Arghhhhhh!!!!!

Insanely Busy February!

As part of the Art in Public Places run by Hobson's Bay City Council, I have created more of my retro pin-ups to be exhibited.

They’re going to be displayed during the Williamstown festival at the Iceberg bar, Nelson Place. There are about 40 artists doing the same thing but exhibiting in different locations around the area.

And here's the line-up:


Tatts Baby 20" x 32" : $480


Kool-Kat 20" x 32" : $480


Heidi Van Horne 24" x 32" : $480


Velvet Kitten 24" x 32" : $480


Deluxe 20" x 44" : $780


Freedom 20" x 44" : $780

These are all digital prints on artist canvas. Using vector and photo software together with a pressure sensitive pen / tablet combo, the image is ‘drawn’ and ‘airbrushed’ as though it were on real canvas.

Featured on Etsy again!

Thanks to Freckled Nest for bringing this to my attention today!

One of my "You're a Tweety" cards made it to the featured list on the Esty homepage...

Bottom right hand position again.

Project Update: Bookbinding

I have created all the covers, folded all the papers (signatures), cut all the inner papers and now I'm up to poking holes in all the signatures so that I can stitch them together to make text blocks!

The places we craft - 50s retro house

I think crafting can be done almost anywhere - the lounge room couch, the dining table, the car, a 50s retro house...

I have found out, now that I have a baby, crafting is the sort of hobby that is very portable and flexible. Other than book binding, which needs to be done on it's designated studio table - all the other things I create can be done almost anywhere.

Over the weekend we went to Ocean Grove (unfortunately I couldn't make it to the Rose St market to see annalaura) and I brought along my craft stuff just in case. On the way there in the car I stuck things down and the next day as the weather wasn't beach worthy - I continued to stick bits down at the place we were staying. Sweet! Very productive indeed.

Now, this place we stayed at was awesome! Just a quick glance over my blog would tell anyone that I love 50s + 60s retro. This house was the bees-knees in retro... it even had a glass float hanging at the front door!

Check this beauty out:



Crafting at Ocean Grove -
My most recent Valentine card designs...

For sale on Etsy!

Just like a kid in a candy store

Other than Bunnings, the other stores I get excited over and spend way too much time & money at, are Spotlight and any scrap booking store. I tend to not only buy things that I need, but may need in the future. This helps tremendously when I am creating things and I have stuff “on hand” all the time. The other fun yet somewhat annoying thing is to work out how to store all of these accumulated items… neatly, cheaply, functionally and as a bonus – creatively.

I found cheap storage jars that fit all of these descriptions at Ikea – which now brings me full circle - as Ikea is another place I love to spend way too much time & money at!

I've been tagged

OK – I’ve been tagged by Lara to do this internet game thing. It's pretty cool actually!

The rules are:

1. someone tags you,
2. you post five things about yourself that you haven’t already mentioned on your blog,
3. you tag people you’d like to know more about

ONE
I use to work part time at Johnny Rockets - my first ever work shift was on a New Years Eve (nasty). I loved the dancing as it made the time fly when I worked there. My favourite dance was to Aretha Franklin’s “Think”. . And I LOVED the 50s style hat we had to wear.

TWO
I went to art school from age of 9, but my mum pulled me out eventually because I talked too much and she felt I wasn’t learning enough…. I was a real chatterbox at school as well – my report cards would usually say “Helen talks too much”.

THREE
I love the Beastie Boys and I’ve listened to them ever since I was 15. I started off with a cassette tape of “Paul’s Boutique” and it had songs such as “Hey Ladies” on it. Get funky….

FOUR
The first ever cassette tape I was given as a gift from my parents was Julio Iglesias and Elvis Presley (I know, I know) and the first ever tape I bought myself with my pocket money was Olivia Newton-John with songs such as “Let’s get Physical”. I never thought the song was about anything other than aerobics!

FIVE
The first car I owned my dad bought for me and my mum called the colour of it “goose shit brown”. I thought it was gold ;o) It was a ’76 Ford Falcon XB and it was a TANK! I got my first real bicep muscles driving that car as it had manual steering. It was also known as the “Rad Mobile” as back then I was known as “Rad” because of my maiden name.

Now that you know 5 things about me that haven’t otherwise been mentioned in my blog – “I have to kill you” ;o)

I now tag Cherry Rockette

Uh-Oh... Another Magazine!!!

I don't know how long this mag has been around, but I only found out about it today and I had to have the Dec issue...

It's appropriately titled "Handmade".


It was advertised in a scrapbooking mag (see, it's a vicious circle), and I bought 2 issues while out at Spotlight today.

Speaking of Spotlight... nahhh, that's a story for another day.