Mother's Day 2023

Happy Mother's Day for all my mother readers. Having a quiet day as John has gone to the community gardens, as usual.

 My eldest daughter sent a lovely flower arrangement with some quite different flowers to the normal variety including what I think is the blue tall Larkspur, could be wrong though.

They actually came Friday, which was nice as I have been sick all week with a nasty flare up of Diverticulitis, and  is the first one since I was diagnosed last year. It has really taken a lot out of me, and spent most of the week with a hot water bottle for stomach pain, resting and sleeping. 

Did do some Zentangle Practice off  from You Tube. Takes a bit of concentration, and about 15mins., but fun to do. Squares are 2 inch and I did two at a time, for 3 days. Will keep this A5 book strictly for it and eventually do something for the front cover as only plain brown cardboard.

I also made the effort to go to art yesterday,  as missed last Saturday, having that meeting for the caravan club, and the following Sat. I will be at the Quilting Retreat, so glad I had a week between, did some watercolour practice of one of my online classes.

When I got home there was an enormous bunch of flowers from the youngest daughter in America.

I had to split it into 3 vases, so tried to match the flower theme, and now they are all over the main area.

 John had an injection in each shoulder for bursitis, last week, and can now move his arms so much better. He has had to wait quite a while for it to happen via the hospital, and ended up with a Trainee so was attended by 2 Drs. and a nurse.  I hope he doesn't over do it, as yesterday he was helping make up a Syntropic Garden for the Community Gardens, 3 beds in all.  Will write about it after it is all finished.

For now I am off to pack for the Quilting Retreat starting Friday to Sunday then we head off to Iluka Monday.

My Favorite Vase all the roses.

Till Next Time.

Gypsy Art Group First Morning

 I finally got to go to the Gypsy Art Group morning, after visiting at the botanical gardens, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would say at least 20 women were there, all doing different things. Art Journals, cards, eco printing, watercolour, that I could see.

 When I first arrived 5 mins late, everyone was huddled around a workshop on staining leaves onto a mug. This is done with steam via an electric fry pan, and I watched for a half hour, till someone sat down, so I went with her, to find out the routine, and luckily at the table there was a space for me. This was my new friends 2nd time and the 4  other ladies that joined in also their first time. Five of us around several tables, put together.

Eco Printing done by one of the members.

This natural staining is also done on fabric and paper and known as Eco Printing.  It was on at the Botanical Gardens visit, and selling beautiful lengths of fabric. At this stage I am not interested in doing it. 

I actually  took some cardmaking stuff as I didn't quite know what to expect and found at my new table all the ladies were making cards. Mind you I only made one in 3 hours.and took way too much stuff. Lots of chatting, and two other demos. Everyone started to pack up after 12 although it was supposed to go to 1 pm. So it was a hurry pack up for me, and now I can't find my card to show you. I think it is lost forever.

This is a quarter of the room with kitchen on right.

 We had a quick mini lesson on easy bookbinding, with heavy pages like  thin cardboard. I lot of emphasis is on the art journals and one lady, I know of,  sells them at the market.

 I didn't know it was such a going concern. Lots of stamping, ephemera like little envelopes tucked in, pages ripped out of old books, Cloth bits. Interesting to look at, and they are used as personal journals for writing on, no matter what the page looks like and some of them have quite a lot.

An example of one with a Forest Theme.

 To give those an idea, who haven't heard of them, this A5 one is $300 on Etsy. (DotsInspirationShop) A fair amount of work goes into them time wise. Any larger like A4 another $100 .

 

Hmmm, I might have to investigate how to use up a lot of my scrapbook, cardmaking, fabric, lace supplies.

On another note I finished my first oil  painting after 30 plus years, at the Saturday Morning Group. 

At the moment Art is all I can think of and suddenly lost interest in preserving, jewellery making, gardening to a degree, even spinning which I was doing last year. The miniatures I started photographing for an Etsy Shop, is on hold also.

I even joined Instagram and have 76 followers lol mostly miniature collectors and makers probably checking me out. They have to wait a long time though between photographs, 5 so far.

It is raining today, but look some of my seedlings are up.

For those who know my sister, her youngest daughter is having a son in September. Jan is very excited she has waited a long time to be a grandmother. As I tell my nieces and nephews I Am A Great Aunt.

Till Next Time

Catching up.

It has been a bit of a struggle getting back into normal life, this past week. I could have done with another week off, but I have generally caught up with the washing, ironing and general housework, and also getting things together for yesterday when I started the casual class for painting. 

 In the end I took my oil paints, and a canvas board,  as with  all the new courses I have been doing I wasn't sure what to take but oil paints is one thing I thought I would remember.Whether it was because we all had to vote  Saturday, or the rain,  not a lot turned up, which was comfortable for me. Now that I have been once I think I will really enjoy it.

Remember the Lasiandra tree that was cut in half several months ago, well look at it now. The flowers and purple is so striking.

  

I don't know if I have shown you the back garden recently but it turned into this weed monster as I wasn't well enough to cope recently, although I have improved a lot  now, I do feel I am in sloth mode being very careful not to use up my energy.  I was very surprised when John took to clearing it up. 

 He has been  very busy this week weeding, although I don't like him working in the heat of the day, he managed to fill the wheely bin plus the neighbours.

It is just a basic major clean, still a bit more to go, but now is the time to move the bricks around each bed and the soil to fill the gap. Unfortunately I can't get rid of the nutgrass completely,  short of emptying every bed of soil and getting rid of it, but there is one product I could try that is specific to the nuts  known as Sempra. It is expensive and requires dedication. As I am not planting anything else in this area, thinking I will give it a try.

The path down to the rose garden though is another area. At least if this cool weather stays, I can help a bit.

Windflowers are beginning o flower.

The next step once this is all weeded, bricks moved and pressure cleaned,is  to cover  all this open area in false grass, which has worked in the front veg. gardens.. Who wants to mow anyway.

 

Till Next Time. 

 

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Four Exciting Deliveries in One Day

I feel like I have been waiting for ever and then suddenly all my parcels turned up at once, last Friday. The first one is a series of Caladiums. These are a fancy leaf plant of which I already had a baby one with red leaves, then a sale came up and John ordered 5 more. Just love them. I had to pot them up though as the roots were coming out the bottom. 

According to the Jungle Collective ....Caladiums are a seasonal plant. They grow their striking foliage on long slender stems that emerge in spring when the ambient overnight temperatures are above 20c. The foliage dies back toward the end of autumn when the weather is cooling down.

New Caladium

The like a shady to semi shady spot so I am going to stick them under the tree off the verandah, with my fancy Bergona Rex plants also with colouful leaves. 

New Caladiums

 The next Delivery same day, and with all my new art classes happening I had to get some new paints in Watercolours paint and  Paper,  and gouache paints all turned up as well actually from two different companies. Plus 3 very expensive watercolour  paint brushes from a third.

 One thing I have learnt about painting is the paper you work on gives the best result if it is good quality, and the paints are more vibrant and lightfast if the pigments are artist quality. 

 That is not to say I will go mad on using expensive stuff first,  but will test everything on Student quality first to get ideas and structure.Probably using my good old Jo Sonya's.

 I am joining the local art group every Sat. morning, and  have visited them already. 

It has been fun finding all my old stuff and sorting out an area for me to paint, which will probably be upstairs in the spare bedroom on my mum's table in there, which I feel good about. Even found a large piece of plastic to cover the table with.

The last thing to turn up was some new Oracle cards. The have just come out and by Colette Baron Reid which I have 2 other sets of hers, and really like how accurate they are. Just a bit of fun for me, and good for journaling on the result when you pick a card a day. 

The artist is Jo Nakamura and he describes his style as a blend of folk art modern country naive style, using Tribal art and mythology. It appealed to me, so we will see how they go with usage. I have only just opened them as I write this. 

 I did do some more  Gluten Free baking this week using some gluten free flour from Coles and made  Anzacs, and found a recipe, just in case something had changed for gluten free flour, but basically was just as I always do. 

The white one are because I forgot to put the brown sugar in, taste alright though.

While I was at it, used a gluten free cake mix to make some Lemon  Poppy Seed Muffins. I just added chopped up lemon peel really fine, and substituted 2/3rds. milk for 1/3rd of milk and the other lemon juice, and added a lid full of poppy seeds.

 They were later iced with lemon icing, after I took the photo and I froze them. I kept two back to test them, one for John and one for me. When I went to get mine, several hours later, for afternoon tea, it was gone!!!! Apparently they taste like normal. 

I don't supposed anyone wants to know I picked and froze another 500grms of beans, this week. If you are sick of reading that, I am sick of doing it. lol

  Till Next Time. 

 

 

 

 

Yet more Beans & Art Classes.

It has been a strange week, John has had a cataract  removed, formed due to the operation he had last year, so no need for the other eye to be done which usually happens. He has had to be very careful this past week, with drops, and dark glasses and a plastic dome patch for night. He has used all this free time applying for another grant which has taken up most of this week. 

 

 The Commuity Garden though, have had a major bi-annual plant sale, for this weekend, and have had to work it out on their own for once. The garden though is looking lovely.

https://www.facebook.com/SouthCoffsCommunityGarden/ 

 

  My garden, on the other hand, is  ploughing on, despite all the nut grass, trying to work it every day for an hour.

 

Unbelievably I have had to pick another basket of  beans, both butter and blue lake, even after Miss P picked every one she could  8 days ago.

 More Kale for my smoothies which saves me $6 every time I do it, and which I freeze,plus another zucchini I missed. It is still fairly hot outside after 9 so I am not going out for  too long the humidity is exhausting.

 

I did process them and they weighed 800grms, ready for blanching.

I also froze them individually on a tray, then vacuum packed them in the freezer bags. The tomatoes from the garden are in my new vacuum fridge bags.

I noticed today that I should pick some more beans, despite giving 2 big handfuls to the neighbours, I am getting sick of them.  I also noticed, especially yesterday, when I defrosted the freezer and realised how many bags of carrots and beans there were from the garden, as we are mainly eating salads. Winter should sort that out hopefully.  

 

 

One of many oil paintings I did in the early days that sold.

 The past year I have been planning to go back to my art, and yesterday visited the local art centre for their casual day, meaning no classes. 8 painters were there and I liked the set up so will be joining them at two weeks, after I actually join officially. I have also decided to check out the journal, bookbinding  group Thursday as I shall be experimenting in small art books so can easily join in there as well for extra time to work. 

I have also organized  a few online classes, which I have looked at first and now collecting new paints and water colour brushes, so I can actually start the lessons. I usually paint in oils.

 

Abstract class in acrylics,  I will be doing which is very different.

This is a Watercolour class.

 

 It is all very exciting, and I am still getting things together to start.

 

 In the midst of all this I am also continuing to  photograph miniatures for my Etsy shop, yet to open.

 

I think I have finished all the furniture and now starting on the fiddly bits, which  at the moment isrocking horses.

I don't want to be photographing while stuff is hopefully selling at the same time, well not until I have most of it uploaded. Then it will be a case of packing and posting.......maybe.

I feel I have not done a lot this week, except  lots of research on the computer, that is quite tiring. 

Easter Daisy amongst the nut grass.

Till Next Time.