A welcome distraction

Boy, after my last post I really jinxed myself. I felt great for 3 days. And like I said - I was 'popping' with energy and enthusiasm. And then suddenly it wasn't me that was popping, it was just my ear. I've been laid out flat with a horrendous ear infection for the last week. My first one ever, and boy are they horrible - the worst pain ever, the dizziness, the nausea, and the walking into walls because balance is totally shot. Blah - who invented that one!!!

Anyway, I'm still deaf but starting to pick up, and I have been tagged by the lovely Flossy-P for the 'on my walls' meme. This couldn't have come at a better time, as I have nothing at all crafty to show or to talk about, and I'm pretty sure there's only so much whining about feeling crappy that people will put up with reading.

So I will do some show and tell instead, and I won't feel like I have totally neglected my blog.


Firstly, above is my favourite piece of wall decoration, and my only original piece of art; Inner Peace by Alesha Cox, who is an artist that lives on the Sunshine Coast. I'd had my eye on her paintings for a while, and watched her delivering some of her pieces to a gallery once - she seemed like such a nice person, which made her work appeal to me even more. So when the opportunity to buy one of her pieces arose, I jumped at it. This is in our lounge/dining area, and I like that it always reminds me to stop and breathe when I'm having a day that's a bit of a shocker.


Framed print of The Ride by Elsa Mora (Elsita). This hangs in our entrance at the bottom of the stairs, and puts a smile on my face each time I enter the house.

Green Birds On Flowers - a limited edition gocco print by Bernadette Sipkes (Sugarloop), a printmaker and illustrator from NZ. This hangs on the wall leading into our kitchen, and I love how it looks with all the natural light falling onto it, and our fire engine red kitchen tiles in the background set it off so nicely (I couldn't manage to get them into the shot, sorry!)


This original batik painting, stapled to a wooden frame, was bought by Matt before I met him, while he was traveling through Indonesia. Matt has always loved it, and I was never much of a fan, but it has grown on me over the years, and I now find the spooky faces familiar and comforting.


These are actually paintings I did when I was pregnant with Lee. I wanted to decorate his nursery, but we couldn't afford to buy anything at the time. So I decided to have a crack at some simple paintings myself. They now live in the kids playroom, but will probably be outgrown soon. Now you can see why I sew, rather than paint :P

And what would a family home be without kid art and photos.


We have some beautiful professional photos of the kids, but I'm afraid I'm not going to show them in any detail here - for one thing, I think we are always much more enamored of our own photos than other people are, and also it's just a bit too personal for me. But I will proudly show off my kids' bedroom, which for me is a little work of art in itself, complete with colour, their own artworks, and many many treasures.


Train Collage by Lee. He told me what pieces he wanted - I cut them out for him and he put the whole thing together. We then framed it in an old frame I bought in an Op Shop for $1.



Rainbow Painting, Christmas Tree Collage, and Rocket Mobile by Lee, and Wiggly Picture by Kate. I love these, they are so happy!



Stained Glass Windows by Lee and Kate. After seeing something similar on Playschool we decided to have a crack at making some windows ourselves. Admittedly they look a bit crap when you're standing outside looking in, but they look lovely from inside the kids' bedroom, and they love looking out from them.


Bling Bling Mountain Bike Collage by Lee - a Father's Day present for Matt last year. This one has pride of place in Matt's little office.

And now I get to tag some people, and I'm going to choose three very creative gals who always amaze me with their own works of art. So I'd be very interested to have a sticky at what they have on their walls, if they have the time and inclination to play :)

The Tiny Little Girl
Twinkle Star Art
Hey Harriet

Play if you'd like to. Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. No pressure :)

Nice stuff (or - the longest post in the history of long posts....)

I figured after the last rather serious post it was time for some frivolous niceness :) I'm also due for a big bloggy catch-up after my break, so I've decided to roll everything together into one big sweet doughy lump of deliciousness.

Lets start with some eye candy!


I've been having a little bit of a spend-up lately. Firstly, I saw some gorgeous vintage button hair clips on Stacey's blog - Sheep's Clothing, and I had to high-tail it to her shop lest I miss out on these beauties. But don't worry folks, I see she has added more clippy deliciousness in other yummy colours to her shop, in case you are as tempted as I was when I first saw them!


Now clearly I have a hair clip addiction, which needs to be fed, so these delightful little items came in the mail early this week. Em and Bel (of EmBelISH) are members of the BrisStyle Street Team I belong to, and as you may have heard, we had a little sale recently. So how could I not buy these beautiful clips.


Especially as they came with the free little owly brooch, and beautifully gift-wrapped. These girls also have a new blog, so check it out to get the latest on their creative endeavors.

And please excuse the crummy hair model, but I thought Stacey, Em and Bel would all like to see how their clips look when being worn - pretty damn cute if you ask me (if you look past the messy hair).


I really should brush my hair before I tie it up next time I decide to do photos....sorry about that...

And getting away from my feral noggin, here's some pics of some much nicer heads :)


These original art ACEOs from Tracey (of Hey Harriet) are just stunning, and are another BrisStyle Sale buy. I've had my eye on the 'All My Little Words' art card for ages now, but then I just couldn't resist the 'Yellow Wall Boy' card either, and the Giraffe was given as a freebie. How lucky is that! Oh, and Tracy is the founder of 'Shadow Shot Sunday' which she hosts on her gorgeous blog, so if you want to check out some cool shadow photography, click on over and enjoy :)

OK, so clearly lots of buying going on. But I've also been kinda productive as well. I've been having a go at doing some boy's wallets, because after looking for handmade things for my son when it was his birthday, I realised there is a real lack of nice things for boys in the handmade world. So to try and balance the scales just a little in my shop, I've created these two little rascals:


The Phizz-z-z-z Boys 'Cash and Cards' wallet - made with reclaimed vintage seersucker fabric and new fabric scraps, with a big recycled button on the velcro flap closure. Pockets for cards and a long pocket for cash, but no spots for coins. My husband assures me that no male ever carries change in his wallet - makes it too bulky to put in the back pocket apparently :P


Can anyone else verify this?


I must admit, I have known many boys who keeps big jars full of coins in their room. I guess this is what happens when there is no place to put coins? (By the way, this wallet is called 'Tootle' and is for the train enthusiast - note the train tracks - and this one has a button closure rather than velcro...thought I'd try a a couple of different closure types and see what was most popular. Going to do an elastic one too as soon as I can get out and get some in black).


Anyway, back to the jar of coins in the bedroom. Forced savings? Maybe these boys are onto a winner. Especially as my husband just bought a heap of parts for his mountain bike after counting up all his gold coins and discovering he had over $400 there!!!!!!

OK, now I did warn you that this was to be a big post didn't I? Well good, because I'm not finished yet. Gee, maybe this post should have sub-headings....if so, I think this one will be called "Awards that were given to me by very nice people to whom I have been very slack about posting here"

Firstly, the lovely Ali from Charlie and Grace gave me the Arty Pico award - quite some time ago I'm ashamed to say, and the very talented Rachel from Cornflower Blue Studio awarded me the Brilliante Award as well - again some time ago. I'm so sorry ladies that I was so slack in getting onto these - they just happened to come at a particularly hectic time and I did mean to get to them and pass them onto others....but it's been such a while now that I'd feel a bit of a fool passing them on. So I might just say that anyone who gets to the bottom of this massive post deserves their very own award, which I will hereby name the "Either very polite or very high tolerance for waffle" Award.

And so I will leave you with one last piece of unspectacular info. Just as I was going on my bloggy break I was tagged by The Tiny Little Girl (if you haven't seen the work of this very talented crafter, your really should check it out - she has a very gorgeous Etsy Shop too!). The tag was for 6 unspectacular quirks about yourself. So in closing, here they are, and feel free to post your own 6 unspectacular quirks too - just leave a comment and I will have lots of fun checking them out. Ok, so here they are:

1. I never finish a hot drink - I always have to leave a little bit in the bottom of the cup. I don't know why.
2. I never eat all my crusts - I always leave a little bit that I just don't want to eat. Again, don't know why.
3. I can do all the actions to pretty much all of the Wiggles songs, and can sing all the words. And I really enjoy doing it.
4. I'm now working on learning all the High 5 moves (they're a little more complicated than the Wiggles ones :P)
5. I LOVE bad 80s dancing (yep, both doing it and watching it). The 'Angry Dancing' scene from Flight of the Conchords where they do the Footloose/Flashdance scene is just hilarious - you've GOT to watch this!!

6. I have decided to start replacing all my ugly wire coathangers with old-fashioned crochet-covered ones. For some reason this idea really appeals to me. Op Shops, here I come :)

Wow, that was really a mixed bag. But I think I'm all caught up now. Next post will be much shorter. I promise :)

Kid art

Yesterday during Kate's nap, Lee and I did some art and craft. First, we made stained glass windows. Lee has been very big on Playschool lately, so we did a Playschool window. When he finished his 'round' window, he liked it so much he decided that Kate needed one too. So we made her a 'square' window. (However, both did end up stuck on the window of Lee's room at the end of the day!!)



We then decided to make a rainbow (after which we both had to stand up, wave our arms around and sing the 'rainbow song'...."red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and bluuuuue, I can sing a raiiiinbow, sing a raiiiiinbow, sing a raiiiinbow toooooo"....I SO hope the neighbors weren't listening!).

Lastly, we decided to get a head start on the Christmas thing, so we did a Christmas tree collage. This one is my favorite.



Gotta love kid art!