Friday 22 July 2011

Sun Flower Mask

Here is a quick and easy mask making project. It'll take less than 10 minutes…


What do you need?
  • round paper plate
  • yellow and orange paper
  • paper folder
  • sticky tape
How to…
  1. Cut out a hole in the middle of the paper plate.
  2. Cut multiple petal—like shapes out of the orange and yellow paper.
  3. Tape the petals around the remainder frame of the paper plate.
  4. Cut a 2 inch wide length strip off the paper folder.
  5. Tape the strip to the back of the paper plate and shorten to fit around a head.


Tuesday 19 July 2011

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Girl With Style


Artist's Withdrawal

    I have been focusing on my writing the past few weeks and the result has been a serious case of artist's withdrawal. My brain had been bubbling with fresh ideas that involved illustration, painting and embroidery. I seriously needed to pick up the paint brush again.
    So yesterday off I toddled to the local art supplier, to pick up a new visual diary, water colour pad [for myself], and coloured paper [for my daughter].
    The following water colour painting was my first piece off the water colour pad.
Shoes Not Made For Walking

Monday 11 July 2011

Reading This Week

I recently finished reading a selection of Sookie Stackhouse stories, titled A Touch of Dead. Later this week I look forward to reading the next book in the Sookie collection, which is Dead Reckoning.



I have just begun reading The Alice Behind Wonderland. Which is about an infamous photo of Alice Liddell as taken by an amateur photographer — Charles Dodgson [otherwise known as Lewis Carroll].


What are you reading this week?

Tuesday 5 July 2011

Riding On Buses



In grade one, whilst riding on the school bus in the morning, I used to stare at these twin boys who got on the bus a few stops after me. They wore glasses, had curly hair and massive Bugs Bunny teeth that seemed to fill their mouths. The boys’ mouths always hung open and their tongues rested underneath the top teeth. I used to imagine this was to hold their heads up. Sometimes I would imitate the brothers, but after a few minutes of hanging my mouth open I realized it was an over rated experience. Besides, who wants a dry mouth anyway?
Riding on buses came with mixed feelings. There was the unavoidable dread of barreling toward my fate — facing uninspiring teachers and hardened schoolyard bullies. On the flipside, riding the bus meant forty minutes of solitude as I immersed myself into the fictional book I happened to be reading at the time.
My early high school years were spent riding a bus that had been nicknamed Shitty Shitty Bang Bang. So aptly named as it was the oldest bus in the fleet and ever so ready to meet it’s metal maker. The old machine groaned, roared and farted like a much-distressed beast. One day Shitty Shitty Bang Bang broke down halfway to school. The engine conked out as the odor of burning crumpets wafted up the central aisle. Somewhere down the back of the bus a dickhead girlishly screamed, “We’re going to die!” Of course we didn’t. Instead we just missed a few classes that day.
The best mornings were when the bus just didn’t turn up at all. Most especially if it happened on a Friday, ensuring the early arrival of the weekend. On those days we never did find out why the bus never arrived. Did the bus simply fail to start at the bus yard? Or had the bus company simply forgotten to assign a driver to our route?
My third year of high school brought two major changes. Well three changes really, considering that Shitty Shitty Bang Bang appeared to have finally been decommissioned.
Firstly, the high school shortened the lunch hour so that the workday could finish a microsecond earlier. Thus messing with my body’s pee time clock. Since the bus waited for no student it left me no time to empty my utterly full bladder before taking a bumpy forty-minute ride home, followed by a twenty-minute walk. How I didn’t develop incontinence, I do not know.
The other change was the convergence of two bus routes. Some genius that clearly didn’t have to ride a bus with smelly, hormonal teenagers thought this was a practical cost effective decision. Yeah, right! We now had double the number of kids filling every last available breathing space, turning the bus into a stuffed sausage, very likely exceeding the legal limit. It was scary riding such a heavily loaded bus that stormed toward school at alarming speeds. One day the bus turned a right corner without slowing. The bus suspension moaned as the bus lurched onto a frighteningly extreme angle. Looking out one of the side windows the ground below was becoming too close for comfort. A kid yelled out, “LEAN TO THE LEFT”. Everyone who was standing or sitting responded with such speed that parents and teachers would never see from us. Oh yes, indeed! We leaned to the left for all it’s worth, as those seated on the right glanced out the windows silently praying to gods they didn’t really believe in, hoping that the bus doesn’t overturn. Although I suppose if the bus had overturned we would have had a perfectly valid excuse for being late to school.

Monday 4 July 2011

Reading This Week

    At the moment I am reading three books — something old something new, something borrowed… just missing something blue.
    I have been heavily into the Sookie Stackhouse series, by Charlaine Harris, and am currently onto Dead in the Family.


    I am also rereading David Mamet's A Whore's Profession, which is a series of essays about his life and work.


    Thirdly I borrowed from the library [for the second time] a graphic novel called Ethel and Ernest, by Raymond Briggs. This story is a touching account of Raymond's parents.


What are you reading at the moment?

Friday 1 July 2011

Winter Blossoms II

 This is a continuation of the photo shoot from the other day [follow this link]. I waited till it was dark out to take these happy snaps.