Re fashion..

I must admit, having a daughter is lots of fun. I do feel very lucky, especially when she wants to 'play' with me.
Saturday afternoon saw an op shop run for some thrifting.. these were 2 of the 7 pieces we found. This yellow number ($8) just needed a couple of tucks on the shoulders.. a few accessories and voila!

magic indeed..

Miss R sourced both these items herself .. check this ($12) one out...

The body fitted perfectly,the length a little long and strapless for a 12.5 year old a little much. Soooo we chopped off a bit from the hem. Refashioned it into straps, added a couple of buttons and groovy, baby!

Oh, of course MY sewing machine broke down, today. Bobbin tangling thread - big nasty cobwebby mess under the fabric. Yuk. Then i remembered i had bought Miss R a little one a few years ago.. so i used this:

That was just in case you were sighing "oh but I can't sew, " or "oh I don't have a machine".
Maybe you can...

More Sketchbook project..

Slowly but surely, another couple of pages.. see here for more details on the project..

the words read: "it must be liberating to fly when you want to.."
I sort of had a plan in my head. But then once i started the volume of pages was overwhelming.. so i just go where the page takes me. More or less. On these 2 i enjoyed playing with water soluble pastels and ink.. but i can't say that i see a cohesive style emerging..

I am struggling with handwritten text vs computer generated.. which is better? Again the experiments continue..

in the shed-udio

A couple of weeks ago i had cleaned up. I had organised a creative space for myself.. This weekend i moved in 2 more desks and WE painted.. Having been given some gorgeous kraft frames.. i decided to paint some mini portraits. I was thinking of old fashioned family sepia portraits..



then it was back to the 'sketchbook project'. oh yes...

ANOTHER project

I signed up for this - THE SKETCHBOOK PROJECT and you can too until the end of October!

Thousands of moleskine sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums as they tour across the U.S.Then they'll enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view. That does sound good doesn't it?

There's quite a few themes to choose from - or they'll pick one for you..

I have begun mine. No! it's not daunting! No, I'm not avoiding it every weekend! Yes! I'm really enjoying experimenting with different styles..

There's a flickr group.

So here is my beginning of what is yet another project..

Garden variety?

Last week i got off my morning bus and discovered these guys on the grass at Wynyard station.





Mostly, folks walked on by, but when i went to investigate i found out that they had been created by Robogals - a student run organisation that aims to increase female participation in engineering, science and technology. You could vote for them here. Basically i find it hard to ignore a robot, do you?

Shaking off the cobwebs..

Have you made the transition from Winter to Spring, or, Summer to Autumn?
Coming out of winter does seem to involve 'freshening up'.
I want to create new things, explore something - get creative.. but first we have to 'freshen up'. Bit by bit.
This was outside the front door:

we did a mini garden blitz..

Aaaah. A little bit fresher. Not too time consuming, not too expensive.

Living history..

Do you sometimes read about something that is coming up and say to yourself "oooh, that'll be good". Then as the time comes around other things clamour for your attention and you lose sight of what you were going to do. OR you remember that yes! i will go.. so I did.
...To a lecture at the Mosman Art gallery which ran this afternoon to go with the opening of "Australian accent - the designs of Annan Fabric and Vande Pottery in the 40's and 50's. The exhibition features actual lengths of original fabric. Plus lots of gorgeous photographs, a sound reel and wonderful vintage home magazines.
Annan fabrics was founded by two remarkable women who screen printed in Mosman bewtween 1941 and 1954. The $8 catalogue has many of the wonderful visuals from the exhibition and the story behind Annan fabrics..

Curator Julie Petersen is to be congratulated for bringing this story to our attention.. And as if that wasn't rewarding enough, present in the audience this afternoon were 3 wonderful women. The first speaker had worked at Annan fabrics in 1949 and shared her story, the other was a pharmacist who had helped mix the German inks and the other had been a little girl spending much of her spare time at Annan Fabrics. She told of how she had sat and frayed the edges of the place mats to earn pocket money.
I have never experienced such an amazing example of 'living history' before..
If you are in Sydney pop along to see this great exhibition before October 10. If textiles are your thing why not attend the Symposium on Sept 26, see here.

Father's Day...

So *commercial rubbish aside, it's nice to make someone feel special isn't it? Choosing to avoid the crowds and disappointment of busy cafes around Sydney we chose to stay in. The kids made their dad eggs benedict and gave him a much needed (ie: so he stops using ours!) Stanley knife. Mr R jnr fashioned a gift box in the shape of a guitar neck (apparently he may make the next bit for Christmas)...
Hope you had a lovely first Spring or Autumn weekend too.

*.. my father passed away 6 years ago. I remember how angry i was that first year at hearing all those Fathers Day promos. Wanting to scream 'Yes! he does deserve more' in answer to all those repetitive jingles. Of course i still miss him. His voice, chatting, the simple things. BUT I have so many memories which i will cherish and hold dear, always. He was the best.
Happy Father's Day dad.

Out and about...

So it's Spring, hooray!
My weekend began with the mini zine fair.. as part of the Manly Arts festival..

The lovely Anne from Manly Library (who organised the event) had pre-empted the most asked question:
What is a zine?" and had decorated the foyer using paper chains - some made from text pages - so sweet..

Dudley was placed amongst it and met lots of interested folk..

For those of you who are interested, but couldn't make it - i'll be posting some zines on Etsy soon.