SHOP is now open

if you can't get to any of my markets, and you'd still like to purchase a print or two please click on the link below or the image to the left ...

www.etsy.com/au/shop/beingwhimsical

... if you've got any questions or special requests please email me at jennifer (at) beingwhimsical (dot) com, i'd love to hear from you.  Thanks for visiting me.

are you a retailer???

what a crazy few months.  a few weeks ago i exhibited in Life InStyle Sydney in the First InStyle section.  it is a design focused gift fair for retailers - mainly giftware and homewares - and woweee it was amazing.  i was terrified to start but soon managed to get myself together.

over the past 2 years of selling my art at craft markets i have had so many retailers ask me if i wholesale my greeting cards.  so i decided to take the plunge and just do just that. so i booked myself into Life Instyle.  it was a fantastic experience ...  as one retailer at the fair said to me "your cards are just so beautiful, and you realise now that you are here, your life will never be the same" - i think she is so right.

i learnt so much, met the most helpful and friendly retailers and enjoyed the company for four days of so many talented exhibitors. so so so glad i took the leap.

anyway, the name for my new business is Being Whimsical ... and you can find me over here.  if you are a retailer that needs a touch of whimsy in their life, then i would love for you to stock my cards, please visit the contact page and complete the form and I can send you a log in. i know my whimsical girls will love being in your shop as much as your customers will love taking them home. Oh yeah, I also offer free delivery!

New CARDS

 

new cards .....

 

..... some new card designs

 

originals for sale

back a few weeks ago ... here ...  i very excitedly waffled on about finally having originals for sale. 

 well there was a bit of a hiccup .... i couldn't part with them.

every weekend i found an excuse not to take them with me to my market stall.

finally ..... originals for sale

i am regularly asked if i will sell my originals and my answer is always no. 

 i don't need to think about it, i just say no. 

 it's a mix of loving them so much so not wanting to part with them, and them taking me so long to create (up to 20 hours) due to the layers and layers, and the working forever on the elements to get them just right - that they really become unaffordable as i would want to sell them at a price that i feel they deserve and i don't think anyone would pay. hope that makes sense.

so - i am now learning to create some paintings that are only taking me a couple or hours or so.

 

I can now sell some originals. 

yay.  

i am really happy about this.

.... here is the first one of very very many.  the reproduction isn't that great unfortunately as it wouldn't fit on the scanner, so took photos of her and the colours and textures aren't showing up as they look on the original.

hope you like her as i really really enjoyed creating her ....

there's a new dog in town in need of a name

i thought for a change, i'd start a series of  animal paintings ... and here's the first.  

anyone that knows me knows that i am a little obsessed with dogs.  so i figured it's the best place to start.

new cards :: quirky quotes

here are some new cards for the market this weekend.

.... and ... a big and ... at last weekend's market a lovely woman commissioned me to create some personalised cards for her real estate agency.  they are *congratulations on your new home* type cards with her name on them.  great idea i thought.  

if you'd like personalised cards please get in touch as i'd love to create some for you.  having said that, i am not a graphic designer but can use some of my funky backgrounds and add some funky text to it.

 

i need a good talking to

yes it has been far too long dear blog ... i am a very naughty girl, yes I am.

:: 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?