Naturally...

This morning on my way to work on a wet, cold, Sydney winter morning i was listening to another fabulous podcast from Craftypod. They were discussing how people can get a little obsessed with flogging their handmade items.. It's worth listening to their chat.. they also mentioned about getting to know the person behind the 'stuff' a bit more.. hmmmmm
Then i remembered i had been tagged, most of us have that's true. But these questions were new - so thought i'd just answer them.

What is your current obsession?
Making my own rubber stamps and researching a trip to Japan!
Coffee or tea?
Love to start the brain whirring with a coffee. Then quite partial to an afternoon tea + biscuit. Quite like an evening green tea. Always drink more cups of tea on self catered trips away.
Always have to leave a mouthful in the cup.
What’s for dinner?
Whatever the lovely Mr Redhead cooks Monday to Friday. Tuesday is usually tuna pasta. Whatever i feel like doing on the weekends.
What was the last thing you bought?
Some orange cardboard tags.
What are you listening to right now?
The latest Regina Spektor Album. Quirky. Fun.
What is your favorite ice-cream flavor?
I’ve just discovered green tea. Yumbo.
What is your favorite colour?
Green. No. It's grey!
What is your favorite piece of clothing in your wardrobe?
Impossible to decide. I love layers and get bored easily.
What is your dream job?
To work for myself on my own creative projects and not “have to” do anything.
Just ' do' because it feels right.
How many times do you press the snooze button before you get up?
I don’t set an alarm. Once i realised you can just ask your own self to wake up when you need to. True.

Bless you...

Yesterday i was doing a bit of printing, bit of painting, bit of photography. But more on that later. Being winter in Sydney seems to mean more germs in the air. Then there's swine flu on the planes... So as i swig the Echinacea and wipe surfaces i found myself creating this image. A card for those that have been quarantined.. Not sure about sending it to the printers.. but it's one way of documenting social events...
Hope you all have a healthy week!

Out and about

Today Dudley ventured out (with the family) to the Everleigh Artisan's Market. Dudley was meeting the girls from the book swap group. It's only been going a few months but does show potential. The space being the undercover area opposite Carriageworks.
It's interesting to see how the new wave of crafters/designers/artists are emerging from their loungerooms/studios and how they are fitting in to the established markets/spaces. It seems as with Finders Keepers, that not only is there room for new markets, but that the public + market place is ready for them!
So pop along the first Sunday in August and show some support..

Oh.. so the altered book swap project.. that's where 5 of us (who have only really become friends through this project) - meet up, swap books - then alter them. See more here. I had the mini Spanish/English dictionary back this time. My chosen word being: dead.

Glued to the chair

Today i wanted to get some collage out of my system.. I whipped up some papers ( a quick way to get a unique result - actually not that quick, come to think of it - but effective). Worked out some shapes. Stuck the line drawing on the window, the coloured paper on top and traced over it. I found it more effective to cut the all the bits separately - then you can give the figure a bit of movement when you stick the body bits down.
I do like working in sets of 3.. these will be available as art prints..here's a sneak preview..

creative growth

Yesterday even though the weather didn't know what it was doing, i did. I wanted to check out Glebe market, hadn't been for a while... Hmmm. The usual suspects. Import, some handmade and second hand. You really do get the sense that people here really want a bargain.. And there was probably a few to be had.
I was interested in seeing the felt work of 'talk to the wind'...talk about duck to water... she has only been working with felt for about 6 months. That shawl did look warm + happy for a winters day.. pop over here if you couldn't make it to Glebe.
Further up the road i discovered this vertical wall planting system, the idea being that you can select from a choice of 6 different supports to create your own gallery of living art. Details in Australia here.
The evening was spent watching Coco Avant Chanel with Miss R in an old 1930's movie theatre, seated on chairs that looked like they could've been watching the ocean float past..
Miss R's question during the movie was "But when are they getting to the fashion???!" And yes, it was a bit like that.. But i enjoyed it.. I'm not sure if the sexual references were equivalent to me watching Grease when i was a girl or not? But it was great watching Coco hack up mens shirts and refashion them!

Obsessive...

This morning at 6.30 when the cat jumped on my head to wake me up, I thought robot stamps! I must get started... (Was it going to rain? AGAIN? washing in or OUT?) I dozed a bit longer. Mr R junior needed to draw a 80cm figure for the school penguin project .. Miss R had a big hole in her sneakers.. BUT oh yes! after sorting all that out.. nothing was going to stop me from carving that delicious white rubber into robot stamps!
If you use a 'sharpie' on the rubber, once you have your design sorted it's a great help for working out what to leave black. I just love the surprise factor in the process, draw it, carve it, stamp it! YAY.

sharing

Sometimes we are a 'host family' to Japanese students. Today one of our students left after her 6 week stay (in between university and her new job). I was touched at her leaving gift. She presented us with a special collage made up of many of her moments here.. every night she photographed her dinner - so she included various shots of pasta, pizza, roast dinner and casseroles.. But it was her observations and words that i also really appreciated.. we can't always go out of our way to do anything different or extra special - so we are just our usual selves.. one of the things she wrote was "you are all good at spending your spare time usefully and pleasantly. I realised the importance of handmade. It's wonderful to please someone by making something"
She then gave us all a little piece of individual handmade goodness. Miki was indeed a delight to have around.

But it just goes to show that you don't always have to worry about what else you should be doing, what else could you be doing for the environment .. and chastising yourself if you forget the recycle bags at the checkout.. etc.. sometimes just living mindfully and with purpose - even if it seems ridiculous can still be worthwhile for those around you...