Sally

new shop

some exciting news........I have a new shop.....ta da! it's on madeit.com.au hopefully there's now a banner on the side bar here -> to take you to it. if you have time to look I'd appreciate any comments you have. these flower brooches are just the beginning of things I will sell. the top and bottom ones are OOAK nuno felted silk and wool flowers....and each one is different even though they might start out with the same fabric.

this one above is my very affordable funky layered flower brooch. these go like hot cakes when I do local markets. you can use them to brighten up a jacket, bag, scarf, headband......now the xoom idea was maybe not such a great one for the blog. the photos from the last post are pretty ordinary to say the least.................back to the drawing board.

Hello again

To say its been a long time is probably an understatement! I have been wondering whether I have the time to continue with my blog.......its been such a busy year. But I do really like this blogging stuff and I have still been reading others blogs and feeling guilty for neglecting my own. So now I have another new toy and a faster internet connection maybe I can manage things better. Let's see............the new toy? A motorola xoom tablet. I'm still ironing out how to post with it and I'm not sure how things work just yet - especially posting photos. Any help from my lovely readers......if you're still out there!......would much appreciated. The photos - which I hope are attached - are from my sketch book for the sketch book challenge.

new phone moments

I have a new toy...........it's my HTC Desire phone, and I love it....it takes great photos for when you don't want to carry your bigger camera around. and the apps.......oh what fun! these photos are from the little photo app. lots of great stuff like filters and effects to play with a photo after you've taken it. this one is of one of our cats asleep on the lounge.

and this is my son in the doorway..........very dark and moody!

and there are some great apps to use when you are away from home. we have just been to brisbane for a couple of days and I could find all sorts of things right there on my phone, important thing like......where the nearest coffee shop was, the ATM (73 ft that way!), where to find art supplies, bookshops......and maps to get directions. how great is all that?! I know some of you have had this at your finger tips for ages now and I'm just catching up......but gee I'm glad I did!

it's been a while.......

it such a long time since I posted here. life is so busy and every weekend for the longest time there's been something or other happening. I have been trying to keep up with the sketchbook challenge....this is a page from march's theme spilling over. just paint, pencil, paper spilling onto the page!

I managed to find 15 minutes one saturday morning to go for a stroll down the road. these morning glories were spilling over the edge of the road. I did a little drawing of them but the photo wasn't great....will have to retake it and post next time...which will hopefully be not too far away..............!

sketchbook challenge

I've still been working on my sketchbook challenge pages. this month's theme is opposites....this one was inspired by some colour studies that Jane Davies showed on the challenge blog and her own blog. red and green are opposites on the colour wheel. this has been collaged and painted.

and this one is called 'Glory Days' ....because I was listening to Bruce Springsteen whilst playing with the paint, stencils, etc. (I'm a Springsteen fan from waaaay back!). it started life as a brown envelope. I threw paint over it, stencilled some numbers and letters on it, then cut it up and pasted it into my sketchbook. then I worked it a bit more with rub-on letters and numbers and a little stamping, and added a tag I'd made whilst working on the envelope. you can check out my Flickr pages for more....

flood moments

it's flooding at our place...this is the bridge that connects our side of the river to Woodford Island in the Clarence River.

we spent yesterday lifting everything up downstairs in preparation for the waters which come into our downstairs room....which is actually my studio and laundry. today we get to sit around and watch the waters rise!
we're not going out there!
our animals (2 cats and 2 dogs) have to come upstairs and spend their time on the verandah. the cats get to come inside of course but it's confined to barracks (a little corner with beds and rugs) for the dogs! the cats get very spooked by so much water around....very scary!
hope that wherever you are you're safe and doing OK.

2011 Sketchbook Challenge

I am participating in the 2011 Sketchbook Challenge...there's the button on the right to take you to the blog. each month a theme is set by one of the artists who are coordinating the challenge and you work away at it throughout the month. this first photo is my title page in my book. I made the book from recycling an old book I found in an op shop and lots of my old screenprints, etchings, and coloured papers I made. I've also included some handmade paper I bought home with me from nepal.

this second photo shows my brainstorming with ideas for the january theme of "highly prized"...
one of my highly prized things is time....there is never enough to do all the things I like to do. it also includes a photo of myself and my sister when we were very young....all dressed up for sunday school. time seemed to go much slower then.....
head over to the sketchbook challenge blog to check out heaps of things to do with sketchbooks...and you can still join in if you'd like. there's also a flickr page where we are posting photos of our pages as we go along. lots of interesting stuff.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone. I hope it's full of fun and good things for you.

if you've been following my other blog you'll know that we have been away travelling in Nepal and India.....wow! we arrived home just two days before xmas and it's been very hectic around here since then. our trip was amazing and we met some wonderful people....check my other blog if you haven't already had a look.

yesterday we took a drive to Nymboida for a new year lunch with our neighbours and we had a lovely time and great food. Nymboida is about a 30 minute peaceful drive out of Grafton and we went to the old coaching inn there which is set on the banks of the Nymboida river. these lovely kangaroo paws were flowering on the river bank. the coaching inn also has an interesting museum of interesting things with movie related memorabilia. the inn is owned by Russell Crowe so there are several pieces related to his movies. check it out here.

travelling moments

the day has arrived.... we are off to Nepal and India....!!! yes I'm excited. if you'd like to follow our travels you can check out my our travel blog here. see you after Xmas....