Goodies for the Spring Fair

I am making a few items for the Spring Art Show.  It always comes around quickly and then I am in a panic.

I enjoy making buttons and broaches and they are usually well liked.

These little pencil/scissor holders turned out quite well.

It is hard to think of things to do in a hurry and still be happy with the results but I think these items should be fine.

New House - New Life

I have been surprised at how quickly we have settled into our new home.  It is as if we have always lived here.

It is only 20 minutes from our previous home so we are still in the same general area but this is much more suburban compared to the bushland we were living in.

In practical terms this house is not as big as our previous one but it is spacious and well designed.  There are no stairs and the block of land is flat. 

We were on a quiet windy little road before and now we are on a main road with school buses passing by morning and afternoon.

We had possums and tall trees and mostly indigenous plants in our garden.

There were lots of beautiful birds too.

Our new garden is well established with lots of flowers and green lawns.

Fruit trees and bulbs.

I spend a lot of time outside in the garden.

I do love our new home.

Busy Monday

Today has been especially busy so I have not had much time for creativity.

I thought I would share some of  the pics I have taken to use as inspiration for future projects.

Making a house a home

The one thing our new house lacked was a dedicated workroom for me.  There was a big area at the back of the house which was ideal but it was open to the dining room so it would need to be tidy.

As it was unlikely to be tidy often then we needed a wall and a door.  Over the last few weeks we have had the wall built, the door installed and the lot painted.

Now I have a workroom/office/spare room and I do feel lucky.  There is still a lot to do to make it work but it is gorgeous.

Our new wall.

Room for sewing machines.

Storage

 More storage - the shelves are perfect for paints and beads etc. 

 

there is room for computers and files too.

 

The sofa turns into a bed and there is room for another sofa. The tv is in the corner.

Now I don't have an excuse for being lazy.

Using Photo Shop in designing projects

Early this year I attended a short course intended for artists who wanted to use Photo shop to assist in their creations.

I have found it to be very useful when I am "stuck" as I was recently in trying to figure out this mixed media landscape.  I was able to photograph the piece in the early stages and then using photoshop  decide on placement of trees and other elements.  Although I discarded many of the ideas it really was an interesting exercise.

 The course I did was conducted by Nic Kirkman at http://www.peninsulaartssociety.org.au/.

I did find it difficult at first but with practice I have been pleased with what I learned.

Looking forward - dodgy knee.

Moving to our new home was,  in part, a result of  the fact that I injured my knee a couple of years ago.  Our Mount Eliza home became unmanageable.

Preparing our home for sale was lots of fun (and some stress).


Having put a deposit on our next home meant that we were under time pressure.  Fortunately we had already decided on an agent to sell our house.  Marc was to become a very important person in our lives for a couple of months.

Whenever we have sold a house I have bought new linen for the bedrooms and bathrooms.  This way I have new linen for the new home.

The people at Adairs Mornington were so helpful and I was very pleased with the result.

I was also doing a little stitching of course but most of my creative energy went into the house.

I did a short course on using Photoshop which was lots of fun and very useful.

It is time to cook so I'll be off now.

Thanks to everyone who visits and comments.

Felt

 Although life is rather busy and disrupted at present I am making time to be creative.  Using felt as a background and adding fabrics, stitching and embellishments I have created a container for pens or scissors: my husband tells me it is an ideal size for a small bottle of beer. 

 The second one is made from some felt I made quite a long time ago wrapped around a tin which is lined with shop bought felt.

These are quick and easy projects and are good for using up the bits and pieces in the stash.