Summer in my art studio: DIY clay magnets, new watercolor art & my stationery shop update

Curtains sway gently by the wind and you're sleeping. Sand dancing on my skin makes me stay in bed a little with a fading sunlight while I'm drifting through the wind and you're sleeping. Sometimes I can't understand how it can be so hard to stay out of bed. It's changed even though we're the same. It's right inside of me saying there's not much to say. This time it is different. Sometimes I can't understand how it can be so hard to stay out of bed. But with you I'll stay the same. You call me up to see you. Hello my love, thank you so much for joining and welcome back to this channel. Also, it's been a minute, I think last time we spoke it was two, two and a half months ago. I think it was the end of April or the beginning of May. Anyway, I'm terribly sorry. It took me so long to get back to filming and creating new things and just sharing updates from my art studio. Life got in the way. It was busy. It was overwhelming. It was somewhat chaotic. And we were also struck with one of the worst heat waves we ever experienced here in the Netherlands. So it was not helping either. And yeah, I'm back to creating things. I cannot say that I'm entirely back to my normal. I still feel a little burned out, but I'm not in that dark place where I used to be a month ago. So I'm not so physically and emotionally exhausted any longer. I find in my case, I'm getting back to my routine. And I thought that it was time for me to sit and share little updates and tell you what I was up to in the last couple of months and what I plan for the future. So here we go. The month of May was all about preparing for the art fairs. I think I mentioned it before in my previous video that I was getting ready for that. And I did a lot. I was definitely overdoing it. So I probably should have done less, but you know how it is. I had this self-inflicted feeling of responsibility that I should make as many new items as possible because people will come to the art fairs. They're basically the same people who come back year after year. So I always want to surprise them. Yeah, it was busy. I was tired. The good thing is that I accomplished a lot and that's great. So I showed some of the items which I made for the art fairs in today's video. And if you're interested in cute stationery, especially summer themed stationery, please check it out. I'm very proud of the new collection that I made. I have a lot of new prints and postcards and stickers. I have the amazing new sticker collection. Normally I do one design at a time. And this year I decided that I will do the whole batch. And I will do the whole new summer collection of stickers. And they're super cute, including the sticker sheets, which I did for the first time. And by the way, I didn't feature them in this video. Oh no, I didn't. Yeah, I definitely should have. But anyway, please check them out. They are super nice, super cute. I'm very, very happy with the way they worked out. Moving on. In June I had my fairs and they were kind of like successful and not. So one of them was the best I ever had up to this day. And another one was somewhat of a flop because it also coincided with this horrific heat wave. So it was really bad here in the Netherlands. You probably know that it was like one of the worst heat waves in Western Europe. But in the Netherlands it was, I think it was the worst. Maybe it's just my personal feeling about it. But it was 39 degrees. The humidity was extremely high. And we are not prepared for this heat here, just to make it clear. So we do not have air conditioners in a lot of places. We had an air conditioner in our house, but it was not doing much because the house was so damn hot. And we couldn't open the windows because I was feeling like I was standing in front of the open oven. I thought it was that bad. And one of those days, one of those horrendously hot days coincided with one of my fairs. So I can't even blame people for not wanting to go there and, you know, or not wanting to go to my stall specifically. Because we were standing in the sun. So me, I was behind the stall and I was under the tree. So it was somewhat tolerable. It was a little shady. But for the people who wanted to approach our stall, it was almost impossible because it was just exposed to the sun. I think they would be burning there. There were still some people who came and I'm so very grateful for every single soul who came to see me and say hi and who bought something. Thank you so much. It means the world because that day was really bad. And I appreciate it so much that you went into this heat to support the artists who were also staying there exposed to the elements. So yeah, after the art fairs, I was very, very tired. And as I said, I was, I was not in a good place. I was exhausted physically and emotionally. I was burned out. So it took me a little bit of time to get back to my normal, to find my pace again, to start doing my routine. Especially it was difficult because I had to do a lot of inventory. I had to unpack all the stuff after the fairs. I had to photograph it and add the listings to my shop and also update my catalog. So that a lot of work, which you do not know that the artists have to do. But if you are a one man show, if you do not have the whole crew who is doing it for you, you're responsible for every single thing. And I was overwhelmed. And yeah, the heat was also not helping. I was also having a bit of an issue with my studio because when it was heating up, I started having a little bit of a weird smell here. And I was, well, I was scared that it could be some kind of like volatile organic compounds. So I couldn't work here. I had to move all the things downstairs and I was working downstairs because it was a little cooler there and it was also better ventilated. And now we have the meter. We checked everything. It doesn't look like there is anything that is leaking, some volatile stuff. But yeah, there is still a smell during the really hot days. So I'm not working here when it's really hot. I wait for things to chill a little bit and then I can have my windows open and the ventilation is better and there is no risk. So that was also adding to the trouble of arranging things and organizing everything because I couldn't spend a lot of time in here. And of course, I had to arrange all the things after the art fair here in my cabinets. So that was also problematic and it was slowing things down. But I'm really happy to be back to creating and painting. I'm done with all the inventory, with all the shop related things. And now I can just create and I'm really happy about it. And I'm looking forward to it because as you know, autumn is my favorite season and now I'm starting preparing for the upcoming season. And I know that's a little early, for a lot of people it's early, but artists live according to different calendars. So we always have to do things very much in advance. So I'm actually quite excited and I start feeling inspired again, which is a good thing because I was feeling a little down. So yeah, a lot of new exciting things are coming. I'm also still planning to start my mail subscription in September. So I will be doing the designs and then I will start promoting and probably open the pre-subscription. What would I call it? Pre-subscription? Okay, so I will be opening the possibility of subscribing to my mail club in advance so that people could subscribe in August and get the first mail in September. So that's what I'm trying to say. I'm not sure how to phrase it correctly. So pre-subscription? No, it's not a pre-subscription, right? Let's just leave it. Anyway, since I'm going to be busy, but not too busy, I'm also going on vacation. So again, I will be absent from this channel for the next few weeks. I will be back in mid-August with all the autumn related stuff. So I already have a lot of sketches and a lot of new designs planned. This being said, a lot of exciting plans and I will be ready to go. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for watching this video and big, big, big thanks to the amazing people on my Patreon. Thank you so much for being with me during this complicated and chaotic couple of months when I was busy with affairs. And please like and subscribe and leave a little comment. I really want to know how your summer is going and how you're coping with this heat, guys. How are you coping? It's killing me. Anyway, I'll see you shortly. I hope you'll have the most wonderful summer vacation and will enjoy the beautiful sunny days. And I'm sending you a lot of love and a lot of busy hugs. I'll see you soon again. Goodbye.