Thursday, February 27, 2014

Bunnies & Birds

copyright Barbara Smith 2014

Just passing......
I am having fun with these little 
thread winders ..
So much so, we'll see the 
French bebe lapin 
and the 
Bird with leaves in it's mouth 
as buttons..
They maybe in the post due today !!!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

MORE NEW DESIGNS

I know..I know...it isn't Christmas 
....but I did do some design for this Christmas as I wound down from the painting of so many many Christmas things.. 
in December 2013.


I was finding some designs a bit tedious to paint.... 
I had thoughts of what could replace a tired but nice simple design....
I was going to do this or that 
yet once the pencil touched the paper...
I drew differently..
The results are in my photo.
I draw once only & if layout balance looks good to me & shape of item is kind of correct. I go with it...
There are times I look at something I so badly want to draw & that day it refuses to work 
& I leave that & may either go onto other drawings that are queued in behind that one in my mind...
or I drop the pencil & go do something else....
It's a process....one I never force...
With the help of my very clever machinist 
this is what arrived in the post yesterday.

Except I already had the modified deer friends, which to me now is just a nicer simpler frame & can be hung or worked on with the other  decorations.


I also had the French Rabbit & snowman decorating the Christmas tree.
The French rabbit has bounced his way right into my life & it speaks as I begin to draw....each French rabbit is different...because of that or in spite of that ??? LOL 
Now the snow folk are doing a little work of their own too...



On saying that I am so so thrilled with the latest designs...
Clarity springs to mind as I look at this photo... more open ...???


Love the Santa in the trees.. he will I bet be around in the bigger size 12cm for Christmas..
Maybe they all will do a show up large for the festive season...
at the moment I have good stock of all of these...in 7 cm size.

They are already on the web....
I am thinking of something for a club...??
I will use my newsletter to talk about this... so pop over & join the newsletter on side bar if interested..
    
copyright Theodora Cleave

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Thread/ Ribbon winders

Copyright Barbara Smith 2014

Don't adjust your set... this is slightly blurred
I scanned it quickly...
After I put the winders into action.
I had bought a reel of cotton tape this week & it sits so beautifully on winder.
Thread well it's a first to be this tidy with my threads LOL
Very cute though ...

Monday, February 24, 2014

Newest WOOD DESIGNS are HERE !!!!!!!!!

copyright Barbara Smith
This is  weeny snapshot of the new designs taht arrived today...I had a little paint...
There are 2 THREAD WINDERS 
a BIRD
A FRENCH BUNNY
in 2 colours

2 THREAD KEEPERS
also
 a BIRD & 
the FRENCH RABBIT 
The bird is in 2 colours & for the moment French Rabbit is trying out taupe fur...

Then there are framed pieces
Cats... several varieties to select from
A Dog with kennel & heart & some sort of tree  ( the artist licence sort of tree ! )
Bird under a mass of flowers....
Bird & heart with leaves   is a variation on the theme of an earlier design
One Christmas 
The snowman & french Rabbit are decorating the tree together...
All are on the website...
and a newsletter has just gone out
& I am about to do the same ...
Before I doze off here..

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Working spaces

copyright Barbara Smith

The spaces I create
 to give me the inner peace to do my creative..work..????

I am still setting up the writing & drawing space..
even though I have begun to work there....
This is where I want to work on one clump of paper based things..
The room is taking on a certain serenity... as well as it is a corner in my guest room...it does not disrupt or overwhelm the entire space...
Besides I could be horizontal at times thinking...on the spare bed...!
The writing table is near a kind of secluded window...
I can see out... but I am quite ...
The little table & baskets is now where I gaze when having a sandwich for my lunch...
Baskets flip in & out of my world & each room I would say has a basket of some sort, doing a store or holding thing...
I love baskets....& I love the randomness the picture makes sometimes..as I think I need to have this near me for a while..
basket ..place in...admire... walk by many times...
Of course I am rather fortunate to have this freedom to do my living space this way....
*
Now I need to say 
I LOVE THIS COOLER WEATHER...!!!
What BLISS !!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Elephants & Cats... deers & quilt shops

Copyright Barbara Smith


Some of my favourite buttons  the Elle elephant in blue, pink & taupe   and Lily cat has a tabby & a black cat& decorations have returned....
as well the 
. DEER FRIEND decoration has had a slight adjustment.. fine tuned.
.QUILT SHOP IN THE FRAME  has been sized up to 7cm
The 5cm some still remain.
These will be on the website tomorrow...




Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Point de Croix Magazine

Sara emailed me this morning to say her project is on the front cover of  
Point de Croix French Cross Stitch magazine
with my roosters & hen on the bag with the country scene.
Congratulations to Sara once again for her beautiful cross stitch designs in this magazine !!

       http://www.edisaxe.com/mains-et-merveilles-point-de-croix-n-101-bonjour-le-printemps.html

Monday, February 17, 2014

Flower Buttons

www.theodoracleave.com
copyright barbara smith

  A few of the flower buttons....
barrows & baskets & vases of them.


As the heat goes one turns to the autumn planting...and last evening the neighbour rang to say a neighbour in the next property had told her a snake had slithered from under her fence into our common ground......


so the bees will miss their feeds of dandelions that has flourished during the heat on the lawn...
I disturbed the little frog in the clover patch.....
as I mowed the lawn....
with eyes alert...
it is only a small patch of lawn & in this heat, a blessing.... 
as well as the frog, 
a pair of blackbirds & mudlarks 
took water & shelter on the hottest of days...


Sunday, February 16, 2014

The cool breeze .....

www.theodoracleave.com
copyright Barbara Smith

At last, a cool change has come in with a delicious strong breeze
&
last Sunday's heat seems years away...
I was so excited with the coolness 
some other news that will be revealed in the fullness of time
I had trouble going to sleep.

Today instead of being refreshed I feel a bit tired ....darn !
POST
Did you know when we use an express postage bag & drop into a post box it goes direct to the airport & is not scanned until it arrives at it's destination
so  parcel that was due to arrive on Thursday 
is a No Event on the tracking system..
but  no care & no looking after the consumer.
I have stock that now has to be recut  etc etc.
Just beggars belief...that these express parcels can be casually dismissed...
If posted over the counter it gets scanned ???
I think a recent processing step has been eliminated but are we being mislead when we buy this service ???
I use this route always & it is not been a problem ....except once but it was tracked.
Always some little thing LOL 

Friday, February 14, 2014

Chalk Painting on Tags

 Did a few swipes with the brush yesterday & the Chalk paint..
aside from the tags
I did a couple of pieces of wood
a Jar
a little tin
these manilla tags
Found my chalk 
& did a littlw writing...
really is good fun.

Might do some when I have more available time for you to buy if you don't want to try your own

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

ZAC Cloth DONKEY is Printed

In mid afternoon yesterday, 
I receieved a call from the printers to say that
Zac The Donkey pattern booklet is finished.


This is an A5 booklet 
that is the picture, pattern pieces
 to make the cloth donkey 
are all house in this one way.
I wanted to try without plastic bag, 
but have a firm cover...
light for postage too !!


He is on special at the moment for 
$10.00 + postage
( orders waiting for him get this too !)
I did bundle the 3 recent booklets together for special
$33.00
for the 3 booklets
Travels with Millie
A Bird Sings
Zac the Donkey


This is my way of celebrating the arrival of a cloth pattern after many many years of a drought in that field !!!
I am now keen to do some santa cloth designs again 
Below I did  small applique in felt on fabric machined & it is the fastest way I know & effective too to applique.... these things may surface soon in patterns
&
Of course the donkey button is just so wonderful... he can sit here or there 
I have an idea... so I will go now !



                  www.theodoracleave.com    copyright Barbara Smith 2013 & 2014

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

A FEW THINGS

NEW DESIGNS
Well... I will begin with 
the wonderfully exciting news for me at Theodora Cleave...
I just cleared my new wood designs for going into production..
Soon I will sit with paint brush hovering over the pieces... 
which do I paint first  ??? 
what colours ???
Ohhh I love these .... always do, 
 be a bit sad if I drew & didn't love it..
for all those who thought I never had much ego... 
this is where it resides in my drawings. LOL
*****
Stock will begin to refurbish the web site out of stocks & sold signs as my vital person goes back to the machines this week....
&&&&&
FIRE
I woke to the stench of burnt this morning out the back where the bush abuts my fence.
I was thinking it would be smoke coming from Gisborne & Kilmore fires
but sitting in my office window open to catch the cool lovely air..the smell was a bit stronger..checked my web link & yes it was a few streets away up the back...which would run onto the bushland here.
These works are arsonist & fires have been lit in the suburb at different ends & around & in densely populated areas.... signs of a murdering type ?????maybe.
The fire has been doused but the threat of unknown persons be they as young as 9 & 10 yrs or someone wandering about looking perhaps as if they are going about usual day but we as neighbourhood may not have seen them before so observe more closely, be a sticky beak.
It helps them get help...& keeps us all safer.
I know I sound angry because I am, this disrupts lives, this makes someone homeless, gives them nightmares, confronts who they are,
injures, kills animals,it gives a community a sense of belong but with such a sense of loss & fear.
I was well singed at 9 months old sitting on my mother's knew dressed in full winter gear all wool & a hat also, when my father was dousing out a bush fire we had used, with a water that was in an old petrol can.
Not what one would call a good look ...
the fire flared & whooshed straight to the me & my mother. My hair sticking out from under my hair was singed & so were my woollen clothes... but not flesh burnt.
Fear was immediately hardwired into that tiny brain & for my small years I would race full bore through the house ..down the long hall & out the back & I gather I was caught...all because the town fire siren rang.
A neighbour, the man who played the banjo over our back wire fence to me, was an insightful man & he would take me slowly each time the siren went to the front gate & finally beyond to the corner letterbox. 
I remember that day I was about 2 or 3 I came back beaming. 
I have a healthy alert now, put me in the potential danger & I bolt... but this is probably closest I have lived to high fire spot & I watch  myself & our neighbours & one thing I do not ever have is enough information... how close is too close.. 5km is close ???? 4 blocks is very close ????

PHOTOGRAPH COLLAGE
I pulled these pictures into a collage this morning... I miss my old camera, we knew each other so well...my new one isn't as simple or as precise yet...
Here below are 3 samples from my booklet 
WHEN A BIRD SINGS 
under things to stitch
of my designs Jenny made last year.
This bunny family has not reached it's destination in a stitched thing but has been in wood for the year or maybe a wee bit longer the bunny family. I use the pin cushion now & love it. There are bunnies in the booklet which are a variation on bunny love button design
and a redworked santa Jenny did a journal cover... with that & the tiny bird on a log cabin small cushion
I did some decorating ideas for the button club last year with a few buttons, bits of fabric and some jars, plain note pads, & mache boxes
This booklet When A Bird Sings... there are a few left in this print run 
I am thinking of doing a wee special with the other booklet 
Travels with Millie
maybe when Zac the Donkey comes from the printers in it's small,useable pattern booklet
**********************
Much to look forward to & then autumn & maybe rain tomorrow !!!!  
copyright Barbara Smith
www.theodoracleave.com

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Fire Day

THE TEMPERATURE IS HOT AND THE WINDS ARE STRONG
FIRES ARE BREAKING OUT ALL OVER THE SMALL STATE OF VICTORIA.

WHERE I LIVE THERE WAS A FIRE OUT OF CONTROL ABOUT 11AM..IT IS THE ROAD THE DEERS LIVE ON....
SO WE PACKED OUR BAGS AGAIN & PREPARED TO MOVE OFF TO ????
LUCKILY THE FIRE IS UNDER CONTROL NOW & SO GRATEFUL TO THE FIRE PEOPLE.
WE HAVE THOSE MASSIVE ELECTRICITY TOWERS THAT TRAVEL IN FROM THAT FIRE SUBURB.

THERE WAS A FIRE POSSIBLY DELIBERATELY LIT NEAR THE SHOWGROUNDS

I have a lot to say about people who DRIVE with their blasted lit cigarettes hanging out into the open and for the people who stand outside smoking on days such as these....
Smokers are carrying about a little lit tube ....
***
The other problem is arsonists, we seem to breed a large lot of these troubled people.
We need to ensure that the psychology of this is understood and we begin preventative & also alert developments of people who may become an arsonist. Is it cause by development behaviour  ??? 
It maybe like fraud there are several driving forces that cause people to commit major fraud if CONTROLS are diminished .

I think as Australians we need to ask our politicians to shift their gazes off their navels & the piggy bank  & onto the people of Australia  ALL AUSTRALIANS ., 
We are all part of a democracy not a nod in agreement or say what can we do.
The disasters in Australia be it fires, floods & drought or cyclone this is what brings the REAL into our lives & it sure is not a few people playing in boats off a coast.. or  a wee debt ....who has a mortgage??? It is a debt get it... you pay to move a little forward in your life.
Sorry but I get so annoyed that we neglect so much of what we need to be paying attention to...
& our most marveleous fire fighters & emergency services .
BRAVO BRAVO !!!! 
You are so much more courageous than any of our squabbling  politicians 
are we grateful for that.


www.theodoracleave.com

Friday, February 7, 2014

Sweet things

So.... I am drawn back to this
It is now in my soul..
I guess that is maybe it.. 
I speak from within when I create & draw...
it was already there..!!!
Christmas can mix with the rest of it...adding some colour


It's kind of like a misty morning, the look of the work I mean....
( aha you see I am waiting for Autumn ... like I look out for it each day ) 

copyright Barbara Smith2013

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Theodora & Barbara at about 19

There was some interest in looking for myself in my ancestor pictures yesterday.
Because by the time I was born Theodora hair was white...it turned this way when her husband died suddenly..she went white overnight with the shock.
She was my most gorgeous Nana
seeing her as a young woman with dark hair & a bit of the frizz I was amazed.
There were several girls in the family & in a family picture they all look well dressed
After Theodora married a Smith they held barn dances in their barn on alternate weekends...
I see some of this woman now !
This photo is interesting for me..when at 19 I was living in Miles in western Qld after I had moved to Qld & was involved in a car accident...in Brisbane
This was my recovery phase I guess as a hairdresser in this small town.
I had gone to a ball... 
with a guy( of course )

  
At that stage of my life I was into the brown hair colours....
So I looked at a collage with myself in the picture at same age..
There are always parts of oneself one discovers if bits of our recorded history are spread over many states....
( see we are wanderers) 
www.theodoracleave.com
  Now for all of you who are already bored senseless with my sense of self 
I finished my few stitches on these felt little bags last night...
The donkey... giraffe & the mini quilt shop thread holder in a pastel pink
I got this thing for pink over the last bit of time out
I even dreamt of this divine shop like French General store & I was looking for the paper place that had been near by ( in my dream you understand ) 
I so missed this shop, ...then there it was incorporated into this shop ....a stand ...booth sort of space with papers displayed from a scalloped booth in pinks, pale greys It was so divine

I was ready for a long buying 
&
I WOKE UP !!!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Things in the Post

This is Theodora who my business is named 
She was my Nana 
This photo I had never seen before and some others as my Aunt & cousin sort through her treasure trove  of photographs.
I have also been longing to see a photograph of my great grandmother,
Theodora's mother 
and in the parcel today there she was in several photos
To say I was rapt was an understatement !   

Also in the post in the last week has been the brilliant, inspiring magazine from USA company www.stampington.com
Where Women Create Business magazine has much to offer
and inspiring down to earth profiles and all types of business information we all need.


Monday, February 3, 2014

rain & cooler !

Late this afternoon I was going out to physio & a wind was whipping up & blowing the hot air away !!!
It is lovely out of doors & it is raining !!!
I had these ready to post this morning, some were pre christmas button stories & some were with new buttons & making little felt purses..
And the others are the collages on mache stuff.....
Must away I hear the phone 
www.theodoracleave.com
copyright Barbara Smith 2014

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Story Telling

www.theodoracleave.com
copyright 2013

Some stories I did last year....
gardens with birds
afternoon tea on a cosy
houses & shops 
More gardens.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Cures for Cabin Fever ???

I  am suffering from some cabin fever... 
from heat...
House is darkened most of the day.. 
I miss the natural light I guess
House is closed as air conditioners are keeping me cool
Too hot to go anywhere
Too hot to amuse myself ... 
that comes & goes..
attention span is less 
It is too hot to paint in the morning window....
so my routine is shuffled a bit
too hot to drive to the beach...it has been a very serious thought & still may happen !!

Had my moan now 
as we go into another 40 degree day

Autumn you can come back now !!!

So to amuse myself & wait until the heat passes...
I might just pull all the things out for this sort of thing
fabric, paints,stamps, buttons....
A promising time ???

It is not that I do not have many things on the go... plus I have work I can do...
I have goal setting to really get serious about
I have book work that is a must do
I have other rearranging to complete...
Clean out the wardrobe..
But as I said attention span is short...


I return in my mind to see what I did as a child....in this Victorian Hot inland summers..
often I had colouring books 
would eat colour in & iceblocks
NOTHING HAS CHANGED 
 Barbara Smith