Things that make me swoon...

 There is nothing like a good swoon

 some things are just so lovely that they get a few oos and ahhs

 but some go beyond that... they are truly and magnificently swoon worthy

 think gasps of such deep pleasure 

 you would swear you were in the presence of Jason Mamoa shirtless

 if you have no clue who this is do yourself a favour and google it then come back

 if you are being introduced to his gorgeousness for the first time then you're welcome... 

 he's beautiful right

 so what is making me swoon at the moment???

 well lots... its been a swoony week  it turns out

first up is this relaxing pillow mist from L'Occitane

it is bloody gorgeous and the whole range is pretty special

 but a spritz of this and Sinus Man and Barry can fart all they like

and I am still floating on that gorgeous cloud of L'Occitane loveliness

it is like a fart forcefield... glorious...

despite being particularly farty this week Barry is a bit swoon worthy

he has been snuggling up and being a glorious hot water bottle during my midday naps

except yesterday when I woke to find his back half rather close to my head... never been so grateful for having had him neutered... that would have been all sorts of awful!!!

it would have been a reverse swoon...

 walking with fabulous, generous, supportive friends as the sun comes up

who shamelessly laugh while I trip for the twentieth time and you know secretly they are hoping you'll go down in a pile of limbs... you know... true friends

plus I seriously can't believe we live somewhere so beautiful sometimes

Jam drops from Botanica

which I would show you a picture of but they don't last the trip home in the car

a freshly made bed....

who doesn't love a freshly made bed, and when you spend a lot of time in one like I have been lately this takes on a whole new level of wonderful!!!

lemons and limes in a blue and white bowl

it may have taken weeks to finish this painting but it was just such a beautiful subject... 

if you don't follow PMBCeramics on Instagram then you should

she is crazy talented

and this jug... anthrolopolgie is the epitome of swoon!!!

But more than anything I am swooning over the amazing generosity of people this week

We have been feasting on gorgeous meals cooked for us

I'm talking the biggest tray of delicious bubbly golden vegetarian lasagna 

lemons from a back garden and eggs straight from the chook

I received an extraordinary box of thoughtful and love-filled wonder

handmade scarves and jewelry,beautiful stationery and so much love and generosity that it made me weep with the joy of it all

I received incredible ceramics from Studio Kurbitz in Sweden 

which made my strawberries taste extra special this morning

and the strawberries are perfect too...

this last week or so I have received so many thoughtful emails and notes,

and words of encouragement and support

and in general have felt so wrapped up in caring that I have been in a permanent swoon

I think I am getting addicted to it

So what I want to know is what makes you swoon??? 

what am I missing???

what do I have to go looking for???

thank you to everyone who has reached out and made this the best week I have had in months... your wonderfulness is glorious!!!...

happy painting all... xx

Quite the break between drinks....

 So its been quite the break here on the blog...

 a six month break which I certainly never planned

 but somehow the time just ran away and before I knew it, it felt like the blog was just one  thing too many in a sea of too much on my plate.

 But I missed it, and then I felt like it had been too long since I posted so I should abandon it or I couldn't really just start again could I, but then I just thought bugger it the blog is something I love and miss so I am going back in baby

 In many ways the website, business and my professional life in general has taken precedence for six months. Its been fun and quite the ride

 but now it is time to reclaim a bit of a personal space back, and for me that is blogging.

 Sharing my life in long form again

 not just in an Instagram photo or story, a Facebook post or a Pin

 but sharing the words as well as the pictures

so I've done a bit of a spruce up with the look of things here, though like all things it's a work in progress...but I am back in the swing...

so whats been happening you may wonder... well lots actually...

The house renovations were epic

and it looks fabulous if I do say so myself.

Is it finished? ... not quite... in fact lots of little things still to go, but all the construction is done, and it is all fun stuff really and we are taking our time and enjoying the finishing touches and even though it's not quite finished the house is transformed

 I will share some pics over coming posts because I do love it

It feels like the house really reflects us as a family now and it is light and fresh and open

not that we were all dark and gloomy before, but it just feels better

Gone are the dark floors, scary downstairs bathroom and dated kitchen, and the rarely used dining room has become a space we practically live in

So overall it is a joy to come home too.

Was it stressful?... at times

Did the tradies drive me nuts? ... sometimes

Did it feel like we would never live free of dust and debris? ... often

Was it fun?... mostly

Was it worth the time and money and sheer exhaustion it led to? ... totally

We love it...

In the interim lots of other changes have been happening as well

Barry has completely won our hearts and has proved to be gloriously odd

and surprisingly snugly for a cat that lived as a stray for so many years

he is certainly a healthy sod now, some may even say a tad portly

but he is also magnificent

Sinus Man is still snoring like a trucker

teasing all and sundry and asking us to pull his finger regularly

and Barry has learned to tolerate being woken up and cuddled at odd times and also being patted with enthusiasm and vigor by Sinus

they are forming quite the friendship it would appear

Phants, that sweet and slightly odd little girl 

that so many of you have gotten to know over the years turned 21

scary right?

she is still the same weirdo... just an old weirdo now

and her and Barry make quite the pair as she has somehow trained him to be the most dog like cat I have ever come across

There have been lots of work changes too

I have a solo exhibition locked in for next year

the online store has been booming

commissions and illustration work kept me very busy

and even Etsy has managed some sales

people continue to trickle into the online classes

and I now have an agent who looks after wholesale sales 

which has been a steep learning curve and it has certainly kept me busy

and in general I paint and create lino prints at every opportunity

in short my creative life is full and happy

But the biggest change is personally

Cancer returned a few months ago and now we are deep into chemo again to shrink the bastard tumours that spread from a single cell that escaped treatment of a few years ago when lefty went rogue and now breast cancer has appeared in my liver

which sucks... I'm not going to lie and say it is all ok... cause some days it really isn't

and I get very pissed at the unfairness of it, and sad to be in this position again 

hearing words like incurable are shattering, and life altering and scary in the extreme

but then there is such advances in treatments and what used to be a quick-ish slide now is treatable for many many years, and especially when caught insanely early as it was with me

and while it sucks being bald again

and chemo is not any prettier, there are gifts as well

there is hope and advances in treatment every day

I can expect years between invasive treatments thanks to clever clogs researchers

trials also offer hope of even more time, and the changes in just a few short years are mind boggling, so the plan is to embrace all the advances and hang around for a good long time.

The confidence of the doctors and treatment staff is inspiring and keeps me positive

plus I have an incredible team and such support around me

And you know what it does focus you and gets you thinking about what is important

granted it is quite the extreme way to reassess your priorities

but its always a good thing to stop and look at what you are doing and decide what's important right...

and one of the things I kept coming back to was missing blogging

so here I am... 

happily back in blog land

 So you are all caught up... kind of

and it feels good to be back

actually it feels fricking great...

happy painting all... xx

Balls...

Welcome to 2017...

 and happy christmas, have a safe new year, stay warm/ cool and hope you survived all the  celebrations and all the other things that I didn't blog about in the last few weeks while  being very absent from the blogosphere

 It turns out that having about 50 balls in the air at one time 

 doesn't just lead to you dropping all of them

 you then stand on them, do the windmilling arm thing and end up flat on your back seeing  stars and wondering what on earth just happened

The renovation has progressed, the stopped, then progressed again

Christmas was survived

jigsaws were done, books read, tea drunk and mangoes consumed

resolutions have not been made

I only know the day of the week by checking my phone

I have no clue where the right shoe of my favourite slides is

plus I have decreed that meal prep beyond opening a bag of crisps is too hard

but I have painted so all is well with the world really...

 renovation hell has entered a new phase here

in fact as I type I am surrounded by all manner of things

that don't belong in the study 

including a wooden model catapult, a ceramic phrenology head, a packet of crisps, which may or may not be dinner tonight,  a cheese making kit and two feather dusters!!

These and other paraphernalia have been stashed here while the rest of the house is a complete blanketed and taped bomb zone for internal painting

which would be mildly tolerable if said painters were in the house

but in true tradie style they phoned at lunch time to say they wouldn't be showing their faces again until Monday

so after a brief half hour of muttering 

and googling how to inflict a boil type curse on their slack arses

I realised it actually meant that I in fact had the house to myself

well Barry is here snoring his little cat head off but he is in such a deep sleep he is barely here!

Sinus is at work and Phants is staying with friends I am in the rare position of actually being able to hear myself think

hence the first blog post in over a month!!!

And I am sharing balls

ceramic blue and white balls

that have been a bit of an obsession in recent weeks

My desk is actually groaning with half finished and almost complete work

and my brain is brimming with ideas so despite the chaos of my immediate surrounds

my creative life is going ahead like a whirligig on steroids

so I am thinking that perhaps chaos is my preferable mode for creative output

who knew!!

so the brain is brimming, the to do list is beyond epic, ours lives are in a permanent state of madness but that is kind of just how I like it... or at least my creative brain does

I hope you all are having a magical New Year

and that you have all chosen your words for the year, 

have made resolutions you have already broken, and that life is in general,  fabulous

I am off to revel in the quiet

happy painting all...xx

A Blue and White Break in Transmission...

It has been too long since I blogged

 renovating and running a business from home just don't mix it turns out

  so nerves have been frayed, and tempers getting a touch shorter 

 well not short so much as it hasn't been out usual laugh fest and we find ourselves lying  around a bit shaking our heads and trying to decide who is more exhausted

Happily the endless renovation of the house is at the stage of pretty much being done

well except for the painting ... inside and out

and the garden which needs a huge amount of work

but construction wise we are done and dusted

 all walls and doors are where they are going to stay... no more jackhammering will be needed... floors are sorted, furniture has been arriving in an ever increasing flurry of deliveries and the fun of decorating is finally starting

Of course due to delays and the inevitable hold ups along the way the painter now won't be able to start until the new year

but when it is all painted in January I will share and give you a tour

At the moment its loveliness is still at the potential stage

as we have a patchwork of walls and raw plaster and endless bloody dust 

but I can visualise it and it is going to be fabulous

totally worth the exhaustion, dust and madness of the last 10 weeks

in fact I am a little stunned at how much we have done in that time...

my way of coping has involved locking myself in the studio as it is the only room in the house not being touched,

 and doing the sort of controlled and realism based work I abandoned years ago

and it has been the perfect antidote and sanity saver

as the dust has plumed alarmingly

and the language turned bluer and bluer

it has seemed an appropriate colour palette to stick with the blue and white

well except for the pineapple  which has no discernable blue to speak of...but it got me through a particularly thorny week

which involved four tradesmen, laundry room demolition, a new floor, doors coming off and going back on, floor wastes causing all sorts of nightmares, wrong appliances being delivered, then one right one, and one wrong one, Barry the cat freaking out at the front loading washer, still waiting on the right dryer and endless rain and storms, wonky shelves, then perfectly righted shelves... etc etc...well you get the idea

it was your typical laundry room renovation... but all through it I just retreated to the studio and tried to calm my brain and prevent myself from slowly banging my forehead into the work table.

but the end is in sight and it is going to be wonderful when it is all done

and sanity is enough intact to survive the madness that is Christmas

so I am off to haul the Christmas tree from the garden shed... well direct Sinus to do it

I don't go anywhere near the back shed... that thing is scary spider zone!!!

happy painting all...xx

Furniture Jenga...

The renovations continue... endlessly

 but it is certainly getting to a stage where I can kind of see the end in sight

 The continued chaos is fuelling my need to exert control somewhere 

  so my paintings are continuing to lean towards realism to soothe my poor frazzled brain

 and I am loving the progress on this one... I might even get to finish it later

There may be more realism to come though

as we aren't going to be done for a few more weeks yet

demolition and reconstruction continues at breakneck speed

 but soon we will at least have the right things in the right room again

at the moment it requires us to move things from one to another as walls are demolished, doors moved and different rooms are worked on

it is sort of like a giant furniture and homewares game of Jenga

I have always been a fan of Jenga

not that I have skills in this arena...I am actually pretty rubbish if truth be told.

My Dad however, is scarily good at it

he blitzed us all one Christmas night a few years ago.

Now on one hand as a retired builder you would hope he would be good at it

but his nicknames, courtesy of Sinus, are either Thumbs, or Knuckles 

and the man has never met a tablecloth that he didn't feel the need to spread crumbs over

or a floor he didn't like to drop something on, and he does have a noticeable, albeit slight, hand tremble so you would think he could have been picked off like low hanging fruit

but no... he was a bloody genius at it

I however excel at dishwasher Jenga... and fridge Jenga

I can stack things in those suckers like no one else.

it is a weird savant type ability as I have no spatial awareness to speak of

and don't even mention depth perception

but somehow fridge and dishwasher Jenga are my thing

perhaps I got more from Dad than just my hair

which showed up as it grew in post chemo and led to him walking in one day and me realising we were sporting matching hair cuts... like exactly! 

same colour, sticking up in the same places... the whole hair shebang...

I had hoped my fridge Jenga prowess would transfer to furniture jenga 

to make the furniture moving for the renovations a bit easier

but I totally suck at it... turns out a large chair on a small pouf doesn't work

well it works if you like a cascade of chair and objects with the first gust of wind

but even I didn't believe myself when I said that was my objective

So I will continue to leave furniture jenga to the experts and will retreat to the studio to attempt to finish this painting

happy painting all...xx