worse for wear...

I feel a little like a real estate agent... maybe not a real estate agent, maybe more a construction company that sidelines in real estate.  I build a few houses on a hill then I remove one and replace it with another, then I fill them with imaginary families.  I am not too sure about the sky yet, it is quite hard to see in this picture but there is subtle colour there, but I don't think it is quite enough... so I will work on that.

I took my Christmas tree down today {the day before new years eve} I know there are rules and rituals about this sort of thing but... well... I just don't like the idea of starting the new year with last years Christmas tree sitting in the lounge looking a little worse for wear, it just doesn't feel right.  Has anyone else broken the rules or planning on breaking them?

Anyway I wish you all a happy and safe end to 2010 and a wonderful new year to come... xxx

it is probably best to look in both directions...

Some of my Christmas presents...

 DVDs... The Jane Austin book club, and a three pack

Books... Knit two Kate Jacobs, The Pact Jodi Picoult and Minding Frankie Maeve Binchey

A map thermo cup

perfume CKone

No 3 glass bottle {my favourite number}

A Moopie

bedside lamp

string dispenser with a place to put sissors {very handy for a girl like me}

babushka dolls

I also got a few other things, but they were in use at the time of this photo shoot... sandwich press grill thing, a beautiful mosaic plate that is piled with goodies and a herb chopper.

I am going to a friends place soon for a day of 'making'... so last night I got out my box of bits for making my new house pictures and added a few things... my 2011 diary which I have covered in red leather {top left... just a wee note here if I ever say left or right, it is probably best to look in both directions}  I think I might add some coloured end papers to my new diary {I can't stop picking this up and holding it in my hands, it feels and smells so lovely}, an old piece of work I found the other day that I might want to rework,  a creepy but cool moopie face that I haven't actually done anything with yet... but I like to look at it so will bring it along for a day out. Also some pages from old books and an old piece of paper that is handwritten in French text that I plan to use for houses.  When I bought the pages with French text from a shop in town  the lady said 'oh these are so lovely I have them displayed in a roll on my mantlepiece'... she then asked what I had in mind for mine, I said 'I am actually going to rip mine up'.  The look on her face was rather funny.

So at the end of today I plan to have a few more house pictures done and my red leather diary ready for the coming year.

if you squint your eyes it looks like it's snowing...

More houses...   these are starting to remind me a little of maps, maybe it is the colours I am using, or possibly some of the little characteristics I am using are reminding me of the details on a  map, like the white half circles represent waves and the graphite ones are rocks... maybe I need a key at the side like on a map? Hmmmmm...

I thought I would share a few things that are happening in my world over the last few days before Christmas...

We don't have snow here, not even in the winter time... but we do have this tree (not sure what it is called).  it is covered in blossoms at the moment and when the wind blows the petals all float down and if you squint your eyes it looks like it's snowing... it really does.

This is my favourite tree decoration, a friend gave me a set of five of them , they are each holding something different around their necks and they all have small nails for hair (which are quite hard to see in this picture).   They also have arms that swing back and forth and one day a friend of Hannah's came over and thought that our angels were carrying rifles as one of their arms were sticking right out (it really did look like a rifle... she must have thought we were quite odd).

It was so warm the other night I decided to have fruit salad for tea... water melon, pineapple, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, paw paw and nectarine... mmmm I heart fruit salad for tea.

So thats what has been going on around here... I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your families and will look forward to sharing 2011 with you.   I am not so good with words, but I would also like to say thanks, now that isn't just the ordinary thanks, as in thanks for the salt type thanks, it is the thanks that says I wouldn't be where I am today without your support type thanks... that silent kind of thanks that goes beyond words.


Thanks... xxx

if only I was able...

Wow... it was so muggy today, not really good weather for doing anything much.  In saying this I am really aware of those in the northern hemisphere who are suffering the opposite.  would be nice if we could swap a few degrees.

Anyway this is the third piece in my houses series.   I am quite partial to the house on the far right, I think I would like to live in it... if only I was able.  Something else I used to do a lot of in my old house paintings were washing lines (washing is my most favourite household chore).  So you might see a few of these in amongst my new houses.

If anyone is interested I will be adding some of these to my poor neglected etsy shop in the next few weeks.

Now I must dash as there is a total lunar eclipse happing in just a few minutes!

minding my own business...

Someone came to my stall at the Fruit Bowl Craft Jam and told me she had a piece of my work from a few years ago... she said it was of 3 houses.   I haven't done one of them for about four years now and so I have decided to take this small connection as a sign to give them a go again... {my Mum will be pleased}.

Houses have always been an important part of my work...  many years ago I based my end of year student exhibition on these handmade books I made in the shape of houses and a few years after that I had several exhibitions with my printing ink and shellac houses.  Anyway... these new pieces will be a little bit different from the old ones, for anyone who remembers them.  Although I am still wanting to incorporate maps, silk tissue, stitches and page numbers... all of which I used in the old houses and maybe a few new things like fish, flowers and boats {especially the handy little tug boats}.

Well... it was my last day of work yesterday and I am looking forward to getting ready for Christmas and six weeks of holidaying.  Despite the fact I am starting my holidays with a swollen and bruised ankle...  I was walking back from the mail room at work, reading a Gordon Harris Christmas catalogue minding my own business but not watching where I was going.  A split second later I found myself sitting in the garden with a very sore ankle!  Luckily it was the end of the year so there weren't so many people around and no one saw... {I hope}.

natural to my hands...

I have been re-aquainting myself with my art supplies the last few days. After a long break (two and a half months!!!)  I sometimes struggle to get back into the routine of making art again and I find the best way is to do something I know, something that comes natural to my hands without too much thought.  Starting with something familiar works well for me as it gets my brain into the groove of creating again, slowly bringing back the thoughts, methods and feelings I have filed away from where I left off last time and the new ones since.

I usually pile my table high with pretty papers, colours that inspire, quotes that get me thinking, inspiration from others, notes and sketches scrawled on scrap pieces of paper... and I soak it all up.  These first few days of diving back in can be a little frustrating as I nut things out, but it is a necessary part of my process and sometimes good things can come...

it's me again...

Wow what a crazy month it has been... that kind of wonderful crazy that happens at this time of the year.  I like to keep myself busy and boy has it been that!  

The photos below are from the Fruit Bowl Craft Jam at the Hawke's Bay Opera House in Hastings, just last weekend, wow what an amazing weekend.  This all weather venue was the perfect place to hold a market, such a wonderful setting.  It was light and airy and plenty of room for all the lovely stalls and stall holders... some of which were old friends who I hadn't seen in a while, some I work with and saw the day before and some were new friends I had never meet before.

 (Hawke's Bay Opera House... Fruit Bowl Craft Jam 2010)

(my stall... looking from the street back into the market)

(a rather messy close up of my table... bookmarks, pendants, prints, diaries and an empty water bottle)

(and the other end of my table... diaries, magnets, calendars, notepads, prints, button magnets and cards)

It was so lovely to meet all the people who came by my table... I really enjoyed meeting you all and appreciate your custom and interest in my work.  I am always so nervous before these kinds of things, not knowing how it will go, what people will think etc... But I always come away with a really good feeling inside.

blog break...

I have decided I might take a blog break for a few weeks... just while I get all these things made for the three markets that are coming up.  I am not doing any new works during this time so I don't really have anything new to show you.  But I will come back soon with some photos of my stalls and the beautiful settings where some of the markets will be held.  I might also fit in a little bit of painting... I can already feel the withdrawal after not picking up a paint brush since the opening of my exhibition starting to set in.

So see you again soon... x

a little lost...

This is the beginning of a new piece of work... I am not sure what it will look like when it is finished or where it will lead but this is where it's at right now.

While I was nearing the end of getting work ready for the exhibition I had a lot of new ideas forming in my head, but I couldn't really do anything about them as I didn't have time to start new works. And now these ideas have gone... well maybe not gone, they have just gotten a little lost.  Which is the way I am feeling at the moment.  Like this piece above I am not sure where I am heading, where I want to go, want to be... I feel like I am just a tiny step ahead of everything, with not much room for breathing. Although I guess it is better than being a step behind and it is probably just the way it is at this time of the year.

I am finding it is so easy these days to give myself a hard time for not living up to my own dreams...  I wonder whether there is anyone out there who is completely living the life they dreamed?

Out of the blue the other day Ben asked me this...

Ben..."Is Michael Jackson dead"?
Me... "yes he is"
Ben..."was he alive before he died"?

I am the winner of aroha...

button magnets

I have had a few days of doing nothing much after my exhibition opened and now I am starting to think about making things for the three art markets I will be involved in, which start 21 November...

So here is a list of things I will be making in the next month...

magnets
cards
prints
bookmarks
diaries
button magnets
pendants

I have started on the button magnets... these are very cute and the magnet is very strong.  Both Hannah and Ben had fun with the magnets before I glued them onto the glass button.  After finishing these I proudly showed Ben what I had done with them he got very upset and wanted me to take the magnets off my new creations as I had ruined his fun.

Some exciting news... I just found out yesterday that I was the winner of Pam's giveaway!!!  and this is the print that will soon be on it's way to me... I can't wait!

Aroha (which means love in Maori)

exhibition opening...

It can be so hard putting your heart and soul up on the wall for all to see and comment on, in fact... really quite scary.  As I was hanging my work yesterday afternoon I asked myself several times why am I doing this?  It wasn't until I woke this morning that I remembered why...  I do it because it makes me happy and after all the nerves and self doubt, last night... I went to bed happy.

just finished the hanging

my Dad next to the food table down the back 

people looking just after we opened the doors

and more people looking

Latecia showing me her favourite...

Thank you everyone who came and supported me it was a great opening and to all those who would have liked to have been there but couldn't make it or were just too far away (as in the other side of the world) I really appreciate your kind words and thoughts. xxx

Christmas ornament swap...

I am taking part in this 'Christmas ornament swap'... if you would like to take part in this fun global event as well or want to read more about it click here. 

I am not completely sure what I will make for it yet... but am thinking along the lines of a magnet of some sort???  Maybe a multi purpose magnet that can be hung on your Christmas tree or for your fridge... hmmmm?

no pink cheeks...

(after this piece was finished I realised I forgot to give her pink cheeks)

On the way home from a little road trip during the week Hannah and I had this conversation...

Me...'that is the All day breakfast place where people go in and never come out'
Hannah... 'really'
I nodded and after a few kilometers of silence...
Hannah...'didn't we stop there once'?
Me...'yeah we got ice blocks'
Then we both looked at each other and burst out laughing.

For some reason when I think back to this conversation it still really cracks me up, just one of those silly moments where I guess you had to be there.

Some things I am looking forward to...

• 8:30pm 17 October as I shut the doors on the opening of the exhibition
• having a play around with a few new ideas
• getting things ready for the next design market
• 'How to train your dragon' coming to DVD
• playing dinosaurs tomorrow morning

What are you looking forward to...