Results of all that mess

Well after two weeks hard work this is the result.

and a side view of all the layers and just a peek inside. damn I love that silver vintage glitter

I will be teaching these journals at Art Journey Retreat in June, have a look on this website. www.artisticjourney.com.au we will also be running a workshop retreat at the lovely Banksia Springs, Dwellingup on Friday 10th, Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th July 2009, the link for this should be up on the website in the next week.

what we call work

Joanne and I have been very busy making samples for workshops, and as like most of our projects they take a lot of time preparing and creating new projects. From the following photo's you can see we work in chaos but it is the only way we can be creative and not bogged down with keeping things tidy. I don't have time to fold fabrics back up and put them away as I work, generally they are flicked to the side as I follow a theme of colour or design, hence it all piles up, but at a glance I can see what I want. I work in an ever decreasing space and sometimes I do have to tidy up a bit to fit in the sewing machine to stitch part of a page. This is what I love to do just follow where it will take me. It takes us quite a while preparing projects as we also have a business to run, orders to fill and send on their way to hopefully an eagerly waiting customer. Then there is weekly classes to teach (then we have to clear everything away), accounting, art retreat preparations, computor updates, stock orders, shop customers who I am always only to ready to talk about what we do (probably drive them nuts with my passion) mmmmh do we do all that, and more I haven't named for example phone calls, we wouldn't have it any other way. See creative chaos of Jacky and Jo.

See my lovely Jo working diligently away, I work on the opposite side of the trestle. We work on a trestle each but there is another one at the end we manage to cover and normally there would be another trestle at bottom end (we would probably have that covered too) this trestle is in the shop for sale items. Ever faithful sewing machine that gets lugged around everywhere.

fabrics where they fall, crepe paper, jars of vintage buttons and ribbons within hands reach.cups of coffee, paints, gesso, scraps of paper waiting to be cleaned away, doesn't that look like fun, well its also work for us, we don't make a lot of money but we are happy in what we do. and finally happy valentines day to you all, family and friends a valentine card to you, just to let you know that I love you all.

Jacky xo

White linen

I do love white linen, recently I bought organic cotton linen from a company called Eco Down Under, just beautiful. Photo above was taken when the linen was just hung out to dry.

After a few hours in the sun and a bit of a breeze, most of the wrinkles have come out. Wrinkles are good, I don't do ironing if I can help it. I love the the light and shadows created on the lined where the sun catches parts and the folds create a darker shade of white. I love the clean smell of newly washed linen when you make up the bed.

A happy day spent cooking

It was Australia Day public holiday on Monday, and what with my new light kitchen I got all motivated and actually did some work in there, now that's dangerous, don't want to set a precedence and have John think he's going to get it all the time, it will wear off, I assure you. Robyn bought in three cartons of different varieties of plums, about 3 or 4 kilograms in each. Lisa took one carton home to make plum jam in her Thermomix, mmmh I think I will have to get one of those, took less than 30 minutes to make jam. Some of the girls took some of the plums leaving one and a half cartons left, one to Joanne for the kids to eat and I took the other one home. And this is what I did with them, preserved some 4 large jars, chutney about 6 jars and sauce 5 bottles. I kept aside 8 plums to make a delicious plum upside down cake for dessert, that went down a treat with ice cream and custard.

Washed fruit, I am sure Robyn doesn't use chemicals in her garden, but to wash of dust etc.Fruit chopped up and pips taken out, and weighed. I have been married 43 years and never had scales, mostly worked in cups, very haphazard but I am not great cook.As this mess will tell, I managed to flick brown sugar all over the place, can you see it on the bench its on those jars with the red lids too. Oh well I was having fun!!And yum see that cake, well not quite cooked in the centre, but still tasted amazing. Anyone wanting the recipe, let me know and I will print it here.Prior to moving to Australia from New Zealand 27 years (yikes is it that long) we always bought fruit and vegetables direct from the farms sometimes you got them even cheaper if you picked them yourself, I would cook them up for preserves or freeze making considerable savings. I have the desire to go back to doing that. I enjoy cooking, but I hate cleaning up afterwards. I am getting domesticated at last but it is very creative. I also made a Banana cake with some over ripe bananas. Well my sisters what do you think of that???

Kitchen before update

I did find a photo of the kitchen taken some time before we re painted. Just goes to show what a lick of paint and some new knobs can do.

Photo was taken pre digital camera, hence not the best quality, still gives you the previous colour.

Big Sale on at Artistic Journey

Thought new year time to put into practise my new years resolution of letting things go, hence a big sale at our shop, 50% off a big selection of products. Make way for new stuff. We also have these sale items on our website http://www.artisticjourney/ .com.au if you are interested and unable to get into the shop. Lots of 7gypsy's, odd papers, basic grey packs, stamps, thurlby farm soaps etc and many more.

New Year, time for changes

Dearest husband had 4 weeks holiday over Christmas period, not being one for idleness convinced him it was time for new interior colours (first in 16 years). Also was so over the sound of cricket on television in the lounge, also convinced its not good to watch that much TV.

Well I really love the new white colour and think the polished silver metal knobs just finish them off, was really over the natural wood which had darkened considerably over time. mmmmh easters coming up, wonder if thats too soon to suggest we start on the walls and ceilings, John is such a perfectionist which can be very painful when you want things done in a hurry, shouldn't complain though as he does do such a good job.