Art Times and Swaps

First off, this lovely canvas was made for me by the lovely Lucy. It was our Spooky Canvas theme for a Paperarts swap last November , but so far my partner has not sent me mine so Lucy made me this one. It is fabulous and has pride of place in my Studio.
It is absolutely more than fabulous. The bumpy bits around the sides is Micaceous Iron Oxide paint and I think some Garnet Gel (correct me Lucy if its wrong). You are a dear friend to do this for me..

Next up is a fabulous gift to me from the "other" 3FL, Barb, Lucy and Bevlea  
Bevlea and Lucy had gone up to Wagga Wagga for the weekend to visit and play at Barbs, I couldn't go (full time Grand-Babies curb this FL's travel etc)  They had all made one for themselves based on the style of Pam Carrikers workshop " An Angels Anthology" They each did a bit   of it, while waiting for parts of their own to dry etc. It was a little while until we got together again and they presented me with it. I got quite emotional. ""Thank you Girl Friends" I love it. 


I will be back later in the day to add some more work. And fix this pic, camera didnt do it justice late at night.....I promise :-)


4/6/11...................................... I changed the pic, hope this one is better.

Two Reasons why I don't post very much!

The slide show is just a peek at what happens round our household these days. Very busy times and the biggest reason I find it hard to post what I have been up to art wise. Those reasons Our darling Paul and Toria.   Will post some of what I have done shortly..

The first of these pics depict Geoff's and my weekend away while our Nephew and his wife looked after kids, we went down the coast, was too cold for swimming for us, but I dipped my toe in the Ocean, have not done that for so long.

The rest are when we went fishing, both of them caught a mountain trout, Excitement was at a high level. Then  Paul's 4th birthday, where he was so excited as his favourite Uncle Wayne ( our boss) gave him his bike. We were going to get him one, but Wayne and AK said they had that one for him, so we bought him a large remote control tractor instead. He had two parties, one on Saturday as Uncle Rhys and Aunty Ruth couldn't come on Sunday so they put on one for him at  their place with some mutual  kiwi friends, and Vegod and Ali who Geoff and I had met when we went to Florida, we then introduced them to Rhys and Ruth, 2 yrs ago..   Then at Easter we took them to the Zoo, It was a nice day, but I think even with the Kruger national park in South Africa in our memories that Auckland Zoo is a lot better.

See you soon with some art work.

A long time since previous post

Wowee, time flies when  you're busy. With work and the children I now don't find much time to post here. I still try and visit others blogs to see what you have been up to and see some fantastic work been done.

Family is well............... We had our daughter over for Christmas, was lovely as we had not seen her for 18months, spent a weekend down the Mornington Peninsular at McCrae which was lovely, went to Sorrento and showed the kids the ferry etc.

  Christmas came and went, a busy time, Tanya went home to NZ on the 11th Jan and we all miss her. We are all back at work and altho I have only worked three days a week and looked after children the other two not much has been done art wise. I have done some commitments for a couple of groups and the ATCs for Paperarts and NZ Stampers that I enjoy doing.
Here is a couple. I will load more next post or put in a slide show of some I have made over the last 6 months or so..

Monochromatic ( The White House)                 Angels

                                                                                                                                                                                                        
Also on Paperarts we are doing a Houses of History book throughout the year.

Here is my pages for Debbie W.  Her chosen title was Circus in Paris and wanted hers done in Zetti Style. Off course that is my favourite style. I love doing it.

 Left is the front.............
Right is the back.                                                                                                                 Debbie wanted to have people that included ourselves as well. I quite like the back............................................

Ciao for now. Will be back tomorrow hopefully.

Home kit

Hi all. Here is the finished HOME that Bevlea, Lucy, Caro and I bought at Paperific from Scrapware
We were going to make them at our last play day together but decided to just talk and laugh after a fab lunch after making the Angels from Collections.

Anyway, I finally got mine done and its hanging in my lounge. I quite like it actually.

Hinged Canvas for Paperarts and family stuff.

The October swap for Paperarts was a Hinged Reversed Halloween Canvas, it was supposed to be 5x7 but I couldn't find that size so did it 6x8. Hope that's ok Barb :-)
I did mine more in the Spooky line with images from Itkupilli as I am not a fan of Halloween at all, very American. At first  I was not even going to do this swap, but after seeing Bevlea's fabulous canvas I changed my mind and decided to the same type of theme as hers.

I hope that whoever gets my canvas will like it and isn't expecting pumpkins with candles in it :-)

I have painted the outer edge of the canvas with Golden burnt umber and over painted it with Light umber then a coat of micaceaous  iron oxide  , then on went some trusty black texture paste as well over the staples on the canvas and then more micaceaous iron oxide. I even branched out a bit and put some mica on the windows.

Family Stuff.
Well, the children's mother decided she could not hack it here in Australia any-more as she  wanted to be with our son, her partner back in New Zealand. So she lost the plot last Sunday night and threw a hissy fit and we booked her a ticket home. She left the children with us on Tuesday morning (voluntary, abandoning them) Haven't heard from her since. Quite frankly after talking with the neighbours here who were home during the day when we were at work, hearing what was happening, (wish they had told us), the children  are better off with us even though it is going to mean a huge upheaval for us all and childcare at least 3-4 days a week etc for them. Victoria is blossoming in just the few days the mum has been gone. Some (family) may never understand why we insisted on having them here in the first place instead of leaving them back in Kerikeri with other family members on Geoff's side of our family as they all wanted, but the past history with their mother has proved correct, she is incapable of looking after them . Anyway, they are two precious little souls that need a loving stable environment to blossom in. And with help from our work colleagues  and our friends here we will get by.

COLLECTIONS ANGEL

Bevlea and Lucy and  I got together last week for our regular play day. Caroline had family commitments and was unable to be with us.

All four of us had bought the Angel Wings project from Collections at the recent Paperific... while it didnt go as smooth as we liked they were all done by lunchtime, we had fun just the same (As Bevlea said maybe it's just us but the instructions were a bit confusing lol).  
We had finished it by lunch time and enjoyed a beautiful lunch provided by Lucy. We talked and laughed and talked some more, and laughed a bit more, we  then decided to leave our next project a House frame we bought from Scrapware to do at home by ourselves and then have show and tell next time we get together. Both Bevlea and Lucy have done theirs, ho hum, I work too much. But it will be done by show time.


At the moment I am completing some ATC's  for our New Zealand Stampers monthly ATC swap, this months theme is Angels and then I need to do the Paperarts ones (Cemetery Art)  before Barb heads off overseas on a well deserved holiday. 

9 Years ago

Who could ever forget. Thank you Sarah for the reminder among our art friends. The picture is from (www.freerepublic.com)
9 Years ago today Geoff and I landed at Sydney airport on our way home to New Zealand from Mozambique. What a scary, scary thing to come down too as originally our plans were to go home via USA etc, so we would have been flying into probably  New York at that time. I remember being glued to the TV screen all day at our friends place in horror. Travel changed for ever that day. Instead of relaxed travel between countries we now have the rigid rules, no sharp objects in your carry-on luggage so no chance of knitting, embroidery, artwork or something to while away the boring hours on flights. And as Sarah says no chance of children ever being able to go to the cockpit for a visit with the flight captain etc .
 Changed forever.
"In sympathy we mourn with those lost,
In gratitude we embrace those around us,
In sympathy we reach out to those who still grieve,
Be strong and pull together to help each other
no matter race, creed or color.

THE WHITE KING, Earthquakes, floods and things

Wowee, how about that, Bevlea announced the Challenge for this month on Friday night the 3rd, its now the 5th and I have done it already, what a feat. LOL...
I loved it and a special thanks to my friend Barb for a suggestion, Oh my she's quick that lady.hehehehe..............................

Anyway, here is my Zetti White King......
For those non Aussies White King is a bleach in a bottle.
The background is a scrapbook paper which I distressed a bit with inks, stamped with white the circles and added some pen lines etc I also used a bit of star burst stains on it too. Gave him a mop head of hair and crowned him with a crown.
The story is that Alice in the first chapter of  "Through the Looking glass" The White Queen had rushed past the King and knocked him over among the cinders, where he got covered from head to foot in ashes. Alice gently picked him up and dusted him off a little before she put him back on the table.
This challenge for the book of Alice is such fun. Now I need to backtrack and do the two from earlier in the year that I didn't find time to do.

Anyway, to my Christchurch friends in New Zealand,  I hope the severe earthquakes have not done too much damage if any to your homes. I am still waiting to hear from two families there. To our friends in  Shepparton and surrounds also Jen Crossley in Ballarat, I hope the water recedes with no damage to your homes....................................

Also there has been severe unrest in Maputo in Mozambique, which is where we would have been had we gone over there on our first missions 3yr terms. I was meant to be going in November for a short term trip, but having the children here has stopped that for a time. I heard from Steve and Roz  (team leaders) that there has been severe rioting , tyres burnt, cars overturned etc etc outside the compound and apart from stinging eyes from tear gas from the military trying to stop the unrest they are all ok.

Scary sight, Steve said all the missionaries, the kitchen staff and the children are all ok, but most workers are unable to get to work as its not safe to be out on the roads. It has arisen because the cost of living has  gone up so high. On 1st September the cost of bread rose 30%, the cost of a sack of rice doubled which is a huge amount for the people in one of the most poorest nations in the world where only 14% are employed and the money they earn is not very high either, when we were over there we gave a beggar 10,000 meticals and then realise it was only about $1.50 our money, but for him it was a weeks wages or more. Sad but true......................

Another Alice Book Page

This months challenge that Bevlea set for Paperarts book Challenge was "The Gentleman Dressed in White Paper" quite a challenge actually until Barb sent me a link and a clip or two of men in hats etc. Anyway, here is my silly whimsical page. I used the credit card technique for the background with three colours, added some distress inks and also put a mask over it and put some green ink over that. And as the story goes........
 The man dressed in white paper, who Alice meets when she travels by train through the 3rd square, is a political joke; Tenniel's illustration shows a cartoon of Benjamin Disraeli, who was Prime Minister when Carroll lived. Carroll and Tenniel may have had in mind the ‘white papers’ (official documents) with which such statesmen are surrounded. Before he illustrated the Alice books, Tenniel had once portrayed Disraeli in a Government White Paper suit.

One of Tenniel's illustrations in Through the Looking-Glass depicts the character referred to as the "Man in White Paper" (whom Alice meets as a fellow passenger riding on the train with her), as a caricature of Disraeli, wearing a paper hat.

  'So young a child,' said the gentleman sitting opposite to her (he was dressed in white paper), 'ought to know which way she's going, even if she doesn't know her own name!' are the words that I have written along the top, and being whimsey, zetti it just had to have Thomas the tank engine as the train LOL.

Now, altho I am up to date with the current month, I actually have two more to catch up with, being Mad Hatter and Knave of Hearts, so keep looking back they will be here soon.

An aside to Arting,

 Zaccy is ok, he had the drain removed tonight and has his stitches out in ten days time, but he is still not himself, hides in our bedroom most of the day. And has lost a bit of weight which he could not really afford to lose. Thanks to those of you who have left good wishes and kisses for him.

My Poor Boy

Oh my gosh, I got a phone call from Pauline today to say Zaccy was bleeding from his head and she couldn't stop it. I came home and although the blood flow had stopped a little, the wound looked bad, we had no idea what had happened.
Anyway, $400 later, he has several stitches and a drain in his shaved head and an Elizabethan collar round his neck. The vet said it was worse than we thought and we still don't know how it happened. the penetrate and exit is quite wide apart. Its almost like he has been shot in the head with a pellet or something, we don't have nails or anything dangerous around our section(block) because of the little ones, so who knows???

Anyway, here is my poor boy, laying on our bed tonight, a little worse for wear. I have a closer pic of his head but I don't want to gross everybody out too much :-)

Anyway............ I am off to Paperific tomorrow morning, meeting up with Bevlea, Lucy and Caro, so should be a good day, but looks like I won't have much to spend now eh!!! But I am sure I will find a few $$ somehow hehehe..........................