I Love You Mum

Jean May Smith

25/9/37 - 22/2/12

“Jean”

Jean, Jean, Roses are red.

All the leaves have gone green.

And the clouds are so low,

You can touch them and so,

Come out to the meadow, Jean.

Jean, Jean, You're young and alive.

Come out of your half dreamed dream.

And run, if you will, to the top of the hill.

Open your arms, bonnie Jean.

Till the sheep in the valley come home my way.

Till the stars fall around me and find me alone.

When the sun comes a' singin, I'll still be waiting for...

Jean, Jean, Roses are red.

And all of the leaves have gone green.

While the hills are ablaze

With the moon's yellow haze,

Come into my arms, bonnie Jean.

Rod McKuen

©1969, Warner Brothers Music

I miss you

Progress?, Sidetracked and a Giveaway

Here is what has happened so far

I know not a lot

A coat of cold wax medium mixed with turmeric powder

That is one sassy yellow

But it will of course disappear

under many more coats

I did a sample bit of turmeric to see

how it handles the light over time

But I did get sidetracked with some encaustic

And here

these are much bigger

30 x 30cm

or 12 x 12in

And as some of you have pointed out

I have reached the magic 100

Who knew that it would feel so good

So as promised there will be a giveaway

So leave a comment

you do not have to be a follower

I know I follow many more blogs than blogger will allow

and I will draw a winner

Next saturday

and then send off packet of goodies

including some teabags

of course

I had a lovely day today

I had a coffee in town with the lovely

Christina Cairns

I love meeting fellow bloggers

x te

Update: There may be a delay on the giveaway

as I have had to make an emergency trip to Perth

to spend the last few days

with my Mum.

 

I Love Followers

Well I see that recent events have given my follower number a wee boost

At the time of wrting this post I am at 99.

So I shall wait till we click over to triple figures and then

there will of course be a celebratory giveaway

I will not be celebrating the third encounter with that\pesky snake!!!

x te

Beginnings

starch paste on traditional gesso applied to and open weave cloth on masonite

Over the last couple of days I have been putting together

some painting substrates

Starch paste on plaster applied to and open weave cloth on masonite

and I though some of you might be interested in my process

just plaster

so here we go

plaster and starch paste on heesian applied to pine

I am hoping to get some underneath texture to pick up colour as I apply paint

but being a natural girl I don't use such things as gel/acrylic medium

so i gots to find otherways

plaster and on heesian applied to pine

plaster likes to pop right off pine

well it likes to wait a couple of months and suprise

you one day

so to try and combat that i have applied

an open weave cloth a light one on the smaller pieces

and hessian/jute on the bigger ones

this should give it something to grab onto

plaster and on heesian applied to pine

the starch paste is to give some idea of a horizon line

so I will be vaguely referencing landscape

paint will be added tomorrow

on the toipic of my process

I have been asked by Dorie to teach in the Netherlands

next year May/June 2013

and as you can imagine that is an awfully long way

so I am hoping there might be a few more places that

would be interested in learning my particular brand of madness

And with a lovely mention by the fabulous India

how could I possibly go wrong

please contact me or leave a comment

if you would like to host me.

x te

A Letter A Week

I am involved this year in this project which is to do with producing two alphabets during the year

So far I have completed 8 letters, I am working on them in a progressive manner

My first post can be found here

The second post is here 

so if you are interested in what I am actually doing

pop on over and have a look

You might find some other stuff you like too

x te

More Tea Bags

I have dyed some more tea bags

And I am even more impressed with this lot

This time I brushed the leaves

with egg white

before clamping them

This has given me much greater colour in the centres

And these have all been washed

and ironed!!!

Can't wait to try egg yolk

to see what difference it makes

x te

In the Pumpkin Patch

Can you see it?

What about now?

Or now?

Well if you want to really see

Went down to vegie garden

but didn't do any gardenting after seeing this!!!!

After this shot it turned about and went back in

and now I can't see where it is

So no more of that for me today

And yes it is a Tiger

And yes it is listed as

Extremely aggressive

and Dangerous

Course this has to happen now that Dan has taken a job in town

This is only day 2!!!!

x te

Finally in Print

Yes as hinted here 

I have a series of articles coming up in the Down Under Textiles Magazine.

The first one is due out this month.

I haven't even seen it yet!!!

I hope it is ok

as I wrote it while packing to move

oh so long ago back in Nov/Dec

Way back in last year.

And yesterday I sent in article 2

due out in May.

So 2 down 1 to go.

x te

Chooks are go

View from the house

The brand new chicken yard is finished and full.

Dan spent many hours on this beauty

which should by all accounts still be up in 20 years time.

The roosting shed is at the left end and the chick rearing area on the right

View from the paddock

And from this side you can see it has it's own water tank.

The chicken nipples are on the way in the mail

and will be installed soon. 

Our new Rooster and 3 of his girls, he has a rosecomb which was unexpected.

You can also see our Muscovy DrakeCedric and off to the side is Hedley

And here is our mother and child.

She is not happy at being segregated to the chick rearing area

But after the chick tried to swim

 in the water bowl

it was deemed safer all round.

I am so happy to have a full complement of birds again.

A place in the country just doesn't seem right without them.

And duck egg pasta is divine.

x te