for a month, living with a local family. There will be little to no internet access, which will provide me with plenty of time to catch those light-through-a-straw-hat moments, in a place that seemed only possible in my wildest of dreams.

Wide, fearless strokes, precious details, and a vivid palette.

beautiful botero

I've never wanted to jump into a painting until yesterday.

I've never wanted to run off with a painting until yesterday.

I've never wanted to meet an artist I admire until yesterday.

Mr. Botero, if by lucky fortune you ever read this, I would love to have a coffee with you. I don't want to talk about anything in particular, I just want to share a cup and watch the light change with you.