Wind Flower

Got this great vintage lucite button. The design is beautifully executed with lots of very precise detail, and the colour is spectacular!. Turquoise with greenish yellow and the whole thing changes to electric blue depending on the angle of the light.

 I dapped a brass round, filled with poly clay to match the button, added a Vintaj brass filigree round and mounted the button in the centre.

Smokey quartz nuggets, seed beads, aqua metalic pearls, rust ceramic saucer bead and another beautiful bronze lucite bead with an art nouveau pattern.

I love the way this has turned out - so rich and sumptuous with hint of darkness, and I am quite partial to the dark side.

50's Revisited

I remember the 50's - yep I am that old! 

Kidney shaped coffee tables, black and white tv's on spindley legs, teak danish style furniture, vinyl upholstery, rounded refrigerators with tiny little freezer boxes into which only ice cube trays fitted. Chrome kitchen tables with formica tops. Full circle skirts with great frothy tule petticoats, cinched in waists. *Sigh*

The thing I most remember was the bold use of colour and feature walls. My mother embraced this with gusto.

In the main bedroom she painted the walls in mauve with an orange feature wall. The bedspread and curtains were turquoise, mauve, orange and brown. We all thought it looked great - so avant garde!

The colours of these earrings remind me of this room.

Vintage turquoise lucite beads in a matte finish, orange and purple seed beads and copper rhinestone spacers, vintaj brass. Fun, fun fun

On Letting Go

Yesterday our daughter packed the last of her posessions into her car and at 3pm drove out of the drive heading for Canberra to begin a new job, the offer of which was too good the turn down.

We have been lucky as both son and daughter have worked with us for over 10 years and we have seen (and hugged them) every single day. Time and circumstances have changed and we are moving on to new places and experiences.

I know she has to go, as all children must, as it is now her time and opportunity in the world, and I would never dream of holding her back but part of me wants to keep here here safe. I will miss the sound of her car on the gravel, the way she always slammed the front door of the flat, her laughter and knowing that she is close by.

I am grateful the she is not totally on her own down there as a close friend of her brother is her new boss and I know he will look out for her.

I have shed tears and will do so again - letting go is hard

Earth & Growing

Some earrings I managed to squeeeeeze in between tiling and after I recovered from a very sore shoulder. Honestly at my age you'd think I'd know better, but I keep thinking I'm still 20 and attempt stuff I shouldn't. Pain killers and hot wheat packs and it's just about gone.
These are for Earth Day and for all the good things that grow from the earth.

Do Caterpillars Dream of Flying?

When caterpillars are snug in their chrysalis awaiting the wonderous transformation of their bodies to creatures of the air, grace and beauty, do they while-away the long days with visions of flying? Do they know what awaits them?
I rather hope the do, I love the idea.

Now that the heavy rains have gone, there are butterflies everywhere. Black and white, black and orange, tiny irridescent triangles, butter yellows all collecting the nectar from the last of the summer flowers.

Here is my tribute to these amazing creatures we share this tiny blue plant with.

Butterfly Dreaming

Change your Blog Image Sizes - EASILY!

Have been playing with the look and layout of my blog and I remembered that changing the sizes of the photos had been easy but no longer. Could only select small, medium, large and xlarge, (bit like dress sizes really) and the graphic designer side of me screamed no no no I want to decide the sizes of my pictures, so what had changed.

Blogger have two Post Editors, an old one and a new one. The new one has the preset image sizes.
So when you have finished writing your post and have added the images,  go to your Settings tab, scroll down to Global Settings and select Old Editor.
Go back to your post. 
To resize your images, click on the photo and a box with white corner squares will appear. Grab the white corner square and pull the picture up to what ever size your heart desires
EASY!!!
(Don't forget to change back to the New Post Editor to take advantages of all the features)

All Tiled Out

Have demolished the laundry and re-tiled. Re-tiled the kitchen. Part demolished the bathroom, re-tiled, fitted new bath and vanity unit.

The only creative thing I have done the last few weeks is a new banner for the blog. Can't even remember what I had in mind in the studio, but am a dab hand at cutting tiles and grouting. Oh and holding plumbing fittings, fetching and carrying and trawling the aisles of Bunnings for brass joiners and tap bodies that they don't sell anymore.