Three wee dollies.

, a photo by dette.k on Flickr.

Three dolls almost done this weekend. I'm thinking that if I pay myself twenty five dollars an hour and each one takes over three hours to make and that doesn't include materials...$80 at least, is quite reasonable. I havent boughht dolls for a long long time and wondered what people are paying now days. A massed produced baby born is $75, a barbie is about $50 (depending on the style/theme) and a hideous machine made raggedy Anne doll was $20 in the bargain bin at textile traders, so $80 is a good deal for something unique. The problem is people often devalue what is handmade and want you to sell it for nothing. We'll see.

Lace knickers and a crocheted hat. :)

Lace knickers and a crocheted hat. :), a photo by dette.k on Flickr.

She now has a crocheted hat and a friend with lacy knickers....time to sleep. I'll finish them tomorrow!

She favoured a simple gathered sun dress. She would also like a pair of black Mary Janes

She favoured a simple gathered sun dress. She would also like a pair of black Mary Janes, a photo by dette.k on Flickr.

dette.k (24 minutes ago | edit | delete)
Today I wandered into a lovely little shop where the textile artist who owned the shop was working. We had a lovely chat and when I got home I ignored the mess in my bedroom (again) and the pile of marking I should do and pulled out my sewing machine. This is the first of five dolls that I cut out this afternoon. I think she needs a straw hat and a picnic basket. Somehow I think she is French.

A sun burnt country...not sure I love it.

When I was traveling I actually didn't miss home, Sure I missed my kids and friends but my home town not so much. Recently I enrolled in an online art course called Ode to Nature to try and find inspiration and search out a new direction. I also thought that the idea of walking about drawing inspiration from nature would also give me a chance to exercise without really realising I was doing it as I have got fatter and fatter and am finding that I have less and less motivation to try to lose weight, it has been a battle i have had for my entire life and I'm tired of it!
Anyway back to the nature thing. I'm doing a hypnosis tape (for weight loss actually so I'm back there again!) and in it is asks you to go to a place, a garden where you feel relaxed, my mind can't seem to find one that is real I flit from one image to another of typical meditational babbling brooks grassy knolls. But I can't find a place that is familiar to me that I can draw on. So I decided that I have to create a place that I love in my front yard, not one for the kids to 'entertain' in or anything else just for me the way I like it. Now I am not really a gardener. I don't particularly enjoy it as such, I like planting new things and picking flowers but not the digging weeding and sweeping, although I have decided to think of it as "exercise time" thus killing two birds with one stone,
A few weeks I caught a bit on gardening australia about a park land in Whitegum Valley (near where I live) that has created  garden using plant species indigenous to the local area. Ah I thought to myself, I'll go and have a look and see what the experts can do with local native plants. Then I will take photos of the plants and jot down their names and try and produce a lovely but waterwise garden in my front yard that will fare ok with the intermittent watering it gets from me.
So tim and i went there today armed with sketch books and cameras.
This is what we found.

This lake was quite pretty with a family of ducklings paddling about. There were a few trees nearby and the grass was greenish

The shady part was quite nice as was this comfortable chair. I might add some sleepers to my limestone garden edging to make more comfortable seating.

We followed the path along with anticipation of learning somethng about the right type of plants to use in our sandy limestony coastal soils.
Hmmm....this is not what I expected.

So much dead,dry areas amongst those plants clinging to survival



 I often hear people complain about the few rainy days we get in winter and how they wish it would stop raining. We have only just come out of winter and one would imagine that this garden would be mostly greenish. But I was disappointed to discover much of it was dry and half dead or in some cases all dead!

This one has a sign telling you what not to plant!

This section looked a little more optomistic. Until I got close enough to realise that it was actually an olive grove! and a little further along some connifers and some chineese Tallow trees which I i already have in my garden. Perhaps the "Mediterranean Style" might suit me more.

 These poor old trees are growing sideways because of the "fremantle doctor" our strong sea breeze!
This sea breeze has had me running down the street after a market umbrella that I had in my front yard (twice in fact until I yielded and saw the wisdom of going without the brolly!) Maybe this year now that I have a couple of big trees grown up there now I may have a bit of a wind break.

 Here's the parkland looking back down on it from the high point near the road. Oh well I suppose I learnt what I didn't want in my garden and I had a lovely 40 minute walk with tim that seemd to go very quickly

Even now I am trying to keep an open mind and we are planning to go to kings park next week to see what's on display up there.

At least on our travels today we discovered my new favourite cafe! I love the crochet they have here and there and the tea cups I felt right at home!

Today's work

 

Today's progress. I would have done more but I have a dreadfully sore throat and my ears feel like they will burst. My friend who is having the baby is delighted with it so far. I don't know why I worry so much!

The good thing is that it is waiting patiently out in my studio till tomorrow so I can get straight back into it. No packing up or setting up required.

Studio bliss! *Sigh*

 

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Studio update.

Several weeks ago a friend 'dobbed me in' to do a painting for a lady we work with who is expecting a baby. I had been making a cute little owl toy as a demonstration for a class that was doing a textile project. We started talking about toys and nursery decoration and she mentioned that she would love a cute owl picture for her baby's room.

"Dette can paint you one!" ....indeed. I couldn't say no but in truth I felt happy to do it. Or so I thought.

I started to worry that she wouldn't like what I did.

That was weeks ago and I've had a hard time getting into it. I procrastinated and watched a complete 4 series of Sanctuary, did quite a bit of crochet. Finally i thought it was time to start. It was the impetus for the studio clean out and finally today I transferred the sketch to canvas an made a start at last.

It shouldn't take long to finish, just as well as the baby is now due in a week or so! The best thing is I can leave it all set up and ready to go again tomorrow.

 

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Step by step, little by little

Today I had Tim help me finish sorting the stuff we liberated from the studio a few weeks ago. It has been sitting in unruly piles in the patio area between the lounge and studio. We sorted threw and donated the last of the junk that came out of my space. There is one little corner to sort still but it is actually quite a usable space now and I can now walk into my studio without distraction or guilt that I should be doing something else.

Once it was done I sat down and made a sketch of a painting I am going to do for a lady from work who is having a baby. I should have done it weeks ago but haven't come close to deciding quite how to do it but now I am clearer on the composition. She wanted a cute painting of owls, I'm going to do something inspired by the work of Rebecca Cool using floral fabrics glued to the canvas and painted around. Next Tuesday I'll aim to put paint brush to canvas.

 

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