Brisbane Creativity

Hi there...how cute is this book? It was in the lovely bookshop near the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, and I probably should have bought it, but perhaps I was feeling guilty about the cost of flying up to Brisbane to see some mates. Anyway, if you feel the need to crochet up a large plate of sushi, now you know where to go. Our very good friends in Brisbane are regular visitors to the Qld art gallery, and the gallery of Modern Art (next door). They have the most amazing activities for kids, so they often take their 3 & 6 year olds in there and happily spend the day doing fun stuff. The exhibition we saw was by a local artist from the Gold Coast....

As you can see he is partly inspired by the 1950's hotel signs which must have been all over the place at one stage in Surfer's Paradise. I can't resist a bit of 1950's futuristic advertising!

The artist's name is Scott Redford, but his alter ego (an imaginary artist and surfer dude) is Reinhardt Dammn. There were a lot of surf-boards in the exhibition, including a 12 minute video of 3 chicks in bikinis sawing through surfboards with handsaws. Sounds sexist and pointless, I admit, but my friends' kids loved it! They watched it twice and howled with laughter at the skinniest girl, with no muscles at all that I could detect, who struggled to even get the saw to bite into the surfboard. They will watch anything, as their dad said.
My favourites at the exhibition were these giant polar bears, but my favourite artwork this week is by my 12 year old creative genius.....

This is Artemis and Appollo, and she just whips this sort of thing up all the time. I know everybody thinks their children are super amazingly talented, but they're not! Only my child is! So there. Anyway, most of the creativity in our house this week is her doing, unless you count me spending the week-end with my NZ mate Hana, and her lovely friend Mandy. We were creating memories! Does that count? Happy creating, everyone!

My Creative Space

I've been farting around with Illustrator again..... This fabric is for a contest on Spoonflower for an upcoming theme of candles, surprisingly. If you have not been to the Spoonflower website, you really must ! Firstly, you have to vote in the fabric contest, and you have to vote for me , and secondly it is the best thing since sliced bread. you can upload pretty much any image and have it printed on fabric digitally, and you can get as much or as little as you want. I'm sure you are all spoonflower groupies already but if not you will find it here . In other groundbreaking news I did my first market.....
Yes it was nearly 3 weeks ago, but since I am a relaxed kind of blogger I am only just getting my report together now. It was fun to be with the lovely Tilly for the day, and to meet some great people, including Tania of Myrtle and Eunice who was selling cuter stuff than mine right next to me!! I need to set up next to someone with poxy things next time. The market was fairly quiet, but a good experience given that I have no experience at all in these matters...thankfully a few friends came to say hi and buy some of my bits and pieces. Where would we be without buddies who buy all our crap and say it looks nice?

Lastly on the week-end, my niece Daisy threw a big 3 year old party, with a bit of support from Mum and Dad, and her evil auntie (me) forgot her camera. My sister always whips up some seriously gorgeous decorated cookies and cakes, but unfortunately you will never see them as they were un photographed. I really must get a little camera instead of the big monster I have now, although I have only just worked out how to use it after 2 years so it would be a bummer to have to start again. Anyway, it was a great week-end in Melbourne with my family, and great to meet some of my sister's new school mum mates including Janet...Hi Janet!
Happy Birthday to my fabulous Daisy, and happy crafting to everyone else!!!

Crazy Town!

It is pretty crazy around here at the moment.....There is manic sewing before the daylesford Makers Market this week-end where I will have my first ever market stall! I hope I sell something or I will have to head to the bar immediately afterwards. If you're anywhere near Daylesford, come and say hello. I will be in the Town Hall looking desperate...

There's crazy baking going on for my Matilda's art class where they are decorating cakes for Christmas already....

There are piles of marking to be done on students' projects. These are just hanging around the house staring at me. It's kind of creepy!! They will just have to wait until Sunday after the market....

There is ironing to be done to finish heat setting my printed bags for the market....

And last week there was a pile of baking, BBQ organising and a million other little jobs for our School Fete. Also last week was a colonoscopy and an anaesthetic, but no pictures of that, you will be pleased to know. I haven't even mentioned our psycho killer puppy and his destructive habits.....

So overall things are quite nuts around here. Hope you are all having a slightly calmer week...xoxox

My Creative Space

It's a beautiful day for screenprinting today! The chooks are in the backyard waiting for the sun to come up so they can head out for a day of scratching and worm hunting.

I will be inside for a little while doing a bit of printing on some tea towels and calico bags for the Daylesford Makers Market on 6th November. The weather helps a little bit though as things dry fairly quickly...

Here is my nes squeegee (probably the wrong spelling) My last one split in the centre, either from old age or abusive treatment by me.

Hopefully the screen won't dry out too quickly today which can happen in nice weather. The print (below) was inspired by an old Deco postcard of Daylesford that my friend Beck showed me. This area was popular in the 1920's / 30's because of all the natural springs etc, so we have some beautiful deco buildings around the place to inspire us. Anyway, less talk and more action! Have fun in your creative space today!

My Creative Space

For a while now my creative space has been taken up with teaching myself Adobe Illustrator. I'm sure lots of you smarty pants creative people have been using it for a long time, but we only bought it a few months ago so I am a late bloomer. I borrowed 2 books from the library, and I have renewed them about 20 times now as I have slowly worked through most of the lessons.

It is quite amazing, once you get the hang of it, and although these patterns are fairly simple ones, I am working on a few more complicated things as I get more cleverer. I know that's not a real word by the way, just in case you think that I think that it is a real word. It has been hard learning something totally new like this though, but good for the brain....

It reminds me of when I used to take flying lessons when I was 26 (feel free to tune out for a while). It is a big workload for your brain and it feels like you can't possibly remember to do everything at once. How can I steer, and look at the wind, and think about the flaps, and maintain speed, and get off the ground ? It was the same with Illustrator, but now that I have persisted it all makes sense. The only problem is that, just like watching Chilean miners being pulled out of the ground and getting emotional, I could do it all day and not do anything else.

Can't wait to see what you more productive types have been up to at Kirsty's xoxoxox

Is This Creative??

Spring is finally here and it has been perfect weather to be out in the garden. Does that count as creative? The beautiful Australian wattle has been out in force. It always amazes me as it looks like a million tiny pom poms up close.

I've also been buying great flowers at bargain prices at the Farmer's Market. The leucadendrons (above) were $2.50, and the tulips below were $5 a bunch. How's that for bargainicious??? I have been growing my own tulips, but sadly Rusty the hound from hell has been finding them very tasty and they are all in shreds.

How beautiful are these stunners...one of my favourite colours of all time I think.

I always feel bad if I haven't whipped up something amazing to post about, but between school holidays and keeping kids occupied, and being distracted by sunny days and a puppy I have made nothing!! Nothing! So hopefully these pretty pictures will distract you from the lack of content this time. Here is another pretty picture of the family out walking in the Australian bush down the road from here at Hepburn Springs.....

Hope you have been enjoying the sun and making more stuff than me! xox

It's an Obsession....

Not much to report on the creative front this week, due to pesky kids on school holidays (so not my fault at all), but I find that almost any void in my life can be filled with the glorious world of men's retro knitwear. This has become quite a regular fixation of mine, but what's not to love? How can anyone not bask in the glory of tight singlet man (above)? How can we not wonder if he is her boyfriend (creepy) or perhaps her father, and his wife is at home whipping up knitted singlets for the whole family as we speak?

How can anyone resist the simmering sexuality behind 70's knitwear photoshoots? After all, this bloke (above) is not wearing a stitch of knitwear, and later on he clearly wants her knitwear off too.....

What is this dude whispering in her ear? "I'm in room 69....I'll leave the door open" or " sorry, my belt buckle is stuck to the back of your soft crew neck sweater". The guy below is not so subtle. Is it just me or is he definitely interested in more than just her backhand and her snappy vest? The face is up the top, buddy!

This guy is in his natural environment. He's clearly a very clean farmer, just finished harvesting for the day and now relaxing in a bed of straw....but not even a bunch of carrots can save him from looking desperate. Not with that blow-wave and turtle neck. Where is the female knitwear model for him to nuzzle and show his carrots to?

Hope you are all having a creative moment this week. For many more creative moments have a look at Kirsty's xoxoxox

It's supposed to be Spring...

It was a bit depressing looking out the back window this morning to see that once again the fog had closed in. What's going on? Who's in charge of this debacle?

I shouldn't complain too much as I do get to look out over the farmland and wierd looking shed every morning. It's just that yesterday, after a really long, wet winter in the upper regions of Victoria, the sun came out and it was sensational. I think that the weather is definitely responsible for my moods as I was feeling irritatingly perky yesterday afternoon. Also, if the weather is charge then I can't be held responsible for anything, so that's good news.

Meanwhile a bit of sewing summer dresses for the shop, but a bit too early judging by the weather today. Maybe they could be worn with a skivvi underneath, and then socks and sandals for footwear. I do love a bit of sock and sandle action...it is actually very comfortable if you have never tried it.

The good thing about the hideous winter is that there is still a lot of snow up in the mountains, and tomorrow morning I am heading off with George, 9, for a bit of ski and snowboarding fun for a couple of days. The winter woollies are still being worn every day, but hopefully it won't be too long until summer dresses are called for. Have fun wherever you are....... (Next week..special History of Knitwear edition for Hana and Olaf in Auckland. They love their knitwear!!)

My Creative Space

Last night was the opening (and closing) night of the Big School Play 2010!!!! Wow!!

A ripple of excitement spread through the crowd as the lights went down......and the show began!! Here is my gorgeous Matilda as The Red Queen from the slightly re-named Grace in Wonderland. We had a lot of fun making her costume from an old Halloween Dress (the black bits) and her previous play costume (the red bits), so the Creative Space this week was full of costumey-type construction......
Everything in the costume was pretty much recycled, including the shoes from the Op Shop. We did buy some new false eyelashes, but I guess we didn't want to buy any pre-loved ones. Unless they belonged to someone cool, like Liza Minelli or other experienced false eyelash wearers.

As you can probably work out, George is not so willing to pose (he was trying to get into character), but he looked like a pretty decent pirate. Maybe a little cleaner and less smelly and with better dental care, but otherwise very piratey.

Hope you have been making lots of goodies this week....by the way, Rusty says Hi. Or Woof!

Have a look here at Kirsty's place for lots of creative geniuses!

My Creative Space

This week I finished a little dress for 2 year olds to go in my etsy shop, but unfortunately I have been far too distracted by my knitting...

Every so often I get so into knitting that all my other jobs just don't happen. I don't read anything, I don't sew, and I don't listen to anything that anyone is saying. I just say 'Mmm', or 'really?' or 'stop talking to me, can't you see I'm trying to knit?', or worst of all, "what the hell is that burning smell?' Pretty much anything could be going on, but I don't care because I just have to finish the row....

These pictures are bits of my new, nearly finished blanket which was inspired by some blankets in a book by Sarah Dallas, who is one of the Rowan designers. Can't remember the name of the book. Sorry.

But now I'm up to the tricky bit, at least for me, which is to crochet the chocolate strip to the edge of the stripey bit. I am crochet challenged, just ask Beck, which means that I get confused about simple things like where the wool should be and where the hook goes in. I get mixed up with which hole I stick something into. I'm not even going to make a rude joke here because this is serious business. I just don't get it! But I will eventually.........

I am finally going to conquer my crochet fears soon. Not only do I have a blanky to finish, but I need to crochet that super man vest from my last post. Hope you are all having lots of crafty fun at Kirsty's!

My Creative Space

My assistant , George, and I have made an indoor football this week. In this neck of the woods we are desperate for indoor type activities as the weather is still revolting. 0 degrees Celcius yesterday morning at school drop-off, and nearly 5 degrees at pick-up time, with constant rain in between. Yuk. Good sewing weather.......

Also good weather for enjoying more men in knitwear.....

And pondering what to do with this gorgeous old Singer sewing machine. My stepmother gave it to me last week and I think it was her grandmother's originally. It is totally dependent on hand power and would probably work if it got a bit of attention. I'm not sure what to do with it really. If only we had a spare room, like we did when I grew up, and all the items that nobody knew what to do with anymore went in there. A bit like a museum, except with fairly crappy stuff.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions, let me know. A doorstop? A paperwieght? An object to throw at annoying people? Hope you are all having a creative week no matter what the weather....