easing into 2012...

Olive's new party dress and hat

Welcome to 2012... I hope the start of the year sees you all well and happy.  I have been taking it easy the last week, going with the flow and enjoying the sunshine (finally) and savouring the summer fruit.  

While I have been easing into 2012 Olive on the other hand has been going wild making dresses for herself and her sisters.  She is planning a party to celebrate her Uncle's birthday and is making him a new crown.  Her Uncle has been talking lately about giving up 'this whole King business'.  This talk has upset Olive a little... she doesn't see how a King can just stop being a King because he feels like it and hopes a new crown might change his mind.

I am not sure why Olives face looks like it has a line just under her nose, I think it might be my scanner as it is not on the original picture... hmmmm

I have just finished my last market, my last day of work and my last day of big long to do lists for the year...

I am pretty much sorted for Christmas just the day before supermarket shopping.  So I now have time to sit at my kitchen table and do some painting.

I have a bit of thinking to do about this one... the words I am not sure about, her arms are the wrong colour, her wings are not quite right and the bruises on her neck are a scanning issue.  But I do like the flags, the sky, her pretty dress and the bumpy bits at the bottom.

I always feel Arabella is looking at me like she knows something I don't, like she is about to tell me a secret.

New Zealand creative retreats...

I have been asked to teach a self portrait mixed media workshop early next year with two wonderful women... Carol Neilson, Journalling and Leonie Wise, Visual Navagation.

I am really excited and honoured to have been asked to be a part of this wonderful venture.   To be away from everything and surrounded by a group of lovely creative souls will be so inspiring.  If anyone is interested in joining us or more information please click here.

Olive's Uncle...

I am really liking Olive on this deep royal kind of red background.  Which actually suits her as Olive comes from a royal line (her Uncle is a King of a small coastal land).  Olive has been thinking of creating him a new crown for his birthday. 

dream me...

Well... Olive has been busy creating a new look for herself.  And  I am not really sure what else to say as she has kind of caught me by surprise.

I think Olive is probably everything I am not... everything I am scared of being and everything I want to be.  Olive might be my dream me.

stitches...

I had one of those wonderful happy little accidents with Olive... I ripped the bottom of her dress and was about to throw it out and do another one when I thought maybe I should just sew it together (Olive would like that and it is something she would do).  So then it got me thinking about stitches and sewing parts together.  This is something I used to do years ago when I painted houses and stitched the silk tissue around the edges of the painting.  I actually won a Norsewood Art Award  for a piece of work that had a whole lot of little squares threaded together.

I am not sure whether this piece is finished yet or not and I am not really happy with her tool belt, so I am going to sit with her for a while and see if anything more comes.

In the mean time I had another idea for Olive, completely different to the above picture and my original idea of who Olive is... I guess it wont hurt to try.

world famous in Canada...

A while ago I got an email from Eddie Douglas (a children's singer-songwriter from Guelph, Ontario, Canada) asking if he could use an image of my 'Hope floats' print for the cover of his CD. There was a bit of emailing back and forward as we sorted things out and then the finished CD arrived in the mail the other day!!! I am very excited to share it with you today.


It looks amazing to see one of my little girls on the front of a CD!!! Eddie's songs are really lovely and I think my favourites are Luna and Night-time song.

I have also been doing a bit of work on Olive and I think she is nearly finished, so I will share her in my next post (which wont be a month later like my last post... I promise)

I also made the front page on Etsy this morning (while I was sleeping) in this beautiful treasury...

say hello to, Olive...

(image by Mayu colour swatch by Rachel Follett)

Olive is a very crafty girl, she is always making things... sewing, designing, cutting, inventing, creating, drawing, planning, attaching, imagining, gluing, devising, constructing, altering, thinking... 

She makes all of her sisters lovely dresses, although some of her hat designs have never seen the light of day as they are far too extravagant and not particularly practical.  She has even designed a few outfits for the dark beast, much to the horror of her sisters.  But Olive's thinking is that even baddies need to feel good in what they wear (Olive is very kind like that).

I am thinking of adding some soft blue/green tones in the background and a few essential crafty tools to her tool belt. 

I am very very silly...

I spent all week struggling with these colours for the new sister and then it hit me, these are Ariadne's colours... no wonder I fell in love with this colour swatch when I saw it, they were already so familiar!!!

Soooo... last night I had a rethink about the new sister and I am quite excited about her.  It is funny how these things work themselves out.  I should have realised early on why it wasn't coming together so easily.

Anyway, more about that in my next post... this post is about the winner of my giveaway!

The winner is #17 Nancy Melbourn!!!  (Nancy if you can send me your postal address to katherinequinn@xtra.co.nz and your pick of print you want... {this can be from my shop or blog} let me know and I will get it posted out to you asap with a few extra goodies).

birthday giveaway...

(a few things I got on a birthday shopping trip in Wellington)

Today is my birthday, I am 40 ...there is not much more I have to say about that.

So I've decided to have a giveaway to celebrate...  leave a comment on this post and next Tuesday I will pick someone to win a print from my shop or blog and a few other goodies.

(photo by abbytrysagain colour samples by Rachel Follett)

In other news I have decided on a name for my next sister.  I meet a sweet wee girl in the weekend that inspired me, she will be based on these colours above.  I just love this combination, they make me happy... so stay tuned!

Don't forget to leave a comment if you want to enter the giveaway.

can I change my mind...

(Ariadne's knots... unfinished)

I have started writing little info cards to go with my new sister prints (I am getting these ready to list in my shops soon).  I am a little worried though... once I have posted these images and my ideas about them are out in the world, can I change my mind? can I decide that maybe Ariadne is not so fond of sheep anymore, that in fact she is a little afraid of them? Or that maybe Arabella isn't completely who I thought she was? or that Genevieve doesn't actually like to talk? Can I change my mind... ?

I'm going where the weather suits my clothes...

(my wine box offering for this year...)

 I have found myself today with an empty 'to do list' So I am thinking I might do a whole lot of nothing today... and considering we are due for a big storm to hit it is probably a pretty good idea.  But we probably wont get any interesting weather as it usually peters out before it hits us.

I have finished my wine box for this years auction... I had a few chemical reactions that exploded on the surface which added an interesting dimension. It is titled "I'm going where the weather suits my clothes" will let you know how much it goes for in the auction.

Something else I have been thinking of doing is a big abstract canvas painting for myself, really big like 1m x .5m (that is big for me).  It will be like a big huge experiment.  I am thinking that these chemical reactions I have had on the wine box might be interesting to try on the canvas... although it would be good to see if I can control them a little.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately... I just hope all these thoughts will come to fruition.

I have been thinking...

I have been thinking about my sisters this past month... just thinking about them as I have been too busy to be working on them (I miss them).  I have been thinking about who they are, what they like to wear and what sort of note book they would like to use if they needed one.  So from there I thought that I might like to design a range of jewellery, stationery etc... for each of them (like the Genevieve range or the Ariadne range).

It's just an idea...