messy Miss Kate

Family: Magical Mystery Tour to Paradise part #2

Continuing from Magical Mystery Tour to Paradise Post #1 where I blogged about the ColdPlay concert....

Here's all the other holiday stuff...

Our holiday to Sydney was to be the first night we had both left the children EVER.  I have had nights away but Jeff has been home. Jeff has had nights away but I've been home. So it was a big deal for us to leave.  

Mum moved into our bedroom Friday evening.  We kissed our babies goodnight, finished packing & headed downstairs to sleep on the couch.  We had a 6am plane from Adelaide to Sydney on Saturday morning so wanted to slip out early early without disturbing anyone.  I think I got about 4 hours.  I was so excited & so nervous about leaving the kids all at the same time.  My mum of course is completely 100% capable, I was more worried that the plane would go down...!

Here we are at some ridiculous hour at the Adelaide airport.

Anyway, off to Sydney we went on our plane, arrived, left the bags at the hotel & went exploring.  I find Sydney a bit difficult as a holiday destination unless you know where you are going or have a definite plan. Its not like Melbourne where you just head to the market or the CBD and you can easily jump on & off trams.  Sydney, whilst the rail system is vast, seems to be sprawled out over such a huge area, and there doesn't seem to be just one main shopping district, there's hundreds!  

Can you tell I'm from little old Adelaide?  Small city suits me.  But I must say the Sydney Harbour views are just a billion dollars. Nothing compares.

So off we went on a ferry to Darling Harbour and found a nice place for lunch. No sooner had we finished, it was then time to race back to the hotel to get ready for the concert.  

Absolutely loved using the panorama feature on my iPhone. I think if you click on these pics, you may get a slighter bigger view. Fingers crossed.

Next, we took a cab to the concert with Jane & Tom, my sister & brother-in-law and waited 3 & 1/2 hours to get in.  We then waited another 3 hours for ColdPlay to come on stage!

So the concert was out of this world, you can read about it & see my pictures in this post here.

The next morning we woke up at 5.30/6am after an exhausting day before & not alot of sleep the night before, to get ready for the day ahead.  We checked out of our hotel & checked in our bags at Central station & headed down to the base of the Sydney Harbour Bridge for our bridge climb!!!!  It wasn't too long before we realised we got the time wrong and turned up an HOUR EARLY!!!!!! We could have had an hour more to sleep!!!!  We managed to shift our climb forward a bit though so it didn't take too long before we were in our sexy climbing suits and in training for our climb.

I must say I was a bit terrified that I might die on this bridge climb. I've lost a bit of fitness this past year & I'm a bit clumsy so I was worried I'd either have a heart attack, a vertigo attack or just plain fall & do my knee or something. I've been having these little daydreams/nightmares about having to be winched off the bridge by helicopter.  

Anyway, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I got a little puffed doing the long slow descents upwards but that was about it.  All very manageable.  I really enjoyed the climbing in & out of the narrow spaces.  My least favourite part was walking down the steps backwards.  The whole experience though was fantastic & I was super impressed with the logistics of the climb preparation & the climb.  They have the whole process down to a fine art.

Before I knew it, we were on top of the world & then it was all over.  We had photos done but they were awful.  We were both so sunburned from the day before waiting for ColdPlay, that I had to layer filter over filter just to get the redness out of our faces.  Thank God for filters!  

So here's one very over-filtered photo of us on the bridge.  See? We really did it!

After the bridge climb we headed over to Circular Quay and met up with Jane & Tom.  We caught the ferry to Manly & had a lovely lunch at the Bavarian Beer Cafe.  Jane & I had the chilli burger - yummmmmyyyyy!!!!

Next it was off back to Circular Quay on our last ferry. Loved this huge ship in the harbour.  Then a train to Central Station, collecting luggage and a train to the airport.  It was all coming to a close so quickly!

Luckily for us, we got to the airport well before our flight.  We had time to change clothes, have a little shop, charge our devices, have a snack & rest up before the flight home. Kikki.K and SEED were my one and only little shops for the weekend. And they were at the airport!  Some gifts for the kids & a few things for my office desk.

I also had one final surprise for Jeff on our little whirlwind holiday...... flying home Business Class!  When booking the flights with our frequent flyer points, I had limited options to fly home.  To get an evening flight, we were going to have to book a two legged journey from Sydney to Melbourne then Melbourne to Adelaide.  When for just a few thousand more points we could upgrade to a direct flight in Business Class. I thought it would be such a lovely treat & nice way to finish the weekend so I did it!

Flying home was actually terrifying. The turbulence was super bad.  I felt like it was some sort of universal karma because we were trying to be posh flying Business Class.   The only EVER time we have both left our children for the night & our plane goes down making them orphans. Terrific. 

Luckily the turbulence eventually stopped & was soon forgotten as we cleaned our hands with steaming hot wet towels, gobbled up our ploughmans lunch, drank endless glasses of soda water [me] & lemonade [Jeff], nibbled on roasted almonds & answered to Mr & Mrs Mason.  I'm not sure I'd EVER pay for Business Class but it sure was a nice treat.  I kinda wished I still drank alcohol so I could get sloshed & have a funny story to tell but I don't so I there's no sordid details to share. It really was quite civilised. 

Anyway, it was so lovely to land on the Adelaide tarmac & then catch a taxi home.  When we arrived, we were greeted by a beautiful welcome home sign made my mum & the kids.  

And just beyond our welcome sign, sat my mum with our little Buddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He had just been sick so was cleaned up & still awake for us to smother him in smoochies.  He was so cute & excited to see us.

Mum had done a wonderful job.  The house looked pretty good, the washing that had been drying was folded, the kids were so happy & they were all alive!!!!!!!!!  She even sent us this adorable picture of the kids all dressed up as the Royal family.  

So cute.  I am so so grateful that we were able to go and leave the kids in such capable hands.  

We may just do it again sometime. Same time next year maybe?

Arty Things: Art Retreat with DJ Pettitt

Last year sometime, a lovely arty friend of mine spread the news that DJ Pettitt was coming to Australia!  I have long been inspired by DJ and in fact its on my bucket list to one day do an art retreat in America or Europe and immerse myself in painterly fun. Well of course that dream is way off while I have my little ones so dependant on me at home. But having her fly all the way out here was too good an opportunity to miss. So I booked myself in to have a quick little getaway to Melbourne for no other reason than to get messy, meet DJ & work creatively for 3 whole days in a row!

I booked myself into 2 full day workshops with DJ & another metal clay workshop which is something I have been wanting to do for a while. The metal clay one was cancelled just a short time before the art retreat so I was more than happy to book into a 3rd day with DJ.

My first class was a book making & painting class. I decided to do lots of preparation before I even left for Melbourne as I knew if I got to the book binding stage in class, I wouldn't then be able to add free motion decoration to my pages once it was all bound.

So I pre-cut all my book pages, decorated with napkins & paper and then set about decorating with free motion stitching which I taught myself just the week before I left to go away. Below are all my signatures for my book.

The next picture is an example of one of my free motion stitched pages. I did lots of birdcages, crazy decorative swirlies, leaves, trees, flowers etc.

Before I knew it, it was time to pack & get ready for long anticipated trip. I started getting very emotional before I left because I was leaving my babies for 3 nights. I have only been away from them a few nights before and never more than one night at a time [except when in hospital having babies of course!].  I took this picture of me huddled with all my babies just as I was about to leave for the airport. Its not the greatest pic but I truly treasure it. Me & all my best ever creations.

The tears really started to pour as I was presented with these posters from my big girls.

"Dont go to Mellben [Melbourne]" and tears streaming from her little eyes, by Georgia.

And "Pleas dont go to Mellben" with downturned smile, by Charlotte. 

Mother Guilt peaking right about then, I tell you!

Here I am, eyes glassy and a bit red but cleaned up in my airport 'selfie'. I did it. I left.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!  

I was actually a bit early for my plane so I promptly then went off and bought the kids presents from the Adelaide airport even before I went on holiday!

At last I arrived. Here I am left with the beautiful & talented DJ Pettitt herself and right with my gorgeous & generous roomie, Louise Nelson [Aussie Scrapping Superstar].

 

So classes began, every day was wonderful. There was fabulous company. I learned so much about painting from DJ that I think will help me immensely on my own creative journey too. And for that alone, it was absolutely worthwhile making the trip.  

I'm not one to really do arty/crafty classes. I'm pretty much self taught in everything I've done so far. The few classes I've taken over the many years I've been art/crafting have mainly been for social reasons or just to keep busy. I'm not really a very good student. I'm not good at taking instruction. Uni was somewhat different, being visual arts, alot of it was exploration & pushing oneself further in art practice. A few technical bits then on you go - do it yourself!  And I do like doing my own thing.

I do prefer to just work things out on my work - how things can be used, what I can use it for.... It seems to suit me better & seems to gel in my brain more than having someone else just telling me to do something, just because. I don't know why. Its how I'm wired. Anyway, DJ taught in a language that I understood 100%. And it was so great to hear that she's messy too & she likes to experiment & play too & that she also didn't make a great student either! She certainly passed on great gifts to the class. She was generous with information, she just explained her process & technique & we watched her, absorbed & learned. Oh it was so great!

DJ took this photo below, of me in my apron with my work from the first day. I managed to stitch up most of the inside of the front cover but need to finish the outside stitching & binding in all the signatures. One class I did take at uni that was instruction heavy, was bookmaking, which I'll forever be grateful for as I love making books and every so often I have reason to pull out all my old notes & re-teach myself different binding methods etc.  They will come in handy when I am ready to bind this little beauty of a book.  And I say 'beauty', as I very much enjoyed the process & it holds very dear memories of the art retreat with DJ.

I used a print of one of my painted girlies for the front cover of my book. You have no idea how long it took me to get this front cover done. I was so lost & going around in circles [see this is what happens to me in classes!] and then DJ suggested I just stop and let it be!  Well I put it aside. Once dry, added just a few more details and then that was it. Done. And I am very happy with the end result.  

The circle frame around my girly was actually stitched with free motion back home and just painted over and layered over. But it leaves the cover with some nice stitched texture. Ooooh lots of lovely techniques in the process we used.

This is the stitched fabric inside cover. You can see the paper signatures stacked up to the right side and the fabric cover to the left lifts up & lifts over onto the signatures giving it a very large deliciously fat stitched & beaded spine.

Over the next couple of days we worked on various collages & again I chose to use my painted girlies. We had to bring in images to use.  I've had this idea in my head for a long time to do a series of windows & doors with my girlies peeking through. You can imagine all the stories you could make up for each collaged piece. Anyway, it was nice to start to play with some of these ideas and bring them to life right there in DJ's class.

Here's one of my favourite & mostly resolved pieces from the art retreat. It was a picture of a window that I printed out and collaged onto canvas with one of my girlies. Under DJ's guidance, I then added painterly effects to blend the collage & make the window photo less of a window but more of a painting. If you know what I mean? There were some little flowers on the window picture but I've replaced the photo look with painted flowers and extended some of those vines downwards. I also collaged in & painted the tree to the right of the window.

Even though I am insane over bookmaking & really was the main reason for wanting to attend the art retreat [DJ makes legendary books], I learned so much about painting AND PATIENCE and LESS IS MORE in this workshop.  Invaluable.

Not a great picture but you can see a little closer up. I will be doing prints of this picture for my ETSY soon.

I took lots of pictures of fabulous windows & doors & here's just another example below. This work is largely unfinished. I've just loosely blended the background & collaged in the girl but I have to add lots of painting to this one.

I started off collaging & painting babushka dolls & have done hundreds so far but I think I'm moving into windows/doors & girlies big time now! Watch this space. Its taking over my head. Think its gonna be my thing.

There is so much more in my brain & heart about this fabulous art retreat but I will leave it there for now. Such an amazing experience & I am just so grateful Jeff and the kids let me go and have a little holiday.

Thank you DJ, I honestly had such a great time learning from you. I hope you do come back soon!l xo

Thank Louise for being such a generous roomie & for putting up with my snoring [eeek!!], look forward to catching up soon xo

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

I want a vintage caravan...

Being a fulltime stay at home + working 2 part-time jobs from home, Mum, I am a bit isolated from a physical social life.  My besties in Adelaide don't live so close so its phone calls & emails & catch up on facebook. I guess this is the way it has become for many busy mums. For daily contact, I have loved growing my online group of friends; mostly crafty & Blythe collecting mums and I certainly start to miss these friends a bit if there's not some tweeting chat with them through the week.

Now I have to say, we talk about all sorts; Blythe collecting, craft, ETSY, Blythe clothes, eBay, kids, Pinterest, fabric, paper, Flickr, we share instagr.ams, talk about Blythe shoes, share blog posts and even chat a bit about Blythe dolls & beauty treatments.

Lately, there's been talk about vintage caravans. So my incorrigable & enabling friends have gotten me all hot under the collar for a vintage caravan of my own. Well, to share with my family of course.  Its mostly that Mel's fault. She just bought one so we are all drooling & following her journey as her family decks out their new van with all the cute trimmings that a cool caravan should have.  You can read all about it here.

There's also other cool caravan journey blogs & caravan info sites you can check out if you want to get on the bandwagon , I mean caravan-wagon.

My cool caravan and Foxs Lane. Great great great!  

And if you google vintage caravan images, oh my, this is what you get! CUTE +++

Seriously cool!  Sadly, I'm not sure my little family will be investing in an actual caravan anytime soon.  In the meantime, I am pinning cute caravan pics here in my Pinterest [still in its infancy] and I'm sketching a number of ideas for cute vintage caravan artworks on canvas too.  

Artmaking my caravan may be my only way to own one. I guess thats ok for now. But I am putting it onto my bucket list! So there!

Kate xo

Bucket List...

A post in progress. Obviously. I can only think of 40 things right now... Up to 42! Wooot!

 

1] run 4.5kms Mothers Day Classic straight [Finished it May 2011 but not running for whole way. Still to accomplish]

2] run 7kms Mothers Day Classic

3] run 12kms City to Bay

4] wear a dress, sometime... DONE

5] take kids to Disneyland

6] do an Art retreat in America

7] be a working illustrative artist

8] write & illustrate my own book [childrens or adults]

9] finish my graphics certificate

10] finish my visual arts degree which I'll be swap as soon as I can for graphic design [illustration major]

11] go to Paris again

12] go to New York City again

13] take the kids to Canada, Ireland, England & Scotland to visit family

14] do the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb

15] take a cooking class

16] finish my personal Le Cordon Bleu cooking journey

17] learn how to do a French knot

18] finish making my kids baby clothes into patchwork quilts for each of them

19] learn how to make a croissant

20] take the family camping [real camping Jeff, not cabin in a tourist park camping]

21] buy a banjo

22] take lessons in banjo playing

23] learn conversational French

24] work in a soup kitchen

25] support a mother in a foreign country

26] get an arty penpal from a European country and exchange hand written visually delicious arty letters

27] sort out my photos on my computer

28] learn to play chess

29] take some dancing classes with Jeff [something funny & light & social]

30] do some vlogging

31] make a stop motion movie

32] be re-taught how to knit

33] learn to crochet DONE

34] take my kids to the snow

35] fold 1000 origami cranes

36] visit the Louvre in Paris on a day that it is open - NOT GOOD FRIDAY Kate!

37] Sell one of my original paintings to someone famous like Gwyneth Paltrow for Apple's bedroom OR Jools Oliver for one of the little Oliver flowers bedrooms. [Ha! Have to dream big!]

38] Be published in a Stampington publication. I know I know, I have to write to them sometime or it will never happen!! One day.

39] Have a working [not half dying, half sort of growing] kitchen garden with herbs & salad veggies.

40] Stay happily married to Jeff & investing in us, until at least 80, at which time I may trade him in for someone younger.

41] Buy a vintage caravan & deck it out with lots of vintage & handmade goodness

42] Do some light holidaying in our decked out, cute, cool vintage caravan

43] Art Exhibition DONE

44] Solo art exhibition

 

OK, will keep adding!  Do you have a blog bucket list?

Would love you to link in with mine. I need some more ideas. If not, why not start one! Let me know where to find it.

Kate xo

All about me...

Hello!  Are you new here?  Welcome!  I'm Kate! 

I'm guessing you might be wondering who this [exclamation over-user] blogger is, yes?  

 Let me fill you in, with a one [longish] post overview!  

FAMILY

I'm happily married to Jeff [he's a keeper], country boy & together we have 5 children.

By clicking on their names, you can read all about their birth stories. Yep, I've been blogging since Georgia was only 6 weeks old! They is not terribly much detail. You see, they were all born in about 5 minutes. Planned c-sections for medical reasons. I think I got it a bit easy.

1. Georgia Poppy 6
2. Charlotte Daisy 5 here and more pics on this post here
3. twin Amelia Bluebell 3 
4. twin Chelsea Blossom 3
5. Lachlan Bud 1

Ok so yes that was  2 kids in 12 months, or  4 kids in 2.5 years or  5 kids in 5 years.

Yes, crazy!! 

Yes we have our hands full.

Yes, we actually have a TV!

And yes, we have completed our family now. 

We've had our fair share of ups & downs in our lives & blogging has really helped me through the good, the bad & the ugly. Sharing our stories and connecting with people all over the world who have had similar experiences has been an absolute treasure to me & reinforces why I love being part of the blogging community.

 
It took us 8 years of fertility treatment to finally conceive Georgie. 

 
I had a kidney transplant back in 2002, donated by my little sister & usually blog shortly after our anniversary late August, every year. 

 
Our little Chelsea was born a complex congenital heart abnormality and you can read the complete set of posts on her amazing journey through battling for life [given 50/50]. then 2 open heart surgeries + bowel surgery all in the first 9months of her life, by reading our heart story! Surgery one @ 5weeks here and 2nd surgery @ 9months here.

So on the whole we are used to jumping hurdles and surviving.

 

At home for fun:

• The kids make lots of [bleeding ear drum type] noise & mess but they are mostly happy, so its sorta ok. They love skipping ropes, dress ups & art making.

• When I am not feeding the troops, tidying or putting away washed clothes, I love home projects & organising. I also love to stretch out on the couch for an hour in the afternoon & have the kids jump all over me. I neeeeeeeed to create stuff & I collect Blythe.

• When Jeff is not washing the clothes or doing the recycling, he loves to watch TV, mostly sport, and he watches trains, and watches more TV, and eats lollies.

 

DOWN TO BUSINESS

I manage my own little mixed media online ETSY shop called Scrapps Flea Market. 

• You can see my shop here and flick through my sold items to see past work & commissions. You can see more arty things + work in progress etc by looking through the blog category Scrapps Flea Market & Make & Monday Making.

• Art published in Homespun Magazine 2011 & Etzetera Magazine 2011.

 

I do part-time graphics as a job from home in the evening when the kids are asleep.

 

Previous to mixed media, I had good long tenure in the scrapbooking industry where I was extensively published in most Australian craft magazines, co-authored 2 books, taught classes in shops, craft festivals & online, worked on various design teams and also won myself a place on the 2006 For Keeps Scrapbooking Elite team.

 

And I even had a [wee bit boring]  15 year business career BC [before children]...

• Federal government recruitment & employment services 

• Private sector management of Federal employment contracts including administrative management, business organisation & marketing

• Business plan/tender/procedural manual/quality systems writing experience  So I've had a plethora of writing practice, I have political viewpoints on most things & a good dose of corporate experience 

So I've had a plethora of writing practice, I have political viewpoints on most things & a good dose of corporate experience

See wee bit boring huh? But my experience has helped me organise a household & 5 children I spose.

 

BLOGGING

Mainly I like to write about:

• My family & our crazy beautiful messy life + parenting + reflections on motherhood

• My quest to live to 100 - my health & fitness journey. 

• My artwork,  my kids artwork,  creative living  + with my little childlike illustrations included

• Home improvements,  home organisation  & best practice

• Up-cycling,  re-purposing  & sustainability  & even a bit of family friendly fashion on a budget,           "Wears & Wares Wednesday"

• Kindness

• My Blythe collection [yes kooky I know]

• My attempt to convert from foodie wannabe [not really very good] to Le Cordon Bleu cooking extraordinaire - self taught over the next 6, 9, 12 years?

• Technology! Yay, we are a geeky bunch here... APPLE. not PC, just APPLE, thank you!

• And lastly list making - I am a prolific list writer 

 

CONTACT ME

Please contact me anytime for sponsored posts, advertorials, blog sponsorship & garden variety kindness...

Email:         kate [at] katemason [dot] com [dot] au

Twitter:      all one word.... " i kate mason "

Pinterest:   katemason

Flickr:         scrappsfleamarket

ETSY:          scrappsfleamarket [dot] etsy [dot] com

Facebook business page:     https://facebook [dot] com [dot] /scrappsfleamarket

 

Thanks for visiting!  

 Kate Mason xo