painting shoes

We have just had older childs 14th birthday, so her little sister bought some white sneakers and decorated them.  And she also painted some for herself, below.

 I love the little clouds.

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.

purple dress

My ten year old made a dress over the weekend, with a little technical knowledge thrown in from my side.  But the design and sewing were all hers.  She is great on the sewing machine, and when I did sew a bit up for her, she made me unpick it so that she could do it herself.  Ha ha that will teach me to interfere!

We had a photo session in the garden amid the drift-wood arbor (as I like to call it).  

She found a big fat red ribbon in my ribbons stash, and decided it was just the perfect thing to finish it off.

diy sparkly necklace

My mum came to stay, she bought my nine year old a book on beading, and they went to the local bead shop and bought beads, fixings and some polymer clay.  THis was two weeks ago and small child is still making jewelry.  She has good style I think, photo of her first design on her sweet little nine year old neck.

sunny weekend

Had a beautiful sunny weekend, the weather has been a bit intermittent this summer to say the least.  Took the dog and the kids down to the river for a swim.  This is a swimming hole that we can take the dog to, and we can walk here with dog off leash which is really lovely for her, unfortunately the council are trying to change things so that we can no longer do this!  Not sure why? The doggy people of town are rousing for a fight.  Hurrah!

 Oo the rocks are rather lovely.

 "It's mighty cold in there mother"

These were taken on my rather un-tech cell-phone, but I rather like the atmospheric (out of focus, blurry, poor quality) effect this gives the photos.  May the fab weather continue.

doll face

My nine year old is still on summer holiday, for some reason her school goes back a week later than all the others.  Yesterday and today she asked me to draw her a face on some material so she could embroider it.  she is such a clever little thing and so patient with her little stitches.  Her friend came over today and they sat at the table for so long stitching away, it makes me a happy mum.  (they did also play on the ipod and watch some tele)

amazing.  I do remember at primary school, sitting on some steps at break time doing some tapestry when everyone got too annoying to play with.  I probably thought I was being frightfully aloof and artistic, age seven.

10 minute sketch, daughter

I had been for a run, done my stretches, eaten my porridge, spent some quality time looking at the computer, and my younger child was still asleep.  So I drew a picture of her to wake her up.  It didn't work, she slept on, but I got a picture of her, cheeks and all.  Her face is softer and sweeter than this in reality. 

Air Graffiti

How to spend those dark spring evenings without a tele.  Camera, tripod (optional, but useful unless you have a steady hand), lights, we used cheap two dollar-shop colour torches and a bike torch.

 rather artistic by the kids.

 I tried to write Sweet Dust, rather unsucessfuly.

My husband found the idea for this from this balls of light link.  He was also much better at this than the rest of us. 

cloudy, rainy, windy, sunny day

sometimes you just need to get out of the house and get some fresh air and oxygen in your blood.  This usually entails dragging the children out kicking and screaming to some local area of natural beauty.  After about five minutes at said "torture area of natural beauty"  they are very happy and never want to leave.  And my husband and I are left shivering in the sand, wind etc.  

 this day was no different, the weather could not decide what to do, it was cold and windy, it was almost sunny, then it warmed up considerably and poured with rain.

 consequently there were a good range of cloud shapes, forms and colours.

competition over

today was the day of Project Funway so at  nine am we made our way to our local Fashion Island for the catwalk show and to find out who were the winners.

 My youngest made this cute little outfit, she did such a good job of design and construction and got a third place in the primary school section.

My beautiful big girl designed and made this beautiful dress, 16th century design puffy sleeves and a gorgeous rose in her hair.  Unfairly, I think, she didn't win anything. 

  and I made a inky fluffy jacket and a pink/red hearts circus frock.  The letters on the front spell LOVE.  I came second, hooray, so I was pleased, I will not be entering next year.

I took a few photos of other designs I liked, but there were so many clever people who had designed amazing outfits.

 My lovely friend made this gorgeous outfit in about two days having not read the instructions and thinking she had lots more time.

(above) This lovely girl was modeling for her mother.  It was such a cool outfit, influence Tim Burton/Rocky Horror and others. 

 this was the winner, it was beautiful and dreamy.

 she won the secondary section, very nice roses, I like.

this was in the secondary school section too, no prize, but I loved her layers and sweets and I thought she should have a prize.  The photo looks like she has horns, I think it is a sky-light.

So all in all it was a good morning.

horsing around 10 minute sketch no 10

Today I went to some beautiful country mountain area and forget to take my camera, all I had was my cell-phone camera.  I have done my best to turn the photos into artistic shots with a bit of tweaking.  

My daughters friend had organised a horse-riding day at her place and so off we went, and the kids had a fab time.  It was to be said "fresh" out on that field for three and a half hours, but there was hot tea and snacks and  I can't really complain.  And I spent time with a rather sweet horse. 

 And I attempted to draw some horses.  I did my best, but I have never drawn a horse before and they did keep moving.  excuses me?  So I drew a few one or two minute sketches really.

hmm