Dark thoughts

Yesterday was a day to get things organised, spend time beading with two of my grand daughters and think about my journey in to "blogland" if there is such a word. A few years ago I had a garden, my ponies, my pugs and I knitted. Today I have one spare bedroom which is now my workroom,three sewing machines, a backpack full of pencils, paints and on the go journalling stuff and no where to put anything, papers in one room, materials and doll making stuff in another, knitting wools, stamps, paints, paintbrushes, beads and more beads as well as laces and trims. What happened? The garden is a jungle, I have no time to walk, my brain is spinning with all this new found knowledge. I just wish I had started 30 years ago as now at 66 I feel that I am running out of time fast and I must get so much done. It is a relief at times just to sit and read, think, walk on a beach, talk to friends. I really must find time to be more organised so I do have time for the slower stuff.
I think that losing most of the sight in one eye made me feel that I havent as much time as I thought and what if the other eye goes. Well hopefully at least I will have filled in so much in the last 10 years that when the time comes to sit I will have plenty to think about.
I think also that having a 93 year old mother who is slowly and painfully losing her independence makes one think about what is to come in the future.
I spent time cleaning up the garden so here is a photo of what it looked like in spring, just to take my mind off this rather dreary entry.

fabric samples

yesterday was cool and damp, lovely weather. I saw a doe and joey (mother kangaroo and baby) while I was feeding the ponies the big old man kangaroos seem to have gone so I suppose there is another generation of babies in the pouch, I sketched her but was too far away to do much. I spent most of the day trying to get more samples done for my playways on the net Module 3 assignments. It is taking me forever to get into this Module. I did some bonded tyvek with fabric scraps and then chiffon over the top and also some painted bonded web on to stretch velvet with a shimmer of foil and then chiffon over the top and using my soldering iron etchd into it. Makes rather nice rocky looking surfaces, I think I may have burnt a bit far in. I did others but those are the two I have scanned

Peacocks and my diary cover

Yesterday was cooler with thunderstorms, We were lucky not to have a lightening strike that started a fire. It rained off and on all day, lovely not to water the garden We have had no rain for over a month and the rainwater tanks were getting low.
I sketched one of the peacocks on the top of the airconditioner on the roof, took about 5 minutes and got quite wet but he looked so bedraggled, I thenmade a mess of it by painting it and was trying to do it standing up in the rain so it wasnt good.
The flies have turned up in full force again and when I went to walk the dogs and found some weeds in the house paddock and spent time pulling them they drove me mad and I came home with my back covered in them.
I made silk paper yesterday, a wonderfully satisfying thing to do, I am hooked and will make more.

Australia Day

Yesterday was Australia Day and it was very hot, 43degrees C in the Valley. We were up early to see the Ceremonies in Victor, where it wasnt much cooler. We went to see one of our old neighbours receive her award, when we were first married many years ago I would go to Irma for advice, this city girl who new nothing about wood stoves, one of her best bits of advice was to feel the handle of the stove and at one temperature you put in a roast and at another the scones. I could never get it right, and was so pleased when we finally got electicity.I have put up a photo of her receiving her award from the Mayor.
It was too hot to do much in the afternoon and so I decided to draw the telivision set which is one of the EVM things for this week. I am not very good at things front on but here it is. Showing an appropriate advertisement. I am afraid I sketch with a pen on a very small book I carry with me as the size is convenient. Hope it comes out.
The hens laid two eggs again today. The vegetable garden is not sure what to do with this weather but we have cucumbers and tomatoes. Lovely to have fresh stuff.

smoke and sun

Today we have been covered in smoke, first from the fires on Kangaroo Island and then when the wind changed from the huge fires burning in Victoria. It warmed up rather today but we had a cool night. Today is Australia Day and it is warming up.
I spent most of the day yesterday finishing off my diary cover, I am pleased with it but neither scan not photo show it very well.
Last night I sketched the crocosma flowers I had put in one of Rob's celadon glaze vases. I have both yellow and orange crocosma, they look like fire and grow like weeds but I love them. This was done in ink with my derwent watercolour pencils used to colour. Looks a bit washy in the scan.
Yesterday my pullets laid two eggs, as there are two of them they have obviously both decided to start laying. They are gorgeous but dont stay still enough for me to sketch them and I am not good at birds anyway. I keep trying.

A fabric rooster

A much cooler day so John and I went in and walked the beach, a cool wind blowing. Back to the town for a cup of coffee and then home. I am still working on my diary cover but I hadnt taken any photos of the fabulous rooster I made over Christmas from a design by Elinor Piece Bailey so here is the man himself. I am sure my pullets out the back would love him. I am getting an egg a day.
I did try to sketch the coffee and table yesterday but my cup was very strange looking, must work on that.
More hot weather is forecast for tomorrow, Australia Day.

stamping on fabric

yesterday I began making up the fabric for the cover for my day to day diary. I hadnt been able tomake up my mind on how to go about it but in the latest Cloth Paper and Scissors there was an article on making paper backgrounds using stamps made from meat trays so I had a go at doing something simple like a brick wall and then got more confidentand drew up a skyline. I used ordinary Jo Sonja acrylic paint mixed with textile medium.This was stamped on tea dyed calico. I plan to overstamp the bricks and then sew. We will see how it turns out. The scan is not brilliant but does give some idea of what I have done so far.

past sketches

This is nerve wracking. I dont know if I have got these sketches on or not. Well they are here. I did these last year, the first was while selling raffle tickets in the town, so a very odd view of things. The second was in winter at a hotel we had dinner in and as we were sitting at an odd angle to the fireplace this is what I could see. Sorry about the odd angles but they are direct from my sketchbook
Yesterday the weather was so hot, the temp up to 43degrees C but today I think it is about 14degrees. These huge temperature changes are common in summer but make you feel so tired.
I did try to sketch the cat but he was so hot it was very difficult, I didnt realise cats had so many odd angles.
I spent a lot of time yesterday doing some beading and collected my etching from the big Rotary art show that is held in the town at this time each year, it is of a cat on a couch and is coloured with watercolour, didnt cost me much but has a lot of appeal. I need small things to fit on my walls as there are so many paintings on them, almost to the ceiling. I keep thinking of the lovely sketches of enty ways, I dont think I could sketch mine, they have so much in them! Our normal one is the back door and farm back doors are full of rubber boots and dumped stuff, as well as the cats tray and the laundry.

Sunday 21st January

Well this is my second post. We have been having extremely hot weather, the last three days over 40 degrees C. The garden is looking very sad and sorry for itself.
I have been doing some faces for my fabric book. This was started during the grumpy womens week end in November. I have had fun sketching faces and then transferring them to vliesofix ironed on to the back of multi coloured fabrics and cutting out the designs and ironing them back onto the back ground and and then hand stitching and embroidering and beading them. Oh dear, I need to change them around, oh well I will know next time. I cant believe I have actually got them into my blog at all.

January 21

I am trying to see how all this works. This is my first attempt at blogging and I am not sure if I have set this up correctly. We will see.