Hi there.....

Fingers crossed, I am able to load photos again (although I hate to tell you how long it took me!!!!).

So.... what I have been up to? I stitched this little heart was stiched for a friend on vintage linen. I love old doileys and this piece was left over after cutting out the lovely embroidered pieces for another project. The bird fabric was a snippet of a liberty fabric that I love and some gorgeous old handmade lace as a little collar on the bird. Originally I stitched it as a naive type pincushion, but added a temporary hanger in case my friend wanted to hang it instead. I recently I went to an Art Journal workshop with Meg Abrecht (local artist). I had a fantastic day at the workshop. We worked on sketching, adding colour, collaging, painting with gouache. Below is a little still life that we all sketched and later added our gouache. I will take a photo of my finished piece next week for my blog and show you some of the other neat stuff we worked on in our journals. Its been quite chilly these past few weeks. The other morning the fog was still laying low in the valley and you can just make out from the silhouette on the hills in the background all the blackened trees after the fires went through back in February. Hope you're not getting sick of these photos from my kitchen window....the view is forever changing.

I also went into Melbourne for a day with my sister Lee. This photo below is of my sister Lee in a little lane near the National Gallery of Victoria that has the most amazing graffiti. What a bonus to find this little lane between the car park and the Gallery. To see more amazing close ups of this graffiti art visit my sister Lee's blog.

A snippet of the graffiti in this little lane.

Below some photos as we wandered around Melbourne later.

View of Flinders St. Station from piazza area near NGV.

Lovely old Church from same piazza area.

Clock tower and beautiful old building across from National Gallery. I am always in awe of the architecture in these beautiful old buildings.

The reason for our visit to the National Gallery was to visit the Melbourne Design Market that was being held. Wonderful designers showing their wares, fantastic book stores (my favourite being Artisan), wonderful food (and sorry no photos.... it was just sooooooo packed it was actually quite overwhelming). Some fantastic Australian designers showcased their work...... zaish, nicola cerini just to mention a few.

I'm off to Tasmania this weekend. A birthday gift from my sister Lee, a weekend away. I'm sure to have lots of lovely photos for you after the weekend.

Jacky xox