Pain in the neck.

What a pain I've had for the last couple of days. Even a trip to the osteopath (& $75 later) didn't help.  Some heavy duty painkillers are starting to relax things a little more though.

So I've not done a hell of a lot but Miss Beatie did these cute little drawings yesterday and I thought I'd share them with you.

Hmmm . . . the top one does look a bit like me?

As for this pair, I'm not sure who they resemble?

No Brown Owls Tonight!

Unfortunately the Brown Owls won't

be meeting tonight. 

We will be back Tuesday 8th February.

(Caz's other half is sick and I've injured my neck!). 

Sorry for any inconvenience, and hope to see you in February.

Home from Holidays

Yes, back after a week away with my family and it was great. 

Plenty of bike riding, swimming in the Allyn River, bbq's, late nights, going to the dairy, drinking 'real' milk, seeing plenty of wildlife which included two red bellied black snakes in the one day and a goanna.

Here are a couple of snaps I took.  I did notice how green everything is.  I think lush is the word I'm after.

You have to look closely for the goanna. I didn't want to get too close.

Did I mention bike riding?

Little James was a champion bike rider by the end of the week.

And then there was swimming a couple of times a day. Still cold mid January.  Having no tv, internet or mobile phone availability is exhausting.

And then because this blog is about making and creating I thought I'd include this amazing birds nest that was hanging from a tree, just above our heads.

I know . . . the countdown is on. The holidays are nearly over, BUT we do have The Brown Owls meeting on Tuesday night!  Yay!

See you there at Nords Wharf Hall, 7-9pm, bring your own craft, or use our materials to experiment.

How to make a dragons egg.

Here is the 'how to' for the dragons egg (from the kids art & craft day). There are a few steps in preparation but the kids do end up with a precious egg that they will be able to keep.

Step 1: Buy some eggs.

Step 2: Make the eggs empty.  Using a needle, place a small hole at each end of the egg, place your mouth over the hole and BLOW.  The more you do the easier it gets (try doing 2 dozen!).  Keep all of the egg so you can make a yummy omelet, banana bread, scrambled egg, cherry clafoutis . . .etc.

Step 3: Place half a skewer into one of the holes.

Step 4: Using a hot glue gun, glue the stick into place.

Step 5: Using the hot glue gun again, make a swirling pattern similar to the one shown.  A bit like a scalloped lace pattern.

Step 6: Spray two colours (in our case we used purple and green) onto the egg whilst holding onto the stick.  Flat colours work best, not metallics at this stage.

Try to get the two colours at either end.

Step 7. When dry, brush some metallic acrylic paint onto the egg.

Step 8. Then quickly wipe off again so that the metallic paint accentuates the hot glue 'veins'.

Step 9. When dry, use a pair of scissors to cut the stick off as close to the egg as possible.

Step 10. Now your egg is finished.

You can make a box to place it in, or buy a box.

Just remember to put some coloured tissue paper inside the box to nest it in.

Paper Flags

As I mentioned previously one of the 'activities' we did last Tuesday was lino printing. 

And what do you do with printed sheets of lino?  Well we stapled each one onto a piece of string and made these flags.

We had 'girl' lino blocks and 'boy' lino blocks for the littlies to print.  The kids loved the lino printing - especially the boys.

I do always find that when I'm teaching it at high school the boys really love the carving and printing - (although they're not usually very clean!).

Brown Owls Return

Start 2011 in a creative way!

Come and join the Brown Owls.

When? Tuesday 25th January at Nords Wharf Community Hall.  

Time: 7-9pm.

Bring along your own art and craft or come and start something new. 

We always have plenty of materials and inspiration. 

So come and have a cuppa, a slice, and a chat while you create.

Cost is a gold coin donation for hall hire.

See you there!

Still getting presents.

Just when we thought Christmas was over . . .  a parcel arrive this morning with gifts sent from my sister-in-law Kate.  Kate is a Buddhist who lives and works at the Vajradhara Gonpa at Kyogle on the Mid North Coast NSW. 

I thought I'd show you the great hat she sent Miss Beatie.

James liked it too.  Who doesn't love getting more gifts?  Thanks Kate.

Kids Day Out.

Just back from our Kids Art & Craft morning and needed a quiet cuppa to recoup.  Wow, what a creative group of kids.  We had about 20 kids and parents (all Brown Owls) helping Caree and myself with about 9 different activities for them to explore.  

I almost forgot to take some photos, but remembered just in time.

Ages ranged from 19 months (above) to 12 years and it was equal boys to girls.

They all loved having a go at lino printing, although I had to walk away from the table at one stage as it was getting pretty messy.

This was where the 'dragons egg' & box were created.  I'll be sure to put up instruction how to make these soon as they are always a favourite with children, especially the boys.

We also did the paper flowers which we've done at the Brown Owls.  No boys interested in this one though.

The kids also decorated matchboxes, made door hangers, drew dragons, made butterflies, created lino printed flags, and just ran around and had fun.

What a fabulous mess they made!  What a great day we all had!   

Vintage Chenille.

About 5 years ago my Mum (& her friend Helen from Vacy) went to Queensland and bought Miss Beatie back a pair of chenille shorts.  At the time there were very few about and of course I thought 'I could make those' (as you do). So over the years I went about buying and collecting old chenille bedspreads. 

Talk about unfinished objects - or should I say 'unstarted' objects! 

So this week during a lull in the holiday festivities, I finally whipped up a new pair using a cream and a checked pink.  I also attached a screenprinted design I did during my first foray into screenprinting.

I even put one of the bedspreads on Miss Beatie's bed! I think I'm re-living the 70's where my sister and I each had one, mine was green, hers a reddish pink.  What about you what did you have on your bed?

Mmmm textas.

Let this be a reminder to all of you party revellers out there - don't overdo the coloured textas!  Especially the black ones, as I've heard they're very addictive.  Happy New Year.

Kids Art & Craft Coming Soon!

A couple of us Brown Owls thought it might be nice to have a kids craft morning during the holidays, (because we are soooo mean not to let them come on Tuesday nights!).

So pencil Tuesday the 11th of January in.  More details to come.

Christmas Day

How good were you?

I hope you had a nice day. How exhausted are you?  We've had a late night, an early morning and it's now Christmas night. I can see an early night looming.


I'm now able to show you some of the gifts I bought for my mother and my niece (without spoiling the suprise) from Finders Keepers.

This is a colouring book I bought for my 18 year old niece, along with some nice new pencils.

Yes, I know buying a colouring book for an 18 year old might seem a little odd, but I figured she's just finished her HSC (Band 5 in art!) and it might be nice to just relax and add a bit of colour to these beautiful drawings without having to get too conceptual and theoretical. 

They're by flossy p and I loved her grown up colouring in book (and so did my niece).

For my mother I bought a really beautiful hand painted porcelain necklace from angus & celeste.  It was hard to part with but it did look very nice around mum's neck.

Well merry Christmas and I hope Santa was good to you.

It's starting to take shape.

Yes, the toilet rolls have begun to be turned into an interesting organic sculpture piece.

I know I said that it would be a great holiday activity (meaning for the kids) but I've actually started this one.  Not sure about the 'Quilton loves ya bum' written on the inside though. 

On a roll.

I know, I know - three postings in a day! 



Would you look at this. It's an amazing installation/artwork made out of toilet paper rolls! It's from a blog called Growing Up Creative and another called Myrtle and Eunice which I found via one of my followers 'Adriana' (thanks). It looks fantastic and I'm sure it will be a fun holiday activity to try out.

Little Monster

On our recent trip to the Finders Keepers Markets in Redfern, I bought this little drawing book for my kids.

It's called the Collaborative Monster Collective, and it's basically little black & white splodges. The artist then uses their imagination and turns the splodges into little monsters. 

My kids loved it!  You can download more of the pages from here.  They are the creation of Emma Kidd. She does some very creative and unique work, have a look.

Talented Girl

I recently ran into an old friend of mine, Simone Darcy who I hadn't seen for about six years. 

When we last met we were both at The University of Newcastle studying Fine Arts and it was almost Christmas (alot like now).  We were both working in David Jones in Newcastle, employed as Santa Photographers.  Alot has changed since then and it was great to hear that Simone has her own photographic business, Simone Darcy Photography.

Have a look at her beautiful photographs, and as she says I offer unique portraits that are personal, real and sometimes odd; black and white's that are timeless and poetic; colour that is real and not over saturated; art for art sake with no cheese . . . .

Sure wasn't like that back in the Santa photography days!

Hanging around at night.

I have shown this mobile before, but it was daytime and hanging outside - natural light and all that. 

For a while it hung in my loungeroom but little Hamish kept attacking it, so I eventually hung it by my bed and each night when I go to bed I love to look at the shapes, shadows and silhouettes it makes when the lamp is on. I can kind of understand why babies love the hanging mobile.

My Baby Bunting.

Baby bunting because it's smaller than the usual size I do, oh and it's for a baby too.

It's been a weekend of sun, surf and sewing - all in moderation of course.  Although I am feeling that familiar warm feeling on my back?  Anyway I finally finished sewing the baby bunting today after a day at nippers. 

I used all materials that I've sourced from op shops because of their colours and patterns. The bunting is for a girl so I tried to use neutrals with a hint of pinkish florals. I think that's my favourite part of making - the thrill of finding some lovely old tablecloth or sheeting that can be reused in another way.  Anyway another gift done.