Nice Matters & Very Nice Mail!

Jo from Artistic Journey has honoured me with a "Nice Matters" Award - this is actually something I really believe is important in the world of the net and blogging as it is so easy to give a wrong impression or to be misinterpreted. Good manners rule!

So it is now my turn to nominate other bloggers who I believe demonstrate that "nice matters" and of course I can think of so many as they are the blogs I am attracted back to. But these are the five I have chosen and I haven't worried about the fact that they may have already been nominated (it just reinforces the point that they are nice!!):

Jo - I haven't met Jo yet but will next May in Melbourne at the Art Retreat (yah!)but we have been in lots of exchanges and round robins though and she is always really really nice and does amazing mixed media art.

Natalie - I haven't met Nat either and she lives in the same state as me but again, I have been in contact with her over the years as a result of various exchanges/swaps. Nat is a very generous sweet person and it shows on her blog!

Audrey - I love Audrey's blog and her art and she definitely shows that nice matters.

Julie - I have only met Julie very briefly earlier this year but her blog and art are always interesting and she demonstrates everything this award stands for.

Nina - Everyone loves Nina and she has been my idol ever since I became familiar with her art through reading Somerset Studio. Doing a workshop with her earlier this year was everything I wanted it to be and I can't wait for the next time in Melbourne next year. Her blog is a very special place.

Doreen Grey's Embellisher Postcard

And yesterday I received my first Embellisher postcard! It is stunning (I love everything about it including the deep rich colours) and has been made by Doreen Grey over on the other side of Australia. I need to finish mine and get it in the mail - Doreen was extremely speedy! Thanks for exchanging with me. The offer still stands if anyone else wants to trade with me.

Last night I attacked a pile of personal filing and the dreaded tax returns so nothing creative happened, so here are a couple more scans of pages from altered books I have done.

Allsorts

If I have to define my preferences I would say I am usually drawn to vivid colours but at the moment I seem to be equally attracted to pastel shades, especially when it comes to fabrics and lace. The photo above is of a whole pile of beautiful shabby chic vintage and recycled fabrics and bits and pieces I bought on Etsy from Whimsie Dots. Don't they just look beautiful together? They make me think of this beautiful blog. Mandy's packaging is so sweet - all the buttons and small bits came in little fabric pouches and the small box while the fabric pieces came in the beautiful cutwork, ribbon-tied bags. I think I will have to leave the whole lot out as a still life in my sewing room for a while!

These are scenes in my backyard (virtually nothing was visible beyond the fence) and out on the front verge (looking in both directions) at 7:40 yesterday morning. There was 97% humidity - very cold and very misty and I am sure if I had stuck my head outside the house earlier, the mist would have even been heavier. Not quite what you imagine winter to be like on the edge of an inland Australian desert (or at least, not what I expected before I moved here 14 years ago next month).


These next two pictures are for family entertainment - Zach before his haircut just a few weeks ago and then posing for me after Wednesday's haircut. He looks like a different person really and there were noticeable sighs of relief from both Joseph and myself (typical parental behaviour I suppose) when he announced his intentions to "go short" again! We had given up on nagging as that just seemed to entrench his 16 year old desire for hair/independence/free choice!

In amongst other things yesterday I worked on the start of a fibre postcard on the embellisher. The wool fibres are from The Thread Studio and are just beautiful - I love the vibrancy and the lovely feathery effects. The scan below is of the postcard "in progress". I will have to add some beads - I am on a bit of a beading kick at the moment but I am not sure what else I will do with it.

This one (if it works out) will be for Jaslyn, seeing she is largely responsible for the embellisher purchase in the first place, but if anyone wants to do an embellisher based ATC or postcard trade with me let me know as I can see I am going to be doing a lot of these. I have just added my email address to my profile so you can contact me direct if you don't want to do it via a comment.

Today I was planning on making some more fabric paper a la Beryl Taylor and painting my new supply of Lutradur (which it seems I have been spelling wrong all this time) but it is pretty cold outside here today so that may be delayed until tomorrow. I like to do this sort of work outside because I am so messy but I don't want to make my cold any worse, seeing I go back to work on Monday. The Lutradur is also from Dale at The Thread Studio and this time I have bought the medium and the heavy weight versions so I can see what I think of the medium weight one.

And now to finish off, I have been honoured by Jen nominating me as an Inspirational Blogger. I find her to be an incredible inspiration on many levels so it means a lot that she finds my blog inspiring. Last time I piked on nominating five inspirational blogs as I find it so hard to pick and choose, especially when there are so many fantastic blogs out there, including many that I read, some spasmodically and others regularly. So, here are my nominations and I should note that I haven't checked whether they have already been nominated. I have selected a mix of paper, mixed media and fibre artists, some of whom I have not met and who don't know I read their blogs as I am sometimes pretty slack about leaving comments. Check them out if you haven't been there before - they are all very inspiring:

Susan Lenz (love her embellisher work as well as everything else)

Dale Rollerson (Queen of Embellisher, Thread, Fibre & Stitch)

Jacqueline de Jong (my incredibly productive friend in the Netherlands)

Deb Lewis (all sorts of lovely photos and artwork)

Karen Stiehl Osborn (again beautiful photos and wonderful collages)

My Day...

I don't like to start with a whinge but I woke up this morning with a head cold and an achy body - I hate feeling "off", especially on holidays! Anyway it has meant that I have not been as productive as I was planning but overall it was still a nice relaxed (slow) day.

I finished my first ATC using the embellisher - and wow, this could get addictive! I took a short-cut and used a piece from a previous experiment (first and second photos). I added purple lurex mesh and beautiful Welsh fibres and went wild with the machine. I love the way the top fibres show up on the reverse side in a nice muted way - I can imagine that for some things it would be the side you would choose. I finished this piece by sewing on small seed beads and finishing the edges and it is now on its way to lovely Diana in Ontario. The third photo is the final result and you really can't tell it was lurex mesh that created the shiny effect on one side. I think it is OK for a first effort.

Felt with snippets of fabric and mesh, covered with organza and free motioned stitched.

Sandwich burnt back through top layer (using wood burning tool) and then
painted at either end with various colours of Twinkling H2Os.

Finished Embellisher ATC

I continued working on components of my sister's gift (photos will have to wait until it is finished and posted!) and on a few ATCs as well. I spent ages looking for small images for a jigsaw swap I have to get finished in the next few weeks and in the afternoon when Zach got home from school, we went into town for haircuts and I posted off several arty posts (including one for Peggy which I thought I had posted a couple of weeks ago!).

It was a very cold day here and I decided not to risk making my cold any worse by going to Annie's for our Wednesday evening stamping session - instead I am going to have an early night and finish reading Marlena de Blasi's "Tuscan Secrets" (on loan from my Mum - this is the second in a series of three about Marlena's life and they are just fabulous - a life lived with passion and exuberance!).

The photo below is of lovely fibre ATC from Peggy which I received today (and which made me check whether I had posted mine to her!) - Peggy has fortunately provided me with a translation of the message which goes something along the lines of - "Sometimes you have to open the door to let luck come in". A very timely reminder. Thanks Peggy!

100 Posts & Other Assorted Stuff!

My pages for Tina's Hexagon (Tag) Book

Well this is my 100th post - I love blogs - reading others and keeping my own. If I analyze why, I think it is because of the wonderful connections I have made as a result of having a blog - for example, connecting up with Kari, Jacqueline, Lynda, Barbara, Peggy, Sephi & Keron (all as a result of blogs!) plus I love the motivation and "accountability" blogging creates for me. It makes me much more aware of how I spend my time and whether I am using my time in a way that I will be happy with (later on).

While I was away I was nominated for a Rockin Girl Blogger Award (thanks Kelsey) and also for a Creative Blogger Award (thanks to Kari over there in Texas!). I am really chuffed on both counts and while I am not going to "pay it on" this time, I can recommend each and every one of my blog links as wonderful creative places to browse for a few hours! Actually I need to spend some time updating them as my list of favourites is much longer than my blog list.

Since I got back from Perth, I have been trying to reorganise my creative space (so I can fit in the new bits and pieces), making a few "Australian" ATCs for the "Wall of ATCs" in Belgium, doing my pages for a Hexagon (Tag) Book exchange, making background papers and trying to finish my sister Marrijane's very long overdue birthday "gift". Oh, and playing with the embellisher of course!! On a non-creative note, I am also trying to come to terms with yesterday's news that we need a new solar hot water system - man, those things are expensive!! Especially after a lovely extravagant week of holidays...

These are my three Australian ATCs for the "Travel the World - Wall of ATCs" -

Colours of Australia - Vineyards, Ochre & the Beach
(Paint chips with stamping, sequins and postage stamps)

These are some backgrounds I have been playing around with today (mostly water soluble oil pastels finished off by scraping Golden Satin Glazing Liquid over the top with a discarded credit card, but one is oil pastels with an overspray of Adirondack Color Wash Spray in Stream, and one is just the Stream Color Wash with Moon Shadow Mist in a gold shade).

And this is my piece of rusted fabric with patina as well. It has benefitted from being left for a full week without interference! I love this and will have to really think how to best use it to accentuate the markings which are a bit more vivid in real life.