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one cross goblin....

Ever since I finished this zine, Rose has been busy with her own book...I finally finished scanning and colouring the images for her, so that she could add the text.

(I'm just a little bit proud....)

chocolate free eggs...

( not that I have anything against the chocolate variety...)

Baby update: 5 weeks to go!

ready to post.....

Off to Japan, USA,UK,Switzerland,Portugal,Canada, The Netherlands,Israel,Finland, New Zealand,New Caledonia and of course all over Australia.
I love snail mail...hope you enjoy finding these in your mailbox, where ever you are!
All feedback encouraged and most welcome.
( For those of you who want to take a look at the illustrations, you can find them all here on Flickr)

8th March....Thanks for the great response. All of the mini zines are now spoken for...only did an edition of 50 (quite enough folding and stapling for the present!)  so if you missed out, sorry!

odd sock soup....

I finally finished the artwork for my mini- zine...scanning and printing is all completed and its ready to be folded  and stapled. I used the instructions from this book to make an instant zine - fast, easy and light to mail.

So, if you asked for a copy, it should be on its way to you at the end of this week ( if you asked but haven't sent me your mailing address, please do!). It's not very big...a little bit of drawing, a little bit of collage and a very little bit of text! Shouldn't take more than a minute or so to read but hopefully a minute that you will enjoy!

birthday card for the king...

Happy Birthday, Damian!

( homemade raspberry and chocolate chip icecream cake all round!!!!)

not quite the big one....

My paintings for this weekends Spring fair Art stall....the big canvas is still a work in progress. I will keep on at it for the next two evenings but there is still quite a way to go on it. I'm not getting too stressed about it though...I would rather take my time with it as I somehow get the feeling that it really is only going to appeal to me anyway. I'll just make a donation to the art stall and keep on adding layers of paint.
I am hopeful that my other pieces will find new homes though....

taste of summer....

and of course, I've just finished knitting most of Rose's winter school cardigan...all I need to do now is knit up the front bands,make it up and then put it away until next year!
Actually, it's hard to complain when the past two days have been warm enough to play around on the beach after school. After all, we still have another month of winter left so I think we best enjoy this mild sunny weather while we can.The best way for us to do that is to head down to Clontarf beach - a beautiful harbour stretch of sand that faces west and so catches the afternoon sun.
And best of all...we had the whole beach to ourselves.....

I did a few scribbles in between building sandcastles and collecting shells.

in the bag

My current on- the- go knitting project lives in a plastic zip case that originally contained hair products. This then gets thrown into whichever bag I happen to be carrying around with me at the time.
It's certainly not very  glamorous but it is practical and doesn't take up too much room.
I have been wanting to replace it for some time with something a little more aesthetically pleasing. Everything I have looked at has been too big,too small, too expensive, too many features. Some were just plain old ugly.

On Saturday I came across a small clutch purse/pouch in leather -simple, functional and lovely to look at. Sigh. I didn't need it so back on the shelf it went.....
Later it occurred to me that the design could be adapted to suit my need for a project bag.

This is a rough sketch of the clutch purse - a bit of tweaking with regard to the size and shape ( I want my bag to be tall and narrow) and a decision as to the fabric I want to use.

And an hour or so to sew it all up of course.

alas poor Yorrick.....

Ann Demeulemeester skull necklaces

I've always had a bit of a fascination with bones and skulls...lucky for me then that skulls are to be found everywhere at the moment. These two beauties were found at Assin on my recent trip to Melbourne. I'm thinking of adding a few jet beads onto the cotton tape just because I happen to like black jet beads.

Skulls don't appeal to everyone - and I'm fairly certain the woman sitting next to me on the plane home did not find them as beautiful as I did.....I wonder what she would have made of this jewelery exhibition by Julia deVille. I loved it, especially the silver rook skull and the jet skull fob. I can only imagine her face if I had turned up for the flight, wearing this brooch.....

bird brooch by Julia deVille

sketch of The Dress

I know it will take forever to get around to taking a picture of The Dress so I pulled out  my rusty garment sketching skills and did a little sketch. This will give you an idea of what it looks like.The wool shell is a very dark navy .The under dress is a black self striped fabric with a smooth and crisp finish and  a lovely drape to it.
It won't be everyone's cup of tea and I guess some people will think it plain ugly,boring and/or unflattering. It's not a pretty or shapely dress but I loved it the minute I saw it and tried it on. 
It's such a me dress- black ( and dark navy), long and swishy. I only noticed the black velvet ribbon trim complete with bows, that sits in between the two rows of frills on the dress when I sat down to sketch it.
Just another reason to love The Dress.

I decided that I needed to adjust the colours in Photoshop a little after I scanned it- the dark navy shell looked too blue- and at the same time I had a little play with the filters.

Yep, love Photoshop too!