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.