In the home straight- we hope

Been very busy of course as you all realise but I am currently working on the final room- the painting thereof that is LOL.
Hope to have it complete over the weekend at the latest then I have promised myself a day off, last week was my birthday and I spent it painting LOL
But the BEST birthday present of all was my niece having her baby on the same day- her first. She lived with me for a while and we had our moments but she is pretty special to us both and this makes it doubly special. What with the running around for the house I didnt even get the time to visit her in hospital but she only had three nights in and plenty of visitors apparently.
SO I thought that maybe early next week I would pack up a picnic and go over for a visit.
Although I love the kid she made me a flipping great auntie- although I am in actual fact a great GREAT auntie already.
Thats what you get when you marry a man a bit older than yourself who is the baby of a large family and he is only a couple of years older than his niece who is now a grandmother.
Oh well
heres hoping I feel I can take an afternoon off because I have to have three rooms dressed and ready for the photographer by the 12th of next.

We have

lift off?


Nah just a date which puts a deadline on the working on the house
Halle-bloody- lujah! LOL



The preliminary sign went up today and the marketing of the house begins in earnest just after Easter. The date of the auction is April 19. I was working outside for some part of the day and the number of people who slowed down and had a look when they saw the preliminary sign was pretty amazing- bodes well
So I have to have the interior finished and scrubbed and polished by the week before Easter. But at least the fun part begins because I can 'dress' the house
ie actually decorate rather than just shove something where it will fit!
So many people have said I wont want to leave after I get it finished- dont you believe it baby LOL

Our exhibition was postponed from March PHEW lol
that certainly took the pressure off so as soon as we begin marketing I can make a start on my two pieces for that- thankfully one quilt and one other piece that I can pack up when I am not working on them.
Who says I dont like challenges?
catch ya soon

Jazzy in Charge- again

Me exhausted from supervising all the works

Everybody in this house is SO grumpy. I wish the sweet builder man was still here at least he still would find time to give me a pat and a scruff. Daddy is home this week and starting to drive Mummy crazy - she might be hormonal as well as exhausted because she has painted most of the house over the past few weeks and all he has to do is half of one wall and the three gable ends.

Last week Auntie Diney was here and she helped Mummy and they got a heap of painting done together and Daddy would come home and pick faults with it the naughty boy.
I must admit I like the colours Mummy has chosen and it does seem to be coming together but just not fast enough for Mummy because Daddy tends to be a bit scattergun in how he works around the place. Because Mummy has been at this since the end of October she is actually methodical about working around the place which is something a bit new for her hehehe.

The deck area all painted and ready for Auntie Ric's Baby Shower this weekend.

There isnt much a little pussy can do to make things better except follow Mummy around and help by being close even if she will persist in putting things on my 'bed' well my current bed is her flannel workshirt teehee!

Hopefully they wont kill each other before it is all done and will relax a bit this weekend when they have the baby shower for Auntie Ric
I will keep you posted
Loves and purrs
/Jazzy Jazz

Some random Yarraville wildlife

the Huntsman- commonly referred to in my clan as Huntsies- brrrrr lol

One of the "highlights?!" of summer in Oz is the spiders
NOT my favourite critter and I am moving to a part of the world where spiders are legendary in size- along with most other bugs and crawlies sssshiverrrrrrrrr
but this one was one of three of similar size that were in my living room simultaneously last week.
For OS viewers this is a Huntsman spider relatively harmless unless you have a weak heart and turn on the light and one is sitting on the lamp!! But tickly crawly and quite large although this one is about average for in town but I have seen bigger - at closer quarters unfortunately LOL.
We have a lot of trees in the front garden which also provide havens for Orb Spiders too which spin the most glorious webs imaginable but they can be incredibly icky if you walk into them at night especially when you know there is a rather large spider inhabiting that web!!
Their legs can be up to 3 inches long and they actually thud against the house if the web breaks

Garden Orb

and the result is

decided to discharge the black- been doing a lot of that lately but I love the results
fairly pleased with this piece - now to chop it up and use it LOL

Too hot to paint- hooray

So I can do some stuff of my own and the conditions are perfect for flour paste resist dyeing
this is a piece I am starting for the exhibition that begins at the start of March
oh yes I do work better with deadlines!

A little visitor

I was loading rubbish into the skip we hired to clear away all the old building materials yesterday when I found this little bloke.
For the first time ever I find a lizard in my garden after spending my childhood in a place infested by skinks I find a gecko in Melbourne!!
Taking it as a good omen because Geckoes make appearances in my work
the first pic was taken just after I caught him, I kept him overnight to watch and sketch and he gradually changed pigmentation to a paler colour which makes me think he is a Marbled Gecko after doing a little research on the Museum of Vic Website

The fun part- getting some colour!

For the past ten years or so my house has been coloured Portland Stone but now that I am selling it I decided to add some colour to it- splashes only because all the new paintwork inside is nice and neutral to appeal to the maximum amount of prospective buyers.
The outside wall colour is called Dancing Moss and is a nice green with cool blue tones in it which balance the Rivergum guttering but the sparkle comes from the white architraves and door trims. My inspiration was the houses I saw on the Chesapeake years ago- I would have liked to go for a stronger colour but again the tastes of the prospective buyers had to be taken into account- AND my rather wild garden.

Despite rather sceptical comments from the chippy about my abilities to choose colours from paint chips- the cheek of him considering I chose the colours for his boat for him from chips LOL



Then there is the front door- which is somewhat pinker than I thought from the chip even after two coats- I think the guy used the wrong base colour when he mixed the pot for me but I kind of like it - even it M.O.T.H is a bit alarmed by it. When you hold the chip against it it is definitely NOT the same lol

but Miss Jazzy seems to like it!!

The 'Treehouse' is ours

waking up to this each morning is going to be so hard- NOT!!!

In all of the activity of the past couple of weeks I forgot to relate one important detail- the house in Queensland is now officially ours! What a ride that has been to say the least and even at the last minute there was a near disaster because the bank didnt have the right paperwork in place.
But as of the 3rd of December the house is ours and now all we have is a BIG FAT MORTGAGE to pay off until we can sell our house in Melbourne. Which was why all the hard work over the past two weeks with our wonderful friend.
The generosity of spirit of our friend has sustained us both through all of the ups and downs of the past six months or so. The debt we owe him is huge and we will be there for him when he needs us.
One little pussy of the household is totally bereft at his departure yesterday- when we came back from the airport last night she inspected the car and gave us such a dirty look and then stalked inside and spent the night on 'his' bed. This morning she is quite bemused by the lack of noise and activity (I'm puddling around and catching up on housework ye-uch instead of builder's labouring today) and has moved to the windowsill in this room in disgust.
Friends you make in life drift in and out but this friend is a constant for M.O.T.H. and I and will always be. I hope he knows how much we both love him and how much he means to us. Thank you Ken.

Recap of old pics but just a reminder of what I am moving towards. YAY

Home stretch- sort of

Miss Jazzy in her role as supervisor of works.


The reason she never goes terribly far from the work going on - she knows a sucker when she sees one.

The builder in chief has suggested we might have it all finished by Wednesday AM. Once the window goes in today I think they are stopping for a break- they better because I am decidedly fragile after a night out with the Community Centre mob- sort of my last blast because of the move north. I had a great time last night and will miss most of them quite badly.
Isa as my friend Mereani would say.

Pussy Blog- Jazzy speaks

Well it is tough at the moment at Eirene St, Mummy is busy being a builder's labourer for that slave driver builder. He keeps her working SO hard she barely has time to feed me which is JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
I could take a stand I suppose but he is such a nice man who gives me loves all the time when I fluff him with my tail. And he cuts all this stuff in the back yard that is such fun to get on my coat and drop all over the house!!

And he built this deck on the back of the house that is just PERFECT for me in the mornings to have a sunbathe and wash so I suppose I can forgive the fact that my Mum is not as scrupulous about feeding me as she usually is.
Daddy is working with him at weekends but Mummy is being the labourer although it is not all work and no play because they took a half day off yesterday and buzzed off to the Aquarium and left me out in the heat for the day the rats!! Although they did bring me some tuna so I can almost forgive them. Just wish they had brought me home something from the Aquarium tho' some might big fishies there.

wonder what he tastes like?
Well enough fluffing from me I have to chase my mum into the shower to get her out of the house for the night so I can have Daddy and and hunky builder all to myself!! MIAOW and purrs to everyone except maybe one...............
/Jazzy Jazz.

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