Hello!!! It's been a while, hasn't it? I guess sometimes I just don't feel like writing much.
But lately I've been taking a few photos and thought I'd share a few with you.
The Little Big Fella had our next door neighbour and his friend sleep over one night during the school holidays. We pulled the Queen size guest mattress out, and the Little Big Fella's King Single mattress and made a mattress floor. Next thing you know, the Big Fella attacks!!!
There was much laughter and little-girl screaming!
Speaking of screaming, we listed our house on the Treat or Treat route in our town this year. Halloween isn't a big deal in most of Australia, but is in this area. Some Aussies don't want kids coming to their house begging for treats, so people register their homes as open and giving out treats on a local Facebook page and people only go to those addresses.
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| I made little pumpkin lolly bags (thanks Pinterest!) |
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| Then I made some Halloween cookies as an on-the-go treat. |
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| The view of our place from the street |
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| Here's our front porch while it was still light. |
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| And someone to greet you! |
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| I made a few Halloween luminaries (paint the inside of the jar with watered-down acrylic paint mixed with PVA/Elmer's glue, then draw your design on the outside with a black Sharpie), and put spiders and eyes in jars as well. I used LED tealights to give the glow. |
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| And here's my skeleton, that everyone loved (including me!) |
We had about 100 kids come through over about two and a half hours. It was great fun!
My nephew's and sister's birthdays were in October and, while I'd already found something for my nephew, I couldn't find anything I wanted to give my sister. While wandering the cheap shop in our shopping centre for ideas, I saw a blank canvas and had an image of something I'd like to paint and give her.
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| We start with a background |
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| Then I cheated - I love cheating with creative stuff! I drew the outline of the two girls from a photo I Googled but wasn't completely happy with how it was all working. I ended up chopping off one girl's head and turning it to face the other way, and I moved the girls closer together to suit my canvas size better. |
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| After drawing the silhouette on the canvas lightly with pencil I filled it in, trying to give light and shade and a bit of human detail. |
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| I wasn't happy with the coverage, so I did another layer of paint, adding a bit more detail to the hair, and increasing the contrast. |
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| I wasn't entirely happy with the shading so I tried again after looking at shading on the original photo and other pictures I Googled. |
My sister received it today and likes it, which put a smile on my face and a glow in my tummy for the rest of the day. I've said this to her, but I am SO glad she's not just my sister, but my friend. I am exceptionally lucky!
I went to the local art society's show a week or so ago and was amazed by the talent in our local area. As soon as I have a free Sunday, I'm going to go along and hook up with them and see if I can develop a bit more.
This past weekend, the Big Fellas and I went to a place called Cania Gorge. It's a lovely little spot with a brilliant family caravan park. The Little Big Fella was pretty much in heaven!
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| The view from the Cania Dam lookout |
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| The Little Big Fella discovered vines and moss when we did a bit of a "hike" through the gorge. |
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| The Big Fella tried to get the Little Big Fella to laugh so that he would smile normally. |
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| This is the Overhang - the most famous part of Cania Gorge. |
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| The caravan park does bird feeding each afternoon. The birds are obviously used to it because they showed no fear, and fought over the birdseed. |
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| For some reason, the birds also thought that our breakfast should be for them! The Little Big Fella is protecting the last of his bacon and egg roll in his hands. |
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| There were wallabies and kangaroos throughout the park all the time. They were tame, but not tame enough to pat, which disappointed the Little Big Fella. |
We had a lovely weekend away together as a family! Now to get back into the swing of everything and deal with the chaos that is the lead up to Christmas!!! Good luck to us all!!!
