I've been interviewed by Thea, here!

 
It's wierd, seeing my words on someone else's blog (and realising that it didn't even cross my mind that I wasn't wearing shoes when she took that photo of me! Probably too busy trying to position the child in my arms to make me look slimmer...) but the lovely Thea from Thea & Sami has interviewed me for her "Friday Follower" feature today.

I did a screenprinting day with Thea a couple of years ago and we have kept in touch. Do check out her lovely, eco-friendly fabrics and homewares while you're there. She has a fretwork design that I've loved for ages. And her new soap range smells amazing.

Think I'll go put some shoes on now.

Totally Armless

For my birthday earlier this year, a lovely and talented friend Annie made me this totally original and handsewn totem - "Armless Anna". It features current Prints Charming and 'vintage' Art Park fabric, and she even made the felt balls on the pockets as she knows my violent aversion to buttons.

The thought behind it is that the only way I could have a true relax, is if I could take my arms off and just stop.

Annie didn't know that having 'removable arms' has been an appealing thought to me for as long as I can remember. To be able to take your arm off and lie on your side, without having to figure out how to stick it under the pillow, or under your head... just imagine the possibilities... It does get confusing though, because if you took both arms off, how could you put them back on again? A serious conundrum. (I didn't set out to sound like such a wierdo when I started writing this post...)

This is where 'Armless Anna' lives at the moment. Above my super desk in the living room. Where I spend most of my creative time these days. She was in my office near the paints, but I was missing her. So here she is now.

Reminding me to stop occasionally - so I think I'll do that now! Have a lovely weekend. I'm off to Byron Bay for the first time in about 12 years. Can't wait!

Mother's Day

I just had to post a little excerpt from an email sent to me by a darling friend yesterday - 

"I don't know why I anticipate such a tiring mothers day but I believe it has to do with visiting his mother, meeting my family for a "counting" and having to buy presents and make cards for them because everyone else is too busy gardening and going to soccer and recovering from their week at camp. 

So my pre-mothers day day involved 5 loads of washing, folding and putting away that washing, making cake and food for tomorrow's "Celebration" and of course getting those cards done so the glue will dry on the charmingly hand made thingos..... and I did it all to myself. 

Tomorrow I want them to stop bickering, telling me they're hungry, asking me where socks are and fighting over the socks "because he got the new ones", and for pigs to fly and hell to freeze over . Or maybe a hot cup of tea and to be left alone to drink it all, slowly without a nipper on my nipple. 

Hope your day is, in some small way, for some of the time, sublime."

I could never have said it better myself.

Happy Mother's Day.

A birthday and a chook shed in action

This is what the birthday painting ended up like. The dress was Jacinta's valedictory dress, made for her by her amazing mother. Her mum made a lot of her clothes, but this was an extra special one, and Jac wore it a few more times while we were at uni. It was so heavily boned she sometimes couldn't quite sit up on a couch. This dress brings back so many lovely memories of our friendship all those years ago.

This is us now. A lot more black going on. Hopefully we'll be back in gold again by the time the 50ths roll around.

And look at Jacinta's amazing blue eyes. She's just gorgeous.

On a totally different note, here's S checking out the roosting box in the new chook shed.

Here it is. All ready to go.

And here are the chooks. Patiently waiting for their check in time. One got so excited she laid an egg, which was carefully washed by young J, and then fatefully dropped, just in front of the sink. So egg number 2 will be our egg number 1. That's how he's figured it anyway. It's all very exciting.

No more art or craft to report. Made chocolate cupcakes and have covered school books, but that will be all until school goes back on Wednesday. And then the year can really start!

New Things on their way

This is a photo I love from my dear friend Annette's wedding on Sunday.

My husband's away, my site's playing up, I'm incredibly tired and my head is still so full of ideas! Please stay tuned as http://www.annabartlett.com/ and http://www.shinyhappyart.com/ come to fruition in the very near future!

Pick the pregnant one

Today we had a very enjoyable little photo shoot (ok, over 160 photos) to end up with a group shot for our next exhibition flyer - this first shot probably isn't the picture I'll choose for the layout ... maybe we'll go with the second one.