Its been a Long Week

I know the working week was shorter and I even had an extra day off but Maestro started High School this week.  Up until the weekend we hadn't even thought about how Maestro was going to get home, we sort of decided that when I couldn't pick him up he'd take the bus the 3 or 4 stops.   DH likes to be prepared so on the Australia Day holiday he walked with Maestro to the school (just to see how long it would take) and then caught the bus back to our stop and made sure he knew how to work the ticket system.  

Maestro decided he'd give the bus a go on the first day, turns out his best mate was going to come home by bus as well.  That was all pretty easy so the bus by the end of the week he is a seasoned Bus passenger which makes life a lot easier for me.

DH and took ourselves out to lunch on Tuesday, first day for 6 weeks without kids.  It was pretty hot on Tuesday so we were glad for cool spot with a view of the sea.












Tuesday was also Squid's birthday... which I almost forgot with my first day high school nerves.

Turns out High School is a breeze and Maestro is making new friends and is pretty relaxed about the whole thing.... I'm getting there... will feel more at ease with a couple of more weeks under my belt.

I haven't done any more LifeBook but have watched one of the tutorials which I really want to start working on but it is so hot in my sewing room it is putting me off.

Did a bit of Lifebook shopping yesterday and splurged on some new paintbrushes (most of mine were from when I did ceramics before I was married so are 20+ years old).  Think I will collect a few more they have some really good named ones at the local art supply shop... with a price to match, and I am going to have to buy some of the paints one or 2 at a time as they are pricy as well.  If I can get the Aircon to work I might have a bit of a play tonight with them.

No sewing to report though I have cut out another couple of houses for my WW BOM.  Must go squid had aquatics today and she should be back at the school now.

BOM as Digital Downloads

This is my BOM from a couple of years ago.  I've been working to convert the patterns to digital downloads so that I can load them up onto my Etsy site.  It has taken a while because the kids are playing Minecraft non stop during the holidays and it sucks the life out of our internet connect (which is not great at the best of times) so its taken a while to load the 10 patterns (30 odd files) but they are all done now.

The great thing about having this BOM as a download on Etsy is that if you only want one or 2 of the blocks that's fine... If like me you take years to do a BOM you don't have to have the patterns all lying around just purchase them when you want to and download to your computer and print them off.  And the other good thing is that once you have paid you can download the patterns for yourself and don't have to rely on my dodging internet connection being up and running for me to email them to you.

So take the plunge if you are new to BOM $5 a month/pattern is pretty cheap.

Walking Walking Walking

 I decided the day after Christmas that I should start walking again.  It had all fallen by the wayside in the Christmas rush.  My tally for this week was 60 km which I was pretty impressed with and since Christmas I have only missed one day and that was because I was in bed with a tummy bug.

I even walked through the heat wave, but I got up before the sun did, drove down to the beach (I usually walk that bit) parked at Grange Jetty and walked to Henley Jetty along the bike/walk track then walked on the beach on the way back through the water trying to get a bit of relief from the heat.  Coco really doesn't like getting that wet, by the end of the week she was well and truly sick of walking in the water but because there was a full moon the tide was really high and there wasn't much option other than to walk through the water.

This is the beach during the heat wave, the sea was dead calm there was no breeze at all and it was very quiet.

It has all changed this week. It is quite brisk in the morning, and the constant pounding of surf is quite relaxing as I walk along.

Can't say that any creativity has happened this week.  This weekend we all just recovered from the heat of last week and this week has been mega busy both at work and at home, preparing for the start of the school year and Squid's birthday party tomorrow.

Coco was sick one night this week, don't know if it was something she ate or a reaction to the heat... poor thing, I was up all night with her wanting to go outside to the toilet.  There have been reports that there is a lot of Parvo in the Northern Suburbs and as we were mixing with a lot of dogs during the week I did have some concerns. She has been vaccinated and she wasn't presenting all the symptoms.  I ended up feeding her a heap of plain yogurt throughout the day and avoided giving her any meat and by evening she was a lot better and more her old self.

She slept through the next night .... which was a good thing because I could do with another night without sleep and was up raring to go for her walk the next day.  

I got my parcel from MO today, can't believe we are up to Month 6.... I'm still on month 1 of Your Place or Mine  .. have finished a couple of houses and will probably get them out again tonight and try and finish the last 2.  I haven't even opened Urban Owls yet, but I love this months pack with its Templates to make Queen of May blocks.  

Speaking of Templates I did have a play at using my Hex N More Ruler.... lots of serious fun to be had with that Ruler... I have ordered a couple of patterns from the US (can't get them here yet) just to get an idea of how to put the pieces together.  All I have been able to find is cutting instructions nothing on the piecing.  Did watch a YouTube video and she says there are no Y seams but I can't work out how she does some of the hexagon blocks.  Of course the one pattern I really wanted was out of stock. So will have to put it on back order..... waiting impatiently for those.  

Haven't done any painting either, so I am a bit behind, but might get a chance tomorrow afternoon or on the weekend... fingers crossed. 

I think I'm Hot Enough Already

We survived day one of a 5 day heat wave that has descended on Adelaide.  Hope all you out there in Oz suffering at the moment are ok and can find a cool place to sit and get some respite.  The worse thing we have had to endure today is our internet connection going down and the kids couldn't play Minecraft for a couple of hours.

Week 2 of Life Book 2014 was less involved and it was good to just play and quickly do a page in less than 1/2 and hour.

I got a bit over excited with the dots, I then read the instructions and which were under the label on the pen and they said that they take 3-4 hours to dry so it is a miracle that they weren't pink and yellow smudges.  This heat today will make sure that it is all dry at least.

Can't wait for week 3 to see what it involves.  I have been making a list of stuff I need/want on Jane Davenports site  I'm probably going to max out the credit card again by the time it is my birthday my excuse is I get free postage if I spend over $%^^^ lol.

Catch you next time and stay out of the heat if you can.

A Big First Week

I've made time for creativity this week, fingers cross this creative productivity continues when I go back to work tomorrow.

I have got through the first week of Life Book, learnt a lot about what not to use for sticking down your collage papers if you hope to work with other mediums.  But apart from that thoroughly enjoyed the process and you just have to decide when its done as you can keep on adding and taking stuff away (if the glue didn't act as a resist that is).

I used a few different products that although they were in the stash I wasn't too sure of what to do with and discovered that I really liked working with the water colour crayons and of course I want more colours but you can make do with what you have.

Here are a couple of more stages to the work.  Didn't end up with much print coming through maybe next time.


















I also did some stitching, here is my long overdue top to this sewing organiser.  Thoroughly inspired by Wendy Williams work.

The first project of Life Book was an exercise to send your inner critic on holiday.

It involved writing down all your fears about the coming year of art and then painting over them and giving some positive affirmation.

I'm pretty good at sending my inner critic on holiday but it was worth going though the exercise anyway.


And lastly we had a surprise in the garden after 5 or so months one of the bulbs we planted at the end of spring actually flowered... it will probably be the only one that does so I took a photo.  If you know what its called let me know.

Word for the Year, Resolutions and all that Crap

Downloaded my first Life Book Lesson Videos its actually taken 2 days, lots of swearing and cursing which is probably not the aim of Life Book.  All calm now though.

One of the first exercises is to Meditate and discover a few things, one of them is your word for the year, which I have kind of been thinking on for a couple of days.... so I kinda knew what it would be before I started the exercise but it sorta jelled at the end of it.  So my word for the year is

DISCOVER

I never stick to resolutions, but one of the commitments I did make was to take care of emails when I receive them, read them and delete them.  This mainly came about when I changed computers and I had to go through 10,0000 odd emails so that I could transfer the stuff I wanted to keep.  Took me nearly a whole day.  It is probably going to be more difficult as the amount of emails being generated by Lifebook is a little overwhelming at the moment... hoping that will slow down soon.  Might have to turn some of them off and just read them through the forum, but I didn't want to miss out on stuff early on.  

Hoping to head to the sewing room and get messy this afternoon, but first need to organise the walk for the day.. another commitment.  As it is cooler here at the moment there is no hurry to get it over and done with in the morning.  

Happy New Year and Goodbye to the 15 minute Challenge

I'm excited about the new year and all that it promises.

I have probably told you that I have signed up for Life Book 2014 and the anticipation that is building on the Facebook Groups and the forum is quite exiting and I can't wait for the first lesson to be posted  on the site and it all to begin.

I downloaded a mixed media course from Interweave yesterday by Jane Davenport and managed to fall asleep watching it.  It was the fact that I haven't been sleeping well lately not the dullness of the course that sent me off.  In fact it was a great course, I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.  I need to work out how to get it onto my iPad so I can play it out in the Sewing Room where I have more room to draw.

On to the 15 minute Challenge.  Only 3 out of 7 this week so I can't say that I have done an awful lot.  DH made me pack up my sewing corner for Christmas so I haven't been able to just sit and pick up stuff where I left off.  I did finish my bee embroidery however.  Now I need to sketch another critter, I think the next one will be a dragonfly.  I might stop at 3 for this project though I am not completely decided yet. Will see how the next few weeks pan out.

Have one more week of holidays.  With Life Book I am sure I will have plenty of creative motivation to keep the 15 minute challenge going on my own, even though the last few months have been a bit disappointment.  But Today is a new year with lots and lots of possibilities.


Head over to Kate's for one last time to see  to see who met the challenge.