Art for Heart's Sake

An Art Session this a.m.

Hi, just a very quick post for now.. I have a young girl coming in 30 minutes to spend 2 hours in my studio doing art.  I tidied up my studio desk (now I can see the surface) yesterday late morning and also vacuumed the floor (still have to do the house).

Here is a photo of a gift tag I made for my dear friend Lyn.  I love the soft colours of this one.  Also a photo of us at Cable Bay on Wednesday! More later honeys.  Smiles..

I Had Fun!

Morning on a rather hot Thursday morning and it's only 10am!  It is meant to go to 27 degrees C here today and that is just too far out of my comfort zone.  It also means it will be hotter than that on our property so I'll be lucky if I manage to garden at all!

Yesterday I took off in the little car to go and meet Lyn and drive her to the Cable Bay Cafe.  We had the most amazing time - the weather was perfection - not too hot, with crystal clear blue skies and a light breeze.  The cafe was gorgeous and then we wandered down to the stony beach and Lyn took a couple of photos.  I tried to take some on my phone but they came out far too dark for some reason.  when Lyn emails me the photos I'll post them for you.

I dropped Lyn off again and then drove the 45 minutes home with the wind in my hair, driving with the top down is such a special feeling.  I love doing it at night when John's driving and I can tip my head back and gaze at the stars. 

I'm trying to think whether there is anything I really want to do that requires me to drive because after my op I can't drive for 6 weeks (oh good grief!).

Today my nursery is open and it is also possibly going to be a housework day, especially if it gets too hot to be outside this pm.  I want to spend a bit of time in my studio if I can because I have a have a young girl coming tomorrow for some art fun for 2 hours and I need to make some room on my table, eeeeeek!  I'm off to hang out the washing now.  Smiles..

Off to Cable Bay!

Hi, this morning I'm off to Cable Bay (about 1 hour's drive from here) to treat my lovely friend, Lyn, to a birthday morning tea.  It is the most beautiful spot and the cafe is said to be really good.  It was open a couple of years ago, then closed down and a couple that loved that cafe very much decided to buy it and open it again!  Lucky us I say!

Cable Bay beach is very special, it is very deep with rolling waves and special stones on the beach (which by Maori law we are not allowed to pick up!! bother).  Here is a link if you'd like to read some info about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_Bay

and images:

https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=cable+bay+nelson&rlz=1T4TSAU_en___NZ359&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=tQvoUrqGEIbhkgX7n4GABA&ved=0CDIQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=612

Yesterday I had an odd sort of day.  I didn't get out into the garden at all which was a nuisance but I had a good day doing this and that, including making a gift tag for Lyn.  Yikes I must take a photo of it! 

I'd better fly but will post photos from today, if I can work out how to get them off my iPhone!  Smiles..

An Angel..ica!

Hi, it's Tuesday afternoon and I've been out this morning.  I had to go and buy a couple of birthday pressies and then I popped to neighbours to get some more of their gorgeous extra virgin olive oil.  Needless to say I didn't get back here until around 11.40am!

This pm I'm going to do some more gardening and I need to make a gift tag for one of the gifts because I'm taking my friend Lyn out for coffee tomorrow.  I feel guilty that I won't be in the garden - I need to get it looking as good as I can before the end of February.

Here is a photo of a gorgeous biennial (flowers in its second year) plant, Angelica gigas.  I think it is so unusual and lovely.  The colour of it's flower-head is just divine and the bees adore it too.  It is monocarpic (dies after flowering) so I must make sure I collect seed from it in autumn.

My studio is calling me to make the gift tag and then out to the garden I will go.  Smiles..

I Did It!!!!!

Hi and yippee, I managed to tidy the spare room wardrobe yesterday.. ermmm is it about now that I admit it took me MOST OF THE DAY!!  Crikey..  yes it was a bit messy.  I thought about taking a before shot so I could take an after shot for you but I didn't get round to it.   I still have a bit of tidying to do in the actual room but that won't take too long.  The bookcase is absolutely groaning with the weight of various magazines we've subscribed to over the past few years (mainly gardening) and I'm thinking some of them might need to find their way to the local hospital.  It is SO hard for me to part with gardening ''anything'' though so who knows.

Today I am going to carry on weeding the main perennial bed.  I'm about to put my new sign down at the bottom of the drive (have I posted a photo of it here yet?  I can't remember).  I'm also going to put my art on the side of the house under the verandah and put out the little table with some of my other creations on it.  I am so happy I am now advertising just a Plant Nursery too because it might mean a few more people come to check it out.  Yes they might leave again because I stock only perennials but then again they might not!

We had some beautiful rain yesterday and the garden is looking a lot happier.  Unfortunately Lizzie's chook house leaked badly again so painting the outside hasn't solved the problem.  The house needs a damp course between it and the frame it sits on so we'll have to get that sorted pronto!

It's time to hang out the washing and start gardening.  Smiles..

Eeek It's Spare Room Wardrobe Time!!

Hi there and oh crikey!  It's a wet, slightly windy day today so I can't put it off any longer.  Yes, I have to attack our spare room wardrobe (and then the rest of the spare room).  One of my irksome points (I refuse to say ''bad'') is the fact that I have terrible trouble keeping wardrobes, drawers and bookcases TIDY!  This has always been a struggle for me - I have distinct memories of the spare bed in my bedroom being piled miles high with ''stuff'' when I was young too.

The left hand side of the wardrobe has a computer desk in it and this is piled high with business paraphenalia, boxes of seed packets, random seeds lying around and all sorts of other bits and pieces that tend to get ''stuffed in there'' when I'm in a hurry.  Needless to say the effort of tidying the wardrobe is going to take me all day I fear, giggle!

It is so nice to get some rain because the garden needs it very badly.  I got two coats of paint onto the chook houses so I'm hoping this will have waterproofed them a little, if not a lot!  I'm hoping the rain will last all day but I have a funny feeling it might not for some reason.

Back to the spare room I go because if I don't I'll be tempted to shut the door and forget about it, giggle.  Smiles..

Painting the Chook Houses!

Hi, oh crikey I'm late today, so sorry!!  We headed off to go grocery shopping straight after John had walked the dog so I didn't get a chance to type my post.  I managed to get a 100% cotton rather lovely nightie for my trip to the hospital late Feb.  I knew I needed to look now or I would probably miss out.  I was VERY lucky to get this one, which is really pretty - a french blue with white flowers on it - and it will be able to double as a sundress because it doesn't look at all frumpy!  Yay.. most of the others were HORRIBLE!!! and made of t-shirt type fabric which would be far too hot. 

We had a few other errands to run and got home around 12.15pm, just in time for lunch which was just as well because I was starving.  Since then I have been over to the Galeo subdivision to check on our neighbours' chooks (the bunny owners) and have also given our chook houses in the paddock one coat of gorgeous blue paint.  I am truly hoping that this will solve the slight leakage problem we have, especially in the big house.  If it rains hard it tends to get moisture coming into it up from the bottom edge and we simply can't work out why it's happening because John used silicon to seal all of the joins when he made it.  I am going to wait about and hour and then I'll give them a second coat.  Luckily we still had paint left over from painting our old chook houses (around 7 years ago!!) and it's still fine! 

Yesterday I managed to get a tiny bit more weeding done, but it simply got too hot very quickly so in the end I'd do a bit and then have a break in my studio too.  Speaking of which I need to get back out there to work on my next journal pages.  Smiles..

Journal Pages!

Hi there, yikes it's almost 10am and I still have to hang out the washing!  I've walked the dog at least and had a lovely chat with one of our neighbours.

Yesterday I finished my first two journal pages for the year.  I had a wonderful time doing these, even though the left hand page was a little daunting.  I wanted drippage (i.e. putting paint on, misting it with water and tipping the book up to get it to drip) but I had a whoopsadaisy and it ended up more like solidge (solid colour!).  I love the end result though...  I'm going to be doing a lot more journal pages during this year, as well as some canvases too. 

Here they are:

The image of the girl is a photograph I printed out and then used an image transfer technique to apply it to the page.  It isn't perfect but then image transfer isn't meant to be and I love the way she looks.

I got some weeding done in the main perennial bed yesterday which makes me really happy!  I still have loads more to do and I'm about to leap out there in a minute, after I've had a cup of much needed tea.

John is going to be driving a small truck for our neighbour each afternoon for a couple of hours for the next three weeks.  Our neighbour is having an ankle reconstruction and his side-kick doesn't have a vehicle licence so Ray asked John to help him out.

I'm off to put the kettle on (not literally, giggle).  Smiles..

p.s.: A Dentist Revisit!!!!

Hi, yikes it's 11.40am and today I have done NOTHING yet except post my post on here this morning and look after the animals, Chester excluded because I had to rush off to the dentist again at 9am this morning.  I woke up half way through the night with a sore left side of my mouth.  It hurt to swallow and my cheek was puffy on the inside.  I lay there thinking of all sorts of horrible scenarios as you do in the middle of the night!  Ugh!

I have an area on the inside of my cheek that is very puffy because apparently I bit myself eating lunch when the local anaesthetic hadn't worn off completely.  The pain at the back of my mouth is being caused by an inflamed area with a pocket around my lower left wisdom tooth.  There is a slight infection that hopefully will clear by itself!!  Crikey.. me thinks he was a little rough on Tuesday too..  Here's hoping I won't need antibiotics but I have them just in case it gets worse.  Hummmppphhh so much for doing the right thing re dealing with my teeth, before my op!!  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, I'm grumpy with myself!  I have some anti-inflammatory mouthwash to use every two hours for a few days but I do wish it had some antibacterial component too - that would make sense in my book.  I might do salt rinses as well because they will help too.  Please keep strong thoughts that my mouth feels much better in a day or two.  I'm going to avoid eating on that side until the ''pocket'' settles down.

I'm off out into the garden to DO something and make myself feel better.  Smiles..

 

A Lovely Afternoon!

Hi, yikes it's Thursday and oooooh I have a new sign for my business.  It is FABULOUS!!  I'll take a photo of it today.

We had a lovely afternoon yesterday, Claudia, her husband Andy, their daughter and her mother were here for around two hours and we had lovely conversation over coffee/tea.  It was good to spend time with vibrant, happy people and Aolena (I'm not sure if this spelling is correct?) was really interested in my rock collection too.  I am looking forward to having some art time with her - it will be lovely to be able to share ideas.

I transplanted a poor, sad dahlia plant from one area of our garden that gets a bit neglected (and very dry) into the newly prepared area in my studio garden where the irises were.  I also did some more weeding and cutting back so gradually that garden is looking much better.  I really need to leap head first into the main flower garden because it is weed central and the kitchen garden needs a lot of work too.  Oh well, I will get there!

Today my nursery is open so I am determined to finish potting on the rest of the plants that are left.  If I get time I'll also dig up some seedlings from the garden and pot them up too.   I'd better get started!  Smiles..