I love Wellington

I had another wonderful time in Wellington... We were worried about the weather but it was perfect, a bit moody at times (I like a bit of that every now and again) but mostly sunny. We stayed in a cute back packers in Paekakariki where they have little penguins nesting under the deck. We caught the train into town to watch the Phoenix, they lost their game. Most disappointing as they tried very hard at the end but I think a bit more effort earlier in the game might have been a better result. oh well...

We went shopping and I bought this beautiful bag... I love bags.

it is red and orange on the back and has the perfect amount of pockets on the inside and a zipped closing one on the back, I am in love.

Was the best labour weekend in a long time...

Now time to get back into work again, I have nearly finished printing out all my work for the Christmas sales. They start November 18th so I have a bit of time to get things sorted and ready.

A long weekend...

Every year at the end of October we are more often then not disappointed... the weather has been so warm and sunny, you can feel summer just around the corner. So we make plans for the long weekend ahead, but Mother Nature steps in to remind us we are still in the middle of spring and she releases cool rain upon us as a reminder. Summer, like Christmas, is still a few months away.

We were planning on going down to Wellington to see the Phoenix (football) play an Australian team at the Cake Tin. But the forecast is for rain, rain, rain... so I am not sure if we will go or not. I don't fancy getting drenched but I do like to see the excitement in Stuart's face as we watch a live game (maybe that is worth getting drenched for)?

Anyway the above painting has a couple of cabbage trees... you find them splattered all over the place in New Zealand... a bit of an icon really.

I am really enjoying this process of working, it is most satisfying. Because I don't have much actual creative time in my day the speed I am now able to work at getting something finished is good. I don't have work hanging around for weeks waiting to dry... waiting to see whether an idea worked or not. So far I've not been worrying too much about colour, mainly keeping a similar tonal palette and concentrating on the process.

I am a little afraid of colour to be honest. My mind is keen but my hands keep going for the same tubes when I come to do anything creative. I dress in a similar colour palette to my paintings... sagey green skechers, dark green almost black pants, black top, sagy green (very similar to sneakers) cardi... BUT then I am wearing a bright rusty orange coloured rain jacket. The colour I like the best if I had to choose ONE would be red, out of all the colours of paint tubes in my paint box, I have 5 different reds, that is more then any other single colour (I haven't used any of them in the last 7.5 months though)... I don't know why I am rambling on about all this but I think it might be because I am ready to try a few different colours?... maybe.

The Wild Food Festival went really well... everyone had a great time and the rain held off for pretty much most of the evening. My box looked good on the table with all the other dishes. It was different this year, not so many wild foods as such, there were more normal dishes with creatively wild titles. There was a live band, a dance floor and lots of people I knew. It was good to catch up with some I hadn't seen for ages and also good to talk to people I had seen every day that week.

The craft market went well, I had a slightly sore head and was rather tired (we didn't get to bed till about 2ish) so it was hard getting out of bed really early after a long night. There were heaps of people at the market, I meet a few from other parts of New Zealand that were keen to have my work in their galleries... it is something I think we should have more of in Hawke's Bay.

Started on a few new pieces yesterday.... oh yeah I didn't have to do my jury service as they had a case that they thought was going to take longer then the week (also it is a short week as it is labour weekend and Hawke's Bay anniversary day) so they didn't want to hold people up over the long weekend. Yay yay yay!!!

The new piece I have been working on features a few Nikau Palms...

(Nikau Palm endemic to New Zealand)

I have been quite busy lately getting works done for the galleries I supply, it is that time of the year I guess. But it is a good feeling being so busy in a creative way. I also have the Christmas sales coming up next month so have a lot to do to get ready for that.

wild food festival

Tomorrow is the Annual Wild Food Festival in our neighbourhood. It started out as a small pot luck dinner about 5 years ago and is now a huge 200 - 300 people event. The object is for everyone to bring a plate of wild food. They have had breast milk muffins, really strange stews and weird and wacky dishes based on local current events etc...

I have made this box and covered it with my paintings. The idea is that you have to put your hand in the top and you don't know what you are going to scoop out. The thought is going to be more scary then actually doing it as it'll be filled with marshmellows. To make them wild I am going to draw wild faces on the marshmellows with a food colouring pen.

This is a new painting that is now in my etsy shop... I have used it to make some new business cards (I love making business cards) for a craft fair that I am involved in on Sunday.

I have jury service next week, I am hoping I wont be picked.

Little Black Box promo

(I had so much fun putting together these samples)

Well I have finally got confirmation that my promos for the Black Boxes have arrived safe and sound... there was a while there where I didn't think they were going to make it.

Because I had decided to make 100 magnets and bookmarks for the samples, they were rather heavy once I had packaged them all together in their little box. I went to the post office and it was going to cost $68 to post the small box!... and ... I had to declare what was in the box and the very grumpy and unhelpful woman told me that magnets were not aloud to be posted... she suggested shipping them via boat, which will take a few months! I left taking the box home again, unposted and thinking all my work putting them together was wasted.

I then had a brain wave, if I posted 10 of the samples in 10 separate envelopes it would cost half the price and I wouldn't have to declare what was in them... Well that is what I did and now I feel like going to the post lady and saying poo to you!

You can have a look at my banner here at Little Black Boxes.

The Little Black Box is the perfect place for consumers to learn about our wonderful online retailers before purchasing. It's a handmade revolution! In past months we've had jewelry, bath and body, candles, bookmarks, keychains, buttons, magnets, luggage handle wraps, silk scarves, dog treats, stationery, photography, tissue cozies and much much more!

Put your product in our boxes and let the world know you exist! We feature everything handmade. No big box retailers here. Contact The Little Black Box for more info. GO INDIE!

(nice, good, sweet Ben)

This is my little Ben, he now has all his curls cut off and I think he looks naughtier without them. I feel curls make people look nice and good and sweet. All the people that see him now say 'Oh you chopped all his curls off'. I tell them that 'they will grow back, curls are like that'.

I took this photo to use his face to put with a super hero body for a t shirt for his Dad for father's day.

Back again...

It is good to be back at work again, although I feel like I have stepped into another persons life, having to get up so early and be organised this morning.

I had a good break, did a bit of work and a bit of nothing much too. Lots of socialising and sleep ins. Stuart took Ben to Palmerston to see his family and I had three days to myself (Hannah spent most of the holidays sleeping over at friends houses). I spent the first day creating and didn't stop till I felt a bit peckish at 8pm... was nice to stop when I was ready and not to have think about other people.

Anyway here are a few pieces I did over the break... they will be in my Etsy shop this afternoon.


These are two pieces I did in the last few days of my holiday (I did six others but sold them at some of my galleries before I had a chance to scan them) I put them onto these little wood blocks I got from The Gilded Leaf and they look really sweet. They are 100mm x 100mm, you can sit them on a shelf or they have a little hole in the back where you can hang them on the wall. I am wondering whether to sell them with prints on them, I do find it really weird the whole print vs. original thing... I think selling them with prints on the blocks will make the ones with originals less special.

I find it really interesting with galleries how some of them are really helpful are I feel they are working with/for me. Two of these are The Gilded Leaf here in Napier and the other is Kura in Taupo, really wonderful woman to work with and so helpful. Then there are the others that are not as helpful and I feel they are against me. Anyway...

Well I hope everyone has been happy and well, I am looking forward to catching with you all again.

A few new works in my etsy shop...

After cleaning my very dirty stamps and brayers I piled them on my table. Looking at them made me smile, they are like friends to me, they are a part of a happy time in my day.

I am in the middle of restocking my galleries for the Christmas period... A busy time. We have two weeks holiday starting next week and then it will be the last term, which will be very hectic and then very quiet. So I am hoping to get a bit of work done during the next couple of weeks... whether it will happen or not is another thing.

So if you don't hear from me for two weeks that is because I am either very busy doing more work or very busy doing nothing.

I got too excited and now I have a headache

New Zealand silver fern (koru)

We went to Boundary Stream on Saturday and had such a lovely walk (although I don't think Ben did too much walking) through the native New Zealand bush. It was amazingly cool under the canopy, very quiet and you could almost taste the quality of the oxygen. So many different birds chirping and singing and we saw bugs... I love bugs.

It has inspired me to add some of this beautiful flora and fauna around me to my work. The koru, which is often used in Māori art as a symbol of creation, it is based on the shape of an unfurling fern frond. Its circular shape conveys the idea of constant movement, and its inward coil suggests a return to the point of origin. The koru symbolizes the way in which life both changes and stays the same.

I have had a lot of comments in the past that my work has a northern hemisphere 'feel' to it. Which I always thought was kind of cool since I have never been further north then the top of New Zealand... but now I feel I want people to know where I come from, know who I am.

I am excited about the idea of giving my work and girls a sense of belonging... my brain is starting to work overtime and now I have a headache.

There's a dream still in my heart

I did a bit of shopping the other day and found these cute little doilies stickers... you can just see one in the top left hand corner of this piece. I also found this new paper called cherish, it's just so beautiful, it has all the colours I love, swirls and heart shapes (hearts are very important to me, I had a heart attack about 10 years ago. There was an extra bit on my heart and I had to have an operation to fix it).

I used to have hearts in my work all the time, they were the final important part to a piece of work, but I have noticed lately that I've not been using them so much? This one above is the first in a long time.

I got the piece of work featured in the magazine from the framers yesterday, it looks really good, the Gilded Leaf always do a wonderful job. I will take a digi pic of it this weekend and post it here on monday.

This whole making art thing is such a roller coaster of a ride, lots of ups and downs all within a few hours, and sometimes minutes. One stroke of the brush can change everything. I really do feel that my daily mood depends on what is happening with my art work. I am not sure whether that is a bad thing or not? I guess it is just the way it is as it is a part of me and who I am. It is what truly makes me happy, it is my bliss. I couldn't imagine not ever being on that roller coaster.

My five minutes of fame...

A picture of my art work ended up in a magazine!!!

A funny story... I found an article about this woman's art exhibition called WAX and wondering whether I should enter or not I sent the coordinator an email asking all about it and also sent her a pic of one of my works... she emailed me some info and an entry form.

Well months passed and I had received a few emails from her asking if I was still interested. I was but there was a $25 entry fee for each piece and I just hadn't got around to doing anything about it.

Then yesterday I got another email asking if I could please enter as she had sent some images of works to the Next magazine (a NZ lifestyle mag) as advertising to put into the calendar feature of their magazine. Mine was one of the images she sent... and guess what it was mine they picked for the magazine!!!

So I kind of felt I had to enter now, and she said since I was picked for the magazine I could have free entry... wow!!! So off to the picture framers I went with my famous piece of art work and a smile on my face enjoying my five minutes of fame.

I will let you know how I get on in the competition.

(my famous piece of work hee hee)

32 good things...

(view from the car coming home from Wellington)


32 good things and a funny taste

we had such a lovely time
none of us wanted to come back
the weather was just gorgeous
good company, really good company
so much laughing and giggling
23 toilet stops
lots of walking... good for the heart
but not so good for the feet
we went to 5 galleries
and 59 shops
Iko Iko was the best
creative ideas were flowing
ate amazing food at amazing places
my favourite was monsoon poon
we drank vodka and cocktails
hair brained schemes were thought up
we saw a play at the Circa theatre
it was called 'some girls'
it was about a boy
I love Wellington at night
I don't love Wellington's water
we talked
then went to bed
woke up and talked some more
I snored (apparently)... but just softly
we visited an old friend
a rainbow followed us down to Wellington
we thought it was a sign so bought a lotto ticket
we had wonderful ideas of what we would do with
14 million
we didn't win the big one
but we won a bonus ticket for next week
I got confused about the Royal family

Swirly trio

A lovely day today, nice and warm... spring is on it's way.Last night I did these on three little mdf boards with my new swirly stamp. Stuart said it looked like his Grandmothers wallpaper. I am taking that as a compliment even though I don't think it was meant to be (I might have over done the stamping a wee bit)? I have really been enjoying Kelly Rae's book "taking flight" it is a wonderful resource of ideas that you can adapt and apply to what you already know.

I am feeling a kind of anxious energy at the moment as far as my art is concerned. The changes I wanted and have talked about in previous posts are slowly starting to happen. It is all very exciting but I am anxious about leaving my printing inks behind... A few years ago I hated acrylics, they were so frustrating!!! But now I am able to get them to behave and work the way I need, to do the things the inks did but 7 times faster. I see all sorts of possibilities opening up before me, and that in itself is making me a little anxious too.

I am looking forward to going to Wellington tomorrow. I have decided to take the day off work and have a nice restful morning before I get picked up just after lunch. I am not really sure what we are going to see and do but whatever it is I am in!!!

two by two

I started these a while ago and did a bit more on them last night... I had lots of fun and found the acrylic was so easy to work with, it dries fast and if you don't like a bit (if your fast) you can just rub it off. It is forgiving to a certain extent and you can add lots of mediums to create different effects. One thing I have found, is that varnish should really be the final layer. Paint doesn't sit on top very well once it has dried, although it's not impossible.

I have found that my family have been more helpful lately as far as my paintings are concerned. They are giving me their opinions on what they think and advise on changes I should try . Whereas in the past they would say it looks ok and that would be it.

This one has too much of a contrast between the hair and the rest of the painting... (this was Hannah's observation) I have lightened it a bit but think it may need more.

This one has an Autumn feel about it, with the colours and the falling leaves... I think the hair colour is better in this one as the dresses are of a similar tone.

There is a third one which I am going to attack tonight, it has more blue, grey, green tones so will be interesting to see what happens with that.

I am trying to loosen up a little, not be so tight and neat with my work. I think the acrylic lends itself to that as you have to work faster before the paint dries and there is not enough time to be too anal about it.