Lost Aussie on the loose

Time Out

Tomorrow I am going to slide into a Limmo, catch a train to New York and spend the weekend with my Honey and hopefully spend a bit of time just chilling out together!

We have reached the stage where it's countdown to Closing on the house in Long Island, this one is primped and pretty and my Studio is 80% packed and put away.

I'm betwixt and between, never a fun place to be, so hopefully the distraction of the City and our planned explorations of the new environment will be a welcome hiatus before the Packing team descend on the house next week.

So typical that the Art Journal pages flow fast and free at a time like this! (This one is a mixture of collage, overpaint and transferred images)

Electronic PMS

Can't say that anything spectacular got done today as for some reason my trusty PC decided to have a 'bad hair day'.  Stuff just not working right, emails gone astray, filing cabinets that would not open and no - it was not a Virus as truth be told I probably take better care of my computers than I do of many other things.
Still, it all took time to work thru, clean up and fix and then of course by 10pm the rest of it seemed to be just working "properly", all by itself.  Who knows? (yes I am still thinking about a MAC - don't Nag! :-) )

Some Sunny Day

Hubby and I snuck off for a detour day and headed off this afternoon to New Hope and Lambertville to "see what we could see"!  Can't say the blistering 98F temps made for great street walking weather but we managed to find enough cool spots to dash in and browse, including the much loved Phoenix Book Store where I picked up some good collage material.  I also lucked out in the bargain basement section of one of those ridiculously over-priced antique stores and came home with a beautiful Vintage photo album, choc full of lovely old cabinet pics.

While meandering, I snapped this beautiful sunflower leaning lazily over someone's garden fence.  Couldn't resist the little bee, who had stopped for a quick drink, no doubt.

A Leaf Out of...

..my collage journal.  Lately I've gone back to my nocturnal habit of creating collage pieces before I go to bed.  They mostly measure about 6x9". Basically whatever I can lay my hands on and fits into the old book covers that house the finished pieces.

Tomorrow I'm going hunting for a copy of the new Somerset magazine.  Apparently I have artwork featured in the Melange section.  A Gorey story which I will fill you in on next time.

From Here To There

I spent today catching up on mail chores with a few packages needing to be sent to Family.  Contrary to what you might imagine, I don't keep a drawer full of artwork for cards, well to a certain extent I do, but nothing ever seems to be "quite" right so when it came time to pack up a little treasure for my Mother-In-Law in Texas I needed to make something "just right"!

"Mom" follows a particular belief path in a very staunch way and her home is stunningly decorated to reflect that. So...to create some appropriate artwork to accompany her package I needed a Madonna and nothing else would do.   After a painstaking search on the good olde 'net' I found this little stock gem and set to work.  The result is pasted below and I confess (?) to being happy with the result.  I just hope she is too.

Rainy Day Art

What a wet and miserable day! Perfect for burying oneself in the studio and just messing around to the music of the rain on the roof.
I got totally lost loading new actions and filters into PS and spent the day experimenting to my heart's content.  The wealth of plug-in content out there on the WWW is enormous, though I have to say you need to pay for a lot more of it than previously. Regardless, the day away from confronting moving chores was much enjoyed.

Photoshop Doodles

Just a little messing around whilst waiting for DH to slog his way down from Long Island via the New Jersey Turnpike so that we could "begin" our weekend together.
Sad to say he did not make it until around 4pm...gotta love the Holiday traffic in the North East! - not!
Still, he managed to stay awake long enough so that we could go catch the latest "Bourne" movie and a bite at PF Changs afterwards.  10 points for effort Honey Bee.

Illustration Friday - Captain

This is a digitally rendered photograph of my Grandfather, sadly now deceased.  He was a seafarer from an early age starting his journeys on tallships with sails and finishing his illustrious career by Captaining luxury cruisers operated by the P&O line.

I don't ever recall calling him anything other than "Ning Nong" - even as a grown woman.  And yes there is a funny story as to how he got the name but I'll keep that bit to myself :-)

One Snip or Two?

Make that 37!!!
I was absolutely amazed when I counted the number of pairs of scissors (that I could see) around and about the studio today.  This was after coming back from the local craft store with yet ANOTHER pair!! 
I don't really know why, but I LOVE scissors and apparently can't have enough of them..at least that is what I told myself as I put the latest addition away with their new family!
I particularly love the Fiskars teflon coated ones, they seem to chew through just about everything, metal included.  Then of course we have some for cutting rubber, some for fabric, some for thread.  Some for tiny corners and some for large.. I even have some treasured antique ones that are divine for embroidery.

So show and tell...what's your tool fetish?

Just Lovely

In the midst of all the 'noise' that is going on at the moment it's always wonderful to find small snippets of simplicity and glory in my garden.