which witch

The entries for Penelope's Halloween 'draw a witch' contest are flooding in, amassing more cloaked folk in one place than Daigon Alley!

There are so many great witches, I am glad I’m not one of those poor judges. Having said that I’m sure most of the entries aren’t in it to win it, more just to partake in the fun, (plus the promise of a set of Penelope’s postcards for every one who enters is an enormous draw card – I got mine this week, so I’m set!). There are already 93 entries, and there are apparently a stack more to be loaded in.

If I were one of those poor judges my “highly commended” trophies would go to:
Number 67 (for cuteness)
Number 6 (for originality of witch and technique)
Number 7 (for collage loveliness)
Number 19 (I can’t tell if this is a Penelope one or not, but looks a bit like it to me)
Number 22 (this one can’t only come from one person – Lori Joy)
Number 24 (looks very Emily The Strange-ish)
Number 32 (Another fantastic Wynlen creation)
Number 48 (a little bit like the witch version of Fairy Beauty)
Number 56 (for all you stylish art deco lovers out there)
Number 79 (another cuteness winner)
And Number 81 (for a good laugh thinking of how funny it would be for the expressway of tourists dashing through the Louvre to be met with this instead).

My Silver trophies would go to:
Number 26
Number 34
And Number 58

DRUUMMMROLLLLLL
And the highly coveted Gold Trophy goes to:
Number 65!

Okay okay, my imaginary trophies don’t compare to one of Penelope’s prints, so good luck everyone. Fantastic effort all round!

i hereby christen thee

Lets all admire the beauty of this jacaranda tree near my house while we attempt to erase all memory of the calamity, that shall from this day forth, be known as “The Sushi Train Incident of 2005; soy and silk don’t mix”.

It all started well enough, me minding my own business, admiring the little plates chugging along the cute little train, while getting lunch at the local sushi train. Then quicker than a blink it ended with me topless in the bathrooms at work, with my dry-clean-only designer apricot coloured silk top in the hand basin, sudsed up to the max with that pink pump hand soap. Then spending ages trying to keep the temperamental blow hand dryer on while I pushed the delicate silk to its limit under the blast of hot hot air.

Stain removed, crisis averted, lousy lunch hour over.
Arh, ain’t that jacaranda pretty…

miles from anywhere

My Illustration Friday entry for 'remote'.

'Wide brown land' doesn't much sound like an endearing term. But somehow it is.

Some good slang terms for remote:

• In the middle of nowhere
• Beyond the black stump
• The back of Burke
• Out at woop woop
• The outback

guilty quilty number two

One year later and the time has come for guilty quilt number two.
Earlier this year my friend Lacey-t, her husband and belly bump moved interstate to settle down and set up a new home in time for their first baby. Their adorable baby girl was born 7 and a half weeks ago. She has pretty red hair and will surely have a light sprinkle of cute freckles in no time.

Our group of friends all imagined that when the first one of us had a baby we'd all chip in with meal plans, housework visits, and baby minding so the mum could get some rest. We all feel very bad that we can’t be near them at this time to do all that stuff, and also to join in the joy. We get an occasional email from Lacey about how she’s coping with motherhood; the pride and wonderful abundance of love, but also the terrifying unsureness, the exhaustion and the isolation.

I wish we could be there, but right now we can’t, so instead I will sew. Boy Lordy will I sew! These swatches (above) will hopefully become a really cute baby patchwork blanket. Wish me luck. I’ll keep you posted.

guilty quilty number one

I sense a pattern emerging. This time last year I was engulfed in the biggest sewing project of my life so far. It was to be the first of the “guilty quilts”.

My very good friend Henna and her Mr B were married in November last year. (Henna had been one of my friends from high school, and we still hang out together today). They announced the date they were to be married on about 4 months before the date, but unfortunately I had been booked for a job on that very date way back in January of that year. I know how much stress planning a wedding can be, so I didn’t say anything initially, hoping I could work out a way around the problem. But there was no way I could really get out of it. And I knew it.

I felt terrible about not being able to be there for them, and also very upset that I wouldn’t be there to see them be married. Henna was upset when I broke the news to her, but dealt with it very well. The week before the wedding Lacey-T and I went and stayed with her at her parents house like we used to in the old days (they were married there the next weekend). Henna was sweet enough to break the rules; get all dressed up in her replica 60’s ‘Mod’ style wedding dress and boots and little tiara, to show me her outfit. We helped her pick out which jewellery to wear, and got a little teary at how great she looked.

The following weekend there were married in the garden on a hot spring afternoon surrounded by their friends and family, and they partied hard well into the wee hours of the morning. I managed to make it there at midnight and joined in the celebrations.

Earlier, when I first realised that I wouldn’t be able to be at their wedding, I set out to hand make a gift that would hopefully make up for my absence, and help alleviate my guilt. Henna and Mr B met in San Francisco where he is from. Mr B has a special connection with Mexico as he spent much time there and even did aid work at one point, so he took Henna travelling through Mexico. So as far as I was concerned my project had to be Mexican themed.

I set out to make a quilt for them. I researched Mexican, Aztec and Mayan colour schemes, motifs and patterns, and eventually came up with a plan. It took me much much longer than I thought it would. I spent almost every weekend working on it for around 3 months, but the result was much better than I anticipated.

They both loved it, and the best compliment was when Mr B said that everything about it felt familiar (which is nice considering he’s so far away from his home). They told me they would keep it forever, and it would never ever leave their bed. And as far as I know, it hasn’t.

(It did help to alleviate my guilt a little, but I still wish I could have been there).

fancy

Check out the fancy cards I got today! I love them.

Oh, and have look at this too if you're into a happy union of art and sewing.

Both of these make me giddy with excitement.

cold

My Illustration Friday entry for 'cold'. (a quick one this week)

There’s nothing more torturous for me than being stuck on a train with someone who decides to start filing their nails. It makes my blood run cold! Fingernails down a blackboard is one thing, but for me nail filing is the ultimate! Don’t ask me why, I think it has something to do with the feeling of the tiny vibrations in the ends of my fingers. I just can’t file my nails (one of the reasons I don’t have fancy nails), and now even seeing or mainly hearing anyone else do it makes my insides squirm, my eyes squint up and my throat go tight. I have to get away.

When getting on the train I try and pick a seat next to someone who doesn’t look like a serial killer, isn’t eating a hamburger first thing in the morning, and isn’t having an intimate but loud conversation on their mobile phone. I tend to choose the neat friendly looking lady gazing out the window (although for some reason in my illo she has taken the form of Peggy Bundy). But more often than not, she’ll get bored, reach into her handbag, rummage a bit and pull out a nail file. eeeeeeeeeeeeee…

Another thing that makes my blood run cold is hard to describe, but it's the squeaking feeling when you drag a wet towel over the clothes line when you’re hanging them out to dry. Actually just grabbing onto them to pull them out of the laundry basket is icky too! Eugghhhh!

It’s similar to my friend Fi, who hates the squeaky feeling of putting your hand into a bag of cotton wool balls.

What makes your blood run cold?

cackle, grumble, mumble

My entry for Penelope's Halloween Draw a Witch contest.

With “eye of newt” sky-rocketing to over $300 a gallon, Greta gathers some of her things together & heads to the local pawn shop.

csi: stoners revenge

I’ve been a total sook this week. I really need to try and get some “cred” back after being such a GIRLS BLOWSE.

So, how ‘bout them Jets? Hold that thought while I crack myself a brewski. Hey, pull my finger! It’ll be funny, go on!

Not convinced? Alright then, so get this…

PART 1:
In an effort to alleviate a bit of our collective “our Prime Minister is a dumb un-eco knob” guilt, we’ve made an effort to “green” up our office this year. We’ve been opening the windows and switching off the A/C, we’ve adopted better recycling, we’ve decked the place out with stacks of plants, and we got a bokashi bucket. (This is a type of indoor compost system that works via fermentation). So we feel good about ourselves, but the office has a very stinky corner.

If the bokashi was tended to daily, as it’s supposed to be, it apparently wouldn’t smell, or grow knee-high fungus. But ours isn’t, and it does. In fact it’s dam-right rank! So we keep it sealed tightly shut and dare each other not to gag when we open it to put food scraps inside.
What, with that and the rubber band gun, it’s just like an episode of Jackass!

PART 2:
A couple of weeks ago we got a painter to come in and paint the walls in our office. He told us he’d be able to get it done on Friday and Saturday, so we’d be back to normal on Monday.

Friday: He came in painted a couple of walls and kicked a bucket of white paint over dark grey carpet. I spent the afternoon on the phone begging carpet cleaners to drop everything come immediately.

Saturday: He didn’t turn up. Said he was a bit tired.

Monday: He arrived around 11am STONED OFF HIS NUT, did about 2 hrs work, smiled and nodded a LOT, then disappeared. By this stage we were baffled by our bosses’ patience, but the whole scenario was still pretty laughable and highly amusing. (especially because the painter was up to was the bright orange feature wall, which must have been spinning him right out).

Tuesday: We arrived at work and discovered that the safe had been attacked with a crow bar. They mangled it pretty badly, but didn’t get into it. Once again this was inconvenient, but still pretty humourous considering the only things in the safe are an old contract with an ex-client, and a Microsoft certificate for something outdated. Meanwhile everything of great value, including a room full of computers, laptops, and a few iPods were left untouched.
The painter never showed up that day.

Wednesday: The painter showed up, finished the job and left. Although it seemed suspicious, we ruled him out as the thief for a few logistical reasons, but also because he’s generally way too stoned to have enough co-ordination to even attempt to crack into a safe.

Thursday: No leads.

Friday: The painter shows back up with a friend dressed in a taxi driver's uniform to pick up his gear: paint tins, buckets, rollers, poles, dropsheets and a ladder. Both of them were more ripped than before, and my boss had to coax them out of the lift away from the pretty lights. Once again pretty hilarious.

Today: We notice that the bokashi bucket is missing! So the thief either gave up on the safe and resorted to a bucket of food slops and fungus, OR (and this is a much more likely explanation) the completely stoned painter accidentally took it thinking it was one of his paint buckets.

We laughed so hard today at the thought of him opening the stinky bucket, but being far too wasted to even notice, and probably ending up painting some poor guys wall with the slime within.

Just quietly, I think we're all secretly relieved that the festy bokashi pit of fungus has found a new home.

smitten and spill

Oh Geeez. I must seem so ungrateful. Miss May sent me these TWO great CD's, Smitten and Spill, days ago and I haven't even displayed them yet. Getting new music is rockin' my world, especially when it's stuff like this that totally "tickles my fancy". The photo's don't do it justice, but the covers are hand painted pieces of art!

Thanks Miss May, I love them both, but I think today Smitten is my favourite. I was really surprised to find Bumblebeez on Spill, they are a relatively unknown local band from around my parts. It amazes me how some music travels and some doesn't, I can never pick it either.

It's funny, I made my mixed CDs with lots of local music on it to spread it far and wide across the seas, and I got an email back from Vanessa in NC USA telling me about a few of her favourite Australian bands, and she totally GAZUMPED me! I had to "google" them! But sure enough there were two bands from Melbourne I'd never heard of, that have Vanessa as one of their fans. I'll have to check them out next time they're in town.

all creepy islands aside...

My Illustration Friday entry for 'lost'.

My illustration this week is a homage to Allison of Cornelian Cherry who has decided to hang up her blogging gloves and focus on other important life goals. I am going to feel truly lost with out her: my internet day just won’t be the same. (Not to mention how lonely my blog will be without her visits and kind comments).

You’ll notice her in my ‘imaginary friends’ links just there on the side bar. These are people I have discovered (feel like I have lots of stuff in common with), have never met, but like to imagine that if we did meet we’d end up as great mates. (I have moments of insufferable optimism. I blame this on watching Care Bears in my youth!).

They are all good fun, you should check them out. Go on, off you go. I’ll wait here.

While patiently waiting, I ponder:
(start ponderous voice over, like in The Secret Life Of Us)
Blogging and everything that goes with it does take up quite a lot of time, especially if you’re trying to squeeze it in around a full day of work, study, and/or child raising, etc. And it is a challenge trying to balance work, spending time with the special people in your life, keeping up hobbies, staying active, eating, sleeping, etc. Particularly if you’re the kind who will only do something if you intend to do it well.

It’s important to be aware of when time is being sapped away from trying to achieve your goals. It can happen so easily. And in these times it is wise to take action before you let your impatient goals give up and slide away.

I feel fortunate that at the moment the hours I sap away online each day bring me into a community of creative, encouraging, inspirational people. I like that this is something that will remain the same no matter where I live. I won’t have to leave you guys behind when Mr You and I finally make the leap to move up north. It’ll be a nice and probably only constant element.

I’ve been thinking about my goals this week, and at the moment I think the main long term is to become a more crafty person, rather than being so office ridden. I want to learn how to live as a crafty person. I’m trying to learn by watching other people online do it, and do it their own way, and succeed. It seems as though this may in fact be a possibility after all. (although at this stage still a long way off and quite uncertain).

It’s amazing how close by you all feel even though you are spread all around the globe, and I look forward to hearing from you all each week.


Are you back yet? Oh good, in summation I just wanted to tell you that I find you all amazingly talented and a great inspiration. So, thank-you!

doctor! quick!

There was hyperventilation, there was high speed hand flapping, there was jumping on the spot, and even stoically held back tears as Jiang had a complete eniption about the painting I gave her.

I haven't seen anyone that happy about one of my gifts, since I gave Mr You a Playstation for Christmas years and years ago.

It was really cool, and then as I was leaving, she absolutely insisted I accept this little ballerina picture she had on her shelf. (I'm a total sucker when it comes to a prima ballerina). So it all went very well indeed.

cherry blossom pink

Jiang is a very quiet, private, mysterious young lady who comes from China, and works with me. Much to the dismay of her husband, she has recently developed an obsession with all things "shabby chic". You'd never pick it to look at her in her plain jeans and shirts, but under the surface lurks a floral, frilly, pink white and feminine loving fiend.

She has started collecting small antique replicas of tailors mannequins, and spends most of her weekends trawling through various marketplaces. She knows about my crafty side, and we've been bonding over a shared appreciation of pretty fabrics and patchwork. She doesn't have any crafty skills that I know of, and she's always asking me, "could you make that?". When I reply "um, yes, probably" she encourages me to make lots of stuff and become an eBay queen. She sends me a list of links every Friday, to get me inspired.

Her encouragement has given me a little faith, many enterprising thoughts, and makes me feel like I possess some kind of value.

She described a painting of a dress to me that she couldn't afford a while ago, so I've painted this dress for her - Shhh, it's a surprise...
It's not the kind of thing I would normally paint or own, but it's been a wonderful excuse to get all pink and rosey and oh-so-pretty-pretty.
Tonight I'm dropping it off at her house. I hope she likes it.

the clumsy and the quirky

People seem to be just as curious about pelicans as I am. So while we're on the topic, I dug up this old photo I took when I was in Greece some years ago. (please excuse the terrible scan)

I'd never seen anything like it before, a pink pelican, with a yellow bill perhaps?

It was the same size and shape as a pelican, but it more closely resembled the result of a night of hanky-panky between a frisky pelican and an intoxicated flamingo!

The genes mustn't have melded too well though, as this critter lacked both the grace accustomed to pelicans and the elegance of a flamingo; it was clumsy and pretty manky too.

On a completely unrelated topic, check out this great illustrated card I got from the markets today. Chic and quirky: it will do perfectly for my friends birthday tomorrow.

The artist is Samantha Denmark, and you can find her at Glebe Markets in Sydney if you’re in the area.

holy floating pebbley-bums

My Illustration Friday entry for 'float'.

It’s a feat of nature how pelicans (or pebbley-bums, as my sister calls them) can float, or fly for that matter. They’re so big!

We were up the coast last weekend, and while watching a flock, we shared a very Seinfeld like conversation about how heavy we each thought a pelican would be. I mean on one hand they ARE the size of a dog, and on the other hand they fly and float with grace and ease. In any case they are mesmerising to watch, especially as they ski along the surface of the water with their enormous webbed feet as they come in to land.

a breath of fresh air

We just spent a wonderful long weekend 4hrs north in a costal town called Forster.
Elle and Kilkenny came with us, and we shared a lazy beachside weekend lolling about doing not very much at all.

We saw dolphins swim by everyday, and a lady at the lookout even pointed out some whales to us splashing about out off the coast (they were pretty far away, but it’s my first whale spotting, and I’m feeling pretty satisfied about that).

Within the first hour of being there we hit the local quilt and woodcraft fair, and then moseyed through a very cheap antique shop. We read books and listened to music and chatted and laughed.

We ate fish and chips and oysters and lobster, and drank cold beer. And despite the water still being pretty cold, it looked far too amazing to resist a swim. So we swam.
I forget that you don't have to go far to find breathtaking places, I need to remember that more often.

It must seem like we are always going away on weekends away and holidays, and I guess we have been lately, but it’s not normally like this. I think it’s the Year of the Rooster – bringing promised disruption and change and breaking up routines. All this change seems to be in the air, lots of things moving on and reforming, and if it comes in the form of a lazy getaway, that’s just fine by me.

I’m actually thinking I might like to retire! (oh, if only. he he he).

(more photo's here)

shizzle fizzle

Don't laugh, but I just had a romantic dream about Snoop Dog.

How's that for a paradox? 'Romantic' and 'Snoop Dog'! Don't tell anyone. I'm so embarrassed.