Flower Garden in Buttons

The Flower Garden

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Hollyhocks

Barrows of Flowers

Flower in baskets

Pots of Flowers

Robins in red Blossoms

Blue Bird in Yellow Blossoms

WEARABLE PINS

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The Wearable Pins are now on the website...

There are these 3  & each time I paint I might be doing different colours ….

adds to the spice of life ?

These below are $15.00 each 

These are all from 

A DAY IN PARIS COLLECTION

Each is 7cm except the Blue head scarf chic who is 5cm & priced at $8.00

Behind the scenes on a summer's day

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It is Summer and January & it finds me painting a large batch of Christmas Decorations and buttons...

They have dried after sealing & piled ready to package....

Happy to say all were completed into cello bags last night, labelled & today off they go to a store in USA

It always does surprise me how I continuously paint Christmas all year round.

One of my passions is Christmas....

Already I have sketches & thinking of Christmas to come.... what to shelve this season, how many designs are going to be there...etc.

it is a challenge as the way & what people buy changes … it's that funny love of seeing what works …

Time to wrap these guys safely into a posting box

See me on Instagram Theodora Designs  or search as I am bordering on hopeless with that but I practise LOL

Wearable Brooches

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The wearables arrived yesterday & I painted the first set before I downed the brushes & paints...

It was a lovely change from the Christmas I'd been painting earlier in the day.

I wanted some big flowers to paint in different colours that would sit on a gorgeous styled plain dress or top ..add some fun to a scarf or cap or hat

or look equally great on a plain shirt or T shirt.

The Paris ladies are ready to enhance any garment and give one that lift …

of being a lady in Paris, or Melbourne or New York

Today I will paint more for this wonderful Christmas order and experiment a little longer with colours for these ladies, Helena in button & brooch, flowers & the 4 cats pin, before I add them to the website.

More Button Boxes today

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Today I will be placing more button box cards on the website after an overnight wonderful order that leaves 2  !

These are off to America  

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Yesterday I had the buttons tipped out on the table with intentions left over from the day before to just card all these up.

So yesterday I did get to them in late afternoon & have to ink in their bits & scan them onto the web.....

So nip over & see what is there late today !!

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Time to get ready to work I guess LOL

…..I love the down time and the mental creative space that brings to me...

I love catching up with an artist friend who also has changes & thoughts afoot that about a time I am fiddling about  in my thoughts

We seem to feel a change coming on about the same times in our lives....

Brooches on the way back

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The day has begun warm ….

I am excited as some of my early Woodcutter Designs have been located on the machinists files 

Helena here in blue I have wanted to bring back for simply ages & had dreadful trouble redrawing her....wilful lady at times !

Now she has been located by sheer chance as we searched for another image …..

I am trialling her in the 10cm size & also trial as 8cm for wearing & a button for seeing how it goes.

Keep a look or join my newsletter to get the news...

As other brooches or in the Woodcutters Daughter days we called them Wearables...are coming along for trial painting to see what suits

I enjoyed my last brooch exercise pre Christmas and it is time to be seen on ….

T shirts & shirts

Dresses

Jackets & flowing over jackets

Scarves

Hats

………..

At this time of year when the weather goes so high we nearly melt

There are interruptions to the way we work...

The paint table is flooded with SUN LIGHT too intense to paint at & I work with so much detail & I need total hand to eye coordination & no glare....

So I need to pick my times

Machining is dangerous in high temps & usually in todays machines they shut down when too hot or too cold & I never want anyone risking a fire to cut my work.

In saying that it is something I accept & wander off to do other things related to work.

I am still culling my paper designs

&

have a nice batch on the table that were set aside to work more on

These will probably be more in stitching designs. 

Which takes me to stitching....

It is such a relaxing interlude to a busy day.....

It is something to pass on the basic stitching to a child,

It is something to do when it is too hot to do much else

It whiles away the time.

Grouping together for connection that is so important for health & well being is another way we stitch.

A group does not need to run from a store or be the mega group it can be just 2 people to come together for an hour even to share one's company & to sew …..like the coffee thing !  Do both

Maybe make another 30 minutes to take a stroll & then off to your separate things 

Best stop rambling along & put some verb into my day ACTION 

Before I do go I have several friends who are not at all well, 

I hope the days bring much healing and contentment 

Angel Button

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Twig Angel 7cm Button has pastel patches painted on her dress.

There is one of this colour & a second one in taupe...in the 7cm size.

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A collage of things...

Some of my design work...

Stitchery, buttons & bunny

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Things that have meaning to me...

The sign came from a magazine Simple Things if I recall...it struck meaning for me...

you know those days when one wonders about a move or a decision etc...

Autumn leaves are always majestic & beautiful for me.

Fountains... relics of a grander past our ancestors gave us...love looking at fountains

The window is from an older hotel in Bealiba Vic no not France...we have some too...beautiful structures

I think on Friday one will need a fountain of the coolest water as our temperatures rise here to 46 degrees.... 

URK !!!!!!

I saw an journalist speak some magic this morning in The Age / Canberra Times 

WE NEED TO GROW MORE TREES 

ON THIS HOT HOT TIME it is so TRUE....

Sometimes deciduous trees will be just fine...big shady canopy, autumn leaves to mulch down the soil too...

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A Brand New Year

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 Happy New Year !!!!

Here I am pondering what this year will be for me

As I explore the plastic boxes from the shed...

I am discovery things from where I put them when packing...

Some bits of fabric I have saved, to buttons on a variety of Christmas stockings

Yesterday it was felt...

So I pulled a few collages together this morning.....

Cards of Buttons

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All the new buttons cards are on the www.theodoracleave.com

today

Xmas and Everyday !!!

Packing it up now

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Thought of day....

I chatted to an old acquaintance yesterday as we shopped

It was about my returning to Cohuna

She said 

"You come & Go Barb" ( in a really lovely accepting way )

"Yes", I replied 

" Like the tide..I come in & I go out again "

That gave me a wonderful label for how I have lived the past what 16 years.....

I am rejuvenated with change....

I get restless in a way I find hard to describe

I return to the ancestral lands to 

recharge …..reinvigorate.....

&

 I accept that....

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The sum of my Christmas....is below

The trees but one have been stripped of decorations & lights & here the berries are assembled.

In the shelves on my desk I have sort of placed things I like....

odd assortment....

Gives me pleasure & that I reckon is important.

Today 

I have been adding to the drawings I have scribbled the last few days...

Trying to have discipline in the selections for the coming year...

I love this down time ….

I also love the thinking time I get...

what do I want to do next...???

Clarity of a sort comes

 as the Santas snooze in the boxes waiting for a swift decision from me...

I am leaning towards the Xmas  & Everyday buttons sets.....

as I have the most fun assembling those !

and 

new Santas for decorations & A button have been drawn....

Along with some other things ! 

HEATWAVE we endure NOW

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Today will be 44 degrees !

This stencilled board sits on the top shelf of my desk...

I look up from the computer & often see this..

It  gives me thought....

Soon I will start the planning for the year ahead....

The art of possibility … says much.

I will need to read over the phrases I have collected... in my pinterest board...

prompts....

I'd love to try a journal style board …

Might ?? I have bought watercolour paints & a book of watercolour paper...

I'll see.

On this day of extreme temperatures one needs to divert attention to something except think of poor decisions that are being made or not made to help us live better lives...as a whole.

I drive through plains a lot & sheep in extreme heat with no cover, poor darn things sit close to the dam with no shelter...

It really is one of those cruel drive in summer....

I do see some green these days as irrigation is being applied to barren soil.

It obviously is good soil if one adds water..things like that always get me thinking on long boring drives

I also get to see those contrasts...

Anyway it will not make the earth any cooler today will it ?

But the art of possibilities is there !