sunday snippets

you may have noticed that I've added another shop to my side bar. magpie finds is now open on craftumi. I've already had my first sale...thank you Nat!

 yesterday I added these gorgeous frozen charlotte kits. each kit has a frozen charlotte torso, some old lace and ribbons, some very old music and bible papers, flowers and pearl accents, and some gorgeous mother of pearl buttons from my own collection...love these and collect them everywhere.

 and for lots of fun you'll also find games ephemera from my very large collection of old games and toys. these are great for mixed media, collaging, journaling, artwork, etc.

there's also some lovely packs of paper ephemera with over 50 pieces of vintage papers from old books, music sheets, dictionaries, play money, cards, old postcards, punched shapes.....

saturday showcase

do you have green frogs at your place? we do....i've read that it's a good sign of a healthy garden. I hope so 'cause i've been working hard in my garden this last couple of weeks. anyway, these little fellas (or girls - who can tell a girl frog from a boy frog?!!) are showing up on our window sills, steps and railings each evening and sing their little frog songs to each other whilst checking out what's for dinner - usually bugs who are silly enough to come too close. here's a couple of snaps I took tonight with my phone.....do you like the googly eyes?!

thrifty thursday

I found this cute as a button tea set a couple of weeks ago at one of my regular op shop stops. it isn't complete - i'm sure there would have been a teapot with it originally - but I still love it. the china is super fine and its perfect for playing tea parties!

monday memories

hello world...

hi mum....

sunday snippets

today has been very exciting at our place - we have a new arrival and he is beautiful. now, I'm afriad you will have to wait until tomorrow to see some photos of him because we are all just a little too tired tonight to upload the photos from the camera, onto the computer, onto the zoom, etc, etc......
can you guess what "he" is??? check in tomorrow to see if you got it right. nite nite.....zzzzzzz sleep tight little one.......

tuesday travels

today's tuesday travels takes us to nepal.....aahh looking at these photos just makes me want to jump on the next flight and go there now....

 these photos were taken in Muktinath which was the highest point we trekked to on our trip last year. they were taken at the temple just above the village. peaceful, spiritual, relaxing, beautiful. prayer flags, bells, running water, stones....amazing landscape

 these towers are houses to heaven built by people who come to the temples to worship. there are many many towers/houses of all sizes

 we built our own and this is my tower with it's little marigold. I wonder if it's still there.....

 and of course there are prayer wheels everywhere...also large and small. we even saw some made out of australian milk tins!

if you have ever thought about travelling to Nepal don't keep thinking...just go. you won't regret it. trust me.

monday memories

many many years ago I took these photos. my Dad was still alive, I was still training to be a teacher, I was learning about photography, I was taking most of my photos as slides

 close to where I live (then and now) there was a match factory....yes they made match sticks. these trees - poplars - were grown specifically for the factory to make the matches.

 I drove past these plantations late in the afternoon and the light was great....golden. the clouds were beautiful.

 I took lots of snaps, not knowing if any would be OK....way before digital photography where it's so easy to edit on the spot.

with anticipation I waited for my slides to be developed...that was so much a part of the process and excitement of photography back then.

I loved these photos then and I still love them today. every time I look at them they remind me of my Dad....he thought they were pretty cool! they remind me of that time and the wonder of light, expectation and creating things to remember. they remind me that photography is not just about the here and now.....it's timeless and can create a legacy for the future.

what do you remember today....I'd love to know.

sunday snippets

monday memories

in 2008 at this time of the year my son and I were travelling through europe, the middle east and the UK. we have so many wonderful memories from this time. probably our most favourite place was Cornwall where we stayed for a week in a gorgeous cottage in a small village called Newlyn near Penzance. we could watch the comings and goings of the harbour from our cottage. I just love harbours, boats, wharves and all the odds and ends you find around these areas. these are just a small sampling of my very favourite photos from this place. if you would like to see more from our travels you could pop over to my other blog here

 

friday feast

thrifty thursday

you did see this one coming didn't you? if you've been here before or you know me well enough, you would know that I love a good op shop....in fact I love a good many op shops! this afternoon an old friend popped in for a chat and tea - old as in we went to uni together back in the late 70's, early 80's (well actually it was called a college of education back then). anyway it was probably in those days that my op shopping took full flight (newcastle had some great ones back then)and has continued to this day. and it has yielded lots and lots of treasures.

yesterday I had about 15 minutes in the royal far west op shop in coffs harbour and these treasures came home with me....a lovely pile of fabrics to be used as linings for my purses, and for my fabric flower brooches. you can see some here in the shop

and this lovely tin heart will adorn my kitchen when I find just the right spot for it. it looks lovely on the windowsill but that's not very practical.

six days into blogtoberfest and still going......stayed tuned for friday!

wednesday words

if you've been reading along here this week you may have noticed that each day has had a little bit of aliteration ......ooohh that's a big word (hope I spelt it right!). i've been thinking long and hard about what to write each day and thought I would have a theme for each day.....yesterday driving home from brisbane I came up with a title for each day of the week but I have to say Wednesday had me stumped for a while. wednesday  wonders...aah no; wednesday  weekdays.....nope; wonderful wednesday......nope; wednesday  wobblies......mmmm maybe....nope. and a whole lot of others I can't even remember now, but eventually wednesday words seemed right and so this is what it shall be. now ....... I am a visual artist and my blog has always been predominantly visual because that's what I do .....but in my day job as a school counsellor words are very important and a large part of my days are spent talking words or listening to words. so whilst here on my blog visuals will always predominate, words are important too, so I would like to focus a little on words somewhat for this month - on wednesdays. I have to say though that i have always been drawn to typeography, text, numbers and lettering in all its forms across many visual art forms. so for blogtoberfest wednesdays shall focus on words. stayed tuned for thursdays theme........

sunday snippets

playing along with tinniegirl's sunday snippets. home from the weekend craft fair relaxing in front of the telly watching the no. 1 ladies detective agency with my family