Sissy Sparrows

Month In Review | November & December 2011

2012-02-05T06:40:00.002+10:00

So, what do you know..... I'm way behind with my self assigned monthly task.... January is still yet to come, but I will post in a weeks time!

Illustration Friday | Forward

2012-01-30T20:28:00.000+10:00

Pick up lines these days are so 'forward'.

February | Free Desktop Calendar

2012-01-27T14:26:00.002+10:00

Well February is just around the corner for us all.... and January is just about done!

January is always a busy month with getting over the Christmas cheer, beginning of new resolution goals, getting the school books wrapped and packed, and kids settled in to their new class and teachers.

Here's to embracing February the second month in this fantastic year ahead of us and another cute little freebie Desktop Calendar for your computers! Hope you like it.

Simple Instructions: Just click the image above, save to your desktop, then right click on the image (the one you've saved on your desktop) and select 'set as desktop background'.

Enjoy!

Colour Inspiration | Yellow & Grey

2012-01-23T02:00:00.000+10:00

{Photo Credit} 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Free | Monthly Planner Printable

2012-01-15T12:50:00.003+10:00

Here is a free 12 month printable calendar / planner for you all to download and use!

We don't mind if you blog about our freebie or tell your friends, but we'd really really love it if you provide a link back to us!

Important: This printable is for PERSONAL USE only, please do not redistribute or resell as your own.

If you like this free printable, you may like our other ones!

Shop | Valentines Cards

2012-01-08T09:46:00.000+10:00

{new} love birds

you are my rainbow

i love you more than roller derby

i'll be your saturday night fever

{new} we are great together

i love you not just for your brains

galaxy fox

keen as mustard

love the giver

Video | Music Painting

2012-01-05T18:56:00.000+10:00

“Music Painting” illustrated by Alice Ninni is a gorgeous animation of the song “Lacrime de Giulietta” by Matteo Negrin.

Enjoy!

Happy New Year | Free Desktop Calendar

2012-01-02T13:20:00.001+10:00

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and looking forward to a fantastic New Year, we've well and truly gotten over the festive season and of course started the New Year with a diet.... as you do (or as I do anyway). Oh My God.... way too much indulgence!

Here's a cute little freebie Desktop Calendar for your computers!

Simple Instructions: Just click the image above, save to your desktop, then right click on the image (the one you've saved on your desktop) and select 'set as desktop background'.

Enjoy!

Fa la la la la la.... Merry Christmas All

2011-12-20T07:38:00.000+10:00

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a fantastic New Year!

This Moment

2011-12-15T07:19:00.000+10:00

:: This Moment | a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week ::

Feel free to share your moment with a link in our comments section.

We'd love to see them!

This post is inspired by SouleMama’s {This Moment} Friday posts.

Summer Snow

2011-12-10T04:00:00.000+10:00

I looked out our window and imagined a Winter Wonderland .....

and found a Summer Snow.....

The smell was amazing....

Sketchbook Dump | Christmas

2011-12-09T04:00:00.000+10:00

Can you feel it....

Christmas Check List so far....

~~Christmas Tree up~~

~~Advent Calendars~~... still in progress (tasting continues)

~~Teacher's Gifts~~

~~Christmas Cards sent~~

Ordered Ham

Rum Balls to make

Christmas dinner parties

Last minute Christmas gifts

Christmas menu plan & ingredients

~~Deck the halls~~

~~Christmas house lights~~

How's your Christmas Lists going?

You can find other sketchbook dumps here.

Colour Inspiration | Rainbow Connection

2011-12-08T04:00:00.000+10:00

{ Photo Credit } 1. Kim Ripley via etsy 2. Happeemonkee via etsy 3. Trekkerjen via etsy 4. Cassia Beck via etsy 5. Susannah Tucker via etsy

Freebie | Cupcake Note Card Download

2011-12-07T04:00:00.000+10:00

We've created a new cupcake note card download for you all.

Paper size: A4 (4 note cards on one page)

Click {here} to download, save to your desktop, print and slice down the middle!

(Remember, personal use only)

Shop | Foxy Note Cards

2011-12-06T04:30:00.000+10:00

We've got some new illustrated printable Foxy Note Cards now available, you receive one file with four note cards, simple print and slice down the centre!

Only $2.00

Print as many as you like!

(for personal use only)

Click {here} to visit our shop.

Shop | Christmas Card Sale

2011-12-05T14:50:00.000+10:00

Click here to visit the shop.

Here's a preview of a couple.

Remember, you can print them out as many times as you like!

Video | Silent Night

2011-12-04T06:50:00.000+10:00

Found this clip via twitter.... had to share.

Colour Inspiration | Powder Colours

2011-12-03T08:26:00.000+10:00

{Photo Credit} 1. Sweetapolita 2. Yes, Please 3. Ruffled 4. Kates Cottage via etsy 5. Alice B Gardens photography via etsy

Recipe | Family Favourite = Tacos

2011-12-02T07:06:00.000+10:00

So.... what's your family's favourite meal?

A New Hairdo

2011-12-01T07:24:00.001+10:00

It's not very often that I share photos of myself.... kind feel a bit silly really, but anyway taking the plunge.... here's a before and after shot of my new hair do! And I'm just loving it!

It feels like....

2011-11-29T07:33:00.001+10:00

So Christmas is just about here.... it's so exciting don't you think? .... I must admit, I don't believe I've ever loved Christmas as much as I do at this point in my life and the reason for this is, that I have my own little child and hubby to celebrate all the excitement with.

So here's a cute story.... my sister and her three little ones and me and my little one were at the local shopping centre, lining up to get the kids pics taken with Santa, and this is the conversation that was had.

Aunty Don: So Airor (my daughter), what's Santa going to bring you for Christmas?

Airor: (shrugs - slightly overwhelmed by the big guy in the red suit)

Aunty Don: Is he going to bring you a little pony (toy of course...LOL)

Airor: aha... yes

Our turn has arrived, I take Airor to Santa.

Santa: So little girl, what is your name?

Airor: Little Pony.

LOL!!

Oh bless her little soul.... she was so taken up with the moment, that all she could remember was the conversation she had with Aunty Don.

Ah... the joys of Christmas.... it really is about the children for me, they make it soo sooo special.

Special Moments shared to date:

Buying special Christmas decorations (our new tradition is Airor gets to pick a new decoration each year - hence the sparkly shoe),

Putting up the Christmas Tree (as painless as possible with a 3 yr old),

Photos with Santa,

Learning Christmas songs and watching her face trying to remember the words

Questions about where Santa lives and how he can see her (yes, we have used the "Santa is watching you" scenario quite a bit this year)

The warm fuzzy feeling I get when I walk into the Lounge Room and see her gazing up at the Christmas tree

and of course....all the Christmas movie reruns.... Love Love Love!

So.... we would love to see pics of your Christmas tree and decs... feel free to leave a link in our comments, we'll promise to check them all out.....we'd also love to hear your Special Christmas moments to date as well.

Oh... and don't forget that we have free Christmas Gift Tags available here!

Illustration Friday | Silent

2011-11-17T16:29:00.001+10:00

Sketchbook Dump

2011-11-17T11:08:00.001+10:00

This is just some of my latest editions to My Collections journal.

Check out some of my other pages as well.

Free | Christmas Gift Tags

2011-11-14T08:00:00.001+10:00

We're offering all our readers some free printable gift tags, just in time for Christmas.

Just click on the link below to download, save to your computer and print out on A4 or Letter as many times as you like!

We don't mind if you blog about our gift tags, but we'd really really love it if you provide a link back to us!

Important: This printable is for PERSONAL USE only, please do not redistribute or resell as your own.

DOWNLOAD HERE!

Feel free to leave a comment if you like!

Shop | What's New

2011-11-10T11:21:00.002+10:00

All found here.

Recipe & Cooking Fun

2011-11-08T17:26:00.000+10:00

Credit: Awesome photo template by Pugley Pixel

Picture intros: 1. ingredients 2. littlin' 3. biccie batter 4. finished biccie with my Grandma's china.

Cooking with a 3yr old can be really tiring, messy, a little bit painful (don't touch that, just wait, stop eating it).... but overall pretty fun!

I decided to make some biccies today:

a) because the cupboard was pretty bare

b) I actually had all the ingredients for once

c) it's a really really easy recipe to follow and

d) I thought I should add a couple of kilos to the waist band (NOT!!)

One of my favourite recipe books is 4 ingredients there is a whole range of them, I love them because they are easy to follow, and you only need 4 ingredients to make any recipe (hence the title), and the authors are Aussie Gals (say no more!)

Now... I know what you are thinking... oh, she obviously isn't a very good cook, as she can only cook with 4 ingredients! That's just not true!! ... but, OMG you really have to invest in one of these... and by the way, I can cook with more than four ingredients.... just choosing only 4 this time! (That's all)

Just to prove it to you all - here is the "Princess Cake" I made my littlin' for her 3rd birthday!

( It contained more than four ingredients!! )

So... I'm not completely sure if I'm allowed to share this recipe, but I'm going to anyway.... it's just one out of 400, and it might make you go buy it.... right?

Anyway here it is (btw, don't be put off by the recipe title) ~

Basic Biscuits (LOL)

Makes 72 biscuits (which also means, you will be making biscuits for ages - I halved the quantity, out of pure laziness!)

* 500g butter

* 5 cups of self raising flour

* 1 cup of sugar

* 380g tin of condensed milk

Cream sugar and butter until white and fluffy. Sift in flour, and pour in condensed milk. Mix to combine. Roll into teaspoon size balls and place on paper lined baking tray. Flatten slightly with a fork. Bake in 180 degrees Celsius oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden.

You can add anything you like to the batter to give it variety, I used pink and purple sprinkles (not that you can see them - so kind of failed there!) but 100s and 1000s have worked really well in the past.

Anyway folks.... enjoy your day. x Julie

Little Finds for Little People

2011-11-07T10:32:00.002+10:00

Little finds for little people = little smiles all round

If you've been reading our blog, you'll probably realise that Don and I and our families do loads and loads of stuff together.... great sissys and great pals... our hubbies just have to put up with that! LOL.

Over the weekend my hubby went on a weekend bucks party, (I thought bucks parties were just a one night thing.... they seem to be getting longer and longer) anyway, me and my littlin' didn't like the thought of staying at home by ourselves (I'm actually a scaredy cat.... with a huge imagination!).

So we decided to go for a weekend sleepover at my sisters house, no invitation required of course!... just land on the doorstep and "Yay! we're here, hope you didn't have any plans this weekend!"

My sisters kids were ecstatic that we were sleeping over (must tell you, we actually only live a street away.... madness!), this also lead to her husband who was also ecstatic as his whole family were going to be entertained for the weekend, which of course meant 'fishing fishing fishing' all weekend long (kind of like another bucks party I think, except you sleep in your own bed!).

Anyway apart from loads of laughter, special bottles of wine, home cooked Thai food, listening to 80s one hit wonders and watching a rerun of ET.... one of our afternoons were spent walking along the beach.... and this is what our little people found. xx Julie

Sketchbook Dump

2011-11-07T00:00:00.000+10:00

Month in Review | October

2011-11-05T07:46:00.000+10:00

Sketchbook Dump | Wide Nose Girls

2011-11-04T09:25:00.000+10:00

I know her nose looks like a moustache, but I honestly really like drawing noses like that...their wide and unusual and.....WHY NOT!

Holiday Snaps | Rainbow Beach

2011-11-02T17:27:00.000+10:00

Here's a few happy snaps of our family holiday at Rainbow Beach... we haven't shared too many 'real' pics of us of late... so here we are!

Sketchbook Dump | My notebook cover

2011-11-01T10:44:00.000+10:00

Shop | New Digital Stamps

2011-10-25T19:44:00.000+10:00

We've been going through our journals and breathing life into some of our doodles, we've given them a new look and now have them available as Digital Stamps.... crisp clean black and white png files, ready to be used in your paper craft activities, kids projects, scrap booking.... and much more!

Christmas Digital Stamps

Raggedy Love Digital Stamps

Doodled Frames Digital Stamps

Shop | New Changes

2011-10-07T17:08:00.000+10:00

After some long discussions and long cups of coffee and a few glasses of wine, Don and I had to reassess our direction of Sissy Sparrows {Our Shop} and what is really important to us.

What we decided is... that the very most important thing to us is our 'illustrations', this is the whole reason why we started Sissy Sparrows in the first place. It's the passion behind everything, and this cannot change!

So.... one of the major issues behind our change is Australia Post, even though their postage costs within Australia are reasonably.... they are ridiculous when posting to our lovely International customers and friends. My family is from the UK and it out weighs the price of the gift every single time! Ouch!

Most of our sales and shop visits has been from International clients, but with the market being so saturated with similar products, our competitors are winning the sales due to the postage costs.... we believe!

With the cost of our 'Printed Card' originally $4.00 plus the extra bonus we included and business card, the postage costs of 1 item is $4.20 (International) .... we have been absorbing most of that cost and only charging the customer $3.00.... it really isn't worth our time, by the time we illustrate, print, package, and post.

There's not many folks who would buy a $4.00 card but really cost them $8.00.... not sure we would.

So keeping true to the most important thing.... our illustrations, we have decided to minimise all costs to us and our customers and deliver our 'Illustrated Goods' as Printables!

I know some of you don't like this way, but it gives us more flexibility with minimal cost to you.

Below is an image of our revamped shop, which I think think looks quite cute, and represents us gals well.

Our shop is now open for you all to see.... we've made some changes to our branding, but keeping with our girly colours.... hope you like it.

We value your feedback good or bad on our shop changes and product delivery, so we are offering a set of 'Printable Gift Tags' with every comment (one per person)!

And this is a small selection of the new things we now have available. We have a wide selection of greeting cards, note cards, calendars, gift tags and recipe cards and continually working on more designs!

Remember, every comment, receives a free set of gift tags, we really want to hear what you think!

Julie & Donna xx

Sketchbook Dump | Pinterest Inspiration - Teapots

2011-10-05T11:44:00.000+10:00

Source: onbluepoolroad.com via Chloe on Pinterest

From Pinterest to.....

Sketchbook to....

New friendship card design.....

Quote: "A little cup of friendship, with a pot of tea, when you read this, think of love from me"

~ Author Unknown

Available here.

Inspiring Film

2011-10-02T23:00:00.000+10:00

Red Hook - a film about Tommy Kane from DannyGregory on Vimeo.

Sketchbook Dump | Glamour Nails

2011-10-01T11:43:00.000+10:00

Spring ♥

2011-09-15T21:10:00.000+10:00

I'm so loving the taste of spring.... I love fresh salads and go to a lot of trouble each time to make sure that mine is just perfect! I'm definitely not the iceburg lettuce, and sliced tomato kind of girl.... but I know somebody who is....ummmm sorry Don!

If I'm going to eat a salad, it's going to be gooooood every single time.... and as always followed by a fresh cup of lemon green tea!

What's it mean to you?

Princess Cake

2011-09-13T13:56:00.000+10:00

I made this Princess Cake on the weekend for my little girl's 3rd birthday. I was desperate to make her a pink princess cake, so went on the journey of finding a Dolly Varden cake tin. Finding one was easy, but the cost of them really blew my mind.... prices started at $27 through to about $35.... what!!!! I couldn't believe how much a very very simple cake tin cost.

So, I decided to try and make something similar without the cost. Don and I embarked on the cake tin journey and ended up at our local Kmart, we worked out that we could still get the dress shape from using a giant cupcake tin and also buying a really cheap ballerina doll.

The giant cupcake tin cost me $6 and the pink ballerina doll $5..... a lot of difference in price. The doll and cake tin costing me $11.

Now to making the Princess Cake.... this is what I did.

Step 1 - Make two cake batters of your choice.... I used the good old Betty Crocker Cake Mixes, a vanilla one so that I could add pink food coloring to achieve a pink cake inside as well. Pour your cake mixes into the cake tins and bake at the recommended time.

Step 2 - Let them completely cool.

Step 3 - Turn them out.

Step 4 - Trim the cakes so that they sit flat on top of each other.

Step 5 - Cut a hole through the centre of the top cake and half way through the bottom cake. (I didn't cut all the way through the bottom one, just pushed the doll through so that her legs stuck into the bottom to give her some stability and less movement).

Then trim the edges of the top cake so that they are even with the bottom cake edges. (The top cake sort of sits like a roof over the bottom cake, so you need to trim that back even)

Step 6 - Make a big batch of icing of your choice - obviously pink for us! Stick the two cakes together using the icing you've just made. Once that's done, I then placed the cake on a coffee mug so that I could ice the cake all the way to the bottom - ice generously!!

Step 7 - Transfer to a cake plate, place the doll through the centre (I left her little ballerina dress on as it provided extra sparkle to the top of the cake), and then decorate to your liking.

I used a light pink frosting that sprays out of a can.... it came with frosting nozzles and was really easy to use and little metallic soft pink balls.

Step 8 - The finished product!

Questions welcome!

Shop | Bag Tags

2011-09-08T15:03:00.000+10:00

Some brand new items just added to our shop.... we're moving into a new arena with our illustrations, and focussing on some cute and quirky bag tags for kids. Don't worry, we're still selling stickers and cards, but just extending our range.

The inspiration behind our Bag Tags came from our own children.... with the eldest girls 7 and 9. The girls are right into collecting tags for their bags and pencil cases, and with the commercial products being so cheap and unoriginal, we decided to have a go at making our own. We wanted our kids to feel special and unique, so we made the ones below as we already had designs which would be perfect.

We've got loads of new designs ready to add to our shop.... with lots of new boy ones on the way.... our initial mission was to create for our critics.... Our Girls!

The image below shows the back of our tags.... moveable objects creating interest!

Our girls have already picked the Mermaid ones and attached them to their bags.... we're just so excited that they really love them.... *sigh*

We're so lucky to have our best critics in house!

Click here to see more pics of our designs!

Give Away Winner

2011-09-05T09:53:00.000+10:00

Give Away ♥ 10 Cards to Win!

2011-08-28T08:35:00.000+10:00

It's been a little while since we had a give away.... so the time has come for one person to win a 10 pack of our cards.

The 10 pack will be a mix lot which we will choose..... the image to the left is a sample of what you could win!

Want to win???

Here's what you have to do:

1. Follow this blog

2. Leave a comment to this post answering this question:

"Tell us the best kids cake idea you've seen or made".

If you've seen an idea on a website... or blogged yourself about a cake.....feel free to add a link! :)

That's it.... September is a month of kids birthdays in our family... between Donna and I, we have three birthday's to plan.... cake is a big part of it.... your help is required!! Goodluck! ♥

Give Away Closes - Friday 2 September

(winner announced shortly afterwards)

Colored Doodle WIP

2011-08-25T10:00:00.000+10:00

Just thought that I would share a REALLY quick WIP. I used scrap watercolor paper, paint splashes and all, colored pencils and black fine tip pen. I am NOT an expert with pencils but am in the process of fiddling with them and I am not great with coloring techniques so please bare with the blurry images and all.

1. Draw and outline doodle with black pen.

2. Add some shading to those typically darker areas....under glasses/eyes, fringe, chin and bottom lip. This is just where I like to add shading. Color:- Prismacolor Light Peach.

3. Add some further shading to deepen these places with next darker color :-Prismacolor Beige Rose.

4. Add some highlight to the cheeks - Prismacolor Blush Pink.

5. Once I get the shading to my liking going back and forth I like to add some more of that Light Peach to the whitish highlights just to tone them down.

6.Then I use White to go over the face areas that I previously colored to smooth out pencil lines a little and kinda blend it all in a bit.

7. The glasses...I used an Orange (cheapy brand) in the corner areas of the glasses leaving some white highlights. I watched a good video on working out highlights and coloring techniques that I used on her glasses.

8. I then used a Red (cheapy brand) in those corner areas again not completely covering the orange, just to strengthen the look of them. Used the white again to blend and highlight.

9. The Hair - using my black I just picked some areas that I wanted to leave as white highlights and added the black. Again watch the above video part two to give you some ideas.

10. Once my black was down I add the white over the top and it sort of greyed those highlights a little....I like a blended highlight as opposed to a stark white one. Add some colour to the lips, blend with the white.

11. I then sharpened my black pencil and added some strokes to white/grey highlights.

12. I added some messy hair strokes to the outside of the hairline and her eyebrows, colored her eyes, deepened the shadows a bit more with Prismacolor Beige Sienna. I also added a little bit of shadow using the beige sienna at the tops of her eyeballs. Glasses and eyelashes create shadows.

Finished. It was a quick demo, I hope it all makes sense.

Inspirational Artist

2011-08-23T14:00:00.000+10:00

I wanted to share one of MY (Donna) Favourite artists.....I could watch his videos until my eyes bleed. He is so amazingly talented. Watch the video and you will understand. His work is so realistic but yet unrealistic. His approach to colors and his techniques are so original. Breathtaking....may I introduce Michael Shapcott.

And this is my inspirational approach using watercolors and watered down acrylic, embarrassing to even show this in the same post!!

Sketchbook Dump

2011-08-21T06:00:00.000+10:00

Just a quick dump from My Collections journal.

Sketchbook Dump

2011-08-18T06:00:00.000+10:00

This is out of My Collections journal.

This page was so much fun.

Patterns

2011-08-16T13:35:00.000+10:00

When my kids have gone to bed I try to make the most of my 'free' time by either - watching TV and drawing/painting between commercials OR - watching TV and reading during the commercials. So I get to do as much with my 'free' time as I can.

Last night my girls were hanging out with me (instead of being in bed) and as always I ask their expert opinions and this is what they said. Ummm, they look like 'colored blueberries' or 'I know Christmas door thingys' and then my little daughter tells me that she thinks that they are 'grape flakes'.

Their favourite was the Rainbow Heart.

Sketchbook Dump

2011-08-12T06:00:00.000+10:00

Sorry for the quality of the scanned pages.

Painted Faces

2011-08-11T13:59:00.000+10:00

What kid doesn't love face painting...

Mr Tiger was very excited not that you can tell!

DIY Beach Sign

2011-08-10T11:47:00.000+10:00

Our Hubbies went fishing on the weekend, so Don and I got some DIY projects done!! No interferring from them telling us how cut things, and drill things, etc!

So... Donna is giving her outdoor living area a bit of a makeover, so we potted plants, painted potts and moved furniture around, and it looked great... but we decided it needed something extra.

Living so close to the beach, we thought a cool beach sign would be just the thing.... we'd seen so many of them on websites and in shops, but way to pricey.... and of course we always say.... I could make that!!

So we decided to have a go.... and this is what we came up with.

I think we did a pretty good job!

Do you have any DIY projects that you've blogged about, provide a link in the comments section, we'd love to check them out!

Sketchbook Dump

2011-08-09T06:01:00.000+10:00

As promised a few pics from my other journal. This journal Jules bought for me for our birthday and I really do whatever I want to in it. Mostly I draw things in a whimsy cartoon style reflecting me and my family. So it isn't the best work ever and sometimes the pages bleed through from behind, but i still love it.

This is the journal that I used for the tutorial on making your own journal cover.

I made a bit of a mistake...I got some black on her face and then tried to cover it with a bandaide. Ah well.

Sorry for the crappy pics but I think my scanner is just about to die on me.

I will post some more pages in a few days but until then here are some past sketchbook dumps.

The Heart Collector

2011-08-08T18:21:00.000+10:00

My little niece collects heart shape rocks for her mummy.

Here's a few from her collection.

The world is full of hearts, you just have to find them.

Do you see hearts anywhere?

Here is a great place to see Much Love ..... hearts are everywhere!

Freebie / August 2011 Desktop Calendar

2011-08-07T17:30:00.000+10:00

Here's a freebie for you all to download for your desktop computers.

Just click on the image above to open it up to a larger size, right mouse click, and save image to your desktop, once you've done that, right mouse click on the image and 'set as background'.

Enjoy

Sketchbook Dump

2011-08-03T15:59:00.000+10:00

I (Donna) have been a little quiet of late, school holiday shenanigans then one of my little ones getting sick for the next week followed by me and my little man catching it this week. BUT.......finally my little guy went down for a nap (a rarity these days) and I RAN for my paints and pens and felt a little bit like ME. Haaaaah (sighs of inner peace).

I have decided to do collections of things....really enjoying it. Kinda like window shopping.

Hope you liked them...will be dumping some more in the next few days.

We Escaped

2011-07-28T20:40:00.000+10:00

Last Friday Donna and I went on a road trip for a girls night away from home.... (wahoo!)

Every mum / wife deserves a (well earned) break, even if it is just for one night away.... right! Don needed some 'me' time, so her wonderful hubby surprised her with a nights get away... and of course I went along for support!! I was in charge of the red wine, nibblies, nail polish and the facials... easy!

So... we embarked on our roadie to a four star resort, which happened to be only 15 minutes away.... this was fantastic as we didn't have to waste our valuable time travelling to get there!

We arrived, checked in and this is what we found:

We had a gorgeous room with views of a lagoon!

It was so relaxing... we sat out here with our nail polish and people watched, listening to music, and had plenty of laughs to go with it.

We had such a fantastic time, lovely break (even if it was just for one night), we had a little slice of heaven!

To keep us sane, we're going to try at get away at least once a month.... not too much to ask!

Miss Ellie on Kid Independent

2011-07-20T18:31:00.000+10:00

Kid Independent featured our NEWEST family addition Miss Ellie (Paper Doll Kit) on her website for the Wednesday Whip Around... featuring talented artists from around Australia.

We're so proud...... we love Miss Ellie the Elephant and her newest friend.... Molly the Mermaid!

All paper doll kits are Kid friendly, and easy peasy projects for kids of all ages!

Shop / NEW Paper Dolls

2011-07-13T18:45:00.000+10:00

We've had a busy couple of days with the introduction of our new line.... Paper Doll Kits... this little guy is the first of many! Bobby is a desktop companion dog, he's very loyal and loves hanging out. He's very easy to assemble, just cut out, fold and assemble.

Great fun and easy peasy project for the kids... young and old!

He has some accessories, which we've called "Bobby's Things", he comes prepared for sunny days and cooler months!

His accessories include a Winter Hat and Scarf for chilly days, Sunglasses and Sunblock for brighter days.... Just way too cute!

Bobby will soon have a friend.... Bruce is a Desktop Cat Companion, and many more to follow.

Bobby can be found here.

Chalkboard Animation

2011-07-11T14:37:00.000+10:00

Wanted to share some really great chalkboard animations that I found on YouTube this week. Enjoy!

Tea Lovers Roady

2011-07-03T11:09:00.000+10:00

Jules and I went on a roady on Saturday....for the whole day! Just girls time....so much fun, don't get me wrong we love our kids and men but THIS was required!

The girls got all glammed up, coffee for the roady, gps mounted and off we went. Our road trip was all featured around The Finders Keepers Market....which we were desperate to attend. I'm not going to share much about that in this post ....tune in for next post on that.

BUT on our journey we detoured into a little shop called T2 ....OMG!!!!!!! Can I just say wow. First of all, I had no idea what this shop was even about except to say that I was drawn to the most amazing, visually, eye boggling tea cup store display that I have ever seen. This photo seriously does not even do justice. The colours were so bright and vibrant, as well as the smell of all that deliciousness of exotic teas, it was difficult to control myself. I was super inspired.

I had to buy something, I wanted to purchase an entire teacup set, but forced myself to stick to the budget. I purchased for my little girls, two little gypsy teacups (secretly for baby chinos that I make them). Aren't adorable??

I have been dying to start this new watercolor journal for about 2 weeks now, but have been struggling to come up with something. To be truthful, I have lost my art mojo and I was scared of ruining it. I don't know about you guys but for some reason once I get one page down it all starts to flow from there...the fear disappears. I'm on a roll now. Hopefully Miss Mojo returns sometime soon....I really miss her!

Do you like cats?

2011-06-30T11:37:00.000+10:00

Well I don't actually have a cat, but Donna and her family do.... his name is Ben and he's..... what can I say.... CRAAAAZY!!!!

Donna thought they would get a cat for the kids, so they could .... you know... teach them how to love and look after an animal and to receive some joy in return! Oops!

Can you be crazy and cool at the same time?? Ummmm... Ben's got it.... he certainly sends our imagination in to overload with his quirky antics!

Here's the mischievous little guy featured below.... yep... I know what you're thinking.... Ooohh... he's so cute.... honestly don't let it fool you!!

These claws (and teeth) have been the cause of many an injury to Don's family, these are some of his antics... let's see....sliced open the top of the nose whilst trying to help off the fence, bitten multiple family members on the face whilst going in for a nice friendly cuddle (no malice intended), bailed the kids up the hallway... (of course, it's his hallway), intimidates family friends.... (males not excluded), the ben 'alarm' goes off at 4 am.... not just any alarm.... meeeeeee....oooooooow loud loud loud (let's just say megaphone not required!).... these are just a few of his cruel intentions... not to mention the standard cat stuff... fur ball vomit, runny poos (something didn't agree with him), little garden critters for show and tell (Don has a beetle and bug phobia - oops again)!!

I'm hearing you all now.... What's NOT to love about him!!

Here's where our imagination led us!

Unfortunately.... the kids have never had the chance to dress Ben up in costumes.... mmmm... wonder why!

All said and done.... Ben is well loved, and will always be part of their family.

Sketchbook Dump - Quirky Characters

2011-06-27T08:52:00.000+10:00

Having a bit of a doodle in my wee sketchbook over the weekend and these are some quirky characters that found their way onto my page.

It's so much fun to do mindless doodles!

Tutorial - tissue box cover

2011-06-24T13:51:00.000+10:00

I saw this fab tutorial over at make it and love it on tissue covers. It was so easy and I felt so inspired to give it a go since I'm not a great sewer but I knew I could pull this one off. I'm so proud.

Some newbie notecards

2011-06-24T09:04:00.000+10:00

Quick post of some new notecards.

Found here.

3 Day Sale

2011-06-16T19:06:00.000+10:00

Just a quick post to let you know that we are having a huge sale, offering all our followers, whether you be facebook, blog, twitter or loyal customers 50% off our entire store.

If you're interested in any of our goodies... go to our Etsy Shop pick out what you like and then go to the check out and add the below 'Coupon Code' and you receive 50% off your order!

Sale ends Saturday, 18 June 2011 (Midnight)

Here's the code you need:

SISSYLOVE50

This is what we do.

2011-06-16T14:12:00.000+10:00

Loads to share today.... we've been working on some new characters for our illustrated paper goods and thought we'd let you see where they begin and the process to the end.

Generally the we have a bit of a brainstorm over a cup of coffee or two, and kind of get an idea on where we want to go with new designs. We both come up with ideas, hash them out, decide which is a rubbish idea and generally settle on something that we think we can manage or that may work okay.... more often than not we go back to the drawing board and more coffee!

Donna goes back to her family and me to mine.... get on with family life as such, then in the wee hours of the night (or between the adverts on TV), we doodle.

Our latest characters live in Foxland..... they're a wee bit out there, have human personalities weighing heavy on laughs and loves.... hugely romantic, as you will soon see below!

This is Don's sketchbook, with some of her foxes.

This is what we do after we sketch our designs:

1. we ink them in with a black marker

2. we rub out all the pencil marks as best we can

3. we scan them

4. Don emails them to me

5. I clean them up in photoshop (eg. get rid of any nasty pencil marks or black smudges from Donna's over enthusiastic black marker)

6. I colour them in Illustrator

7. Copy them back into Photoshop

8. Add text (if any)

If we're pleased with the result.... we then take some happy snaps of the product and list them online.

So here's the finished product.... some cards and stickers.

Sailor Love

Sunshine of Love

There is a couple more cards with different designs, you may like to check them out.... you can find them here.

Now for some cute stickers.....I'm really really in love with these guys... we've named the Foxes and Friend, since they're all about foxes and one naughty Raccoon!

Hope you like these new characters.... we had so much fun developing them.

Love to hear your thoughts!

Illustration Friday

2011-06-15T09:10:00.000+10:00

Don participated in Illustration Friday this week, this is her entry for topic of Swept.

New Cards

2011-06-12T13:10:00.000+10:00

We've been working on some new fun and quirky designs for our card range.... there will only be a few in the series, but they will all be about Cheesy Pick Lines... they're a fun style of card and can be used for most occasions!

Here's the first in the series.

Fancy Dress now available online.

So anyone got any Cheesy pick lines that they want to share for a laugh?

Free Doodle Note Cards!

2011-06-11T11:14:00.000+10:00

Hi folks... we wanted to give a little love back into the blog world, so thought we'd share with you our FREE note card set.

All you have to do is click on the image above (so it opens up to a bigger image), right mouse click on it, save it to your desktop, and print it onto card stock, slice into quarters and presto... 4 doodled note cards!

Note: This file should fit on A4 / Letter, so in the print settings, make sure you select the correct paper size and check the box *fit to page* before you print.

Here's one I prepared earlier...... This is what they should look like!

Have fun, feel free to share this link with your friends!

(♥ Personal Use Only, please don't sell or distribute them ♥)

Enjoy!!

Found this video today - Kimono Fusion

2011-06-09T10:13:00.000+10:00

Late night browsing and stumbled across Honestly WTF website and found this amazing video, just had to share with you all.

This is a short film showing how French artists Supakitch and Koralie created a beautifully detailed mural from start to finish. It was a Japanese inspired mural.

Enjoy!

Birthday Rainbow Cake

2011-06-08T10:17:00.000+10:00

As promised, the Rainbow Cake that I was going to attempt for my daughters 7th Birthday.

My daughter doesn't like having her photo taken very often but lately she will let me take it if she is pulling a funny face. It was a GREAT day.

Donna

What we did last weekend.

2011-06-06T22:50:00.000+10:00

What a wonderful long weekend we just had ..... we've been planning on going away for ages, and of course it gets nearer to the weekend and either the weather's not right, or something was already planned, or we just didn't have the energy!

So this time we planned it, stuck to it, and it was fantastic!

Beautiful sunny days, followed by cool winter nights.... just perfect for warming up around a hot fire.

Our little girl had so much fun, chasing the (borderline pest) birds, seeing bunny rabbits for the first time... run a few metres from our feet.... I've never seen her with so much energy!

She went to bed early both nights leaving me (Julie) and my hubby to have some lovely chats by the campfire.... after a weekend like that, you really realise how much today's appliances take away our conversations. TV, Laptops, Social Networks, Mobile Phones.... let alone a whole shed full of gadgets that my hubby is always fiddling with. *Note to self.... turn everything off for the evening (it'll be hard, but I think I can manage a couple nights a week)

Our campsite was so beautiful, right beside an enormous lake, loads of wildlife running about... what an experience. I also forgot to mention that we had an intruder on the first night.... invasion of the critters!!

We had a wee possum going through all our outdoor camping equipment, when we got up to see what the commotion was, he just sat there and stared at us.... as if to say "sorry was I too loud".

He eventually scad-addled, but returned the following night with a pal.... we had everything packed up that night.... way ahead of you wee possum!

It was a great weekend and it's become my new favourite camping spot.

Upcycle bangle

2011-06-03T23:00:00.000+10:00

Just thought that I would share my latest accessory. My girls and I whipped up a few of these cute bangles in next to no time. They are so simple.

Materials

* Recycled bottle (your wrist needs to be able to slide through the diameter...like a bangle)
* Scrap materials torn or cut into strips
* Hotglue gun
* Scissors

Cut the bottom off recycled bottle, measure width of your bangle and cut out.

It should look like this.

Rip some strips or cut them. I rip because I am very, very impatient, I also like the ruff and ready look.

Starting on the inside, glue and push an end onto the inside of your bangle.

Keep winding around, wrapping over each edge adding a glue dab here and there.

Keep wrapping........if you need to make joins, end and start on the inside.

Finish with a glue dab and press material down on the inside.

How easy was that? You can make thick ones, thin ones, little ones for kids using smaller drink bottles, whatever you imagine. Think of all the cool materials out there. You will never see a recycled bottle in the same view again!

Happy Birthday Cupcakes

2011-06-02T14:17:00.000+10:00

My girls get so excited to share cupcakes with their school class on their birthdays. It was my youngest daughters birthday yesterday, she turned 7. The big party is on Saturday...I will update it with my Rainbow Cake adventure. Of course I'm going to cheat and use packet mix cake and it won't probably turn out anything like the picture but I'm sure it will be colourful!

If you haven't already been to Whisk Kid do yourself a HUGE favour, you will be drooling!

Happy Daughter, Happy Mummy!

A summer post in winter

2011-06-01T09:42:00.000+10:00

I woke up this morning feel a wee bit chilly, being winter and all.... so decided to post something warm and summery!

Scrolling through some of my pictures from the summer past, I found these cute ones of my wee girl and my hubby.... we had a lovely morning on the beach celebrating Australia Day, with Don and her family and our folks.

Didn't want to bore you too much with family pics, so just picked the best ones!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The Winner of the Cookoo Card Range is....

2011-05-25T17:15:00.000+10:00

Congratulations Jodi... I'm sure you'll find someone special to send these little guys out to over the year!

Please make contact with us so that we can post them out to you!

Have a great day!

Sketchbook Dump

2011-05-24T11:29:00.000+10:00

Just a couple of pics of one of my journal pages from the weekend.

And don't forget to enter in our Facebook Comp. The date closes on the 25th May 2011. All details here.

Don't be COOKOO and miss out!

Look what I did with my birthday present.

2011-05-23T14:27:00.000+10:00

I got a gift voucher from my little family (their so sweet and thoughtful), from my favourite art shop. So I decided to have a go at Gouache. I had never tried it before, so didn't want to blow my entire voucher on one product, typical me, trying to get more for my money!

Anyway, purchased a Gouache set, 1 x paint brush (can never have too many) and 2x water color pencils in grey shades.

Of course I was desperate to get home and lock myself away (which is of course is what didn't happen), tear open the packaging and test everything out.

So what really happened is....I got home stuffed around on my laptop, made dinner, got the washing done ready for school and THEN I sat down and painted this.

not sure that she is finished yet and really not sure what to do with her....but I know that I love her.

Happy Birthday to us!

2011-05-21T12:23:00.000+10:00

Well this is a post about two Sissy's who have spent the last 37 years of their lives together...

This is what I know about us!

(I'll keep it to 20 - so as not to bore you!)

1. We love each other

2. We love our hubbies and our squids

3. We love our folks (handful that they are!)

5. We love to laugh together, but mainly at each other (tears rolling down the face kind of laugh)

6. We love to drink together (refer to picture above)

7. We love to eat together or without each other (we just love food - refer to picture above)

8. We love the world of art and craft over cleaning the house any day!

9. We talk to each other at least 6 times a day (can't help it)

10. We live a street away from each other so we also see each other daily (can't help it)

11. We do grocery shopping together, every Friday

13. We read the same books and have a mini book club (just us)

14. We're easily distracted (I should be cleaning right now!)

15. We always seem to buy faulty products from shops that don't honour their warranties! (Fact)

16. We love gadgets eg. smart phones, ereaders, laptops, ds, xbox, wii (I'll stop there before I embarrass us)

17. Love a bargain eg. Heavily reduced, but then reduced again at the register!!! Surprise!! Love that.

18. See something we like at the shops.... Instant thought: 'We could make that' - but then fail dismally

19. Continually try every weight loss fad eg. attempting 17 day diet for the month of June (what beholds July)

20. We consistently and unintentionally invent new words, and believe that they are real eg. Attractible (I was sure that was real... hubby broke the news gently)

Happy Birthday to us!

Facebook Comp - Win our new range of cards!

2011-05-18T10:38:00.000+10:00

Okay folks to celebrate our Birthday tomorrow.... Don and I have decided to have a give away!

Wahoo, it's been a while!

This is a FACEBOOK COMP only.... so for one lucky Facebook friend (liker), we are giving away a complete set of our brand new Cookoo Range Greeting Cards..... this means 10 blank cards with envelopes for every occasion!

So what do you have to do to win?

Become a facebook friend of ours (cool if you already are), and you MUST leave a comment on the competition post on our facebook page (so we know you've entered the give away) which is here. It's titled "Our Birthday Give Away".

That's it!

Entries Close: 25 May 2011

Tutorial: Journal Cover

2011-05-17T10:58:00.000+10:00

Just thought that it would be nice to share a journal cover that I recently made for myself. First up, this is the video that I watched How to sew a book cover by Emeline Villedary and then I just added my own finishing touches.

For those of you who are beginners to sewing this is REAL easy. If you get lost in my instructions I recommend watching the video link before you start.

Things that you need are:

Sewing machine
ruler
scissors
material (depending on book size)
Journal or book to be covered
pins

This is the easiest way to make it for me. As I am not really one for patterns and I tend to get impatient and rush to get on with things, I mostly wing it. So I am not going to give exact measurements.

Lay your piece of chosen fabric down and lay your journal/book open on top of it. I measured approximately 2cm around the entire book to allow for seam allowances and top stitching. You could trace around it and then measure out seam allowance...but me being me I just eye balled it and cut it out (impatience thing).

As you can tell....my eye balling procedures gets nice straight pieces of material! (LOL) Anyhow...you need to cut 2 pieces, so either measure it out or lay first piece on top of fabric and cut it out.

For this next bit, we need to create the inside sleeves for the book covers to slide into.

You'll want to measure about an inch or so from the inside join of the book, to the edge of book cover and then add on 2cm for seam allowances etc. Eg for this book, I allowed 10cm and then add on 2cm = 12cm.

No that you have that measurement.. Fold your material in half and measure out from the fold your sleeve measurement. eg. my measurement was 12cm, so I measured from the fold out to that length. The width is the same measurements from Step 1. Cut 2 of these.

See I know I have probably lost people at this point...sorry, I suck at instructions.

This is totally optional: But I wanted to add a small piece of calico to the from of my journal for painting on etc. If you want to do this step, this is what I did.... I folded one of the large rectangle pieces in half (kinda resembling a closed book), roughly measured a piece of calico so that it was sorta centred (eye balled it again), unfolded piece of material out keeping the small piece of calico in place and then pinned and stitched in place. I like the rustic look of things so I left my edges raw for this process and stitched about 1/4" in from the edge.

So you should have 2 x rectangles (one with calico on it if you wanted to do that), and 2x folded pieces (keep them folded).

Next....if there is still people reading that is (I'd be surprised!!) .... It's time for assemblage:

Lay 1 x rectangle right side up (you can just see my piece with calico on it)

Then..on top of that, lay at either end your folded pieces with the folds pointing in (raw edges to the edge).

Then, on top of that lay your last piece of 1 x rectangle with the wrong side up. I haven't put the last layer on in the photo.

Now pin and sew about 1/4" inch from raw edges BUT on one of the long sides LEAVE a gap between the the two folds so that you can turn it right side out. See pic.

Before turning trim the corners so that they turn out properly.

This is what it should look like. Note the little gap at the bottom. That was were we turned it right side out. I always like to iron it out at this stage so that it is nice and crisp.

Next stage is to top stitch all the way around. By doing this it gives you a nice finish and it also sews shut the opening that we used to turn it out the right way.

Slip your book in it's new cover and WAH..LAH. I hope it fits. If you chose to sew a calico piece on that it should look similar to this.

Inside view.

Now if you like.....this is just what I wanted to do as I have had that fabric for so long and I felt like it needed a bit of a lift. So I decided to paint the front cover.

For this step I used:

gesso
sharpie
acrylic paint

First, I put the gesso on, fairly rough with just a piece of old cardboard. I didn't care if it wasn't all covered as I like some of the material to show through. Unfortunately, the scrap calico I was going to use as a title cover ie Journal etc I decided to just paint over but you can do as you like for this step. This is just what I felt like doing at the time.

Once the gesso is dry, you can either dry it with a heat gun or hair dryer, but it needs to be dry or it will clog up your sharpie pen. Then just doodle whatever design you fancy...

I added some paint, dried it with my hair dryer.

Once it was dry I went back over it and added some highlights and detail with a finer sharpie pen and that was it. I decided not to add a sealer but you could if you wished but just becareful that the sharpie pen doesn't bleed or run with it. I like mine the way it is.

My finished journal.

I hope it wasn't tooo confusing...but I really wanted to share it.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T09:03:00.000+10:00

Happy Mummy's Day!

Hope everyone is enjoying their day - I got woken up with special cuddles from my wee girl, and a cup of tea in bed and a bottle of perfume. I'm doing breakfast, but Hubby promises to cook dinner, so not too bad. I'm going to try and have a day of reading and relaxing!

I've not spoken to Don this morning, but her children shared a sneak peek with their special aunty (me of course) of their masterpieces that they have been preparing for this special day - she's going to love them. I think she's also getting her breakfast made for her, and I'm sure there will be a day filled with family surprises.

Also wanted to say a Happy Mother's day to our Mummy Bear, she's away on a massive caravaning trip with our Dad, and we won't see her for another 6 months! Enjoy!

I made some skirts!

2011-05-07T18:24:00.000+10:00

So proud of myself.....I have been a little bit busy with my sewing machine. I have sooo enjoyed it. I came across this super easy tutorial for a simple skirt from MADE, that I knew I would be able to make for my girls and my little niece.

Ahemmm.... apologies for the streaker in this shot, I didn't realise. Thank goodness for my nieces thick locks!!

I bought enough material to make 2 skirts each and a pair of pants for my little guy. There is also a wonderful tutorial to make kids pants as well, which I can't wait to have a go with.

MADE is a wonderful site full of so many tips, tricks and tutorials that you'll be there for hours! Go on over I totally recommend it.

Work In Progress

2011-05-05T17:23:00.001+10:00

A recent WIP. Posting from phone as computer died AGAIN!
I have discovered I REALLY suck at painting hair!

Happy Easter

2011-04-23T08:06:00.000+10:00

Poppies

2011-04-21T10:12:00.000+10:00

Just a few poppies that I have been painting. Thought I'd share.

Iceland Poppy

Oriental Poppy

Crazy, Crazy times!!

2011-04-15T16:31:00.000+10:00

Well....first big SORRIES for not being around. Jules has been super busy with her work, spring cleaning for her UK rellies in preparation for their 3week stay and I have managed to KILL 2 computers, hence no posting!!

So....today I got my computer back and nearly knocked the delivery guy over getting my hands on it. And had to then reinstall all my programmes, but since I still have a ways to go with all that, I thought I would drop a short post regarding all our happenings. So I'm back (Donna) and Jules isn't, as she has her now long awaited rellies with her, site seeing our beautiful part of Australia, Queensland.

So our shop is still offline for a tiny bit longer, until I load appropriate software on since mine disappeared into cyberland. But you know what, it's all good, I get to start fresh and TRY to keep everything all tidy on here (that will be a challenge!).

Anyway, it drove me crazy not being online and then hubby drove me even crazier since he couldn't get online and then didn't know how to use the internet on my phone, as you can see I lack patience!!

But it's all sorted.....I didn't have a lot of time for creating anything real fantastic but I managed a couple of little sketch book pieces that I will share. I did have a great onion tart tutorial all lined up and then my computer crashed (the second one). So I will make another one, (one day soon) and start the whole picture thing again.

So here's a few pics.

I have a thing with eyes... anyway Jules will want to strangle me when she sees all the different photo sizes of my pics...she's the geek of the family and I guess she is obsessed with the way the blog looks....that's why it looks GREAT..just thought I'd put it out there.

Have a great weekend!!

Some new illustrations... soon to be cards!

2011-04-05T09:11:00.000+10:00

We have been working on some new illustrations for a new range of blank cards... we have loads in the series, and I must say they are very very cute. We're still working on the range name, but will probably be something like..... Cuckoo Cards... knowing us, this will probably change.

They are ready to go... just waiting on our computer to come back from the doctors, then we will have them available in the shop.... yes, of course, I will let you all know when.

Here's a sneak peak!

This one will be for Expecting.

and of course you've probably guessed this one.... Halloween.

and a very simple but sweet Love Card.

10 Minute Mini Bunting Tutorial

2011-04-04T07:21:00.000+10:00

Here is a quick tutorial of a mini paper bunting I whipped up over the weekend. This one is really cute, I wanted a small one to use in some photos I was taking, but you can apply the same technique for any size you like.

All you need is some paper of your choice for your flags, ribbon or string, scissors, and some glue.

Fold the paper length ways (this will be the width of your wee flags), in a concertina style (like a fan).

Flatten it back out, then cut along ever second fold.

You should have some roof style pieces of paper (like above).

Think about how wide you'd like the flags to be, then cut along the folded pieces at the same interval until they are all cut up.

Apply some glue to one of the insides of the paper and sandwich the ribbon or string between them.

Stick together and allow time to dry.

Cut all from the middle of the square back towards the ribbon..... well ...la ... there you have it!

Mini Bunting!

Bourke Parrot

2011-03-30T12:47:00.000+10:00

Just thought that I would share a pic of one of my catch up travel sketches. It is of a Bourke's Parrot. Out of all the amazing birds that we were so privileged to see this was one of my favourite.

We're closed for a while... again!

2011-03-28T20:22:00.000+10:00

Just a quick post to say that we've had to close our shops for a week until our computer is all fixed up with a big bandaid... sorry folks!

Meet Kassie

2011-03-27T15:54:00.000+10:00

Donna got a surprise gift from her relatives whilst holidaying in WA.... they gave her a COFFEE MACHINE!! (OMG... I could hardly contain my excitement - how nice are they!!) So Don wrapped Kassie in a blanket and prepared her for her journey back to us.... ~~she was~~ WE are soooo excited!

Kassie is such an important team member!..... oh Kassie, how could we ever have managed without you!

Respect to Kassie!

Western Australia Holiday Pics

2011-03-25T15:55:00.000+10:00

As promised some holiday snaps, hope you like.....

Spectacular Coast

Wild Flowers and their fruit

My hubby at Margaret River on sunset

Magical Sunsets

Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk...I was scared (showing my age) kids loved it!

One of the many Giants, some over 400years old.

Shell Beach...millions of tiny shells, seems to replace sand

My girls wanted this pic.

Camel Safari at Monkey Mia

Local residences - emus...they always look like girls to me. Maybe because of those luscious lashes.

There you have it...our Western Australian Holiday.

I'm Back with a Sketchbook Dump

2011-03-22T12:20:00.000+10:00

Well I'm back (Donna) from my relaxing, adventurous holiday with my family. Totally recharged and ready to get the working cogs going.

I will share some of the family adventures that we got up to when I organize my photo collection. But just to share a little of some of the things we got up to and I will definitely add photos in the next couple of posts of them.....camel safari's along pristine beaches, dolphin feeding, discovering lime caves, watching the sunset over the ocean every single night (glass of wine to compliment the event, of course!)...I'll stop there but of course I could go on! Nothing else to say but that it was thoroughly enjoyable. We were totally spoilt by having to view the beautiful landscapes that Western Australia have to offer. Such an amazing, diverse part of Australia...very proud to be an Australian and call our land home!

SKETCHBOOK DELIGHT COURSE

Anyway...as Jules shared with everyone that we are both doing online courses as part of our goals for this year and I must say that I was able to do mine on my travels. It was limited of course, not being near a computer but it was about finding myself a little and I had oodles of inspiration.

Here are a couple of the sketches that I did whilst away. I was inspired by heaps of birds that we encountered in our travels, some native to Australia and some in zoos.

Birds from Kalbarri Region. Western Australia.

Although this page isn't finished and looks kinda rough, I actually drew and painted it whilst on one of our road trips across W.A. I have a gazzillion pages in my head and haven't picked up a art tool since arriving home.

BUT THAT WILL CHANGE........FROM TODAY!

What this course did for me.....I was able to not be so fearful of what is right or wrong but to try and discover what is right for me. It also enabled me to look at things differently and find inspiration in all the amazing things that surround me. It refreshed alot of techniques that I haven't thought about for years but will now be using again. And I think that the most important thing that I learnt is that it may not be perfect to everyone else but if it is perfect for me than I am happy.

That inner critic is finally under control and locked away!!

Anyway here is another sketch of a leaf found in Perth, just a boring old leaf that became quite exciting to me. I used my sketchbook of course (not watercolor paper), watercolor paints and black pen for line work.

Leaf from Perth

Be back soon with some holiday snaps!

Donna

Project 52: Week 10

2011-03-11T18:07:00.000+10:00

Shadows.

(My wee girl at the beach)

Western Australia - Margaret River

2011-03-10T00:14:00.001+10:00

Howdy folks... sending a quick blog from WA using my phone. Well we made it.... all the way over to the other side of Oz,without any major hiccups! (which is generally not the case - LOL

We're having a great time, catching up with family and relaxing, I've been drawing (in micro spaces of time to myself), hubby's been surfing (with huge spaces of time to himself), and the kids have been loving all of it! xx Donna

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Cooking on a hot day!

2011-03-06T20:22:00.000+10:00

My little one and I had an adventurous day baking cookies.... it was really really hot outside, and really really hot inside.... probably not the best day to cook, but we soldiered on. We had plenty of spills, plenty of tastes, plenty of her saying 'Airor's turn'.... all expected for a 2 year old... she did well.

I'm probably just a really bad baker, but it took us something like 2 hours to cook 36 biscuits.... due to the high temperatures in and outside the kitchen, our cookie dough just kept melting... in the freezer out the freezer, in the freezer out the freezer... we got their in the end.... boy no wonder people buy biccies!

Anyway... they are ALL gone, they were particularly good - anyone want the recipe just leave a comment and I'll email to you!

Project 52: Week Nine

2011-02-28T09:58:00.000+10:00

Their hands.

These are my two loves .... my hubby and my daughter.

Ooooh.... excited to be doing this!

2011-02-25T08:38:00.000+10:00

At the beginning of the year, we made a list of things we wanted to do more of.... you may remember it, if not... here it tis below.

Okay, am pleased to say that we're getting there... most of the list are just things we already do... but just need to do more of... so not too bad really, didn't set the bar too high.

But here's something we're really really excited about and it's on our list above... and it is COURSES... we're both embarking on new courses this month, here's what we're doing.

Donna loves to paint, especially with watercolour and she loves to art journal... so she's joined in on this fantastic course by Alisa Burke it's called 'Sketchbook Delight', she has already started it and taken loads of homework away with her on her holidays... here's fingers crossed that she'll get time to pull out the sketchbook, with an adventurous hubby and three wee ones ranging from 2 - 8yrs.... Good Luck Don Don!

He're some lush pics from Alisa Burke's website about the course.

And for me... we'll I'm the geeky one out of the two... my hubby surprised me and got me Photoshop this year... so so excited, until now have been using Gimp... so am about to be blown away with what Photoshop can do.... so I've decided to do an online course with Kim Klassen, the photoshop course I'm enrolled in is Photoshop the Essentials... it starts early March and I can't wait to get stuck into it!

She has loads to offer on her website.. she even has a photoshop skinny-mini ecourse and it's FREE... she only takes a certain number of people, so head on over and see if the registration is still open... she also has newsletters, tutorials, ecourses, freebies.... I'm in heaven!

Here's a couple of pics from her website.

We're so excited... I can't believe it has taken us this long to participate in something we love to do... I've always wanted to do an online course, but didn't actually realise how much I really really WANTED it until now.... Come on March, I'm bursting with excitement to start my course!

Making lists

2011-02-24T08:53:00.000+10:00

Planning my to do list for the week.... I really like lists, they do help me to relax! I like to be organised, I've even got an app on my phone that helps me with my lists... although, I really love to doodle lists, makes even the boring-est task seem cool. (Rambling I know)

Anyway, we had a wee brainstorming session on new sticker ideas.... this involved lots of coffee (as always). Here is a new sticker family that we'd like to introduce... The Skinnies....

They're much like any ordinary family really.... they like to have family challenges of Wii bowling, cooking chinese together (making loads of mess) and keeping up with all the latest modern technology.

They do have some dislikes though... Dad Skinnie finally got rid of his vinyl collection (he managed to get loads for it on ebay), Mum Skinnie was so excited about it... she really disliked cleaning that vinyl collection. Cleaning is not really something ANY of the Skinnies like to do.... sometimes they even get a cleaner in... just to get on top of things. The whole family seems to have an extremely high metabolism.... this is really quite fortunate as they don't like any forms of 'proper' excerise.... they'd prefer to go bowling in their lounge room!

Well that's about all I can tell you about 'The Skinnies'... they would love to keep any of your journal pages company... they'd add loads of character... really they would. These guys will be available for purchase in three weeks time, we'll post more pics about these guys later on.

14 Days of Doodles: Day Nine

2011-02-23T14:06:00.000+10:00