Some of my Uni Creativity

Seeing as my first unit is now done and I officially have a few days before the next one starts (although I have already made a start on the readings!), I decided to show off some of the things I've been working on.

My work can be seen in my Flickr account - I was going to post some actual images here, but I can't upload them at the moment :(  It's pouring rain where I live and as soon as it is a bit windy or rainy my internet is very temperamental and doesn't like to upload/download very well at all!  I may try again in a few days once the inclement weather leaves...

I'm looking forward to my next unit, although because it's not a practical subject, I have decided to keep working through a book I had been working through last year but got sidetracked from... The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Dr Betty Edwards.  I'm planning on doing a drawing subject next, and as I'm not a very good drawer yet, I decided to get a bit of a head start and do some practise :)

Let's see how I go!

Oh and here's the third saying from my blackboard...  a theme perhaps?!? LOL

There is no better friend than a sister and there is no better sister than you.

Photo to come!

More Sewing from Miss E

In the last term at school, Miss E had a few days off because she was contagious... but not overly unwell... so she pestered me to sew until I said yes.  

And this is what she did:

Stripey one side...

But patchwork the other!

Her very own patchwork quilt!

And believe it or not, but the ONLY things I did for her was to make a 30 cm square template, and show her how to construct it... That is all... Yep, she did the entire thing by herself - cutting, pinning, sewing, joining both sides!

She's even made another one out of flannel for a 1st birthday gift for a friends little girl.

And apparently I'm going to get one too :)

It's a great way to use up the fabric I have just sitting here taking up space!

I wonder what will be next... 

Very Craft Holidays Part 2

Oooops, it's taken me a while to get back to Part 2 hasn't it!

Oh well, better late than never :)

So, today you'll see what the girls got up to over the holidays...

We made plaster Easter Eggs!

Which were meticulously painted... and divided into which belonged to which artist!

But once they were dry, the girls decided they needed tails, and were actually MICE!  Here's the finished project... living in a city made for them too  :)

And the next phrase for my blackboard in the kitchen is...

Now I'm off to redo the blackboard!

Very Craft Holidays Part 1

It's Easter school holidays here, and boy, have we been busy!  For the first 4 days of holidays we had appointments and play dates, and were hardly home.

The past couple of days however, have been very productive on the creative front :)

Today I'll start with one of my own projects.

On Thursday afternoon, we ducked to Spotlight (the only sewing/crafty supplies store around here!),  to collect a few little things for an upcoming birthday party we are attending... however... as is ALWAYS the case when we set foot inside the store, we came home with plenty more :)  Amongst our other goodies, I found a small tub of Blackboard Paint for only $5!

I had a frame that was made by my grandfather, originally with a poster attached to a bit of board in the back, and had been wanting to use it for something.  (I even had the frame hanging on my wall where I wanted to put it!)  The poster had disappeared long ago - I think it had been water/bug damaged in storage throughout one of our many moves.

So, one night when the girls were safely tucked in bed, I got busy!!  I painted the original backing board with 2 coats of the Blackboard paint, once the second coat had dried, I glued the board into the frame, and then nailed it in as well - just to be sure LOL.  All this took about 24 hours in total - with waiting for all the paint and glue to dry.

Then, yesterday afternoon, I finally got to the fun bit!  Writing on the board - and I had just the quote in mind... 

Despite getting along OK over the holidays, my darlings had been starting to have more and more disputes...  I wanted to remind them how special it was to have a sister, and how they didn't HAVE to like the same things!

This is now hanging on the wall facing my main kitchen bench, and above our dining room table, so I get to look at it whilst I'm cooking and we can all enjoy it at meal times.  It makes me smile every time :)

I have told the girls that every few days/weeks I will change the saying - so they are a bit excited to see what comes next.

Stay tuned for more crafty goodies over the coming posts :)

Something new from me...

As much as I love messing around with paint, I've not really painted anything other than 2 paintings in the past 10 years!

But I dug out the paints while the girls were asleep the other night, and this is what I've created...

I'm using water colour's as the base, and acrylic for the text.

I really enjoyed this and suspect I shall paint more often!

New Dinosaur discovered... The Spike-o-saurus

Whilst home on quarantine with suspected Whooping Cough, the girls spent quite a lot of time being creative!

Finding a packet of Bamboo Skewers, some Matchsticks, a roll of sticky tape and some containers, this is what they created...

 

There is a Daddy Spike-o-saurus, a Mummy Spike-o-saurus, a Teenager, some babies, a cat and some other pets!!!

Made-By-Me

Today I decided to show off a few of my most recent made-by-me pieces that I have been seen out and about in!

I'm loving making clothes that actually fit, am slowly getting better with the program, and have so many ideas running through my busy mind.

So without further ado... here are some of my creations!  3 skirts and a dress.

An abstract floral aline skirt, a denim aline skirt, a striped sleeveless dress with aline skirt and a plain aline skirt. 

And I'm happy to say they have all been worn more than once already!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel!

On Wednesday I took the girls to the movies to see Tangled.  They both loved the movie (minus the scary parts!), and it didn't take long for inspiration to kick in.

I woke to find my girls had woken earlier and been busy creating...  Here are their Rapunzel's.

The artists with their creations

Up close.

Georgie has been obsessed with all things princessy, Rapunzel in particular, for quite some time...  She refused to allow anyone to trim her hair as she wants it to be as long as her favourite princess...  Fortunately I have a fantastic hairdresser who has convinced her to have little trims every now and then to keep it healthy so it can grow nice and long!

So as you can imagine, almost 2 hours of being engrossed in a movie dedicated to Rapunzel, has only fueled her desire for looooong hair!

It never ceases to amaze me how my girls disappear into their play room, and come out with their beautiful little creations - they gain inspiration anywhere, and I just love that they have this avenue to express their creativity. 

Sure it creates a massive mess (and they aren't all that partial to tidying up!), but it gives both of them, and myself so much pleasure and I hope they never stop!

Packing Up 2010

This morning I set the girls to work collecting all their artworks from last year ready to pack away.  As they went into the big storage box I took photo's, and here is a small selection of some of my favourite pieces.

Emma created this Mermaid during their Sea Themed studies in Prep.

One of Emma's earliest paintings from Prep - our little family.

Another early creation by Emma - a self portrait and a little bit of information about herself.

"Raindrops" painted by Georgie at Kindy

Another one of Georgie's paintings... I'm not entirely sure what this one was.

Emma started drawing this fish on the large whiteboard in her classroom, but her teacher asked her to do it on paper so we could keep it forever!  Her teacher was very supportive of her creativity!

A drawing of her family, by Georgie at Kindy.

Now that everything is packed away, I'm looking forward to seeing some 2011 artwork!

I must be a Queen...

Because my daughters have decided the dresses I have made them today are "Princess Dresses", so therefore they must be real Princesses... and if they are real princesses, then I am a Queen!

When I went Fabric Shopping last week, there were some rolls of pre-shirred fabric on the sale table.  Seeing as I knew the girls would need some new Summer Dresses for next year, I grabbed a couple of pieces!  They are a bit long for now (especially Georgie's!), but by the time next Spring rolls around late August to early September 2011, they should be taller.

These dress are going to get some ties at the shoulders, but I need to have a little think about what fabric/colour etc I am going to use.

Stay tuned for some of my own clothing creations!  I've finished a skirt and a dress that I will show off soon :)

Adventures with Paint

 My daughters LOVE to paint... they would paint all day, every day if they could.

You can imagine their excitement on Christmas Day when they discovered Santa had left an easel and blank canvas for each of them!  They were squealing with delight and wanting to break out the paints there and then!

But as everyone knows, a 6 and 4 year old armed with paint can be a rather messy thing!  So, the poor little darlings have had to wait for the right day to be able to pull out the paints.  I have never seen them get organised so darned quickly, as when I suggested they do some painting today!

They started out working on their own canvas each but soon started helping each other!  Paintbrushes soon made way for fingers and the happy little giggles were echoing through the house.

I'm not sure where today's watercolour masterpieces are going be hung, but here they are:

Painted by Emma with help from Georgie

Painted by Georgie with help from Emma