I had camera woes a few days ago. It suddenly stopped working and I was devastated. Thankfully Google allowed my husband to find the issue and the solution to the problem so a day later, he’d fixed it! What I had wanted to share was some photos of my children and I making our family’s favourite treat. Grapesicles!
They’re so good, the kids love to make them annnd they’re a healthy substitute to ice cream and ice blocks. All you need are some grapes and a packet of skewers. That’s it. Super simple and delicious. It’s also a great way to make the grapes last (my kids take piles of them otherwise) and you don’t end up with any grapes going off if you don’t get to them fast enough.
(Not my image but this is what they look like)
We spent the weekend sorting things out around home. The kids are growing so fast this year, I can barely keep up with them. We go through so many pairs of shoes in this house it’s insane. Out went a pile of clothing to the donation bins and we made a list of the things needing to be purchased.
We discovered one of my favourite pairs of pants for my daughter had been outgrown and so had all of her cute little shorts so because my daughter just seems to grow upwards and never outwards we decided to take those pants and turn them into shorts. I asked if she wanted them long or short and she chose short because she has a lot of longer styled ones. So we chopped off the legs, frayed those edges and now she has a new pair of shorts!
On a side note, That Damn Chicken was dropped off at Jay Jays during Easter week and I got a couple of shots of him in the window for you all to see. If you missed what this is all about you can read it here and here.
I hope all you Mothers out there have had a wonderful weekend. xx
Boston is at a beautiful age right now (20 months). For the most part he’s allowing me to create throughout the day while he ‘draws’ alongside me or just enthusiastically watches. It seems living from such a young age with all my materials around them, my kids have grown into understanding what they are and aren’t allowed to touch so it’s only when they’re extremely young (under one) that I have issues with them touching my projects or products. I’m feeling really grateful that we’re back to a stage where I can trust each kid (for the most part) to not destroy what I’ve got in the works. It’s allowing me to create as often as I want…which is constantly right now. I love it.
So right now I’m working on a few projects and really just experimenting again.
Up next I am part of a fundraiser for the SPCA in an event called The Funky Chicken. You’ll find my creation at Jay Jays on Esk St, Invercargill from the 25th-29th of April (Easter week). After that it’ll be available to purchase via silent auction at H &J Smiths, Invercargill store. On the 22nd of May the sculpture/chicken will be able to be collected/delivered to the highest bidder.
Here is a photo from last week, it’s had a lot of progress made on it since then but I won’t be revealing any more until it’s completed! Exciting 
Right now I am heading in a more loose abstract expressionism direction with my paintings and enjoying the freedom it offers. It might have a lot to do with my absolute despise of being ‘told’ what to do. Everyone has issues, that’s my biggie. My parents would strongly agree I’m sure haha. It runs through into my hatred for people saying what art should look like. There are certain things that make up a good creation but not everyone should use the same techniques and styles. I get really annoyed when I hear people try to argue that someone like Pablo Picasso didn’t make ‘real’ art. Yes, I have in fact heard people talk like this. The art world would stifle if we all stopped listening to our own creative prowess. These two paintings shown are recent creations and I have two complete abstracts in the works that I’ll get to once my deadlines are done.
Below: Forever in my Memories
(excuse the poor photo below – painting currently untitled)
I’m working on a portrait commission of a gorgeous wee girl at the moment too. I forget how much I love to sketch. Hopefully I’ll get her finished this week.
I’m also helping my kids design their ‘dream rooms’. They’re making little models and taking great pride in their designs.
My oldest boys actually share a room so my youngest in the photo is just painting his weet-bix box turned piano hehe. The others were painting and he didn’t want to be left out.
Coming up I have the annual NZAG collaborative project to work on but I haven’t started on that yet. I’ll be sure to share a peek of that when I finally get around to it!
This is what my driveway currently looks like.
You’re Inspiring
I wanted to say thank you to everyone who messaged me and commented the other day on the post about living on less. I was so inspired by you all that I got the ball rolling with my husband, on more ways to save money. I remembered a few months ago a friend of a friend had talked about getting firewood for her family for $5. Of course, this peaked my interest and I asked her for the details thinking that one day I might try it. The day I posted that article we tracked down how to go about getting firewood for $5. We got together with some friends and with their help we rallied up our tribes (10 kids) and by the weekend we were all out in the sun lugging logs onto trailers. The children collected pine cones and I managed to get myself a tan in the process of gathering wood. My poor friends & hubby got sun burnt, who knew having brown skin could have such a good payoff lol.
It gets really cold where we live and in NZ our homes are just not designed to cater to this. Firewood is essential for survival here. The firewood in the picture above, is likely to only last a month at the most. We’ll be back out there this weekend sweating our guts out, working all our muscles. Carrying the wood isn’t the hard part, it was the constant walks back and forth with the logs to the trailer that takes it out of you, although thankfully I felt pretty good the whole time. Not sure how I’ll feel this weekend though because today I’m feeling exhausted.
The place is not a simple, drive in and pack the stacked wood type of place. You find the logs amongst debris, you cut them up, you carry them over branches that stab your legs and through mud and puddles, then you arrange them on the trailer. It’s actually really fun to get your hands dirty. We all have a few scratches now and I just clicked last night why my ankle has been annoying me (I forgot I rolled it in a ditch) but it’s been great bonding time with everyone. I hadn’t done anything like this in years. Since I was a teen! So thank you for reminding me about how to make my money go further and adding in a new way for me to get exercise in. I love it.
The chicken or the egg?
In this case it’s the chicken. Here’s the very beginning of a chicken leg:
It’s quiet around here today because I’m creating. Thinking of you though I’m busy making my very first recycleart project and it. is. FUN.
Totally inspired by Robert Bradford’s ‘Plastic’ sculptures. I’ve got 2 wardrobes full of old toys to get through so what better way to get rid of them!
My Sussie Skin Care Package: This arrived for me on the weekend and I am in love. My favourite product is the eye cream Toucha’ Love. I started using it on Monday because I am having a fierce reaction to something in Invercargill. It’s like hay fever symptoms quadrupled. I found myself on Sunday having to sit with a bag of frozen veges on my massively inflamed and puffy eyes. I was the freak show in my home for my husband and our friend. I got mocked all night. It felt like my face was on fire! So yeah…I’m not looking so good this summer… Sunday morning I woke up and put on some Toucha’ Love and oh.my.gosh. My eyes felt so relieved! They were cooled, less puffy and I’m now feeling the most normal I’ve felt in weeks. Thank you Sussie Skin!!!
Strawberry Picking: I’m always on the lookout for things I can do with the kids on the weekend to kill my ever-growing boredom, so when I saw in the local paper that there was a pick your own strawberry farm in the next town over, I decided this was what my family would be going to do on the weekend. I figured it would be a good chance for the kids to learn where strawberries come from. Obviously they know they grow on plants but you know, I wanted to expose them to how they get from one place to another. So off we went on a little road trip to the farm. I had no idea where it was actually located… just figured we’d find it… and we did! So there.
We got there, were greeted by the sweetest dog I’ve ever met and got to picking our strawberries. It was a lot of fun! The big kids searched out the biggest and reddest strawberries they could find and we walked up and down just a few rows. The kids took the containers full of strawberries to the counter and I headed to the car to grab my purse. Guess who forgot their purse at their house 35 minutes away… The lady was awesome though and we agreed to meet at the Farmers Market the next day which is in my town so no long drive or long walk for her back to her house to get her bank account details. It was nice to feel trusted enough to drive away with goods we hadn’t paid for. You don’t see that much nowadays.
Melissa Muirhead’s Painting: More original art by a fellow kiwi. This painting is called The Impermanence of Form and is done by very talented artist Melissa Muirhead. This might just be my favourite of all the pieces I own. I never picked myself for a still life girl but I sit every day and stare at this painting and think about how much I love it. Thank you Melissa!
Family Time: I had the crappiest week I’ve had in about 7 years, last week. It was all made better on the weekend when this was the scene in our home. This is basically what it looks like in our house every weekend. Everyone huddles in our tiny kitchen, we all fall over each other, make a tonne of mess but have loads of fun and the food that gets made is frickin’ insane. How could you not cheer up being surrounded by all those smiles?
My Mum: Sometimes it takes another woman to understand just what you’re going through. These arrived for me yesterday, completely out of the blue. I couldn’t figure out who they were from because my husband has only ever given me flowers twice in our almost 10 years together, I knew it wouldn’t be him but I kind of wanted it be lol. Although totally happy with who they were actually from. The card was hidden behind the wrapping and I eventually found it, they were from my Mum. My Mum is amazing with floral art. She’s done weddings, birthdays and funerals galore for free and I’m always telling her she can make something out of it for herself. She didn’t make this particular bunch but flowers are my Mum’s signature gift and I’m thankful for them. Otherwise I’d never get any! She must have sensed I was having a rough time after this post and sent me these to brighten my week. Consider my week well and truly brightened!
The Christmas Spirit: I was able to participate in a Christmas ornament swap this year and the photo above is the wreath I made for my swap partner. This year I’d been struggling to get into the Christmas spirit but when I forced myself to get creative and take part in this project there was no stopping me creatively. I made it weeks ago now but I couldn’t post an image because I didn’t want to ruin my partners surprise. Giving something I’ve made to someone else to enjoy makes me really happy and brings a lot of positive energy into my life. I’m really looking forward to Christmas now.
