Praise the end of the week

This week has been one of the most exhausting in my life. First of all, I resigned from my job because I got offered a new job in an advertising studio. I feel so happy that I won't have to deal with my current boss any more, however it means a very busy 2 weeks as I wrap everything up in my current job.

Secondly, my grandfather died last Sunday, and I had to fly up to North Queensland on Tuesday for his funeral. It was an emotionally and physically draining day- up at 3:45am, a sad and busy, busy day, home at 11:30pm and work the next day.

I really haven't done any art all week as it has been so busy, so I feel so grateful for the easter break, a chance to get back on top of everything. At the moment I am sitting in a bean bag on my veranda drinking beer, eating blue cheese, and listening to the panda band. It has just finished raining so everything has cooled down a bit. It's so nice to relax! The photo above is what I'm looking at at the moment.

I will be cramming as much art into the next week as I can, so I will be back soon.

Babushka, Babushka, Babushka!

I thought it would be fun to have a go at doing some 3D pieces- I love dolls myself and having unsuccessfully tried my hand at plush dolls, I decided wooden dolls would be more my style. And Russian nesting dolls are one of my favourite things ever. I have just done the first coat on my first lot, and I am having lots of fun with them.

I have one lot of 10 of the rounder ones, which will be focusing on Alba and her flowers. I am saving those ones because a> there's more of them and I thought it might be easier for my first one only doing 5 and b> I like them better. I am doing the group of 5 more on my other character, Anabelle, who is Alba's long-lost sister and is the opposite to Alba. She is a nest-builder and never likes to leave her little town where everything is perfect. She has her own little cottage there with her garden of flowers and she loves it.

They will all be mixed media pieces involving some collage, and I will be documenting their progress on here.

Something Different

I have been having some fun creating some paintings that are a bit different to my usual stuff. I've been using a lot of collage bits and pieces and have added some little houses into the mix.

The top one is called "The Search for Intelligent Life" about some flowers that come to life at night when the owners of their garden are asleep and join together in their search for aliens.

The second one is called "Sleepy Little Town" and it's my dream town- with little houses with wood fires going and big strange flowers growing everywhere. So cosy.

These will be in my shop along with a few others this weekend hopefully.

New books to look at!

2 new books arrived in the mail today and I'm so excited because they have taken a few weeks getting here and I have been hanging out for them! My favourite is this one. Japanese Children's Fabrics. Full of japanese cuteness! It is so lovely to look through and be inspired by.

I have always loved Japanese fabrics so I love this book! I'm getting married in september and I'm having Japanese fabric in my dress I love it so much. And then to top it off Luke and I are going to Japan for the honeymoon. So we have been submerging ourselves in anything to do with Japan at the moment. I have been eyeing this book off since long before we decided on that though. At the opening of the gallery of modern art in brisbane I saw it, but it was $80 so I decided against it, only too see it on amazons for a lot cheaper, so now I have it!

I won't get a chance til the weekend to properly peruse it but I am looking forward to it. I am thinking I will make this weekend a nothing weekend so I can catch up on everything.

Morning Delight

I woke up this morning all grumpy because I hadn't had enough sleep and I needed to go to work, when I heard hot air balloons! It brightens up my day when the hot air balloons go over in the morning and this morning they came right over our place. It made me cheerful for the day.

It's now Friday night and I've just come home from an art exhibition and coffee with friends so it's been a pretty good end to the day too.

I'm looking forward to a weekend of creating art. I will post it all on sunday, I think it will be a little bit different to my usual stuff... still with flowers though! I would never abandon my flowers :-)

Dangly DooDads

I wanted to make some small, more ornamental pieces so I had a bit of fun making these little mini pieces.

They are each about 2.5" square and I used some beads I got for Christmas to thread onto the bottom of them. I've called them tiny danglers. I love surrounding my work area with cute little things as motivation and decoration, so I am hoping that's what these will be for other people. Any feedback would be great at this point.
I am going to put some up in my shop soon.

I am having fun trying a lot of new styles and things at the moment and I will post some of the results here as they come.

There is an electrical storm going on as I write this and I'm so excited because it means rain!!! The more rain the better. It also means my plants get a water and it also means I have an exciting outlook from my couch. If only it was friday it would be perfect! oh well. one more day til the weekend!

Gocco Fun!!!

Well, I finally got to use my gocco printer this weekend. I was worried it was going to be a disaster for the first go, but I read the manual extensively and it all went really well! it was very fun and I am really looking forward to doing some more. I am also looking forward to getting some more ink colours.

My first print is of course, of flowers! :-) It's a create-your-own-message notecard. I have put some little gold flowers in the speech bubble but apart from that you can put whatever you want in there. They will be available in the shop soon, but I have to perfect the packaging for them first.

Some new pieces

I have been doing some drawings of a new character called Alba- she has a special affinity with flowers and can communicate with them in a flower language. She wanders around on foot and has a big pocket in the front of her dress that stores anything and everything she wants. She gets help along the way from the flowers she meets about where she's heading and what lies ahead.

I'm having so much fun creating little adventures for her.

These little drawings are available in my shop.

A New Start

Thanks so much to all those who left lovely comments on my first post- I felt so bad when I went back to my neglected blog and found that people had actually read it, and been so kind! I am now going to post regularly and try to keep it up.

(this is the view from my veranda)

All Set...

My studio is finally all set up (excuse the mess at the back- it's also a storage area) so I feel ready to really get down to work.
I bought the flooring for $6/m2 and I am so happy with it- it feels luxurious to wander around on (compared to the rough concrete from before). And I bought the little shelf (on the right) for $5 at a garage sale last week (the ceramic rabbit on top was 50c!) and so now I feel I am all set up. And I love it!

First week of art...