Finally Finding an Art Course

The SUNFLOWERS are finally here, which means so is the heat, can we say summer?? as soon as you do it rains!

But out babies who we have seed saved since 2003 and still going and getting bigger and more beautiful every year.  Now last time I did a post with sunflowers it was HERE in Feb last year, and I was asking for your advice on different art courses I could do, but alas being a cheapy I just wasent willing to pay some of those prices!!

EEEKKK!

Money was tight then, I was unable to work, I was making art that wasent really selling, sometimes having no money is a pretty heavy situation (just like this sunflower!) It makes you feel a bit trapped or stuck or without the ability to choose options.

But now that I am selling and bringing in a pretty good wage, finally!! thankyou!! I have decided to give myself an early birthday present and enrol in an online art course! woop!

Lets get back inside and take a look!

So here is what I have chosen to start off my year of creative release.
Flora Bowleys 'Bloom True'

I first discovered Flora, when Lisa from "The Wright Stuff" went on this amazing art retreat in the UK, I was left longing to go and meet this amazingly colourful woman that taught art at the retreat.
But alas being at the bottom of the world it costs too much to go, so when an e course came up I signed that day.

We have just finished week one and its the kind of painting that I have always wanted to be doing but I just could never give up that control, of thinking that things would turn out so much better the more I tried and concentrated and planned and got things in proportion and perfect.

This course is teaching us that there is no wrong, everything we do sends things into new directions that we could never have planned, something I so need right now.  Just following our intuition, playing, dancing, flowing and throwing that paint together.

I am in love with this course. Learning lots about colours too!!

Here is a reminder of some paintings I did last year.  I had a few paintings left over from an exhibition and decided to paint them over with my Flora gathered inspiration.

Because I still swan around with anxiety pretty much every day, it was amazing to me that after spending two hours painting this Wild Woman Treasure painting, that I felt completely calm, no anxiety at all, it was so serene and free, it was amazing, my body had turned back to some kind of flowing liquid, a feeling I seem to have lost, I live in a constant state of tension and holding on.  Its a bit sad that I have got used to this, thats not cool.  But dont worry, Im back at Hypnotherapy to kick it this year for good.  I never had anxiety before this so I figure I can get back out of it too, Im doing everything I can to learn the lessons anxiety is here to bring me and just move along.

Cheers Anxiety! you may be helpful but you really do suck arse : /

With Flora's course we paint to music, and on the first day I tried every CD and download that I had and just nothing fit, it was all taking me back to a state of memory that wasent letting me just be in the moment, I had to stop and find something new, I needed a whole new sound to go with this whole new process.  This is where I discovered Cora Flora.  And she is perfect for my next stage in this evolution Im on.
What an earth angel, I love watching her videos, her presence is very calming, so I downloaded 2 of her albums and Im away.


CLICK HERE TO HEAR CORA FLORA MUSIC

and watch this video to get a feeling of just how beautiful she is

So here I am in the heat of Summer, in my hot tin shed of a 'Lady Cave' creating up a storm.
January was awesome, February is coming along pretty good too, every night when I go outside to the toilet (tea much cups of tea in bed!) I stand and just say everything I am grateful for from the day that has gone, telling the stars and the moon that I want more of it, more experiences.  and I feel I need to give some of this goodness back.  Back out to the world.

I will figure out what that is this week but something is going to go somewhere

Well Im off to have a salad, I have just made some rose water chocolates but they seem to be a bit...not hard..??? hmmm wonder what I have done wrong, time will tell, dont be hasty, maybe I have just made some chocolate sauce instead, and a huge mess! hurrahh : (

Lunch time
have a good lunch today??? Inspire me, what did you have??

xxx
Sheree

Mermaid Swim Bag Tutorial

Hey everybody!
Its summer here in NZ although you would be right to question, second long weekend in a row, second set of shit weather to go with them, windy windy windy and grey and rainy today.  This is shaping up to be the worst summer ever! we havent even put our pool up yet.

So to have a bit of summer fun we decided to decorate Indi's swim bag for the days when it is hot and she does go swimming at the beach when she is at little school.
Her swim bag is currently a calico bag, plain as, so we wanted to make it a
'Mermaid Swim Bag'

Now I have done this stuff with her before and when you say paint 'inside the circle only'! after tapeing off a nice round circle she just cant help herself and goes nuts in the forbidden zone, yay for childs freedom of artistic expression but sometimes you wanna make something cool as a kinda momma kiddie collaboration, so here is what I do.

You can see that all she is painting here is a circle, the bag is hidden inside this lovely newspaper package, away from the mess, and here is how...

take a sheet of news paper and get her to trace around a plate...

once done mum cuts the circle out, keeping the outer intact and throwing away the middle....

now place wide tape around the whole circle.....

and then trim it down to like 2cm and try to keep it perfect, this will then be stuck on your bag in the place you want and then wrap the remaining paper around the bag and tape it up out of sight..

now the kids can go crazy, and paint the whole thing in....
mermaid colours of course aqua, pink, purple, white

half dry with a hairdryer....

we use real shells for printing, this one is a scallop

with a bit of masking tape on the back as a handle....

paint up (done by mum)...

and print (done by child)....

and repeat, voila!....

we then added dots and purple glitter and then gold glitter, swished it all around and threw the excess glitter off and then dried again....

yay for glitter!....

so the paint we use is house paint test pots, the same paint I always use, they are cheap, come in 100s of colours, hold onto anything, fabric, wood, rock etc ohh and houses! and wash up in water...
You can use fabric paints if you want to as well....

once little miss hair dryer has finished, she can rip the paper and tape off

and here is our bag..

so here is where the collaboration comes in, mummy does the finishing touches because thats what mummies are good at!

so we swap jobs and she takes the photos while I draw mermaid curly wurlies and a border....

because everything looks better with a bit of curly wurlies...

and here is our finished collaboration, the glitter will eventually wash out bit by bit, but it looks amazing for now..

** a mermaid swim bag **
(she is looking at herself in the mirror instead of at me, ohh the vanity of a 3 year old, I love it!)

swim into this project with your little ones and everyone wins.
Its an amazing feeling when you both have fun and both are able to produce something that dosent look like a daycare art project
Indi is on the brink of 4 so she knows when something looks like crap, and it makes these sort of art projects easier when you go into them with a fail safe plan.
We spend plenty of time experimenting with crazy painting and printing so its nice to produce a good quality product together once in a while.

Have fun and extend from this idea
let me know what you get up to

much love beautiful mermaids
xxx
Sheree

Shop Is Open!!! Get Your 'Gypsy Queen' Garb!!

Its Here!!!

My Etsy Shop is full!

My Gypsy Queen Collection has gone public!

Finally I am sending the clothes that have been my labour of love, out onto the wind

I am vulnerable

I am trusting

I am so happy

I have made it!

and made it happen!

 What a whirlwind January has been in my little green Lady Cave

Now everything is uploaded I can start to relax and just keep on creating beauty

and leave the next step up to you

Lessons in life come from this collection for me

It has shown me that I am capable of anything I can dream up, things are as easy or as hard as you make them.  I made this a love affair that sucked me away from everything, I gave in, I surrendered to what wanted to be created and now it is here.  I have been a social hermit but it is now worth it.

I function best with a focus, before I was doing these clothes I was floundering around constantly wondering where to place myself, unaware of what I wanted to do/be.  Because this is my focus now and it flows so naturally it is completely stress free, HARD work but stress free, so I have been concentrating on my health less and just getting on with life, I think when Im unfocused I can get into a kind of Hypochondriac mode, if your not being anything else you may as well be sick : /

I am ready to move on and expand, times are great, 2012 is here, it has started with a hiss and a roar and I am appreciating and thanking the gods for ALL of it!

I still have lots of work to do this year personally, anxiety wise, and I know I will be completely anxiety free again!  Things are changing, things are moving, its all good, and its all here and been here for a reason! Look at this space we are in!

So take a look, enjoy

xxx

Yesterday I finished my Stevie Nicks inspired 'Leather and Lace' bags

there are 7 in total of all sizes so take a look!

THANKYOU

to everyone who believes in me and in return believes in the magic inside themselves

there's so much to do

lets do it ALL!!

So much love

xxx

Sheree

ENTER MY ETSY SHOP
HERE