messy Miss Kate

Arty Things: New originals in shop!

New original artwork in shop now...

You can find it right here! 

And here's some more original artwork that was either, gifted, sold or commissioned recently that I hadn't gotten around to sharing yet.

Thanks for looking!

Kate xo

End of Summer Family Holiday Part #3 of 3

The last of my photos & snippets to share from our little family holiday earlier this year.  You can read my previous posts here and here. And see all my country thrifting finds here.

As I mentioned in previous posts, we stayed at the Port Broughton caravan park right across from the beach.  We fed the seagulls daily, we popped to visit the little rock crabs & we watched sunsets...  Hair was messy, kids were free to roam, we breathed in fresh air & screen time was almot non-existent.  Bliss.

Here's the Beach, right at our front door!

 
 
 
 

The jumpy pillow was a huge hit & the kids played hard there every day with the other kids staying at the caravan park!  I even went on it & I must say, it was actually pretty fun.

 
 

And over the few days we were away, we visited so many playgrounds. We found one in just about every little town we visited and the kids loved it.  The one at Wallaroo was particularly good.  Actually Port Broughton had two pretty good ones also.

Playgrounds:

 
 
 
 
 

Although the holiday wasn't actually very expensive, particularly for 7 people, the holiday was truly rich in something for everyone. Playgrounds galore for the kids, historical towns with beautiful architecture & fabulous thrifting opportunities, train rides, total relaxation, fresh air, yummy food options, country hospitality & more.

As a South Australian short holiday destination, I highly recommend it for couples & families.

Kate xo

Blythe: Swap Part #1

Earlier this year I was involved in my first 'swap' with some of my lovely Twitter friends.  All being Blythe collectors, we swapped items for Blythe, for Valentines Day plus something extra.  You can read more about that here.

I then heard about a teensy mini swap between a few other Twitter Blythe collectors so most rudely, decided to opt in for that too & plonk myself right in the middle of the fun. hehe!

This swap was purely Blythe related and just a mini swap.  I had 3 packages to get ready & send out and in return, I would recieve 3 packages back!

So for each of the following lovely ladies; Mel from OneCraftyMumma, Dani from Danimezza and Cintia from MyPoppetShop, I put together the following:

1] Very simple handmade [by me!] reversible Blythe dresses.

2] Little coloured 'Doc style' boots for Blythe

3] Socks

Here's the dress I made for Mel. I know Mel likes green & also bright happy colours so these were the fabrics I chose for her.

And all packaged up & ready to go, along with green & yellow stripey socks & yellow boots.

Next I made a dress from cupcakes & yellow fabrics for Cintia.

Again, ready to be packed along with blue spotty socks & yellow boots.

For Dani, I used pink fabric for one side & black babushka doll fabric for the other side.

Dani's was the first I packaged & forgot to take a photo of the contents. From memory I gave her pink socks with spots & hot pink boots. 

And here are all the mini parcels before I sent them off.  Part #2 of swap [all the bits of pretty I recieved back!] coming up soon!

Kate xo

Family: My crazy little guy...

Time is flying right now.  I have about a dozen half finished blog posts waiting for my attention. A full inbox I am secretly ignoring [not so secret now] and the usual 20 projects on the go at home, both arty & domestic.  Life is full of living, putting out fires, attending to the person who screams the loudest and capturing snippets when I can, along the way.

All the girls are cruising along right now in their growing & development but my little guy is the one I need to stop & capture as these baby years are flying faster, it seems.  His development is racing ahead & before I know it, he'll be a little person along with the others. Ok so I do realise he is already a little person in every respect but I'm just pretending he's still a baby. He's still in nappies afterall, so that is good enough for me.

Ahhh sweet little Lachlan Bud.  Around us, his comfort zone; he's bold, bossy, demanding, cheeky, hilarious, a show pony, a sulker, a snuggler and a chatterbox.  Around others, he's shy, clingy, brooding, a mute and a mummy's boy or a daddy's boy [whichever day it happens to be, he plays us off against each other like a pro!].

He loves hiding games, running with the pack, clip clopping in the girls or mummy's shoes, wearing jock jocks over his nappy, lining up to get his hair done in the morning production line.  He loves tumbling, jumping, climbing, singing, dancing, spinning & chatting.  He's so different from the girls in many ways. He's alot more physical in his playing & he tends to spit the dummy more when he doesn't get his way. There has even been tantrums & throwing himself on the floor.  He is ultra sensitive. He hates being told off & usually sobs & wants a cuddle. We are happy to do that all day long! 

He's been such a joy in so many ways & the perfect little person to complete our family.  I love that he loves snuggling & loves being cosy in bed. I love that he 's a great sleeper. He does love co-sleeping very much & I must confess that I'm not in any great hurry to cut it out completely. I know it won't be forever. 

Every night when I cook dinner, for the most dangerous parts; taking boiling water off the stove, transferring hot dishes, cooking on the stove top, its my preference to have him out of the kitchen. He has a tendency to follow me around and get right under my feet. Its just too dangerous for him to be there. So after a big play session I allow the kids to watch some TV while I cook dinner.  Bud's attention span of course is not anywhere near his sisters so he can often be seen at the door trying to get in!  Oh yes and moving chairs so that he can open the door. Luckily he hasn't quite mastered it yet.

Here's his before bedtime tumbling on mum & dads bed.  Oh he has us all in stitched some days.  

Please excuse all the photos of nappy & jocks!  Most of these pics were taken in warmer weather and it was his uniform most days. Ok, so he would start in nappy, jocks, tshirt AND shorts/pants but often by the end of the day he would have stripped most of it off & be running around in even alot less than what is pictured here.  We are becoming accustomed to little boys & their nudie antics around here!

My little gorgeous. Oh how we all adore him. He brings many many smiles every single day.

Kate xo

Arty Things: While the kitty Katie cat's away....

There's a sale going on in my little ETSY shop!

Edited:  

I've been to Melbourne for a painting retreat, I've been to the south coast with my kids for a beach holiday & I'm about to head off to Port Lincoln for mixed media teaching.  Its been crazy around here.  Once I return I'm packing up my upstairs studio & relocating into a brand new [for me] space!   So until the end of April, I'll continue my sale. The less stock on hand I have to move the better!  

Soooooo, while I'm not looking, I thought I'd spread a little arty kindness & offer a FREE PRINT with every sale!

Lots of prints restocked already and I'll add more over next few days too. Maybe something for yourself & something for mothers day?

So, here's how it's gonna work, buy yourself anything from the shop; canvas, print or cosy cushion, checkout AND pay by PayPal. Then, in a second transaction, buy a print and checkout with 'OThER' payment option. I will mark off as paid for you & send it all together.

Only stipulation is that if you are buying a print, the freebie needs to be of equal or lesser value.

That make sense? Great!
Go!

Scrappsfleamarket.etsy.com

Kate xo

Arty Things: Apron Makeover...

I have a very exciting short getaway coming up soonish and I've started getting a few things ready. It's a trip that has sort of been on my bucket list for a long time. It's an art retreat!

It is a dream of mine to attend an art retreat in America or Europe or both [!] at some point in my life, obviously can't see it happening in the short term but someday....

Anyway, when I heard that one of my great arty influences was traveling from her country, to my country, it was too good an opportunity to miss. So this has been in the planning since last year, early last year! So more about my art retreat later of course but for now, I have a little arty messy stitchy thingy to share.

My apron was looking a bit shab with paint & gel medium blobs on it so what better & kinder thing to do than to give it a bit of a makeover! I used lots of vintage & retro sheet scraps as well as fabrics from my personal collection, thrifted stitcheries & linen doilies.

I free motioned my name at the top preceded by 'messy' because really that's the kinda arty stuff I do, and the arty stuff I like.

I then stitched all the patches all over the apron and made a new pocket too.

Very happy that this version of the apron will hopefully be a bit more respectable than what's hidden underneath!!

Ssshh don't tell anyone!

Kate xo

Thrifty: Bedspread, sheets & sequinned bag.

Just a few finds over the last week or so, I thought I would share.

Green is my favourite colour & I'm quite partial to a bit of bling so when I found this sweet little bag for just a few dollars I thought it would be cute to add to my bag collection.

More stitched linen goodness, some retro sheets & a bunch of embroidery hoops.

A lovely [Ashdene looking] glass cutting board for $1.95. I love glass cutting boards. They seem so much more sanitary to me. And this one was so pretty!  Some more vintage sheets & doilies for my sewing room.

And lastly, this ever so cute sunshiney lemony bedspread complete with lots of frillyness around the edges. I love it. 1970's I am sure. I recall similar bedspreads from my childhood.

I cannot wait for my big studio move. Feeling more cramped than ever at the moment whilst feeling ultra creative & motivated at the same time. Not a comfortable position to be in but really not so bad either. Hopefully the momentum will continue to grow & I'll be busting to get moving on May 1st.  Exciting!

Kate xo

End of Summer Family Holiday Part #2 of 3

I'm finally getting back to finishing my posting about our family summer holiday to the Copper Triangle earlier this year.

You can read my first post here and all about my holiday thrifting here!

Each day we were away, we spent some time driving to a nearby town to explore. We found lots of great stuff along our travels. Here's a shot of our full car! We toured around Moonta, Wallaroo, Kadina & of course there were other stops at tiny towns on the drive back home to Adelaide too.

Moonta Sweet Shop is a place many people might remember from their childhood. I certainly do.  Although the candy is of the very commercial variety these days, the shop is still a nice treat for the kids & the shop is filled from floor to ceiling with every type of modern day candy you can imagine.

We found a little country market one day & also a street stall in Port Broughton. We bought a tray of lovely gingerbread cookies, amongst some other bits & pieces.

We walked the jetty at Wallaroo & shared a hot chip beachside lunch with the local seagulls. The scenery & the old buildings in these towns is beautiful.  Lots of history.

 

 
 
 

At Bute, a town on the way home, we visited a little fauna park & the kids played for ages on this old tractor.

 
 

Also at Moonta, we did a little train tour right through the Moonta Mines area & listened to a fascinating talk about the humble beginnings of what was once a very profitable copper mine. Jeff was in his element of course & the kids loved it too. Clearly I'm hiding my bad holiday hair under my bandana. Wonder why I am looking so serious? The pics of me are few & far between, as usual, so sharing what I have as proof that I was actually present. 

 
 
 

There were a couple of stops along the way on the train tour so we could get off & explore parts of the mines. Beautiful backdrops for photos. The colours were amazing. These were all taken on my iPhone & have a little post processing. Next time I'll definitely bring my DSLR.

 
 

After our train tour through the mines, we stopped off at another miniature train place & all rode together around the little track. It was great fun.

 
 

For South Australians looking for a short holiday, we very much enjoyed our few days in the Copper Triangle. Its somewhere we'll definitely return to in the next few years.

One more holiday post to go. Coming soon.

Kate xo

Arty Things: Original canvases finished...

Well, three of them so far anyway. In shop now! HERE. 

Kate xo

Inspiration: A little DIY via Pinterest

Little simple & quick DIY idea from a very clever creative person.  I found it on Pinterest here.

How simple it is to organise your washi & tape stash & make it more user friendly! Love.

I took out 5 minutes of my day today to make one for myself.

Cute huh?

Kate xo