Arty Oz Christmas Swap

This fantastic present arrived today, just in time for Christmas, from Debra in outback Queensland. My photography does not do it justice- 3 mini canvasses, painted, stamped, embossed and collaged, joined with silver thread and beads, I was blown away when I opened it, it's a wonderful present, thank you so much Debra (and enjoy your holidays). Merry Christmas to all blogging friends, see you in the New Year.

Christmas Swap 2009

This is what I made for the Arty Oz yahoo group and now Marg has received it I can share with the rest of you. I actually made 3, one for Marg, one for Gail who was unable to participate in this swap and one for the fantastic teacher Ro, who taught me everything I know about Ro knots!

Finished!

I ran out of supplies for my Christmas cards so had to do another batch. They're all done now and in the mail, stand by your letterbox! ***** Merry Christmas *****

Retro Christmas Cards

Yay! At least I have started, although I will have to start over as I have run out of supplies! The gorgeous paper is Cosmo Cricket and I should have bought more.

Art Swap

A couple of months back I was asked to take part in a swap involving sending a piece of work, whatever you do (sewing, ATC's, cards, jewellery etc) to a recipient and then inviting 20 more people to get involved. I sent this concertina card to Sylvia.


Yesterday this lovely notebook arrived from Kylie. She apologised for being "late" but then I had to apologise for not remembering what swap I was in LOL! Thanks for participating Kylie, the surprise made my day.

Oh What A Feeling

Whilst I have never had a car in my name, this is the second new car my husband has bought for me to get around in. Today we traded in the old faithful Falcon (which was older than Sarah) for a new Corolla. Strangely there are 4 white cars in our household now....

Indoor play

I have had a very busy weekend. The purple explosion card was for Megan's 21st on Friday night. With all of Melbourne's November rainfall coming on this weekend, today was a great day to craft away. The "Cupcake" card is for neice Ruby's 7th Birthday, the "play" card is for nephew David and the middle piece is for my sister. Half way through 2008 Kathryn (and 5 of her 6 kids) moved in with my (poor) Mum whilst they renovated their house. They all move back this weekend!!!

Ro's Necklace class

What a wonderful day we had today with a great bunch of ladies! Everyone finished their necklaces early and we got home before the rain. Thanks Ro for another fabulous class and to Steve for looking after our "inner" needs LOL.

If you ever get the chance to do one of Ro's classes you will not regret it. Ro is a wonderful talent, generous teacher and friend.

Ro's blog will have more pics up soon... http://robruhn.blogspot.com/

Paperific

On again this weekend, the first under the new owner. 36 stands/exhibits at the Showgrounds. Luckily Gail and I went Friday as so many bargains sold out that morning! This is my stash- love the Graphic 45 papers, quality double sided to die for! You had to shop around because there was a big variation in prices between retailers. The Nestabilities were $30! The special jewellery pliars were $15, Jen put me on to them! It's great to catch up with so many familiar faces again, not that we could spent any time with Teresa, she was working flat out at Little Bits :(

ArtyOz Collaborative Book

It's all over for another year! There were only 16 participants this year, not as much pressure. These are my pages and the completed book we put together at Greta's house yesterday with the help of Gail, Sue, Georgia and Liz. There was no theme this year but we had to include stamped images. Thank you to Kerry for lending me Tim's "Umbrella Man" and to all of the other talented ladies who participated.

Collections Box Swap

This one was due in October and because I did JVO's classes in April I made my boxes early - and I am so glad I did! These were for Teresa. I think mine were the last to arrive but they did so safely last week, thanks Vanessa for hosting and making my boxes.

Doll Book

You may remember a book swap that began at the beginning of 2008. I chose Doll's as my theme and enjoyed it so much I finished the covers before forwarding off to the next artist. Well, my book was never returned! Someone must have loved it so much.....

But I am loved even more. Unbeknowns to me Gail, Greta, Donna, Ness, Teresa, Kylie and Debra did brand new, even better, pages for me and now it's up to me to make new covers. Thank you lovely ladies x x x.

Yesterday was Pink Ribbon Day. It is 4 years since my first surgery to remove Breast Cancer. This photo shows a group of wonderful friends celebrating our achievements at a breakfast that turned into a very long day! I can't think of any better way to celebrate.

Leaving the best until last....

A wonderful collaboration from all of my arty friends far and wide. And it was a complete surprise. Gail organised this Collections Tiles Canvas for me and there was a lot to organise! It sits proudly in the family room now after travelling for the past few weeks to show off to those who generously contributed. There are some who haven't seen it finished because many live interstate. Thank you to Teresa, Gail, Michelle, Jayne, Suzanne, Helen, Jennifer, Greta, Vanessa, Debra, Jen, Donna, Ro, Patsy, Nicky, Sue, Raylene, MartheJane and Marilyn!

I treated myself to an original Worledge creation for my birthday.

These gifts I collected at Altered Books. Book charm from Sylvia, Handmade book by Ro and Mini canvas from Patsy.....

Happy Birthday to ....me!!!

It's old news now but I want to show off the talents of some of my wonderful crafty friends.

My 16 year old presented me with this book in Noosa! She wouldn't let me check her case before we left and now we know why.

Jayne made me a special mini canvas and Gail made another personalised book.

New Millenium

I have tried to change the look of my blog many times, unsuccessfully and begged Gail to help me out, the old blogger she is knew what to do and I love the new look! Thank you Gail x x x
I have got so many photos to upload but I will take is slowly, so much to do, so little time!

Let's do the time warp again!

We were invited to Clare's Rocky Horror 21st birthday but can't go! :(
This is her card.

A work in progress...

These bits and pieces are going to Noosa with me, a record of my trip and something to keep me busy as well but it's taking me so much time to get organised!

Canvas class

Together with a group of fabulous ladies, Gail and I did Ro's Canvas class yesterday and the results were amazing!

This is what I achieved before lunch!

And the camera flash really picked up on the quin gold later!

Thanks Ro and Steve for being such wonderful hosts.

Kids are a headache aren't they....

It's about 13 months since Emma had her first car accident and this afternoon was her second. I am just back from Frankston Hospital where they checked out the bump on her head, she has whiplash and is sore and sorry but it wasn't her fault this time! She was doing a right hand turn and a ute rammed her from behind. Looks like we will be sharing my car (again) for a few weeks now.

Sarah's Birthday Canvas

This fantastic creation was made by MartheJane. The card I believe started out as a wedding card class at Little Bits but that's typical of MJ!

Puzzles!

Crafty Mums are meeting again tomorrow and hopefully everyone has finished their pieces by now. A few have had some setbacks along the way and when I finished mine I was so excited I swapped them before I took a record!

S = sewing for Jen, T = tea, given to Jayne, U = unicorn is mine, V = violet for Suzanne, W - I can't remember! and X = x-ray is mine to keep.

Puzzles

Farmtown

This stupid game is taking up all of my computer time, not to mention Virtural Memory, of which I apparently have none, so blogging goes out the window! What did we all do before Facebook?

There are some things you don't share with every Tom, Dick and Harry so I am sharing a pic of Sarah's birthday card. My baby is turning 16 on Wednesday and is celebrating with her friends at the movies. Her present from me is a ticket to see Britney Spears later this year. Her and Emma had such a great time at Pink's concert so I hope Britney is worth the $$$.

As a follow on from Ro's brooch workshop Sylvia and I ended up at East Coast Imports (165 Nepean Highway Mentone) at the same time. They import lots of cheap stuff and are trying to clear stock before ending their lease. They have heaps of jewellery pieces at half of their already low prices. There are huge necklaces, ready for dismantling for our art, at crazy prices ($5 necklaces now $2.50) I spent a fortune and will now have to find the time to take them all apart ready to re-use! But that's what we do isn't it?!

Ro's Brooch class

I have been looking forward to this class for ages. Ro is such a talented artist, an expert in papercrafts and jewellery. A group of lovely ladies travelled to Belgrave South to be fed wonderfully by Steve, Ro's husband and trained in wire art to produce some wonderful pieces. I chose a blue coloured kit but added lots of other bits and pieces, mostly supplied by Ro. Wearing the creations will be the next challenge, being heavy and dangly.

ATC RAK's

I haven't done any RAK's for a while and my new Heidi Swapp mask needed a workout. These ATC's are for the Paper Journey group. I sent them ages ago and haven't heard anything.....there are only 7 in the RAK list which isn't too much trouble.

Masterchef

Gail dragged me to Teresa's on Friday night, it was good to catch up with friends.

On Saturday Dale brought home this HUGE pumpkin from a client. I had the help of lovely Sarah to get through it and we had soup all weekend. I still have a fridge full of pumpkin chunks as well as giving Kathryn a bag full and taking soup around to Jim!

Sarah's interest in cooking has me watching Masterchef and finally fulfilled my wish for stickydate pudding, butterscotch sauce and almond praline. Yummo!!!