Saturday, January 19, 2019

Finding More Things

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 In this cane basket more things !!!
I thought I'd post this again because a lot of Button Box cards have been off to all sorts of places...
Making a sampler can be one way to display the buttons.
This one is several small samplers just how you'd buy the button cards...
It is really fun to stitch and embellish ….






This sampler was my interpretation of Paris
Stencilled the fabric with a large stencil I purchased... spraying it with some sort of scrapbooking ink..that takes about 5 minutes on a summer day outside !

Then I sewed buttons added strips of fabric stitched ...generally it is free time.....wonderful play in being creative.


Finding Things !

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Is it a good thing.... hot summer days 
&
finding things
I always knew I had them it was a matter of where...

One thing, I kept moving a bulk of Postcards as I moved the rooms about 
These are redwork stitcheries that I have now repackaged & resized so that 4 stitcheries go on an A4 sheet.
No instructions, just layout & postcards
$4.95 includes posting …

I do LOVE these & I was always going to make the stitcheries into a quilt....has not happened yet.
If they stay around long enough who knows !!






Thursday, January 17, 2019

Serenity for a Hot Summer's Day

I searched my files to find soft scenes for this so hot summer heat wave...
Something to take me away from the excessive 45 degree heat..

Plant more trees ….these places are lovely in summer too, when the trees are full of leaves.

I have been drawn to a couple of articles lately on busyness..gosh how do I spell the word ?

When life is filled to the brim with scheduled activity...

Been there done that but only ever used the diary when I had to in the office.

When I left that world behind 
I deliberately started to etch out a less time driven day... 
No time piece unless I need to make an appointment...
I walk a lot of my time in an unhurried way...
No, I am not so laid back I do not observe my world.....
I watch how we are governed, I see the influences... 
I watch nature.


Late yesterday I was swapping hoses over on the tap to water pots around the back..
Just below the tap I spot a very brown looking bee. 
It is thirsty ?

Drop a weeniest drop of water just nearby & watch the bee struggle up the ledge to drink or cool, so I added another bit & left it …
I hope it has survived the dry heat.

If I was on a schedule I may not have even noticed the bee....
it is that beautiful ability in us all to ….
Stop & TAKE time...moments... but take them.

My work has at times been very busy & then the home time has blurred & as I do it all, sometimes things have been sacrificed.

I do like some list of to do's and tick off that sense of achievement....
But to be booked in for weeks in advance would scare me & I bet, how I wander would scare others.

I was wired this way or developed that sense of freedom very early … so my natural state is this bliss.
I take opportunities often as they present...
not always do they all work out....
&
I seemed to have developed this love of moving into different environments & resettling....unsettled ….critised for this... envied too.
  
In this I have to adapt ….
The kitchen is different, the bedroom is there, the bathroom is here, only one outdoor tap, traffic, silence, the beach, the country side, a city. Where to shop, how to get from a to b
Nothing is perhaps familiar...
Except my work which is a fundamental part of me now....

The designs don't happen on a schedule....painting often does BUT I am turning that around now over time to make better working practices for me...

I am busy in my world but it is a different style of busyness …

One of my artist friends & I, often discuss this way of life... how we begin to shift the way we are living in the world ...we start to make changes...it is hard to explain.
Maybe farmers get this,& gardeners too, they sense changes in seasons, the subtle differences in weather, the way their animals start to behave, the crops  etc...

SERENITY
So what just came into my mind then was to be set a drift in a boat, down a soft moving creek, amongst trees ...drifting & have an oarsman I see...
It is cool there on this summer's day 
Nothing to do with the crafts I work in but then again everything ...

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Flower Garden in Buttons

The Flower Garden


Hollyhocks
Barrows of Flowers
Flower in baskets
Pots of Flowers
Robins in red Blossoms
Blue Bird in Yellow Blossoms

Saturday, January 12, 2019

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


Friday, January 11, 2019

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

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

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.




Sunday, January 6, 2019

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....


Friday, January 4, 2019

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 

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

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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Tuesday, January 1, 2019

A Brand New Year


 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.....