I am the best auntie

Actually I can't justify that claim at all. But this is me with my newest niece, Holly, and she can't argue with me so I will make the claim until she is old enough to deny it...

Isn't she cute, like a little pixie. I think she was a bit overwhelmed by the crowd but she was happy to sit with me and look around (if you look closely you will see grasped in her little fist my version of bribery for the under one's. It is my wooden bracelet, just right for munching on, although I did have to take it away after the colour ended up on her face, hmm I assume it was baby friendly dye..)

this is for Design Dollies, a good old fashioned list of requirements for their elements challenge.

• The color Baby Blue
  
• Ink (and lots of it!)
  
• Masking (to get the masked effect)
• Newspaper print, or some sort of paper with words (like the cool dictionary papers they have, or just lots of words, kwim?)
• Stripes

Ok a nice quick, vaguely logical post. Will be back to my ramblings soon. xx

Mick's 50th

This is my family, such a petite lot. (the theme was red and white, everyone mostly ran with the red)

Well, the big birthday has come and gone. And I have to say I had a great time. It was fun catching up with all my brothers and their families. we left Matt behind (he has trials next week and was cruising just a bit too much..) and headed north. It was good to be warm without heating again, I am sooo looking forward to spring (eek, we have an electricity bill due any day and it is going to be nasty).

This post is all over the place already, I'm bad enough normally but this is bad but I am way too lazy to start again.

A few weeks ago (5 I think), my mum rang me and said "i thought I'd put together a few of Michael's pictures together in an album, ooh hang on, your a scrapbooker aren't you, maybe you could throw something together...)

"yeah ok Mum how many photo's do you have?'

'I narrowed it down to about 80(!!!), I'll send them up.'

Thanks mum..

So 5 weeks later, I have a newly covered album with over 30 Lo's in it, very pleased with the end result (some of which have been no so subtly shown on the blog) but I have to say I am fairly sick of my big bro at the moment.


Anyway onto a few piccy's...

Inside cover, love this photo, may have to use it again.


The happy recipient (I believe he took it to work on Monday)


More photos on Lo's later in the week.


On our trip home we spied these zebras (not quite a native species) on Lake George (a large dried up Lake bed near Canberra, mostly used as farmland). A local sculptor put them there and the local council tried to take them away, thus making them an instant tourist attraction..
They are now there for the foreseeable future, and the artist is thinking about a whale next, which I have to say would be very cool.

The Lo is using a sketchy thursday sketch.



Henry still thinks they are real.

Bed for the boy now, have a good week. xx

PS I have done the umbrella dresses from the previous post a disservice. It was raining and cold on one stage of the race so they put the girls in high waisted, very wide legged polka dotted pyjamas (well that's what they looked like to me, sorry can't find a photo so you will just have to use you're imagination). I was pleased to see the umbrellas back the next day. xx

I'm feeling green today

Kids back at school today, hard to get out of bed and organised after a reasonably lazy holidays. Lots of late nights with both the world Cup and more additively, Le Tour De France. So love the tour.

On to all things crafty. have managed to do a couple of Lo's today. First is for the Guest design spot on Sketchy Thursday. Along with this sketch
we had to include the colour yellow and put in a handmade embellishment (the wheat stalks). This is a photo I took of Henry when we stopped at an ancient harvester outside a pub in a tiny town called Morven. Henry loved climbing all over it, ever since he was little he has wanted to be a harvester man (just like Poppy was).

Second Lo is again for Mick's 50th. It will be so much harder to celebrate as one of his oldest friends was killed in a car crash on Saturday. His daughter is also one of Meaghan's closest friends, a tragic situation all around.

This Lo is for Design Dollies with this sketch:

This was taken in the early 70's. The missing photo is my next up brother who thought that the booth only took one photo, and the last is just after he had been shoved back in the booth by Michael. I believe he is still unhappy about this strip of photos. Oh well...

No photo's of sportsmen this week, just in case I am getting some sort of pervy,bad reputation (I am what I am..)However after watching the aforementioned tour, I am intrigued by the girls presenting the flowers at the end of each Day. These are hard fought over positions by the models in France. Usually they dress them in mostly classic, occasionally odd but even I can appreciate that there is some merit in the outfits chosen. But I admit to being completely puzzled by the King of the Mountains girls. OK I acknowledge it is hard to be classy in large red polka dots, but in years past they have managed. This year they have come up with:
Yep, umbrellas as dresses. I suppose they must be cool, no clinging materials...

Jo, it is up to you to explain to me why?? Is this a trend I have somehow missed?? Unlike me I know, to have missed a fashion trend but to a philistine like me they just look a bit , well, silly...

have a great week. xx

Back

Went to Mum and Dad's for a couple of days last week. Takes pretty much a day of driving to get there, so is quite an exhausting trip. Especially as Henry had one of his worst asthma attacks for an age the night we got there and although it wasn't quite bad enough to head off to emergency, I didn't get to bed until sunrise, so very very tired. The bonus is Mum and dad are more than happy to let me sleep so they can monopolise the children and spoil them with out parental eyes looking on. Glad to get back home though.


I am feeling less than inspired at the moment i have to say. I have started Claudine's class at BPS, but struggling as i haven't all the supplies yet. Also finding time to do art while kids are on holidays is a bit tricky as well. One more week and then I can throw myself into it.

In the meantime I have a couple of Lo's to share. The first is for Design Dollies, just their sketch this week.

Henry had to copy this pose from the tele after noticing someone (I think maybe Dr Who) had the same chair as his and sitting like this, so coool. Completely messed up the misting though..

The next is Sketchy Thursday's latest sketch. Continuing to celebrate my brother's upcoming 50th, this time with his newborns and wife.

I quite like the way this turned out in the end.


Alas the world cup is coming to a close so no more Ronaldo images (have gone right off him with the bizarre baby story, haven't been following it but is quite odd..). On to Le tour, my very favourite sporting event to watch. Meaghan has also become addicted this year so we sit up late to watch together. I have looked and looked for 'inspiring' images of bike riders, but alas they tend to crash a lot (broken limbs, noses, heads etc, not a good look), and have very odd tan marks, skinny arms and enormous thighs, and when they try to look attractive, they pretty much get it wrong (see below), sigh (not in a good way sigh either..)




Why Tom, why???

Maybe just pretty pictures of the mountain stages coming up may be preferable. xx

Grocery shopping...

Sucks the life force out of me. I can literally feel my brain cells exploding with each inane choice I have to make. Canberra milk or home brand? Poof. New Zealand butter or Australian? Poof another half a million cells gone...

I need extreme counter measures to deal with this. Alcohol worked when I was young but that isn't a good look when you reach a certain age....

Ideally this would involve travel and maybe warmth of any description but as they aren't really an option at the moment (going to visit Mum and Dad in Mulwala doesn't count).

So that leaves creative outlets. Luckily I have started Claudine Helluth's class at Big Picture. Although my supplies haven't all arrived yet, the opening class deals with Gessso transfers, which I have attempted before without success. I am hoping that with the tweeks Claudine has pointed out, I will be able to master this. Fingers crossed. I will share thew results next week.

The Studio is continuing to celebrate the world cup ( I know I promised one last picture, be patient, it is coming...). This week was to be inspired by this little mascot, Zakumi. I took some of the green and gold, as well as his cute animalness and scrapped Meaghan's hands on visit to our zoo, where you get to feed the big cats and the bears. She loved it and wants to volunteer there as soon as she is old enough. At least it is nice and close.



The tour starts tomorrow night so soccer will come a distant second to my lovley bike riders. Unfortunatly they are not quite as, um, presentable, shall we say.. Although Tom Boonen is quite yummy he isn't riding this year. But if I get desperate I may find some sort of filler picture.

Anyway enough of this, what you have been waiting for.






Ok.