Vintage Vignette

Share my morning

2012-02-03T17:55:00.000-08:00

Thought I would share my morning with you. I woke early 5.30am bursting with energy, just had to get out of bed. Why is that, do you think? The one morning when I don't have to get up early. My usual weekend morning ritual is to put the kettle on and go out and get the paper, then sit down for an hour with my cuppa and read the paper to see what is going on in the world, you see, I still prefer the written word. This morning is amazing, cool night i.e. good sleep, several days cooler weather with rain, yay rain and now I can appreciate the sun.

My view from my kitchen sink, see the sink on the left and the early morning sun coming up.

My breakfast, protein drink and toast with advocado, tomato, white onion a drizzle of caramelised balsamic a sprinkle of salt flakes and grind or two of black pepper, heaven!!!! why are the simple things so delicious

whoops forgot to add some shredded coriander, yummy I was to busy tucking into this to take another photo, sorry it was nice too........

Around the garden to take more photo's, can you tell the camera is not far from my hands, these are seed pods from the oriental poppies I pulled out over a month ago. Up against the blue, blue sky with the sun shining through

And seed heads from the parsley.........

And this is my morning full of sunshine and possibilities, hope you all have a wonderful weekend..
Jacky

Gratitude

2012-01-18T03:47:00.000-08:00

today I went into Royal Perth Hospital for a second scan on my right breast as an unknown spot had shown up on my first scan. I was advised that I could expect to be at the hospital for up to eight hours. Fortunately I was only there for four. In that time I had a scan which was developed and scrutinised and after a talk with a lovely understanding doctor, she explained that they would now do an ultra sound to have a better look. This was pretty amazing and I was able to observe and see that there was not one but two lumps and it was decided to do a procedure whereby they injected into my breast using the ultra sound machine to guide them to the lumps, which where virtually sucked up the needle and taken away for a biopsy. Because of my experience with Raymon's cancer, I was concerned as was John and the kids, they pushed the results through for me and I was given the information that they weren't cancer but cysts, whew!!!! what a relief. We need to give all our support and help to Raymon and the last thing I wanted was to not be able to do that.

But I was so grateful for this wonderful service provided by our government. I have a free scan every two years as all women in Western Australia can, I would encourage all women to take up this offer as early detection can make a huge difference. The Doctor advised me before the ultra sound that because it was only small, if it was cancerous it would be a simple procedure of just removing the cells and not the whole breast. I could feel no lump myself and if it hadn't been picked up in my scan and it was cancerous it could grow and become wider spread. So girls, go get tested, only takes less than half and hour.

Raymon's chemo this time seemed to be not so hard on him, only one more to go before he has radiation to zap the last of it, fingers crossed and prayers to up above, he will then be cancer free. My heart goes out to all those going through cancer treatment, it is not nice.

yummy fruit cake

2012-01-07T21:23:00.000-08:00

Over the last two weeks I have read three books in Joy Dettman's Woody Creek series. Joy is Australian and this series is based in rural Australia from 1939 to the most recent one finishing in the 1960's. Although it is on Australia during that time, it is very reminiscent of growing up in rural New Zealand. It brought back memories of sitting around the kitchen table with a cup of tea and a slice of fruit cake. No bought biscuits or coffee in those days, and many a yarn was told over that cuppa and fruit cake. I just had to go and make one of those cakes and just so happens I even had all the ingredients in the cupboard.

Anyone who knows me, knows I am not good at following directions or rules, so some little adjustments where made here and there. And as it wasn't exactly to the recipe, I just had to have a piece, just to see that I wasn't making anyone sick, i.e. John (instead of his muesli bars in his lunch) and the girls on the Tuesday morning class. Well, it wasn't too bad, if I do say so myself. Heres the photo's with the recipe following.
Quick Sultana Cake
Heat oven to 180 deg
In a large pot add 500 grams sultana's and 1 cup water boil until water evaporated (doesn't take long just as well John was in the kitchen while I was on the computer or would have burnt) take off element.
Add 250 grams butter and tablespoon Golden Syrup let melt, helps if you chop the butter up a bit.
Whisk 3 eggs and essence ( used vanilla and coconut or raspberry is nice) and mix into pot.
Add 2 cups flour and 1 tsp baking powder and pinch of salt and mix in well ( I mashed up two very ripe banana's on the inside of the pot and stirred in)
Scrape all mixture out into a paper lined tin about 12 inch square ( if you use a smaller tin you get a higher cake, but I don't want John eating too much, I'll have to make another one then) my tin has the sides that open and make it easy to take out.
I sprinkled sliced almonds on top before the damn insects get into them, that happens here!
Cook for approx 1 hour test with skewer to make sure cooked through.

easy as, and only 1 pot a small bowl, wooden spoon, scraper to wash up, by sort of baking

enjoy
Jacky

angel wings and things

2012-01-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

Before Christmas I made these wings to go on my mannequin to keep my mind off other things. I also am doing a new range for our Miss Johnson's next market in June and this was a good time to start. Our June market theme is going to be wings so will have to make some more to decorate the hall. I have made these up from 2 parts, the top layer and lower layer which I sewed into the top. The feathers on the top I have placed extra stuffing into each one and the whole piece has a layer of stuffing. I may add more length to this one, mmmh not sure yet. I have added old vintage lace buttons etc, maybe I could add more buttons and shredded fabric to give it a shabbier look.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T00:44:00.000-08:00

This year my Christmas decorating was quite sparse, somehow my heart wasn't quite there. The feather tree on the table has 3 vintage pairs of baby shoes in shades of white with a gorgeous cream childs boot given to me in Italian by a lovely friend Olga, it started me off with a love of old worn children's footwear. In amongst the birdhouses on top of the cabinet I mixed in a lot of 12 inch feather trees. Just outside this room I hung an old white window frame below the wisteria with a white paper cornet attached to the side, this I saw in the Christmas edition of Jeanne d'Arc Living magazine. Of course in Denmark their homes have snow everywhere !!!! sigh

Christmas morning tea with the girls who attend my weekly classes, this was a welcome respite to just sit around talking, eating and sharing gifts.

And this is the reason for my lack of decorating for Christmas, a week before our kitchen was being renovated. Top is the new kitchen. We had black formica glued over the old yellow below, a lovely new sink from Ikea, have been hanging out for a sink that you can fit a meat dish in and this one fits the bill nicely, its white porcelain and so cheap when you compare it to other similar ones. New down lights above the sink, they where in the middle of this area before and I was always in my shadow working at the bench. Dual taps and a range hood completed the makeover. Earlier in the year we had got a new hotplate and oven so all done for another 10 or more years.
I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and I look forward to a better new year.
Raymon is through his first bout of chemo, hit him about a bit after he came home on Thursday but feeling a little bit better today.
cheers
Jacky

New Journey

2011-12-15T03:25:00.000-08:00

Our dearest son Raymon starts a journey today with us tagging along. Raymon has been diagnosed with cancer in the lymph gland it was also in one tonsil which was removed several weeks ago. Although Johns brother and mother died with cancer it was while we where in Australia and we where not aware of all the procedures. My sisters, son-in-law also succumbed to cancer and she and my other two sisters are very supportive. This is a totally alien world for us and a steep learning curve for all our family. I have heard of alternative treatments of cancer but when faced with it we can see no alternative other than to follow the medical professionals advise, it is so scary and we don't want to place any pressures on Raymon to try other treatments. He, as well as we, feel that the medical profession have all the knowledge and latest equipment and treatments in their hands. My outlook is to stay positive and I am confident Raymon will pull through this. He is healthy, eats healthy food, doesn't smoke or drink alcohol, his vice is wacky weed and we hope this will give him some relaxation when he gets anxious as I know he does. He is a fighter and I know he will follow the directions he is given. Having had an infusion for Pagets I have a little bit of an idea how the body reacts to a foreign substance being injected into the body and its pretty damn hard for a couple of days, my guess it will be a lot worse but the doctor assures us that they will be able to give him something for every side effect that he will get. We will all get through this stronger than before, his cancer is not the worst stage and they are confident that it will shrink with chemo and radiation, there are a lot of people worse off than Raymon but this is his personal journey, only he will feel the pain, the vomiting and all the other things. I know Kirsty and Joanne are very concerned for their brother and they are very reassuring for us.
Jacky
prepared for the fight ahead

homemade protein bars

2011-12-08T02:01:00.001-08:00

John likes to take a muesli bar each day with his lunch, I was concerned about the ingredients that are in the bought ones not to mention the quantity of sugar. So being the good housewife decided to have a go at making my own. The recipe I found was in the Where Women Cook Sept/Oct/Nov 2011 magazine from Stampington. following is the recipe I used with my modifications.
Wild Honey Bran Protein Bars - Krystina Castella
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice [I use mixed spice)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups bran ( I use a mix of bran, rolled oats and phsylum husks]
put all these ingredients in a big bowl and stir to combine

1/2 cup raisins or sultanas
1/4 cup dried apricots chopped[I use more]
1/4 cup dried cranberries chopped
1/2 cup blanched almonds [I use fresh walnuts chopped]
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
Add to the bowl and stir around with your hands to coat with the flour mix

1 cup unsweetened applesauce ( I cook up a grated granny smith apple which doesn't break down)
1 tbsp honey [I add this in with the apples while cooking]
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract
I mixed this lot up in the pot when the apples where cooled a little bit then poured into the bowl with the flour and fruit mix and combined well.
Line a 9 x 13" baking dish with baking paper and spoon the mixture in, I press it down with my hands as it is rather sticky to get it evenly spread.
Put in preheated oven 150 degrees for about 30 mins.
If you look real close you will see that the raisins on top are a bit burnt, I had the oven too hot in the magazine the fruit and nuts are sitting on the top which is pretty, but hey, all goes down the same way. John likes them, at first he thought they could be a bit sweeter but has got used to them now. You can probably tell if you have the magazine I am not too good at following recipes, if I haven't got certain ingredients I will substitute.
I photographed this rose in the garden at the front, its called Julia and is a lovely coffee colour and is particularly lovely this year, must be all the rain we had over winter it fades out to a cream colour.

New camera

2011-12-04T01:53:00.001-08:00

Early this year I had thought of getting a digital SLR but as I already had a SLR camera and I didn't take all that many photo's I couldn't justify the cost.
However my trusty little Kodak camera that I have used up to now and all my photo's on my blog have been taken with.An online friend Nicolette from http://nikkimylifemyuniversemyeverything.blogspot.com/ did the research on point and shoot camera's, her recommendation was the Panasonic Lumix DMC - LX5 when I looked at her photo's I was just blown away, I had to have one, aha John got me one for xmas. Said it had to be wrapped up and put under the tree, I said, it could go under the tree when I have had a good play with it. I love it, still have a lot to learn though, at the moment I am just pointing and shooting. So much smaller than my kodak and faster. I have signed up to do a workshop at New Norcia in April, 5 days on photography, should learn something in that time and what a beautiful spot with the beautiful monastery and historic old buildings. If you interested in doing the workshop have a look on http://fibrearts.jigsy.com/ following are some of the photo's I took on Saturday when I went to Fremantle Bazaar to have a look and flowers in my garden, the photo's are straight off my camera, I haven't done anything to them yet

Workshop Juliana Cole

2011-11-28T22:34:00.001-08:00

I have been busy what with fairs, 6 days in four weeks, I am so tired and glad they are finished for the year. At the same time I have been doing a really good online workshop with Juliana Cole of Extreme http://extremejournalism.ning.com/ journalism which is very therapeutic. I would recommend this workshop to anyone, for $95 there is so much in it and you learn really great techniques and the forum is really supportive and sensitive to any issues you are sharing. Following are the pages I have done to date, I still have more to do.

This is the old book I chose to use for this workshop, it is an old album with good strong pages but rather large at 10 x 12 inches, which equates to a lot of writing, a lot you cannot see as it is buried under layers of paint, issues that I am working through.

this is the first two pages of fears I had no idea what I was doing but enjoyed and just followed the process Juliana lead us through.

Next pages where on your personal geography also called mapping, had to look that one up on the internet had not the foggiest about what was wanted, was fascinated with this subject.

Another challenge, doing a palm reading, with so many marks on my palms was a difficult to read what was what

Bride of Frankenstein was fun, could let your imagination run wild, underneath is a letter to someone I admired.

My haunted house which is scary but also somewhere to feel safe. As I had so many images I wanted to include I had to make flaps to hold it all. On the left is the outside plus the spooky grounds with tombstones. The right is an old window with all the eyes looking out.

The flap opened shows what I find comfort in, in a home, can you see the ghost screaming, the staircase leading up to nowhere......

and another hidden flap where my fears can feel safe!!!

The last one I did, I took the challenge and did a self portrait. I have about 5 more pages to do. I don't know why I signed up for this workshop but I am so enjoying it, dream about what pages I am going to do next, mmmmh bit of a problem there aye!!!! Will share when I finish.

Jacky

Perth Upmarket

2011-11-14T22:49:00.001-08:00

Claremont This Week

2011-11-14T22:44:00.001-08:00

Come and visit us we will be here Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week. We will have left over stock from the shop at bargain prices, drop by and say hi ..


Your chance to buy unique Christmas presents, browse amongst amazing Antique and Collectable dealers and visit our Polka Dot Vintage Market. Date:Friday 18th Nov to Sunday 20th Nov Time:9.30am - 4.30pm Location:CLAREMONT SHOWGROUNDS Lots of your favourite exhibitors plus many new ones Our market offers quality hand-made crafts including jewellery, adults and children's clothing,bags and accessories, body products, country craft, fabric craft, woodwork, toys, pottery, homewares, patchwork, scrapbooking and many more. Our foodies bring you sauces, condiments, preserves, cakes, biscuits, chocolate and confectionary. We look forward to seeing you there! p.s. Don’t miss your chance at winning the $2000 door prize.	View the flyer on our website Entry Fee: $6 (Children under 12 FREE) Plenty of free parking. Trains stop in Showgrounds. Free Shuttle bus operating. OVER 300 HUNDRED INDOOR STALLS ONE VENUE - THREE GREAT FAIRS Free Antique Valuations: Bring along your family heirlooms to see what they are worth!

Click to forward this email on to interested friends Retailers: you are welcome to forward to your own mailing lists.
Visit our web site at www.treasuredcraftcreations.com.au

Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handmade Market

2011-10-22T22:38:00.000-07:00

I have been busy with our upcoming Miss Johnson's market next weekend, come along and see us if you can, I know that Friday is a public holiday but it become one after we had settled our dates, it would be a nice way to enjoy your Friday night or Saturday if you are not going to the barbecue with the Queen or other CHOGM things. Will get back to you after the market. Just want to share you with a little something that I read at the Museum when John and I went several weekends ago on our discovering Perth forays.

We, each of us, have part of a star inside us,

The calcium in our bones, was made in a star

and distributed by the nuclear explosion

that ended it life

before our sun was lit

- R Hutchison 1983

Book of Gatherings

2011-10-08T23:13:00.000-07:00

I have finally finished my book or should I say box, a box in a book. After Dwellingup I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do but just didn't have the time. I am really pleased with how it turned out, thanks to Mandy Herring who taught me how to make the boxes I created a group of boxes on the cover with found objects i.e. Gatherings. Seed pods, honky nut, smooth white stone, bottles with seeds and a piece of bark with lichen attached. See the little nest with a tiny feather Mandy Woodham made that for me.

I could have glued the spine to the edge of the box but I kinda liked to show it and it sits better when open

This little old battered leather bag not sure what it was used for but it makes a nice pocket for this little journal on butterflies, letters from home and photo's of wife and child complete the picture

a little sketch book to draw plant life with a pencil attached to inside cover can you see the little silver medallion that is one of Nina's earrings Mandy W has the other.

I had to do some major changes to the inside, there was a ring binder attached to the spine that would have got in the way of my box so it had to come out. Just as well the look I wanted was old and battered because that is how it ended up. All closed up with a little brass padlock from my sister Phillipa to finish it off. Nina is a really good reached and always inspires you to go beyond rather than just copy what she has done. Some will say but what are you going to do with it, they can't see the point in making something you love, I have it out on display where I can enjoy it.

music

2011-10-02T02:01:00.000-07:00

Recently while walking in the park, I usually try and walk for an hour, I heard a young man whistling a tune as he went to start up his motorbike, made me think how little we hear anyone whistling a tune. John does from time to time, and I remember my maternal grandfather (who learnt at a young age to play musical instruments, not that I ever heard him play, photo's show he did) but he was always whistling as he went around gardening etc. I love music, but will not sing in front of anyone, when I am on my own though I love to break into song, I was so shy of singing in front of anyone that on one occasion when I was about 13 we had to get up in front of the music class and sing something, I was mortified and stood up but refused to open my mouth, hmm got detention but I still didn't sing, do you think I have a stubborn streak?

My dearest Dad above, I never heard him sing either I guess we where a bit anal about it. When my dad died in 1997, 14 years ago, there was a song that was very popular at the time called 'Hold on" by R.E.M. first recorded in 1992 so it had been around for a while, it was on that day. When we where sitting around talking way before this we discussed death and what happens and in conversation I asked my dad to leave a sign to let me know he was around. Whenever I feel down this song pops up on the radio again, yep heard it the other day, just letting you know I am hear when you need me kid?
At the end he asked me if it was alright if he went, my heart broke, and all I could say was, whenever you are ready dad. He told me Mum was waiting at the end of the bed the night before and that night he sat bolt upright in bed and exclaimed "Mum" and I knew he'd seen his mother as he never called my mum by that name it was always Darky. I asked him if he'd like to hold on as my sisters where on there way, but he said he couldn't hold on any longer. These are the words to that song
When the day is long and the night is yours alone when your sure you've had enough of this life, well, hang on Don't let yourself go, cause everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes I hope you don't mind me sharing this with you, but I do believe this as does Jo who also hears the same song. With my mum its the smell of a match being struck, but haven't smelt that for a long time. I am grateful I had that time to say goodbye which my sisters didn't get and we didn't get with mum. PS this song was originally written for the experience of going through High School and was later taken up in Britain as the theme song for suicide. It was voted the song that most affected men followed by Teardrops in Heaven. Don't quote me on the R.E.M. dates etc, wrote it all down then lost the bit of paper. Hmm
Live the dream
Jacky

Black Cockatoo's

2011-09-28T00:51:00.000-07:00

This week while chucking laps around my local park, I heard things falling through the trees, thinking someone was up the tree, I stopped to look closer, the big gum trees had heaps of these big black cockatoos, I hadn't taken much notice of the noise until then, but it was quite a racket I presume there was young ones up there, they sounded like a rusty saw going non stop. The black cockatoo are said to herald the coming of rain, they where accurate there, as the puddles will show you.

The noise of things falling through the trees I had heard where falling honky nuts, above you can see the mess they make and below you can see where they nibble around the tops, they must have very strong beaks. When I hear and see them I am careful walking underneath as I don't fancy getting hit on the head by a falling honky nut.

The first day I saw them they where down lower but the next day its was raining and they where higher up, below you can see them preening their wings out to dry, dumb birds it was still raining and dumber me standing under the trees taking photo's drenched through to my underwear, and i had a raincoat on, they don't seem to make proper raincoats here that keep you dry, only shower proof and this was more than a shower, but it was nice walking in the rain.

Hows this for green you kiwi's,bet you didn't think we got this green aye!

See those clouds, we have had a lot of them lately, bring it on, I say, I'll take it all!
In the weekend paper there was an article on how large tract's of native bush has died because of the extreme heat and the driest summer last in recorded history, and they say that it will not regenerate. Signs of our climate in trouble?

2011-09-13T00:53:00.000-07:00

Recently I was asked to demonstrate Golden products for a group called ATASDA which is Australian Textile and Surface Design Assoc, hope I have that correct. I looked up their website so I could demonstrate the products that where relevant to their media. I also decided I would try to make a sample that showed the products in their media style and above is what I created. I have applied Moulding Paste to the background on calico, I wanted something pliable and this met that criteria. The image is a skin made from fluid iridescent gold which gave a lovely rich glow. When the moulding paste had set, over 24 hours, I used moulding paste to glue the image to the background after painting the background in lovely oranges (vat orange) and rich yellow (cadmium yellow) dry brushing iridescent gold on the high peaks, and interference red over the circular peice. I then used my sewing machine to go around the edges of the image, no problems there, then hand sewn bits of lace, buttons and some ribbon work. I was quite pleased with the end result. I will be making more of these, I think they will make great book covers of simply frame them. I will be teaching this in class next week and carrying it over two weeks to allow drying time.

The past 3 or 4 weeks I have had one drama after another with my new iMac computer, in three months I have had 3 new hard drives, grrrr. The first was a recall on the hard drive, the operating system I had when I bought the computer was Snow Leopard and they upgraded it to Lion which is only new out, untried enough I think. Things went along alright for a few days then the keyboard wouldn't work, after many hours on the phone, their advise was to take keyboard into the Apple Store, now we only have one Apple Store in Perth, in the middle of the city on a busy one way street, parking a nightmare, so as the keyboard is not very big I decided to take the bus. Keyboard worked fine on their computers but on safe side gave me a new one, off home go I, connect up, and guess what does not work, several more hours of try this and try that, decided I should trot back into city with computer to get them to work on it, luckily it didn't work for them either, found it was the operating system again............. so after all these dramas it seems to be working ok now, fingers crossed. Sorry for the vent but I get so damn frustrated with modern technology.

Birthday wishes

2011-08-21T01:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to these two spring chickens

Sorry I couldn't be there to celebrate with you

I believe it was a good one

I know how you lot like to party....

More from Dwellingup

2011-08-12T00:51:00.000-07:00

early morning shadows

ants nest

looking back at banksia springs

colourful birds

kangaroo jaw bone

banksia nut

bush track

just the place to sit and enjoy the view

derelict old vehicles left to rust

has its on beauty

fallen giants of the forest

can you see the kangaroo's in the centre

they are watching us

lichen

last of the autumn leaves

vintage car wing rear lights

rusted decay

curious sheep, I love the natural bush around Dwellingup made for lovely bush walking

American Womens Craft Fair

2011-07-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

this Sunday I am exhibiting at the above fair, this has always been a very good, high quality fair

I have been busy this week making these little dresses

and designing these little journals.

I have designed four different styles, these 6 x 8 inch journals will make great gifts or just something fun to do. I have designed this style so it can be pulled apart to create the pages and then reassemble.

soft and flexible.

this is a really fun fair as the American women always seem to organise

taste typical American food etc

stop and say hello, I would love to see you

now back to the sewing machine to make some vintage fabric hearts

Art Retreat in Dwellingup 2011

2011-07-24T01:11:00.000-07:00

A week ago we had our Art Retreat at Dwellingup with American artist Nina Bagley, all the girls produced some amazing work and where very enthusiastic.

Karen

Keron Lee

Linda

Lisa

the very enigmatic Mandy H

Mandy W

Megan

Sue the quiet achiever

Svetlana the deep thinker

a night photo of the group, a bit dark

and our teacher for three days in a rare moment of relaxation

following is just a peek at the very creative work done by the girls

Please don't download any photo's of artwork as these belong to the girls they will know which is theirs

at the end of the day a welcome fire was waiting to relax before the evening meal and then for some it was back up to the workroom until all hours of the night

Dwellingup 2011

2011-07-06T00:53:00.000-07:00

The time has finally arrived, for over a year ago we organised another Art Retreat with Nina Bagley at Dwellingup. A year ago it seemed so far away and now it has crept up on me and is next week. I am pretty much organised, stock packed, tools and materials for the workshop sorted, accommodation and meals all confirmed, now just last minute things ie pack my bag.
Nina and Mandy from Queensland arrive Saturday afternoon so will have no time once they arrive, I want to do some baking to take down for Monday, prepare meals for John (bless him).
It is such a shame that Corrine in New Zealand had to cancel, it would have been wonderful in Glenorchie I am sure there would be snow. It is such a big task to organise an art retreat and made all the more difficult for Corinne with the remoteness (which would have made it magical) of her locality. I am sure her thoughts will be with us next week.
I will take lots of photo's to share with you the week following the retreat.
take care and I will be back in 2 weeks
Jacky

sisters

2011-06-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

photo's above are of myself and my three wonderful sisters. Growing up in rural New Zealand often we where the only friends we had and so we have stayed close. The top photo is after I manipulated the lower one on my iphoto. This is my first entry on my new imac, which I am growing to love I have lost this photo somewhere in the interior of computor and now need to work out how to locate it.

Taken about 60 years ago, we are looking quite respectable, we often looked feral and that was what we looked like in those days. No bought clothes, our wonderful mum made them all. This looks like it might have been Christmas, see we all have a doll each, that man is our loving dad, who loved his girls unconditionally.

About a five years forward with a much remembered holiday trip to Wellington and this is on the steps of the museum with our dear dad.

Today still finding something to laugh about and share a joke. Today is my birthday and I have received birthday wishes from all my sisters, family and friends. To my sisters and family in New Zealand I hope you enjoy this post.
Have a great weekend
birthday girl

Cherry Blossom Time

2011-06-15T00:53:00.000-07:00

Well there it is, I was tripping on the hem most of the night, but I did feel damn elegant for an ageing geisha....

and here you have two ageing geisha's, the mysterious Miss Johnson's.............

The market was a big success, I think the customers where highly amused to see so many geisha's floating around. Phil and I didn't leave the hall until 2 am Friday and these photo's where taken about 5.30 pm, after 2 or 3 hours sleep we didn't look too bad, I wouldn't have liked to have had photo's about 9 pm, we where both pretty shattered and damn I came down with laryngitis, by Saturday morning I was only capable of whispers. Now its all over and on to the next project, the Nina Bagley Art Retreat in Dwellingup on 10th to 15th July, its all go!!!

Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handcraft Market

2011-06-08T01:40:00.000-07:00

Friday night and Saturday is Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handmade Market that sister Phillipa and I run, a lot of work, working our fingers to the bone making cherry blossoms from crepe paper as our theme is Cherry Blossom Time and we are donate a percentage of our takings to the Tsunami appeal in Japan.
I have also made some vintage collages with beautiful Japanese women.

In the background and below are some lovely pieces of vintage Japanese Kimono silk fabric that I have been collecting for several years to make a Japanese Journal and as you can see I haven't got to do it yet. I am not selling these but using them for display.

Above is my white cherry blossom made from crepe paper, mostly I have done pink but thought I would have white on my stall. I am wearing a Japanese Kimono on Friday night I hope there isn't a fire or anything, although my stall is by the front door but I would probably fall down the steps. Ruth who sells vintage kimono's and other Japanese items is a full bottle on all this and is going to put the obi (sash) on for me as its a real art, I couldn't wear it without the obi as being petite and dainty haha, it is way to long for me. Phillipa is wearing a short Japanese jacket without the obi, but she is wearing long pants under hers. Under mine will be tights, long sleeve fitting top etc as its usually very cold there at night.
I am teaching a workshop tomorrow morning then when that finishes will be loading up the van and taking a load to the hall, we put it up on the stage behind curtains as they have boot scooting there until 9pm then we scoot in and set up the hall and try and get our stalls finished so we can help others on the Friday. We are usually at the hall on Thursday night until midnight or 1 am when we are by then too tired to go on. Will take a lot of photo's to share with you and you can have a good laugh at me in my Kimono hahaha
Have a good weekend
Jacky

Mushrooms

2011-06-02T22:56:00.000-07:00

remember this image from my previous entry see above in just days this is how much it grew plus more came up.

It must be all the rain we have had, when you knock them over, the underneath is white, anyone know what sort of mushrooms they are?

garden glories

2011-05-27T00:32:00.000-07:00

Its such glorious weather here at the moment, and yes I can brag after about 5 months of heat and no rain, I am like a pig in swill, enjoying every moment.

I throw my vegetable peelings etc onto the back garden and have some interesting things come up. These are not edible, I think they are from decaying roots off the tree. We have a couple of large Robinia's the Pink Wisteria is particularly bad at sending out roots, I have seen them yeek!!! coming up in the next door neighbours, constantly pushing up the brick paving and even found one going under the concrete pad of the house. John goes out and saws the roots where he can find them and pulls out what he can. Some of the roots are the size of your arm, so you can imagine the damage they could do. We don't want to chop them down as they provide such lovely shade in the afternoon sun. Hence I think these toadstoolie things are coming up from the rotted roots.

Wow and look at this, chillies on a plant that I put in only about a month ago, I get such a thrill out of growing things to eat, just amazes me even though growing up we grew all our own vegetables or Dad did I should say

and here is another one of these blighters in my vege patch which is about 2 feet above ground, insects have been eating this one mmmh now does that mean there is a root coming up in there too, I have chopped them out before from my vege garden.

theres even a flush of roses out

I am proud of my little miniature meyer lemon tree growing in an old copper, last year it had one lemon on it and this year 13 hows that. Since getting Jamie Olivers 30 min cook book I am using lemon juice and zest on meat, salads etc, I even like eating the leftover lemon after squeezing out the juice, ooh am I weird or what. When we where kids we used to eat raw rhubarb dipped in sugar and green grapes (before they where ripe) sprinkled with salt yeek what ferral kids we where. Another thing I have started using since getting his book is fresh chilli, not the hot one, I have never used chilli as I thought it would be too hot. Thank you Jamie. Have you tried Lindt dark chocolate with chilli, mmmh now you will have to try that one, it leaves a nice warm after taste in your mouth. I have been told that chilli speeds up your metabolism and dark chocolate is high in something good for you, well I want to believe it.
Have a good weekend
Jacky

Art Craft Fair at Midland

2011-05-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

Weather permitting I will be doing the Midland Art and Craft Fair just behind Dome Coffee in a lovely little park. This is only a small Fair and has only been going a short time about 6 months. I am quite happy to support and put in the time until it grows although I am hoping it will not become too big. I have made these vintage photo frames to sell there. The frames are very old and a little bit fragile, old photo and french text, a bit of lace. The bird I painted onto calico from Tracie Lyn Huskamp's book which I particularly like. We will be doing a visual journal along these lines very shortly in Tuesday class.

They are pretty if you like vintage and the journal will be quite tactile using lots of vintage lace, fabrics and old photo's, I will share with you when we complete the journal.

rainy day in Perth

2011-05-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

Well it is something to get excited about here in Perth West Australia after about 3 months no rain. And it is good solid rain, we have had a few odd light showers this week but needed a lot more, now we can turn the reticulation off. Yesterday Phillipa and I took the day off and went into the city by train to the big Craft Fair at the Convention Centre. Although the fair on the whole was dissappointing for us, I am sure the ladies from the country and if you where a patchwork enthusiast you would have enjoyed it. We where out of there before 2 oclock whereas last year we stayed until after 4pm. I did do some damage to the bank account however. Sanshi from Perth has the most amazing Japanese fabrics and kits, I have been eyeing up one of the kits in particular and as they are closing down I thought I better bite the bullet and get it before I lost my chance. I am going to sew it by hand it is a more contemporary design and my aim is to make it to take with us when we get around to travelling in a campervan or such, it will also give me something to do in the evenings when the light is no good for painting. I can also take it with me and stitch while I am at the markets or fairs. I also bought some knitting to make a loose over top in a linen cottom mix thread, can also do this in the evenings. Oh and I bought a book, 'Flavour for Mixed Media' by Mary Beth Shaw it is a bit out there with some cooking recipes as well an interview with Misty Mawn. Well this sort of weather entices one to curl up with a book so here I come......
Have a good weekend
Jacky

granddaughters

2011-05-11T23:36:00.000-07:00

recently I was privileged to spend 4 days 3 nights with my 3 youngest Granddaughters. It was go go go from the time we got up until the time we hit the beds at night. I am so totally not used to how much energy kids have. To give you an example on the 2nd day I was up and dressed at 6 am in time to get the kids down to breakfast, still in their pyjamas. Why so early, Maddison had a skating lesson at 8 am. The whole reason for this trip to Bunbury (two and a half hours from Perth) was to take Maddie for these skating lessons with world renown instructors from Italy. Hence a one on one lesson to 8.30 am, back to the hotel and into the swimming pool (not me) until 9.30 whereby I dragged them out to get dressed and then off to a movie at 10 am. Diary of a whimpy kid 2, I enjoyed as well. Then off shopping for nana's turn for a couple of hours, lunch. Down to the beach 5 minutes walk from hotel, with a high tide and high sea a couple of hours spent racing around in the bubbling surf, off to the playground where they played chase with some new friend they made. Me watching, thinking 'you go kids' thinking that will wear them out. Back to the hotel around 4 pm back in the pool until 5.30, walked down the street to the main street and food outlets for tea. Back to the hotel, back in the pool until 8, are you getting the idea now, wear them out and they will sleep WRONG!!!! only person worn out here was nana, this time I took a book with me down to the pool, can't let kids in the pool without an adult (me with my book) then blow me down when they got out of the pool with a new friend they wanted to play hide and seek phew!!! 9 pm off up to bed. Now Alyssa who has trouble getting to sleep had to sleep with nana so we could talk until she got tired enough to sleep, I think I was talking in my sleep by now. Next morning up again at 6 for breakfast and another 8 am lesson. However I enjoyed it all and wasn't crabby nana too often I don't think?

after 2 hours driving it was time for a pit stop at a favourite watering hole, Harvey Information Centre. Hot chocolate and apple pie for the girls, coffee and cake for the driver. also a chance to stretch legs and run around for a bit in their wonderful grounds.

in the atrium of the Lord Forrest Hotel, can you see the swimming pool, they got their money's worth out of that. our room on 2nd floor looking down to the pool

that's my little Maddie with the Italian tutor

after Sunday's lessons we headed off to Donnybrook, such a beautiful little town. The countryside just glorious in this beautiful autumn weather. Met Kirsty there at an amazing playground built with a large donation from a local resident in their will.

back in Collie, no prima donna's my granddaughters, like to mix it with Alyssa's brother and boy cousins.

Thank you so much Kaitie, Alyssa and Maddie for spending this time with me, I will treasure it always. A!nd now for a lie down to get over, just joking

Love you girls xoxoxo
your nana
Jacky

New magazine Jeanne d' arc Living 3rd Edition 2011

2011-05-10T01:19:00.000-07:00

The 3rd edition 2011 arrived recently, it is so inspiring. A lifestyle magazine that gives just great ideas for your home, garden and even yummy recipes. When I am reading it I just want to get stuck in to making things for my home. The above three photo's are from the magazine which is printed on recycled paper, just a beautiful magazine.

And this is my attempt to recreate the planted pot directions, in this pot there are pansies, foxglove, lobelia and then there are the plants that will eventually trail down over the side like the silver dichondra. I went for the silver foliage and white, blue and pink flowers when they get to that stage. Although we have had a small amount of rain it is still very dry but the days are just glorious, so typical of Autumn in Australia.

See the old zinc bath tub in the rear that is also crammed with plants and it marks Alex's burial spot. Lovely new rose next to it is called "Mothers Love" which I planted on Mothers Day in memory of my dear Mum as well as John 's Mum. Has a beautiful pale apricot to cream flower.

And the view from inside my studio, it will be pretty don't you think?

Above and following is the lovely garden of my good friend Robyn Longley who has the most amazing garden up in the hills, the most stunning roses. Now this is what I can only aspire to achieve.

I have four editions of this magazine now, the first I got in 2009 is written in Danish where the magazine comes from, I can pick up one or the other of the copies and see things I didn't see before.
If you would love to have one of these beautiful magazines you can email me jackyjohn1@optusnet.com.au and if I have any left over I will be taking them to our Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handmade Market on the 10th and 11th June and of course there should be another edition here by then, they come out every six weeks.
Look on my little sisters blog http://theshabbychateau.blogspot.com/and see the wonderful wings she was inspired to make from the magazine as well, for one of her lovely mannequins.
Hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day as a Mother or if your lucky enough with your Mother.
best wishes
Jacky

Where this woman creates

2011-04-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

This week Where Women Create from Stampington arrived, with each issue I think that they couldn't possibly find more beautiful studios or workshops, but they do it again. This is my studio or workroom our large second bedroom which on the plan was two small bedrooms and we changed it to one. Not up to WWC standard but most of the time it works for me.

Recently I bought this neat table from Ikea, luckily the last one in stock until more come in. The trestle legs can raise or tip the table top which was what I was looking for. Lots of time when I am painting I like to work standing up and all the tables or trestles I looked at where just a bit to low, causes my lower back to get very sore after a period of standing and working. The set of thin drawers underneath are on rollers and can be pulled out to give extra space to put things on.

Lots of light comes in from this set of sliding double doors plus fresh air. Cupboard to right at the moment is used to store my paints and cartons that need sorting, that will come, room underneath for slim old suitcases.

Mostly display stuff this end but have the laptop in front of the window, just enough space for working here.
Spaces for some of my books, the rest spill out all over the family room.

Hanging above the bed is a vintage Japanese Hakama made of hemp, this is a skirt that a man would have worn. I bought this off Ruth at our Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handmade Market. I love to buy items that I treasure from our stall holders, always find something lovely.
A very good bit of news that I want to share with you is that Nina Bagley is still coming to our retreat at Dwellingup in July. When New Zealand had to cancel (we where sharing the airfare cost) and then Nina's fathers health deteriorated I was concerned that she would not want to leave him at this time. But she is excited about coming and so are we.
I am off to Bunbury with two of my Granddaughters from Perth Maddison and Kaitlin, picking up Alyssa from Collie where Maddison is having skating lessons from some overseas tutors. Kids are excited, we will be staying at the Lord Forrest hotel, going to the movies and just having fun. Will spend a night at Kirstys before coming home on Monday.
Hope you all have a good weekend
Jacky

Holidays 3

2011-04-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

I just had to discreetly photoraph this gorgeous Macaw just sitting on this guys shoulder at a wonderful market we went to. If you have not been to Queensland, it is in the tropics and has the most amazing fruit and vegetables, so cheap I just pigged out on pineapples. It is also very lush and green after all the rain they have been having, not much evidence of the disastrous floods not long ago.

this little guy was such a poser, taken at the Botanical gardens, they lost over 2000 plants in the floods

late afternoon shadows in this park in the city with the ever popular palms

with a much loved cousin that we spent so many good times with growing up, all looking into the sun, who's idea was that!

Cathy Pentons lovely little shop just outside Toowoomba

this wonderful old cow shed is on Mandy Woodham's property which is a kids idyllic playground

and Mandy's wonderful typical Queenslander home, the old homes in Queensland are unique, I have not seen the like anywhere else in Australia

and finally the sisters posing it up

Well that was a marathon effort, hope I didn't bore you with holiday snaps but it is all so pretty...

Have a wonderful Easter

Jacky

Holidays 2

2011-04-20T19:58:00.000-07:00

Beautiful arcade, I love old arcades and the photo above is taking a photo of Phillipa and I in a mirrored sculpture in the arcade, crazy huh.

They have these amazing sculptures of feathers along the mall looking as if they are floating in the air.

An inspiring afternoon was spent at the Gallery of Contemorary Art, Brisbane has amazing Museum and Art Gallery and I could have spent all day there. This skater was in this darkened hall will lights highlighting the objects.

Can you see us off centre taking photo's

The colours in this photo just blew me away, look at that indigo fabric

There was this amazing display of all kinds of birds nests made from shredded paper, wow!!!!!

You just wanted to give this sleeping elephant such a big hug, but there was this lady just sitting with her eyes glued on it to make sure you didn't touch....

if you look real close it looks like a fabric painted grey with these little hooks painted all over it, so realistic

this sweet little statue was on the lawn by the cafe

and this little guy was a little too close for my comfort, he came out of the hedge looking for dropped crumbs

a great view of the city from above the bus station, very good bus system

mmmh wont let me download again, I need a new computor............

Holidays

2011-04-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

Back again, been busy, crazey busy, but here I am now.
I have just spent two weeks holiday in Queensland with my three sisters, or should I say 9 days with 3 sisters and 5 days with 1 sister. However I want to share some of the hightlights of our time together. From the Gold Coast we spent a day exploring a wonderful rain forest, amazing trees. No that is not a real crocodile but does make a good photo.

The coastline was stunning, the water so warm, I wished I could have gone swimming.

Look at this amazing eagle sculpture looking out over the coast

Food was good especially this apple and rhubarb pie
We spent 4 nights on the Gold Coast then went on down to Brisbane, staying in a hotel walking distance from the shopping centre (up a hill) great exercise. Having problems downloading photo's so will have another go later.

Christchurch Earthquake

2011-03-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

Last week we saw the devastation of the earth's destructive power. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by this tragedy. While doing some family research I read that a great uncle of mine was in hospital when the 1931 Napier earthquake struck measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale. The hospital collapsed and he was rescued from the rubble and transferred to the Dannevirke hospital, only to die a month later.

Photo above is the nursing home at the hospital

A 90 year old man was rescued alive from the rubble 3 days after the earthquake struck.

1931 was during the great depression in New Zealand

256 deaths from Napier and Hastings combined.

land lifted 2.7 metres at Ahuriri Lagoon, airport now located on that land

Government loan of 10,000 pounds and built 32 temporary business and 22 professional offices

two years later Napier rebuilt in part to continue business

buildings had to have overhanging veranda's to protect from falling obstructions

Napier rebuilt in the art deco architectural design and is recognised worldwide as an art deco city.

My mother was at school when the earthquake struck, and as all school children in New Zealand are taught you get under your desk or in a doorway when an earthquake strikes, she got under the desk. This was in Gisborne further up the eastcoast and where I grew up.

I can only say that if I was in Christchurch, I would move out as I find earthquakes absolutely terrifying.

Hot week in Perth

2011-02-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

No use in complaining this is what you expect when it is February in Perth, pump up the airconditioner and stay inside. But I cannot procrastinate, classes and workshops to prepare and teach, products to make for markets. It feels good to be productive, but, I find that when you work from home there is no division from work and home and tend to work all hours. Like today, my plan was to finish these Journals, well its nearly 4 pm and I still haven't finished. These are to take to the Midland Arts and Crafts Market tomorrow. As I have to be set up by 8.30 am I also had to load the van, at least that is done. The time it takes me to make these journals and the price I ask for them makes me realise I am working for a pittance. Just as well I enjoy making them. I only make a few at a time, but like to have something new each month for this market.

It is going to be very hot again tomorrow, they keep raising our hopes, rain is coming hah! Luckily I get provided with a large porta shade which I share with another artist, they consider me an artist? I won't tell them if you don't.
Stay cool
Jacky

New Blog

2011-02-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

Recently I set up a new blog jacky-goldenmoments.blogspot.com to record and share my journey with Golden Artist Paints. I have registered my first Golden Workshop 'Dancing on the surface' commencing on Thursday 17th February 2011, if you have an interest in art go check it out. I have decided to separate my blogs as I am aware that some of my readers like to read what I am up to and others more interested in the art. As well as teaching the Golden Workshops I am still teaching more the mixed media classes and in particular Journals. Since shutting the shop I have had these classes at home but it has limited the numbers available. From Tuesday 15th February, 10 am to 12 am I will be holding these classes at a community hall in Brown Street, Morley. This lovely little hall could easily hold up to 20 students, plenty of parking at the rear, which is accessed from Redgum Drive. Following photo's are of the journal that will begin on that date. Influenced by Teesha Moore, Roben-Marie, Sally Jean this journal will be using techniques involving painting, collage, writing, colour co-ordination and other mixed media techniques.

If you are interested in joining this class please contact me jackyjohn1@optusnet.com.au for any other details.
best wishes
Jacky

Peggy Guggenhiem Exhibition

2011-01-28T18:41:00.000-08:00

We have been extremely lucky here in West Australia to have the Peggy Guggenheim Collection on exhibition in Perth, finishing 31st January. I think it only came to Perth in the whole of Australia, which is really great, because of our great distance away from the Eastern States we rarely get any of the great exhibitions and shows that they do, a flight over there is 4 or 5 hours and forget about driving, so you can see why I am excited about this. But I haven't made the effort to get into the Art Gallery to see it and almost missed it. Finally got there on Thursday. I prefer to go to art galleries on my own, as I love to study the colours, the textures used, how they achieve light and shadows. I get a real kick out of standing in front of an original art piece and feeling the aura of the artist from so long ago. Picasso's painting above was one such painting, the fact that it has cracks in the oil paint adds to its authenticity, I just love his style, his choice of colours, that each line is not perfectly straight. mmmh I love his style, this has grown on me over the last 20 or so years. I also loved Mark Rothko's art.

This is only a short blog, we are having extreme heat conditions, my fingers are sticking to the keyboard. Very high humidity in which our evaporative air conditioner does not cope with, so I try not do anything that takes too much effort. I have boards with textured backgrounds that required at least 24 hour drying time waiting to be painted as samples for workshops, flyer's to be designed for said workshops, all will have to wait until this humidity drops. However there has been a cyclone warning that is due to hit Perth Sunday morning with extreme flooding, winds and inland fires, hope everyone is safe, it is predicted to be bad.

Stay safe

Jacky

Australian beauty

2011-01-20T23:11:00.000-08:00

Days before Christmas, to enable daughter Joanne time to finish her shopping and wrapping etc, I took 4 of her 5 daughters to Yanchep National Park for a picnic lunch. Spent ages with youngest of the 4 who at 9 years of age just loves photography, a girl after my own heart. Following are photo's I took while enjoying the natural bush and wildlife.Although Koala bears are not native to Western Australia, there is a enclosure here, we spotted quite a few asleep up in the trees as we walked along the boardwalk in their enclosure.This little guy got hungry and we stood watched and took photo's of his progress down the tree.
The particular eucalyptus leaves that they eat do not grow here so are flown in each day to feed them, you can see the downward facing leaves that he is eating.

He decided that he preferred this bunch of leaves and scampered across the branch to feed on them, they do look so cuddly.

I do not know the botanical name of these trees but they are commonly called blackboys, they are very slow growing but do look lovely with their grass skirts.

Outside the Koala enclosure you walk into an Aboriginal display where at certain times they demonstrate dancing etc, unfortunately it wasn't this day. Their dancing is so very distinctive imitating different animals and birds. This is a little humpy with a setting for a fire.This lovely amphitheatre is nestled in the bush, don't think that it is aboriginal though. Lovely earthy colours of bark and stone. A touch of verdigris on the tap shows how well it blends with the natural bush colours.

lovely bronze new growth on a native proteathese beautiful gold tipped pink blooms are such a contrast against the white/grey leaves, the flowers are almost the size of a teacup. and these amazing wood cups after the blooms have finished

the gum trees do have spectacular coloured flowers which stand out in the rather drab colour of the scrubby trees and bushes.This rather large beautiful grey kangaroo was about 2 meters away from the path that we where on, she has nestled into the shrub for shade, can you see her little joey between her front feet.lovely old gnarled tree smoothed from wind and rain, and probably bushfire at some time a mushroom growing into the trunk of this old tree

waterfowl looking for dropped picnic snacks

to make up for the dry browns of the bush the bird life is so vibrant, but they lack the lovely musical birdsong you get from the plainer birds. I think this was a mother and child bird jetties for canoe's but the water is so low that it is impossible to tie them up here, grand daughters at far end. It was a lovely day spent with lovely family members, I hope you have enjoyed the beauty of the Australia through my camera lens. Jacky

Jeanne d' Arc Living

2011-01-13T16:22:00.000-08:00

I would like to wish you all a very productive and happy New Year. hope you had a great Christmas. The weather here in contrast to the Eastern side of Australia has been extremely hot, and I find it hard sitting at a computor in these conditions. My thoughts are with all those people in Queensland affected by the disastrous floods, I am grateful that my dearest sister Sharon and my neices and family, also dear friend Mandy Woodham where not affected directly with flood only inconvenienced by blocked roads, food shortages, electricity blackouts etc.

I am in the process of ordering in a wonderful magazine from Norway (at least I think it is Norway). In 2009 I bought one online from the USA but have been unable to get any further issues since, they where also not in English at that time but the photo's where so inspiring it did not matter that I could not read the words. I have since received another link to get them in the USA but the postage made it way to expensive for me, so with much encouragement from daughters and friends I am going to order them into Australia. By my calculations at todays Australian currency including freight from Europe I would think the cost to customers would be around $30 this would fluctuate with the $ changes. It comes out 8 issues a year. if you wanted it mailed within Australia we would charge $5 for freight as we do on our Stampington magazines unless they are under 500gms which we post at $2.70.

The photo's above are from the latest issue and in English language. I am looking for those who would like to commit to putting in an order, the minimum I can get is 10 but I would like to get 20. I have 6 interested women from my classes and family and would love to share with others that would love to get such an inspiring magazine in beautiful soft colours, vintage style, a little bit on gardens, a little bit or cooking. If you love Norwegian decorating style this will impress. A gorgeous timeless magazine to keep on your table. If you are interested send me an email and let me know what area you are from, if you are out of Australia I could get you a postage cost as well.

Best wishes for 2011 Jacky jackyjohn1@optusnet.com.au

Christmas home decorations 2010

2010-12-19T18:00:00.000-08:00

Well Christmas has snuk up on me again. Things have been kind of crazy so I have focused on one thing at a time and finally almost through the list, just a few Christmas presents to make and plan what to make for Christmas day and I am done, yeeha............ This year we have Kirsty (eldest daughter) and family staying with us over the Christmas period so have made more of an attempt at decorating the house so they feel all the mood in our little home. Following is my Christmas decorating using mostly decorations I have collected over the years, here as well as in Melbourne and mostly Sydney who does do Christmas so well, mmmmh Perth not so good at decorating for the season, seems a bit depressed, and off course there is lots of new building and roads re built so overhead cranes and buildings boarded up don't quite lend themselves to decorations. The Madonna above is my Christmas present from my daughters, she is very old possibly over a hundred years old, from Europe, chipped, faded and the head missing of the child, isn't she wonderful?

I have all these gold, bronze and richer colour decorations that I usually put on the hall stand but this year decided to go with glass and pearl baubles, and put the golds on the Christmas tree and added some mauve and burgundy Victorian glass balls, don't show up very well in this photo, but they do look quite nice.The cut glass tree I bought on sale (as I do most of my decorations) a few years ago on the hall stand. I did buy these two white feather peacocks, marked down to 50% off, this was before Christmas, the shops are not doing well this year, they are feeling the after affects of the financial crisis last year, we are losing some of our more beautiful shops, the cheap and tackie always seem to survive. A trio of angels in the bedroom.

I really love how the light catches the colours on these glass baubles, we have a lot of light in these rooms as I have opted to forgo window covers and it looks out onto lights of greenery in the small garden.I have added lots of chandelier crystals and old rosaries onto this candle chandelier, the light shines through these as well.

Can you see those lovely rose coloured crystal pendants on the silver tree, I got those at the Arizza Antique market in Italy when I went over to do Nina Bagley's art retreat in Cortona, oh it seems so long ago now, but looking at these brings it all back.At the bottom of the mantle piece is an embroidered santa I made, oh it must be about 8 years ago, where did all those years go, my sister Phil and I made santa faces out of polymer clay then dressed them all up, each year I made one with the coat heavily embroidered each year, then we exhibited at the Australian Craft Show held at Fox Studios in Sydney. We couldn't sell them in Perth but Sydney people obviously liked them and didn't mind paying the price as we did well over there and had a lot of fun, we did them for about 5 years.A few of the girls exchanging Christmas gifts last Wednesday, mostly we make gifts to exchange which is really lovely. I did mean to put white candles in the jars on the table but didn't get around to getting them so put some lovely red eucalyptus flowers in, the colour stood out well.

Busy Weekend

2010-11-18T02:50:00.000-08:00

This weekend we will be having a stall at Joondalup upmarket, Friday night 6 - 9 pm if you are in the area its on Central Walk, between Reid Prom and Boa's Ave, Joondalup. This is the first time In this locality and we will be seeing new customers. Should be fun, I am sure it will have a nice atmosphere.

Saturday I will be off to exhibit at Ruth Lawford's Open day at her home in Whitfield Road, Toodyay. Saves me reloading the car. I do love to get out to the country and there is a lovely selection of fellow artisans exhibiting so will be lots of fun. The hours are between 10am and 3pm.

Have a great weekend
Jacky

Art of John Davis

2010-11-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

The use of sticks, a fabric stuffed and painted in asphalt, stitched, what imagination. John Davis died in the 1990's, what a loss to us.....

I was blown away with the distinctive formalist style of Australian Artist John Davis, his use of organic materials, his sensitivity to elemental forces and his connection to the ecological landscape an artist before his time. enjoy....
This wonderful exhibition was on at the Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square, was so worth the visit. I forgo the Tim Burton exhibition to see this, wonderful.

I am multi tasking at the moment, I am making Teesha Moore style journals, and painting the covers only, leaving the rest for the customer to finish with visual samples on cover. So while waiting for the paint to dry I am doing my blog. smart aye.......

Federation Square - Melbourne

2010-11-08T18:56:00.000-08:00

Now I have heard people say that they think that Federation Square ugly, I have to disagree, I found it such an interesting square, more so than a lot of the other squares around, not your usual buildings, straight up and all glass I find so boring lacking any creativity. Federation square was buzzing with people, so much going on. Such interesting art and exhibitions, it was here that the Tim Burton exhibition was drawing big crowds waiting patiently in orderly manner.Places for one to sit and admire the angles of steel structure showing through the glass. interactive hobs with moving art. Across the road the iconic Flinders Street train station, you get off and you are in the shopping precinct. Just look at those beautiful row on bright blue bicycles, you put in your coins and a bike pops out for you to go explore this lovely city. How cool is that?

Melbourne part two

2010-10-29T00:43:00.000-07:00

It is taking me such a long time getting my blog up to date, so sorry, but you know, work gets in the way. Following is where I stayed when I went over to the Golden Workshops in Melbourne.

Magnolia Court is where I slept and had breakfast, it was a lovely hotel for the time I spent there, walking distance into Melbourne city, down the street is the MCG where the AFL first of the finals was held on the Saturday after I left.This was the view across the street from Magnolia Court Hotel, very pretty, terrace style housing, probably for the more affluent Melbournians.I had two full days to myself before the workshops started on the Monday, therefore I spent a lot of time walking and taking photo's, which I love to do when I am away.I loved the sound of horses clipclopping around the Melbourne Streets, such a comforting sound. I will share more photo's with you on my stay in Melbourne on my next entries.

Jacky

Golden Teachers Workshop

2010-10-18T22:48:00.000-07:00

Well I have finally got to sharing with you my trip to Melbourne and the Golden Teachers Workshop with Patti Brady. It was a wonderful week of art, at the workshop, walking in the lane ways of Melbourne and Fitzroy.

The workshop was held over 4 full days at the beautiful Abbotsford Convent, it was like a little piece of Europe. We where on the ground floor, lovely big room with massive high ceilings.One of the cafe's in the grounds, could have been the old bakery, we had lunch each day, yummy food. Old buildings on the grounds, from another time.

View of front of Abbotsford Convent. The convent 1863 to 1975 is now an Arts and Cultural Precinct, is only 4 km from Melbourne CBD, has 11 historic buildings and covers over 6 hectares. More information on www.abbotsfordconvent.com.au I would recommend a visit if you are in Melbourne, it has a farm as well which I never got to walk around.

Patti Brady our teacher for the four days, we had a trestle each thankfully, as we where slapping paint around everywhere, some of our samples had to be laid out on the back trestles to allow them drying time, the whole four days. David Cole did a great job looking after us all as well as setting up our workshop, plastic sheeting underfoot as well as covering all our trestles. We did heaps of samples and learnt to use all the products to enable us to teach in workshops ourselves. I had learnt quite a lot about Golden Acrylic products but this was from books and Golden's website www.goldenpaints.com which is a very informative website but there is nothing like actually having someone show you and then doing it yourself. The products that just blew me away were the Open paints, bead gel doing the skins to be put through the printer. The airbrush paints where new to us, but unfortunately this is not carried in Australia as yet, but who knows if there is enough demand I am sure it will be.This photo was taken from the back of the class, can you see our sample canvas's at the bottom of the photo, these took ages to dry as we where advised to put them on really thick.Ten Golden Artist Educators with Patti Brady behind the red bag on ground, we are all now certified Golden teaches the first in Australia and from all over Australia, what a privilege. We where wined and dined by Golden, beautiful evening meals at lovely restaurants each night, I don't think we got back to our hotels before 10pm each night and the last night a few of us (the oldest ones I might add, no staying power these young ones) got back about one am. I left feeling so motivated and inspired it was wonderful.

I couldn't resist adding this photo taken at Abbotsford Convent, lambs ears look as if they are coated with sugar. Well this has taken me a few hours so I will do another entry of the rest of my stay in Melbourne.

farewell dear friend

2010-10-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

On return from my week in Melbourne, Alex our much loved Airedale had deteriorated and we had to have her put to sleep. I want to share with you some photo's of Alex, she was so much fun, a clown of a dog. Loved all other dogs, never heard her growl at another dog. She especially loved little dogs but i think she terrified them when she charged up to them and then towered above, but she would hanker down to their level to say hello. When we went out anywhere the first thing we would do was to see where Alex was, she slept inside up until about a year ago, was terrified of thunder, in her last couple of years though she went deaf and could no longer hear the thunder. She was friends with everyone, and especially loved Tess (Kirsty's deceased now, border collie), Tess hated all dogs and thought Alex was a particular pain, she would get in Tess's face and when Tess bared her teeth at her she would just swing her back end into her as much as to say come on, get over it princess....She looked such a noble beast just after being bathed and clipped, probably lasted for about a month before she started getting woolly again. This was her come play look. With Joanne, gee this was about 10 years ago, how time flies......And mum's girl, she was my constant companion, just looking at these photo's of her has brought a lump to my throat. Yes she was spoilt, but that is what you have pets for. She would have been 14 next month which is quite old for a big dog, and up until about a year ago she still thought she was a pup and acted like one. She hated being slowed down with her back legs slowly paralysing. Now she's in heaven, and Tess is probably thinking "Oh no, I thought I'd got rid of you" R.I.P Alex we miss you ....

I will get back on my blog in the next few days and share with you my trip to Melbourne and the Golden's Teachers Workshop. I had a ball.....

Golden Acrylic Teachers Workshop

2010-09-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

Well I am off to Melbourne, one day sooner than I thought, should check my dates a bit closer hmmm Joanne!!!! Anyway as I have not made any entries lately, thought I'd better not let another week slip by.

I was very lucky to be accepted into the Golden Acrylic Teachers Workshop, starting on Monday and going until late Thursday. Patti Brady is teaching the workshops and it will be four days full on, hope I can keep up. I thought my air flight was for early Sunday morning, but no, its Saturday early morning, will have Saturday and Sunday to get over the midnight horror flight. I had planned on going to the Rose Street Artists Market on Sunday, now I can go Saturday as well or go somewhere else, I also have Friday off my flight being about 11.30pm.

I am excited to learn all the techniques for using the Golden Products and meeting like minded people. When the workshops are completed we will be accredited teachers for Golden and we will be promoted on their websites, so will be all good.

As next weekend is a public holiday here, we are driving down to Collie to spend a couple of days with Kirsty Peter and grandchildren yaaay mmmmh!!!

Will have heaps to put on my blog and I will be setting up a second blog with information and techniques using Golden.

Have a great weekend

Jacky

Great Grandson, he's all boy and building up plenty of immunity

Artistic Journey's first open shop and workshop

2010-08-19T01:10:00.000-07:00

This Saturday is our first open shop and workshop since we closed the shop. Not sure how we will go as there has been some website challenges and of course it is election day. If you are like me I am so over politics, seems to be such a negative election going on, I am sick of all the adds on television and just want to get it over and done with, all I can say is that I hope the Greens get the numbers in the Senate to keep both parties in check.

Saturday, 21st, 4pm to 10pm is our first open shop and workshop.

The workshop image is above, phone me if you would like to participate in this, 9377 2343, cost is $25 for workshop plus $10 kit which includes 8 x 10 canvas, paints and paper for background.

How to find us - Carramar hall, Morley
front of hall there is not a lot of parking, is in Marks Place, if you drive up Beechboro Road towards Benara Road, you will see Central Beechboro shops on the right, turn right into Incana place (a short Street) turn right into Marks Place a small cul de sac ,the hall is on the left.
For the back of the hall where there is more parking turn right from Beechboro Road into Benara Road, right into Bottlebrush Drive, turn into Redgum Way which is the first on the right. Follow road around, Carrmar Hall is just past Carramar Retirement village 23a Redgum Dr. Brick fence, car park inside, door will be open at back. If you have any problems my mobile phone is 0418 920 009 Joannes 0437 057 735. If you are staying for workshop etc there is Hungry Jacks and Kentucky Fried around the corner on Benara Road and at the back of the shops a really nice fish and chips shop. We will even bring fresh bread and butter to go with your fish and chips yumm....

We offer you the opportunity to come and shop, do the workshop or just come and work on one of your projects. The hall is not large so we can only provide room for so many, so if you plan to work on your own let us know and we will book you a seat, good opportunity to finish projects or start on something new. The cost for this will be $10 to cover cost of supper and hall hire. Will be a lot of fun, Jo has prizes etc.

We look forward to seeing you all and would love any suggestions from you on what you would like to be included in these open days which we will hold once a month.

We are hoping the Somerset Studio magazines will be in and we have new products as well as our more popular products.

new vehicle

2010-08-12T19:27:00.001-07:00

this little beauty is what has been keeping me busy for the last couple of weeks. to travel out to regional Australia to teach workshops I needed another vehicle, my little Subaru Sherpa that I have had since 1986 can no longer cope with long trips. the sherpa has been a wonderful little car, it only cost me $20 every two weeks for petrol and had the most amazing spacious back to put stock in. my family nicknamed it the shopping basket on wheels. had a brief life as a getaway car by my son, it put up with a lot too. when it was overheating once thinking I was doing the right thing I put water in the engine!!!! yup I did, when I started it up the radiator cap blew off with dirty water everywhere, fortunately it was outside my workplace and there was a car repair shop down the back, they pushed it down then it took a couple of days for all the water to be drained out. the young boys where I worked lifted my whole car and moved it for a prank. I loved my little car, had no trouble keeping up with the traffic and I will be really sad to see it go. does anyone else get so attached to a car. it was so reliable and never let me down.
said new vehicle in the background, a volkeswagen caddi life, seats 7 but the back seats lift out easily to use as a van. automatic, I have resisted automatic cars for ever, I like driving and my opinion is that you don't drive an automatic you just steer it, makes you lazy, so I guess I will become lazy, hope I don't lose concentration when travelling in the country. but it is a joy to drive and using diesel should be economical, its turbo mmmmh that could be dangerous. the plan is that when John stops working in 3 years he will sell his car and just use the van, or could keep the sherpa and he could use that haha I suggested that, didn't go down well, why are males so concerned about the vehicle they drive, I would be happy driving a truck or a jeep long as it got me where I was going.

oh well grumpy old woman to you......

GREAT GRANDSON

update on our only great grandson, such a boy, look at that dirty little face building up immunity. walking around the sofa's, not able to walk on his own yet but not far off. so much fun, Jo, Samara and I went around to have lunch and spend time with Jessica and the little boy.

Camellia's

2010-08-12T01:10:00.000-07:00

We have rain again, this winter has been particularly dry, no rain for two weeks and the gardens where starting to dry out, I believe that we are to get about a weeks rain, bring it on... I love camillia's and have had no luck growing them here in Australia until now. I have planted them under the climbing roses that have bushed out giving protection from the sun.
This beautiful white one is quite large, it had a lot of large buds, but they seemed to just drop off before flowering but have had a couple come into flower, so I am happy.This one is half the size of the white one, it has white outer petals and the frilly inner petals are a cream, not quite as dark cream as in this photo, has lots of flowers coming out, this one is perhaps a bit older. I am afraid I don't know what their names are, I buy because I like the colour. I have a third one which is smaller still, didn't get a chance to take a photo when it was in bloom, the plant is only about 12 inches high, I think it is a low grower. I do love white camellias, especially in the darkness under the roses. Maybe next year I will be able to pick some and bring them inside.

Innovative shop

2010-07-16T00:11:00.000-07:00

Last week my oldest daughter's birthday was coming up, 45 years young, mhhh that makes one feel not so young. I find it very difficult to buy something that I hope she will like. Looked at cashmere scarves, didn't move me, books, nothing new that she doesn't have, drifted into the jewellery counters at David Jones when inspiration hit me. Why support the large stores when you are looking for something unique, it wont be found there. Now I have for a long time loved a unique little shop, part gallery and they always support artists, that's my sort of shop. And what a unique name 'Behind the Monkey'. After perusing all the beautiful artist made jewellery I decided on some really unusual earrings, picasso-esq by Jewellery artist Karen Thompson. If you go to http://behindthemonkey.com.au/ and scroll down to the July 4 entry on their blog.
This lovely lady and her daughter are so creative, above is my gift wrapped with imaginative wings made from a magazine page, and on the left is a little envelope made from another magazine page to hold my credit card and receipt, rolled up is the artist's bio and tied with string, the little details mean so much.

The windows are constantly changed and worth a visit in themselves, if you are in Perth, make a point of visiting this wonderful shop, you won't regret. A couple of doors down is Elmo's who have the most amazing continental meats, try a hot kransky sausage, saurkrout and mustard dressing on a breadroll, yum.

We have some very talented artist's in Perth and Behind the monkey is the place to see some of them

Have a great weekend

Jacky

Jim Morrison and the Doors

2010-07-10T19:42:00.001-07:00

I booked tickets to see the documentary 'When you're strange' about Jim Morrison and the band the Doors.John and I braved the rain to see it last night at the Astor Cinema, an Art Deco cinema in Mount Lawley. John does not like to get out of his comfort zone and go to cinema's so that was a feat in itself, I think he enjoyed it, a man of few words is John.

I did not remember Jim Morrison and the Doors, at the time I was busy bringing up children, at that time all you seemed to hear on the radio was that punk rock which I could not stand. I like gutsy rock music, forget about the punk bit. Although I do recall hearing 'Light my fire' and loving its energy. I loved the film, loved the music, to me he had a man voice and I loved that.I had been intrigued with Jim Morrison ever since I took photo's of his grave at Pere le chaise (spelling probably not accurate) and read that his fans came and had parties at his graveside they grafitti'ed over all the surrounding graves so that now it has a security guard there to prevent any further actions, beer bottles would be left there for him, and how one admirer stole the bust that was on his headstone. I like that he was anti establishment and a non conformist, things I wish I was brave enough to be. He was a beautiful adonis, strutting the stage or leaping into the air in such abandon. Ray Manzek they keyboardist in the Doors band remembers his friend as Jimbo, his wild irish heritage, was on one side the gentle dreamer in his poetry and on the other this wild man with his lust for sex, alcohol, self destruction and anything forbidden by the authority of conservative middle class America. Throughout the documentary Johnny Depp's narration was sensitive and soulful. The original footage of the night in Miami, Jim provoked a mass hysteria and riots in the 15,000 overcrowded venue that safely held 10,000. This resulted in the police closing down the concert after the temporary scaffolding collapsed and Jim was thrown into the crowd. Jim was charged with inciting a riot and indecency charges and the rest of the tour cancelled. If you get a chance go see this documentary I do believe that it is also out on dvd. enjoy!!!!

2010-06-17T23:38:00.000-07:00

Well I have got back into things again, our looming Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handmade Market next Friday has a lot to do with that. Nothing like a deadline to get you moving. As I wanted to make something new for our market I have pulled out the sewing machine, as finding things is still an issue, have decided to not stress and just go with what I can find. These little dresses are my inspiration for a range of products that I think suit vintage as I use vintage materials and I think they have a romantic shabby chic look. I am in the process of making small heart cushions and wall hangers to go with them. The photo above is the dresses before I wash them

These are after I have soaked them in boiling water, then screwing them real tight to take the water out, I then hang them on the line to dry. All this does is take out the dressing in the fabric and give it a nice wrinkly look which I like, think it gives it an old look. When they are dry they are also quite stiff.This is a close up look of the detail on the pocket. I still need to sew some beads on and do a little bit of embroidery. Make a wire coat hanger and make a pocket parcel to package when sold. I was inspired by Ruth Rae's book 'layered, tattered & stitched' on fabric art. I have tried to add my own slant on her designs.

I have just learnt a knew trick with my point and shoot digital camera, there is a little flower symbol which when pressed down gives a cool macro lens for close up photo's, this is my photo I took using that symbol, pretty cool aye, bit scarey too, can you see all that dust on the tray grhhh.... just because I am working from home, housework has to take a back seat to deadlines. I have been looking a SLR digital camera's, now I have a SLR camera that we bought about 30 years ago with all these cool lenses by Tokina at considerable expense. I haven't used it since I got my digital point and shoot, I have looked into the possibility of buying a case only digital SLR that I could use the Tokina lens attached, unfortunately it is not recommended as technology has moved tremendously in 30 years, and the cases of a digital SLR may not be compatible. So decision has been made that as the my point and shoot does take good photo's I am going to take my SLR in to make sure batteries etc still working and enquire if film is still available and just go back to taking special photo's with film. I am thinking that possibly rather than having the photo's developed and printed, that I may be able to get them on a disk that I can manipulate etc on the computer and print only the photo's I like. Anyone out there still using SLR camera's and film?

Have a wonderful weekend full of fun and enjoyment, after all that is what weekends are for.

Jacky

journey over

2010-06-05T19:19:00.000-07:00

Well its all over, we finally finished cleaning up the shop at 8.30pm Saturday week ago, so much work but we got there with a lot of help from family. Husbands are such treasures at a time like this. Anthony, Joannes husband with the help of his family did all the heavy lifting of cabinets, taking down wall panelling, and John followed up with filling all the holes you get in the walls of old buildings, sanding and painting. We where very grateful for all their help.
Now its a case of getting back into a routine, we have had a week of rest to get over it all and time to move on. We have our Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handmade Market in less than 3 weeks and I need to make new products for this. I have semi cleared my studio, well at least enough to move around, finding things is challenging, but hey I have all day to do it...... Its also time to get back into my blogging and I will try to make it a bit more interesting for you.

countdown

2010-05-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

One week to go, and a full on one, party with the class girls on Wednesday then close the shop doors Thursday, packing and carting all the stock and fittings we are keeping to our respective homes. This all with some trepidation but lots of excitement.....
My friday foto, I am all dressed up and ready to go.
This week the Expertise Craft and Quilt fair rolled into town, this fair has been very disappointing the last few years, but Phillipa and I arranged to have a day out just in case it had improved and we where very pleasantly surprised. As usual the first two rows where the same old same old so we scooted down the back and started from there. Lots of fibre art stalls this time and a lot of knitting yarns in silks, hemp, cotton in fact very little in wool, beautiful colours, vibrant or muted, I was tempted, but no, I am not going there. Same with the fibre art, I just love it, but don't want to do it, but I can always find products to incorporate with my mixed media.

I didn't buy all that much but got heaps of inspiration. Above is my purchases, floral papers, a beautiful piece of heavy cotton fabric with lovely roses on, the girl serving on this stall Studio Mio
had made an apron of this fabric and washed it and it has faded beautifully, very aged shabby chic, this stall has all sorts of things for making handbags and I always buy a lot from them. They usually have lovely Japanese fabrics also. Next to this fabric is more fabric, amazing hemp fabric from Goergina Mavor this was her first time at this fair, other than the hemp of which I bought two pieces in different shades of vintage white the indigo cotton piece was also from her. I did mean to go back to her stall and buy some of the gorgeous sheets of paper she carried, big sheets amazing colours, but never made it. On the Indigo cotton some fake cameos, great for fabric journals. Finally a book "the art of polymer clay", looks really good. After the fair we walked up to St Georges Terrace (the money area of Perth) for a bite to eat, the food at the fair is over priced and average in taste, hence heading into town for lunch, well worth it too. We had a wonderful sisters day out, it was a lovely sunny mild autumn day. We caught the train in then walked to the fair, area's we hadn't been before, should of taken my camera, oh well.....

Tomorrow, granddaughter Samara, Joanne and I are going to the Art Gallery to see the exhibition by mixed media artist from Hobart, Patricia Piccinini, above is one of her sculptures, and yes the little boy is a sculpture, isn't it amazing, I am so looking forward to seeing them in the flesh so to speak. I am now going to have more time to do this sort of thing.
Have a great weekend ...

Saturdays

2010-05-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

I have a little routine going on Saturdays, I call into the organic shop first to get fruit and veges. The reason I go so early is that they shut at 1.30 and I don't close until 2. Then its onto Galleria to get fresh bread at Bakers Delight and a cup of coffee to go at Aroma Cafe, nice coffee...... I open the shop and as its not usually busy on Saturday I settle down with my coffee, check and answer my emails. My blog is next and check up on my favourite blogs to see what everyone is doing, make comments because its nice to get comments. A couple of hours have gone by and now its my time to work on some art either for class samples or just for me When I am being creative I tend to make one helluva mess, pulling things out of this old suitcase (love my old suitcases) matching colours and textures, a bit of old lace here, braid there, scraps of velvet or linen and so it goes on, this can take me quite a while.
Only two more weeks in the shop and we will move everything out in that time, packing up paper packs, fabric packs and old metal packs to sell in the shop sale or have ready to sell at the markets after we shut shop, don't want to just lug it all home, will never find anything that way. I dont know what I will do on Saturdays when the shop shuts, guess I will form another routine, I am such a creature of habit, I am sure i will be quite lost to begin with, however we have Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handmade Market that we run coming up 25th and 26th June and I do want to make lots for that. We will be also selling a lot of our vintage peices from the shop and those I have stashed in the garage at home. Joanne will take most of the stock to her house, she has a converted attached garage that is her workroom so will fit a lot in there. I will carry all the workshop stuff plus the materials for making stock. It will be edging into the bedroom and sliding into bed from the bottom for a little while until that can be all sorted and taken to our market.

Mothers Day

2010-05-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

tomorrow is Mothers Day, happy Mothers Day to all those readers who are also Mothers. My mother has been gone about 16 years and I miss her so very much. I was truly blessed with a mother who believed in everything I did (mmh not quite everything), was never judgemental, never believed I could do anything wrong. She made us the most beautiful clothes, show day we always got a lovely new dress, and I felt like a little princess, which was pretty amazing as most of the time I was this ferral skinny kid with wild curly hair and freckles. My dad was a painter and decorator and spent a lot of time away from home painting in the country, this didn't stop mum from taking us out at night, my biggest fears where at night (growing up in rural NZ with story telling sessions with my Moari friends on ghost's from their rich cultural beliefs, water spirits where the ones I feared most), I never saw any fear from her when we walked in the dark, with us four girls that close to her it was a wonder she could walk at all. In later years I realised how patient my mother was, we where constantly moving around, I never heard her complain about it, as long as she had her husband by her side and her four daughters that was where home was, she didn't really get a chance to buy nice home things and made do with what she could but it was always homely.New show dresses, mum and me on the right side with my auntie and cousins at the Gisborne show, see those cool vintage cars.
Love and miss you mum.....

foto friday 30 april 2010

2010-04-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

The last few days we have had clouds moving up above, I noticed really lovely shadows on the fence at the side of our carpark. My friday foto I feel like part of the shadows, blending into the fence...... The sun is brighter here and the shadows darker...............

And back behind the clouds, I do like the shape of these lovely arching branches against the blandness of the fence. Such a fresh green after the dull greens of summer.......
Because the sun is going in and out of the clouds, when it comes out it is so sharp, hence the squinting, of course the fact I am uncomfortable having my photo taken......

Anzac Day

2010-04-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was ANZAC day, Australia, New Zealand Armed Corps, I think I got that right. A day to remember the brave service men and women from Australia and New Zealand who fought for their country in the first and second world wars and those since. Australian organisers came up with some stupid idea that the children and grandchildren could not march in the parades for the dawn service, fortunately New Zealand doesn't seem so narrow minded. Sometimes I think the people who come up with these ideas are too filled up with their own importance. These men and women sacrificed their lives to protect and preserve their home lands as they knew it, did these men who made these decisions even put their life at risk for their country. I know my dad did, and he would find the idea preposterous, in fact he didn't go to any of the parades and I only remember him going to one of the reunions, he wanted to move on with his life and not let the fact that he fought in a war define who he was. Not that he didn't think about his friends and comrades that did die, but he preferred to keep it private. I think he thought a lot of them used it as an excuse for drinking booze and he certainly had the right to that opinion.

My dad is the middle one in the bottom row with the black curly hair. This would of been taken in the desert of El Amien, can you see the tent to the left this would of been where they slept and stored their belongings, must have been very hot, they are not wearing their uniforms.

In this photo you can see a bit more of their army camp. Looks like early morning shaving. My dad told me sometimes it was so hot that they slept outside the tent, until one morning he woke with a snake curled up on his belly, bet he would rather have woken to enemy gunfire than a snake on his belly. Like most people I wish I had asked him more about his time when he came home from the war, he had a wonderful sense of humour and I am guessing this and a wonderful extended family helped him settle back into civilian life, also it wasn't like the war ended and he was shipped home, he had gone home to NZ on medical leave after 3 years and refused to go back, he went AWOL and then served in the army in NZ in the Prison of War Camp guarding mostly Japanes POW's. I remember you dad and am so thankful you came home to become my wonderful dad. Love you always and forever. We will not forget!

foto friday 2

2010-04-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

Thursday we had a torrential downpour, gutters just could not keep up. It was like standing behind a waterfall, luckily the chairs weren't out, they would have been drenched, can you see the water on the bricks a little lake going on there.

My friday foto was taken from the same spot the next day, rain all over. This is our meeting room, where we hash out ideas and plans, coffee breaks and even lunch is spent out here. After the rain the birds go crazy, they enjoy it as well. As the school holidays are on, I am on my own so its a good chance to catch up on some of the magazines for inspiration.

This is some inspiration I found in an older Somerset Studio. Photo on the right is one photo and the same photo printed onto a transparency with the back painted with Titan Buff acrylic paint. Best to allow your transparency to dry completely, maybe a week, then paint fairly thickly on the back with Titan Buff, try not to paint over your painted area to much as it can drag your image. Looks like an old tin type photo, I am impressed, I can use this technique in my vintage journals.

our shop

2010-04-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

Hi, here are some photo's of our shop window, a vintage vignette. We will be letting our shop go early in October, I love our shop but sometimes you have to weight things up and make decisions if this is the best way to go financially or if there is a better way. We have decided that we can do better without that financial outlay and put our time and effort into a different direction. We will still operate the business but from home, with our online shop and hire floor space for classes and workshops, this will leave us the freedom of time to follow other avenues, mine will be to travel around this great big state, teaching and demonstrating the products we love. We will also do the fairs etc. And I have a really interesting project for next year, you will have to wait to hear about this one. Following are photo's of the shop window and in the shop.

Enjoy your weekend
Jacky

foto friday

2010-04-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

Aaaargh well I finally did it. Do you know how hard it was for me to take my own photo and then put it on my blog, really uncomfortable. As a young girl (gee when was that) I never thought about what I looked like, I was just to busy being me. Only in later years have I avoided having photo's taken, I think in the world today it is all about how you look, and if you feel you don't measure up you change the way you look, mmmh how much that would cost and how much art stuff or travel could i do with that money. Well I don't want to be judged anymore on how I look, yes I am ageing, it has always been my opinion (usually try to keep this to myself) that we all have our time in the sun and that is up to when we are about 30 or so, accept that and let the next generation enjoy their time in the sun. By this time you should have grown in other area's so it does not matter. Me personally, I know I have grown creatively, I am not a great artist but I am proud of what I do. This has nothing to do with how I look, so under this shell of a body is a creative spirit that has now emerged and I will embrace it. No no no, surgery or anything else for me, if you don't like how I look, don't look at me, I wont mind one bit. I'd rather you looked at what I am doing. I have too much living to do.
Well there you have my first foto friday well the photo was taken on Friday in our studio at the rear of our shop, relatively clean for us! Damn when i look at the photo that is real clean...

Happy Easter to you all

2010-04-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend classes went really well. The class at Bunbury Catholic College was a joy, they where so eager to soak up as much as they could in the very short 2 hour classes and the time just flew, no time to be creative but there was enough teachers there to guide them through the techniques they missed.
Good news on Johns car, on the way back we had an appointment to see the Insurance assessors, they put up special posts to get everyone through as quick as possible. Johns car was assessed as repairable, it was borderline, there was only two door panels without hail damage and if they had also had damage it would have been written off. Its good news because he loves his car! Could be up to 6 months or more before it can be repaired but it is drivable so no biggie.
Hope you all have a peaceful Easter and stay safe on the roads. We are staying at home, too many hoons on the roads.
cheers
Jacky

Stormy weather

2010-03-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

Well we wanted rain, and what did we get a wild weather storm with hail the size of golf balls, gale force winds and torrential rain, but I am not complaining my garden loved it, big thirsty gulps going on there.
Amazing photo's of the storm coming in from the North.

John's car unfortunately was damaged by hail all down one side, was parked at work in Osborne Park, the storm hit there at 3.30, it didn't reach us until after 4.30 and we didn't get any hail.

Can you see the big chunks taken out of the wind visor above. He was lucky though, no broken windows that others had. The car dealers that he worked for had damage on just about every vehicle probably over a 100 vehicles, there will be some good bargains to be had if you can do your own panel beating. It has been said that some car dealerships insurance where not covered for hail damage as it is such a rare occurrence.
I am off to Bunbury and Collie on Saturday teaching a class so will not have time to do my blog so hope you all have a lovely weekend.
cheers
Jacky

class samples

2010-03-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it takes me ages to get class samples made, finally got this one made using Character Construction stamps and Golden fluid glazes. The stages are cut out of foamcore, wrapped in rice paper then attached to 8 x 10 inch canvas boards. I am really enjoying working with stamps at the moment. The best part of teaching is coming up with new ideas and then sharing them with the classes. Next Saturday I am off to Collie and Bunbury where I am teaching a workshop, and spending a little bit of time with daughter Kirsty and family. Weather has finally cooled down and we are getting beautiful autumn weather. Still no rain, over a 100 days without rain, the last long period without rain was about 1947 where they went 80 odd days. Climate changes mmmh!
Have a wonderful weekend

2010-03-12T19:02:00.000-08:00

How do you cope with extremes of hot and cold, I find it much easier to cope with the cold as you can rug up. But the heat aaargh, this is how I cope. I water my gardens first thing in the morning and take the dog for a walk usually before 7am as its not too unbearable at that time. Pump up the air conditioner if I am staying at home and then hibernate inside until evening. If I have to go out which I do most days I turn my air conditioner in my car on, that is wind down all the windows and if I hook my hand on the top of the window ledge I can channel the air onto myself like a mini air tunnel, very economical too, stopping at the lights is a bit hard to take as the car doesn't like the heat either and tends to overheat, so you try to judge the distance to the lights and then jag that you arrive just as they turn green, takes a lot of planning when your heads in a fog of heat exhaustion. Like the other morning after my tepid shower I sprayed deodorant under my arms, thought ooh that's nice and cool then noticed it was hairspray so was a quick wash under the arms before they stiffened. Now when I am at the shop I have to get whatever work I want to do, done in the morning while the air conditioner is coping, because by lunch time the sun is overhead and its hardly effective at all. My arms keeping sticking to the papers so I give up in frustration, especially if you are tracing something, you move your arm and everything moves. Drink lots of cold water until you feel like your organs are floating around in your body, funny thing is you drink all this water but it does not pass right through, you wanted to know that didn't you haha. Sleeping on top of the sheets with cotton nightwear so the air from the air conditioner can pump down onto your hot body, that's hot from the heat now, nothing else. Last thing you can think of... Sometimes summer here in Western Australia when you get weeks and weeks of temperatures over 30 is just a case of getting through it until glorious autumn arrives sometime in March which can last until June, sheer bliss.
How do you cope?????

Bushfires

2010-03-07T22:39:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I joined a group of women at Toodyay who have formed a group doing visual journals. It was so lovely to get out of the city into the countryside, Toodyay is about an hour out of Perth. The get together was held at Ruth's lovely home outside the township on a hobby farm, a lovely serene spot. Driving up I caught sight of where the bushfire rushed towards the township, luckily not reaching the town, thanks to all those brave people who put their lives at risk to fight fires. There was a lot of loss of homes and sheds but fortunately no life. Living in Australia this is an occurrence you have to expect with long dry spells, extreme heat and winds.
Driving home I pulled over and took a few photo's to share with you. The bushfire was just after Christmas and even without rain there is signs of green coming through, the countryside is so resilient.

Dry barren paddocks appears most of the soot has blown away with the winds. Charred tree trunks at the edge of the roadCan you see how dry the grass is at the bottom of the photo, but the trees are showing green already. How frightening it must have been for the residents and people in the area at the time, not knowing which way the wind is going to sweep the wall of flames. It moves so fast. Our thoughts go out to those affected by this disaster.

2010-02-19T17:19:00.000-08:00

On our website we have a picture of my great grandfathers tearooms. Arriving from Canton, China around the same time as my great grandmother arrived from England, they met and married in Gisborne, it was quite unusual for a Chinese man to marry a non Chinese women in those times. They became quite wealthy, owning tearooms, hotel and land. As was quite common they went back to China, presumably to take money back to his parents. This was during the boxer revolution. Leaving his family in Canton' he took a trip upriver to his home village, at sometime on this trip he disappeared never to be seen again, it was presumed that bandits got him as a ransom letter was received. A return trip had been paid for and my Grandmother and all 7 children (my grandfather was about 14yrs old) returned to New Zealand, somewhere in the history the younger son was put in a boarding school either in Sydney or Hongkong, information a bit hazy here, it was presumed that he was at risk of being kidnapped. He was the younger son, maybe an easier task.
The moral to this little story is that on Monday I received an email from a girl in New Zealand who was also a descendant from this Howchow line. A small world. How lucky am I though, we can share information on our family tree.
Have a great weekend
Jacky

What to do with a pair of jeans stained with wax

2010-02-12T20:28:00.000-08:00

Dearest grand daughter brought in a pair of her jeans that she had dripped candlewax on and couldn't get it off with washing, the wax had seeped into the denim. Where the skull is was the biggest area of stain, so we mixed gesso with GAC 900 fabric painting medium. When dry we mixed GAC 900 with Acrylic paint and stencilled and stamped in red. Using stazon black we stamped script knowing that it would be washable. Alla arty jeans that are original.

Windows of a period gone by

2010-02-12T18:11:00.000-08:00

In the previous entry I mentioned I had gone looking for something to create a hinge on a project that I was working on. Finally finished the project and want to share with you. This is a large piece each window approx 12" x 8" a good size to work in. The lovely old frame Joanne has let me use has pale yellow and cream paint in patches the rest bare wood. Without the hinged covers.The top right hand corner window I have vintage album page with a rather austere looking lady
parlour card and below a smaller parlour card of a gentleman that could be her husband. A small soft leather coin purse, black feather an a vintage button sewn on a piece of vintage fabric.Top middle window the background is a backing page out of one of the covers on the bottom of frame, I just loved the lovely rich colours. A glove metal frame for keeping your gloves nice and neat, all shabby chipped paint, I was lucky to buy a pair at local antiques fair. An old rusty pair of scissors bought at a flea market in Sydney. A piece off a very old moulding from Italy, vintage ephemera and on the bottom a little bottle with blue glitter and a smaller one with a rolled up scrap of a letter.Top right hand window another vintage album page with parlour card. The piece of blue tissue I found in an old album I bought in Sydney it has a lady holding a torch at the bottom of a set of steps a rather roman scene. A scrap of hand dyed silk with a vintage button, crochet scrap with a rhinestone buckle, corrugated cardboard and in the left hand bottom corner an old letter set A.Below right hand corner is a window which I later hinged a cover of an album. A collection of vintage bits and pieces. the spine of an old book which I love the texture and colour. Wired on a fragment from an old plate. Underneath is a lovely silk mantle for a kerosene lamp, below it is the cardboard box it came in and behind the silk mantle is the lovely glassine bag it was protected in. All this housed on a old journal page with the spine still attached.This lovely old album page has these really cute fat chicken in lovely sepia colours with another parlour card of a young girl. On the top left corner a brass metal stencil No 4 my lovely sister gave me. At the bottom of parlour card is a bit of beautiful beaded fabric 1 inch wide that Mandy and I shared from Claremont Antique and craft fair. Its a good idea if you see something really lovely but a bit pricey, share with a friend. The vintage spool with bronze thread is a gift from a really thoughtful friend who bought it from Tinsel Trading which she visited when she was in America. This window is bottom middle.Window bottom left is the collage under the Journal cover. Music sheet background, scraps of knitted fabric with french trims from French Flea Market. Scraps of old vintage sepia colour paper an image on transparency paper and a ticket for Royal stall at a theatre several of these vintage ephemera I have been given by the thoughtful sharing girls that come to our classes.You have got to admit they made beautiful album covers probably in the Victorian era, this one is all padded, in fact when I tried to drill through it all this fibre whizzed around the drill bit so drilling wasn't going to work so I had to Peirce the holes with a awl and hammer (ok don't shudder in horror, its a means to an end) this one sat on top of the bottom right window. This is where I am trying to figure out what looks best. Also these where the covers I was looking for hinging for. Can you see the lovely blossoms engraved in this cover just meant for a bird or two.
The hinged cover on the right side window, I am not going to add anything else other than a photo with an old vintage thermometer, the embossing is too decorative to cover.The finished frame, can you see how I hinged the covers. The left one is hinged with some old bullet webbing I had bought to use in my Dads war journal, there is heaps of it so these three bits won't be missed and they are the right grubby worn look for this period. The right one I have used a strip of calico to hinge and added some vintage buttons.The hinged covers have worked well, they had to be strong to take the weight of the covers.
Across the bottom of frame I have tacked in a brass hinge opened out flat, with the word 'behind'. The book etcera etc inspired me with this collaged vintage window frame. I hope you don't think I am big noting myself by mentioning where I got different items, but I know some readers like to know that sort of thing. This will be for the shop window when our sale finishes.
Have a great weekend
Jacky

Treasure finds

2010-02-05T17:19:00.000-08:00

recently I visited a favourite shop to look for something to make hinges out of. Rustic Gallery in Midland has the most amazing collection of vintage and collectibles in Perth, I hadn't visited for over a year and was amazed at how much stock they now have. If you have a bush block and want old rustic items for garden display, they have just about anything that you can imagine old rusty truck, farm machinery etc. The prices are very reasonable, but every time I go I spend more than I should in volume.

The black box opened in the centre at the back was the dearest item, apparently very collectible it is 'The Boston Crankshaft alignment indicator' which I paid $30, this spoke to me and I went and picked it up several times and put it back again, before I gave in to temptation. The reason I bought it was for the lovely dark dark brown colour, broken hinge, well worn on the edges, but most of all the lovely velvet lining which was at one time a tobacco colour but with age and use is now a dark brown with patch's of gold showing through. This I envisage a lovely little vintage journal or even a small sculpture.
I already have a project for this army water bottle carrier (I think) it is a hard metal covered in webbing fabric and will be perfect for the War Journal on my dad which will be housed inside, can you see a war medal attached to the front and other war memorabilia. This will be a favourite son's Christmas present, see I have started early this year. I have been collecting memorabilia for this journal for over two years. I also wrote the journal up on my computor with all the war photo's and excerpts from letters he wrote to his sister. Now the letter M I just loved the shape and colour, M for mine haha, Mandy.
Now can you see a lovely old journal peeking out of this old tatty tool bag with paint smears in pink and white, just like the old Filerite alpha cards. These cards I can see made into a journal the outside parts have gone a shade of green whereby the hidden from light parts are a lovely shade of turquoise. I had thought the webbing buckle might serve as a hinge the buckle is way to big for what I want. But I will find a use for it, possibly in the war journal.And this dear little leather pouch about 5" x 7" in size has a handmade look about it, stitching coming undone in places, was only $7 what a bargain.
Now to some these will look like a pile of old junk, not seeing the possibilities and possibly still think them junk when I turn them into vintage art but you cannot win them all and thats ok. I love Nina Bagley's art and this is what inspires me. Have a nice weekend
Jacky

tomato recipe

2010-01-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

Too hot to do a lot this week, here is a recipe that I like making, very simple a no brainer. I use the Piccollini truss tomatoes from the supermarket. (will try and save some seed and see if I can grow them) they are the sweetest tomatoes, sweeter even than the organic ones. I use a small pan only 2 of us, a drizzle of olive oil, cut all the tomatoes in half and place cut side up. Place a pinch of salt (organic if you have it) on each tomato and a pinch of brown sugar (I know tut tut, bad cook) but it gives a lovely caramel taste.

Heat on low for about 5 minutes then turn tomatoes over and press down with back of a fork, this squeezes some of the juice out. Whoops forgot, heat a further 5 mins add a splash of balsamic
Hard to get a photo of this part as it steams up my camera lens, but you get the picture.
And wella, lovely juicy tomatoes with a thick sauce, nice with steak, chicken, other meats of just on toast. Give it a try, did you know that cooked tomatoes are good for men's prostrate, they say its better than raw!
Birdhouse now in the garden looking out from the family room, I had a photo from the kitchen window but the darn thing keeps disappearing so I am giving up on it. Computor doing silly things today, maybe doesn't like the heat either.
Wow look at that found it, no the window is not dirty, cleaned them recently, its a wonder it didn't rain. I am giving up on this computor, going back to making another Teesha journal, found a sheet of dark cream watercolour paper, will try a different style decorating the journal.
Enjoy your weekend
Jacky

What to do in a heatwave

2010-01-22T21:14:00.000-08:00

When its hot and I try to do art, my arms stick to the pages so that was out. Next option was sewing, as I could set myself right under the air condition vent that's the option I took. I made two more of Ruth Rae inspired dresses, as friends and daughters have all put in orders and I want one to hang at home as well, so that was a start. We had 3 days in a row over 40 degrees.This little dress I used a tan thread (a darker brown might have been better) but Sunny liked this colour. Can you see my machine writing sloping up, if I don't have a line to follow this is what I do. You will see in some of my journal pages I do it too, because I haven't made a line to follow.
Close up of the pocket, I have added a lovely french china button I was given goes nice with the vintage laces and the touches of pink, the pink tulle under the button is very old and fragile so had to be careful and hand sewed it on.I try to make my dresses my own style, these stitched wings are my attempt at being different and the stitching around the edges I have designed to be like a vine with occasional flowers and leaves.Black stitching on this one stands out a lot better and see I got the machine writing straight, my little secret on how I did that.The black button is vintage of a maple leaf with bits cut out, behind it is a piece of ribbon embroidery I did on silk ages ago, hadn't done anything with it so chopped it up. Do you see the black vine and leaves around the edge of the pocket The stuffed heart inside the pocket has pearls sewn on in groups of 3.I think the wings look pretty good, I am proud of them, what do you think. I include my initials and the year in a little box at middle of back showing in the neckline. Woo hooooo ten minutes to go and three whole days off, catch you next week.
Remember the words TRANSPARENCY and EMERGENCE for 2010
Jacky

This is what I did in the break

2010-01-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

In the Christmas break I had this journal I had prepared which I managed to get almost finished. The journal was one that Teesha Moore very generously gave directions on making, go to Teesha Moore's website to get details. Teesha Moore also with her family organises and runs the wonderful Artfest retreats, to do one of her retreats is on my list of things I would love to do. This is my cover with the fold back flap showing. Flap closed and first two pages.
And flap open. Pages 3 and 4 pages 5 and 6 with flap closed and flap opened. Middle of journal
pages 7 and 8 with flap closed, these are my Australian pages
last 2 pages with flap closed, the flap has not been journaled yet
inside of flap showing back cover of the journal.
I tried not to think too much about the collage, used a lot of clip art Teesha Moore's, Art Chix, Lynne Perella paper and bits and pieces I cut out of magazines. I used the french Rives in 300gm instead of the Artistico that Teesha used the reason being that I liked the softness and flexibility of Rives. I used the Golden fluids to colour my pages and Pan Pastels to shade. I tried a variety of pens for text, the sharpie hi lighters are good but change colour with the background, they are transparent and also I found they took a long time to dry so had to wait to add other colours around the letters. The zig calligraphy pens where great for shaping your letters with the lovely chisel led ends, but also transparent. The Copic also good but still the same problem with transparency. I found the best for true colour was the Sharpie poster pens which I could only get on ebay, they don't come in chisel, great for thinner lettering. Unfortunately Sharpie have been discontinued. My preference for a white pen was Uniball sigma available in stationery shops, just a hint with this pen, write with pen vertically doesn't work very well on an angle. I would recommend you give this journal a go, because there aren't a lot of pages its not so daunting. As to the journaling I didn't want to think about what I wrote and concentrated on the lettering, I wrote quotes and poems I found on the internet and in books, don't look to close you are bound to find spelling mistakes, I know, now you are going to look for them. Entering this post has been a challenge, as there are problems on Internet Explorer and too impatient to download the thingy to fix it, I have used Mozilla Firefox. This site is interesting downloading the photo's was much quicker, but once they where downloaded to move them down the page I had to drag the photo onto the top of each photo until I reached where I wanted it to go, a bit of a long process, maybe there was another way but couldn't see one. Also when I went back to close up gaps and centre some of the text I lost the last photo, so if it turns up twice when I publish the post, it must have been hiding under one of the other photo's. To those readers in Australia, enjoy your Australia Day Festivities.

Christmas over already

2010-01-05T22:05:00.000-08:00

Where did the time go, I did mean to make an entry before closing the shop before Christmas, well you can see that didn't happen. I find it is so crazy leading up to Christmas what with fairs to participate in, all the shopping to do (food that doesn't get eaten, it was way to hot, next Christmas I hope to be more organised, plan a menu at least). Before Christmas I made a lot of my Christmas presents, I really enjoyed that and i think the recipients liked them. I bought Ruth Rae's book layered, tattered & stitched (lovely book) early December and then we got the Art Quilting Studio magazine in with more of Ruth Rae's work, I fell in love with her little dresses so made two of my sisters one each and the other one a wall hanging similar to Olivia Thomas's in same Art Quilting.

This little dress I put the pocket up to high and couldn't fit the heart in with out it obscuring the winged heart above, so made a note and put that in the pocket.And this one which was the first I made, the stuffed heart fitted in perfectly. You learn by your mistakes don't you!!!!I loved the quote on this one and it was so meaningful for my dear sister, "everything will be okay in the end", "if its not okay, its not the end".And these are the completed journals for my three older granddaughters, I also made thinner ones for three of the others using cornflake cartons to make the covers, they just love doing this sort of art.See that white birdhouse on top (not the best view) that was my Christmas present from my two daughters and son. This is on display at our Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handmade Market held last October, planning another one in July.

Now this is my meager last minute attempt at decorating the house for Christmas, I am attempting to minimize, John finished painting all this area and i think the minimal looks good.I brought these lovely little Churches and snow covered houses home from the shop.close up of the decorations on the table, plus brown paper wrapped gifts with string, for GrandchildrenThis is my Christmas tree this year, I bought it last Christmas, it has these real dainty little lights on the white branches.This is a present for my daughter, I got the idea from someones blog, wrap in french looking tea towel (cost less than nice paper) I always buy my daughters a Christmas decoration and attach to their present. This lovely little french heart with zinc leaves and red berries I got from a lovely French shop at Kalamunda called Needle in Provence, if you live in Perth have a look.My lovely granddaughters dressed up for a surprise party for Mum on the 2nd January.Little boy in our shop while his lovely Mum had a haircut next door, he has grown hasn't he. Hope this makes up for my lack of blogging, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and wish you the best for 2010.

Jacky

2009-12-10T22:22:00.000-08:00

Gosh it has been almost a month since I last made a post here. Well you know it is the silly season for us, what with fairs each week haven't had time to scratch myself. I want to share some photo's taken in our garden a month ago when it was still spring. This is a new garden I created early winter, trying to make the back shadier as it is a real heat trap.

This is a closer image taken about a month ago everything is thriving.We pulled out all the shrubs at the front and have put in more formal gardens with box hedging around the edges of all gardens. The garden bed on the left has a row of the hibiscus commonly known as the cotton tree, they have lovely big red shaded heart shaped leaves, I think they will look lovely when they grow and for a high hedge, have moved some roses from the bed on the right to this bed and they are now thriving, lots of blooms. The Jacaranda in the middle of the lawn is a mass of lovely mauve blooms and leave now.Hah, can you see John trying to quickly get inside, poor love he did all the hard labour, the old bushes took a lot of work getting out.Lovely pink rose next to the garage puts on a lovely show for a few weeks and that its lot for the year, but so worth it, looks lovely framed against that lovely blue sky (I can tell you I am over that blue sky now, have had a few scorchers).One of the baby doves I captured on film out the front, the doves have been very busy, babies everywhere.This lovely apricot is the last of the climbing roses on the side fences, puts on a lovely show too. Roses in the bird bath....The star jasmine outside the bathroom fills the house with the most intoxicating perfume from its abundant blossoms, has been flowering for almost a month. There I have probably bored you stiff with my garden post but I know my family in New Zealand enjoy seeing it, so just skip through and look at the photo's. Bye for now Jacky

Miss Johnsons Vintage and Handmade Market 2009

2009-11-12T22:34:00.000-08:00

Well after spending the last 5 hours loading photo's etc on Miss Johnson's Vintage and Handmade Market I am all blogged out. Before I go I want to let you know it was and enormous success and we received lots of nice comments.

This was my stall that I was setting up until 12.30 Thursday night. Phil and I thought we would be clever, got the keys to the hall, set out all the trestles for the stall holders then went to load up with stock. Joanne and Anthony turn up with our heavy large furniture, took it all into the hall when a lady came in and asked what was going on. The hall was booked for Line Dancing until 9 oclock. Joanne, Anthony and kids roared around dismantling the trestles, putting the furniture etc in the foyer which they weren't using all in 30 minutes. When Phil and I arrived with cars laden with stock, pulled the curtains across the stage and unloaded all Phils stock up onto the stage behind the curtains in the dark, through the back door which was up the ramp. (can you just here Mum and Dad saying "What are those girls up to now") giggling away we crept into the kitchen hoping to be unseen to watch the dancing. The instructor saw us and tried to tempt us to join in (got to be joking, line dancing then setting up stalls to who knows what time). Went over to Albies, this little side of the road (like a pie cart if you can remember them) place that has log seating around an open fire. They had a write up about them giving them a top award for the whole of Australia for their hamburgers. Wow this place was jumping so many people waiting to their order, cars and motor bikes roaring in, took me back to my youth. So here is this couple of grey haired old ladies stretched out in front of the fire with our cappuccino's waiting until 9 oclock when we could get back to business in setting up. When I finally arrived home at 1 in the morning I couldn't get to sleep, so with about 3 hours sleep I was up again and back to the hall to decorate the hall and finish our stalls in time to help the other vendors get their stock into their stalls ready for 6 oclock opening. Whew, flew home to have a shower and get dressed, back to the hall 5.30 thank all the vendors for joining us and rewarding them with wine (only 1 glass mind you) and chocolates. Gee I feel tired just typing all this, I can tell you by 9 oclock closing I was nackered, could hardly lift my feet. Slept like a log and back again at 8.20 for trading until 4.30. If you are interested look on our blog http://missjohnsonsvintageandhandmademarket.blogspot.com damn me, I entered the other blog into the wrong blog spot, not have to go and try and figger out how to change it over.

Great Grandmother

2009-10-16T22:05:00.001-07:00

Recently I became a Great Grandmother to my Granddaughter Jessica and Joanne a Grandmother to a beautiful little boy Jayden Anthony. Holding Jayden is our first born Grandchild Samara Dawn, who would have thought it, Sam has named him jellybean from his first scan, she is smitten with her little nephew as are all the other Aunties Courtney, Kaitlin and Maddison. Oh and their is Alyssa a second Auntie and 2nd Uncles Brad, Randall, Jack and Ronin. He is not going to go with out much love.

Go here http://www.artisticjourney.com.au/ , go to Jo's blog have a look at more lovely photo's of Joanne and Jessica with one much loved bub.

Cover for Paper Journal

2009-10-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

When you finish all your pages, collate them by dividing them into 4 signatures (group of pages).

Fold each page in half, this should be along the masking tape and score to get a sharp edge, I use a bone score, but a credit card will do.To make your covers measure your folded pages, and using bookboard or something similar. I used a thinner more flexible bookboard for this one, as I am hoping she will take it in her schoolbag and it will get nice and shoddy from regular use. I also rounder the outside edges to stand up to rough treatment. For the spine using the same bookboard place all your folded pages into a pile inside the covers, measure from back cover to front cover with all pages in between, add a small bit extra to allow for book opening and shutting. (if you do not allow this gap your journal will not sit right.

Join the 3 pieces together using masking tape going all the way around front and back, put your overlapping tape on the inside of your cover. Score down the gap you have allowed between covers and spine. You will find that your journal will hinge nicely.

Above is folded cover waiting to be painted.

This one I have painted in Golden's Quin Burnt Orange, such a lovely vibrant colour suitable for a teenager I think.

Make a template for binding your journal. Measure the height of your pages from top to bottom. I also make a cross on the bottom of template to make sure that I always have that mark on the bottom, just in case I am out a bit in my measurements. It is possible you know. Mark in the centre page of your signatures making sure x is on bottom. Also make sure you have your pages up the right way, also possible to do believe me. Pearce through with a awl push it in well to make your holes big enough. Mark your holes in your spine allowing a space between each row to allow for thickness of signatures. You can use either an awl or if you have a Japanese screw punch use one of the smaller hole punch attachments as you only want a hole big enough for your binding thread. Binding Thread I must confess, here in Australia where its not always possible to get the authentic products we improvise, and I use Oven string, I figure if its strong enough to hold a chicken together cooking in the oven its strong enough to hold a little old journal together. For ease of binding and keeping the string tight I also run the string through a wax block, candle will also work just place string on candle and draw string through several times. To bind I use a long needle 3 or 4 inches long with a hole big enough to thread the string through.

At top or bottom of spine take string from outside of cover through first hole leaving about a 6 inch tail, from outside of first signature thread through first hole to middle of signature. Go to 2nd hole in middle of signature and thread string through signature then through inside of spine. Repeat in this running stitch manner until all holes threaded in the first signature you should be on the outside of the spine take a stitch sideways into next row of holes into next signature, repeat the first row, continue until all signatures are sewn in. You should end up with the two tails at the same edge, I take each one in to the hole next to it and thread it down through that hole, do the same with other tail then take under signatures until both tails are in the same gap then knot firmly. When you are sewing your journal into your spine you can add buttons or beads on opposite stitches going down the spine. I have done this on my Teesha Moore journals.

Above is the first Paper Journal finished. I have used the luscious Golden Green Gold on this one, painted a face on watercolour paper, sewn onto Blue cardigan St Cecilia - Waterhouse paper with black thread as I like the look of paper sewn onto other paper, I thought this paper matched the background of the image I had painted. You don't have to put a painted image you can just make a collage, if you make a paper collage, make sure you seal it, I use Golden Matt medium. I have left the back and inside covers painted with no collage as I am hoping my granddaughter will put what she likes on it.This is the same journal standing up so you can see the stitching on the spine, to match the colour of the cover I painted the string with green gold fluid. This Journal I have used heavier bookboard, it shouldn't bend at all. This journal is bigger at 13 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches than the burnt orange one at 8 x 10 inches. Wow that was an epic entry, I hope I have explained it clearly as putting the journal together correctly is very important to the overall look of your journal. Don't forget to send me photo's of your finished journals, I would really love to see them. Also if there is anything I haven't explained well enough please put it in the comments, this gives me a lot of good feedback.

3rd lesson on making paper journal

2009-09-23T23:37:00.000-07:00

Ok! so how have you been going preparing your pages, hope I have encouraged some of you reading my blog in having a go, because now comes the fun stuff, really I am getting as much fun making these journals as I am hoping my grand daughters will have fun using them. I am giving you the 3 stages of this one page to save you scrolling up and down to see the differences, above is the page with just the masking tape joining 2 pages together. My tools I have used are gesso, Pitt Brush Pens, fine line pen, stamps and scrap paper, other things you could consider are water colour crayons (you will need to put a sealer over the crayons, I use matt gel medium. I also use the gel medium to take the shine off the magazine images). This one is after I have added gesso.
And the finished pages waiting for the recipient to add script or more doodling. On the left of the page cut out from a teens magazine, cutting away all the background. Glue down with glue stick, glue a piece of scrap paper across bottom, great way to use up your scrap paper. Using a 8B graphite pencil draw around the edges where you would have shadows then smudge with a rubbing pencil (one of those firm rubber shaped like a pencil with a point on each end. These are really great for making shadows. On the right page using Pitt brush pens draw lines down from the figure every 2nd one draw stripes in two different colours and draw dots in the other space. Using a fine line black pen out line each stripe to define.
All that I have done with these pages is to write a quote on this one with a black fine line pen.

And this one a prompt for the recipient to continue with. With your black fine line pen, go for it, tats, wings, extra skirt, bangles and a hat, get the idea, so much fun I think she looks much more interesting now, journal ling can be added into all the white spaces. Golden gesso is a good substrate for your pen Remember this fun couple with fine line pen give them some movement and words coming out of their mouths and on the right I have used a prompt from Sabrina Ward Harrison's books, my favourite. Another scrap of paper on the bottom.
Use your favourite stamps mine are Nick Bantock (so quirky) using Pitt brush pens make a ribbon border around the crab and shade with graphite pencil and smudge, SWH prompts to get your ideas flowing. I used the black India Ink stamp pad as I find it nice and juicy.
Add scraps of paper one on right I have scalloped the edges and shaded. SWH prompts, a coloured photo with snips of masking tape on corners.This one a clip art clown with a border done with Pitt brush pens (one of my favourite tools).

Well that gives you some ideas the hardest part is knowing when to stop, and remembering its a gift for someone else, you just want to give them some ideas on creating their pages, way too much fun. In the one journal I have finished I have got 42 pages or 21 double pages. Will give you some time to catch up. Well that was a mammoth entry for me.

Have fun

Jacky

Second stage making a paper journal

2009-09-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

Okay the second step in your paper journal is to paint with gesso.

This one is painted just with gesso, can you see the script through the gesso

You can add some colour by adding a drop or two of fluid acrylic while the gesso is wet, this will lighten the colour. I also added an extra bit of bold script on the left hand side. You could add copies of photo's here and gesso over top.remember this fun one, gesso around the figures, then while gesso is wet use the other end of your paint brush to write some words or patterns. Page on the right is the one I ripped and I glued another page on top. Stronger page.Page out of bridal magazine, these pages are very shiny and paint doesn't want to adhere to it but the gesso is fine.Did you notice this image with all its dark background, whiten out with gesso and she floats with her wings spread out. This will give you plenty of options for next stage.This page is one of the bigger pages and I have only scanned one side. This page is out of the vogue book, I really like these, the pages aren't shiny and seem to take the gesso better, doesn't she stand out on the page.

Ok that's it for this stage, In my journal I am doing 5 double pages to each signature of which there will be four signatures (group of pages that will be sewn into spine together) so that will be approx 20 double pages. Will be back next week for next stage gives you plenty of time to get yours done.

have fun

Jacky

make a journal present with me

2009-09-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

Hi, I am sharing with you a journal (make it 3 journals) I am making for three of my grand daughters as Christmas presents. You have plenty of time to make some if you wish. Doesn't cost much just takes a little bit of your time to make a personal journal for someone you love to write in and add more photo's etc. The first image is of a journal Joanne made after doing a workshop with Sabrina Ward Harrison when she was in Perth last year. Joannes journal gave me the idea of making these as Christmas presents. Tools you will need are a selection of books and magazines, look for sturdy pages. Masking tape from hardware shop three and a half centimetres wide. Scissors, and gel medium, I use Golden because it's simply the best, you can see some of the background page and it strengthens the pages.

These are some of the magazines I used for my pages, I look for suitable images, lovely colour images in FreshFruits, lovely black and white images in the vogue book, more lovely images in a fashion advertising magazine and a bridal magazine and then lots from old books. Images I look for nice are fashion pics, animal pics, jewellery, bags, cosmetics etc pics all that would interest my teenage grand daughters. I also like different size pages to give more interest. Are you getting the idea.These pages from the voque book, nice sturdy pages, join your pages together with wide 3 1/2 cm wide masking tape (the one I am using is smoother than some, when I join 2 pages together I leave just a little gap. These are pages from old books, nice and sturdy, I like to separate the ones with images with these pages.These are the amazing pictures out of the freshfruit magazine, just wait and see how these come out after further treatment.

How funky is this page from Freshfruits, this is going to look amazing. You can join different pages from different books and different sizes. You may not be able to see but on the old book page has torn when I was putting the masking tape on, but not to worry I will cover it with another page which will cover and strengthen the whole page. Well folks I am off to do the next step and will show you that in the next day or two. I really hope you will give it a go, if you do send me some photo's of the ones you do. Have fun

Jacky

Online workshop

2009-09-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

Recently I joined an online workshop at http://creativeworkshops.ning.com/ after seeing some journal pages in the latest Stampington Journalling magazine that I really liked. I was a bit apprehensive, wondering if I would find time to do the classes. I need not have worried as I was hooked, love the fact the materials you use are very transportable and the moleskin journal is a good size.This was way too much fun, as you can see I don't have a very straight eye, practise will be needed here. Love the doodling, you can do it while watching television too.

These bottom two are my interpretation's of the techniques.

I would recommend anyone who cannot get to classes the online classes are a good way to try different techniques. I had trouble with the videos, they took over half an hour to download and then when trying to view would only go so far, stop then go back to the beginning, I gave up in the end, I am afraid I don't have a lot of patience with computers, a love/hate relationship, have nearly sent it flying out the door on several occasions. The workshop I did was Pam Carikker's Shades of Grey.

Suffragette Journal

2009-08-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

We finished the Suffragette Journal a couple of weeks ago. I need the girls to bring their completed journals so I can share with you.

This is a side view, as you can see it has got quite fat.

View from the opposite side with opening catch. To hold the pages shut, ribbon and chain with a padlock depicting women chaining themselves to iron railings, on cutting the chains they where thrown into prison, to contemplate their audacity to think they could be equal to man. I have also threaded on a enamel label with the word 'Journey' as this was an amazing journey in history

This last page and the front cover, is constructed from an old book cover plus the spine which hides the mechanics of the journal. A small shadow box nailed down with tacks houses a vintage silver button with knots for the joining of women supporting each other in the fight to win the vote.

I hope you enjoyed this journey with me on honouring these brave and gutsy women.

cheers Jacky