feeling prosperous

hello there & happy holidays!

i hope you have been relaxing, sleeping in, spending time with family and eating treats like i have. we stayed put this year, but now that hugh and i are official, it somehow feels psychologically easier to be away from my family and with and officially part of hugh's family. i wasn't expecting it to feel different, but somehow it does.

so this was one of 4 photos i took on christmas day. (thanks mom for the dress!) i spent a while in the bathroom with my adorable niece lily while she played with a toothbrush. to be endlessly entertained by a toothbrush bodes well for her hygiene. the other 3 pictures are ones that she took of my chin and then her chin (hers is definitely cuter). what is not shown is me sitting on the edge of the tub with a martini in hand. "my auntie sippy cup", right?

i have been missing this space! this past month has been flush with creative projects and goodness. i am super super excited that i am going to start a part-time job in the new year learning textile design! it has been an interest of mine for years and i thought it wasn't in the cards and put that passion aside, but now it's come back full-swing. it seems like an amazing place to work with a lot of integrity and i am excited to be part of the process. and then someday *dream* make my own line!

i'm also excited about launching my art website come january! yay! matirose.com is far overdue from 3 huge years ago of growth in art school. my website designer is la bomba. thanks christine if you ever read this.

what else? hugh and i are collaborating on an illustration for the first time, well commercially at least! it's been a dream job and fun sketching with him as we watch episodes of big love, which in my opinion is a little boring if you're not sketching.

other things that have been having me thank my lucky stars lately~ i got interviewed for a lovely magazine for the first time ever and got asked to be in an art show near my hometown in maine! not to mention the wonderful people who have been supporting me in the last month through my etsy shoppe. THANK YOU 100 times over- it honestly enables me to keep going. this morning i read the new york times magazine that my friend brett had saved for me from a couple weeks ago on etsy, and i was so proud to be part of this DIY movement! you can read about it here too. etsy works for all the reasons the article says and then some because you are buying directly from someone and making their day, it really does make mine!

so, after what's felt like a creative slump and strange time with finishing school, ending my restaurant managing job, looking for a new creative job and not to mention the amazingness of getting married and then having some "postpartum" depression afterwards and struggling to make-ends-meet and then the realization that we are in this together for the long haul and wait, we're both artists and wait, where is our left brain???? and then remembering RIGHT, that's why i was drawn to you in the first place. all that is to say, i'm ready for the new year to begin with goodness, strength, creativity and prosperity.

so be it.

take care all xo,
mati rose