saturday shopping list . this grey winter day!

1. snow . bakphotography
2. little cabin necklace . Joannarutter
3. mandala - felt shoulder bag . lusitania
4. three designer chairs and espresson - set of 4 archival art cards . stephanielevy

**all images from the shops listed above.

to see more saturday etsy shopping lists, go visit fancypicnic.

friday . fav link

happy friday!!
i decided not to post the yellow painting that i worked on yesterday and today after all as today it actually got worse not better . . . next!

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here is my favourite link from my reader this week ~ from pikaland {yay amy}
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hope you are having {or are about to have} a great friday :)

my creative space

i have a new addition to my space this week ~ these paper drawers from ikea! i built them during the week and finally got them into my space and cleaned up a little today. so annoying to have to build when time is short, yet so satisfying too when done! {we have been watching 'the wire' and they have a couple of very funny scenes with stressed/impatient detectives trying to quickly set up ikea house for the nights when the kids are coming to stay, i could relate!}.
i played around with some photos of the finished {to a point} pieces, even though the light was terrible. i started some new darker rectangles and put in some detail layers on two paintings. the painting that is not shown has lots of yellow ~ which is not me at all ~ and i couldn't post a picture as it looks pretty *ugly* at this stage! am hoping that it's like one of those oil pastel pictures we did as kids with the black layer over colour, which only show their true beauty right at the end! will see what happens tomorrow.
hoping your thursday has been good {and creative} so far ~ pop in to kootoyoo for more spaces.

**thanks for all the giveaway entries ~ if you haven't entered yet, click here!

giveaway!

i thought it high time to have a brooch/pendant giveaway!
the first round of finished ones are all finally listed in the shop {minus the brooch my oldest son chose to keep} and there are quite a few almost ready to go. i've really enjoyed making them and appreciate all the feedback and comments that i've had from my lovely readers {& customers} ~ thanku!

to enter, follow {if you are new!} and please take a squizz at the brooches and pendants that i have listed and leave a comment saying which is your favourite. {copying links might be the easiest way, given the titles that i've used}.
for 2 chances to win you can spread the word about the giveaway on your blog or tweet away ~ just mention which you chose to do, or add a link, in your comment.
the winner can chose the pendant or the brooch shown here.
will be drawn {by the second littlest fingers in our house} on wednesday august 5.
good luck and thanks again :)

saturday shopping list . could be rain, or just after

1. slow to grow, then fade away . aliherrmann
2. paper mache bike o18 . mumbreeze
3. waterfall . lynann
4. blue safari . art and ghosts

** pics from the shops listed.
for more etsy shopping lists, go to fancypicnic :)

friday . a little progress

popping in with a quick update from yesterday's stint at the desk {photos are a little funny in colour due to it being too sunny yesterday afternoon, definitely not a complaint!}.
thanks so much for all the lovely comments on the last post.
hope u have a great friday :)

creative space . white out

this is my space today! i'm trying out some new ideas/techniques with the pendants + brooches. some of the wood pieces have absolutely beautiful grains that can be highlighted, but some are a little dull. i've used a gesso base on these which works better under a sketch than acrylic as it's chalky rather than plasticy to draw on. i'll coat them with a glue-like medium to 'stick it down'. this coating may also lift the surface a little too.
the last pic is one that i'd almost finished ~ i was was liking how the outlines were working then slipped up with the brush and totally wrecked the whole thing with a blob of blue on the right! o well! am wishing my paints were safer to use ~ am so scared of getting any on my skin with all those cancer warnings on the bottles that it makes me clumsier . . . {how can something you love so much give u cancer??}
i hope to get round to everyone's space in the next couple of days {sorry in advance if i don't straight away} ~ i have my dad and his wife in town and my husband's 40th birthday 'festival' starting tonight!

for more creative spaces, go see kirsty :)

saturday shopping list . jewels

1. lemon grove a {b u d} necklace . budpnq
2. verdigris bobby pins . fleurfatale
3. 18kt gold and silver dome ring . jessedanger
4. leaf medal . lilarubyking

**there are shops that i just can not help but go back to! i love all the shops that i feature here, but i have a such a soft spot for lilarubyking jewelry {u may have noticed}.
**images from the shops listed.

to see more etsy saturday shopping lists or to post your own, go to fancypicnic and have a look.

also, virgina invited me to share '5 things' {thanks virginia}. her blog is lovely and there are mini interviews with some of my favourite etsy artists/illustrators too.

have a great weekend :)

friday . work in progress

i just wanted to say thanks for all the comments and positive feedback on the brooches and pendants. it's so great having a blog and a little community of like-minded people gathered around! thanks for reading too.
here are 2 mixed media {drawing/paintings} on paper that i started this afternoon, and will hopefully form a series with this one. they are about that feeling that gets carried around some days after a dream-filled sleep that is kind of a mystery but at the same time a definite 'thing'! you can't quite put your finger on it but it affects everything.
am off to get a much needed haircut tonite.
happy friday to u :)

creative space . frankie blog

it was really just a pop into my creative space ~ for a short time either side of an appointment today.
i have some more brooches on the go! there are little reminder notes as to what i'm thinking of doing with them tomorrow . . . and a couple ready for varnishing etc. i've been experimenting with layers of colour and letting some of the bottom white show though between the colours. and using a layer of white under orange, which make the brightness of the orange pop out even more.

the very exciting news for me today is this feature on the frankie blog for my brooches {thanks to lara and louise at frankie}.

hope your thursday is a creative one :)
head over to kootoyoo for more creative spaces or to show your own.

vadjutka

Judit {a lovely blogger and beautiful jewelry designer} has used some mini-prints of my work as backgrounds for her new jewelry product shots and I think they work really well. She has the story in this post.
go see her shop :)

domestic . inspiration

i might have mentioned here before that the first 3 days of my week are entirely domestic! i'm not naturally a domestic individual ~ but have kind of become that way since having kids. {tho i may never love cooking}. every now and then, amongst the kids' stuff {mess, toys etc} i spot a pile of my stuff and think about colours etc {there is a crochet chain hiding in this pile that may one day be the start of a scarf i decided to make!} . . . doesn't the lego inside this little cabinet look ghostly!

inhabitants treasury

i had this treasury ready to go for more than a week but kept missing the opening ~ until lastnight! take a squizz :)

saturday shopping list . pink

1. salmon janet the jacabob . kitlane
2. pink stripes . jamieshelman
3. lichen lavender pincushion 4 . ottoman
4. original paintings triptych mixed media abstract art by aisyah ang 20x60 inches with cert . aisyahang
5. bride matryoshka earrings . munieca

for more inspirational etsy saturday shopping lists or to make your own list, head to fancypicnic.
* images from the shops listed.

friday . work in progress

the holidays are officially over, so it will be back to normal for the boys and i next week ~ always a little/big jolt!
a couple more aceos in progress ~ am now addicted to making these.
my wishful thinking yesterday resulted in a full day behind the computer fixing up photos for the brooch and pendant listings, which i am happy to say has finally begun ~ you can find the first couple here.
yay!
also, i followed a tweet and entered a competition and won a little ad spot for july on gold school, {thanks to danielle}.
happy friday to you :)

my creative space

here is my creative space today~ deciding which to make into pendants and which brooches . . . a little hard-core glueing {appologies in advance for the messy glue on the back of these ~ neat glueing is not my forte!} and taking hundreds of photos. there are now 16 brooches and 8 pendants done + one for my sister. i hope to get through all the photo editing and description writing tonite {not sure that i will!} so that i can list them. there are a couple of photos up on flickr if you'd like to see {click on an image above} the 'chain' part of the pendant is hand dyed and rolled silk that i found at my local bead shop ~ it's made locally and very soft. . .

i hope you had a creative day.
to see more creative spaces or show your own, head to kootoyoo :)

** in other news ~ kim from Udessi gallery will having a stall at the boutique markets in brisbane on sunday 12th july {8am - 4pm}, so if you are in brisbane that would be fun to check out {lots of my prints will be there!}

art cards {aceos}

have been making lots of art cards lately! they kind of tie in with the pendants and brooches and are part of the perspective series {pencil and acrylic on paper}.
hope your week has started off nicely :)