New skills

about 11 o'clock yesterday morning

about 11 o'clock today

and about 4.30pm this afternoon
and we had sundowners on it a bit later woo hoo!!!

Over the past couple of days I have learned about deck building. I was mainly the hold this, pass me this or fetch this gal for my darling builder who has come to rescue us from the south.
Some of you might recognise him as my mate the Sea King. Yes it is the same wonderful man- multi MULTI talented is that lad ;-)
Seriously without the generosity of spirit that Ken has shown us I doubt we would be making this move- even if of late there has been some little reconsideration in light of some other stuff going on. He is a special man to us both, to me in particular he has been an extremely good friend and confidant and there is little in the world I wouldn't do for him. Short of murder maybe? LOL

He was very patient with his novice labourer and he didnt have any trouble with her at all- AS IF lol
Tomorrow daytime is replacing damaged cladding boards and then off to a concert with my mate tomorrow evening- as a special thank you to him I am taking him to a Beethoven Concert with the MSO tomorrow night- Classical music is a love I have discovered under his tutelage. Hmnn I wonder what else he could teach me?
Anyway I learned a lot over the past few days and no doubt learn much much more from my mate- a bloke in a million even if some others dont fully appreciate that.

Hard Decisions

A lot of hard decisions will have to be made over the next few weeks. Divesting myself of my treasures is not an easy task- being a natural bower bird but unfortunately I am married to a freakin' squirrel- but getting M.O.T.H. to start doing his bit of that process has NOT been easy.
I thought I would have a fight on my hand over the books- got four double stacked 6' x3' bookshelves down to two single stacked was surprisingly painless although I think he is itching to retrieve his Solzhenitsyn's.
The problem being that no one is terribly interested in them as books- apparently the charity places are awash with books etc. and none of the dealers want old stuff anymore.

I wont be doing much creative work of my own for a few weeks, my lovely builder arrives on Tuesday and I am contracted to be his labourer/runner/tea lady etc. Between then and now I am hoping to paint the hallway- all cleared this morning and just waiting for the walls to dry after their wash down. Should knock that over pretty much by tomorrow night
Picked up my folio yesterday from VU and was very pleased with my results
yippppeeeeeeeeeee
Catch when I can

Woodsmoke

Made from the Discharge dyeing session I had a few weeks back
this is for one part of my four part printmaking contract.
Fairly pleased with it and will use is in the Autumn exhibition in March.
the side panels involve shibori folding techniques and the cental discharged panel has leaf shapes marked and was sprayed and splattered randomly with discharge mix
as this was cotton I did a 1:1 bleach and water mix
the leaves were then overprinted with the block with some Lumiere Holo Green Gold



As you may have gathered I havent been that enthused with the group theme for the next exhibition- a bit twee and far too narrow considering the group as a whole is so diverse but I am getting my head around it and this has led me off in other directions- leaves and nature have always been a part of my work but I dislike being constrained.
This is about some of the things I WILL miss when I move to the tropics next year, I do like the change of seasons and autumn in particular is one of my faves because after our scorching dry summers we get cool nights and warm days and then a little later you get the first hint of true cold and the scent of woodsmoke in the air.

last one for the day

time do something else
this is provisionally titled Reef Dreaming

cooking with gas!

for some reason despite everything I have turned into superwoman today
yee haa!!
the dyed silk samples
just waiting to pull the yardage from the dye bath now
woo hoo

Ah, that's better!

well a bit better- it will have to do for now
lol when in doubt
stitch!!!!

Block 4

Is a collection of 15 x 10cm ( for you non metric folk about 6 x 4) postcards that seem to be about what I am going to find in the future- I hope
lol still havent photographed Block 2 or 3 yet but I will


Intricacy- re thinking this after seeing the scan- needs 'more'


Nature


East.

What I was hoping to find and lose

but not so sure now
funny how life throws you a curly one
"Fasten your seatbelts . . . it's gonna be a bumpy ride"
Bette Davis
Still wet from rinsing away the soluble

Cactus flower

taken with M.OT.H.'s little dig cam because all my batteries are flat at the moment
it blooms every two years or so and is pretty stunning, this year we have two blooms
Work progressing and in the home straight yipppee
hope to have some pics soon