happy 101

Muralimanohar has tagged me with the Happy 101 meme. And because I've never done it before, and it's a nice easy one, I thought I'd join in.

Okay, rules are...

Name ten things I like:

- Music

- Art

- The Ocean

- Trees

- Flowers

- Cups of tea with friends

- Carson Kressley

- Wearing brightly coloured tights

- Day light savings

- Cake


And, tag ten other bloggers:

Art Esprit
Ali J
Abigail Halpin
Geek+Nerd
Mandi and Maddi
One Sheep Town
Pocket Carnival
Lilli Boo
Pottymouth Mama
TinnieGirl

Fire at will.

two weeks

TWO WEEKS! TWO WEEKS???!!!!! A Fortnight! I can't believe that much time has slipped past since I was last here.

A lot can happen in two weeks...



You can head off on a road trip, visiting family, and stopping off in sweet little towns along the way. You can make it all the way to your Dad's place to help celebrate his 60th birthday with his family, and see your sister who has flown up from Sydney for the weekend. You can eat way too much, both at home and at some really lovely cafe's. Then you can make your way back, via more sweet little towns, art galleries, and more cafe's.





You can return home in one of those post holiday "I've forgotten about the computer, and would prefer to be outside in the garden" type of moods.

Then you can get engrossed in painting a new commission, and continue to forget all about the computer.

Then you remember the computer, your friends blogging away, and start to tend to the emails that have piled up... And finally you share photo's of your trip away and its wonderful cafe's and their amazing furniture...

m is for monday

Monday - muffins - mittens and milkshakes.

Lovely 3D wallpaper M by Little White Dog on Etsy.

giveaway prizes

Just now getting around to showing you the little packages I put together (of 5 things each) for the winners of my 5th Bloggy Birthday Giveaway!

My friend is the brain and skilled hands behind the beautiful Mandi and Maddi brand, and although her online shops are mostly bare, it is because her retail outlets keep her so busy. She came around for lunch one day a few weeks ago, and adorned me with some really really gorgeous clips that I had admired. I kept the pink one for myself, and sent an orange one to my Sister Sparkle for her birthday. Feeling guilty that she always gives me her beautiful things, I took myself off to the shops and bought one of her very cool magnetic bookmarks.



The bookmark went into one of the giveaway packages!



For Cindy from Bug and Pop I got a nice neutral scarf from the op-shop, ready for her to embellish, the magnetic bookmark, a pack of my Happy Happy Garden Cards, a Curiosity mini-print, and a square card featuring my Buttercup Bluejay design.

And for Victoria from One Sheep Town I got a cool string bag made of wool and a funny Australiana tea towel from the op-shop, a pack of my Happy Happy Garden Cards, a print of Honour, and a square card featuring my Peony and Red Cardinal design.

I've since heard they both liked their packages.

drawgasmic

(Seabeard McGee)

This weekend is the launch of the amazing Drawgasmic exhibition and book! Put together by the ever-cool team at Cranky Yellow.

"We're bringing together the work of 1000 international artists, illustrators, and designers in an exhibition and book unlike anything ever created before!"

My contribution is old Seabeard McGee (above), but you should see some of the others! There are so many good ones to choose from, but here are a few of my favourites:


By Buffalo Parade, from Perth, Australia.


By Pole Ka, from Paris, France.


By Jennifer Freeman, from New York, USA.


The exhibition opens this Saturday at Art Dimensions / 2720 Cherokee - (Located at 2720 Cherokee Street St. Louis MO 63118). So if you're in the area, pop along, and tell me what it's like! :) Otherwise you can buy the works and book online!

my creative space: a colouring book

HI! I have resurfaced!

So the giant project I've been working on is a colouring book!!
It is going to be published and distributed by Lalaland!!!!
I'm so thrilled!!!!

They do lovely colouring books, which are more like story books you can colour in. The drawings are usually more complex than what a normal colouring book would be (not a beach ball to be seen), so the books may be better suited to slightly older kids, but that's not to say younger tots can't expressively scribble at will!

I love the idea that kids can colour over the top of shaded artworks, to give them a greater sense of achievement, and to teach them to focus on detail (which is, after all, one of the processes in learning to draw).

My book follows the story of a girl who leaves the big city and moves to the country (I know, I know, getting lots of mileage out of that one). There she meets lots of animals of course. To make it slightly educational, and much cooler, I included some Australian animals that are quite rare, with a type of index at the back so you can learn what they all are. And of course there's a moral, ahhhh. ;)

Because I had to do the entire thing in two and a half weeks, I ended up re-using some of my previous concepts, but redrew them differently.

I sent in all my files today (after battling to get our internet connection to come back to life). DONE!
I'm buzzing with a sense of achievement. I'm so excited I thought I'd share some of my favourite pages...









The book comes out in August!


Now, pardon me while I go barge through dunes of eraser shavings, climb mountain of unwashed dishes, part my un-tended hair, and flop on the lounge for an evening of brain-numbing TV and not moving a muscle.