Sorry Friends

I have been absent for a while and have not been doing much art at all. However, the drought is broken, I am back.
I am finishing off a dotee doll for a swap - the theme is Russian and I will make another smaller doll to go in the pocket of this work in progress doll.



I have started a very special journal, utilising my moleskin that I have been too scared to touch for fear of spoiling it. The journal is entitled "Gratitude and Inspiration" and it is a special book to contain my personal thoughts of what I am grateful for and the things that inspire and uplift me. I am really excited about this - it is something that has been at the back of my mind for ages and I have a friend that is taking the journey with me. We will exchange our journals periodically to write uplifting messages to one another and then return them. I can't wait. The photo is of my first page and utilises caran d'ache soluble crayons, Golden liquid acrylics and distress ink, oh, plus some perfect pearls in multiple colours. It looks beautiful in real life, as it really sparkles depending on how you hold it, as I used some interference colours. Hopefully, this is the start of many more pages that I can read over and over to lift me when I am low and to remind me of how much I have to be grateful for. Thank you to those special friends that have emailed me to tell me how much they miss my blog posts - I appreciate each and every one of you.

Black and White Dotee Doll Swap

Here is the dotee doll I received from the black and white dotee doll swap held recently from a Yahoo group I belong to "Delightful Dotees". Jude made her for me - isn't she gorgeous?

Wedding over

My sister's wedding was beautiful. It was quite casual and laid back which was nice. Not very formal. She looked radiant as did he. I don't think I've ever seen her looking so happy. It was a lovely day. Glad it is over though. All my family was there which was such a surprise. I knew that 5 of us siblings would be there but you could have knocked me over with a feather when my brother from New Zealand knocked on my door on Thursday before the wedding. He'd received an email about the wedding the night before (he hadn't been able to access email for a while),phoned his boss to see if he could take some time off, phoned the airline to see when the next cheap fare was. He found out a plane was leaving for Melbourne from Christchurch the next morning at 6am, it was a cheap fare so he took it. He threw a few things in a suitcase, jumped in his car and drove from Queenstown where he lives, to Christchurch (600km I think he said - an all nighter driving). He got to the airport just in time (his car gave him trouble on the way and he couldn't drive over 80 kph). He hired a car when he got to Melbourne and drove to Adelaide where I live (another long, long drive - around 8 hours). He looked a little tired but it was so good to see him. I have 2 sisters and 3 brothers and we last were together at my mum's funeral a couple of years ago and before that it had been more than 25 years we had all been together. Everyone has gone now, which is sad, but it was so great to catch up with everyone. You can check out the photos here My facebook photos. The above photo is of me with my husband and children.
The sad, sad news is that my computer has been in the workshop for a couple of weeks now so I have been using my husband's laptop when I could. However, that has picked up a very bad virus from my son's USB, which has wiped out the hard drive. That is now useless. My Mac, may it rest in peace, had overheating problems which wiped out its motherboard. It will cost $1,000 to replace the components, or $2,000 to buy a new one. Oh the decisions to be made. Fortunately I do a full mirror backup every day so I can put everything that was on my old Mac onto a new one if that's the road I decide to travel. What do you think - should I buy a new one? I do love my Mac and really couldn't go back to a PC.

Black and White Dotee

I recently joined "Delightful Dotees", a yahoo group that is devoted to Dotee Dolls. In my excitement I signed up for a swap (one for one) with the group and I needed to create a black and white themed dotee. This is my effort. I'm actually pretty pleased with it because it is my first ever dotee. It was really fun to do and I can see that it could become quite addictive. My B&W dotee is ready to post so I hope Jude (the recipient) likes it.

Wedding Invitation

Since so many of you have asked to see the wedding invitation that I made for my sister's wedding, I managed to get a spare and photograph it. The invitation doesn't show up very well due to the subtle nature of the design. I cut cardstock to size and ran it through my cuttlebug with an embossing folder. I then used a Brilliance gold ink pad over the surface of the embossing to highlight it. I printed the details of the invitation onto vellum and printed it out on my laser printer and then cut it just smaller than the cardstock. I placed gold heart brads in each corner to secure the vellum to the cardstock. I didn't have much time to make the invitations so I needed to do something that was quick, easy but looked great and I was really happy with the way these turned out. They look so elegant in real life and my sister tells me that so many people commented on how beautiful the invitations were, so mission accomplished. The two photos show firstly the invitation in its entirety and the second a closer up look.

Where have I been?

Drowning in work I'm afraid. Every 2 and a half years the Child Care Centre where I work goes through an accreditation process and as one of the Team Leaders I need to ensure that everything is as it should be. Currently we are awaiting the validator's visit at which time she will go through everything with a fine toothed comb and we need to provide the evidence of our quality practices. I love my job and know that we work to the highest possible standard so this process doesn't phase me at all - it has just meant a bit extra work as I have only been in this role for 6 months and there were lots of things that needed to be done that hadn't been done by the previous team leader.

On top of that, my sister is getting married - yes, the sister that moved here from New Zealand with her daughter just before Christmas. She asked me to make the wedding invitations so I made 50 and they looked beautiful. They get married on the 4th July and I have been involved in the wedding preparations as well, which has taken up more of my time.

I am enrolled in several on line classes at the moment but am not doing any justice, hope to get back into it soon.

Oh, my daughter broke her arm the other day - she fell off a quad bike. She is quite proud of her purple cast but is quickly working out that she takes her arm for granted and how limiting it is for her. I have to put her hair in a pony tail, I will probably have to shower her or work out a way to wash her hair without getting the cast wet - oh and she has to have it on for six weeks.

I finally succombed and joined facebook, so if you want to add me as a friend, look in my side bar for my details.

That's all for now, sorry for my long absence.

Golden Angel

You may remember that just before Christmas I was painting four angels at the same time - each of them with a different colour hair, eyes and wing treatment. A couple of them went to secret santa gifts, one to a work colleague and the final one, lay unfinished in my studio until yesterday when I pulled out all stops and ta dah, she is done. She is my only blonde haired angel, or I like to call her golden. I think I need to continue my heart face, spiral hair girls, I quite enjoy doing them.