messy Miss Kate

Arty Things: E2C + Art Journal + Scrapbooking with the kiddies...

 Well my class preparations for my little teaching stint at Port Lincoln Escape 2 Create are all finished & open for registration!  Its nice to be done & all I now have to do is jump on the plane, turn up & have some fun!

 

Scrapbooking...

I've returned to my old stomping ground for a little bit & have been teaching my big girls how to scrapbook.  Charlotte [5] was kinda interested so no doubt will do a few little things for her album. One layout has been completed already.  Georgia on the other hand, totally loved it & has asked every day since if she can do some more.  She's completed 3 pages so far.  

We are starting simple; title, picture, journaling & embellishment.  My focus for them is heavily on the journaling.  It need only be a couple of sentences, but its the description of the memory or moment that I want them to record.

I think that was one of the things that started to get a bit stale with me.  I was doing all these layouts, and often skipping journaling because it was too hard to get it all done by the deadline so I had all these heavily designed with loaded on products, but lacking in soul.  Well, thats how I feel looking back at it now.  And sadly, I'm not very inspired to get into it again.  I am very happy to be doing painting & collage.  But I still very much believe in the core reason to scrapbook - to record the memories with the pictures so that they will mean something to somebody in the future.  So thats how I'll be teaching my girls.  And I love the fact that to them it feels like artworking but its also sneakily getting them to do writing & improve spelling along the way!

I think its wonderful that they are picking up in their albums from where I left off & I can guide them in their memory keeping journey, without me trying desperately to fit in the recording for 5 kids and without me feeling guilty because I am not keeping up!  As each child gets to 5 or 6, I'll start them doing the same, even Buddy. Afterall, boys can write about memories too!

So here's the girls [above] working on their very first page. No doubt I'll share some of their work over the coming months or they will share it on their blog. Very overdue for some posting there!  Oops!

 

Art Journal...

And along the lines of scrapbooking but without all the fancy schmancy, I've signed up for Elsie & Rachel's Art Journaling workshop this year.  I am aiming to do one page per week and so far I'm on track. Each page only takes me 30-60 minutes. Thats easy to do while sitting in bed at the end of the day or between my graphics & my artworking... An hour per week is manageable for me.  I'm loving it.   

This an old handmade & bound journal I made years ago and journaled about 2 or 3 pages inside.  Well its perfect to be continued with & I've done 3 new pages inside so far.

Cover.  Gotta love Cavallini!

Title page made with washi tape & some notes on what I find myself daydreaming about. 

Introduction page with my photo, what my journal is about & purpose. I also included my 'statement' here in list form of the parts of my lie I want to explore further in my life. Personal, Family & Art.

And finally, my Love list page where we had to choose a page from a magazine, alter it & record a whole heap of things we love all over the page.   

Its fun & carefree & nice sometimes just to make arty messes & notes & lists. I am looking forward to doign my next page & seeing where the workshop promopts me to go throughout the year.

Kate xo

SCHEDULE: Inspiration for the coming week & 'stuff' we're doing...

I found a few cute words on Pinterest that I thought I might share.

 

Credit here. 

So I won't give up on myself. I'll just keep working away.  Little baby steps back to good health after a slack summer so far.

And this one...

 

 

Credit here.

I love this one. Knowing that if I am indeed a little bit weird, then all my friends must also be a little weird so isn't it wonderful that we found each other & can be weirdo's together. Awwwwww.

Now for this week...

Well its the last week of summer school holidays here & we have something booked for almost every day. I was hoping to cram in lots of extra things but I know many of those plans will be squeezed out.  It'll fly by I know it & my girls will be back in school & I'll be working out a whole new term schedule.

For this week however, whilst we have lots on, there's still that nice holiday flexibility where we don't have to rise early EVERY day & we can kinda just hang out together in the afternoons.

Tomorrow we have a playdate with a few of the mums & kids from school + siblings. Because the weather is going to be a scorcher, it looks like they will all be coming to our place. So yes I'm blogging at 1.56am in the morning/night and will be getting up at some ridiculous hour to make our home mostly respectable for guests tomorrow.  I don't mind so much, its nice to clear the decks & keep things in order.  But minimal sleep - that's not being so kind to myself is it? I am still working on that.

We have my sisters kids here for a day this week, hopefully one of my besties with her children lunching with us on another day, visiting our in laws one day, and finally an emotional family day to farewell a much loved member of our family.

My menu is set for the week & I have some lovely meals planned for dinner.  My goal this week is to get back into a little exercise & drink my 8 glasses of water minimum each day.  I might try and get to bed by midnight each night too. Now that would be something! I've started a new book so a few pages before I nod off would also be nice.  

This week I also need to find my newish glasses. My nerd ones.  I know I put them in that 'special place'!

As for blogging next week, I'll be doing a little review on some very cool iPhone accessories,  sharing details for a new photo challenge for February and plan to squeeze in posts about my op shop finds & the share the inaugral scrapbooking session I had with my big girls over the last couple of days.

So, considering its now 2.34am, I had better hop to bed. Bye!

Kate xo

 

Kitchen: Jeffs BBQ Potatoes

I hadn't intended to turn this into a regular recipe blog. Our made up home recipes ain't that exciting. But here I am, 2nd week in a row, talking cooking!

But today is a bit different.  Today I am sharing Jeff's potatoes.  I'm the primary cook in our house but over the years I have taught him to cook a few a recipes [not that I am some sort of Nigella, quite the opposite] and he has made those particular dishes for our family ever since.  He generally makes taco's for him & the kids, I just chop the salad. He also makes the spaghetti bolognese sauce that I taught him and I just have to boil the pasta. He doesn't want to master the pasta! He doesn't really want to listen to me telling him just how easy pasta is. He also makes our own hamburger patties from lean beef mince.  So I guess you could say I have taught him all the recipes that involve mince!  I find it a bit red, bloody & squishy. He doesn't mind so much.

Up until now, we have actually had some killer potato recipes, my absolute fave is cajan potatoes with rosemary & seasalt running a close second. But they are all oven based cooking.

Recently Jeff got a new BBQ.  He does the BBQ's around here. Its kind of manly territory & frankly gas scares me so I won't go near it unless something just needs a quick flip over. So anyway, Jeff did his own googling..... yes he's come a long way from country boy not even understanding call waiting on phones or how to turn a computer on, to googling on HIS own iPad. Very proud wife.

Anyway, he told me some weeks ago that he was going to try potatoes on the BBQ. I left him to it and said I didn't want any, was having something else....  I'm not really into meat very much so when the family has a BBQ, quite often I'll have bread & salad or bruschetta or something.  

Well, the potatoes were actually amazing and so very simple it turns out.  I did actually eat one in the end. Couldn't resist.  

Now maybe every other family in the universe are already cooking their potatoes on the BBQ & we just started, I don't know. But if there's any other lonely souls out there wandering the planet in desperate search of a simple BBQ cooked potato in jacket, well this recipe is for you.  Here's the basics of what Jeff googled & cooked...

Apparently you just wash the potatoes & dry them off. Rub butter or margerine around them, he said about a teaspoon per potato, at most. Salt & pepper, then wrap in foil. Turn once half way through the 45 minute cooking time on the BBQ. 45 minutes is cooking time for a large potato, 5 minutes less for each size down, because potatoes come in sizes you know. ;o]

Thats it! Easy. And 45 minutes isn't bad for potatoes. They would easily take that in the oven too but these have a smokier BBQ flavouring. Delish. One heat source too, so that is far more sensible.

A medium potato is 86 calories & 1 teaspoon of canola margarine is 26. So whilst you wouldn't have one of these a few nights per week, you could certainly add a neat portion of meat & a nice salad to this and have it once at the weekend BBQ without feeling guilty.

 

So there you go lonely planet wandering souls, have a try!

Kate xo 

Family: what we've been doing around here...

 Well after some busyness last week, we had a few down days where we stayed at home & relaxed.  Boredom obviously kicked in as I got this adorable little note from Georgia.

 I should've noticed boredom was kicking in when she took herself outside, grumpy, and made some peg art. Still, cute, hey?

 

 

The down time allowed me to get on with chores & the ever growing pile of washing to sort, fold & put away. All done. But funny, as of today I have another 4 baskets. Neverending story.

Captured this beautiful shot of Bud staring out the window. Guess those long hot days spent inside were making him feel a bit bored too!

So we fired up some games...

I also arranged for my big girls to spend a whole afternoon & evening  at my parents house with my mum. They watched movies, cooked dinner, played, had a swim etc. and saw my dad too when he got home from work.  Then mum dropped the girls home late - well late for them. They were so very excited to be staying out until 8.30pm!!!  They don't get to see my parents as much as my 3 little ones during school term so this was a lovely little catchup for them without their younger siblings. 

Of course then the twins felt a bit miffed that they weren't going with the big girls so I agreed to take them shopping to spend their birthday money.  Here's an elated cuddle. They asked me to take a photo!  Always want to do everything their big sisters do! 

 

So the twins found this little beauty at Target!  A Hello Kitty Family Camper! 

They spent ages setting it all up and moving all the little kitties around. 

 

This week we've also taken the kids to the beach. We had to go very early [well 8.30am is early for school holidays right?] because we've had several really hot summer days here. Too hot for little white [almost see through] peeps to be out in the sun.  

I've also had my sisters kids over a few times this holidays. So this week I took all the kids to the movies to see The Muppets. It was so great!  Brought back many childhood memories & I even got a bit sentimental.  Loved Miss Piggy & Kermit singing Rainbow Connection.

Now that we've had a few busy days. Its back to cruising around at home & relaxing over the weekend. I'm going to attempt to teach my big girls to scrapbook!  Very out of practice so should be interesting. 

So that's been our week at home. Only one more week of holidays left!  * Sigh *

Kate xo

 

Blythe: 2012 wish list...

Oops, last post I forgot to include my wishlist for the coming year.  Considering there are TWO Kenner dolls on my list, I am not sure whether or not it will all happen but its always nice to dream, hey?

So here it is! 

 

I was tagged by the lovely Craftygirl on Flickr,

to participate in this 12 Blythe wishes for 2012.  

Oops I only did 9, oh well! 
And one of them a JerryBerrys Doll. Oopsie again!! hehe


Photo credits: 

1] Pineapple alpaca haired girl [ Angel-lily custom ]

2] JerryBerrys with long plaits hair [ Mrs Mawi ]

3] Blonde Kenner [ $nuffy ]

4] Ahcahcum Zukin [ ellewoods2007 ]

5] Sherbet haired girl [ amloro16 ]

6] Fiery alpaca redhead [ Angel-lily custom ]

7] Soft baby pink haired girl [ neon.tulips*~ ]

8] Red Kenner [ Janelle Wind ]

9] Alexis Emerald [ WoodSpriteBlythe ]

 

Kate xo

 

Blythe: In & Out...

Its been a little while since I posted about Blythe.  I suppose before Christmas it was all about the artwork I was busily creating & selling & exhibiting.  My enjoyment with Blythe has never stopped however. I was merrily collecting in the background & also adopting out some girls from my collection too.  And that is how it goes with Blythe as tastes change, pocket monies are made, then depleted, then new dolls come on the market & 'must have her....' etc etc.

So since we are on school holidays now with a far more flexible schedule, there has been some time to sit around with my daughters & play with our Blythe dolls. Especially now too that Mimi & Chelsea have their very own first Blythe dolls.  

Some may consider 4 years of age way too young for Blythe and indeed the dolls do need to be supervised that is why Blythe is displayed in our home, not in with general toys.  And play is a joint activity with me or closely supervised by me.  My twins have been watching their big sisters play with their Blythes for a year now so I thought it was time that they join in & appreciate gentle play with something special.

Also in my thinking is the set amount we have to spend on Christmas gifts for the children.  They have so many lovely things already, so why fill the house with LOTS more bits & pieces?  I'd much rather a few little things & one large main present. And that is exactly what all my girls received Christmas 2011.

Here's some of my recent photos of Blythes from my collection to share.  A new girl, Christina the Bride. I've named her Roxy.

She has the most beautiful painted lids & long lush lashes. All stock. 

Next, is a very special doll that was gifted to me for my 40th birthday. To my complete & utter surprise, one of my oldest friends [from kindy & primary school] along with her family, arranged for the purchase of the doll from Hong Kong for my birthday. I was completely gobsmacked. I feel so very lucky.  She had been on my wishlist for a long time and she is very beautiful.  I have named her, 'Something Blue' because I liked it, it was unique AND special AND because you can name dolls whatever you like! 

Next up is another doll I invested in last year.  She's not a Blythe. She's a 'JerryBerrys' doll.  Around the same price as many Blythes and her face is painted by hand.  I fell in love with her gorgeous little elfin pixie like face & added to her to my wishlist for a long time before I was able to order. I have named her Lulu. My little boy Buddy absolutely adores her and everytime he sees her up on my shelf he is able to pick her out from all the Blythes and call out "WooWoo."  It is very cute.

Next is a couple of pictures of my little Middie Blythe, Pumpkin, who I got from Jeff for Christmas. 

She's so little she can sit in my hand. How cute is that?

And here is Fiona, the little girl I wanted very much & who eventually through luck & circumstance, became mine. She's wearing a new dress, exquisitely made, by Maria of Chu Things.

 

 

And lastly two dolls that I customised myself.  My first customs. I kinda like it. And I think I'll do more and eventually do some to sell.  This first one is little Cookie Sunshine.  I rerooted her scalp with mohair which was in tight ringlets.  I've since brushed some of that out & straightened parts of it. She's my little ghosty girl.  I once found a little smirking Blythe custom which I adored and tried to re-create something similar here with an intentional uneven smiley smirk.  It was alot of fun to do. 

 

 

And this is Coco. My Urban Cowgirl with an alpaca scalp that I commissioned.  I love the scalp so much. It has darker shades of alpaca coming through from the undersides.  And I've customed her face myself, very blushy and minimal lip carving. Dark eyes, painted eyelids, long lashes, thats about it.

Hopefully I will have more Blythe news in a few weeks time to share too. So until then, byeee!

Kate xo

Thrifty: a few pretties...

Just a few little shares this past week from my op-shopping adventures.

Lovely floral hankies.

 

 

Stitched tablecloth.

 

 

And close up. Please excuse the fact its a bit crinkly. Ironing? What is that?

 

 

And here's our littlest Miss, with a new (old) dress on. Do you know this 4 year old little munchkin still fits in a size 2 dress?

 

 

And that's all I have to share today.

Kate xo

Instagram: Jan Photo Challenge: week 2/3

Well I am still playing along with this photo a day challenge and very much enjoying it.

If you didn't catch my first post on the photo challenge, its basically taking one photo per day & sharing on Instagr.am. For those that don't have iPhones, photos are also being shared on blogs, twitter & facebook too.  

As I've gushed before, Instagr.am meets so many of my needs as its very accessible, takes little time to upload and records all the lovely bits of my life. Its also making me look at things in a different way & giving me something new to photograph each day.  Once again, I simply snap pics according to a daily theme & post to Instagr.am with the hashtag #JANphotoaday - all on my iPhone.  This particular challenge was organised through fatmumslim.  

So here's my pictures from the last 7 days:

Day 11: Where I sleep

We bought this bed 17 years ago & even though it's completely 1990's & embarrassing it's still here! We've updated our mattress of course & our most recent is a fabulous latex ensemble. I dream of a King size some day. All of our children have slept in this bed for one night or another, some for part of the night for years even. On weekend mornings, everyone climbs onto or into this bed for lazy starts to the day. There has been both happiness/tickles/laughter in this bed & grumpy overtired parents desperately wanting a few more minutes....

Day 12: Close Up

Cute chumpy baby boy hands

 

Day 13: In my bag

 

My beloved list book - note from child trying to be funny & call me Kate, not mummy- very full purse - makeup - bunch of scrunched up receipts - little girls bracelet - diary - hair elastic - body spray - sewing machine manual?? - iPad - fresh new pens & sharpies

 

 

 

Day 14: Something I'm reading

My current enormous pile of reads & flick throughs from upstairs & downstairs....

 

 

 

Day 15: Happiness

Dressing them up & posing them or even them having them sit & keep us company brings so much happiness for me and my children!

 

Day 16: Morning

 

My vintage inspired earrings from Sacred Cake arrived in my mailbox this morning, all so beautifully packaged.

 

 

 

Day 17: Water

Currently 37 degrees Celsius outside. I'm staying cool with shutters closed, aircon on & sparkling soda water.

 

 

 

I had other technology things I had wanted to post today on my Techno Tuesday but something hasn't arrived in the mail yet so I'll have to review it in upcoming Tuesdays & the other theme was going to be a wayyyy long post. I had some techno hiccups with our own little computer network at home tonight so opted to fix that first. Another time.

Are you on instagr.am yet & haven't linked up with me?  I'm kate_mason. 

Thanks for stopping by.  

Kate xo

 

Arty Things: Little birdhouses...

Today I did some crafting with the girls while Buddy had his [nearly] 2 hour nap.

We made some little birdhouses.  Here they are currently sitting on my office desk in my bedroom.

 

 

Basically I cut out rough pattern pieces from cereal boxes. No measuring of course. There is none of that nonsense around here. And then I trimmed them up to make sure house edges were same length as house fronts & back below the peak of the roof etc.....

See rough pattern here: consists of 5 individual pieces.

We then covered each of the 5 pieces with scraps of patterned paper & punched a hole in the front panel so little birdies will be able to fly in and make nests. Except if they try to do that, they will fall, nests, eggs & all, straight out the bottom. The houses are bottomless. I may add bottoms later!

Next is taping all the sides together with tape, from the inside. Then adding tape from the inside of the oblong panels to attach the roof.  It took my newly 4 year old twins some working out & reminding what they were doing & where they were up to, but they made them eventually & they were so proud.  Some good skills in tracing & cutting & neat glueing for them to work on with this little project.

We've left all the paper, scissors & glue stuff on our formal dining table & now they can merrily craft all week.  I had packed up their semi permanent mega large crafting area [on our billiard table] for the twins birthday party in early January so they have been doing tiny projects on bedroom desks, some in the kitchen & some on my artroom desk.  We need to find a better solution for all the crafting that goes on here.  But for the holidays its now all happening on the dining room table.

Next week I have grand plans to teach the older girls to scrapbook!  I loved scrapbooking for the many years I did do it but I just got a little bored creatively with it in the end & with 5 kids, there was too much to keep up with to record everything.  With blogging I can do most of that & by painting I can still be creative.

So anyway, I think once the girls [and boy!] hit early primary, its a perfect hobby for them to commence. Its great for their creativity, for writing, spelling & grammar & they can document their own lives from their perspective!  So I'm going to pull out some photos that they can start with, maybe baby photos, find some old [but actually probably brand new] albums from my stash that they can use and get some cardstock & papers etc and give them a little lesson!  Should be fun.  Could end in tears but we'll give it a go!

Ok, off to work on my art journal. More about that next week.

Kate xo

Arty Things: My First Exhibition...

Well my very first art exhibition in the Warwick Art Gallery in QLD, has come to an end.  And a very successful exhibition it was.

I sent up 11 original paintings, 2 from my personal collection & sold 8 out of the 9 for sale. Feeling extremely grateful & lucky for that!!   

You can see all my other work close up here in this post.  Most of them are available as prints in my etsy shop here.  If out of stock currently, I will be re-printing & re-stocking as soon as I can. Feel free to leave me a comment here or send me a tweet or email if there is something you are after but can't find.

Here is the painting I will be listing in ETSY as soon as I get around to it and once it has flown home from its little Queensland holiday!

Noble & Worthy:

 

This is actually the cropped version for the print.  The actual painting is a little taller, somewhat extended in both directions!   For sale for AU$90.

About this artwork: 

A piece very close to my heart. I chose to stay at home with my children & squish my creative & career interests into all the little cracks of my life, around my children. I haven't yet been able to finish my degree. I have not yet cracked my first million [actually so far from....] But to me, putting aside or keeping to a minimum, your aspirations, to be the first carer & teacher for your babies, at home day in & day out - IS noble. And it IS worthy of recognition. Sometimes when I'm feeling isolated & left behind, I need to remind myself of that and feel super good & proud of what I am doing here. I made this artwork to celebrate my noble-ness {!} & worthiness. 

I always thought this would make a great gift for a new mum or an experienced mum who needs reminding.....  And I think it would be pretty cool to hang it somewhere like the laundry or the kitchen!  Why not?

Prints of this canvas have sold out in the shop but I will get some more printed soon-ish. In my next spare 5 minutes.

Anyway, thought I would share a few pictures of my artwork on the exhibition walls in the Warwick Art Gallery. Photos courtesy of the lovely & super talented Loretta Grayson who not only invited me to exhibit with her & other amazing artists but who so generously received all my work, hung it for me in the gallery & now doing all the reverse to undo the exhibition. Well of course not only that, but a zillion other things in the gallery to make sure it all went smoothly.

Thank you Loretta, this opportunity has made me feel so appreciated & valued.  I now have confidence to maybe do something like this again!

So the art gallery pics...  my artwork was hung in the foyer of the gallery so it was the first work people saw as they entered.

 

 

Can't tell you how exciting it feels to see my work hanging up like that!

So there it is. First exhibition done & dusted.

kate xo