Some sort of normalcy

Well that was an interesting time of it, Mum has had her operation and been discharged after 8 days which is pretty normal. Very confronting having your parent going through something like this. My Dad has been copping the brunt of the outrageous family- for those who dont know me personally my Dad is one of nine and his father was one of twelve so we have quite a sezeable extended family. It got to the stage with him that he actually began to let the answering machine pick up the phone which is something my father would NEVER EVER have allowed before this.
I must admit to being oddly exhausted by the whole process so had a very quiet weekend and starting to pick up on doing the backlog of stuff I need to complete for school- eeeks looks like painting and painting to go on with
the list is frighteningly long but I refuse to get stressed by it- we'll see.
This afternoon in between fighting with the washing machine- which wants to wash my floor for me and various other things I took the camera out into the garden to capture some spring for myself for inspiration.
I have to do a diptych about myself in some form- the brief is wide ranging as to materials and techniques so I am actually looking forward to it and I am painting a chocolate sponge cake for another brief- pity I am using an illustration as my guide rather than making the thing for a model- trouble is I would eat it LOL
Check out my garden

Fact is wilder than fiction

The past few days have been a bit surreal to say the least. A dear friend's misfortunes have been much in mind for the past couple of months. And then top it off my Mum who thankfully is a stubborn woman had a heart attack last weekend.
The dramas of the past few months added to the latest would have to make my life seem like something out of Days of Our Lives or the like.
Last week was my Dad's birthday and we were all keyed up for lunch together on Sunday- I had cooked something yummy in preparation the day before and had a bit of a late night- the old insomnia has been kicking in over the past couple of months again but I am keeping an eye on it- so I was pretty dopey when the phone range and it was my Dad to say Mum was in an ambulance on her way to hospital with a suspected heart attack. Dad was doing his best to put a brave face on it all at the time but I could hear from his voice that he was pretty shook up.
I get dressed and go up to the hospital Mum was being taken to- only a few minutes from my home thank goodness. Seeing Mum on a ventilator made it all too real. But thank goodness for my own curiosity when I was able to see the monitor they had hooked up and the readouts were all pretty steady- and for two aunties who are nurses and answered questions straight when I was growing up.
Anyway Mum was hospitalised and went through a raft of tests and found that an artery was completely blocked and two more were sufficiently blocked to require by pass. But waiting for the verdict and while she was operated on was awful. I have never been the most patient person in the world but this was hell on wheels.
They moved her to another hospital here in Melbourne to do the operation yesterday and she came through- after the meeting with the surgeon on Thursday night and his reassuring attitudes of the routineness of the operation I did feel a bit better but honestly this guy was talking about my Mum!! That AINT routine!!To top it off the surgeon who was operating on Mum is a complete hottie- like something out of a soap opera which sort of added to the complete surrealist nature of the past week. Weird the things I notice but this guy had beautiful hands.
Yesterday is a bit of a fog- Mum decreed that none of us go to the hospital yesterday because she was going to be so out it etc. Everytime the phone rang I shot through the ceiling - dopey bloody auntie gave me an ear bashing the night before and I didnt absorb a word. Sometimes my extended family are completely outrageous and on the most part I can deal with them but I didnt need her rabbiting in my ear that night at all. When Dad got the call he rang and let us know she was out of surgery and okay- No visitors today except Dad but tomorrow I am going over and need to see my Mum.
I have seen friends and family lose parents and have dread for that time for me- although everyone assures me Mum will now bounce back better than ever.

Hmmn that could be dangerous- she's a fiery number my Mum- lol just like her daughter.

Sinners Prayer

The resolution aint so good but I am relatively pleased with the piece.
Incorporating stitch and painting
Inspired by Ray Charles and B.B. King doing Sinner's Prayer- an old Lowell Fulson number with Billy Preston on organ on Genius Likes Company.

2 kitties

My two devils together
Miss Jazzy reeks of tomcat and is keeping her distance while she cleans up or the big fella will not be impressed- usually he gives her a hiding when she drags her fluffy butt home after playing with the boys.

Thinking of a dear friend today who has had some bad news and will now go and spend the day in the garden to think of him and his family.

Spring time

Well this morning is glorious and I could do a million things to take advantage of the weather before it disappears tomorrow. But I am tied to the PC at present trying to get my journal up to date for a theory subject- with company.
Miss Jazzy is my adorable fluff ball who is the ultimate lazy kitty. She sleeps 20-23 hours out of 24 depending on the weather. In cold weather she goes to bed to keep warm and warm weather she sleeps to stay cool. She is a positive menace while quilting because she is totally in love with natural fibres. No cheap acrylics for this little aristocat!! No thank you! Wool is nice, cotton is better but silk is just heaven to this kitty. And of course being so cute she tends to get away with it.
She gets up with hubby some mornings and this morning was one of those and goes and plays with her boyfriends of which she had two at present.
Bandit stays with me, the big sook, and she comes in again when she is hungry. Unlike Bandit who is very vocal-and probably snoozing in the sun under the rosemary or my roses- Jazzy does not have a meow. Her attempts at getting food are silent touches and deep affection. And when Mum is busy she does the passive insistence like this morning curling up on the table on my hand the mouse. The minute I move towards the kitchen the little tubby will charge down that hallway looking for food- yes she is round- but she is NOT fat despite getting called Fatty by the M.O.T.H- men can be such bastards lol

Pity about that mouse eh Miss Jazzy?
Despite being a complete floozy and very, very lazy she is actually a very good ratter- ewww she brings them home to share after catching them in our neighbour's fruit trees- the neighbour is pleased- Jazzy is pleased and I have stick the corpse in the bin.

Jim Dine Homage

Ergh my first part of four- with my tricky tummy and stuff of late- spending heaps of time getting to know the contours of my toilet rather well unfortunately I have barely begun this assignment- due tomorrow.
I am going to have to beg an extension because there is no way I can get four drawings done tonight
oh well looks like I am going to be behind in all subjects this term.
cant be helped.
Anyway this has already garnered a couple of comments about kinkyness- well I will just let you wonder where my brain was when I came up with this idea- at least there is some stitch in it

/R

Pubs and critters

and indigenous art near Chillagoe

Sun birds collecting nectar
Mt Malloy pub- good beer lousy lemon squash

Mossman Gorge

Some pics

Over Flinders Street towards the "G" St Pauls from School

These were taken illicitly from the balcony at school, proving again that talking to the workers gets you further than the management . The views are brilliant even in pretty ordinary weather like this

Back from the 'warm'

A Chillago honeyeater

Warm? You wouldnt have thought so when we go there Brrrrrrrrr.
And the worst part was everyone up in that part of the world was fighting off or recovering from the latest lurgy which sent me on my butt for a couple of days in bed.
Started off really fresh and ready for some fun and drawing but ended up in bed snuffling and hacking with fever. But the sailing trip was not to be postponed for something as simple as flu.
Unfortunately lack of energy didnt leave me much to squander on drawing - or struggle with the rather wild rocking of the boat. But it was fun even if standing on the edge of the table in the middle of a rather wild tacking session was a tad scary.
Himself indoors has now decided that sailing has all the adrenalin of mad motor cycle riding without the gravel rash so that might be a future for the household- that and living in that part of the world. Which I must admit is looking more and more attractive with each chilly minute I am back in Melbourne.
The guys were trying to get me onto the outer reef to do some snorkelling but when we got to McKay it was too rough to snorkel and there were SEVEN helicopters on the cay in the middle of nowhere. It was like something from a James Bond Movie- weird to say the least.

Low Isles on Sunset

But I like sailing- well cool laid back sailing not that knuckle chewing other kind the boys indulged in on the way to McKay Reef. And the turtles were amazing and the whale we sighted. Apparently Migaloo has been spotted this season, when we arrived in Cairns there was an article in local paper that he had not been seen in the area so far on this years migration. But "Willow" a former Low Isles charter vessel had reported seeing him which was good to hear.

I'll post a few more photos as I sort them out off T's computer and hopefully get mine back tomorrow.

The Perils of Technology

And our almost total reliance upon it
It lets you down folks!!!!!
Aaargh
I was slack with the blog over my break but I was busy playing
I have done two quilts -no pics because they are all on my other pc which is being rebuilt - some braiding and just puddling for fun. Nary a painting or exercise for painting to be seen.

sigh whimper grumble moan and I have been without my pc for four whole days which is tough for a net junkie like me.
I have hooked up hubbys so I can get a fix now and then so the withdrawal twitches are not so bad.
Started back to VU on Monday -REALLY tough to drag my carcass out of bed after such a long break and on a truly FILTHY winter day here. Although the views from the new premises did make up for the wretched weather.
Got a couple of assignments to take with me to Queensland, the timing of the work and the holiday will fit in well although the painting assignment will be very tricky to complete on time because I dont want to drag a pile of paint with me so I am going get down to that over the next couple of days so I can finish it around the right time- here's hoping.
Pics of the view were taken on my phone, I plan to take in my real cam on Monday to get some shots. Maybe some of within the gallery space at the Uni as well- that is spectacularly good btw
/R

A Howlin' Wolf

Anyone who knows me well knows my abiding interest in the vulpine, and vulpine like dogs having been brought up around German Shepherds. I adore wolves and live on the ONLY continent without them alas. So I get my fix when I can.

And hell being a fan of the great Howlin' Wolf aka Chester Burnett dont hurt either.

You know I'm the Wolf baby, you know I stays in the woods

You know I'm the Wolf babe, you know I stays in the woods

Well when you get in trouble, you call the wolf out of the woods
Well you want my money, well you want me to spend it on you

Well you want my money, babe you want the Wolf to spend it on you

Just as soon as you get my fortune, she said what in the world I want with you?
Well I spend my money, trying to make you satisfied

Well, I have spent my money darlin', tryin' to make you satisfied

Well, the woman who took my money and took my home and,

oh the Wolf gonna wreck her life

From my printmaking adventures

The process for this was from my first real effort in lino cutting- from development of imagery to the end product etc. I got this back today and photographed it tonight.
Julie was cool with me experimenting on fabric and I did a couple on white cotton lawn and one on some pole dyed silk. One of the cotton examples went into my journal and I decided to play with the other with some stitch. It was a pretty basic process of stitching mostly straight stitching once the stitch formed some form of resist I dripped silk paint onto the still visible fabric to knock back the 'whiteness' of it. It was met with enthusiam by all and sundry but I cant help feeling it is a bit run of the mill embellishment wise but it was a nice gentle exercise to test the boundaries- which after the discussions on Monday are about to be pushed to the limit.
I have been experimenting with eyelets and other items on canvas and the next assignment in painting is about music - which slots into my longterm aim to do a piece based upon my love of Blues. giggle snicker I already have a working title in my head "blue is a colour you can feel"
Any hoo this is the froggie- Frankie would have approved I am sure

Free as a bird

Well almost only Wednesday and Thursday to get through now. Hoping to get some work done for myself but first i am going sort out all my crap clustered around the house and re file it all- oh I know it will all migrate again around the house. I NEED A STUDIO!!
I do have a little project I am whipping through at the moment, some friends are getting a puppy and all new 'babies' need blankets but other than that I just want to sort out my gear into the things I need to have available for school and the stuff I want to play with in between and hopefully starting to incorporate my stuff into my school work.
After the conversation today with my tutors I am feeling okay about the future of my painting endeavours. *giggle* they might come to regret it now I have been given permission to test the boundaries because I have always been more than capable of pinching a bit more than the proverbial inch. Already some ideas are bubbling in my head - nutting out techniques will be fun but it might lead to a disappearance of oil paints in my life. NOT that I will regret that at all. Oh well if not a disappearance then certainly a reduction of its presence YEE HAA!!!

I should be painting

but I am so bored with it all- I have finish tweaking a couple of paintings for class. I am definitely NOT cut out for painting. It is such a slow process and I get very impatient with it. I need the results I get to be apparent or I get discouraged by it. But I am working on the stitched collage piece too so life is not too bad.
These are three canvases which are nothing special I will probably paint over two of them but the centre one has caught my interest. It is the painting from the aforementioned collage class assignment which I just let go and decided to have fun with the colours and go where they led me. I do like the subtleties of colour you can achieve with oils but it is such a painstaking process and due to lack of room I cannot afford to have more than one piece in progress at one time so I have to wait and wait and wait to continue working on it.

Aaargh enough moaning time to get on with it

Catch you in a few days

/R

Bit Blurry

I'll have to get my mate 'Wolfy' to teach me about these camera phones ;-)

This is my concertina book for Printmaking - I can get on with my other stuff tomorrow now that is out of the way yippee.

On the couch with the doc again today- ooh I just realised how that sounds ROFLMAO. But here's hoping.

Having a quiet giggle

This is an old bit from a while back- but in Printmaking we are going to be making a Concertina Book and have been told we can use what we like to cover it. The choice for me is to do a piece with bonded and embellished tissue or maybe dear old crepe paper- it has such a nice texture and when you wax it with metallic looks deliciously grainy. The box below was done in crepe paper. Musing about doing it now at home because I can knock it over in about an hour or so because I have the materials already so I can use my time in class to finish my edition printing.

Choices, choices. But we have made another one, I am going to miss week 2 and 3 of next semester in favour of a break in Nth Qld. Winter only officially started today but I am already sick of it so off to book flights today YIPPPEEEE

The Recipe

This week was a dear friend's birthday and she requested her usual indulgence which is a batch of my infamous Caramel, Macadamia and Hazlenut slice. A completely delicious and gooey concoction that is only really for special occasions but last week some of us got together and had some morning tea and I said I was going to be making this so making more was not really a problem.
So I made it and took it in today and several people wanted the recipe which is the purpose of this particular post.

The photo above is by Marina Oliphant from The Age when they published my recipe last year in an article by Matt Preston - actually they published two of my recipes *blush* NO I dont spend much time making naughty sweeties - only some of it and only for special folks

This is the recipe - Enjoy

Caramel, Macadamia and Hazelnut slice

INGREDIENTS
Base:
150g (1 cup) plain flour
1¿2 tsp cinnamon
60g (1/2 cup) hazelnut meal
90g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
90g dark chocolate
80g unsalted butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
Topping:
100g hazelnuts
395g tin condensed milk
2 tbsp golden syrup
50g butter
100g macadamia nuts
100g dark chocolate,melted
METHOD
· To make the base: Sift flour and cinnamon into a bowl. Stir in hazelnut meal and sugar.
· Melt chocolate and butter together and cool. Add to dry ingredients when cooled. Add egg and mix well.
· Press mixture into lined and greased tin (a standard 18x28- centimetre tray or similar) and bake for 15 minutes at 180C.
· While the slice is baking, toast hazelnuts in the oven for eight minutes.
Remove and de-skin by placing in a brown paper bag and rubbing furiously.
- Remove base from oven. Have a cup of tea and bit of a sit with the paper while it cools to room temperature in the tin.
· To make the topping: Mix condensed milk, golden syrup and butter in saucepan and heat, stirring until it almost boils.
· Pour mixture over the base and top with nuts.Bake for 15 minutes and leave to cool.
· Drizzle lines of the melted chocolate over the top until covered with a lacy coating of chocolate.Cut with a bread knife.

Three cheers

for my drawing/painting tutor Paul. I could have kissed him yesterday when he said I could turn a collage assignment into a stitch piece. I have been hanging out SO badly for something like this.
The assignment was to make a collage of a still life set out for the class and I was using my hand coloured papers and enjoying it and then talking with Paul about it he said go ahead and stitch

Well it will be different for this school
/R

mucking about and moving forward

Weird few days, but with some judicious self medication and some gradual work the worst is over. Although waking up with a mouth like a bottom of a bird cage is not fun but it was only TWO glasses of wine- on an empty stomach albeit *blush*
Seriously it has left my temper rather short so I am being a bit of a hermit because I am not really suitable for polite company at the moment.
Spent yesterday working on a little bag to keep my essentials in for classes- phone, wallet, keys, specs etc because I have decided with the total lack of storage space I am suffering from at present it is easier to set up two back packs for classes- one with my painting gear and another with my printmaking and drawing stuff. I did some discharge dyeing by putting some black homespun into a 1:1 bleach and water bath and experimented with my new water brush on the fabric too which was fun. I used the samples up to make the little back and when I get the dig cam batteries charged up will take a pic of it- very satisfying to just do something creative and also practical for myself for a change.
Onward and upward
/R