Some exciting stuff..

My new job is really my dream job - I work for an organisation called Community First, who run an amazing programme called Ability Arts, for people with disabilities in the local area. 

They can take part in photography and film workshops, create incredible drama productions and produce stunning ceramic and art pieces.

Our annual exhibition opened this morning at Falcon Library - if you're in the Mandurah area you really have to pop down and have a look at the wonderful things they've produced this year.

Oh, and I designed the invitations!

And on this Friday and next Friday I'm running a free felting workshop at the library - should be fun!

I'm also getting very excited about the Smart Street Parties! 

A series of Twilight Markets in Smart Street in Mandurah - craft and vintage stalls, live music, food... We're away for the first one which I'm really sad about, but I'm having a suitcase stall at the next ones selling some new cards and prints - have a look on their Facebook page for all the details and dates.



Smart Street Markets are a From Little Things initiative - oh, and I designed their logo!

So close...

We are nearly moved in to our new house. 
As in all the furniture is there but we are not..
Because basically, all our clothes, food and the TV are here.
We are moving in tomorrow because my parents are in Singapore! Aargh! They arrive here on Friday afternoon so we've gone into renovation overdrive - Mark has even built decking! (it wasn't my top priority - plumbing in the dishwasher is pretty high on my To Do list!)

Here are a few tips I would like to share from the last four weeks:

1. You cannot renovate a house in four weeks and do anything else at the same time.
2.Never be stingy when buying paint - honestly - spend the extra and get the good stuff or you'll end up painting literally 12 layers of paint on EVERYTHING..
3. When considering buying a house, think twice if all the woodwork is painted dark blue.
4.You can never have too many brothers-in-law - and yes, they love helping..
5. When packing to emigrate you do not need to bring more than 6 wineglasses with you:

6. Always, always use low tack masking tape when painting (Doh..)
7.When buying a fridge, please remember to check that it will fit through at least one door into your house. Or it will end up living in the shed.
Poshest beer fridge ever..

Chair potential

I picked up four cafe chairs for $10 each at a garage sale this week, and I'm planning their transformation - as soon as I pack the boys off back to school on Monday (can't wait....)

I've got 6 or 7 old chairs we brought over with us which might feel the paintbrush too...

I'm obsessed with the colour turquoise at the moment, but this green is quite nice too?

Or I could just copy my sister and go multi-coloured?

Ooh, decisions, decisions....

(Click on the pics for the original sources)

New purchase...

We bought a house...

I'm not going to show you a photo of the whole thing yet because it might give you nightmares (like it's giving me..)
The words 'fixer' and 'upper' were invented for this house.
In fact the words 'knock' and 'down' might be better!
It's a 1960's fibro beach shack, it needs everything doing to it (most obviously the asbestos has got to go) and it's all ours on the 4th February!

Wish us luck...

(It's never been painted as you can see from the original lot number in the photo)

WHSmith Christmas cards

These are some of the Christmas designs I did for WHSmith this year, which are in shops now!

(Apparently they are - I made my mum go and buy some for me..)

Moving on..

Today is the first day I've sat down since Saturday... moving house is really not fun!

This was the scene on Monday afternoon when the packers had gone crazy with their brown paper and tape and were packing up everything that stayed still - I thought they'd packed the dog at one point.

You may think it's a bit flash getting someone else to pack for you but this is no ordinary move...

Fourteen years ago Mark arrived at Heathrow from Perth (via Nepal) with a backpack and £60 in his pocket.
Nine years ago he met me.
Eight years ago we got married, bought a house and had a baby.
Five years ago we had another one!
Two years ago we decided to move to Australia..
and in three weeks that's exactly what we're doing..

Swimming with whales

Wow! Via Explore Australia

Appointment in London

Yesterday Mark and I had an appointment here-----



Yes - that's Australia House - maybe the flag gave it away? We still walked straight past it the first time.

We live in a little village surrounded by hills and other little villages. And a few small towns.

So we get really excited when we go anywhere that has buildings over three storeys high. And escalators.

And London is so exciting at the moment! Look at some of the exciting things we saw -

 

108 people dressed as giant pandas!

Pianos in the street!

A giant baobab tree made from fabric!

And loads of cool stuff on the South Bank

And the most exciting thing?
The sun shone all day :)

Nearly famous...

Very, very slightly famous - my design is the purple one with the bouquet!
We're off down to our caravan for the weekend - hoping for a warm one - went out without a coat on today - gasp!

Excitement...

Four Mother's Day cards I designed for WHSmith are in stores now! I went in after work yesterday to gaze at them in disbelief... (They've got little sparkly bits on them which I love)


They're also available as personalised cards on the Funky Pigeon website

Thursday Stuff

This is Betsy Rhinoceros - he (yes - Betsy is a boy's name) is tiny and therefore will shortly break Tom's heart by getting lost...


Other news: 


Our new dishwasher has arrived and if I had any plumbing know-how I would have fitted it immediately! Hiding the washing up inside our broken dishwasher is not a good long term plan.


I am going swimming now - really I am... my channel swim has stalled and I'm currently treading water in the middle of a very busy shipping lane.


Exciting news - one of my designs may soon be featured on a Funky Pigeon.com advert! On the telly! Watch this space...

Stars and leaves

We had quite an eventful weekend - what with this - it's not every day we drive out of our road to be greeted by armed police...

Our little village is back to it's peaceful self now!

I'm doing a lot of little collages at the moment, but I'm having real trouble when it comes to scanning them - my scanner isn't very advanced and it doesn't seem to like the colours of the paper I'm using - any advice happily received!

Better go and pick my little treasures up from school now...

Yippeee!

Yay - I entered this design in the White Stuff Christmas Card comp - and I'm a runner up!
I won some lovely White Stuff vouchers so of course I've spent the day riffling through the catalogue drooling...

In other news, I've turned into a one-woman Beach Hut making factory - I'm not complaining though! If you'd like to order a personalised Beach Hut, have a look here.

Monkey Magic!

Happy Happy Friday!

I entered the Tigerprint 'Happy Families' competition last month and found out today that I won! How exciting!
You can see all the competition entries here and find out about their new competition here

A fleet of boats

I've just packed this fleet of boats up to send to the Forge2 Gallery for their summer exhibition, Festival
I'm very happy to have my boats included in such talented company as the fabulous Aardvark and Andy Povey
It promises to be a bright and breezy exhibition, so if you're in the Northampton / Oxfordshire area, pop in and have a look!

Etsy Excitement..

Oooh, my Beach Huts were on the front page of Etsy yesterday... Took some detective work to find this out!

Thanks to elTiburon for including them in her Treasury :)

Exciting delivery!

I designed some new baby cards for The Art Group last year - and the samples arrived this morning - I really like them! They'll be on sale in WHSmiths soon...

Print and Pattern!

Very excited to have a mention on the fantastic Print and Pattern blog yesterday - have a look here!