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 "What I'm making this week, holding it up under a lamp to get enough light, Wednesday"We do our grocery shopping at a beachside suburb about 5 mins drive away. We've been there so many times without actually having a look at the beach... until about 2 weeks ago. We were so surprised to find a beautiful estuary with giant norfolk pines, baby beaches and a bridge. Naturally we crossed the bridge over the creek out of curiosity, and naturally our curiosity urged us on when we got to the other side. We walked though a lush mossy forest, with elkhorn ferns clinging to the tree trunks. We came out the other side pushing through an aisle in a field of waist high native grass, passed a few shrubs on the other side and then found ourselves on a headland overlooking the ocean. We could see our headland from there, but this one, only a few minutes away, is completely different. On our way back, as we were passing back through the tall grass, a flock of zebra finches burst out of the shrubs, meep-meep-meepping as more and more appeared. There must have been about 50 of them all up, bouncing along the grass tops, then disappearing in their own camouflage. (I've never seen that around here, but just 5 mins down the road there's a whole other world)... Soon after we were pushing a trolley up and down the aisles of the supermarket, giggling when we realised that the people we'd passed in the forest must have thought I was a total tourist: wearing my dangly earrings, smart jacket, nice shoes, and handbag - dressed for shopping, not a forest walk. That's what happens when your curiosity gets the better of you.
Imagine your most perfect job… In the past I mentioned mine would be coming up with the names of house paint colours. But get this for a job… You work on TV shows and movies. The art director comes to you with concepts of how they want each set to look, while carpenters build the set, you get to go shopping all day, rummaging through second hand shops, auction houses, and negotiating with home wares designers and artists, and of course normal shops too. You get to fill up your van with amazing goods and furniture all on the company account. You return with all this treasure, making sure they fit with the art directors vision for the scene, then you start to “dress” the set. It’s shopping and decorating basically. (Well I say basic, but I’m sure it’s hard work actually). Pretty amazing hey? Well my very dear friend HAS this job! Her house quickly fills with the most amazing things. Items she collects for herself along her travels, and stuff that returns to her after a shoot has ended. Anyway, one of the patterns of this type of work is that often there are gaps inbetween jobs. She’s in one of those gaps at the moment, and has used the time to set up her own ETSY store. It’s quickly filling with all the surplus vintage items she finds and simply can’t leave behind. So she’s sharing them with all of us, (for a very generous cost). Her shop is called a small ferret, go check it out! 
 For the This is meme this week we were asked to choose our own topics. So I chose to show what I'm attempting to learn... violin/fiddle. (I've mentioned it briefly before). Anyway, I still haven't had any lessons, I've been going by online video demonstrations, and a book and CD. Having NEVER been anywhere near music before, I'm having to also teach myself to read sheet music too. It's all a bit of an uphill battle still, but I've gotten over the nasty-ouchy part of building up callouses on the tips of my fingers, so now it's just practice practice practice. And honestly a few lessons pretty soon wouldn't go astray. I've been so busy painting lately that I haven't been playing as much, plus I'm getting bored with Mary Had a Little Lamb. The ultimate goal is to be able to play something like this. But in the meantime, with a bit of help from Mr You, I’ve almost nailed playing the melody line that follows Bjork’s opening line “I live by the ocean” from The Anchor Song (this is really cute footage of the song accompanied by a super-serious organ player. :D We recently saw concert footage of it done by strings and it was pretty). But that’s all I can do so far. Mind you it's only been 2 months... I'm getting there slowly... I love learning new things, but usually it's sewing something new, or making picture frames or something. This is by far the biggest challenge I've undertaken so far. Hopefully I'll be able to play a good ole foot stompin hoe down by my 40th birthday :D ......that's 8 years away, so I've still got time. What's something new that you've learnt recently, or are learning right now? Do tell! :)
 "What I'm making this week, holding it up under a lamp to get enough light, Wednesday"Here's my sneak-peek for the week. This one features a yellow-tailed black cockatoo. These huge birds hang out in the trees down along the beach. They have the cutest round yellow cheeks, and when a few of them fly overhead you can hear them coming; their loud cries sound prehistoric. I've been an antisocial blogger in the past week or so, hardly visiting or commenting at all. And it's only going to get more sparse as I get to the pointy end of the schedule, and finishing all these works over the next 3 weeks becomes more dire. I'm enjoying it all thoroughly, but I just can NOT slip at all. No distractions. I must keep it up. So I'm sorry for not visiting, I miss you. I'll make it up to you with a little give-away! Coming soon sometime in the next few weeks. Stay tuned. :)
 This is: what makes me happy.I'm late this week. I know. It's such a big question though isn't it? Like one of those universal truths. I was holding off because I wanted to take a walk on the headland to get some beautiful photo's of the cyan mercury ocean... I've been feeling happy there... But sadly I haven't had time this week, so I'm going to keep it broad... What makes me happy: good friends, colour, watching the ocean, feeling a sense of place, creativity in unexpected places, loved ones, fluffy loved ones, feeling healthy, elements of nature that amaze me, shrills of joy from children, cake, hot tea, beautiful art, playfulness, good music, learning new things, looking forward to all the things still to come in life, someone else doing the vacuuming for me, going to new places and comfy socks. Thanks to One Little Acorn for this week's uplifting topic :D
 It's coming to the end of school holidays, so we've been entertaining visiting nephews for the past 2 days. Skateboarding with Uncle You yesterday... we all went ice skating this morning, and we finished the day with a trip to the Butterfly House. The butterfly photo's are worth looking at in large scale. In one of them you can even see the big long tongue all curled up!
 I'm having fun hiding birds in the neckline of ladies. Hmmm, can't say I ever said that sentence before, nevertheless it's true. I'm also having fun being more experimental in my painting style. It's freer and even messy in some places. I'd like for it to be even more loose, but it's a real challenge for me to not be neat; I have to really concentrate and keep reminding myself to step back and loosen up. So I'll keep splattering and swirling for now and see where it takes me. This one features a willy wagtail, and there's a bit of that hot pink cordyline plant from my yard in there too. Today I've been drawing up a new painting, this time with a black cockatoo. So tonight I'm planning on trying to paint all dark and inky like. My fingers are crossed in the meantime.
 "What I'm making this week, holding it up under a lamp to get enough light, Wednesday"Here's another sneak-peek at a new work heading to the show at artstream in September. I've been bringing critters and elements from my immediate environment into these new works. This one features a "blue-faced honey eater". We see a lot of these birds in our yard, they're kinda alien looking actually, with that flouro-blue leathery patch around their eyes. These are the ones that get up really close to the window to intimidate Tilli (our kitty) on the other side. She loves them for it! Ironically, on days when she goes outside to play, they are nowhere to be seen. Clever alien birds.
This is: what scrambles my brain when I try to understand it. I see people on the train wiz through these. Science claims it exercises your brain to keep your mind fit and active. Friends declare their love for it. And I have tried it... over and over again. Do you think I've ever finished one? NO! I really want to, but no matter how I go about it I always get 75% of the way through before I realise I've stuffed it. I would love to be able to do this, but each time I come away with a well scrambled brain, feeling utterly inadequate. I want to love it. I want it to love me back. But as it stands, I HATE SUDOKU! Thanks to Flightless Boyds for the choice of topics this week... (even if it has left me with feelings of dumbness and defeat)
 I don't have anything to say, I just wanted to show you the tiny bright puffs of wattle that have just bloomed in the front yard. It's smell is faint but sweet, and the bees love it.
 "What I'm making this week, holding it up under a lamp to get enough light, Wednesday" Here's another painting for the exhibition. The sneak-peeks are getting bigger and bigger as we go along; this is pretty much the whole work. With this one though, I'm not sure if it's finished or not yet. I don't know if I should work it in a bit more, or keep it loose and light. I'll live with it for a bit and see how it goes.
 Looking in my garden for inspiration I never have to go too far. A couple of these shots were taken from inside, looking through the window of my studio/front room/office. It's Winter, yet there's still so much colour.
This is:my most treasured childhood possession. I have two comfort items I got as an infant that I still treasure, (they were actually both gifts from when I was first born). One is a yellow satin edged baby blanket, and one is a pink teddy. I won't call him a bear because no-one has ever been able to identify his species. Some say panda, some say pig, some say crazed bear. In any case his name is Pinky. He's shy. He's had a rough life and more surgery procedures than anyone I know, and it shows. But he and I are tight. Mr You wanted me to show you his face, "C'mon, you've gotta let them see that thing!" And I admit it's a sight to be seen; a face only a mother could love... So I'll spare you... and my own soft dirty-pink matted heart. Thanks to Danielle from Teacups on Treetops for this beautiful topic.
 I'm a day late for my new "What I'm making this week, holding it up under a lamp to get enough light, Wednesday" meme :) First week of my own meme and I'm late! Far out, what does that say about me? Maybe just that I've been a good little camper, working hard to get through all my work, and not being distracted by these silly whims. So this fancy swan is a sneak-peek of my newest work for the exhibition. I'm a bit behind in my quoter for this week. Doesn't earning a living get in the way sometimes? Pfff. Anyway, lots of sketching going on, ready for the weekend. Phew.
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