cloud sketching

I have taken to sketching clouds when we go on long journeys.  I have wanted to draw clouds for a long time, but it always seems rather an indulgence to spend valuable time doing such a thing, therefore long car journeys are the perfect time.  Also as we drive over different terrain and at different times of the day the clouds change, in form and colour and size.  Sometimes near to home there are no clouds for quite a while and then slowly little fluffy clouds appear and then a few more and so on.  sometimes is it quite sad to look backwards and see the blue sky over home and look forward to where we are going, which is less blue and more fluffy.  And I have also started to notice that some of them form quite like the japanese stylised clouds, and I like this a lot.  I can draw my own japanese inspired clouds in little old NZ.

They are all very quick sketches as the terrain tends to be quite hilly or mountainous and consequently one minute the cloud is there in view and the next it is behind a mountain never to be seen again or it has changed by the time I see it again.  But I hope to improve with practice.  Bring on the next journey   I have had some struggling with using the initial sketches to make more patterny shapes.  lots more work to be done there, will post some of those tomorow.

who said romance was dead

I got home from work today and my husband presented me with a bunch of flowers ( he is rather good at flowers) from the garden and a homemade valentines card.  We have been together 17 years now and this is the first time I remember getting anything for Valentines, even in those heady days when we first met.  So it was a lovely suprise.  He got nothing from me and my daughter has told me off and says I must make him something.?? I shall have to put on my thinking cap.

I can't even imagine where he got the idea or the technical know-how and materials to make this card.  The girls said he had a bit of trouble finding ten things that he loved about me and some family brain-storming was required, ha ha. I am only allowed to peel off a heart a day, I shall have to be patient.

castle hill

While we were away from home over the holidays, my daughter wanted to visit Castle Hill, which is on the road between Christchurch and Greymouth, near to Arthurs Pass.  There is a very good pie shop on the way there in a small town named Sheffield.  The reason for this excursion was that she is a very keen rock climber and Castle Rock is a great bouldering area.  Also this is the part of the world where some of the Hobbit was  filmed and a Narnia battle scene.  Actually it was also very beautiful, and we will have to get back there when we have more time and make better use of it.  I wanted to draw and paint all those rocks.

 husband posing next to a large knob.

 the rain stained rocks were especially dramatic.

It was a bit rainy for rock climbing, and so we ate our sandwiches, daughter had a little climb, the dog had a toilet break and we had a great pie on the way back.

river swim

Over the holidays we have tried out some rivers to swim in.  A local swimming hole a half hour drive away has rocks to jump off and ropes to swing on.  We haven't tried this one out for a while and it was such a beautiful spot we wondered why that was.  The dog wasn't keen, she didn't like the water and the river rocks were very hot.

 climbing up the rocks

                     

 leaping free

The girls had fun, and I was terrified every time they leapt off the rocks.

back to reality

Well it has been a long time, we have had school holidays and house moving, which I new was something I hated, but having not done it for six years had forgotten quite how horrid it is.  We had the silly idea that if we got the removal men to move all the furniture then we could move all the other stuff ourselves with the car, and that as we had had a really good clear out for selling the house then we were really pretty much there!  Wrong.  It took us three days to get it all empty and have a good clean up and then another week to sort out our stuff in the new house.  Where does all this rubbish come from, and surely we don't need it all and can we not just chuck it all in a big skip?

Anyway, I decided that I would go through my wardrobe and try to wear a different thing every day, and if I couldn't find anything or wouldn't try an outfit then it had to go.  I did quite well for a couple of days and then it got a bit tricky.  My children got to choose my outfits, and I put my foot down with some ideas.  Here are couple of our attempts

 Stripey dress from second hand shop, lacey top H&M from sister for christmas pressie.

I was tempted to remove my head with this one, and my legs.  top H&M, shorts FrankeE.  This was chosen by my younger child.

beautiful prints

These beautiful prints are by Clare Makwana. There are more on her web-site Miss Print.   lino prints, wood-cuts and a bit of stitchery as well.  lovely stuff.

 above, I was lucky enough to get one of these for my birthday.

christmas

We made it through christmas, infact we had the nicest christmas ever.  The weather was amazing, we got lovely presents and we had a swim at the beach and a swim at the nearest school pool and ate yummy food and it was all very chilled out and happy.  It was so hot that husband and oldest child and sweet dog slept out on the deck, until it started to rain at 5am.

 inflatable orcas waiting for a dip.

above, my ten year old secretly made me this rather lovely sun dress, all by herself with no help from anyone and it was decided by all that it was much nicer than anything else I have in my wardrobe.

above, my older child drew this cool cartoon picture for me and husband, a brief history of family so far, from me and husband courting, to children, work, pets and moving house.  The last picture is left blank, 'cause we don't know where we are going.  I do feel happy when my kids get creative, they amaze me with their cleverness. 

a much needed refreshing dip.

Hope you all had best christmas's too.

hearts and clouds top

some of my fabric from Spoonflower was this hearts and clouds large scale print.  This was the trial piece and I changed the colour of the hearts to be less orange and removed a couple of bits that didn't quite work and balanced out the design slightly.  I had ordered a yard of fabric and so I had to make something small.  I wanted to make it on the bias so that it would hang nicely and also I liked how the design worked that way.  I used a bit of old cotton denim that I had in my stash, for the top of the top and some vintage lace, which you can't really see.  So I made this top, modeled by my daughter, who is more camera friendly than me.

 I may have to take these again, but I felt it would be good to put something at least on this poor neglected blog.

Happy Christmas to you all, have a good one folks, be nice to one another.

house for sale

I have been very neglectful of this blog, and in my defense, we have been getting our house ready to go on the market.  It is now as ready as it will ever be and is looking rather lovely I think and we are wondering why we want to move, especially as it is now coming into summer and the weather is putting on a great show.  Here are some photos.

(edit). house is sold after one week on the market, we will be homeless in 5 weeks time. on to adventures new.

heart shaped leaf

ON the way home from school today my daughter found a perfectly heart-shaped leaf.

it's kinda cool I think