Wednesday 18 December 2013

Crazy times and slops of paint for WOYWW


Arghhh, stop the world I want to get off!!!

It's just too crazy around here at the moment.

Mum's house has gone unconditional,
which means the sale if definite (yay),
but now we have to clean out and pack (boo).

I'm going out really early each morning
to hit the shops before the car parks fill up
and then it's back home to try and
 get my house sorted for Christmas.

I've nearly finished buying presents and
today I got a 7kg leg of pork for just $38,
now that's a bargain.

My desk hasn't seen much action
but I did get some goodies
I got this gorgeous tea towel, bookmark
and Loch Ness Monster from
the equally gorgeous Neesie of
Neesie Natters.
 
 How cute is this little guy.

I also got a beautiful card from Margaret and John
of glitter glue.

Thanks so much to you all for such beautiful things.

You may recall that I won two prizes
recently, the beautiful cracker from Margaret
and the gorgeous bunting 
from Lunch Lady Jan.
Here they are displayed proudly on our 
Christmas table.
Can't show the tree as it's still only
half up, we'll get there.
 
We don't need the dining table for Christmas day
as it's hot here and we all go out on the back patio
and have a Christmas BBQ and a swim.
(sorry to rub that in the everyone in the northern hemisphere)

In between the madness I've been 
splashing the old paint brush around
and splashing is an understatement.
At the moment I'm writing this with green hands,
kinda like the Hulk!

My poor bird has been going from bad to worse
I keep adding a layer of glaze and
not liking it
Don't ask me what happened to that layer,
so out came another colour
and then another
 Then I dropped a bit of purple and 
thought it looked okay so I did more.
Okay so I dropped a lot and it was too late to fix it
so I had to add more.


 Then I figured I've messed it now
so why not add more splots
and some red bits.

The real colour is far stronger and brighter 
than the photo.  It's nearly 5pm wednesday here
and the sun is coming through the window
and washing out the colour.
Plus I'm lousy with a camera.

I don't think I'll have time to do
any more posts until the new year
so I'd like to wish everyone a
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
and I'll catch up in January.

Now why not head on over to 
and see what's on the other desks 
around the world 
this Wednesday.

Have a wonderful time.
 
 

 

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Crazy week for WOYWW

This last week has been insanely
busy, alas not with art.

My desk is still strewn
with bits of cards.
They are getting there but very slowly.

 I have put a few together
but I'm thinking these Christmas Cards
may become Easter Cards soon :(

The reason for no art is my parents,
they are getting old and have decided
to move to a retirement village.
My friend and I have spent the last week
cleaning, de-cluttering, cleaning some more
and de-cluttering etc.

My eldest daughter is a Real Estate Agent
and the same day she advertised mum's
house on the internet,
she sold it!!!
Yes, she sold it and for $55,000
more than we needed!!
That's my girl.
They don't have to move until after
Christmas, thankfully,
so we can relax and enjoy
the holidays.

I had my last art class for the year today
and I have started to put in 
some dramatic glazing
on my bird.
 This isn't the prettiest of stages
and there is a long way to go
but it's coming along nicely.

 I'm not sure if I'm brave enough
to finish it by myself
as my teacher gives me great colour
guidance.
I'll have a break and see if I feel
confident enough.
I've got plenty more canvasses
to play with!!

Little Miss is on summer holidays
from tomorrow, so not sure
how much art will get done.
I am hoping to experiment
with texture paste,
so I might have to share it with her.

That's my little mess for the week,
now hop on over to
and see the other desks 
around the world this 
Wednesday.

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Not a lot for WOYWW

I just seem to be going around in circles
and getting nothing done,
must be getting close 
to Christmas!!

Here in Australia that means
summer holidays are
getting close,
in fact little miss only has
one more week of school
(boo hoo).
Which means not much art for me
for the next 6 weeks :(
It also means racing to get ready for 
Christmas.

So, to my desk
 Yup, looks like last week
accept I have more cards started.
I decided to have a real go at
actually getting cards done for
Christmas and post them before Easter!!

As you can see I didn't get very far.
In my defence, I am still waiting for the
green and red card paper to arrive
so I can't put them together yet.
I know there is some card in the photo
but it is really wobbly and thin.

Speaking of wobbly, I had a bit of
wobble myself.
 I have a nice little veggie patch which
is fenced to keep the chickens out.
Unfortunately it also keeps me out
and I have to jump and squeeze to get in.
I had my hands full of lettuce leaves the other day 
and when I jumped I missed the step
and someone took the ground away.
I used the arm that wasn't holding the lettuce
to try grab the metal frame but
missed that too and ended up
in a very unlady like position
with my bum squashing some poor lettuce plants.
Hubby thought it was hilarious.
Needless to say
we now have a new fence with a real gate.
That will teach him not to laugh.

Here is my birdie painting
as of today,
 
 The orange glaze is actually
much more brightly orangey
than the photo, in fact it kind of glows.
Shame I'm such a bad photographer,
I'm sure you would have liked it.


There's still a long way to go
but so far so good.

I'm off to rest my bruises from
the veggie incident,
so why don't you go over to 
and check out the other desks 
around the world
this Wednesday.

P.S. I have been having trouble leaving comments
on people who have Google+.
I apologise if I don't manage to leave a comment
as sometimes I just can't seem to find a way to do it
and I often would like to reply to people who leave me
a comment but can't if they 
have the Google+ and are no reply bloggers.


 

Wednesday 20 November 2013

WOYWW The birds have come home to roost

My birdies came home with me today
and here they are ...

I'm really pleased with how they came out
and even better, my friend bought the painting
so I can visit them as often as I like.

My desk this week is covered in
naughty things and I blame
the bad influence of the lovely
stamping ladies for my 
indiscretion.


 Yes, that's right,
all I went to the shop for was
some green and red card
and this is what I came back with.
Now don't get excited,
it's not for me.
I made the mistake of
taking little Miss with me
and she "needed" all of this
and what else is mum's credit card for!!


 These stamps are so cute


luckily I won't be touching them
or goodness knows how they would come out!!

There are also bits of my Christmas cards
that I'm still trying to paint and make
and some Doctor Who things,
it's the 50th anniversary this weekend.
The scary thing is I've been watching 
for nearly that long!

Lastly, here is my new canvas,
now I know you all saw the bird on there last week
but here it is now


 You knew it was there all the time
didn't you.

That's my desk for this week,
now why don't you hop over to
and see the other desks around the world 
this WOYWWednesday
but be warned, it's contagious.





Thursday 14 November 2013

Christmas card fun with a dash of pain.

Every year I have a mad panic
right at Christmas time
as I haven't made any cards
and usually I beg Little Miss to make
cards for me.
She is really clever with stamps 
and design and she is only 12.

This year I was determined to make 
at least a few cards myself.
Now you can forget stamping
as I couldn't stamp the side of a barn,
so I decided to do some
quick
 (yeah right)
water colour cards.
I started with some thin
(that was my first mistake)
smooth
(that was my second mistake)
water colour paper and cut
it to size for cards.


 Then drew some baubles
and used the gloopy stuff
to create quick patterns on them.



I wet the paper and had fun
blobbing dots of colour into
the background.

My teacher has taught me that
although I love bright colour,
I need to have some muddy
colour in there to make the colour pop.
Hence the darker background.


I painted the baubles
and she was right
the dull colour made the baubles pop.
This is before the gloop was rubbed off and

   
this was after rubbing it off.
I still need to paint in the 
little rings but getting there.

The paper started to curl 
not long after this shot and that
was the trouble, then this
 
 the paint had gone under and
all over the other side.
Plus it won't stand up 
as the paper is too thin.
So, cards take two.

I got out my good paper 
and drew up lots of just the fronts.
I will paint them up
and then cut and stick them
to proper cards.

This paper is much thicker and
has a rougher texture.
The only trouble is that this
surface doesn't keep the crisp
clean colours.



 
 They aren't too bad here
but they have dulled off a lot now.

I'll keep playing and hope they 
will turn out okay.
If not it's back to 
Little Miss! 
 


Wednesday 13 November 2013

Birdie fun for WOYWW

Here is my desk

 
I have started on Christmas ideas
for cards and I'm reading a book
(well trying anyway)
on colours with paint.


 I'm toying with the idea of Egbert
with a Christmas pud
and if I get some time I'll paint some cards
and send them.

I noticed something on my desk today and 
it made me laugh.
My friend sent me a calendar from England
and I noticed the November page
was a couple skating in the snow.
Somehow it looks a little odd next to my window.

 It's hot and we haven't had any rain to speak of
for ages. The fountain is empty, so is my water tank
and the grass is all but dead.  Then there's 
a picture of these two all dressed up in their winter
woolies!!

I was a silly moo today,
yeah I know, what's new,
but today my silliness was fortuitous.

You see, I forgot my reading glasses
when I went to my painting class
this morning.  I had my distance glasses
but they are so distant that anything
within a few feet is a blur.
Luckily I can plop my distance glasses up on my head
and see something really close with just my eyes
but only for a short time.
I use my reading glasses for anything
that is a few feet or closer.
This can be quite a pain when you need
to move in and out as I have to keep swapping eyes.
I did try the hanging them on a cord around the neck trick
but I almost strangled myself too many times
and even the optometrist said don't bother 
trying to use the graduated glasses
(she knows me well).
Sorry, I digress,
I had to finish my Lorikeet painting today
and it was sweeping colour glaze.
It seems I'm better at this when I can't see a thing
than when I can see.
I remembered to take photos this time,
they are on my phone so apologies
for the bad shots.



 The glaze is still wet and there is a lot of shine
in the photo but the colours
are bright and wonderful in real life.

I've already started on my next one

There's only one lorikeet in this one
but you can see that can't you ;)

That's my desk for this week,
when I get the painting home
I might do a post with photos
of all the stages
if anyone is interested.

No why don't you hop on over to
and see all the other desks
around the world
this hot and dry
Wednesday.

 
 

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Buntingly beautiful desk for WOYWW


Normally I would show
you a picture of my painting
right here in this spot




but yes, there is just a blank bit
because stupid here
forgot to take a photo 
of the painting and it's
still at class drying (doh)!!

Today I have something far better
 than a silly old painting,
I have BUNTING.
Not just any old ordinary bunting
but 
Lunch Lady Jan bunting,
 now that's special.

 Isn't it gorgeous!
I love the little Christmas puddings.
It came all wrapped up in the gold paper
with the Christmas ribbon
and a beautiful card.
How lucky am I???

 
I still have all the usual junk on my desk,
assorted brushes, paints and
of course my favourite
dalek pencils.
You can even see the bird I started painting
probably months ago,
I'll finish it eventually (cough, cough).

For art class last week
we were supposed to spend 15 minutes 
a day drawing our hand
in different positions
and life is too busy around here
so I only got to do one drawing.
It's not great but very handy
(sorry, I couldn't help myself).
 

Just so you don't think I'm special,
I'm a leftie, that's how I can draw a right 
hand and yes my nails are that ratty,
must file them when I get some time.

Just to finish off, here's the other
side of my room
 
I have tried hard to keep it tidy
but the mess up fairies keep
coming in the night.

That's my desk for the week,
now why don't you hop over to
and see heaps of other desks
around the world
this glorious WOYWW.

Thanks again Lunch Lady Jan.