an exciting day out for an otherwise homely mama

wintersun

Last weekend a festival rolled into our town. Rolled in in cars with white wall tires, fins, and flames. Our town, with not much sub-culture, rocked with retro hipsters, as Wintersun (a festival of 30's, 40's, 50's, Rock'n'Roll and Rockabilly) came for the weekend. Mens hair combed high, ladies lips gleamed red, and double bass players balanced on their instruments as they thrummed out can't-stand-still tunes.

Sadly half of it was rained out, but the first half that we went to was so - much - fun!

scart - the scarf as art

Great idea for a show right?!

Acme et al is a gallery in Yarra Glen, VIC, who endlessly supports my work. A bunch of genuine, kind, art-wise people, who as you can see, come up with innovative ideas.

Though I'm not a scarf maker, I know lots of you out there are very talented with that kind of thing, so I thought you might like to know about this. Not only to see the show, but to submit your own work. Go on!

Entry details are here.

kepago

“Kepago specialises in products of great design, offered to members at discounted prices. No more wading through a multitude of categories – just plenty of designer products, all in one convenient place. It’s all quality hand-picked merchandise, showcased on one easy site.”





A range of my mini-prints are on sale on Kepago this week. Usually $12 each, Kepago are now offering them for $9, for designs including Wilderness, Sacrifice, Blue Whales, Strings, and Where Babies Come From.

a pretty dress, at last

All of Millipede's little friends have just celebrated their first birthdays. This gave me the opportunity to make a pretty little dress!!! Eeep!

Recycled from stuff from an op-shop, and based on a pattern that I made up as I went.
Can you tell I'm just a little bit proud? (blush)

art lab for kids

Art Lab For Kids is a wonderful new book by my friend Susan Schwake, the mastermind behind artstream studios. It's a source of ideas and lessons for creating all manner of different art with children... mind you I learnt a couple of new things from it too.


Beautifully photographed and clearly laid out, it steps you through 52 different art styles, each relating to a particular artist; a type of "how to achieve their look" guide.

And I am delighted to be one of the artists! I'm on the watercolour and pencil page.





The book is lovely, meaty and inspiring. You can buy it online here, and find out more about it here.

Thanks so much Susan, and well done to you!!!

more lessons

I knew when I wrote my previous post that I had left out some of the lessons I wanted to mention. Give me a month and my brain catches up (there's a lesson right there).  So here are a couple more things I've learnt (or mantra's I try to hold on to) on my amble through parenthood so far:

- Tell them what you're about to do in advance, (don't spring it on them while they are in the middle of something). This gives them time to prepare themselves, and therefore learn.

- They learn FAST. You may think they're not listening or absorbing, but they ARE.

- Your job as a parent is to prepare them for the next stage in their life.

- Good old fashioned sunshine bleaches almost any stain out of laundry.

- And most children's books end in a good sleep...