Yeah! The beater works

Well at last my beater is back working, thanks to David. It is still way too noisy so I don't like leaving it on for more than an hour at a time. I've beaten up some denim, haven't got any plans for it at the moment but I guess something will come to mind. I'm going to try beating some plant fibre without the cover on the belt and if that's a lot quieter I'll see if I can get a larger one made or the one I've got adjusted so the wheels don't bang on the cover.



The Contemporary Art Society has an exhibition on Herring Island and I'm thinking I might put something in, tossing up between books and 2 D work. Closing date is early Feb so I've got a few days to think about it. I haven't really gone back to work yet since hubby is home, next week he'll be back at work and I had better be too.





The pictures are of a butterfly that got it's feeler stuck in one of the flowers of the kapok vine in our backyard. I raced to get the camera then freed the butterfly by tearing the flower apart. We don't usually get such beautiful butterflies in our year. We have a bumper crop of flowers on the Kapok vine this year, I guess that's what attracted the butterfly but the sap is so sticky, must have stuck the feeler. Last year I cut all the pods off intending to make paper from them, I put them in a box in my shed and left them. The box was full to the top when I left it and now it's almost empty, I imagine I'll get lots more pods this year and perhaps this time I'll get to turn them into paper.

Mount Hotham holiday

I have just returned from a few days on top of the world at Mt Hotham and have included a few of my favorite photos.
Part way through last year I finally bought a digital camera, I'd been swinging between an slr and a small camera for over two years. I had a small polaroid digital of 1.3 Mega pixels which I mostly use for taking happy snaps to go on my website but wanted something better. I settled for something in between which was recommended by a friend who does a lot of photography. I've got a Panasonic Lumix with 10 megapixels and 12 x optical zoom this is the first time I've had a really good play with it and I was very impressed. I got some great photos of the many wildflowers

a couple of good ones of birds that were tiny and not that close,

a sunset, a storm and a misty night

and of course the beautiful scenery.



There was lots of evidence of the bushfires from 2003, many of the snow gums have yet to recover, some are just sprouting from the base of the old trees. Everywhere you look you can see dead trees and you can see just how close the fires got to the lodges.

Mosaic

I spent a few hours the other very hot day putting labels on all my posts and giving my earlier ones titles other than the day of the week. Learning a bit more about blogging and realizing I've been at it for over six months now. I grouted the new pavers and have put them in position but I need another two times what I've done already to run across the front of the yard and I still haven't pulled the weeds out, maybe when I get back from our short break and before the year gets started in earnest.

My first ever mosaic paver made a year or so ago in a class with Anne Marie Gentile at Box Hill Community Arts Centre.

My letter box with some of the pavers in the background.

A few of the new pavers in position, the weeding still hasn't been done but the top side is the lawn.

When I came back from the Brazen Breastplates class I taught at Geelong Textile Fibre Forum I mosaiced one of the moulds. My daughters reckon we are the only house around with mosaiced boobs in the garden.

New Year

Well here it is another year bites the dust. I'm not one for making New Year's resolutions but one of the first things I must do is tidy up the 'Art Room' so that I can do some work in there instead of on the ironing board and every other flat surface in the house.

I have been having a holiday from paper and book work while everybody is at home and needing lunches and dinners and company. Before Christmas was a very social time but since then it has been quiet, I had planned to invite people over for dinner for New Years Eve but didn't get around to it and since the forecast was for 42 Degrees C and we don't have air conditioning we decided to go to the movies and freeze instead of boiling at home. We've had a few hot days in a row here so have hit the movies twice in a week after not having been for months. On Saturday we saw 'The Darjeeling Limited' and being an Indiaphile I enjoyed it though felt it missed the mark a bit. Last night we saw 'I'm Not There' which was a very strange movie loosely based on the life and times of Bob Dylan. Plenty to think about with that one, Cate Blanchett did a fabulous job of playing one of the Dylans. I didn't quite get the Richard Gere/Billy the Kid connection but it made for some interesting foootage. Some of the London scenes were so iconic, really brought back the 60's.

I have had one creative day out of the kitchen in the last month making mosaic pavers. Months ago Katy brought home from school some tiles made by year 8's but left behind at the end of 2006. I have been using them as the focus for the mosaic pavers which I'll eventually have right across the front garden in the hopes that they will keep the buffalo grass out of the garden beds. I don't very often get time in the garden so would like to minimise the amount of weeds that need pulling. I did six pavers on Sunday when it was a bit cooler and ran out of tiles so bought more yesterday but it's already hot today so I can't see me getting the rest done until it cools down a bit. I haven't grouted them yet so you can still see quite a few gaps.