I've been working in a few Moly's (short for Moleskine) lately. I'm in a few exchanges and I was a bit behind on them. I've also been bitten by the experimentation bug, which often happens when I'm working in someone else's Moleskine! Why is it so?
These three are for Moly_x_48 - The Exquisite Corpse exchange. You may recall that these will be cut into three when the book is finished and the images and words will be able to mix and match.
Jethro doesn't remember the 70's
Dougal doesn't like his job
Philippe speakes all languages
This one is for Moly_x_3 which is an all Australian exchange. This is my own moly and it doesn't have a theme. (Click on it and it should be easier to see.)
This bunch of beauties is straight from my own Etsy Favourites! It's Father's Day here very soon and for me it is Birthday season with many presents to buy for some wonderful people. I was thinking of others when I favourited these!
I was lucky enough to be the winner of Anastasia C's blog giveaway! Yay! I'm so happy because I was already a big fan of her retro repurposed paper goodies to be found in her Etsy shop. So to win some was fantastic. A wonderful parcel turned up in my letter box, stuffed full of goodies and even a vintage sewing magazine! Anastasia you know me and what I like, don't you! And yes, I like! Thank you! I got lots of lovely tags, my favourites being the legs walking on vintage maps. (I really think she was thinking of me making these!!!) And beautiful cards, present toppers and some gorgeous twine. And a vintage Simplicity book! Check out the glamor! I love this book Anastasia! Thank you again!
I've also been lucky enough to receive two 'one lovely blog awards' and a 'blog lovin' award.'
I must say I do love my blog and I'm deeply touched when I find others do too. I also love lots of other blogs. I recently did a huge panic when my list of blogs I follow disappeared from my Blogger Dashboard. Phew! It came back the next day but I was pleased it is also copied into Google Reader so if they were gone forever I still had access to them.
So how do I choose to award? It is really hard to find a blog that hasn't recently been awarded, not that it should be consideration I guess, however it does seem more reasonable to award those who haven't just posted a similar award!
I've decided to award blogs that are new to me so here they are
OK, so some of them are less new to me than others but it doesn't really matter. Lovely ladies you can feel doubly awarded as I'm giving you both the "One Lovely Blog Award" and the "Blog Lovin Award"!!!
Showing Roly here earlier this week made me think about shopping for him on Etsy - something I must admit I've never done. Look at all the fabulous stuff you can get! These elevated bowls are just what Roly has needed all his life (poor deprived dog). If you read the boxer handbook it says to use elevated bowls. I've never seen elevated bowls before!
You saw how Roly loves his bed, and how he especially loves being wrapped up in a blankie, well how is this for an idea! With this bed Roly could wrap himself!
It didn't really show in the photos this time but Roly has a fabulous coat. I made it for him many years ago. It is faux fur in yellow with black spots. It has a vague 'banana' vibe. Coffs Harbour is well know for bananas and even has The Big Banana. Roly's coat also has a vague 'royal' vibe, kind of ermine only the wrong colours. For a while there we called him the "King of the Bananas." Thankfully it didn't stick. Roly's coat is constructed in pretty much the same style as this one below. It is by far the best dog coat design I've come across. This one looks gorgeous and I love the enthusiasm of it's model!
Eh hem. Roly has worn some pretty silly things in his time, but really! I must say however, he prefers it when they are worn by a cat! Roly wouldn't know what to lick first - the cat or the hat!
The cat items are made for occasional use; they are very lightweight and comfortable, and you would be amazed how, with a little extra TLC and some treats, your cat will get comfortable *wearing* them (on those special, fun occasions), like she/he gets used to wearing a collar.
Roly is this weeks Weekly Monster on Tilda in the Burbs! Tilda (another Boxer) is a little more clever than Roly. She has her own blog, even her own Twitter account. She also has a weekly series where she shows off other dogs. (I think it was her owner's idea to call them 'monsters.') Tilda's post also features one of Janey's drawings of Roly. Check out the other drawing here. Roly really appreciates all this attention - thank you Tilda and Janey!
Remember the DUST Christmas In July promotion? Sam (Maddo) won my giveaway in one of the many competitions. I sent her off a little parcel of goodies including a hand printed journal notebook and a pouch to keep it in. Since then I've found out she has opened her own Etsy shop. Its full of gorgeous jewellery pieces and paper goodies. Check it out. She will be so thrilled to have you visit! I have Mairuru to thank for the inspiration behind the pouch. It is hand pieced patchwork, hand quilted, even the buttonhole is hand sewn. I've rediscovered my love of hand stitching. Mairuru has a fabulous Etsy shop too and a wonderful blog. I got the pattern for the pouch from her blog. I changed it a bit but I hope it still has Mairuru's spirit in it!
Yep, we're a team, me and my boxer dog Roly. Roly's getting on now. In fact I am surprised he is still with me after the doom and gloom the vet told me about 2 years ago. Roly is nearing 13 now which is quite an age for a boxer especially one with kidney failure, blindness, deafness and allergies to just about everything. I think it is the good diet he has had to have due to his allergies that mean he is still in such good condition. It's only been about the last 12 months people have stopped mistaking him for a puppy!
He doesn't like to face the camera.
Maybe it's because of his single tiny centre tooth.
It means we have lots of mug shots of him.
A couple of years ago I made a video of him one morning when he refused to get up. It happens a lot more frequently these days. He loves his sleep. Some mornings it must be hard for him to motivate himself to get up. After all who doesn't love a lie in all wrapped up in a comfy bed especially if it's in the sunshine!
Of course it's no good if it gets too bright. But he gets by.
As a follow up to my post about Danny Gregory I thought I'd encourage you to start that sketchbook if you haven't already. If you are at all like me, you will be spending the time you could be drawing looking for the 'perfect' sketchbook. I thought I'd make it easy for you. Here are some beauties found by a quick search 'sketchbook' on Etsy.
Or you could even browse my shop for some hand printed Moleskine notebooks. As I don't have many of my rebound journals (my 'perfect' journals!) in stock I suggest you start now with a less than perfect journal and grab one of mine for your next book, when they are back in stock. Ah, I'm full of great suggestions!
Don't forget you can check out other Saturday Shopping Lists by clicking the links at Fancy Picnic.
I posted a shot of this painting last week. At the time I thought it was finished. This time it really is. Studio with Thoughts. It has to be finished because today is the closing day for entries to EMSLA. It has been turned upside down again since last week. This orientation is how it began. It has a much more enclosed feeling and is actually quite three dimensional. The thought patterns float in the air inside my small cramped studio. The colours are muted because it is what happens in the space that is the most important thing.
I am taking a big risk here. EMSLA is a selected (juried) exhibition and I will be publically humiliated if I don't get in now that I've blogged about it. But I wanted mostly to record the entry of it into the competition. I've not been entering competitions for many years for a variety of reasons. It will be good for me to face my demons and get my work out there again - even if it is only for the selection process and I miss the exhibiting part. It will be good for me.
It's been a long time since I did a rave about Danny Gregory here on my blog. I started this blog originally to share the challenges I drew for his Everyday Matters group. At the time his books weren't available in Australia so I initially just interacted with the group online. Then I bought The Creative License from Amazon and waited a couple of months for it to arrive. (With the exchange rate etc I couldn't justify the cost of air freight.) When it did finally arrive I could not believe how perfect it was for me. I have revisited that book so many times! I do loan it to friends from time to time and by the time it comes back to me I'm desperate for a Creative License 'fix.'
I'm a bit backwards at times, so after the success of my first Danny Gregory purchase I went back and ordered Everyday Matters, his first book. Wow. It too is wonderful, different to The Creative License, but just as wonderful.
So, I was excited when he released his latest book An Illustrated Life, drawing inspiration from the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers. Thanks to the global economic downturn, I was reluctant to buy it when it first hit the virtual shelves of Amazon but on a recent trip to Sydney I was thrilled to find it on the analogue shelves of Kinokuniya (my favourite book shop in the real world). I snapped it up, brought it home, looked at the pictures and put it on the side table next to the chair that gets the morning sun and... well, life went on, as it does, and the book sat there.
Purchase guilt set in. I don't know if you suffer from it, but I do. That truly annoying voice in my head started saying things like "you bought it and now you're not even reading it!" in a guilt-inducing tone. OK! I'll read it.
Well, it turns out those voices in my head have a purpose! This books is, dare I say it (?) the best book I've bought in a very long time. I don't know what you look for in a book but I'm looking for a) inspiration to actually do my own work, b) I want that inspiration to be 'open' so I can do 'my' work and not be prescribed to or overly influenced and c) a gentle hand on my shoulder that says "you're fine! We all feel like this and it's OK. Just do the work and you'll be fine." This book does and says just that. The strength of the book is that it says it in fifty voices! Fifty unique voices and hundreds of sparks of inspiration.
If you like to imagine you are someone who keeps sketchbooks or a journal or such then this book will help you to see how easy it is and reinforces the fact that you just have to touch pen (or pencil) to paper and be yourself within the pages of your own book to create something that not only records the visual aspects of the world, your life, etc, but also improves the quality of that life. It seems intangible, strange, unlikely, but doing this does create a preciousness of what usually just slips by us - our 'everyday' life.
I'm feeling all pale. After painting my very pale painting yesterday I thought I'd shop for something pale. I found these with a quick 'lemon' search on Etsy.
Jethro doesn't remember the 70's
Dougal doesn't like his job
Philippe speakes all languages
Family Ghosts
