Rain rain go away

I can't paint today,

it's pouring with rain and way too dark.

I will invest on a daylight lamp one day.

Today is our winter solstace,

the shortest day of the year,

and it is cold as well as wet.

It's so bad that my chooks are sitting at the back door

and everytime I open it 

they try to come in.

Now my chooks don't have good manners,

when they come in they refuse to wipe their

muddy feet and head straight to my parrot,

Charlie's cage to harass him and eat his seed.

 Plus there is the little matter of the ''presents''

they leave behind (ick).

I painted one of our three little devils a while ago.

She looks so innocent, hah, looks can be deceiving.

I did play with my new inks this week

and I painted the same fish I did in my bright watercolours

and was very surprised at the difference in brightness.

I had trouble taking a photo in the darkness

but you can see the difference.

The top one is with watercolours and the ink is below.

The orange on the watercolour seemed really bright
until I did the ink painting, surprising isn't it.

Don't you just love the squidgeyness of the inks.
I dripped the ink onto a wet surface and got this.

Here is my teapot that I painted with the inks too.

The post about it is here, if you're interested.

As well as painting I love to play with polymer clay

and here is a little fishy that I'm playing with.

He is in the very early stages and the colour

is a bit boring but it is an experiment to see if he will cook properly in my oven, so I didn't want to waste the good colours. The tail and fins will have lots of beads and dangley, twirly bits.

That's when my fingers thaw out enough to work the clay!

The best thing is that this being the winter solstace

means that the days will get longer and it is getting closer to spring.

Linking up to Paint Party Friday.

Rain, rain go away........ 

Bright pot for WOYWW

It's been a tad nippy around here,

well actually it's down right freezing!

I really thought my little miss might get to see Jack Frost

for the first time ever today.
It didn't happen but it sure felt cold enough,
even the chickens didn't want to get up this morning.
I woke up with in the night and my face was so cold it hurt.
I had to wriggle down under the blankets to warm my nose up.

Thank heavens hubby didn't fluff 
or I would have been a gonna for sure.

I have moved my art room into the family room

as the sun shines in there during winter.

At the moment I'm sitting huddled up on the couch,

with three jumpers and a blanket on and the laptop on my knees.

I just hope my fingers don't snap off while typing!!

My desk for winter is on wheels and I just wheel

it into the family room each day, along with my drawers on wheels

and away I go.

I have my inks and some watercolours out to paint

something special.

When my wonderful girlfriend was visiting from England,

she bought me a beautiful coffee pot

and I've been wanting to paint it for some time

but needed the nice bright colours to do so.

My new inks are just perfect for this

and here it is up close.

How cool is this pot, it's me all over.

I also got some other beautiful goodies.
Here are some ATC's I received.

This is from my * person Caro Staton

 and these were from Elaine (Eels)
I sent her my ATC and she sent these gorgeous things back.

Good to see she had my sense of humour!!

Last but by no means least,
the lovely Bella Basson
saw that I was admiring her typewriters that
she had made and she sent me some.

I'm going to have heaps of fun with these.

Thanks so much to all of you,
nothing nicer than getting little pressies in the mail,
it sure beats bills.

I'm still battling this awful
mouse but I have found a pen
at last and hope to have it by next week,
yay, I can use one hand again!!
(if you are wondering, see last weeks post)

School holidays start this friday.
I love the three week winter holiday,
because I get to lay in until 7am instead of up at 5.30am
and I don't freeze quite as much.
It's just a shame that winter isn't only for three weeks.

Well that's my desk for the week, now hop on over to
Julias Stamping Ground and see what's on the other desks
this freezing cold wednesday.
(It's only 17 deg and it's daytime, brrr)

I'm going to make a cup of tea
just so I can hold the hot cup in my hands.
 

 

Grey skies and bright inky colours for WOYWW

We have yet another grey, rainy old day

here in Brissie but that worked in my favour today.

I couldn't paint so I did what any normal female would do,

I went shopping!

Not your normal boring shoes and handbag type shopping

but art supply shopping and boy did I have fun.

Here are some of the things I bought.

Four nice big water colour brushes,

(no more nancy little paintings for me)

some bright inks, and some paints, 

a pipette, a scratchy-ink thingy (no idea what I will use it for)

 and a few other goodies.

I haven't been home long but I've had a quick play to see 

what the inks do

They are really bright, you just can't see that in the photo,

cos it pouring outside (sigh).

I can't wait to do a painting with them, hopefully tomorrow,

if the stinking rain will go away.  

The bad thing to happen this week,

is that my computer pen has died (boo hoo)

You see, I have a real problem with using a mouse.

I'm blonde and left handed, which is trouble in itself

but when I try to use a mouse, disaster happens.

I can't use it in my right hand or left hand

 and when I want it to move the cursor up,

my hands move down.

I sort of drive it with both hands,

trying to steady it and press the clicker with whatever is closest to the button,
which is often my nose.

My husband just shakes his head and walks away.

Hence, the need for the wonderful pen you see in the picture.

It's just like using a normal pen only it's a mouse,

works for me and has for around ten years.

Until yesterday, when it took it's last breath and just wouldn't

click anything.  

So I'm moving in slow motion,

swearing a lot and trying to find a replacement pen

on the internet, which may take a while,

the way I drive that silly mouse.

If you're wondering what on earth WOYWW is,

go on over to Julia's Stamping Ground

and you will find desks from all over the world

on this rainy What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Fridays Post

Havin' a cuppa for APR

I've been away from the Artists Playroom for a while

as I thought I had lost my artist mojo.

It turned out that it wasn't my mojo

that was broken,

it was my eyes!!

The whole sorry tale is here

if you want to see what happened,

but for now, I can see with my new glasses

and so I decided to play this week.

The theme for the Artists Playroom is to paint a cup or mug

and when I saw that I started to get excited.

 I love cups, big, little, silly, ornate, no matter

what it looks like I just love to have it.

I have cupboards full of them and glass cabinets

to show off others,

so I painted one special one 

and a few everyday cups.

This cup and saucer is part of a full set with coffee pot, sugar and creamer still in tact and it was bought when we were on holidays in Wales (before I became an Aussie), in the early 1960's (I was only little).  

It's not the prettiest of sets but it has great memories

of summer holiday camping trips.

I can tell you that painting this, even with my new glasses,

really did my head in.  I used the gloopy stuff on the rings,

thinking that it would be easy to rub off and

 I would have lovely straight rings (you know what I mean).

Well, when I peeled it off, it was all over the place,

all wibbly, wobbly and

I had to sit there and try to straighten 

(or is that benden) the rings by hand.

My new glasses have changed so much that my eyes and brain

don't seem to be on the same page.

I would put the brush where I thought it should be 

and I would get a line over to the side of it,

 boy are these glasses going to take 

some getting used to. 

As long as you don't look too closely, it looks alright.

I also did some quickies in my journal this afternoon.

     

I usually paint onto dry paper

but I thought I would try slopping water on first 

and then dropping the paint in.

It worked pretty well but it's hard to get the lights and darks where you want them.

 This cup is from Stefans, a big hairdresser here in Australia.

I have to fight little miss for this as she says it makes her 

hot chocolate taste better.

This cup I don't use as much,

I'm sure you can see why.

It says Greedy Little Devil

and my cheeky hubby bought it for me.

Personally I think it looks more like him than me!!!

If you want to see the best ever cup in the whole

universe, have a look here.

It's my latest aquisition...

eat your heart out people.

 Well that's it for me, now why not

go on over to Jenns Artist Playroom

and check out some more 

wonderful cups.

Blurry Eyes for WOYWW

Glasses, glasses,

where fore art thou glasses?

Ooh this is sad,

I am waiting for my new glasses to arrive

and now my blurred vision has gone to my brain.

I keep going in verse!

I want to paint,

I want to draw,

but my sore eyes

 are hanging on the floor.

Oh, there I go again.

Quick, here's my desk today,

before I rhyme again.

Not a lot happening,

just a lot of work pending.

Still waiting for three pairs of glasses,

which can be a pain in the a.....

Since mines a little boring 

why not go over to the Stamping Ground,

Where lots of interesting desks are sure to be found.

I'm stopping while I can!!

If you're wondering what's happened to my eyes have a look here,

(but only if you want to)

 

it tells a sorry tale of woe.

 Here's hoping my glasses turn up soon,
cos I'm feeling like quite a baffoon!

argh!!