Loving......

This image of Angela Lansbury

 
image from Starlet Showcase


Alisa x

Lordy how I love this man! *warning* soppy post!

Hayden has been working nightshift this week. He comes home at 6am, sleeps for a few hours then wakes up to do some more work on the shed. He truly is the love of my life. I met him when I was 17 and we were married when I was 21. We've come so far together and I love him so so much!

The girls cherish every moment they have with their daddy. Last night I just had to capture this moment of him reading their bedtime story. They love it when it's Daddy's turn to read (he includes funny voices).

The sun is out again. Thank goodness! I might get stuck into painting the inside of the girls cubby house. Amelia wants, and I quote, "twirly whirly green bits with grass and pink and purple flowers with clouds" whilst Haidee wants "Pink!"

Hmmmm, I think Haidee might win on this one.

Enjoy your day

Alisa x

New earrings instore

Just a quick post today. Some more earrings for my etsy store.....

Have a lovely day!


Alisa x

Blue Vintage "Bit- Bob" Necklace, finished!

Will try to have it listed on Etsy by days end.

Alisa x

Getting there.....

Well the inner framing is up and today we poured the new concrete floor. My hubby has worked so hard. The window is from our old house. It was removed during renovations made to my former kitchen. I like having a bit of our first home included in my studio space. It feels nice :)

A brand new floor to the shop. No more cracks or clumps of dirt. Nice and smoooooth (I love that word!)

Hayden has also dug out space to connect power out to the shed. The electrician will be visiting us soon!

And as always, Obi was there to help. My big boy :)

It's starting to get exciting! I'm going to start fiddling around with lampshades today. I have a concept in mind but I'm not sure whether it will work or not. It involves rusty colanders and loads of television wire.....My fingers are already starting to hurt just thinking about it!

Have a lovely day everyone!

Alisa x

My dressing table (well, kind of)

When it comes to reading other peoples posts, my favourites are always the ones that allow me to take a peek inside their homes (which is why I love this blog so much). I love seeing how people decorate their spaces differently and I truly believe that it is a reflection of who we are. However I get really excited about dressing tables, you see, I've never had one. I've always had to display my goodies on top of a chest of drawers or inside a cupboard. How I long for one.

Anyways, this morning I tidied up my goodies (part of my spring cleaning craziness). I thought I'd share my way of displaying them.....

I found this old torn canvas in the shed when we moved. It was covered in black dust. My instincts told me to give it a clean and to my delight it revealed a lovely oil landscape painting of cherry blossom trees. I have no idea who painted it but I adore it. As it was torn already I decided to use it to display my hook earrings. I poked tiny holes along the branches of the tree so that my earrings would become part of the picture. It's a wonderful way to display your jewellery and incredibly practical.

Now I must tell you that this is but a smidge of my personal earring collection. I probably have too many but is that ever really the case?

And I just couldn't resist a close up of my favourite lady vase. She takes pride of place up here. I just love these and started my collection when I was 18. They're magical :)

Alisa x

A new Tweet in store and a sunless Sunday

I'm glad I enjoyed the sunshine yesterday while it lasted. I took the girls to the park and had a lovely picnic with some friends. The sky is now grey, perfect for a day of drawing with the girls. I'm thinking my moth lady needs a friend.

I hope your Sunday is shinier than mine :)

Alisa x

Lovely Rose vintage fabric what?

As you know, I've been making some lace chokers ( I'll post about them later). I got a little sidetracked yesterday and played around with an old tablecloth off cut. It's quite fancy and I'm a little stuck with what to do with it. It was going to be a necklace but it also looks great as a headpiece...

I normally use lovely ribbon trimmed elastic for my headpieces. Perhaps if I use ribbon it can be worn as both? What do you think? I would post a picture of me wearing it however I'm looking rather shabby today (snotty nose, dressing gown, bed socks and tracky daks) and I don't want to destroy any "domestic goddess" images you may have conjured up of me... He he!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Alisa x

Look at what I bought for myself....

A lovely print by Melbourne artist Catherine Campbell from her shop "My Folk Lover" Her work (and blog) is AMAZING!

I know just where to hang it too :)

Alisa x

In the mood for Mozart

I have a long drive today, through Sofala, Wattle Flat to Bathurst where my favourite paper shop is. I love going for drives in the country. The landscape is so beautiful, especially after all this rain. And who else could top of the relaxing mood other than Mozart? And boy do I need to relax today, after a big argument the girls had at 6am this morning about underpants! Grrrr

Ah..."Gran Partita"........This is one of my faves :)

Alisa x

"H" is for Haidee

Yesterday was my father in laws birthday. I wanted to make him something special and have been playing around with this idea for a while now. You see, our little Haidee is named after his mother...Haidee Patricia Burlington. By all accounts she was an amazing woman who loved her family and lived life to the fullest. I never had the pleasure of meeting her. I would have loved to!

I wanted to show a connection between his mother and his grandaughter so I decided to make a book carving collage for him.

My mother in law Liz provided me with a photo of Haidee holding Rob as a baby. I set this further back into the carved pages, a reference to the past....

I built up layers of corrugated cardboard to bring forward the image (one that my sis took) of our little Haidee, a reference to the future....

I found it hard to hold back on including my paper flowers and leaves (not very "blokey") so instead I embellished with some recycled Australian stamps, alot of them displaying images of animals and plants that frequent my in-laws property. I also traced Robs mothers signature to add a special touch. The H card is part of a set that came with one of my game boards.

It's hard to know what to get someone as a gift, and I must admit I was nervous as to whether he would like it. But thankfully he did :)

Today I think I'll skip library reading for the girls and continue with working on my chokers. I'm having a lot of fun!

Have a lovely Monday!

Alisa x

Loving...Queen Alexandra

Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1st December 1844 - 20th November 1925

O.K, so I'm admitting that I'm a wee bit obsessed with the history of Royalty. I have read extensively about all the monarchs of England and Europe however my favourite has to be Alexandra of Denmark. I can't explain why....

There's something about those haunting eyes, The jewels (it is believed she wore high chokers to cover a scar), her love of photography and her devotion to her children. Every time I look at images of her I feel inspired.

I also love her for starting " Rose Day". I have quite a collection of lovely "Rose Day" badges, which in Australia, was run by The United Charity Fund. They look lovely as a focal point in my charm necklaces.

Today I'm thinking of experimenting with making lace chokers, in homage to Alexandra. I'll be sure to post some piccies of my efforts.

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend :)

Alisa x

Spring cleaning

Much to my husbands delight I have been bitten by the spring cleaning bug.... big time! The kitchen is the first room to be conquered. Damn my crazy bric- a- brac taste! Seriously, why do I do it to myself?! It's taking such a long time but I'll get there.

I would take a piccie of my other bench but it is currently covered by all the crap that had accumulated on this one.

Oh, and here is some of the "gardening" I accomplished yesterday.....

Hee hee!

A terribly mundane post I know, but thats all I have for you. Next stop is the reading room :)

Alisa x

Peppergreen in Berrima

Lately I've been receiving emails asking about my birdy stamps that I use in my gift wrapping and where to purchase them. So I thought I'd share it with all of you.

I purchased them last year at a fabulous antique store in Berrima, NSW called Peppergreen in Berrima (Lisa from the red thread did a post about this wonderful store a little while ago that you can see here, she took some photos, something I always forget to do). I also picked up a few other goodies, most that have already been used in my work. Here are some pics....

I was so excited to finally get the chance to fossick through all the goodies! I had heard about this store through friends in the Film Industry (a great place for props etc) and had read about it in my parents collection of antique magazines.

It truly is an experience!

Today I'll be using my stamps to create some more tags. They take a while however I do love making them! It also means that I can re-use the pages that I cut out for my book carvings.

I may do a spot of gardening too...... hmmm.

Have a lovely day! The sun is out....Gotta love that :)

Alisa x

Sneak peek

New things for my etsy store. Hopefully I'll have them up by tonight!

In the meantime I'm enjoying a lovely Merlot, I have yummy pumpkin soup cooking and Grease is on the telly. The hubby is outside knocking up a frame for my shed/gallery/studio with our big boy Obi.

Life is good.

Alisa x

La Linea

Every time I grab the computer the girls shout "La Linea!" which was created by Osvaldo Cavandoli.

They absolutely love it!

I do too.

Have a great day folks :)

Alisa x

Lazy day

We've enjoyed a lazy day at home today. The hubby got to relax and I managed to do some work while the girls played quietly inside.......well, maybe not so quiet :)

I'm chuffed that I finally have some more tweets to go into my store. I hope the rain stays away tomorrow so I can get some pictures of them in the peach blossoms. It's been miserable outside the past few days!

I hope everyone had a lovely day too :)

Alisa x

My dad

Today is Fathers day and I wanted to say a big THANKYOU to my father for being such a wonderful daddy to me and my brothers and sister. This man is so giving and his support for all of us knows no boundaries.

Happy Fathers Day Dickie...we love you so so much!

Oh, and have fun at the Antiques fair, wish I could come!

Alisa (no 4) x

What a find!

I just had to share my recent find, "Uncle Bumble" written in 1971. This gem was tucked away in a box at the Rylstone Anglicare shop and was sold to me for just 20 cents. The illustrations and story are by Jenny Williams and they're AMAZING! I wish I could tell you more about her but I've been unable to find any info on her. Does anyone know of her work? I would love to see some more :)

Isn't it glorious?! I just love all the colours... so inspiring!

Alisa x