tsk tsk

stripping back myself

so in 24 hours the kids will have officially finished school for the year. Apart of me is looking forward to the easy mornings, and apart of me is dreading the long days of sibling fighting and heat!

I've decided to spend the rest of my day painting. All jobs can wait for the weekend. I'll hopefully finish them all by then. And I'm hoping that by having the kids under my feet I'll be injected with some Christmas spirit and enthusiasm.

I've been in a complete illustrative rut and really just want to put down the drawing tools, don the mother cap and dispense with all the unnecessary crap I have in my house either by giving it to charity or tossing it in the bin. And then when the mood hits me again, i'll pick up the paint brush and paint away. So apart from a few smaller items, there will be no more work added to my Etsy work until next year. perhaps a few finished pieces of painted originals for the bigcartel shop. Once the kids are back at school and I've had a break, I hope to reinvent myself, be truthful to myself and stay on ONE path for as long as I can. And before I know it March will be here on my doorstep.

turn up the music and sew

you know when you start cleaning and all of a sudden you discover all the projects you started months ago and want to stop your cleaning in order to finish them. Well.....on the weekend I finished one of them and have almost finished the other.  AND DID SOME CLEANING!!!!! This quilt I started last year using scraps from my stash. I took it away on holidays to the beach back in January and as of today I only have to hand stitch the back of the binding! YAY.

I have decided that it is going to be my thing to do whilst the kids are splashing in the pool. So I sit here and watch over them, turn up the music and sew. Agghh, summer!!!

And the painting is another wooden original now in my shop. I hope to be painting as much as I can over the next few months.

And what music am I listening to now? Well I've just discovered the sounds of Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson and when I want to chill out I've been listening to the Anouar Brahem..beautiful Arabian styled music with jazz influences.

this weekend

This weekend we celebrated the upcoming 7th birthday of A. Lego party, cake, perfect day in the park under a big shady fig with lots of little friends.

This weekend I bought flowers from the market. Because it is Spring.

This weekend I am washing, and folding, and hanging and putting away baskets of laundry. Like I do most weekends.

This weekend the kids are splashing in the pool.

This weekend I am trying to paint some more. Only a plan at this stage.

This weekend we made pancakes and ate our first mango for the season.

new and free

well, I have new greeting cards in my Etsy shop.

A new little birdy painting in the Bigcartel shop.

Amanda from Swish and Swanky is having a giveaway on her blog. Pop on over and have a look and you could win yourself my print of  'Nigel the Robot'.

In the meantime I have lots of orders so fill and finish. I'm so glad to be busy, it must be Spring!

new works on wood

I'm really struggling to find what I want to do with my creative self. I have had my hand in a bit of everything. From graphic design, product design, surface design, illustration, personalised works for kids and more. But now that the kids are at school I have been really wanting to paint.

So far this year with all the sickness we have had in the house, I have stopped and started my ideas about 20 times. I feel that with painting, I need to be in a certain frame of mind. Infact I could easily be a hermit. Locked away in my studio, never talking to anyone, still in my pjs eating peanut butter sandwiches. (geez I hope I'm never single because that description certainly won't win me any hot dates) But the reality as we all know isn't like that. But I have this feeling that there will be more time for me to self indulge in some painting time.

This of course means that I need to stop other creative pursuits. I'm not sure what yet, but certainly I will spend the next few months with the lead up to Christmas thinking seriously about what it is I really want to concentrate on and how I will endeavour to go about it.

I really need to make up my mind, because I'm sure my friends are sick of hearing me harp on about it as if it is the most tragic dilemma in the world!

So for now I have a few new paintings in my shop. There will be changes to both my Etsy and Bigcartel shops too. I'll be phasing things in and out over the next few weeks hopefully.