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!

More fun with Fimo and a surprise delivery!!!

Hi everyone I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying a fun Christmas break!!!!

Now that our visitors have left and things have calmed down a bit I managed to incorporate some creative time whilst looking after the kids!! :0) The boys got some fimo kits for Christmas from my parents and they have been itching to give it a go as they've seen me experiment with it lately!

Here is what we made today!

A snake made by Rhys aged 7 :0)

A little green head made by Riley aged 4

A funny little character for the top of my pencil made by me ;0)

These are 3 pendants I made which I'm planing on painting a simple image on. Haven't decided what yet but will post it up when they are done!

Then this afternoon whilst making tea there was a knock on my door and a Fed Ex guy handed me a package. How exciting!!!! A few weeks ago a lovely person from Staedtler in Germany (the people behind Fimo and all sorts of stationary and art equipment) left a comment on my post where I had made my first ever fimo pendants. They asked me to check out their facebook page and if I would like to share a pic of my fimo projects with them on there. There are so many talented people on there and some amazing fimo pieces!!! To my delight after I checked out their fimo page they contacted me and said that they had a 'little' New Years surprise for me and thanks for my contribution. This is what they sent me!!!

Wow!!!! What a lovely extra Christmas present!!! I'm so excited and feeling very inspired so thank you very much!!! Check out their facebook page here

Lastly here are a few more experiments, it's such a new medium for me but I'm really really enjoying it and it's fun to do with the kids :0)

 For the Eiffel Tower I used a metal pendant and pressed it into the Fimo then painted it and varnished with a gloss varnish. The other is also painted on and varnished.

 This leaf pendant is made from blue fimo painted with green acrylic and then sealed with a waterproofing agent that I bought the other day.

Lastly this heart pendant was made with a tan coloured fimo (I didn't have red at the time) so I painted it in acrylic then varnished with the fimo gloss varnish!!!

Hope you all have a great New Years take care :0)

In colour!

Well the girl from my previous post for Sunday Sketches wasn't happy in black and white so I just had to colour her. It was the strangest thing she just wouldn't leave me alone til I brought her to life with some colour! :0)

Hope you're all having a great week and you aren't too stressed with the lead up to Christmas! :0)

Sunday sketches

This is a quickie doodle that I did in front of the tele this evening. I feel like I've been neglecting my drawing lately as I've been consumed by my jewellery making. So I really needed to sit down and sketch as I was feeling a bit rusty, its amazing how quickly that can happen when you've had a bit of a break from drawing.

I also approached this face differently. Normally I draw the shape of the face first then fill in the features but today I started with the eyes and did the shape of the face after the features and I feel like she really took on a personality of her own. I went against everything I've ever been taught in a drawing class, hehehe I'm such a rebel! ;0)
The words read 'She didn't care if it rained, she was happy and that was all that mattered.....'
Hope you are all having a great weekend!

New vintage style pendants!

Phew! I've got so many new ideas and avenues that I'm itching to pursue with my pendant making, there's just not enough hours in the day.

A couple of days ago I received some supplies which I have been eagerly awaiting. I thought these vintage style settings would be perfect for my pendants. I've only made two so far as I've been busy with the fimo too but I thought these turned out pretty cute!

 The chains that came with the settings are slightly longer so I shortened this chain so it sat in the middle of the chest.

 This pendant was made using a print of my painting 'Midnight Temptation'.

This is a shot of the back!

 This chain is slightly longer .

 This pendant was made using some gorgeous Japanese paper, the bright colours work so well in these settings.

I love the dome effect it magnifies the image beautifully! I'm thinking of giving this to someone for Christmas, I've got family coming from interstate that I haven't seen for quite some time, (don't worry I don't think she reads my blog :0)

This last piece is one of my newest that I shall be adding to my shop this afternoon, I love this little elephant charm sooooo cute!

So you can see I've been quite busy this week and I really should be getting stuck into the cleaning as we have family arriving for Christmas this week! Perhaps I'll just put it off one more day ;0) I'm off to fiddle with some fimo and do some drawing, I can't stop!!!!! :0)

New experiments- painted fimo pendants!

Hi everyone, we finally got our computer back this afternoon yippeeeee! So no longer having to use the painfully slow lap top! I'm hoping to go visiting all my blog friends again, after my eldests Christmas concert which we have tonight! (very excited about that!)

This afternoon I decided to experiment with some fimo that I have had for a while, now that our oven is finally fixed I was able to bake this afternoon, so I made some pendant shapes and painted them with acrylic paint. I thought it would be nice to make original wearable one of a kind pendants. These are the first few that I tried, and I only have black and white fimo but I think they turned out pretty cool. I've got lots of ideas about what I want to try next.

Illustration Friday Phenomenon and Sunday sketches

Hi everyone, thought I would create a Christmas themed piece this week as I really felt like doing something different from what I've been doing lately.

In some parts of the world a hot Christmas would be a phenomenon, but it's the norm in Australia! I grew up on the other side of the world so deep down I think that a snowy cold, even rainy Christmas will feel normal to me but I must admit, I do enjoy Christmas over here. It's all about bbq's and trips to the beach and summer holidays. I'm looking forward to doing just that as we finish up for the year at school and have the huge 7 week or so summer holidays. So this little snowman represents an Aussie Christmas!!! :0)

Illustratio Friday - Prehistoric and Sunday sketch!

Hi guys, what a busy week it's been! Things are getting hectic at home as we approach the end of the school year over here so my eldest has been busy preparing for the school concert and we've had lots of excursions and school fairs etc. Our gardening business is flat out especially now that we've been under water for the last week. We've had so much rain in the last week, our dams, which were once as low as 33%, are now at full capacity. I've lived here for 17 years now and this is the first time I've seen them full and I've never seen so much rain. It's wonderful so have the life back in the country side and not be surrounded by dust. But it's also stopped the hubby from going out to work as the weather has been so bad. I think we've been in drought for about 10 years now so you can imagine how it's changed the country side already!!

Here is my piece for this weeks illustration Friday theme 'Prehistoric'. The first thing that came to mind with this word for me was just how prehistoric dragonflies look. So I googled them as I was thinking of drawing one. I do love dragonflies.....then I came across some information which took me in another direction, how dragonflies used to be very large, and this image popped into my head. It's just a quickie as we had another busy day today. My oldest boy had his grading for Tae Kwon Do, and so we went along to that, he did so well we were so proud and he even got awarded a trophy for his achievements over the last few months!! He was so proud too!!

I was supposed to be doing another market yesterday but due to our crazy weather it was cancelled, I'm hoping to do another one next weekend instead as I've been flat out making heaps more pendants which I'm also slowly adding to my shop. It's so addictive!! Here are a couple of shots of  some of my newest pieces I've got lots more to add!

We are also having computer problems again, it's getting sent back for the second time to the warrenty people, so that's why I've not been blogging as much as I normally do or visiting all my blog friends. It's so frustrating, today it seems to be working fine but we never know when it's going to even log on in the mornings so we use it when we can. Hopefully this time they'll fix it properly! So annoying!

Hope you're all having a good weekend and I shall try to visit you all! :0)