One World One Heart giveaway!!!!



Hooray it's finally here, the One World One Heart Giveaway!!! This is a wonderful world wide blog event
which is hosted by a lovely lady called Lisa Swifka from 'A Whimsical Bomehian. It is the event's 5th and final year so if you wish to take part click here to read more about Lisa and this wonderful event. I took part in it last year and have made some wonderful blog friends through it. It is basically a giant blog hop where people share their blogs and introduce themselves and you can find out about other creative wonderful people. It is also a giveaway as there are 'door prizes' in each blog!!!

I have 3 prizes to give away. My first prize is this cute little Japanese paper glass pendant that I made. I am very addicted to making pendants!!!

Second prize is two little hair clips that I made, one is from a print of a painting of a Japanese lady that i did and the other is made from Japanese paper.

The third prize is a laminated print of  a painting of mine 'I curse my sweet tooth' which I have attached a magnet to the back so you can use it as a fridge magnet.



All you need to do is have an active blog and leave a comment on this post. I shall put all names in a hat and draw out 3 winners. This event closes 17th Feb so be sure to leave a comment and a way for me to get back to you if you win.

I shall tell you a little about myself :0) I have been blogging for nearly two years and I still get amazed that there are so many wonderful  creative people out there who share so much of themselves. I have found blogging and reading other peoples blogs even better than an art class as people share techniques and ideas. I am interested in illustrating childrens books but since I have been blogging I've become interested in mixed media and jewellery (pendant) making. There are not enough hours in the day!!! I am married with two little boys who also love to draw so it runs in the family. I really enjoy visiting other peoples blogs and reading about their lives and creative interests it really makes the world feel not so big :0)

I look forward to visiting all the OWOH participants and making many more new blogs friends :0)

Sunday Sketches!!!

Hi everyone!!

This is just a doodle I did in my sketch book this week I really wanted to push myself a bit and draw something different from the pretty ladies i mostly do, or the figurative work. So I thought I'd try a little character and use pencil and ink.

I shall be posting my One world one heart blog post tomorrow. I have some goodies to give away but haven't had a chance to take some decent pictures yet so be sure to visit again tomorrow! :0)

Sunday Sketches and Illustration Friday Dust and an interesting family discovery!

Hi Guys, Here is my piece for Illustration Friday and Sunday sketches

When I painted it I changed the words slightly I nearly didn't include them in the picture but  in the end I decided that it was nice to have a bit of a story. :0)

"She gave one last glance over her shoulder and said "eat my dust"......and they never saw her again..."

This was painted in acrylic paint and I used pencil and ink on top!

The interesting family discovery is quite exciting. As most of you will know who follower my blog, I'm from Britain originally, Wales to be exact but emmigrated to Australia nearly 18 years ago. I remember when I was a child that there was always this 'story' that I heard through my mothers side of the family that we were some how related to Beatrix Potter!! I always found it interesting but didn't really believe that it was possible, I guess I thought it was too exciting to be true. Anyway fast forward about 20 years and a family member of mine recently started researching our family tree on our mothers side (our mothers are sisters) and she had heard the same story as me about Beatrix Potter. She actually found out that we are in fact related to her!!!! Eeek!!! It turns out that we share a Great great great....(hehehe not sure how many greats) Grandfather!!! So we I think are distant cousins! I know it sounds like I'm a crazy person but I guess if we all traced our family trees back far enough we would come across some connection to somebody famous, six degrees of separation and all that. We had heard this story through my Great Grandmother and so my mother called her mother the other day and mentioned it to her and she said 'oh yes I remember my mum telling me that when she was a child Beatrix would write her letters and draw her little pictures'....wow! of course my mothers response was 'where are these letters now?' hehehe and she said she wouldn't have a clue! I'm hoping that my gran has hidden them away somewhere special and she is keeping it to herself but who knows........ it's all very exciting and nice to know that art runs in our family as alot of us are artistically inclined.
Last night my mother and I watched the movie 'Miss Potter' which starred Renee Zellwegger and Ewen McGregor and we really enjoyed it and found it very interesting. I never realised just how hard she had it trying to follow her dream and being told that she would never be able to do it as she was a woman.....and that was by her own mother, such a different world back then.

Anyway I thought I would share that with you guys and it made me wonder have any of you ever discovered some interesting family connections?

My Goddess and some projects with the kids!

Hi everyone thank you for your caring comments on my last post! It really did mean alot!

One of my New Years resolutions is to do more drawing and painting as my pendant making has become my number one obsession but I also want to work more on my drawing. I started this blog, nearly two years ago and my focus was on illustration but along they way I seem to have become side tracked. Which has been exciting but I do miss my drawing time and I don't want to become rusty. So first up this is a picture which I sketched onto water colour paper then coloured in using water coloured pencils, then i used some fine liners to out line things which really made it pop! I'm calling her a 'Goddess' as I think that's appropriate. Anyway I enjoyed that 'doodle' and I'm planning on doing more drawings like this on regular basis! :0) The idea in my head for this piece was a girl floating  happily in the water. I went swimming yesterday and I think that's where this came from :0)




This week I've been doing a bit of drawing and pendant making whilst looking after my two little ones. It's still summer holidays here so the other day I sat down with them and their fimo that they got for Christmas and we made some pendants together. They really enjoyed mixing all the colours together!

 They made some fantastic pieces, the ones at the bottom are mine and the rest are theirs.

 Whilst looking through my camera I found that my youngest had secretly taken some photos himself, very naughty but I couldn't help laughing at this self portrait. hee hee.

Lastly this is another of my beaded bookmarks that I added to my shop! This is print of my piece 'I curse my sweet tooth!

Hope you're all having a great week.

Sunday Sketch and a very sad week......

Hi guys, well I guess wherever you are in the world you've probably heard about the floods in Queensland Australia. Actually it's now happening in 3 States that I know of, Queensland, NSW and South Australia, but basically up the Eastern side of Australia we've all had sooooo much rain.

Luckily for my family and I we aren't suffering from the floods but I feel so sad for the families who have been affected some of which have lost family members, it's so devastating. We are starting to hear stories about people that were hit by flash floods and they are so sad. The other morning I heard about a 13 year old boy who told rescuers to take his little 10 year old brother first. Unfortunetly when they tried to get the other boy he was swept away as it was too late for him. What a brave little man. Soooo so sad that story has stuck with me since. There are so many sad stories just like that I think that one affected me so much in particular because I have two boys of my own and the thought of that happening to them is too much to bear.

We will be donating to one of many charities over here that are helping the people affected by these terrible floods some of which are now homeless.

So this is the reason for my sad piece this week. I didn't intend to sit down and draw this paticular piece but it was just busting to come out. I haven't even thought of a name for it yet, any ideas?

Sorry for the sad post but it has been a very awful week for Australia and it's hard not to think about it. I'm very thankful that we have our loved ones safe and sound.

On a lighter note I've been very busy with more fimo pendants so thought I would include some in this post to brighten it up a bit. Hope you're all well and safe.

 I'm loving these vintage settings and I'm so addicted to fimo!

 I called this one 'Union'

 'Zebra Print'

 'Tiger Tear'

All these are now available in my etsy shop.

This last photo I took yesterday morning, after what felt like forever we woke up to a beautiful morning yesterday. I love these roses! :0)

Busy weekend!

Hi guys, this weekend has been pretty busy. It must be that time of year but most people I know have been having big clean outs whether it be the garden, garage, or house. It's good to get things back in order after Christmas I think.

Yesterday hubby and I worked outside, he completely gutted the garage and reorganised things, took loads to the tip and sprayed the place for spiders. I threw away all the old broken outside toys and tidied up the kids play area. Sometimes I forget that I live in a country where you have to be a bit careful with the insects and such. Yesterday as I was throwing out an old broken toy I almost picked up a red back spider, the BIGGEST one I've ever seen!!!!

(nasty looking thing isn't it? But I guess quite beautiful in a dangerous way!)

They are very dangerous if they bite a child and can make an adult very sick!

Freaked me out it did, I'm not good with spiders at the best of times. Anyway I survived and now feel alot better that we've sorted out the back yard and it's a bit safer for the kids!!!

Then last night we took the kids to the local out door swimming pool and had a picnic and watched them play for hours in the new water park there! Such a lovely summers evening!! Today however is another story pouring down with rain and dark, this weather lately is very strange.

Made with fimo and set in this really cute vintage style setting.

I've been working on more pendants and I'm trying to list everything in my shop and reorganise my art space as I have things everywhere!!! So here are a few more that I listed in my shop this morning.

I called this one 'Purple planet' as it reminded me of some far distant planet!

This one is reversable and can be worn either way!

I'm going to try to work on my Sunday sketch a bit later! :0)

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

New Fimo pendants!!! I'm so addicted!!!

Just a quickie as I really should be cooking dinner but I really wanted to show you what I've been working on this last week. I've got loads more to show you and take photos of but thought I'd show you these 3 that I've just uploaded to my shop. I think Fimo is going to be my new obsession! :0)

Hope you're all having a great week and start to the new year!
oxox

Sunday Sketch and Illustration Friday - Resolutions

As always after Christmas I feel alot wobblier (is that a word?) than I did a few weeks ago. My New Years resolution is to get back into my exercise routine which I have been neglecting these past few months. With my market stalls and Christmas etc I just didn't have enough time to do it all. But I'm going to try and prioitise a bit better and make it part of my daily routine again. I just LOVE my sweet foods, chocolate, cakes, lollies etc so I'm going to try to keep that as a weekend treat and not give in to my sweet tooth so easily :0)

I wanted to paint this too but haven't had a chance yet so thought I would post the sketch first and work on the painting today I shall show you how she turns out in the next day or so. If you click on the picture you'll be able to see her alot better, pencil always shows up faint when I scan it in.

JUST UPDATED: I managed to finish the painting today so I was able to include it in this post! I'm going to try to make a book mark out of this piece I think and use my new lamintor that I got for Christmas! :0)

What are your resolutions?

Happy New Year!!!

Well I'm nursing a slight hangover today but had a lovely New Years eve with a handful of close family and friends. It's been sweltering the last couple of days and we were sitting out on the deck last night in our summer dresses sipping on beer and champayne and doing lots of chatting and laughing!!! It was a lovely night.

2010 was quite a massive year for me. We had our big trip, completed the huge renovations to our house. We also had a very emotional year. Frightening at times. (a loved one was diagnosed with Cancer) but he has now been given the all clear. I guess this year has made me reflect on what is important in life and to be thankful for what and who I have in it. I look forward to 2011 and hope that this year is much more uneventful but full of love and laughter.

I've made a few resolutions, and probably like everyone else, a healthier lifestyle, more exercise etc etc I have alot of Christmas indulgences to work off ;0). Starting tomorrow though, comfort food is definately needed after a late night last night!!!!
I want to really push myself artiscally this year and feel that I have the confidence to take my art to the next level. So I hope to be able to knuckle down and concentrate on that too!
I hope you all had a lovely New Years and I wish you all a fabulous 2011.

These latest fimo pieces are some more experiments, I've got a certain idea in my head of how I'd like to incorporate my art with fimo I just need to do a lot of experimenting!!!

 These are the fimo pendants after they came out of the oven!

 I used permanent black marker to draw some simple designs on, then I sealed them with a waterproofing agent to protect the image!

 I love the warm colours in this one it really made me think of a surreal landscape!

 The great thing about these sorts of pendants is that no two will ever be exactly the same so you'd be wearing an original one of a kind piece of art!

 These last two pendants are the same one, I'm wasn't sure which side I liked the best so I drew on both sides. I think the red might be my favourite! :0)

I really love this last one, it's so unique!! I couldn't get these patterns exactly like this again no matter how hard I would try!