How Far Is Too Far....

I am kind of wondering how far is too far

and at what point does something you love

become one of those things 

that people get that freaky fixed smile on their face when you mention it

and you just know inside they are thinking you are a poor miserable sod

and they are mentally counting the minutes until they can make their escape

not that there is anything wrong with them for thinking that way

because I myself have pulled out the fixed smile and poor sod thought

 and it has seen me through various family and work functions over the years

I also firmly believe that as parents

it is our sworn duty to torture our children until they think that way

though in the teenage years this does seem to be more likely

to be accompanied by a noticeable sigh or some eye rolling

but with practice I am sure Phantom will perfect the smile/ grimace

The big question is whether to buy a tea lamp

it may just tip me over from poor sod territory

into crazy tea lady territory

I think I have been walking quite the fine line lately

if the teetering tower of tea in the pantry

and need for some extra shelves to house

various paraphernalia is an indication

but this lamp is a whole other teapot of fish...

I am sure it is an almost direct rip off from Liberty or some such store

and it is in a homewares store at the mall

which I have taken to visiting it with such alarming regularity

I am starting to feel like I am stalking the poor thing

and I have no where to put it, and the shade is dingo ugly

so added to the expense of buying the thing, then there is the new shade

and the extension because like I said

no room

so I will hopefully hold out until someone else puts me out of my misery 

and buys the darn thing so it won't be there when I visit

and in the mean time I will use Paint Party Friday to distract me...xx

The last few blog posts have been...

The Evil Hose Thingy...

Baseball Nut Green Tea...

The Evil Hose Thingy....

I used to quite enjoy a bit of therapeutic watering

standing and aimlessly pointing the hose 

in the general direction of the garden

it was a few moments when I could connect with nature

then come back in the house and reward myself 

for all that gardening exertion 

with a therapeutic glass of wine

But after a few years of drought 

where the hose became a distant memory 

and the relaxation of standing and pointing

was replaced with lugging buckets and watering cans all over the place

we have had two years of crazy flooding rain

not just a bit above average rain

and trust me we would normally get quite a bit

but all year round drenching horrible mould inducing rain

if you stand still you mould up baby

and along with all that

our garden has become a jungle of epic proportions

not many flowers mind

which is a shame

because I love drawing and painting flowers

instead it is a solid wall of greens

I need one of those big cutty sabre things

 to get to the mail box every day

and we make sure we leave a note 

telling someone where we have gone into the back garden

just in case we get lost and need rescuing

you think I am kidding
but it is truly scary out there
and there has been little hose action as a result

which is just as well

because at some stage 

during the hoseless last few years

Sinus installed this hose reel thingy

which is truly the scariest piece of gardening equipment 

to ever grace this fair planet

this thing should be on the wall I think

because it rolls around as you try to get the hose out

which means you sort of have to stand over it 

with it clamped between your knees to hold it steady

while you try to pull the hose out, while it does it's very best to suck it back in
and take your hands with it

and yes it has this lever thing that is supposed to release it

but it never works

or it alternately won't feed the hose back in when you want it to

of course when you are washing the mud off the car 

 the lever decides to flip 

and the hose is ripped from your hands 

as it is sucked back into the holder at warp speed

spraying water over everyone and everything as it goes

this thing is garden evil personified
but nevertheless I am celebrating its complete contrariness
for this week's Artists Play Room
which asked us to use gardening as a theme
in the hope that it will decide to be kind to me next time
I am desperate enough  or stupid enough to use it...xx




Here is my last post in case you missed it...


Baseball Nut Green Tea...

Baseball Nut Green Tea...

It is entirely possible that karma decided a bit of payback was warranted

because I had been blithely flying through the winter

smug in my tea fuelled immune system

laughing in the face of colds and flus

and generally showing a lack of sympathy 

for those struck down by the dreaded lurgy

which, of course, made it inevitable that it would take me down

and take me down it did

we are talking almost man flu proportions here

I spent a few days lying around

having thoughts about buckets and kicking

and cursing the dog for not having opposable thumbs

and therefore not being able to make me tea

and bring me trashy magazines to read

cause nothing makes me feel better 

than stars without makeup

it was touch and go for a day or two there

but I have recovered and am feeling relatively human

and while I haven't quite forgiven the dog

for being such a sucky carer

I am happy to be back painting and playing 

with the Summer of Colour prompt

which was Baseball Nut

not quite sure how baseball fits with vanilla, black raspberries and cashews

but hey not coming from a baseball country

its not my place to question the mysteries of ice cream flavour names

Luckily for me I had recently received yet another shipment from the Republic of Tea

thank you very little Andrea from Falling Ladies for getting me hooked on this place

and one of the teas I ordered was a Black Raspberry Superfruit Tea

which was in a sort of soft green container

which somehow morphed into a bit of a vanilla colour

which I blame entirely on the cold and flu drugs 

which obviously messed with my sense of colour

but it worked out nicely for this week's prompt

and the tea also appears to have restorative powers

so it seems only right that it makes the grade for Baseball Nut

and will from here on be known as Baseball Nut Green Tea...

Can I say a huge thank you to all the people from The Summer of Colour

hosted by Kristin who have been visiting and taking the time to comment

and also say a happy very early Tuesday Tea 

to all my friends at Art in Red Wagons...xx

My other recent blog post was

Bean There Done That...

Bean There Done That....

I so used to love my 8B pencil

I had quite the thing for my 9B as well

but 9B was more of a fling pencil

and 8B did it for me

he was the George Clooney of the pencil world

and I had him so well trained

I had put hours and hours into breaking him down 

and making him do exactly what I wanted him to do

I swear if I had of had a bit more time 

I could have convinced that poor pencil to do the washing and cook me dinner

but like all doormats

he became a bit boring

and sending time with him was rather ho hum

so maybe George isn't accurate, 

because who could ever get sick of George

now maybe I wasn't giving him interesting material to work with

opening the fridge

and grabbing what was in the crisper may not be challenging

and when I set him challenges he always answered

this roadway saw us spend many weeks together 

because it was stupidly big

full A1 sheet of paper big

I know  I know

I have no clue what I was thinking either

but even when my hand was cramping 

and I was cross-eyed from looking at freakin leaves

8B hung in there

Which makes me feel a touch bad 

that I have abandoned him so thoroughly

so again George may have been a bad analogy

I really should have put a bit more thought into that one

but the truth is my microns are just sexier

they are fun and playful

and don't always do what I want

and they make me push my boundaries

they are frustrating, riskier and I make many more mistakes

but that is what I like about them

no ho hum with them

so while I acknowledge that 8B was good to me

I have moved on to more exciting pastures

I don't think it makes me a bad person

and if we had of stayed together 

I think we would have hated each other in the end

or at least that is what I tell myself when I am feeling guilty...

I am sharing this over at The Artist's Play Room

where the theme was monochrome

head over and see other monochromatic wonders....xx

I have been busy this week...

Tea with Chrissy...

The Ice Cream Spoon...

Tea with Chrissy....

Tuesday mornings find me thinking of all sorts of tea wonderfullness

I get that first quiet cuppa 

now that everyone is back at school and work

and the house is all my own

the studio is all quiet 

well almost quiet because the mutt is lying beside me on my work desk

and he has developed quite the snore

Snoring aside, it is great to share my latest little tea painting

which was done on a card for my Mother-in -Law Loretta

for her birthday on Sunday

and it matches the mugs and platter that Sinus picked out for her

I would have gone the teacups

but these lovely fine bone china mugs are pretty special too

and as an unexpected presentfor the rest of us

we had a lovely warm sunny winter's day

so I got to make a new iced tea

Green tea with jasmine, pear, cinnamon, apple and orange

and it was delicious

and the perfect drink while sitting back thinking of the exciting collaboration

that has come about this week...

There is an artist here in Brisbane

Chrissy Foreman Cranitch

and she does all this gorgeous, colourful work

that is vibrant and full of life

and we are doing a collaboration 

which is just the most exciting and wonderful thing

and makes me squeal and squirm with all the possibilities

Chrissy, the clever thing that she is,

 makes not only gorgeous paintings, cards, books, and fabrics

she also paints these wonderful re purposed vintage teacups

and she is making one for me and sending it to me

and then I am going to paint it for her

her work is exisite isn't it...

You can find Chrissy's post about our news here

and her store is here

and her web site which is bursting with colour is here

I know that just by looking at these pics 

you can totally understand my excitement!!!

Happy Tea Tuesday all... xx

My last two posts have been

The Ice Cream Spoons....

The Ghosts of Breakfast Past....

The Ice Cream Spoon....

It has been quite the week

it started with an unexpected bit of wonderful

when I opened week 1 hook up for the Summer of Colour

hosted by Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle

and saw that I had won the week 1 giveaway

I tell you I was so shocked

I checked it on my phone

then made Phantom check it on her computer

then her phone

then Sinus on his phone

before I started to dare believe it
and I can't send out a big enough thank you to Kristin
it is soooo appreciated....

because the truth was I had been coveting that spoon like no body's business

I have had a bit of a cutlery drawing obsession happening

and so all I could think about all week was that spoon

and now it is on its way

so obviously I just need to obsess on something hard enough and it happens

watch out George Clooney you are going to be heading my way baby....

anyway

 I now see huge bowls of ice cream in my future

and the added bonus of a wonderful vintage spoon to draw and paint

although I couldn't resist giving it a quick sketch in preparation

because I love having a sketch for Sunday Sketches ready

and in a stroke of genius I used this week's colour prompt

of mint choc chip colours so it can do double duty....

Which is just as well

because my planned drawing for the week has not gone smoothly

I had a comment on a recent blog post about chocolate biscuits

in which I discussed my obsession with Mint Slice

and Tammy from T's Daily Treasures said that she satisfies her mint choc cravings

with a cup of peppermint tea and a piece of dark chocolate

which has to be healthier right

and I do love tea

so I figured I would pop out and buy some peppermint tea and some dark chocolate

and try the rather unfamiliar healthy after dinner route

and then I could paint it up for the challenge this week

Now I have to say I thought I loved all tea

but I now must amend this to almost all teas

turns out as lovely as the tea smelled it is not for me

all I could think with every sip was toothpaste 

being washed down with a hint of shaving cream

I should have listened to Sandra who warned me about this

but I thought if I tried a peppermint tea by the company that made my favourite

green tea with jasmine and pear then I would be safe

turns out I was wrong

and I ended up eating a half a block of the chocolate to chase the taste out of my mouth

so not quite the virtuous option I was hoping for

and maybe this infected my drawing

because I just couldn't get it to work

and I didn't paint the peppermint tea in the cup

because quite honestly couldn't revisit that horror

so the sketch is not what thought it would be

but they don't always work out

and at the end of the day

I am still coasting on the whole

I won the spoon thing

so I can live with a slightly dodgy mint drawing

happy Sunday Sketches and Week 2 of Summer of Colour everyone...xx

This week you may have missed....

The Ghosts of Breakfast Past....

Doing the Lean....

The Ghosts of Breakfast Past....

Remember those days

many many moons ago

when you rolled out of bed

landed in the shower 

and then ran out the door with cold pizza in your hand 

and a handbag full of makeup 

that you would put on while you were in the car on the way to work

okay maybe you were all really really good and organised and things

but I loved those days

I confess that until I got married

breakfast was whatever smelt freshest in the fridge

so any sort of leftovers were fair game

and can I say nothing wakes you up quicker than sticking your nose

in something unspeakable

but as long as whatever it was 

was washed down with a coffee

or if I was a touch seedy

maybe a Berocca or two

the world was a great place

and for those who don't have the miracle in a tube that is Berocca

I have no clue how you survived a hangover

Of course those glory days 

are well and truly behind me

and now I find myself virtuously drinking green tea

Munching on multi-grain toast 

or some unspeakable fibrous and fruit filled breakfast cereal

and scoffing handfuls of vitamins 

to try to offset the ravages of a misspent youth

because it turns out that the occasional strawberry thickshake from maccas 

wasn't enough to meet my calcium requirements

and a hash brown or cold fried rice aren't on the healthy eating pyramid

go figure....

Luckily for me I got to pick the topic for the

Monthly Painter's Challenge this month

and so I chose Breakfast

because then I could celebrate

The Ghosts of Breakfast Past

and relive the glory days where I relished in my version of 

the breakfast walk of shame

and I can share it with all my painting buddies at Paint Party Friday

because I know there will be some people who have their own breakfast ghosts ... xx

Note to Phantom ... I was never drunk or hung over

and the walk of shame was something I heard about in the staff room

because I was such a good girl, just like you should be

but I had some less disciplined friends who shared their experiences with me

and I am using them here for the sake of making this post interesting...

Some other posts you might like to read...

Doing the Lean...

The Arctic Blast...

Doing The Lean...

Sketching and drawing were the topics this week

over at The Artist's Playroom

which got me flicking back through sketchbooks

and I was struck by how much they had changed recently

which got me thinking about what brought it all on...

There is a line that has become ridiculously important

when it comes to my artwork and it is

Lean Into Discomfort

no clue who said it

no clue where I read it

but I can tell you that I read it around a year ago

and it kind of made me rethink all my crap

which is kind of a big deal

because it isn't too often that I think about things too much

I am a bit of a shallow pool really

we all have moments of doubt

and trying to fit into different moulds and ideas

and finding our style and artistic identity and all that

and moving outside our comfort zone

makes us feel wobbly and freaked out

and for me it is because I don't like the struggle and fight

I am essentially lazy and so

it all just seems a bit like too much effort half the time

but leaning into it

that, I can do

just mosey on up and sort of recline up against it

kind of like subtly invading the personal space of discomfort

not yelling at it to get out of the way

or giving it is big push and shove

just giving it enough pressure that it feels uncomfortable enough to move over a bit

and after all it works on the rest of the family when I want the sofa to myself

so why wouldn't it work with my art as well

sketching and drawing are an example of me doing the lean 

I went through a stage

of being uptight about skills and perfect tone and all that

but now I am looser and freer

I tackle more interesting and complex subjects

and don't always panic at the midway point

I still panic every drawing I do and think it isn't going to get there

but the panic doesn't stop me diving in any more

and it recedes bit by bit with every one

so now my sketchbook 

which used to filled with pages like this

is now filled with more interesting pages 

like this

I am totally addicted to the lean now.

I lean into the fact that I am no domestic goddess, 

Martha Stewart or parenting guru

and that the word I would use to best describe myself is haphazard

and sharing that imperfection here is a bit of a lean.

I lean into sharing unfinished work

writing random blog posts

having drawings that look like a bit rubbish

and lack structure

and have shifting light sources

and have blobs of paint and ink

drawings that I might not always like

through to sharing work I love.

I lean into being me

and it is very liberating...xx

My latest blog posts have been...

The Arctic Blast....

Bullied Tulips....