Are YOU Doing Stuff? - My half yearly checkup

It's catching, have you caught the urge to do Stuff yet?

I spent an extremely enjoyable evening  at Pink Piano Bar with some gorgeous friends the other night.As we were saying our goodbyes, one friend said that this was her 'doing new Stuff' night, and that my blog had inspired her to try new things and go to new places and generally get out of her 'stay at home mum' rut! Hooray, I am constantly being inspired by people who do things that amaze me and help get the creative juices flowing, so I'm proud to be the source of at least a tiny bit of inspiration.

In return, I'm going to do some unashamed plugging for this effervescent Ms G's new business venture (which I'm sure I did NOT inspire).
PLEASE take a look at CUPCAKE CITY , an online shop which supplies cupcake equipment; stands, cases, themed decorations etc. and are all reasonably priced.

And as the new financial year rolls around I look around and say - Holy Cow, where did the year go?????

As the saying goes, Those who can - do. Those who can't - blog. This may not be an accurate quote, but it works for me for this moment. I've been out doing, so that's why I haven't been blogging lately. That, and pure unadulterated laziness. No excuses.

Here's a quick update on the Stuff I've been doing lately:

I've completed three paintings, which for me is speedy (I've usually got a half a dozen unfinished paintings and bits and pieces of stuff lying around).  The top one is the dye and water painting you've seen before in my last post.

The second one was finished in quick time for a friend's birthday. It was based upon the third painting (right) which was finished a month or so before, but I kept fiddling and trying to make it perfect, but eventually had to abandon it and just say to myself that it was finished.

Remember this? - Pay it Forward 2011: I promise to send something handmade (or homemade!) to the first 5 people who leave a comment here. They must in turn post this and send something they make to the first 5 people who comment on their status. *The rules are that it must be handmade/homemade by you and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011. (No, your kids don't count as something homemade, so don't send them to me!)

Two friends responded and I've managed to make both gifts but have only delivered one so far. My beautiful cousin Kelly is wearing her gift, the green scarf, lovingly knitted by me. Lesa, my other responder will be receiving her gift (another scarf) when she arrives back in Aus. later this month .

I"m getting out of my theater comfort zone tomorrow night by joining the Ignatians theatre company's choir  Ignite. As part of my 'doing Stuff' year, I'm trying to get out of my comfort zone, go to new places and meet new people. I'm hoping to do just that from tomorrow night onwards and to get a good sing in too :)

Wish me luck and keep on doing Stuff!!

Anatomy of a Painting

This painting was completed during two, three hour lessons with Patrick at his Ryhill Road art studio. The flowers and stems were drawn with fabric 'puffy' paints, although Patrick has since perfected  the use of acrylic paints put into squeeze bottles to get the same effect.  Lay the canvas on a table, making sure it is level.

Once the outlines are dry, spray the whole canvas with water using a spray bottle. Apply fabric ink to wet canvas with a brush, doing one colour at a time. If canvas starts to get dry, spray with water again, but spray upwards allowing the water to fall onto the canvas from above. Don't spray directly onto the ink or it will mottle the ink, unless that's the effect you're after. 

Depending on how steady your hand is when you're drawing the lines, there may or may not be bits where the line is thin or missing. This is where the ink will seep through and make the beautiful effects. I think I did too good a job on lining some flowers, so I had to purposely allow the brush to stray into the white lily to allow some colour transfer.

The ink comes in most basic colours but you can mix the colours beforehand to make a new colour.  I also added one colour over the other straight on the canvas. The plant stems I firstly painted  green, then added a bright yellow over the top to make a yellowy green, but it also  made it mottled when I sprayed it with water, so both the green and the yellow were visible.

The colours available in the ink are beautiful and bright, but I went back over them several times to get some really strong colurs - especially the yellows and the purple. 





What I love about this technique is that it's quick (but I'm such a fuss pot I had to keep going back over the colours to get them just right), and it's meant to be a bit rough and messy. The colours are supposed to bleed into each other, so if you're not steady handed (like me), and make a bit of a mistake with the lines or the colurs, it makes it look even better :)


And here's the finished result...

I'm hooked on this technique, watch out for the next one...

"The man who is tired of Weird Al Yankovic is tired of life" - Homer J. Simpson

If someone were to break in to my house and rifle through my CD collection they would notice a few things: an exorbitant collection of musical theatre soundtracks; a healthy 80's collection and a large amount of Cd's from three artists in particular: Elton John, George Michael and Weird Al Yankovic.

I've been fortunate to see Elton John several times, and last year I fulfilled a dream, nay, an obsession that started in 1982 with George Michael by flying to Sydney to see him in concert. My love affair with Weird Al started a bit earlier. I remember listening to the Dr Demento show on the radio as a child and two songs stood out for me: 'Another one Rides the Bus', and 'It's Still Billy Joel to Me'. I was later to find out that these songs were by Weird Al.

I've been an avid fan through the 80's when everyone was talking about his hits of 'Fat', 'Eat it' and 'Like a Surgeon', and into the nineties and the naughties, when all but the fans were saying, 'what happened to that Weird Al guy?' I didn't have to ask, I was there with him all along.

I was also there, at the QPAC concert hall on the 15th of March along with the geekier half of Brisbane. From the opening accordion Lady Gaga /Ke$ha /Justin Bieber polka tribute, through almost all of his hits (notably missing 'Like a Surgeon') from the last 4 decades, and finishing with the most entertaining encore I have ever seen.

The highlight for me was actually seeing Al in the flesh. At 51 the guy is in terrific shape, bouncing around the stage all night and kicking his leg higher than some dancers can.  He donned costumes for each song - yes, even the Fat suit! Between songs, to allow him time to get changed, a screen at the back of the stage showed clips from his Al TV show;  mock interviews of celebrities such as Eminem, Celine Dion and Jessica Simpson. It also played clips from TV shows over the past few decades that had references to Weird Al. As far as pop culture goes Al is the guru! He's been in, referred to, (or voiced a character in) shows from the Flintstones and Friends, to Everybody Loves Raymond, Family Guy, the Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, and more shows than you can shake a stick at!

The finale was everything I could have hoped for. Being a huge Star Wars fan - isn't everyone?? I eagerly awaited his two Star Wars tributes, 'Yoda' a parody of 'Lola' from the Kinks, from his 1985 album 'Dare to be Stupid', and 'The Saga Begins', the 1999 parody of 'American Pie' by Don McLean. He waited till we were all whipped up into a nerdy frenzy, then when the band entered wearing Jedi outfits we knew what we were in for. 'Saga' started it off, blended neatly into 'Yoda', complete with a row of dancing Stormtroopers across the back of the stage with Darth himself in the centre.

Does life get any better than this - I think not!

February - short and bittersweet

February dawned brightly, and was gone almost in the wink of an eye. Yes, I know it's the shortest month of the year, but it felt like only two weeks.  Where did this month go? What did I get done?

I managed by the end of the month to get down to my pre- Christmas weight of 70.1 kg, despite a few dodgy  weigh-ins due to a couple of  lost weekends with nachos and white wine! My next milestone is to get under 70kg and that won't take long!

I signed up for Clean Up Australia Day  earlier in the month. It's on Sunday the 6th of March, and my area to clean up is :  here

Rio!

My Monday, Wednesday and Sundays were taken up (mainly in the evenings) by rehearsals for the Savoyards 50th Anniversary concert. I was lucky enough to be a cast member of Sav's production of  'Boy From Oz' in 2009 and that qualified me as a previous Savoyards member, so I could audition for the concert.
The auditions and rehearsals all started in Nov/ Dec last year, but they geared up in Feb and it was full on until Opening night.

Queensland was still reeling after the floods in January when Cyclone Yasi reared her ugly head in Feb. Not content with that, Mother Nature decided it was New Zealand's turn on the 22nd, and an earthquake measuring 6.3, severely damaged Christchurch. and surrounding areas.

A lot happened in February, not necessarily to me, but we are all affected by the suffering of others.

Here's to March.

When I grow up, I want...

TO BE -  a poet, a tap dancer, a drama queen, exciting, enticing, illuminating, welcoming, active, fit,  someone's soul mate, empowered, a photographer, fluent in Italian, an artist, a glamour puss, well travelled, a salsa dancer, lovable, humble, romantic, able to read hieroglyphics, caring, a joker, a font of information, a good friend,  passionate, positive, an historian, centered, a singer, fluent in French, not afraid, a vixen,  fascinating, entertaining, intriguing, an entrepreneur, a stargazer , honest, someone who finishes what she starts, articulate, eccentric, trustworthy, aesthetic, a bombshell, a good cook, TO GO TO - Egypt, Greece, Turkey, America, Antarctica, South America, The Holy Lands, to the Moon and back, Tasmania, South Australia, Northern Territory, The Stars, Western Australia, New Zealand. TO GO BACK TO -   France, Italy, the UK, Switzerland, Germany,  TO LEARN - photography, how to develop film, interior design, piano, Indian cooking, saxophone, to paint, sign language,  to tapdance, horticulture, to bellydance, astronomy, ancient history... to be continued...