A chrissie gift...

This beautiful spoon was part of Trudy's gift to me from Holland...it is so pretty and now I have a special mug and special spoon that I can use every day for my morning coffee...I'm very particular and need the right utensils when I eat and drink...they have to be pretty..I hate ugly china and cutlery so this is perfect..thanks Trudes..

Op shop finds from my trip to Stanthorpe..

3 rolls of vintage wallpaper....yay!!!!

Very old Readers' Digest covers

Fabrics from an old quilt...the one above is the original and below is the fabric put over the top...I didn't want the quilt just the fabrics and I love them so I sat for a few hours and unpicked them.

Another lot of Readers' Digest covers - all to be used for new journals...and close-ups of some of them below...quite lovely.

And these...an absolutely gorgeous old kids' book and the one on the right is an old cookbook....

Christmas dinner with mum

I was caught out with my mouth full in this picture...

Santa arrived with prezzies for everyone...

Mum's friend Joanie with her dog Brownie..

and mum opening one of her prezzies from us...

Mucking around with art...

I've been preparing some more books to make..I'm doing the online bookbinding class which I LOVE...so I went through my little collection of old books that I had kept for no reason apart from loving them and now they will become new books that will hopefully be used...Or sold..

Sitting in front of tv one nite I was bored but too tired to really do much else so I sat and drew faces on some beach pebbles I had collected...this was lots of fun..

Travel Journal: Melbourne.

So I had fun carrying this little journal around Melbourne...writing a bit here and there...I have yet to print out some photos to add so I have some blank pages left for those...

Throughout my original book I used old photocopied pics from my family's travels as backgrounds...

...the angelhead carving above is a photo I took years ago on the outskirts of Melbourne...

and this girl above is from a vintage postcard...she is actually standing in an Iowa cornfield originally...I really liked the way she is looking out into the distance and so wanted her in here...

The black and white pic above right is of my mum walking along the cliffs in Tasmania when she was about 17..she is all rugged up with a walking stick cut from a tree...and then the photo up in the lefthand corner is of Florence taken by my dad on our travels when I was a teenager...nothing to do with Melbourne but of course to do with travelling...and the map of Australia on the golf ball is about the PGA President's Cup which is why we were in Melbourne.

Art

I have started some more wire hearts...the vines are on and the foliage and flowers are in progress...on the heart below I spent a few hours sewing vintage fabrics and scarves into what I thought looked like flowers but at the end of it all I realized it all looked as though I had just wrapped some old material around the wire...hmmm..all that for not a lot. So back to the trusty wire ribbon roses...or roses made from gathered ribbons...like the pink one below. I'm trying to achieve a look that is floral and pretty but not too twee.. unique I suppose...I'll keep going until I achieve the effect I want...it will happen..it just sometimes takes longer than I want when I'm not even sure what I'm doing..(make sense?).

These 3 paintings are finally finished..I think..I have added some stitching to them if you can see that..I really had fun with these...I had no idea what they would be when I first put paint on the canvasses so it was very freeing..

Mingary Mountain Retreat

This past weekend 4 of us went on a retreat to Mount Mee which is only an hour away from home. We stayed in this gorgeous big home - lots of bedrooms and bathrooms with nice touches throughout...little sayings and books to read.. a piano to play if we wanted...

Looking down the drive to the house nestled in the trees and the shed on the left...

2 of the balconies..the bottom one was off the dining room and kitchen and we spent a bit of time out here..looking out into the trees...with no other houses around us.

Part of the extensive garden.

Buddhas to greet us at the front door...and....

birdbaths and...

the most beautiful gardenias which were also laid out on our towels and in the bathrooms..their scent is so gorgeous..I brought some of them home and I can still smell them.

Lots of carved hands were placed around the rooms...

I really enjoyed the weekend...to be with 3 other women all committed to their personal growth and spiritual health was fantastic and I learnt a lot from them..We did some guided meditations and went out in the garden walking and laughed a lot too of course.

It was time out from life I suppose but also time for reflection.

For the Dutch kids...Hello! xo

We had brunch at the Aussie kids' house on Sunday morning...yummy pancakes made by Don..here he is in the kitchen and I asked the kids to say hello to the Dutch kids...special hello to you guys..xoxo

Work in Progress and New Barbed Wire In Stock

This is my watercolour 'ghost people in the garden piece' that is ongoing...not sure where it is headed but I found this very cute frame in the opshop for it so that is dictating the size for now..One of them is reading by a lamp in the garden..ha.

My friend Desley visited on the weekend and brought me a whole box of old barbed wire...when she received my text asking if she could do that she was at home with her husband Albert, and he is very keen to help out so sent over this big box (below) with some extra bits he added including this wonderful bit of chicken wire which has gone through a fire. You can see the colours on the close-up photo. Aaaand it already is in a great heart shape...I LOVE it...I think I have a pretty good life when I get gifts like this...

My First Hand Made Book

I am doing a class online and this is the first book I have done..it is a bookbinding class. It is taught by Mary Ann Moss and her blog is Dispatch From LA..it is in my favourites..and it is one of my favourites..she is funny and open and relaxed and I really love reading her stuff. She talks about being a 'guerilla bookbinder' not a perfect bookbinder as she is not into perfection but lots of creativity. Having said that I think her books are well made but the colour and fun come across more than the structure I suppose...Anyway if you have a look at her blog you will see what I mean.

The fabric strips on the binding could be decorated a bit more and I wasn't quite sure how long to make them...so I will possibly add some more paraphernalia as time goes by.

Some of the pages waiting to be collaged etc. I'm going to use this one as a travel journal beginning next week when we fly to Melbourne for a week for the PGA...thats golf!! not tennis as a friend thought..haha..didn't tell Don...

I have always loved books...ever since I was little..I grew up with no tv but lots of reading and for a long time books were sacred and I wouldn't turn down page corners or write in them or damage them but now I use them in all sorts of art projects....I use the covers as I have here, and the insides as I have here also...I needed quite sturdy paper for this so some old picture books and coffee table books helped out with that...Trudes you might recognize some of them...

I really really loved doing this and have plans for MORE MORE MORE....I can plan them around the size I want and the purpose I want them for eg this one is small enough to put in my bag and carry around so I can sketch in it and write on the go..and it has plenty of pages to cover a holiday..

Sunshine Beach Surf Club...Good Music, Good Company

Here I am with the musician we went to see...he was grrrrrreat!!

Col and Jane...both looking a bit hippy in their outfits..Col loves this shirt and it suits him..all 'peace and love'.

3 Friends...Me with Leonie and Sandra...xxx.

Phil talking to Al in between sets.

We are a group of lovely friends..we all have our idiosyncracies and oddities...(they the same thing?) but we all have good hearts and are pretty funny too..some of us. They all came for dinner at the surf club as I told them Al was playing. They enjoyed his music and the next time we go to one of his gigs we want to DANCE!!! So it will be a band gig.