Playing with Pastels Again (Still)

The other day I saw my blog post from about 3 years ago and thought to myself I'd really like to get those pastels out again.
Then... Hudson was looking for something - glue, I think - and he found the pastels. He yelled out "Mum, can I use these crayons?" and there was no hesitation in me saying yes.

Yesss!!! That was the start of some fun pastel play.

Here are some of the beautiful results - there are many missing because they were taken home, or to bedrooms to hang on the walls before I got a chance to take a photo.

Most of them were plain colouring in...

... but sometimes a technique was added. Caitlin, inspired by her big sister, Annelise, scratched a design into her artwork with a gel-less gel pen.

The technique on this butterfly was to colour one side and then press a design onto the other side with a pen. Even though this is a fabulous result, it occurred to Caitlin after she finished that she could have drawn the whole butterfly on one side and the pressed it out on the other. Another time - when she gets over the cramp in her hand.

We've brightened up the winter sunlessness of the downstairs area with these vibrant artworks. You can also see there a works by Declan, Hudson and Annelise.

 Then Susannah said, "That one up there reminds me of a peacock."
And I was like "A PEACOCK!!! I could do a peacock!!!"
In my head it was way different, but this will do, eh?

In my mind I had hoped to do some scrapbooking or glue napkins to my handbag to change it up a bit and was feeling a little bit defeated but then I realised that this was just the creative outlet I needed in the last couple of cold, rainy days. And it's given me something to blog about too. :)

:D

PS: Black just makes the pieces POP!!!

Working With Watercolour

Last year I saw Jane Davenport's clever invention for happy creative travels - the Peerless Palette - and figured that would be a light and easy way to carry my watercolours with me when I go out. I purchased the Peerless Watercolors from Jane's store and then didn't do anything with them. I didn't forget about them - it was just a matter of getting my head around how and when I was going to make my light and easy watercolour palette. It didn't help that we had to move house for the 4th time in 3 years!

Skip forward about 9 months.

On Friday night I went to a craft night - the first one I have been to in Sydney - that's nearly 4 years of no craft nights! While pondering what I could take along to do I remembered my Peerless Watercolors and realised that this would be just the right thing to take along and get done.

It took a little bit of searching in boxes to find the paints and then a little bit of rummaging to decide what to make my portable kit in but when I came across a very cute photo album that my friend Peg had given me I knew it was the very thing I would use.*

After I had eaten a slice of poorly photographed** "Adult Cake" I set to work.

I surprise myself! You know how I love to have things arranged in rainbow order? Well, I kind of wanted to do that with my Peerless Watercolors but I chose not to make things hard for myself and not to agonise about it so I just chopped and stuck without a moment's remorse or regret.

With a feeling of great satisfaction about finishing a project I sat back and silently wondered how I could put my newly formed kit to use. I had recently been overwhelmed inspired by a watercolour portrait and the time-lapse video of it being created so when the lovely lady sitting next to me said "Paint a portrait of me!" I felt somewhat challenged to do so.

Still feeling rather relaxed about everything***, I whipped up a quick sketch and painted unreservedly, slopping watery paint all over the shop as if I was Agnes-Cecile. Not surprisingly, the results were tragic.

I knew that if I didn't pretend I was a watercolour artist and actually paid some attention to what I was doing, and waited for the paint to dry (that is one thing I find really difficult to do), then maybe I could produce a rendition that was half-way acceptable. I took a photo of the lovely lady sitting next to me, went home and the next day painted another portrait while watching listening to Bride and Prejudice.

Apparently, it looks like the lovely lady sitting next to me, cos when I showed it to some friends at church they could work out who it was with no clues. :)

I have a lot of respect for watercolour artists. A lot of respect.

:D

* I had used the very cute photo album for a while as an album for photos of my very cute grandson.

** That stuff is really hard to photograph. And that stuff on top is beetroot-coloured cream whipped to a fraction of a second short of butter!

*** Maybe it was the chocolate cake!

When Moses Comes To Our Place

Somehow I managed to coincide my little foray into scrapbooking last weekend with (inter)National Scrapbooking Day, not that that made any difference at all to my scrapbooking or the likelihood of scrapbooking actually happening.
Hennyway, I did a layout - my third for the year.

Journaling reads: When Moses comes over to our house he loves to play with the cars in Declan and Hudson's room. Other times, he likes to go outside in the back yard and play with Hudson's dinky car or kick a ball around. Another thing Moses likes to do is unlock the van, hop in, and go for a ride.

Nowadays I keep my scrapbook inspiration in Pinterest (Don't even go there! It is a TRAP!! You'll never get out!!!) so I had a quick squizz at my Scrapbook Pinboard and found a few layouts that I liked (of course). The one that inspired me most was the one that Kathie Link did when she was inspired by Julie. Interesting - I didn't even look at Julie's layout until now and I see that I also have circles punched out of blueish print.

I wish I knew how to deal with my photos on my Mac. I have booked myself in for One to One at least 3 times now and then have not been able to go. I can't even send it to my old computer cos it is up to the raspy breathing stage of imminent death. So you will have to put up with, yet again, a slightly edited Hipstamatic photo from my iPhone.

A Pinch and a Punch for the First of the Month

Photo from  here

I prefer the "pinch of snuff and a cup of punch" version to the "pinch of salt and punch the weak witch" version of this monthly game that I play but, really, it has nothing to do with either of these versions or any other explanation you might come up with.

The "pinch and a punch for the first of the month" game, for me, is just about being the first to realise it is the first of the month and getting in first to the recipient (victim) of the pinch and punch.

It all started years and years ago with Mum and Dad. They still do and I still do. If I can't be there to physically pinch and punch (friendly-like) then over the phone is the next best thing. The kids are all into it but they are hard pressed to realise before me.*

I have a friend who is an avid pinch-and-punch-er. There are no holds barred, so to speak, so in this technological age, I am using this blog post to pinch and punch her before she even gets her phone out to text me at midnight or 5 o'clock in the morning!**

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month! You know who you are!!! Ha ha ha ha.......    :)



*
DH doesn't play.

**
Most of our txt msg history is related to the first of the month.

1.1.2012
Me: Pinch and a punch for the first of the month. Happy New Year!!!
Her: Cant believe u got me again. Happy new year to u all.

1.2.2012
Her: Pinch and a punch for the first of the month no returns ...woo hoo can't believe I got u first.
Me: Whoa!!! Just went to do it and whammo! Congratulations. You got me. Here's a little flick and kick for being quicker than me.

1.3.2012
Me: I can't believe it's 8.20 on the first of the month and I haven't been got!!! A pinch and a punch for the first of the month. Hope all is well with you.
Her: Oh. ....just writing the date at work now. Drats. I deserve a slap. Hahaha.

1.4.2012
After a missed call from her...
Her: Pinch and punch no returns. ..... loves ya.
hehehe
Me: Ha ha ha
So far from my mind
I thought my alarm was going off. And my phone clock says 5.42am. Daylight savings has ended!!!

Scrapbooking Trend

I had the opportunity to scrapbook on the weekend - a rare occurrence nowadays. I managed to produce the second layout for the year so far.*

I took the photos on January 23rd and printed them out that day! Then they sat there somewhere in the vicinity of my questionable scrapbooking space until the moment I decided that I wanted to scrap a picture of my grandson and couldn't find a decent current photo of him. So I went with the already-printed photos of Susannah having fun posing with a breadstick.

I took immediate inspiration from Nic Howard and Amy Martin on the Aussie Scrap Source blog.

I had to take the photo of the layout with my phone because we (the royal) have lost the charger and spare battery for my Canon 400D and I haven't bought another one yet.



*Maybe the number of layouts I produce is a gauge of how simple/complicated my life is. Let's take a look at a graph of the number of layouts I did in the first quarter of each year since 2006.

I just spent an inordinate amount of time trying to work out Excel and, in the end, had to get Soph to help. Grrrr. Hennyway, as you can see, the number of layouts I actually produce has reduced drastically over the years.

Going Dotty

The other day when I was looking at elvie studio by Lori Vliegen I saw her post about the mighty micron and watched the video - The Making of "Hero"- a drawing of Miguel Endara's dad "composed entirely out of 3.2 million ink dots." Did he count as he was dotting away or did they do some kind of mathematical estimation?

Hennyway, this reminded me of a dotty picture that I once started but never finished

Why didn't you finish it? you may ask.

Well, way back in 1989 I was having a great time dotting away with my 0.1mm pen. Stippling, as it is called, afforded me time to ponder deep and meaningful things and I loved how the picture developed one dot at a time. I stippled at home and I stippled at school. This dotty picture was (was) to be my major work for 3 unit Art in the HSC and I spent a great deal of time on it.

One day I was called out of Biology to go to the principal's office. That was not a normal occurrence for me and it caused me a great deal of stress just wondering why on earth I should be called. I soon found out. The principal solemnly declared that something terrible, something devastating had happened - someone had spilt photographic chemicals on my major work.

I didn't burst into tears. I stood in stunned silence. Maybe I was in shock.

Then the principal said something that, to this day, I cannot fathom.
He said, "Would you like me to do the art work again for you?"

"WHAT!?!?!?!?!" (That's me now. Then, I just said, "No thank you.")

I don't remember if we brainstormed ideas then or later but no idea that the principal came up with was good enough for me. My picture was wrecked and I didn't want to do it all over again. I didn't want to do anything else either. In the end I just did some sketches and some paintings of various animals, mounted them on black cardboard and handed them in. It was done and I was disappointed.

Today, when I went to look for my dotty elephant I had a momentary panic, thinking that I had thrown it out in a fit of ruthlessness. And that might have been fine except that I knew that I didn't have a photo of it. It's okay now. I have a photo. I have a blog post.

So there you go - one random blog post by someone I do not know helped me remember something from a long time ago. I'm still a little bit sad about it.

A Doodling Update

It has been a while since I showed you inside my book that I carry around with me. I made this book at the beginning of the year and filled it with some paper from a spiral-bound notebook that Susannah didn't want any more. 

One BIG problem - the paper is uninspiring. Actually, I would go so far as to say it sucks any artistic feelings I might have right down like quicksand or sludge.  Nevertheless, I have waded through this negative occurrence and managed to get something on to the ugly green paper.

I was so excited when I learned how to do basket-weave the easy way thanks to TanglePatterns.com

There came a point where I just couldn't keep going with the ugly green paper and I fished out a Smash Book that I'd had for a long time. I decided that its beauty far outweighed its weight and that I would rather carry it around than the journal I had made. (I miss the journal I had last year that was made from a 2009 diary)

This one here is totally inspired by Alisa Burke

This one is inspired by a real live friend from church.

A work in progress

Started today on the train. Also a work in progress.

One day I will make my own smash-type book with the collection of papers, both odd and interesting, and maybe I will like it.

Sandoodling* at Sandringham

Today we had one of those days that can be described as "the best" - a day that just ambled along in a very relaxed manner. We joined some homeschooling friends (9 kids, 2 Mums all together) and went fishing at a little spot in Sans Souci.

When the wind became a bit of a bully we headed off to find a more protected spot to fish from. My friend knew exactly where to go - a little beach just next to Sandringham Baths.

With the wind slightly thwarted by the buildings behind us we soaked up the sun that had reappeared and cast the lines in again. No fish were caught but some of the kids have been bitten by the fishing bug and would like to give it another go real soon. Apparently K-Mart sells rods for $5 - how do they do that?

Susannah started making a sand castle and while she was scratching something out of the sand it suddenly occurred to me that we could doodle - on a grand scale - right there on the rain- and tide-flattened sand.

So we sandoodled - Susannah, my friend, her daughters, Caitlin, and I - all over the beach. SO much fun.

Here's a selection of photos. I say 'selection' because there are way more, believe me!

While we sandoodled the boys did some of their own sand art.

I love homeschooling. And Autumn. And friends. And doodling. And...



*Sandoodling - I made that up. :)

50th Birthday Party*

About 3 years ago I had an idea - have a big birthday celebration for my 50th birthday. I had ideas for a theme - wigs and wellies, a colour scheme or even complete fancy dress.

Finally my 50th birthday came into plan-able sight. Annelise and I started talking about the logistics last year. With help from family and friends and a few logistical upsets - moving house, being on a waiting list for an operation that was likely to land on my birthday - the party eventuated.

I would have really loved everyone to wear pink and I would've been as chilled as the pink champagne a lovely friend toasted me with but pink is not everyone's colour so I settled for black and white with a dash of pink if anyone wanted.

Pink Champagne. Cheers!

The party guests started arriving at 2.30 in the arvo  Some wore black and white, some wore pink . One added a pink bandanna, another a pink scarf. Dad had a pink face-washer hanging from his belt! And then there were some who didn't read the invitation at all - they came in whatever colour took their fancy. :)

Dad with his pink accessory.

If you think that having 83 guests arriving at any time, and not knowing when, between 2.30 and midnight is a bit tricky then try feeding them. It happened, with a little help from our friends, almost smoothly - I totally forgot to buy bread rolls and I forgot to put out the lollies (not a great loss) after dinner. So, we started with nibblies, then we fired up the barbecue for dinner (bring your own meat) with scrumptious salads, followed by desserts and birthday cake. My gluten-free dairy-free birthday cake failed the first time, the second one baked that morning and a success, sat on the kitchen counter under a tea-towel, un-iced, until about 7.30 when Caitlin and a few other helpers decorated it.

Cake by Caitlin.

Eventually, whoever was around at the time sang/sung (help me!) happy birthday to me and I blew out the "50" candle that we had saved from my Mum and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary celebration cake - little does Chris know how he contributed to my 50th birthday celebration!

Did you notice the black frame? I had a photo with all of my guests (not at the same time) in the frame. It was a nice idea and we got some lovely photos. But there were some a lot of duds as well and it would've been better to have a good photo and then add the frame digitally, in focus, in the right place than to have less than acceptable one-off photos of disappointing quality. Oh well. We live and learn.

Framed - Annelise, Moses and Alan with me.

We (Annelise and I) learnt a few things about the invitation too...
Keep the email short - make it easy for people to read it all.
Tell people to read the attachment - cos they might assume that the concise info on that is the same as in the email saga.
Make the font on the invitation simple - curls and scrolls make the address extra unusual.

My pink accessory.

So, all in all, I had a bonza birthday party. Now to plan my 60th birthday party!

Letter box for cards and contributions. Made by Annelise.

P.S. I'm writing this blog post on my new computer - my family and friends contributed so generously towards it instead of giving me 83 (or 35 - there were a lot of kids) very beautiful individual presents. I also got a lovely set of luggage from my sister, four gorgeous mugs from a friend, and a fabulous, health-giving plant from another friend. What more could I want?!

*Well, actually it was not my fiftieth birthday party. I can remember only a handful of birthday parties in my half century of life. This one was the best birthday party ever.