:: love bunting ::

about six months ago i decided my market stall need to look a little more funky, so i made myself some vintage style bunting using the fabric that I had printed to sew onto t-shirts.  well ... the bunting turned out fabulous (evidenced below) and i have been inundated with people wanting to buy it.

new cards

gosh ... i'm on a roll. two posts in one day.  wowee.

thought i'd just upload some cards i made yesterday that i'll have available for sale at my future markets. the backgrounds are cropped parts of some mixed media paintings that i've done.

  

far too quiet around here

yes, it's been far too quiet on this little blog.  can't believe it has been months since my last post.  i know i'm not regular at the best of times, but this is very very bad.

now, I have a reason.  we spent ages looking for a new house and then a month trying to buy the one we wanted.  very challenging.  the owner built the house 27 years ago and was so emotionally attached to it he had great difficulty letting go and found every excuse for not selling, he even took it off the market at one stage.  but success was finally had and we have a great new home to move to in December.

then .... we had to prepare our house to sell.  there is so much more to do than you think and everything takes longer that you estimate. and the stress ... boy oh boy. 

and now we are living in a totally un-cluttered environment and are too scared to do anything in case we mess something up.  i must say though (but don't tell the irishman), it's really nice to live in a tidy environment.  i am a total messer and don't really like that side of myself, but have so much difficulty controlling my untidiness. i even mentioned it here in this post. 

although having said it is great to living in tidiness, i am missing all my art supplies and whimsical and beautiful photos and bits that i have hanging around my studio.  it won't be for long though.

here's a photo of our living room as it looks now.   will try and hunt out a 'before'.

new card for next market

i quite like my new card design.  if it looks familiar it is because i designed the background as a badge (see left) to promote my markets and thought i'd make it do double duty as a card. 

:: market schedule ::

 Market Schedule


2014 UPDATE:

I will be having less markets on my schedule this year as I have started a new business to wholesale my art to retailers .... you can find that over here ... it's called Being Whimsical.

I will always be at the following two markets every month though.  Or if you want to purchase online you can visit my shop.

1st Saturday of every month

:: Olive Tree Market  
www.theolivetreemarket.com.au

The Junction Public School, Union Street, Merewether, Newcastle
9am to 3pm 
Additional Christmas Markets : 16 November and 21 December

4th Sunday of every month 

:: Avoca Beach Markets
www.fixxevents.com.au
Heazlett Park Foreshore, Avoca Beach, Central Coast NSW
9am to 2pm

amusingly odd find

i am a regular visitor to charity and thrift shops. i love them. i love that when you walk into them you just don't know what you will find.

i usually visit them looking for unusual pieces of furniture and weird stuff i can use in art.  and occasionally, just occasionally i come across the funniest things .... like this book.

well last week i came across some vintage sheet music ... below .... song number 3. what the ........  ?  really.

you mightn't be able to read it but is says "a particularly beautiful ballad".  really?

just googled it an apparently duke ellington and kd lang have sung it.  the kd lang bit makes it even more amusing don't you think?  i am sure it is on youtube somewhere, i must look.

the lyrics are a bit of a hoot ....

Love is like a cigarette
You know you held my heart aglow
Between your finger tips
And just like a cigarette
I never knew the thrill of life until I touched your lips
Then just like a cigarette
Love seemed to fade away and leave behind ashes of regret
Then with a flip of your fingertip
It was easy for you to forget
Oh! Love is like a cigarette 

not sure there is anything more to say really. 

in pursuit if a blissful studio

i so love books. can't get enough of them. mainly non-fiction though.

i recently bought an android tablet so i can carry a library of books around with me.  loving the download.

but when i buy art books or decorating books, or books with pretty pictures i still really like to look at them in hard copy. not sure why. i can do mags on the tablet, but books are a little different for me. i am sure this will change though.

my latest book obsession is this ....

 ... from the people that publish WHERE WOMEN CREATE magazine and books.  

me oh my, the studios that some lucky ducks get to work from. i have no idea how they do it.  how they keep them so tidy and looking so divine (perhaps they don't and they all had a big tidy blitz before the photographer arrived ...hmm can't fool us).  i want to move in to so many of them and live there. such inspiration.  i particularly am crazy about the studios that use all sorts of vintage goodies and furniture to store and display.

here are some pages of total gorgeousness ...

 this is my favourite of the studios in the book. it looks like a vintage conservatory doesn't it?

 i so love the shelving. at first i thought it was some kind of vintage wall cupboard (which it may be), but on closer inspection it looks like it is a back piece of timber, funky brackets and shelves with rails so things don't fall off.  love it, and don't think it wouldbe too difficult to make one.

 more shelving with rails

like this room although it is a little too organised and neat for me, and I think I'd need lighter walls, but I did like the dimensions.  check out the legs on that desk ... me oh my...

i am so inspired to decorate my studio, and have all the vintage bits i would need as i have been collecting for years. but i have a small work room and far too much stuff and every time i decide to start I get so overwhelmed when i realise all that has to be done that I decide to have a cup of tea and think about it (or buy some more organisational books like this one), and then nothing gets done.   

but I know this book will inspire and motivate.  yes it will.

inspiration please ...

well. here is the whimsical girl of the moment. what do you think?

i think she is related to Prudence as she has the same wild hair, and perhaps also to Milly as she very pretty violet eyes.  but what is her name?

i really need some help with suggestions for a name.  i'd love to send a print or a set of cards to whoever comes up with the most suitable name.  so if you are inspired by a name when you look at her please let me know.

leave any suggestions below in the comments section, or on my facebook page.

... and thanks for taking a look at the new girl, she'll be thrilled to know that you're interested in her.

i will have prints of her at the markets this weekend, and plan to have her in the shop in the next day.

 

p.s. :: almost forgot.  i should have another gorgeous girl finished for next week.  so far she has very short dark brown hair, luscious lips, emerald eyes, and is a tiny bit sophisticated. i've got a feeling she may be a hit as her background colours are really quite wonderful.

quick & quirky quote no. 6

cartoons in the garden

the things you see when you're out for a walk .....

i was on my way back from walking the gorgeous one (aka Finn my pooch) and i saw the most amazing sight in my neighbour's front garden.  i thought they were plastic - very cartoon-ish.  perhaps some type of creative garden light.  then i realised they were real. so ran home, grabbed my camera and took photos. 

aren't they amazing? i have no idea if they are mushrooms, toadstools, whatever.  the colours are just glorious and so true to how they are.  they were quite big too, perhaps 10-12cm across. 

does anyone know what they are? i'd love to know.

quick & quirky quote no. 5

... love this.  isn't it great?

inspired to paint ... true bloom is for you

no ... i didn't paint this (oh how I wish) - flora bowley did

back here i was mad for signing on to new art courses then found i didn't have time to do them as they overlapped and i was doing other stuff ... i'm sure you know what i mean.  well i am now about half way through the online fantastic-amazing-loving-it-more-than-i-thought flora bowley true bloom online course (fortunately for me the course is available online for six months after the class closes so you can catch up. phew).

even though i am only half way through, i so so so recommend this if you are interested in art in any form.  forget that you can't paint or have never ever tried ... her thing is teaching you to paint intuitively and at the end of the course i know you will say 'yay - i can paint' .  you might even say  'yay i can paint and i just found a new career'.  really.

  flora's intuitive approach is based on just going with the flow and discovering what emerges ... layering paint and laying some more paint.   so enlightening and encouraging and FUN.  i'm only half way through (is that the third time i said that?), but am transformed in my thinking and my approach to painting.

so what i am trying to say is that if you would like to learn to paint, don't know where to start, have never painted before, have been painting for years but love to do art courses, open to new experiences ...... then this is the girl and the course for you. and flora is soooo delightful.

if you check flora's blog you will see some examples of students work from the first ever online class (that i enrolled for but am just getting to).  the next course starts in the next week or so, so get to it if you're interested.

 ... and here is a photo of the the very talented flora in her studio.

quick and quirky quote no. 4

artwork

had a great afternoon today just playing around with some new artwork.  

really love the colours in both of them.

quick & quirky quote no. 3

this is one of my most favourite quotes. 

it is a reminder to me to follow my dreams no matter what they are ... no matter how old i am ..... no matter where i am ..... no matter how i am feeling.  and that i really can achieve whatever i want with hard work and imagination. bliss.

date with donna

back here i was waffling on about all the art courses i was trying to get through, so i thought i'd report back on the donna downey course as that is the one i have managed to actually finished (nothing like having to physically turn up to something to get it completed).

if you have not yet encountered the lovely donna, she is this kooky (i love kooky) american mixed media artist.  she is totally mad for the colour teal - her own admission - and was wearing a teal cardie, her glasses were teal in the dame edna style (with diamantes of course) and the front of her hair was also that gorgeous teal colour (she said that she stands out dramatically in the vanilla town where she lives and receives both positive and negative comments about her hair).

the class was great, learnt lots about backgrounds, colours, techniques.  it was an art journalling class and we were all given these deee-vine hand made fabric covered journals to start work on.

my biggest stumbling block with starting an art journal has been messing up a perfectly good and usually beautiful journal with paint and glue and stuff that i may not really like when i'm finished.  so going to this class and having to immediately get stuck in and  into a apply paint to this totally glorious journal was very ... what's the word .... liberating!  i had no choice but to dive in and smear a heap of paint on a very white page in a beautiful journal.  i now realise that its ok to mess up something that is beautiful, well hopefully not messing up - more like enhance it's beauty.  yes, that is what i do isn't it? 

  you can find more info about donna here .

 so here are some photos of the day.

Donna in action

a couple of girls came over from NZ for the weekend course and one had this hilarious (and very NZ) apron which Donna found hugely amusing ... as we all did.

the kept us fortified with delicious food

my beautiful handmade journal

 

this is one of Donna's amazing art journals ....

.... and this is one of the pages from the journal.

quick & quirky quote no 2

back here I thought I'd start a quick & quirky quote of the week that may or may not include some of my artwork, but it didn't really get too far .... i think life got in the way.

let's try again shall we ...

abcd meetup

i love a get together and recently i went to one that was very special.  a get together of like minded women for a few hours one saturday afternoon.  it is called abcd - which is :  

artists bloggers crafters designers.  

  

the whole even is organised by the very fabulous Steph and Lisa

part of the fun of the event is the take home goodie bag.   if you contribute something to the goodie bag, then to you get to take one home and they are full of amazing goodness - wonderful creative things produced by the very talented people that attend. and its not one of those wanky kind of i'm so cool events, its a group of great women getting together, chatting for a few hours and sharing information and stories. 

 all the gorgeousness of the afternoon can be seen in photos on Steph Bond's great blog called Bondville and Lisa's called The Red Thread.  take a look.  below is a photo of me taken on the day (no I didn't spend the afternoon walking around like that, we all had to stand with our contribution to the goodie bag and have our photo taken), and - shock horrrrror - i think it's an okay photo of me, all due to the talents of Anni at Milk & Honey Photography).

if you're an abcd person and you want to come to the next one then take a look here, they are held nationally too!

courses and classes

i am crazy for doing courses at the moment. 

i've just finished the most amazing course for creative businesses called 'Hello Soul Hello Business' - how to have a business with soul.  loved it loved it loved it.  met some great women from all around the world, and  I seriously could not recommend this course more. it so exceeded my expectations ... i think it exceeded them by a thousand per cent if that is possible.  having said that there was a lot of content and a lot of homework, and it was really easy to get behind (which I and others did regularly so much so that they added an extra week long break in the middle of the course so everyone could catch up). they covered so much more than i expected and i learnt so much more than i thought i would ever need to know.  the course was created by two highly experienced women that I totally and utterly admire - kelly rae roberts and beth nicholls .  so worth considering this course if you run your own business. love love loved it.

typical me thought I would be able to manage and juggle far too much, and then drop half of it. when I registered for the HSHB course, i also thought i'd register for the Flora Bowley course True Bloom and do the two together.  clueless.  then again that's maybe being a little tough on myself .... i really didn't expect the HSHB course to be as in depth and time consuming as it was. so i did two classes only of true bloom and that's it.  fortunately you can access the classes for 6 months so that is my next little adventure.

there's more ..... this sunday i will be at a 5 hour art journalling course run by donna downie .  so excited i could ... well not sure what i could do but i'm sure you get the idea.  it's going to be great!!

marriage bliss

it was tweleve years ago this week that the irishman and I were married. 

 it took us awhile to get to that day ... rushing into marriage - us?  no way.  we had been together for around 10 years.

 the irishman said that it was the best decision i've ever made for him.  funny man.

it was such a happy happy day. 

BLISS

ghostly designs

i have seen the most beautiful simple dismantled lamps shades over the past year or so and loved and coveted them, but have never taken too much notice of how they were made.  then a week ago i decided that i just had to have couple of them for my market stall.  the hunt was on to try and locate one so i could see how i could create my own. google to the rescue with a weird combination of words and surprise surprise i came up with some beautiful photos in a wonderful blog that i read very (far too often) regularly  ... dotti angel ...

apparently they are called ghost lamps ... who would have guessed that?

so here are my attempts at a couple of small lamps for decorating my market stall.  lets see how they go on the stall.  will post photos of the stall soooon.

the photos are not good ... my apologies ... but you get the idea.

recycled furniture obsession update

Yay, have finished my latest recycled furniture project and am quite thrilled with the outcome. i had a bit of an obsession with it for awhile (it being painting furniture).  here's a few of the pieces i've painted in the past. 

now, i can't take credit for this idea even though i would REALLY like to. the idea came  from this wonderful woman/artist's blog that I follow, you can see it here. and I think her's looks better than mine.  i think it is the paler coloured papers that she has used, and i kinda wished i'd used paler colours.  anyway am still very happy with my unique piece of furniture. 

this is the ugliness of how the cupboard started out ...

then I  used ESP on it and then painted it a cream colour ....

 cut up a heap of scrapbooking paper and glued them on using Mod Podge Hard Coat ...

 ... and here it is again in all its gloriousness

 and a bit of a close up ...

it really is an easy project, and surprising quick to do.  give it a go.  you'll enjoy the process and the blissful outcome. really.

reversed canvas

look at these .... just look at them.  i can't believe how simple yet amazingly fantastic they are.  they are just a reversed canvas.  think of all the possibilities and all the sizes ... and all the colours!  wowee my brain is in overdrive.  and how easy would they be to make????

I found them, along with lots of other goodness, over here.