Decorating My Home

I love my home.

My aim is to fill it with colour. I constantly, and I mean constantly, dream up new ideas for decorating my home. Little projects (such as decorating my kitchen chalkboard) or bigger projects like painting walls or painting murals. And it's nice to think I can just take my time with this kind of thing. I think of this house as my forever house, so it's a lifetime project, not something I have to finish in a hurry. I think of my home like a big art project. To tweak and change and observe and dream. And I want it to inspire me. And with every addition that I do or every change I make it becomes more like the arty home I have always dreamt of having.

Apparently 'boho' is so in right now! I have loved the eclectic- bohemian- hippy- op-shop style for as long as I can remember. And I can't see that changing. Check my open kitchen shelves, see, told you I love colour!

My kitchen bay window (need more plants):

My bathroom wall in it's unfinished state: (need more mirrors- which I have but they need a revamp with paint, and I am going to paint in those plants on the wall beside the main mirror one day.)

And my studio. My studio is a part of my home, a little small for all of the stuff I have in there and my messy ways, but I am very grateful to have a studio at all. I love it. It's the heart of my home! My kids are (mostly) welcome in there and they have there own space and supplies. I can assure you I contend with many tiny pieces of wayward glitter in that room.

I don't spend a lot on home furnishings. Most of my stuff comes from trawling op shops. My studio desk is an old one my uncle rescued for me, and my computer is sitting on a cheap trestle table. Most of my things on the kitchen shelves display op shop finds or even target which surprises me sometimes with their cute dinner ware. I got one of my sewing machine desks for $2. Of course there are things I'd love to own that are pricey. Like this rug.. please universe, send me this rug! In the biggest size you've got! From Eco Chic. Totally in love with this rug.

We've only lived in this house for 4 short years, and have mainly been raising our young kids in that time. When we moved in our little misses were 2 years old and two months old. Now that they are getting bigger & more independent I am getting more done. And very much enjoying the process. We have lots of unfinished rooms.

I could take lots more photos of my house, but perhaps I'll save that for another post. Let me know if you'd like to see more! x

Mini Holiday

Hi!
Went to Inverloch again for a few nights, and managed to get so much painting done! It was like a mini Art Jam holiday! The weather was terrible- cold & windy & raining. Which gave us all good excuse to stay inside and relax guilt free. Even though it is winter here it's still nice to go to the beach and have a bit of a break. We didn't get much beach time, but the girls loved it when we did. The weather was exceptionally miserable! At least rainbows come out when it rains.. :)

So we had many Art Jam sessions! I'd just gotten up from the table to take a photo of us creating here.

Thanks to my neglectful parenting and the use of the TV, I got a lot of painting done! I pretty much completed these two paintings. This top one is called "we all get by". The next is untitled. Just a bit of an image that was floating around in my head.

Then I felt the urge to return to my illustrative past.. sometimes I like to get away from it and be more painterly and 'arty', but it always draws me back in. I was getting inspired by looking at some of Emily Martin's work online, her dreamy story- telling images from that childhood wonderland I'm always trying to tap into. 

On the wall at the clubhouse (as it was called where we stayed) was an empty picture frame crying out for some attention. So, cheekily, I took it apart and added some characters then reassembled it. We had some good chuckles whilst doing this. Thanks to my family members' bizarre sense of humour we all collaborated on the ideas ;)

I will miss the quirky clubhouse with it's weird bathroom sink… look at the size of that thing!

Now I think I have the holiday bug! I am dreaming of a new adventure.. a place in a forest somewhere with no technology and lots of inspiration, trees, plants and thinking time. And of course, my sketch book, paints and new ideas.

Update

I have been BUSY! I have so many projects on the go- personal and business-y, and I'm loving all of them and I am stealing every minute I can to sneak away into the studio and feeling blessed that my two cheeky chickens (my girls) play nicely with one another.. most of the time. 

I recently had my Homemaker picture framed and sent it off with a mixed media piece to The Red Fox Gallery Cafe in my neighbouring town Drouin. I hope they will bring lots of their customers some happiness and nice feelings. 

I finished off these two bohemian folksy mobiles for a custom order. I need some more of these in my Etsy shop but they sell as quick as I make them! I'm happy for people to order them from me at this stage whilst I'm still making them. They won't be a forever thing.. just drop me a line.

I listed an original in my Etsy Shop. I hope you like it!

I love painting pictures with making children happy in mind, and feeding into that wonderful imagination and wonder that they possess. I can't stand Barbies and Brats dolls and all the other dolls that slot into that category, and characters aimed at children donned with mobile phones and shopping bags looking cool; on the verge of being sexually promiscuous.. So you can rest assured any of my images will be plucked straight from the land of tradition, cuteness and all things sweet. After all, kids are kids for such a short time, and their natural innocence is something I feel I need to protect fiercely. For sure enough, they won't be kids long, and they have plenty of time to be grown up. So inject as much magic into their lives as you can during this precious & fleeting time!

I have more paintings and things to show and stuff going on… I have signed up to In.cube8r Gallery again (I was with them pre- kids), so am madly making a bunch of stuff to fill my allocated space there. 

I hope you've enjoyed my short 'n' sweet update.. until next time creative souls… :)

A Busy Weekend

Hope your weekend was good. We had an extra busy and creative long weekend at home. (Thanks to the Queen's Birthday holiday.) Jim worked on storage solutions for the garage, which has been a long time coming. And I worked on a few pieces of furniture for the house. 

First of all we had an old pine dining table sitting in the garage, not making itself very useful. So we cut the legs off that and sanded it back and now I am converting into a kids craft/ art table. Whoever thought kids tables should be the sizes they are normally are in the shops had rocks in their head. I don't know about your household; but if you have young kids and a teeny table, stuff ends up all over the floor. There's not enough room for their materials and space to draw. 

I whizzed down to the local hardware store to choose some paint. I usually get all confused and worried and nervous about choosing paint colours from paint chips (funny- for an artist?) But I decided just to go in and go with my gut and choose the first colours that jumped out at me. I chose garden picket, and emerald wave. In about 3 minutes, seriously!

So here's the table with two coats of paint..

And here it is after I'd attacked the legs with a wash of teal. I'm loving the effect that it produced. I just mixed a big squirt of my normal artists acrylic paints and thinned it down 50:50 with water. I then painted that on and wiped it over with a wet rag. I also scumbled the wet rag around a bit and used a dry brush to soften some of the lines & add a bit of texture. I plan on adding a wash to the top, probably in a earthy orange colour.

Detail of the "glaze":

I also had a couple of wooden Ikea chairs that I have been meaning to paint for, oh I don't know, almost 4 years! 

The kids were SO upset that they could not help me paint the table. (Miss Stevie is still trying to convince me to let her paint a teddy bear on the top), so I let them help me start the chairs. It was good to let them be involved in a part of the process, but bless their little souls, this is more of a Mamma job!

Here are the chairs with their base coats on.. (I was thinking 'vintage candy' colours when I chose the paint... & Miss Stevie was happy she got to help paint the "ice cream" colour.)

I'm looking forward to seeing the whole set come together with their glazes, and then a final varnish for protection with an oil based polyurethane. Then there will be the task of finding some funky baskets and storage for their supplies. Pinterest always comes up trumps in that area for inspiration! 

And as an afterthought, here are some shelves I also worked on a bit this weekend. These are meant to attach directly onto a wall in the kids room somewhere for them to display all of their creations. This is a project that had fallen by the wayside (along with my tree project) when I lost motivation to complete the kids room. This happens sometimes, doesn't it? Projects loose momentum, and you get feelings of guilt for not achieving. 

I have so many projects that I am working on... and in my head waiting in line to begin. And I feel like some of them wont be finished (or started) for a long time. Sometimes when you read crafty blogs you get this idea that other people have it all together, and that they are achieving so much. I'm sure most of them have to be human and have all the time constraints and issues we all have. Are you creative? Do you struggle with feelings of underachieving compared to others? You can be sure I have all those thoughts! Especially when my kids were younger and I'd see people blogging & achieving so much with young kids! I'd think- how do they do it!? 

Every time I get some free time I am thinking (as an example): Should I do more to the paper mache tree?...What about the bathroom, I do want to make some pom poms for the light shade... I really should go and pick up dog poo in the backyard... or what about sewing the curtain for the living area downstairs... or vacuuming, there's so much dust... I really should make something to eat... maybe I could work on my painting... or prepare that new print... I need more time... I'd love to do a cross stitch... I have to finish that card design... and so on and so forth. Does your brain also work like this!? And then when I'm working on something, the creative juices are flowing and I have more ideas for half a dozen new projects I'd like to start!

In the end when I feel overwhelmed I have realised I just need to start on something. I wander around and pick up a project that has been started, or I write a list of all my projects and prioritise them. Then priority number one is worked on. So, I'm going to do that now... but first, a cup of tea ;)

Hello Winter

The first day of winter happened on the weekend. I removed our Autumn display, and scrounged around the house for some wintery elements for our seasonal appreciation table. The girls gasped with delight when they saw it and straight away set to work creating their own things in the studio to add to the table. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do during the season. They collect things right through the seasons in their pockets or bags and save them for the display. It's so sweet. We got this Steiner type idea from one of Soule Mama's books. She's one inspiring lady & Mama. I own a couple of her books. They are a delight. We also rang in the new season with lighting a fire. Too bad the rain put it out! 

We also had a visit to the beach. Barwon Heads to be exact, to catch up with an old mate that I did my illustration diploma with. here are the girls searching for exciting treasures.

I'm working in the studio today tying up odds and ends, photographing, colour correcting, varnishing, thinking, filling a couple of orders & drinking tea. I am a tea addict. I feel like I'm having a little break when I'm drinking tea even if I'm still working. I have a couple of new things in the shop. Including this guy:

Hopefully the more mundane tasks will be finished soon and I can get the paints out again. Being an artist is not just all time spent at the easel; there's so much other work that goes on behind the scenes.. like taxes... blurgh! But one can also get satisfaction when all the other tasks are completed. If it's winter where you are I hope you have a snuggly warm one with lots of wool & soup x

Illustration Friday- Universe

I used to participate in coming up with artworks for Illustration Friday regularly a few years back. They give you a topic each week & you come up with an illustration for the topic... That's for those of you who haven't heard of it. This weeks illustration topic was Universe.
I thought about my own universe. I also thought about when I hear the word I immediately think of images that are complicated, busy, dreamy & mysterious. There's so much imagery that could be included in an illustration that portrays the word universe. I've chosen a few select themes to represent my idea. I've added in a cosmic turtle. In Hindu, Chinese & Native American mythology, the world is supported on a giant turtle's back. Then it goes from there...
What's in your universe?

The Red Fox Gallery Cafe

Popped into The Red Fox Gallery Cafe in my neighbouring town Drouin yesterday and met the lovely, talented artist and owner Wendy Olsen. She's certainly a creative soul who is enviously busy achieving all the things creative people would like to achieve! She's decorated the cafe with coloured paint, artworks, murals and unconstrained imagination. It's like this cafe has been lifted straight out of Fitzroy (Victoria, Australia) and planted in Drouin, and I for one, am very happy that a place like this exists close to me and am optimistic that it will inspire more creativity to blossom within our community! Good on you, Wendy.
If possible, the space has also inspired me to be more daring in decorating my own house. Wendy is definitely bold with her interior design choices, and that is admiring. I'm loving her ombre walls found in the restroom. She shared her technique for doing this and I would love to try it at home.
I discussed with Wendy hanging some of my art in the space too, so I'll be getting some pieces framed and ready to adorn the walls there. They'll fit right in, don't you think?

The Red Fox Cafe Gallery can be found at The Old Drouin Butter Factory, 1 Main South Rd, Drouin. Live music every Friday night from 7.30.