I'm going to where the weather suits my clothes

Here are four new girls, the other three are still under construction... I have also made them into postcard sets for my etsy shop...

This one is called, 'Lessons we haven't learnt yet'. I have always wanted to sail, and have a dream to sail around the little islands of Canada, whether it is possible I am not sure... and to be truthful I am probably too clumsy to sail?

This piece is called 'I'm going to where the weather suits my clothes'... she is my favorite one of the four. I love geese, especially after watching 'Fly away home'. I think they are very clever flying to where the weather suits their feathers.

The title of this piece is 'Saying the first thing thats in my heart' I wish I could do this...

The first time ever one of my girls has her mouth open... 'I know the stars that shine on me' I have a rotten voice and couldn't sing to save myself. But this girl can and it is all about knowing what you are good at or what you enjoy and doing it.


We were supposed to have the worst storm in a decade over the weekend, well my car decided to break down in the middle of it!!! Luckily for me by the time the storm made it to our east coast it had died down a little. I still got soaked waiting for the AA man to come and assess the damage, and my kind mother came to my rescue, and took us home as my car got towed away. We are due for another storm this evening, I do like a bit of moody weather (as long as I am not stuck in a broken down car)!!!


I have finally done myself a business card, I have had a few people asking whether I had one... so this is it.

As I finish these pieces of work I get worried, whether I will have any more ideas for another lot. Last night as I waited for sleep to come I could feel the little sensations of new ideas forming...

A flashback...

Regarding my last post I just remembered my own childhood fishing experience... a very experienced fisherman who lived next door took us fishing one day. He said in his whole experience of fishing he had never had a catch like the one I had.... I happened to 'catch' a $20 note on my line. We didn't catch anything else so we got fish and chips for tea with the $20. Back then $20 was enough to feed two whole families...

Back at work...

Well I am back at work and have nothing to show for the last week of the holidays (art wise), the week where I was going to finish the latest 7 girls... I just didn't have the energy in the evenings to do any work after coughing all day and feeling very heady and constantly blowing my nose.

Beside being sick we had a good holiday, Hannah had a good birthday and had fun in Australia with her Dad before he heads off to San Francisco to make wine. Stuart and Ben also enjoyed their birthdays, Ben had a robot cake and had three of his little friends over for a party.

One day sticks in my mind when we went to the port to go 'fishing'. I got a stick and tied some string from it with a paper clip on the end. After Ben had the fishing rod in the water for a while we would side track him, by saying 'oooh Ben look at that red motorbike, or ohhh look at the moon'... and then I would quickly whisk out a chocolate fish from my bag and attach it to the paper clip and then put it back into the water. The look on his face when he pulled up the chocky fish... he was happy then just stood there staring out at the mysterious water for a few minutes. What was going through his little mind I don't really know, but he had fun and said he was a good fisher man. The fish were a little salty but that is what happens when you fish them out of the sea.

So this week I am getting the work finished... it is funny when I'm not feeling well creating was the last thing I wanted to do, but now I can feel the creative need creeping back into my veins...

The holidays

Well we are half way through the holidays, Hannah is on her way home from Adelaide, Stuart, Ben and I all have bugs of some sort. Coughing, rashes, fevers and runny noses... But I have managed to get all the girls done and painted, I just need to get them onto their backgrounds. So hopefully between coughing and blowing my nose I will get them done before next Monday and list them on Etsy. I am pleased with the way they are looking, so far I think this one is my favourite.

I have been featured on the front page of an Etsy treasury again!!! so that is exciting...

I hope you are all well and happy.

close to my heart

I have started a new lot of work and these are the working drawings...

I am getting used to arms and hands, they are getting easier... but still a little odd. With the holidays coming up I am hoping to get these 7 done before I go back to work. The series will be called 'close to my heart'. I am excited about starting these and am itching to get started, but there are a few things I need to get done before I can truly start.

Although sleep leaves me behind

Every now and again I find sleep forgets to visit me some nights and I am left waiting and thinking, way too much thinking. I guess it is a busy job putting the world to sleep, as the world turns it would be an endless job in fact. Thank goodness for sleeps sisters! Where would we be without our sisters?

I don't actually have any sisters of my own to rely on just a brother... not long after he was born (he is two years younger then me) I 'got' an imaginary friend... his name was January. He was tall, much taller then me and old, way older then me, he traveled a lot and wore black.

My mother thought January came along to keep me company until my brother got 'interesting'. I am sure I must still see January now and again as I am still waiting for my brother to get interesting. Why couldn't I have had a helpful interesting sister like one of sleep's...?

I have just listed this on etsy... let me know what you think?

your moment

Am trying a few different colours lately... a little bit girly this one, a bit fleshy. I am not really a pink person but I like it with the trolleys. Ben loves hitching things up together to make a convoy around the house, and they all have their turns being in the front or holding the special toy etc... so this is about those special moments when it is your moment and your moment alone.

a new set of works "dream series"

I have been thinking for a while to start a new series for Etsy based on the sleep and her sisters theme. Here is the first partly finished one. They will all be numbered using only odd numbers (I don't think I want any even numbered dreams). They will probably be a little more coloured then my other work, but will see what happens.

I have just got some bigger paper to do some covers for pads to see how they will do. Am thinking the images I have might be a bit dull? will have to give it a go and see how they look. Will post one on here this afternoon if I have time, I have to put together another painting of houses for a lady in Timaru who saw my work in the Plunket show. So better get to it.

What a day!!!

I had a bit of a day yesterday... I had to take my daughter to the hospital for an appointment and once we got a park I looked on the back seat for my bag. It wasn't there (it contains my life... my handbag, my workbook, my Etsy folder and my lunch) slowly the mornings events came back to me. I had left my precious bag on the driveway!!!

We got back in the car and drove all the way home... It had gone, I was soooo upset. I rang the police and canceled my bank cards etc... and rang the hospital as we were going to be a bit late for Hannah's appointment. They said it was fine they could still fit us in... we went back to the hospital and saw the doctor. Once I got to work I had a phone message, a kind neighbour had been checking his mail box and saw my bag on the footpath and picked it up and found my work number. Apparently when I backed the car out of the driveway I had dragged my bag with it . My precious bag had big scrape marks over the handles but otherwise it was ok and everything was intact. I was so very happy to see it, I bought the kind man a big box of chocolates.

In my workbook I had several pieces of art work in different stages of being finished. I really don't know what I would have done if I had lost it... so I am thinking of starting a work book blog just in case I have another brain malfunction and leave my bag in the driveway again.

All the colours are changing in my eyes

I would like to thank everyone for their kind comments and support of my new Etsy shop. I got my first feedback yesterday... very exciting. I feel Etsy has given me something I have wanted to do for a long time. A community of like minded people from around the world, it is such a wonderful thing to be part of.

I have become quite fond of green in the last few months... with a touch of red. My daughter thinks they look art deco, very apt since we live in Napier.

I told them to smile but these three are a rather sombre lot. I am finding it interesting when I put hands and feet on the girls they seem to look a lot younger then with these long arms? For me the long arms make them seem wise. Like when my children were in my tummy I thought of them as being amazing, clever, highly intelligent creatures growing all the right bits in the right places to survive in the world they were soon to enter. But once they got to our world they instantly become helpless and are now having to learn how to survive again. And it is up to me to put those pieces in the right places for them.

In the past my girls would stand there all cool, calm and collected with whatever was going on around them happening in the background. Now they are starting to interact with their background and it is a whole lot of new things for them and me to learn... how they hold things, where their arms bend and how their feet sit on the ground etc...
and it is a little bit like giving birth again.

One of the sisters...

I am not sure which one of Sleeps sisters this is yet, but I know she is one of them... She must be the clumsy one, she was holding a dream catcher but has dropped it. I hope it doesn't land on anyone?

I am looking forward to the weekend, I've got a meeting tonight with a group of fellow artists. We were students together at art school and decided to form a group to make and sell our art (our goal was to go to Greece with the money)... Well 10 years later we had saved about $9000, not quite enough. With everyones lives getting so busy, having babies, doing more study, illness etc... we decided to divide up the money. We still meet once a month to catch up and talk arty things and girly stuff, but our goals have changed.

So I am looking forward to that, and I have some art work to post off to people from my Etsy shop. And maybe a sleep in tomorrow morning. Hopefully Sleep and her sisters heard that last bit. I WANT A SLEEP IN !!!

I am on ETSY!!!

Well I Have done it... I now have work on Etsy...

my shop name is sleepandhersisters, take a look and let me know what you think.

Everything depends on how near you stand to me

I have decided to split them up, I didn't like them being next to each other, they fought too much.

These pieces are going to be in a group exhibition called 'Threads' in a place called Little River, in the Banks Peninsula. I still need to add a few things, like the numbers and some thread (to fit in with the title theme). I will sew them to the backing paper.

I am waiting for a phone call about my credit card being oked to give to the etsy people then will start my site... am getting excited and a little nervous.

Have been feeling up and down in the last week, things are not right yet they are good?