a shoebox of photographs

Cottage Industry Exhibition

2011-11-18T17:18:00.001+10:00

Cottage Industry Exhibition, a set on Flickr.

I'll be back with a longer post about this one day soon... just wanted to share what I've been busy working on lately :)

catching up

2011-07-15T14:21:00.001+10:00

Wow, it's been almost two months since I last posted here... where did the time go? I feel slightly tempted to make an excuse, but luckily for me, I'm still faithfully blogging without obligation. Rather than bore you with all the busy-ness, I thought it would be nice to share some of the quieter moments of the last couple of months in my part of the world.

Autumn came and went too quickly. One day there were stunning autumn leaves on my favourite tree, then it rained heavily and they all turned to mush on the ground. Fortunately I got a photo (I always do).

This tree is a Manchurian Pear, and it's beautiful all year round. I'm sure I've shared photos of it before. It's a flowering, not fruiting pear, and in the Spring it is covered in white blossoms and bees, followed by tiny ornamental fruit.

I started a new series of work, and enjoyed seeing the influence of those beautiful stained glass windows at La Sagrada Familia appear in it. This series is progressing nicely, but slowly. I have an exhibition in November that I'm working toward (with some lovely and talented friends - more on this in a later post!), so I'm trying to pick up the paintbrush as often as I can.

I did manage to pick up To Kill a Mockingbird though, as I do every five years or so. I enjoyed it even more than usual because I read and discussed it with a friend, turning down pages on all my favourite parts, those I needed to read again and talk about. I'm now reading War and Peace for the first time and it is looking well-loved in a similar way. My reading habits last year seemed to be dominated by non-fiction: Affluenza, The Art of Non-Conformity, The Last American Man... and others I can't recall at the moment. It feels good to be enjoying some classic literature again in 2011.

New, large versions of a couple of my favourite prints were added to my etsy shop. I'm still just as excited every time I send out an order, gift wrapping each one but feeling that that the real gift is mine - I love the thought of my artwork living in homes all over the world, brightening a corner in someone's life.

There's not a great deal of crocheting happening here at the moment, apart from more bunting which will be used for the Jumpers and Jazz in July festival (rapidly approaching!). I've attempted to begin a new project, a granny square mini skirt to wear over jeans, and I need to get moving on that if I'm going to get to wear it this winter. I've also got a small sewing project started and will hopefully share that soon!

Speaking of sewing projects, Kirsten sent me a message a little while back to tell me that she had made this art quilt using a design I created for a papercrafting tutorial at a few years ago. Isn't it beautiful? I adore this project, and would love to be able to quilt like this! You can see Kirsten's post about it here, and more of her beautiful work in her flickr photostream and my original paper version here.

ummm... what else? Music of course. There's always new music. Too much to list, really, but I'm a bit infatuated with Felix Riebl (of The Cat Empire) and Ray LaMontagne at the moment, so I need to mention them. I haven't neglected The Tallest Man on Earth though (who happens to be touring Australia later this year), and I recently emerged from an addiction to Camera Obscura.

... and poetry. How have I not heard of Billy Collins until now? I particularly love this one... I most definitely have a little fishing village with no phones in the southern hemisphere of my brain.
Bye for now :)

Forgetfulness
by Billy Collins

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

Blow away, little print

2011-05-22T12:00:00.005+10:00

I have been thinking again about giving things away, and also how much I appreciate the things that others give. As well as the crochet/craft tutorials I mentioned in this post, other sharing sites I enjoy regularly are Daytrotter (free music session downloads), Kind over Matter (kindness focussed art and projects) and the Indie Fixx Feed your Soul project (free art prints)... and there are so many more.

This is an artwork I created a few years ago, titled White Wind. I like wind imagery in music and art, particularly the idea that the wind is symbolic of an invisible force that moves through our lives, guiding us and taking us from one adventure to another, if we let it. I don't really feel that I managed to effectively convey that to anyone else in this particular piece, but in my mind I had attached that meaning to it anyway. In the past I have enjoyed giving copies of it away in the form of postcards and little artist trading cards in my etsy orders, then recently I got around to making some prints for my etsy shop.

The strange thing was, when I finally got it listed in the shop it didn't seem to fit quite right there. Not just style-wise, as it represents my work from a few years ago, but also because it had become my favourite print to give away. I'll put a few in the shop for now, but I came to the decision that I would rather do something a bit different with this one.

so...

I'm letting it blow away, on the metaphorical winds of cyberspace (yeah, I know that isn't an actual metaphor, but you know what I mean). If you would like to make your own print, you can do that for free. It's a little gift for my blog readers, and a token of appreciation for the giving by others that I enjoy every day.

Simply click on the link below the image, and it will take to a flickr page where you can download it and open it in your preferred program. It looks scary big and kind of blurry at that link, but will download at actual size (5x7 inches and 300dpi). It should be printed at this size for best results. The only difference between this one and the one in my shop is that it is digitally signed on the actual image instead of signed in pencil by me.

Please feel free to share (share the link to this post, rather than the direct link to the print - because all the info is here), and I hope to add some more free prints in the near future!

download it here!*

*The fine print: Please remember that this image is still protected under copyright and prints you make at home are for your personal non-commercial use. You can make prints for yourselves or for a friend, but not for selling. I'm trusting you to do the right thing - thank you!

red

2011-05-11T17:01:00.001+10:00

Montmartre street art

Moulin Rouge

Pete at the Centre Pompidou

Rue Denoyez, Belleville, Paris

Oscar Wilde's grave, with lipstick kisses and graffiti

1kg of Spanish strawberries in Paris
(Oh how I loved the fresh fruit! We ate raspberries nearly every day.. a luxury for Australians)

Vintage shops in a Montmartre street

Art studio in Pezenas

Quirky restaurant decor in Pezenas

1000 paper cranes for Japan, at a Barcelona school

Motorcyclists in Barcelona riding on the footpath to avoid a traffic jam

Barcelona

La Seu Cathedral, Barcelona

More stained glass at La Sagrada Familia...

Hindu temple, Singapore

Buddhist temple, Singapore

Orange (ish)

2011-05-08T13:22:00.001+10:00

The beautiful Art Nouveau Church of Saint-Jean-de-Montmartre

Crochet inspiration from Missoni :) Paris window display

Under-the-stairs semi outdoor living area at our Pezenas apartment

Pavers in the museum at Carcassonne

La Pedrera, Barcelona

More stained glass at La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

yellow, gold

2011-05-08T13:14:00.000+10:00

Monet at Musee de l'Orangerie

Miro mosaic in Barcelona

Flowers and wine waiting for us at our Paris apartment

Fra Angelico at the Louvre

Fresh flower garlands at Little India, Singapore

Shop window display in Paris

Beautiful artwork made from the metal bits off the top of wine bottles, Centre Pompidou, Paris

Galeries Lafayette, Paris

Pezenas street

green

2011-04-29T09:06:00.001+10:00

Montmartre restaurant

The Louvre

Abbesses Metro station

Garden on the way to the Louvre

Pezenas street from our apartment window

Pezenas courtyard from our apartment window

Pezenas

Mercat de la Boqueria, Barcelona

Barcelona Cathedral (La Seu), with geese

La Rambla, Barcelona

Little India, Singapore

turquoise, teal...

2011-04-25T13:09:00.001+10:00

... greenish blues and bluish greens. My favourite colours of all :)

Rodin's The Kiss at Musee de l'Orangerie

Pere Lachaise cemetary, Paris

Rue Denoyez, Paris

Kitchen of our Pezenas apartment

Barcelona pavers

La Pedrera, Barcelona

On a Barcelona shop

Hindu temple in Little India, Singapore

Hindu Temple in Chinatown, Singapore

Mural on the wall of our Barcelona apartment. The artist is Georgina Ciotti - I love her work!

Turtle and column at La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona (and me!)

La Pedrera, Barcelona

Little India, Singapore

Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Paris

blue

2011-04-24T12:33:00.002+10:00

Oh! darkly, deeply, beautifully blue,

As someone somewhere sings about the sky.
Lord Byron

I Love You wall, Place des Abbesses, Montmartre

Monet's Waterlilies at Musee de l'Orangerie, Paris

Belleville, Paris

Rue Denoyez, Belleville, Paris

Pezenas, France

Carcassonne, France

Casa Batllo, Barcelona

Park Guell, Barcelona

La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Las Ramblas, Barcelona

I'm home, and I have no idea where to start blogging about our time away! We had a magical time in Paris, Pezenas, Barcelona and Singapore. Words are eluding me today, so I'm going to start with pictures. Sorted by colour, of course :)

The etsy shop is open again, and it feels good to be packaging and shipping orders, even when I haven't finished unpacking my bags! I'm getting ready to do another giveaway on my facebook page when I reach 300 fans (very close now), so if you haven't already liked my page, now is a good time ;)

till the end

2011-03-18T15:33:00.000+10:00

I am seriously in love with this piece of music right now... could listen to it on repeat all day. For an even better version, recorded live with an orchestra in New York, go to http://www.yanntiersen.com/, where it is available as a free download when you join the mailing list.

Thank you for your sweet comments on my last post. Suzanne was asking about the heart and map artwork image - you can see the original artwork in this old post.

That's all, see you again soon :)

the post in which I am thankful

2011-03-14T17:20:00.002+10:00

One of my favourite quotes is from the beautiful Roberto Benigni, who said, "It's a sign of mediocrity when you demonstrate gratitude with moderation." They are words I try to live by, but it's not always easy. I wonder why we sometimes feel self-conscious about being openly and outrageously grateful?

My weekend looked like this...

In between spending time in the company of lovely friends and family, I packed an inundation of etsy orders.. and every parcel felt like a gift to me. So many new customers, beautiful personal messages and emails... and all because of this post by one of the sweetest and most talented bloggers I would like to live next door to. She never demonstrates gratitude with moderation, which is one of the reasons we all love her. Thank you so much Lucy!!

(It was extra special to be featured in that post with the beautiful Alice, who inspires me with her talent and colour sense and humour.)

...and now for the fine print! I am not usually processing so many orders at once, so in my excitement I tend to have them wrapped and packed and in the post the next day. I'm currently working on having everything out within 3-4 days. Also, my shop is being put in vacation mode next week (Wednesday 23 March), as I'm going into vacation mode ;) Any orders before then will be shipped, and I'll reopen on April 19.

Throw your dreams into space like a kite

2011-03-06T20:56:00.002+10:00

Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life,

a new friend, a new love, a new country.

Anais Nin

Yes, this is finally my ubiquitous New Year post, albiet a couple of months late. I was prompted to write by a conversation I had with a friend last night. She did a card reading for me, and although I forget now which particular card was drawn, I remember clearly the words that kept coming up as she read about it to me...

Adventure and Clarity

Now go back a few months. Actually, lets go back several months to the midst of 2010. Last year was pretty good to me, but then every year is I think - I appreciate them all. But nevertheless, over and over again, things were happening that I wasn't sure how to react to. I found myself repeatedly feeling slightly hurt and disappointed and having my expectations challenged. And every month or so, I would have to take stock and look at things with clarity again and move on. It was a lot of hard work.

So back to a few months ago. Every year I spend the new year at the Woodford Folk Festival. For the duration of the festival, we have the opportunity to write our intentions or wishes for the new year on little pieces of paper. These pieces of paper are included in a huge closing fire event on the final day (new year's day), and the intentions of the tens of thousands of festival goers are burnt and released into the universe. It's an amazing ritual, and has been my favourite way to start the year for a long time.

This year I picked up my paper and pen and without even having to think, wrote..

Adventure and Clarity

Adventure is a new year's wish regular for me.. anyone who has been reading this blog for a while will know that I've talked about overseas travel for a long time. And anyone who knows me in real life will know that I've talked about it incessantly and longingly and probably very annoyingly for a long time. And I'm basically a sucker for any kind of new adventure or challenge that will kick me out of my comfort zone.

Clarity was a word that just popped into my head in that moment. I wanted to feel again like everything happens for a purpose, as part of some kind of magical, well-thought out grand scheme. I knew that I had always believed that, but had lost a bit of faith I think.

So far in 2011, I think my words are working for me. An overseas trip is looming (very soon, will post about it here!), and other new adventures and friendships and interesting interractions are happening. I'm seeing things with greater clarity and best of all, feeling comfortable again with living and loving fearlessly.

Woodford Folk Festival fire event, 1 Jan 2011

Ok, enough navel-gazing and time for a bit of self promotion ;) The artwork I posted in the step-by-step below and promised a picture of way back then? Here it is, back home.

It's now hanging on my kitchen wall, and I think it's an original I might hang onto for now. I made some prints of it though, and they are now in my etsy shop, along with some little prints of the Backyard with Fairy Lights painting.

In other news... I recently had a giveaway on my facebook page when I reached 200 "likes". I'm planning to do another one at 300, and will give away one of each of these new prints. Here's the link if you want to check out the page :)

A Tree Grows (and a paper crane update)

2011-01-31T16:23:00.001+10:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about the importance of dropping keys (even when we don't think we have any to drop - but that's another post) and about the lovely, generous souls who share the tutorials I appreciate so much. Lucy, Alice, Mel, Pip and Elizabeth are among my favourite sharers, but there are many more!

So... I thought it would be fun to post a step-by-step of my own. There's nothing new or ground-breaking here, but I've had a few enquiries about how they are made and thought it would be fun to share. I spent a couple of pleasant days painting on my verandah recently, creating this work for a group exhibition, and decided to document the process as I went.

1. First I draw my image, and colour it in with oil pastels. My favourites are Caran d'Ache neopastels, because they're beautifully soft and pigment rich, but there are many other great brands available. The bits that will be painted in acrylics later I leave bare, because acrylic over oil pastel is against all the rules, and well... just doesn't work too well.

2. Here's a close-up. The initial colouring in isn't very neat, but that doesn't matter.

3. I use an embossing tool (or the pointy end of a knitting needle when I can't find the embossing tool!) to scratch into the oil pastel. I wipe the excess off the end of the tool as I go.

4. Ahhh... lovely texture :)

5. And again... just because.

6. I make up a very watery watercolour mix. My favourites are these Winsor & Newton ones, and as you can see I'm nearly out of the dark brown I like best.

7. Sometimes I add a tiny bit of tube watercolour, because it seems to have more "stickability".

8. I smother everything in a wash of watercolour. Remember doing these kind of paintings at school? Lots of fun!

9. I pat away the excess paint. Sometimes I do this step a few times to get the look I'm after. Some of the watercolour soaks into the oil pastel, and even though the colours stay bright, they're also nicely grungy.

10. I paint the background of the trunk and branches in acrylic.

11. A second layer is added to create the "bark". These concentric patterns are fiddly, but also strangely relaxing!

12. Finished! I now break that rule of no water based mediums over oil based ones, by adding the gold "lights" and the circles around them over the top of the oil pastel background. It works fine in tiny areas, as I finish the piece off with several coats of spray matte picture varnish to protect it. For works on canvas - heaps of coats are needed.

13. Here is where I should share a photo of the framed piece, but I forgot to take one and it's already hanging in the show! Will share it later.

And lastly... it's been a long, long time since I posted an update on the paper crane project. At the end of last year I had almost 1000 folded, but I'm still not quite there - so close! The poor things are still patiently waiting to be colour sorted, hung and photographed while life busily goes on around them... so I have officially given myself an extension on the initial deadline. Isn't it great that we can do that? ;)

The large one was made by Ruby, and decorated the top of our
Christmas tree!

ripples

2011-01-17T08:52:00.004+10:00

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to write in this post. The past week has been an overwhelming one here in QLD, and even more so when we hear of flooding now happening in other states of Australia and the terrible flash flooding and mudslides in Brazil.

We are very fortunate to have had no serious damage from the floods. We have a bit of a mess in our sheds, farm fences washed away and a broken dam.. all such minor things when compared to the tragedy we see on the news every day.

It can feel like the small amount of help we are able to offer is just a tiny drop in the ocean, but please don't forget that every drop creates ripples. I've never felt prouder to belong to such an amazing online creative community, and would like to send a huge THANK YOU to all the wonderful people who are making the following events happen.

Your Creative Journey Silent Auction
If you have a facebook profile, please "like" this page and invite your friends. There are some beautiful donated items going up for auction every day, and all proceeds will be donated to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal (you can also donate directly to the appeal at this link).
For information on how to bid in the auction, go the "discussions" tab.

Etsy Australian Flood Appeal Shop
Since opening last Wednesday, there have been almost 300 sales in this shop and thousands of dollars raised, also for the Qld Premiers Flood Relief Appeal. Etsy shop owners donate their items and all proceeds (less etsy and paypal fees) go to the appeal.

There are many more flood support events that I'm not personally involved in, so I'll post some links here. If you know of, or are organising others, please add your link to your comment.

BrisStyle's Handmade Ark Flood Appeal

Rising Waters Flood Appeal for Crafters

Ink and Spindle Flood Relief Auction

That Vintage QLD Flood Disaster Relief Appeal Auction

Crochet a Rainbow

water bottle holders

2011-01-07T11:06:00.001+10:00

water bottle holders, originally uploaded by rettgrayson.

I will be back with a (hopefully) thoughtful post for the new year soon, but just wanted to share these first. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year :)

3 years in 46 seconds

2010-12-20T21:50:00.001+10:00

Made with my flickr photostream at Pummelvision

Things to Make and Do

2010-12-14T19:30:00.002+10:00

Creativity is a highfalutin word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.
Ray Kroc

Tara of Scoutie Girl asked us, "why do you make?", and as it's been a little while since I wrote a post of any substance here, I thought I'd attempt a reply.

1. Creating things with my hands appeals to me in the most basic and sensual way. I love art materials, different textures, soft yarns, sticky glue, making a mess. I really love to get messy. I'm the same when I'm in the garden - bare feet wherever possible and no gardening gloves, dirt under my fingernails.

2. Creating is my language. As a child I felt happiest when I was making things, and I always assumed that I would remain an artist when I grew up (My bible was the Childcraft "Make and Do" book, hence the title of this post). The logistics of making money and holding down a sensible job didn't occur to me back then, and when they did I wasted lots and lots of years on unnecessary tertiary study and sensible jobs.
(Actually, to be honest here, music may be the language I understand the best, but as I don't play or sing very well, I guess you could say I speak in art, but make sense of the world through music.)

3. I am wishing for a utopian society. I know that sounds silly, and I know that art and craft, or cooking, or fixing your own car, or carpentry or whatever it is you do with your hands won't magically create a better world. But I also know that I would prefer to be the consumer of items that were made with love, and I would prefer to make a living while putting love and effort into what I do. I want to live in a world that is personal and meaningful, and the strength of the handmade movement reflects that there are many, many people who feel the same way.

(My messy art desk this afternoon)

another sigh...

2010-12-04T16:49:00.007+10:00

... I think I have a bit of a folky crush on The Tallest Man on Earth (a.k.a Sweden's Kristian Mattson). This is one of my favourites. When he sings, "Here come the tears", it just breaks my heart.

In a good way, like only a great sad song can.

Montreal based non-profit organisation Yellow Bird Project, supporting indie musicians and their nominated charities, chose one of his songs, A Field of Birds, as their theme song. You can download it for free by clicking on the link below.

improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing

2010-12-02T17:06:00.005+10:00

I feel my boots

trying to leave the ground,

I feel my heart

pumping hard. I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.

I want to be light and frolicsome.

I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,

as though I had wings.

Mary Oliver (you can read the full poem here)

1. a quote to live by in 2010, 2. cocentaina, 3. fields of flowers..., 4. like the 16th century 1

(from my flickr favourites)

...and a sale

2010-11-26T09:00:00.004+10:00

oops, I forgot to mention this in that last blog post!

A huge thank you to all the lovely customers I have had since opening my etsy shop. For the next 48 hours only I'm taking 15% of everything! The November free print offer still applies (more info in my shop description).

finished!

2010-11-26T08:42:00.003+10:00

Over 6 metres of colourful granny bunting went to its new owner yesterday. I spent way too long on Wednesday trying to find a nice spot out of the wind and showers to photograph it. I think I need to make some more for myself, and fill my verandahs with it... and everyday could be a celebration!

sigh...

2010-11-20T18:59:00.005+10:00

...the birds have flown.

I knew when I used water soluble glue that this would be an ephemeral artwork, but it still made me a little sad when they washed off. I've saved the birds and I'm going to try the poster glue recipe from the last post so we can have them for a bit longer next time.

On a brighter note... I started a new crochet project. It's been a while!

... and remember Ruby's little heaps of junk from this post? This is her finished photograph. Beautiful, hey?

Inspired by Ruby's spectrum photo, I took this one this morning. I've been working on a bunting commission and have 50 flags waiting to be joined together.

Oh, and those mixed media works that I keep saying are nearly ready to go up on etsy are still on their way! I know, I know... but I'm easily distracted. I have to keep reminding myself that it's perfectly ok to go where my inspiration takes me....
Right now I'm feeling inspired to get the Gocco out of its box again. So there will be some originals in the shop at some stage, but that's all I'm promising ;)

Andrew Bird's one-man orchestra of the imagination | Video on TED.com

2010-11-10T09:36:00.001+10:00

Andrew Bird's one-man orchestra of the imagination Video on TED.com

taking back Monday

2010-11-08T16:56:00.007+10:00

Just because....

I can't remember the last time I woke in the morning and wasn't immediately consumed with thoughts of all the sensible things that need to be done that day.

I love Mondays. Usually relaxed and refreshed from the weekend, once the children are at school, the possibilities of all the things I can do with a whole Monday at home by myself stretch out before me all shiny and tempting.

...and I usually do the sensible things.

Inspired by the beautiful (and much more detailed than mine) map paper birds I saw in this post (my map paper cranes are there too!). I used a 1990's atlas full of pretty coloured maps, and a pva glue and water mixture to adhere them. Quick and easy, and I'm thinking it could be a work in progress.

There's a great recipe for poster glue here that I'll try next time, but we were out of sugar from making marshmallows to toast over a backyard campfire last night.

note: homemade marshmallows melt *really* quickly...

and the mixed media tree artworks I posted about last week will be in the shop at the end of this week. I got a bit distracted...

I'll have one of these, please...

2010-11-03T16:24:00.002+10:00

I should be looking online for a new tent, but got a bit distracted....

Found at yarnbombing, and created by the Stytchface crew.

papercrafting

2010-11-01T10:01:00.004+10:00

Apart from folding cranes, it's been a while since I did any papercrafting! These projects were created for Aussie Scrap Source, and all focus on combining crochet and papercraft. You can read more about the materials I used and see lots more photos of the projects in the original blog post.

I'm in the process of making a few more of the tree mixed media pieces for my etsy shop - hoping to have them finished and in there by the end of this week. I'll post here when they are available.

Speaking of the shop, for the month of November I'm having a special promotion. With every purchase over $30 (shipping not included), I'm giving away a free tiny print! You can choose your own from this section of the shop, and let me know which is your favourite in the "message to seller" field as you order. If there is no message, I'll choose a surprise one for you :)

favourite things - home

2010-10-17T08:28:00.009+10:00

A happy spot of colour. Lots of my crochet projects end up on these three old chairs! The large painting is by local artist Tom Benkendorff.

A little more added to the African Flower blanket.

A teenager growing at a scary rate.

He grew another centimetre since this photo was taken last week!

Waiting impatiently for the Woodford program for 2010/11 to be announced. Recently, we took out a couple of old programs to show a friend who is interested in coming. I think the condition of the program books says more about the festival experience than the content ;)

Had to take a photo of this last week (ignore the baskets of washing waiting to be folded). Ruby is working on a photography project for school, so this is what the lounge room floor looked like for several days until we had to vacuum! Will share her photos when the project is finished.

Yellow and orange, brightening up the overcast days here lately. Above - old china I have collected over the years, and Below - original window film that came with the house. This is above the front door and casts a warm light into our dark hallway.

And last but not least, paper cranes. A few hundred of them are folded and waiting to be hung in my 1000 paper cranes installation, so hopefully I'll have some more photos to share soon!

papernstitch

2010-09-27T15:37:00.008+10:00

My shop is part of papernstitch's Autumn exhibition! I love this site, so it's a thrill to be part of it for a month. Click on either of the images above to take you there :)

I have some new prints there since I last blogged here, including this one of my Half a Wish artwork. These prints have a machine stitched border added to each one.

Sorry the blog has been a little content-lite since I've been getting the shop up and running. It's been busy, but fun! I'm spending this week at the beach with the kids. Relaxing, reading, swimming and bit of crafting, and I'll be back and refreshed with some thoughts and projects to share next week.

I'm being told that its time to go back to the beach now. After all the rainy weather we have had lately, we busily packed books, games, movies and crochet yesterday in anticipation of rainy weather. So today we were pleasantly surprised that we actually had to come inside for a few hours to escape the hot sun!

In the meantime, what have you been up to? I've been enjoying participating in other people's blogs with the linky things (my absolute favourite at the moment is iCrochet!), and thought I would try one here this week. My internet time has been taken up with work lately, and I'm missing catching up on what all my clever blog friends have been up to. Please add your link below and inspire me with your beautiful creations :)

PS. I'm having a few problems with the linky thing, so it might take a little while for your picture and link to show.

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love...

2010-09-06T17:47:00.007+10:00

Missoni zig zag is one of my favourite google images searches, so you can imagine my delighted gasp when I spotted this in an antique shop today...

I desperately wanted to buy it (it was a little expensive, but can you put a price on a perfect first-prize winning 1953 crochet blanket?), but I also desperately wanted to MAKE it. So it looks like I have a new project to dream about. This one seems to be in pure wool, and quite a fine yarn - probably a 4 ply (fingering). So it will take ages. And probably cost more in yarn than the vintage one. Hmmm.... maybe I should go back and buy it? ;)

***Hello and a huge thank you to my lovely etsy customers! I was thrilled to have so many orders and beautiful personal messages from buyers this weekend. This morning I posted parcels to England, Scotland, Sweden, Germany and of course, Australia. Having so much fun with this shop.***

Oh, and if you are in Toowoomba, you can see some of my prints at 53Russell Gallery. The one below isn't there yet, as it has been the most popular and the edition is almost sold out, but I will have a small edition of a larger size in this one available there soon.

Finally Open!

2010-09-03T16:54:00.004+10:00

Yes, I know I have been talking about this for a very, very, very long time....

My etsy shop is now open for business! I'm very excited to have had my first sale to a very lovely buyer already - thank you so much :)

I have a few more prints to go in there still, but my children are patiently waiting for their Friday afternoon computer time (we are a one computer family), so they will have to wait a short time!

VW Yarnbombing

2010-08-26T19:04:00.008+10:00

One of my favourite things about this year's festival.

Our local Heritage Building Society organised the loan of the beetle for us (hence the pink pigs in the windows!), and we invited the public to help keep it warm for the duration of the festival. Everyone was a bit shy in the beginning, so the babette blanket started things off, and then they all began to join in!

And the granny bunting I posted on flickr a while back was put to good use (you can see it on the tent above). A festival visitor commissioned me to make some, so I have granny triangles multiplying like crazy here!

400

2010-08-11T17:56:00.005+10:00

400 paper cranes, and a growing pile of birds folded and waiting. For the time being I've had to ignore the mathematics of making 1000 in a year (83 and a third cranes per month means there should have been 583 finished by the end of July!), and accept that it has been particularly busy lately for lots of great reasons and there will be lots of lovely quiet catching-up weekends to come.

Babette-ish cushion no. 2

2010-08-11T16:56:00.008+10:00

You might remember the first version of this cushion. Called Babette-ish because it was inspired by the Babette blanket design. Unfortunately, the yarn I used the first time hasn't held up very well to the love it has received from Ruby, so earlier this year I set about making version no. 2. Much sturdier, in beautiful Biggan Design 100% merino wool yarn. I love working with this yarn - it's a little more expensive, especially if are like me and feel the need to have 20 colours on hand to choose from, but it's very nice to work with. I use it for special projects such as these, and with so many colours, see it as the yarn equivalent of a really good set of coloured pencils or crayons!

The cushion front has been on the back of my sewing chair for months, and Ruby has been very patiently waiting, so this week I finally finished it. I sewed a cushion (the last of the beautiful vintage turquoise corduroy - will have to go opshopping!) and handstitched the crochet piece and some lovely hot pink pom-pom trim to it. I love how it looks with the African Flower cushion. I re-used the cushion insert from the first version, and it is a little flat, but that can be fixed later.

July

2010-07-19T11:06:00.012+10:00

Can't believe how quickly the last month has passed. This is what my dining room looked like a few weeks ago. I say "dining room", but for a while it's really been a dumping spot for my projects. While our dining table is away being fixed (the antique table collapsed under the weight of my art and craft supplies, no kidding!), the large expanse of floor is very handy for spreading out little crochet tetris squares and cutting prints and backing boards.

All of the projects (well, most of them...) from the past few months are now completed, and it's a great feeling. I'm looking forward to moving on with other projects that have been on the back burner for a little while... stay tuned :)

The final joining of Tetris Psychedelia's little squares turned out to be a mammoth project. This is how it turned out (not quite 280 squares as I intended, but shhhh... no-one needs to know that!) Once again the streets of Warwick were full of colour and amazing tree jumper artworks: I'll share some festival photos in the next post.

It might have been made to keep a tree warm, but it's now been repurposed as the perfect small blanket for keeping warm under while watching tv on these cold nights. Just need to work out what kind of edging it needs.

Jazz up your Nest was a beautiful exhibition - I'm so pleased and proud to have been part of it! Sue of Fledge Design did a wonderful job of once again transforming her office into a gallery space and curating this show so perfectly. I'm very excited to have sold a number of my original works and prints. Here are a few of the latest little tree paintings.

Growing

2010-07-02T20:06:00.007+10:00

The little trees are growing in numbers here. I think I'm going to miss these colourful little pieces when they aren't here, brightening up this old house on cold wintery nights.

They're off to the Jazz up your Nest exhibition at Fledge Design Studio very soon (more info if you click on the picture to the right).

I had a bit of a shuffle around, and the trees and fairy lights work I shared below will now also be in the same show, along with these works I blogged about a few months ago, and the map paper cranes I showed in previous posts (you can see more pictures of them in my flickr photostream). And another larger tree painting, all going well!

Tetris Psychedelia is still in progress, and still doing my head in. I'm afraid I might be taking it a bit too seriously as I begin the work of crocheting all those little squares together. I've found myself pulling out rows because of illogical tetris moves. Oh dear. And I'm way behind on sharing photos of the 1000 paper cranes, but I'm still plodding along with them! With all this painting and tree jumper crocheting, I have just over 400 finished halfway through the year. Will need to start taking those little pieces of paper with me everywhere I go, I think!

I finished another new painting this week. This piece, along with one of my stitched paper collage pieces, Neighbourhood is off to the Emu Swamp Artists Group exhibition, Mystical Light, at Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery from July 15 - August 22.

works in progress

2010-06-24T17:58:00.005+10:00

I'm loving the whole process and technique of these little paintings, so I thought I would share some photos of how they begin. I ended up finishing these two last night, and will share some pictures of the finished pieces soon.

This is my favourite part - colouring in with the soft, messy, buttery oil pastels, and making spontaneous colour decisions as I go.

I'm breaking all the "rules": oil pastel goes on first, then the water based mediums after. After lots of colouring, scratching, scraping, watercolour washes, painting and coats of matte varnish the surface looks something like this, and the oil pastels aren't at all smudgy any more.

A big hello and welcome to all the wonderful blog visitors who have come here from Kelly Rae Robert's Flying Lessons e-course. I'm getting so much out of this course. Kelly is very open and sharing with information and tips on getting our own creative businesses to soar, and a wonderful bonus of the course is all the beautiful and talented people I'm meeting. I made a last minute decion to enrol on the day the course started, and I'm happy I did!

Tetris Psychedelia

2010-06-19T17:07:00.003+10:00

This project is hurting my brain!! 280 little squares, with 4 of each colour.

In an ideal world, and with amazing tetris skills, they may look something like this....

But in reality, they are more like this...

Crashing down all around me at once, leaving me without enough time to join them together and weave in the ends (all those ends) before it needs to be ready to be worn by a tree in just over three weeks. Will share more pictures soon!

new artwork

2010-06-16T09:29:00.004+10:00

I finished the painting in the post below. At the moment it's titled Trees and Fairy Lights, for lack of a more imaginative name, and I like the way it looks in dim light best, as the little string of gold lights shine.

And another new artwork - this time the canvas being me. Just beginning... I have big plans for the growth of this little tree :)

Why a tree? I have thought about this a lot (it's my celebratory 40th birthday tattoo - 2 years late), as trees are a symbol I keep coming back to in my work. I have always loved trees, from an early age. Climbing them, enjoying their shade and shelter, their beauty and changing colours.

To me, trees represent growth, strength, wonder, shelter, home... and stability and change at the same time. The tree in a circle motif that I keep coming back is also about feeling a sense of self-containment and growth within. I have additions (colour, flying birds) coming that will help break the tree out of its little circle, and I'm finding now that I want to do it as soon as possible - it feels a little trapped there at the moment! The trees in my art are self-contained, but very much part of their environment, and hopefully that's what my tattoo tree will be when it's finished.

It was strange how, within a day or two of having the work done, I read this blog post - and it summed up to me so well what this little symbol is about. About growing within, but pushing against my perimeter. A reminder of the strength I already have, and the enormous potential for growth.

favourite things... black & white

2010-06-15T21:52:00.002+10:00

1. 4-7-10, 2. travel blind, 3. may moonlit, 4. BlackBirds, 5. The Apology, 6. If You've Got Some Free Time and a Pile of Snow, 7. blackbird, fly., 8. face, 9. close proximity, 10. 4 degrees and raining, 11. my place, 12. Heart/brain, 13. quiet lament, 14. Origami, 15. my new addition, 16. My Kokeshi-Inspired doll

favourite things... colour

2010-06-15T21:20:00.005+10:00

1. Elephant Parade London, 2. Recent Commission, 3. Pillows, 4. elephant parade london, 5. Footstool Sideview, 6. crazyfruit, 7. Somando pedaços..., 8. Soft Landing, 9. "Tree Sky" encaustic painting, 10. Salvation, 11. Easy is Right..., 12. The Way Back Home, 13. It's raining colour..., 14. Elephant Parade, London, 15. IMG_3076, 16. IMG_2025 Eelus Photo © Ian Cox 800

Grab hold of your bootstraps

2010-05-26T20:49:00.017+10:00

And pull like hell,

'til gravity feels sorry for you,

And lets you go

As if you lack the proper chemicals to know

The way it felt the last time you let yourself

Fall this low

- Andrew Bird, Armchairs

Lots on my mind at the moment - it's been an interesting year so far.

But today at least, this is what is making me happy...

... good music, a new canvas, too many cups of coffee, oil pastels.

I have lots and lots of projects on the go right now, and on top of them all I just started a new blanket. Why? I don't really know! Just because of this pattern in a beautiful Japanese crochet book I found on etsy.

I'm getting work ready for this exhibition again this year, and my bookcase is becoming home to a small forest of trees.

I'm loving these vintage map paper cranes I shared in a previous post (not counting toward the 1000, by the way - just some more "just becauses")

... and experimenting with getting some prints made of my work. Very happy with these vibrant giclee prints from The Canvas Studio.

And last, but not least, spending way too much time on flickr. I nearly fell off my chair a week or two ago when this little photo of my crochet experiments made no. 1 in Explore! It seems that flickr loves crochet, and I'm not the only one to be appreciating the art of craft lately :)

I had to take a screenshot to immortalise the moment, but amazingly it was still there last time I checked.

Q&A

2010-05-08T20:32:00.003+10:00

Answering a couple of questions from my last post :)

Melissa - Have emailed you, but will put my reply here too. The paper I am using for the 1000 paper cranes came in a little boxed set, made specifically for that purpose I imagine, as it contained 1000 squares of origami paper plus a few spares. I bought it at my favourite bookstore in Sydney, Kinokuniya, when I was there earlier this year. I could spend a whole day there! Each piece measures only 3 inches square, so the finished cranes are quite tiny. Even so, 1000 will form a curtain approx. 1m deep by 2.5m wide when they are finished!

Audrey (sorry I couldn't reply personally, as I wasn't linked to your blog/email in your comment) - I am in the process of preparing original work for two exhibitions, and if you email me, I can send you more info about the pieces available when those shows open in July. I know I have been talking about it for a very long time, but the etsy store is actually coming very soon now - promise! I have just had some giclee prints done of a few artworks to see how they go, and I'm very happy with the quality and will be getting more done soon. I also hope to be selling some original artwork there, and I have some colourful crochet items and vintage map paper cranes ready to go.

The idea of sorting out the paypal and freight, and making time to keep the shop stocked has been scaring me for while, as I want to be able to do it properly, but I'm feeling in the right frame of mind and think I should probably just jump in and do it!

hmmm....

2010-05-07T18:21:00.005+10:00

... I think the crochet has influenced the artwork a bit!

I'm working toward two group exhibitions at the moment, so the pressure's on. It's good to have a deadline, though.

The 1000 paper cranes are still going well. The initial enthusiasm of the start of the year has worn off a bit, but at the end of April I was still on track with at least 333 and a third cranes made ;)

I also found time to make some vintage map paper cranes.

Thanks to my lovely blog readers who reassured me in the last post that it is still worthwhile sharing things here. I appreciate your sweet comments :)

Keeping my hands busy..

2010-05-07T12:56:00.008+10:00

I've been a (little more than usual) obsessed with colour lately, which you can see in my crochet projects.

Colourful bunting, which will be used for our local Jumpers and Jazz in July festival.

Cushions for Ruby, who loves rainbow colours as much as I do. I still have to finish the square one.

The start of a blanket, in beautiful chunky organic cotton.

And lots of teeny squares for a project called Tetris Psychedelia, which will be worn by a tree this winter. More to come as it progresses!

Anyway, that's what I've been up to in the yarny area :)

Also have some painting/mixed media/papercraft work to share, but that will be another post.

By the time I've uploaded photos to facebook, flickr and ravelry, I seem to forget to post them on this blog. I wonder if I should let it go? Is anyone reading, anyway?

Blue, but not blue

2010-04-07T10:47:00.003+10:00

From my flickr favourites
1. Untitled, 2. The hulk startrail, 3. Mosiac Wall, 4. Spread Love!

Since upgrading my flickr account to pro recently (the free account will only let you have 200 photos on show), I have become a little pre-occupied with the flickr Stats option. It's so much fun to see where people are finding my photos! And it continually amazes me to find that someone has liked one of my images or projects enough to put it up on their website.

One that I loved finding today was this post on a wonderful blog called ArtMind that I will definitely be visiting regularly. If you want to join in and make your own mosaic, there are links in Mitsy's post. Lovely to see my colourful crochet photo included in there.

Where did March go? It's been a while since I shared some work here! Will be back with some shares soon, but in the meantime you can see what I've been up to here.

with your feet on the air and your head on the ground

2010-02-27T17:46:00.006+10:00

It's been a bit difficult to hit the ground running this year. My mind is still in holiday mode, or to be more truthful - I suppose it's wishing it was still on holiday. Even though school went back a month ago and it's all systems go around here again, I feel like I'm still dragging my feet.

This week I pulled out all the bits and pieces I have been working on, and attempted to arrange them in some semblance of order. I never quite know what I'm going to finish up with when I start an artwork, and it's no surprise with all the rain we have had here lately (which brings with it hours of mowing each week), that lush growth became the theme of these two pieces.

I feel like I might be nearly finished with this particular tree motif, but first I was interested in experimenting with using them upside down, as tree roots. This one is titled "Beneath".

And this one turned out to be called "Sprout" - a last minute decision!

Both pieces combine acrylics, watercolour, oil pastel, Gocco screenprints, various found papers and machine stitching. I delivered them today to Mountview Winery, as they are part of the Emu Swamp Artists Group show, which forms part of Art Trail 2010. This is a venture of the Borderline Regional Arts Association, and opened with the Stanthorpe Art Festival yesterday. It includes art exhibitions at 40 venues throughout the Stanthorpe and Tenterfield border district, and runs till May 5.

Resolutions

2010-01-24T20:29:00.013+10:00

Jan 26, 2010

My last post was meant to be about this, but I got a bit carried away with the paper cranes. So here they are - twenty ten's resolutions.

1. Make 1000 paper cranes. We all know about that one. Progressing nicely, too - 160 done so far!

2. Being stoic and keeping things close to my chest worked marvellously for me last decade. I have always been someone who very much doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve, so has been easy in the past to let people say and do what they like while I maintained my "don't complain and don't explain" philosophy. There is a certain power in keeping one's mouth shut, but it just doesn't feel right for me now. I no longer want to let everyone off lightly. If I feel like screaming I'll scream, dammit! Or at the very least I'll attempt to have a bit of a whinge.....

3. Why don't we spend more time lying in the shade of trees? I think 2010 should be the year for it. I came back from our week at Woodford this year, where we spent practically the entire week outdoors, lounging around on the grass, listening to good music, and decided that there is absolutely no good reason more of our everyday living can't be spent on the grass in the shade of a tree.

4. Turning 42. Not so much a resolution as an inevitability, and it happened yesterday. I like the sound of this age. Let's hope that 42 will reveal the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Or at the very least be an interesting and productive year :)

( and thank you to everyone who left lovely comments on my last post)

Twenty-ten

2010-01-17T21:41:00.006+10:00

is shaping up to be a great year, and already going way too fast!

Artists and Crafters of all sorts out there will be familiar with the question, "How do you find the time?", or the more annoying statement, "How nice it must be to have time to do that". Somehow it feels like I am creating more time when I am creating something with my hands. It makes me realise that I do have time - just waiting to be utilised - while I'm having a morning cup of coffee on the verandah, or while I'm watching something on tv just before bed.

If 2009 was the year I kept my hands busy with crochet, this year could well be the year of the paper crane. 1000 of them to be exact.

Here is what 100 looks like. I'm way ahead of schedule so far!

Are you kidding me, Spotlight?

2010-01-13T21:26:00.004+10:00

Oh, we're dressing up for Australia Day now? Sorry, I thought you were just trying to get rid of excess stock of Halloween costumes. My mistake.

Now that I look more carefully, I can see the damned whores and God's police Anne Summers wrote about. And I can see how the pirate and grim reaper could be relevant.

Ok, just get rid of the cowboy and the hippy and I'll stop whinging.

Where the sad and self-absorbed things are....

2009-12-22T09:45:00.012+10:00

I've been anticipating this film for such a long time, and finally we went to see it last Sunday. The previews had given us an enticing promise of magic. Spike Jonze's Wild Things are magnificent and believable, and the actor who plays Max is brilliant.

Overall, though, it just didn't sit comfortably with me. Pete and the children - who admittedly hadn't built up the expectations that I had - were also disappointed and at times bored. I found it simultaneously brilliant and annoying.

Many years ago, before having children, I wrote a university paper on Where the Wild Things Are for a children's literature unit I was studying. I pulled apart the structure of the book to reveal the clever way that Sendak builds the action, the rhythm and symmetry of text and illustrations from beginning to end, and discussed theories of who and what the Wild Things may represent. Elements of Max's psyche? Representations of the over-enthusiastic older relatives of the young Maurice Sendak?

When my children were small, I couldn't wait to read the book to them. We enjoyed the way it sounded when read aloud. We knew the words by heart, and we loved the rambunctious and irrepressible Max. When our own Max was small, we would say to him, "We'll eat you up, we love you so", and he would always answer, in a loud and cheeky voice, "NO!"

But... for the possibly hundreds of times I read it to my three, not once did I stop in the middle and force them to endure a discussion of the meaning of the book. The film starts out with promise - nice soundtrack, and Max is perfectly and beautifully portrayed. We expected the story to be embellished - after all, a mere handful of sentences had to become a screenplay somehow. When Max sailed to the land where the wild things are, I was full of excited anticipation. And when they occurred, the wild rumpuses didn't disappoint.

What did disappoint, though, were the lengthy, drawn out scenes in the middle of the film. Although interspersed with moments of brilliance (Max's fanciful lies that make him king, the impressive fort he helps the wild things build, the creatures sleeping in a huge, messy pile), for much of the time it felt slightly awkward and uncomfortable, like watching a daytime pop-psychology television programme. Or like the director's ego was showing. Somehow, this magical land had been transformed into the land of sad and self-absorbed things, full of Eckhardt Tolle's popular "pain bodies", each paralysed by their various issues.

I know that many will say that Jonze is making a comment on the self-obsessed nature of adults today, loss of childhood innocence and all that... but to me it seemed that in thinking too hard about the wild things, he managed to compromise much of the beauty and magic that was in the film.

Ok, rant over. And having gotten all that off my chest, I'll probably give it another chance - to see if I was being too harsh the first time. The next time, though, I'll be careful to keep separate in my mind Where the Wild Things Are the simple-yet-complex, much loved book, and Where the Wild Things Are, the $32 million dollar Hollywood film. And we'll watch it at home, so the children can come and go as they please, and choose whether to sit through the boring bits...

Neighbourhood

2009-12-19T20:08:00.002+10:00

... inspired by one of my favourite artists, Paul Klee. Vellum, machine stitching, oil pastel and gocco prints.

Not a lot of crocheting happening here at the moment, apart from smaller projects like these water bottle holders in organic cotton yarn.

As you may have noticed, the etsy store that was to open a couple of months ago has been put on the back burner. Too much happening lately, so I decided it would be more realistic to wait until the new year. I've been painting, Gocco printing and playing with oil pastels and have the makings of a new series of work, so I'll keep you posted!

Well, it's all systems go at the moment with Christmas nearly here, a week before we head off to the Woodford Folk Festival, and two weeks until we see Andrew Bird at the Opera House. Can't wait!

and the boys

2009-12-08T18:04:00.003+10:00

new from Angus and Julia Stone

They're touring next March, but I was disappointed for all their younger fans to see that they won't be doing any all ages shows in Southeast QLD or Northern NSW. Our kids have seen them perform a couple of times, and loved them.

because cutting and pasting is easier than writing a real blog post...

2009-12-04T11:35:00.002+10:00

Trying to write something here more regularly, but I never know where to start. I realised recently that much of my everyday life can be summarised in facebook status lines. And they take very little commitment, so I update them regularly.

So here you go, November at a glance. Easiest blog post ever....

why does attacking my own hair with the sewing scissors feel like such a naughty and rebellious thing to do? It’s my hair, after all...
02 November at 10:36

is itchy and covered in scratches after climbing through the undergrowth in an attempt to help chickens learn problem solving skills.
03 November at 18:46

Woodford program book just turned up in the post - 128 pages to study. So much for getting anything done today :)
06 November at 11:24

and Pete will be at the Northey St organic markets tomorrow morning. Any facebook friends shopping there? Want to meet for a coffee?
07 November at 08:33

finished my entry for the Southern Downs Regional Artists exhibition, but didn’t have to deliver it to Stanthorpe today as a kind friend is taking it for me tomorrow. So now it’s sitting here, tempting me to keep fiddling and fussing... someone slap my hand please!
09 November at 16:59

is remembering 11.11.1869
11 November at 18:53

Thanks Officer, I was wondering what to do with that lovely tax refund that arrived yesterday. Donating half of it to QLD Transport seems like a very worthwhile cause... :/
12 November at 17:51

She generally gave herself very good advice, though she very seldom followed it. - Lewis Carroll
12 November at 20:55

on why I married this man....
Me: I had a shit day (I tell him about my traffic infringement and $300 fine)
Pete: Oh (sympathetically) (Takes a rock from his pocket and gives me a big smile) Here, have my rock.
13 November at 08:43

Half a bottle of wine, WiFi devices and iTunes are a dangerous combination. Just purchased songs from Mika, David Cassidy and The Monkees.
14 November at 21:03 via Mobile Web

It’s a jungle out there.
16 November at 09:26

I try to use unconditional love in small amounts, she said, so people really appreciate it. The rest of the time I just try not to yell. (Brian Andreas)
16 November at 16:34

Loretta Grayson If you’re afraid of butter, use cream (Julia Child)
18 November at 14:27 ·

I wish I could write a beautiful book to break those hearts that are soon to cease to exist: a book of faith and small neat worlds and of people who live by the philosophies of popular songs. (Zelda Fitzgerald)
20 November at 09:16 ·

How you know that you come from a family of music tragics: Sent a message to one of my sisters to tell her about the Sing-a-long-a-Sound-of-Music night at QPAC this weekend, and received a reply saying, “Damn, I’m going to see an Abba Tribute Band that night”.
20 November at 20:11

I’m painting night skies for a series of work, and thinking that Prussian Blue would be a nice title. I google it (as you do when you’re procrastinating), and discover that Prussian Blue is the name of a white nationalist pop duo. Pretty blonde haired, blue eyed twins. Wearing Hitler smiley face t-shirts and singing catchy tunes of racial hatred. Ugghh. I hate the internet sometimes.
21 November at 17:11

needs to remember to stop wearing her wishbone where her backbone ought to be
22 November at 19:06

is hot and sticky and itchy, but after nearly stepping on a brown snake yesterday is very excited to have our lawn mower fixed!
23 November at 10:02

is there a group for “I’m outside digging in the actual dirt while my children tend their farmville crops, but it’s always MY strawberries they want to eat”?
23 November at 10:02

hoping that the invasion of ants here is a sign that there is rain coming, and not just a sign that I made rice bubble and honey slice this week and my children are messy eaters...
25 November at 11:07

Have been researching natural ant deterrents. My favourite one so far - “Talk to them and suggest, respectfully, that they go elsewhere”. But will the fact that I have vacuumed up many of their friends and family hinder my chances of having a respectful discussion with the ants? What if they respectfully ask ME to go elsewhere?
27 November at 11:30

“Computer games don’t affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.” - Kristin Wilson, Nintendo, Inc., 1989.
30 November at 09:34

I seem to be blogging about time yet again...

2009-11-25T06:31:00.006+10:00

Sometimes for weeks, even months, it can feel like I'm treading water. Keeping afloat, furiously paddling underneath, but not really going anywhere - just dealing with the myriad of things that need to be done to keep a household of five running smoothly.

This week I finally feel Iike I have found the shore and can sit for a while. Time seems to have slowed down for now and creative things are happening again. I may finally get to take this etsy store off the backburner!

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect... but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff.

Sorry, that's a very geeky quote from Doctor Who that seemed appropriate here.

I have picked up the crochet hook again recently, to make water bottle carriers in preparation for Woodford, and to finish the ripple cushion I posted about earlier. Something about making these granny-inspired projects makes me feel like life is slower, simpler.

In other news, I sold my "Half a Wish" artwork in the exhibition! It's a lovely feeling, but also very surprising to me when people buy my work. Beginning to sell a bit of work this year has been a wonderful experience. It's not really about the money as much as the knowledge that the piece spoke to someone in a way that made them want to take it home and hang it on their wall.

Also, a very very belated thank you to the lovely friends who left comments on my post on Max's fears about sleeping alone. I wanted to reply to each comment, but with us going away it didn't happen and I'm sorry. There I go again, blaming it all on time! Anyway, there is nothing more reassuring or comforting than knowing that other mothers that I respect and admire also sometimes feel overwhelmed by this job. A huge hug to each of you. xxx

And finally, Hi Bev! Thank you for your lovely comments on the post below. I remember you from the Brisbane class several years ago, and I wanted to reply. My blogging has been a little erratic in the last couple of years, so it's nice to know that I still have some regular readers :)

There's always world enough and time.

Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife

If I made a wish on half a moon.....

2009-11-11T18:11:00.008+10:00

Would I get half a wish?

(lyrics by Sally Dastey)

Half a Wish measures 25cm x 20cm, and was created from vintage maps, gocco prints, watercolour and thread. It's my entry in the Southern Downs Regional Artists Exhibition, opening in Stanthorpe this Saturday. It's my first time entering a show like this, and I nearly backed out at the last minute!

Finally getting back to doing some crochet... another ripple cushion, in lovely organic cotton yarn.

And, as promised, the second part of the quick and painless tour through our NZ holiday snaps. Two weeks in the South Island.

Picton across to Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, West Coast

Queenstown, Doubtful Sound (oops, doubled up on one there!) and Dunedin. Our holiday also included a detour to Invercargill, when Nic broke his arm snowboarding in Queenstown.

Christchurch

happy

2009-10-26T14:18:00.004+10:00

The Woodford program is up, and these guys will be playing. I've been falling in love with their music lately.

But what I'm really excited about is tickets for Pete and I to see Andrew Bird at the Sydney Opera House - my Christmas present from Pete. It's the day after we get home from a week's camping at Woodford, but we'll think about that a bit closer to the time :)

very happy.

Writing is easy.

2009-10-20T18:22:00.014+10:00

You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds - Douglas Adams.

Which is exactly what I have been doing the past week with this blog, except the blank paper is a computer screen and fortunately the bleeding forehead is metaphorical. I have started and deleted, started and deleted posts. If I wrote every day, I suppose I wouldn't feel the need for giant updates.

The reason for the long absence is that my family and I took off to New Zealand for almost a month in Sept/Oct. I had planned to blog a little about our trip, but I have returned to reality and straight back into the deep end it seems, so I'm going to keep it short and sweet.

North Island highlights:

Auckland

Northland/Bay of Plenty

Rotorua

Lake Taupo/Napier

Wellington

South Island up next :)

Easy does it...

2009-09-04T09:28:00.008+10:00

I did some searching through my old blog posts this morning, looking for this one (scroll down to June 22, 2006). I needed to read it, and to read all the sweet and supportive comments that were made over 3 years ago.

Why? Max is now over 8, and for a while he slept well and was happily going off to bed on his own. His love of reading really helped - he would take a huge pile of books with him, and eventually fall asleep in the middle of them.

Things have not been so easy in recent months. Our little boy is now scared to be in his bedroom, even with the light on, and even though most nights one of us volunteer to be in there with him. As he goes to sleep, he hears noises, or gets strange feelings in his legs and arms. He desperately wants to and tries to go to sleep on his own, but ends up getting up with the excuse of needing a drink of water, or another book. After a half a dozen or so attempts, he is in tears and cuddles up with me in a lounge chair and falls asleep. Or Pete offers to lie down with him, until he is asleep. Without fail, every night by 1am he is in our bed.

Intellectually, I know that there are lots of reasons for his sleeping problems, going way back to an illness when he was very small.. and of course lots of guilty ways that we as parents are contributing to it. But emotionally we know that he is our son, who is smart, unique and sensitive, and while we can be here for him, we will.

Our society's expectation that children will sleep on their own in their own room is such an affluent, Western ideal. As adults we feel safe, secure and happy with another warm body to sleep next to, so why are we expecting our children to toughen up and be self-reliant?

The wrigging and kicking... that could be why ;). Anyway, this all reminded me of a beautiful poem by Bruce Dawe, which is not at all about sleep, but I'll share it anyway.

Easy Does It

- Bruce Dawe

I have to be careful with my boy
When he says tree it comes out hazy
very green and friendly and before I've got
the meaning straight he's up there laughing in it,
or working on the word for aeroplane
which is also a little above his head
so that he has to stand on tiptoe to touch it
-for him it does Immelmanns to order,
but when I try it becomes suddenly
only a model in a museum with props that slowly turn
when the button is pushed and a cutaway section
to show the engine in action…
I have to be careful with my boy,
that I don’t crumple his immediate-delivery-genuine-fold-up-and-extensible world
into correct English forever, petrify its wonder
with the stony gaze of grammar, or turn him into
a sort of Sunday visitor at the lakeside
who brings bags of specially-prepared bread-crusts to feed
to swans who arch their necks and hiss.

Poloroid photo made at http://www.rollip.com/start

finally got around to it

2009-08-18T17:29:00.006+10:00

well, almost :)

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you might (just!) remember I posted about an etsy shop - oh, maybe 2 and a half years ago. Well, here you go. When I say I'm going to do something, I do it... eventually ;)

And just one project to share this time. Titled "Once", and created for Ngaire's top ten feature in Scrapbook Creations magazine.

Stamping, embossing, watercolours, acrylic paints, Gocco prints, ribbons and trims. The quote at the bottom is one of my favourite Zettiology stamps, and says:

Once, as a child, you heard enchanted beings whispering, tempting you away. Cautious, declining, you grew up regretting lost possibilities, unimagined lands. What would you give for a second chance to hear them whisper your name, to see their whimsical looks, and feel wonder in your soul again?

July

2009-08-03T23:21:00.007+10:00

passed in a blur! Here are some photos of my work in the exhibition I mentioned in my last post- paper lanterns and stars, gocco/stitched collage works and some crochet ipod/phone pouches.

It has been a long time since I have identified my work as "art", having grown comfortable in crafting/designing fields, so it was great to step out of my comfort zone and have some lovely positive responses. Also very nice to have sold a number of pieces :)

These photos were taken after many of my favourite crochet pouches were already sold, so I'll have to make sure I get individual photos as I finish them from now on!

I would love to have something profound and interesting to say, but it's just not coming to me, and it's late - so pictures will have to do this time!

still here...

2009-07-10T18:34:00.004+10:00

Just busy getting ready for this:

I'm working on some small crochet items, paper lanterns and a few stitched collages for this exhibition. I took these photos a couple of weeks ago - the mess has since spread from the kitchen table to the lounge room floor... hopefully it will all be worth it! Will share some photos of what I've been creating soon.

I finally finished the ripple pillow, and I'm happy with how it turned out. Had a lovely comment on flickr describing it as Missoni-esque, which made me very happy, as I'm a huge fan of Missoni Home.

Jumpers and Jazz is just around the corner, and things are getting busy! For those of you who can get to Warwick, it's well worth checking out.

Warm my Heart

2009-06-15T12:08:00.011+10:00

is the name of the exhibition I have two pieces of work in right now. You can read more about it here, but as that page will change as it is updated in the future, here's a cut and paste from the gallery website:

11 June to 6 July

The Warm my Heart exhibition will use the famous Jackie Howe singlet as the “canvas” for the artworks. Warwick Art Gallery intends to curate a community-generated exhibition that pays tribute to one of Warwick’s favourite sons, Jackie Howe. Howe was born at Canning Downs Station in Warwick in 1861. The Warwick community’s interest in Jackie Howe has peaked again recently because of the widely publicized mystery Warwick based purchaser of Howe memorabilia. It is reported that the collection of medals and other items belonging to the legendary Queensland shearer was purchased for $305,000.

The project will use this proud part of Warwick’s history as inspiration for an exhibition of artwork with a contemporary, expressionistic theme. The title of the exhibition is “warm my heart” which literally relates to the functionality of the singlet but can symbolically imply a love of home, land and country. Using a part of Warwick’s heritage as inspiration for an art exhibition open to all members of the community will increase community pride and awareness of our history.

The Red Shoes

Singlets to me are synonymous with childhood memories, so I want to create a fragile work reminiscent of fading memories and passing time. I copied one of my tree illustrations, an old photo of one of my sisters and I, and images from children's books (Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and Brian Wildsmith's Birds) onto silk organza and machine stitched them to a handsewn muslin garment. The red leaves and knitted coathanger cover are made from an old child's singlet.

Economic Climate

Couldn't resist getting a little political with this one! Here's the info from the label:

"207 workers at the Wollongong Bonds factory are among the many Australians who will be unemployed as Pacific Brands cuts 1850 jobs over the next 18 months. Iconic Australian labels such as Bonds, KingGee and Yakka will now be manufactured overseas."

Created from machine stitched map paper, singlet and watercolour.

Thought I'd share these fun pictures - for those of you who remember my "tree hugger" from last year's Jumpers and Jazz in July. We promoted Jumpers and Jazz at the Textile Arts festival in Brisbane at the end of May, and the organisers let us "dress" a tree at the convention centre... so this is what it was wearing on the first day :)

Project share

2009-05-27T23:53:00.006+10:00

Thought it was about time I shared some scrapbook layouts! Here are some I created for the easy printmaking techniques feature in Scrapbook Creations magazine (issue 65).

This one uses the monotype or monoprinting technique with undiluted watercolour paints, plus some Gocco printed trees.

Monotype again. The journaling was copied straight from one of Max's year two school books. I love how he describes himself!

The photo border below was made with a hand-carved eraser stamp. Very easy and fun technique.

A simple linocut tree, with a gocco printed cloud.

And one crochet project to share this time. An ipod pouch in cotton, with one of my favourite vintage buttons on it.

And that's all for now, because it's very late here :)

I'm off with work to the Textile Arts Festival in Brisbane this weekend, where we will have a Jumpers and Jazz in July stand. Call by and say hello if you are going to be there!

Andrew Bird - Lull

2009-05-23T16:42:00.008+10:00

I could listen to this song on repeat all day today - it's so beautiful. Particularly love the xylophone/whistling bit in the middle. I found it as a free download here.

Lost Consonants

2009-05-06T11:03:00.006+10:00

I found an old "Lost Consonants" calendar this morning while I was looking for something else. I used to love these, and when I was teaching would even use them in class, so I was pleased to find that Graham Rawle has a website.

In case you can't read the text on this one - On Mothers day they thought Mum deserved to be papered

Happy Mothers Day for this Sunday!

kits (more trees!)

2009-05-01T06:55:00.004+10:00

Available now from Blue Bazaar, as part of their National Scrapbooking Day celebrations this weekend.

Some little tree ornaments......

And a garden tile collage.....

that's all for now, I think!

Except, I don't think I have shared my latest Gocco prints here yet - some little tree cards based on the screenprint design I posted last time.

And hexagons - this project is making me very happy at the moment...

Lucy's fantastic tutorial made them so easy to learn.

I'm off to the Peace Festival this weekend (link in the sidebar over there ----->) - should be great! If you are in SE Qld, come along for FREE bands, workshops, lantern performance.... the program is up on the site now.

latest projects

2009-04-04T15:05:00.004+10:00

I finished the Babette blanket! It took 2 months to make, and I am pleased to be finished, and to know that I can complete a larger crochet project, instead of stashing it in the cupboard for years. It's lovely and warm, and now that the nights are cooling off I have fallen asleep under it while watching TV a few times...

When it was finished I used the Babette inspiration to make this pillow for Ruby in bamboo and cotton yarns - blatantly rainbow, and so much fun to make! It measures about 60cm square, and is backed with turquoise corduroy. Max has requested one also, so I'll share pictures of it soon.

I can finally share some results from the screenprinting course I have been doing. Apart from Gocco, I haven't done any screenprinting for many, many years. We went right back to basics with making our own screens and cutting stencils the old fashioned way, so I was excited this week to actually get down to the messy business of pulling prints. I still have a lot to learn about blends and heaps of work to do on my pulling technique, but I'm quite happy with the result. This one is a test print on cartridge paper, and measures approx 34cm square.

I think I may have been doing too much graphic design recently, as my artwork ended up looking quite a lot like a logo! I'm going to experiment with printing on fabric, and do some prints on better quality paper, maybe adding some machine stitching and other embellishment to "un-logo-ise" it a bit.

Speaking of printmaking, I have an article coming up in the next Scrapbook Creations magazine (due out in the next week or so I think) showing some easy printmaking ideas you can use in scrapbook layouts. I'll be back to share some pictures of some of them after the mag is out.

And although he's not a project, I have to mention Andrew Bird - my new music obsession. You can check him out below :)

Andrew Bird - Tenuousness

2009-04-03T20:03:00.002+10:00

Tenuous at best was all he had to say
when pressed about the rest of it, the world that is...

contemplating...

2009-03-17T19:50:00.008+10:00

...that I should update my blog, but can't think of anything particularly interesting to write about

that I loved reading all your comments on my last post - thank you :)

that I haven't done any papercrafting for two months, and that perhaps deadlines were my only motivation, and that I hope not

that I am nearly finished my Babette blanket

that I really like clothes that don't require washing very much, like winter coats and the layered, quilt-like skirt I bought at Woodford. But not like the leather pants one of my student friends many years ago wore every day... there is a difference between not needing to be washed and plain old not washed

that the concept of irony is lost on some people... like my neighbour who left a rude message on my answering machine telling me that my answering machine message is impersonal ... or the road rage guy the other day who drove like a maniac, passing on the left to catch up with the driver who had cut him off...

that I hope when I go to Toowoomba for my screenprinting course this Friday I am stuck in traffic with loud singing guy again (I could hear him belting it out in the car behind me, even though my windows were up. Watching him in my rearview mirror, he was uninhibited and joyous). If you happen to read this, crazy loud singing man - thank you, you made my day!

that is about all....

bullshit

2009-02-17T19:18:00.003+10:00

Example 1

Ruby (aged 11): Mum, look! Last night I had a dream that I shaved my legs, and feel how lovely and smooth they are this morning! (I love this one - when in doubt baffle them with something magical and completely improbable)

Example 2

Nic (aged 13, who is the world's worst liar and shouldn't bother trying, explaining why his phone credit was low): I think Ruby downloaded some games to my phone. (nice try Nic, maybe next time you should pick someone who is actually interested in mobile phone games and has an outside chance of getting hold of your phone.)

Example 3:

Max (aged 7), explaining why he needs to immediately swap taekwondo lessons for swimming lessons:
Mum, I've been thinking. It's a bit of a stereotype that I do taekwondo. It's a stereotype that boys should do martial arts. I think I should do swimming instead. And also, with all the trees that have been burnt in the fires, we could have less oxygen to breathe and swimming lessons will be useful because they will make me better at holding my breath.

I think we have a winner! Bit of a worry though, that the 7 year old is so much more creative, sincere and convincing in his bullshitting than his older siblings :)

Think I'd better go and book those swimming lessons.

Babette-ish

2009-02-15T21:35:00.006+10:00

Babette progress, originally uploaded by rettgrayson.

My latest crochet project. The pattern is the "Babette Blanket" by Kathy Merrick, originally published in Interweave Crochet magazine. I was inspired by all the beautiful blankets in the flickr Babette group pool, so I decided to give it a try. You can see its progress in my flickr photostream.

I started out with a very conservative collection of reds, oranges and neutrals, but my short attention span couldn't cope with that :)

this is how it works...

2009-02-14T17:08:00.004+10:00

I now have over 1000 songs on the new ipod, and yesterday I couldn't find anything that I wanted to listen to.

I tried listening to all the songs that started with a particular word. So far I think "don't" and "I" are the most popular, with "all" not far behind. Just reading the song titles was amusing for a while:

Don't be Howling - Holly Throsby
Don't Change (INXS cover) - The Audreys
Don't Dream it's Over - Crowded House
Don't Ever - Missy Higgins
Don't Go - The Ellis Collective
Don't Let Go - Kate Miller-Heidke
Don't Look so Sad - Kasey Chambers
Don't Panic - Coldplay
Don't Think Twice, it's All Right - Bob Dylan
Don't Think Twice, it's Alright - The Waifs
Don't Wait Up - Colin Hay
Don't Walk Alone - Bob Evans
Don't Wanna Let you Down - Josh Pyke
Don't you Think it's Time - Bob Evans

Then I went looking on itunes for just what I felt like listening to - and found this song that I hadn't heard for a little while and had almost forgotton. Regina Spektor's On the Radio.

No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again

... and I think that pretty much sums it up :)

Please

2009-02-09T12:20:00.003+10:00

spare a thought or a prayer for all the people who have lost their loved ones and homes in the devastating bushfires in Victoria, and for those who are still in danger.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25027055-421,00.html

If you are able to help, the Australian Red Cross has an appeal. Donations can be made online, or by calling 1800 811 700.

picture this

2009-01-28T08:35:00.011+10:00

Blondie in my headphones this morning, and some pictures to share....

Granny squares in cotton yarn. They may become a scarf, I'm not sure yet.

Mindy of Blueyedezines asked me to make a few projects to take to CHA, using her new felt range. She has some beautiful new products.

I cut apart a felt frame to create the clouds here, and embellished the layout with some mosaic mirror pieces.

All the felt products are self-adhesive, which made these projects quick and easy to put together.

I used the other half of the felt frame to create texture on the tree.

A few sets of 6x6 greeting cards. 2 general purpose cards, 2 Valentine cards and 2 little girl birthday cards.

Ngaire has shared some beautiful projects using these felt products on her blog - you can check them out here.

Some photos from home. New Hero and Leander bead art, hanging in my kitchen window.

You can see the reflection of a lightshade in the window. Pete and I are definitely of the "we'll get around to it one day" school of decorating. We've had a bare lightbulb hanging in our kitchen for 15 years, and finally got around to fitting it with an old shade to match the others in our living area. I love the art deco designs of these.

Things were busy late last year, and I didn't get around to taming the snail vine on our side verandah. By the time I did get a chance, I had grown quite attached to the little jungle out there, so I left it to do its own thing. Never mind that I can't move the furniture now. I love this vine. If you sat on the verandah for long enough, I'm sure you could watch it grow. Fortunately we get cold frosty winters here, so each year it dies off to let the sunshine in when we need it, and comes up again the next summer.

41

2009-01-26T19:53:00.007+10:00

that would be me :)

I celebrated my birthday on Sunday. Can't say it was as exciting as turning 40 last year, and next year's 42 will be a much cooler age, but it was all good. Pete and the kids gave me an Ipod Touch, which I am having a lot of fun with, and one of our friends who is a singer/songwriter conspired with other friends and family to record a song for me! Loretta, originally recorded by Townes Van Zandt - with a few lyric changes of course. It was simultaneously sweet, thoughtful, flattering, embarrassing and slightly annoying - as everyone kept abandoning me to go and conspire..lol..

Not being a country music fan, I had never heard the song before - and I must say that it's a lovely song, and also very nice to have lyrics to associate with my name that are not from the Beatle's Get Back:

Sweet loretta martin thought she was a woman
But she was another man
All the girls around her say she's got it coming
But she gets it while she can

Speaking of lyrics, if you are a fan of the soundtrack of the musical Hair, did you know that this

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars

will actually happen on Feb 14 this year? Let's hope that this bit goes along with it...

Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

Ok, three red wines and a blog post might not be the best idea. See you in a couple of days :)

Oh, and happy back to school for tomorrow! Here's my highschooler, starting a new adventure tomorrow, but still not too old to snuggle with cats, fortunately.

more paper stars and other stuff

2009-01-17T21:31:00.012+10:00

Some projects to share. The stars above were a Two Peas Christmas project - you can read more about them here.

I created this set of 5x7 postcards for a "Who's Who" feature in Scrapbook Creations last year.

Red Earth. With some of my favourite vintage buttons.

Blue Hand. The hand is a plastic henna stencil, painted with Luminarte Radiant Rain to give it a shimmery finish.

Red Moon. I sprayed Glimmermist on the chipboard leaves, which is a bit hard to see in the photos.

White Wind. The wind/clouds and grass are oil pastel, with scratched patterns. The blue cloud shapes in the postcard above were also done with this technique. I always spray my oil pastels with matte picture varnish before including them in a piece, as they can be very messy otherwise!

This little book is from this month's magazine. The front and back covers are made from the tree trading card chipboards designed by Petrina. I love that both the tree shapes and the negative shapes are so useful.

new crochet project

2009-01-13T07:45:00.004+10:00

I still don't know how to read crochet pattern language, but I haven't let that stop me! Before we went to Woodford, I made these water bottle carriers for the children (the ones for the boys were flowerless). They were a bit dirty and stretched when we got home, so I felted them in the washing machine, and was pleased with the results. Unfortunately, Max's shrunk a bit too much and is now a mini-waterbottle carrier - so I'll have to make him another one.

Woodford Folk Festival

2009-01-11T09:34:00.013+10:00

We were "season campers" at Woodford this year - it's been many years since I was able to stay for more than a day or two. It is definitely the best way to experience the festival - dust, heat, rain, mud, crowds and all! It also gave us the time and opportunity to catch up with several friends who were there, and two of my sisters came and spent time with us, which was wonderful.

Keeping this brief, highlights of the festival this year included:

Mr Percival (an incredible and charismatic performer - see him if you get the opportunity!)

The Ellis Collective - "bloke folk", cry-into-your-beer heartbreak songs

Lior with attached strings - beautiful

That One Guy - watching the dancing crowds in the amphitheatre bouncing up and down to the rhythm was quite an experience

Doch, Kate Miller-Heidke, Bob Evans, Josh Pyke, Augie March, William Barton, Mamadou Diabate, Jeff Lang, La La Parlour, Flipside Circus.....

Wacko and Blotto - funny in a disturbing way, these guys may very well be the cause of all those clown phobias out there! Thank you Heidi for telling us about them.... and shut up ;)

Being there for the week also meant that the children were able to do some workshops in the children's festival, and they loved this amazing dragon sculpture/play structure.

I did a mehndi workshop one morning, but forgot to take photos of my work! It was fun, and the tutor gave us lots of tips to make the whole process as easy as possible.

Well, that's all for now. I have some photos of projects to share, so I'll try to get back here more often to share them :)

Happy New Year to you all!

it's been a while...

2008-12-14T19:53:00.005+10:00

...but did I ever mention that I quite often write up a blog post, but then choose for various reasons to not publish it? I think that might officially excuse me for long pauses between posts ;-) As reluctant as I was to get into blogging initially, I have found that it's a great way to remember things. Especially as, apart from the scrapbooks, I don't keep a journal anymore.

And a fair bit of this journalling lies in those unpublished posts, as I tend to censor myself a little too much here on the internet. They're fun to go back and read, though!

Well, it's the end of the year again, and time for my usual crisis-of-self-evaluation/re-shuffling-of-priorities. In the words of Green Day, time has grabbed me by the wrist and directed me where to go. And for the time being that direction is taking me away from the "work" side of scrapbooking.

In the last couple of weeks I have said goodbye to the Two Peas design team, the cherryArte design team, and to my regular feature in Scrapbook Creations. I have thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated all of these positions, and would like to once again thank everyone involved for giving me those opportunities. You (and you know who you are!) have all been wonderful to work with, and I've had the best of times over the last few years.

So... 2009 looms with no creative deadlines and no obligations to use any particular products in my work, and it's quite exciting! Lately, I'd been finding that I had developed an aversion to collecting new products while so many of the old ones sat unused. Which is not good, when one is required to showcase the latest and greatest! And I've been using "the last minute" as my motivation more than is reasonable. So it will be good to have a break. And it might be fun to have some spare hours to devote to other creative pursuits.

I have loved the teaching opportunities I have been given this year, so I'll just put it out there now that I'm still more than happy to take on some teaching engagements. If you are looking for someone willing to travel to Barcelona, Paris or San Francisco to teach for you, I'll be there ;-) Of course, places closer to home are fine, too :-)

Now, because this post needs pictures:

A light shade for a friend. Made with paper and coloured vellums, machine stitched.

If I don't get back here before Christmas, peace and joy to you and your families!

the works are full of spanners...

2008-11-12T08:48:00.013+10:00

... not my original turn of phrase, although it describes my life quite appropriately right now :-) It's from this song.

October was an eventful month! Earlier in the month I visited Bundaberg, to teach at the Creative Artz Cottage's Big Day In. I had a great time, and got to spend the day with lots of lovely people. You can see some photos from the day on Donna's Blog. A huge thank you again to Donna and Cassie and all the girls who worked hard to make it a successful day and fundraiser for the Cancer Council.

Here are the projects we completed in my classes:

(The photos on the layout above were taken by the kids with our Lomography Fisheye camera - lots of fun)

Pete and the kids came to Bundaberg too, so we had 5 days in Bargara - mostly just relaxing, and a day spent catching up with old friends. Following that we headed back down to Caloundra for the Music Festival there. It's a great little festival, and we all enjoyed seeing Tripod and Kate Miller-Heidke again, along with The Whitlams, Pete Murray, Jackson Jackson (Ruby's new favourite), Daryl Braithwaite, Lior... and lots more I just can't think of right now.

All of the rushing around over the last couple of months caught up with me when we arrived home, and I spent a couple of weeks battling a sore throat, cough and aches and pains, and generally just feeling yuck.

And our 13yr old car broke down, and for the last time as we have decided to not fix it. So now Pete and I (who both have very little interest in buying cars) need to do some research and find another one.

Ok... enough whinging. The full Woodford Folk Festival programme is up now, so check it out. This year we're camping there for the full six days, and I'm getting excited about that. Hopefully we won't get washed away like last year! Anyone else going?

Crop Royale

2008-10-01T14:09:00.018+10:00

was so much fun! Lorraine and her "lady-in-waiting" Caroline did a wonderful job, and organised the day beautifully down to every last detail. Everyone was thoroughly pampered with the most wonderful kits and classes, amazing prizes and delicious food - thank you Lorraine :-) And thank you to the owners and staff at Fantasia for being such wonderful hosts.

If you weren't able to be there this time, hopefully this will become a yearly event - and definitely one worth marking on your calendar not to miss!

Here I am with two of the other teachers - very talented girls, too - Sarah Moore and Jen Hall.

We had a gorgeous group of women to teach - and it was lovely to see some familiar faces from my classes in Brisbane. Here are a couple of pictures of everyone hard at work! I'd love to see your finished layouts if you would like to send them to me at rettgrayson@yahoo.com

The next day a group of us went out for Yum Cha. Here are, having eaten way too much, from left to right: Lorraine, Debbie, Lorna, Sherry, me and Rachelle.

Thank you once again to Lorraine and her lovely family for looking after me,

and to Debbie and Lorna for your company :-)

This is the project we completed in my class.

I'm now getting ready to teach a couple of classes in Bundaberg on October 11 - it's going to be a great day, and there are still some places left, but you'll need to book soon! For more information click on the "Big Day In" link in the sidebar ---->

Gocco, Sydney and let's just ignore the mess....

2008-09-20T19:48:00.000+10:00

I haven't been here for a while, so I'm sure there'll be a mega-post coming soon ;-)

For now, I just wanted to quickly pop in and share what I've been working on for Crop Royale in Sydney next weekend. A couple of months ago, after lots of reading and deliberating, I finally gave in to the Print Gocco trend - what a fabulous little gadget this thing is! All the fun of screenprinting without the mess. These little trees currently covering my kitchen table will be part of the kit for my class next Saturday. The rest of the kit is made up of some of my favourite products at the moment from Basic Grey, Sassafras Lass, Cosmo Cricket, Jenni Bowlin, SEI and Been There, Done That.

And if you're near Bundaberg in October, I'll be teaching two classes at The Creative Artz Cottage's Big Day In. Planning some custom designed andprinted bits and pieces for this event, too.
Maybe I'll see you in a class soon :-)

2008-08-14T17:26:00.010+10:00

It's been a while since I shared some pictures, so here goes.....

During the festival, I co-ordinated a workshop taught by hand-knitter and textile artist Jude Skeers, who worked with participants to make these webs, knitted on circular needles. Then Jude set about installing webs all over town. It was fun seeing them appearing in all sorts of odd places!

Some projects from the Two Peas garden:

(Ngaire took this photo at the Brisbane Convention, arm outstretched - I love how it turned out)

A couple of layouts from recent Scrapbook Creations magazines:

The other tree jumper I made for Jumpers and Jazz. This one was called UFO, as it was created from an UnFinished Object in my cupboard - a crochet rug I started about 5 years ago, and embellished with felt flowers, buttons, sequins and hand-stitching. Custom made to fit a particular tree, at home when I wanted to take some close up photos, the only thing I could find that it would fit was our Hills Hoist!

Leanne presented me with this blog award a couple of weeks ago. Thank you, Leanne, I appreciate your kind words :-)

Now, I am meant to nominate 7 blogs for the award. I'll need to think about that a little more, as I haven't had a lot of blog reading time lately. I'll get back to you!

Tree Hugger

2008-07-22T20:23:00.005+10:00

We're in the middle of our Jumpers and Jazz in July festival, which is why I haven't been here for a while - lots of things happening, and I will be back with more photos later.

This is one of the two jumpers I created. The logo was a last minute addition: after finishing it, I decided that it wouldn't be a bad job to be in the business of tree couture, and an opportunity ever came up, Tree Huggers would be my label :-)

This little tree hugger is also featured right now as the latest catalyst on the Creative Therapy blog - thanks girls for inviting me to be your guest artist.

Thank you so much to Chris, Penny, Peg, Suzanne,Donna and Diane, who sent me photos of their class layouts when I asked for some to put on my blog - here they finally are. Sorry it has taken me so long!

I love how everyone's pages turned out, and all the individual touches you have all added to make the project your own - that's the best thing about teaching I think. If anyone else has a layout to share, it should be quite easy now to add it to this slide - so go ahead and send it to me :-)

Oh, and I'll be teaching in Sydney in September at an event called Crop Royale, which is looking like being a fabulous day - I'm very excited about it!

And also making plans to travel to Bundaberg to teach in October - more news about that soon.

Sometimes you count the days, sometimes you weigh them...

2008-06-20T11:39:00.016+10:00

"She just shrugs, and I remember again about the Balinese concept of "rubber time", meaning that time is a very relative and bouncy idea. "Four weeks" doesn't really mean to Wayan what it means to me. One day to Wayan isn't necessarily composed of twenty-four hours, either: sometimes it's longer, sometimes it's shorter, depending upon the spiritual and emotional nature of the day. As with my medicine man and his mysterious age, sometimes you count the days, sometimes you weigh them."

~ Elizabeth Gilbert, from "Eat, Pray, Love"

It seems that I've managed to fit at least a month's worth of activities into the last two weeks, And now I'm left feeling tired and overwhelmed. There are too many things to do and too many things I'm feeling powerless about doing anything about at the moment, and I just want to slow down for a while.

Byron Bay was lovely. We stayed in a cabin at First Sun, which is in the middle of everything - right on the beach and also in town, so we didn't have to take the car anywhere. Which is just as well, because I was reminded of why we gave up on staying in Byron and opted for quieter Brunswick Heads several years ago. The place is ridiculously busy, even in Winter. Tourists everywhere, and traffic beyond what a small town can comfortably cope with.

The food more than made up for the busy-ness, though. It's just as well I don't live there, as starting the day with a large flat white and dark chocolate filled doughnut from Byron Bay Organic Doughnuts everyday might not be the best idea. We had delicious sushi one day, and the woodfired pizza at the Great Northern was as good as I remembered.

We all loved Angus and Julia Stone, even though Max slept through most of the concert. We blame that on the support act, Victor Valdes, who was absolutely amazing on the Mexican Harp but just too damn relaxing.

Thank you to everyone who has emailed me or left comments on this blog about the Brisbane class - I really appreciate them! I'll put together the images of your layouts from the class and post them here very soon.

Forgot to mention in the last post - a huge thank you to Jill Geraghty-Groves and Ngaire Bartlam, who lent me sewing machines for my Saturday class when we had a courier problem with the other machines. I really appreciate you coming to my rescue!

Leunig - just for fun:

checking in.....

2008-06-12T19:27:00.012+10:00

..briefly, before I go away again. I've just come back from the Scrapbook Expo in Brisbane, which was followed by Max having dental work done in Brisbane under a general anaesthetic. Fortunately everything went ok. Just before going away last week all three children were involved in a J-Rock performance with their school (the junior version of Rock Eisteddfod), and they had some more performances to do today, so it's been a busy time for everyone around here!

Anyway, so now we are all thoroughly exhausted, and heading off tomorrow for a few days in Byron Bay, where we will do very little. The only activity planned is an Angus and Julia Stone concert at the Byron Community Centre on Saturday night.

I had a great time at the Expo. It was busy, but there were plenty of opportunities to catch up with friends I don't see very often, and meet lots of lovely new people. I'm sorry I didn't post the sneak peeks I promised before going, as I had no internet or phone for a week before I went away.

Here are the class projects. My class had the option of completing one of three projects - a choice of two slightly different 8.5 x 11 paper quilts for framing, or a 12x12 layout with photos. I have already received pictures of finished layouts from some of the students, so if you did the class - please send me an image of your finished layout, and when I get back home next week I'll put them up here in a slide show when I write a proper post.

A very big thank you to the generous sponsors of my class kits - cherryArte (patterned papers and rub-ons), Collections (chipboard leaves/branches and butterflies, patterned papers), Birch (paint, brushes, glues, thread, buttons, sequins), Kidston Craft (Prismatics cardstock) and Husqvarna Viking who loaned us sewing machines to use.

See you soon!

The Cat Empire - Fishies

2008-05-21T00:38:00.001+10:00

This is what we're listening to this week. A lot. Very loudly in the car mostly.

Funny that when I started playing the album a while back, the kids didn't appreciate it. And when I tried to drag them to a Cat Empire concert in the rain at Woodford last year, they weren't too keen. But since Rhys and Jack's routine to Fishies on "So you think you can dance" - it's a favourite :-)

seasons

2008-05-17T08:42:00.005+10:00

I love living in a place where we can observe the passing of the seasons. While I sit and type this, the last of the red leaves on the flowering pear tree outside the kitchen window are falling to the ground. I never rake leaves - I love crunching through them in autumn. Yesterday the kids had friends over, and there were enough leaves to make a huge pile and bury each other in them. I really should have taken a photo!

This little piece was inspired by the seasons, and is up now in the Two Peas mid-month garden. The theme this month is "Use your Stash", so I dug out lots of Basic Grey papers, letters and chipboard to use, and used the same tree templates as my NSD class. You can read more about it here.

I'm looking forward to teaching in Brisbane in a few weeks - my class is an art quilt/paper-piecing type of project, along the lines of the projects I've been sharing here. Saturday and Sunday's classes are sold out, but there are spots on Monday still available. Hope to have some sneak peeks for you soon - when I stop changing my mind about colours!

this blog

2008-05-10T09:44:00.014+10:00

has become boring lately....all pictures and no words. So - in the last few weeks:

Pete and I took the children to see Kate Miller-Heidke at the Judith Wright Centre in Brisbane. Ruby and I saw her in concert last year, but this was the first time for Pete, Nic and Max - and everyone adored her. She is a fabulous performer, quirky and fun and with an amazing voice - "punk opera" is a great description I read recently. If you get a chance to see her while she is still performing all-age shows at small venues like the Judy - do it! You won't be sorry.

(That's Ruby and Max, inspired to do their own performance)

Max turned 7 last Friday, and asked for a magician suit and an ipod (as you do, when you are seven). Fortunately for us, he refers to all mp3 players as ipods, so we got him a decent-but-still-within-our-budget one, and he has been walking around singing loudly to Kate MH and Mika ever since. Many of our conversations go something like this now:

Max: MUMMMMY!!!!! WHERE'S MY SOCKS/HAT/BOOK..????

Mummy: Max, you don't need to shout.

Max: huh?

Max: Ducks don't need satellites.....

(yes, that's an actual song)

Ducks don't need satellites
Ducks don't need satellites
They probably don't know they're up there
Ducks don't need satellites
They don't need satellites
They most likely think the sky ends blue

No need to think about the black
Give a quack, get a quack quack back
Even people give them that
Did you ever hear a duck say quack,
And say 'hello' back?

I have to keep pinching the mp3 player from him, and turning down the volume. Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon.

I'm researching overseas holidays seriously, now. Not in the usual mucking around kind of way, but in the "can we actually find accommodation for a family of 5 in Morocco (substitute Thailand, Mexico, Spain...)?" kind of way. Not in the usual "it would be more sensible to spend our savings on home repairs" way (we have an old house - the repairs are abundant, and will always be there). We've kind of decided - well, for this week anyway - that with oil prices rising, a holiday in the most far-away places we want to go might be a good idea to do sooner, rather than later.

I'm also crocheting a jumper for a tree (for those non-Australians, a jumper is a sweater). If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably know that at the art gallery where I work, we organise a "tree jumper" exhibition for a winter festival called Jumpers and Jazz in July. Last year's tree jumper was a mammoth effort with a group of friends and our children, and consisted of lots of bird softies and french-knitted "bark".

the funky owls in bandanas, made by Juanita's daughter Lauren, were my favourite!

This year I decided to simplify and go it alone. But then I somehow ended up with plans to create two jumpers - one in crochet, and one nuno felting, both techniques I know very little about! So far I have started the crochet one, and have made lots of little circles. Every one is unique, because I invent the stitches (do you call them stitches in crochet?) as I go. I borrowed a book from the library called "Teach Yourself how to Crochet Visually", but even with all those pictures, I couldn't follow the instructions. So I just mucked about until I remembered enough from my early first lessons with my Nana decades ago, while trying to block out memories of all those wonky, half-finished granny squares of my childhood.

Here is what I have so far - and looking at this photo, I haven't come far over the years! Only at least now I am making wonky circles instead of squares.

The plan is to somehow join the circles with some kind of free-form stitching, then somehow make it into a garment for a tree :-).

And now that I have posted that photo, I will be motivated to keep going and prove to you that I can actually complete it! And if you would like to participate in the tree jumper exhibition and competition (there is prize money up for grabs), contact me, or visit the website.

Project share

2008-05-09T15:02:00.004+10:00

Here's the full view of the Two Peas class I linked in the previous post.

Scrapbook Creations #54 is out, and I was fortunate to be featured in Jeni's Style feature this month. Even more fortunate was that she asked me to be her "eclectic" scrapbooker. So in the spirit of being "eclectic", I decided that my project didn't need to be a scrapbook layout at all! Here it is.

It's a bit hard to tell in the photo, but the background is painted - ultramarine and gold. Love these colours together, they remind me of medieval illuminated calendars.

The quote is from Vincent Van Gogh:

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

here it is

2008-05-03T22:50:00.002+10:00

the link to download my class pdf from Two Peas.

If you have any questions about the project, don't hesitate to ask!

class update

2008-05-03T14:03:00.003+10:00

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Just popped in quickly to let you know that the scheduled chat for my two peas class is from Midnight to 1am tonight! That's for the Aussies. In the US it will be 9am-10am CST.

I'll be back to post the pdf link for my class when it goes live on the site.

Here's another sneak peek. Come and join me if you want to see how I managed to use the word "dangle" in a scrapbooking project :-)

this Saturday

2008-04-30T23:44:00.008+10:00

is National Scrapbooking Day, and you can join me at two peas for a FREE class. We'll be creating a scene in this class - a little paper scene, that is :-) - along the lines of the paper quilt projects I have been enjoying lately.

It should be a great day - there will be other garden girl and manufacturer classes available, as well as chats and giveaways, from 9am - 9pm CST (for the Aussies - late Saturday night to about lunchtime Sunday).

Classes will be available as a pdf download, so you can complete the projects in your own time. I'll be available for a class chat from 9-10am CST (late Saturday night Aus time, but I need to work out the exact time yet - before Saturday!)

Back with more details and links soon :-)

Tripod - Comic Shop

2008-04-25T19:56:00.001+10:00

Just for fun - a favourite in our household at the moment :-)

ok...

2008-04-15T17:14:00.014+10:00

...books are another item of clutter that doesn't count. We've been moving furniture this weekend, and covering the floor with piles of books. We have a huge box of books to go to Vinnies, and still can't fit the rest back on the shelves! How does that happen?

Sydney, part 2

Is it just me, or is anyone else offended by the town planning laws that allow Starbucks and other such chains of stores to infect our cities like a virus? Seems like every corner had one in
Sydney. It worries me that our city centres are becoming so generic - sad, really.

I've been researching overseas trips on the net, and came across Pun Pun in Thailand - a organic farm which holds workshops in natural building, seed saving, sustainable agriculture, etc.. you can just go for a visit if you can't do a workshop.

That site led me to another one, with 2 to 3 day Thai cooking classes - with the meeting point on the first day in Chiang Mai being....

Starbucks

Now, while I understand that there are probably very good reasons for meeting there (coffee addicted westerners like me can get a familiar-tasting cup and will then probably be much nicer to be with for the rest of the day, plus it's an easily recognisable meeting point)... the idea of going to Thailand to do an authentic cooking course, then beginning the whole experience by meeting at Starbucks just makes me want to say some very unpleasant words.

Ok, whinge over... sorry about that. Back to normal programming :-)

Had a wonderful time at SIA. Ran into lots of people I don't get to see very often, and met lots of lovely new people - I'll refrain from mentioning names, because I know I'll forget someone!

I have to admit to feeling more than a little bit nervous about teaching at this event. Being trade only, my students were people who own their own stores and teach classes all the time. I teach so infrequently, so I wondered what I could possibly show them that they hadn't already seen. Anyway, all the class participants were wonderful, and even still smiling when they saw how much cutting up we had to do in a one hour class :-) Here's the project we made, using papers from the new cherryArte "Girl Power" and His & Hers Basics" lines.

Loved teaching the make and takes, too. We had 3 easy cherryArte projects, each using just one piece of patterned paper. The best part about the make and takes was the opportunity to meet and chat with so many interesting women from all over Australia. Here I am with one of the lovely ladies I met, doing the "and here's one I prepared earlier" thing!

A HUGE thank you to the Aussie Scrap Source girls, and all the organisers and volunteers of the event, who looked after me so well - I really appreciate it :-)

Some layouts to share:

This was my entry for the SIA Commercial Designer Awards. Broke my scrapbooking comp entering record with this one (it was zero, as I always chicken out!). All cherryArte (except the Basic Grey letters), from the new lines plus a couple of old ones. There were some amazing entries in these awards - and congratulations to Belinda McGregor of the Craft Queen team, who won the individual award, and the Kim Ogden and Rachael Sholz of Scraptacular, who won the team award - their work was stunning!

These ones are from this month's two peas garden. The April theme was to be inspired by other users of the gallery, so I took the inspiration for the tissue paper flowers from everythingchick, and the layouts from miss_quiss, and rachellem.

(yes, I've used that quote before - from The Waifs' Sweetness)

and thanks Petrina for the name of the junk sculpture artist from the last post - it's John Dahlsen. Also, check out the cover of the new Scrapbook Creations to see her beautiful daughter and layout - congrats Petrina!

oh, ignore the date up there - I started writing this post last week, but had computer troubles. It's Monday April 21.