A Birthday Celebration

So yesterday was my Birthday and I had a really special day. Here in this photo I am in `town' for morning tea. Our town is hosting a `Country Music Muster' this week so there are cowboy hats everywhere and I got right into the swing of it. :) Then last night the whole family gathered at Sue and Brian's place for a special roast lamb dinner with all the trimmings. This was followed by Black Forest Cake with candles and of course we had lots of `bubbly' too. I have also received some really special gifts and well wishes from my sisters and brother. Thank you to everyone :)

Inspired by Peggi Meyer Graminski

Whew so many American Artists have these double barrelled names. I have always wanted one of these but none of my names have ever come `together' as it were. Man how I would have loved to be called Peggi Meyer Graminski. http://desertphotography.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-06%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=50 Ah well............. Anyway here is my response to this month's Frameworthy Challenge, I really enjoyed it!

A Perfect Day

Yesterday we decided to forget all the jobs that need to be done around here and just take off and go fishing. We stopped on the way to buy a newspaper & some food for a picnic - bread, ham, coleslaw, potato chips and of course Tim Tams. I had already filled a Thermos. We went to our favourite spot on the Noosa River and there was no one else there but us for most of the day. The weather was perfect. We both fished and I had the chance to use my new pink fishing rod which alan has bought me for my Birthday. We didn't catch any fish big enough to keep but we had a perfect day.

Frameworthy Challenge

Last weeks challenge was the artist Brandie Butcher -Isley and I loves her work. Here is a link to her Blog and gallery. http://littlepiecesofart.typepad.com/ So it was a joy to do a piece based on her work and here it is.

A Very Special Book

I am reading a wonderful book so I am recommending it to all my friends. Of course it is quite likely that you won't enjoy it as much as me :) but I hope you do. First up it has a wonderful title ` The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society', it is a proper hardcover book with one of those built in ribbons to keep your place so it a joy to handle as well as to read. It is fairly short, inexpensive to buy, (less than $20.00 AUD at Big W) and worth every penny. The author, Mary Ann Shaffer, was a lady in her 70's who has since sadly passed away. I'm not going to tell you too much about it except that it is a really special book and is one you will definitely want to keep and not pass on. So note to my sisters, you will all have to buy your own copy :)

It is very cool here today but sunny. I am looking forward to Art Society today as we are doing prints. I am taking along some maidenhair fern to use as a template. Then it is off for lunch with a group of friends. We are farewelling a friend who is moving interstate. Then after that another session of Acupuncture, my last. So I'm off to make a Coffee and then its all systems go.

Tate turns 2

Today is our Grandson Tate's second birthday and yesterday he partied hard with family and friends. We stayed overnight and this morning we gave him our present which was a Magnadoodle. He picked this up really quickly. He received loads of presents and had an amazing Birthday Cake which looked like a train. We are very excited because we now have another Grandbaby on the way, a little brother or sister for Tate, due in February - someone to look forward to meeting :)

Fibre Art

I had a wonderful morning yesterday at Art Society creating my first ever piece of Fibre Art. This was so much fun and has given me loads of inspiration for incorporating this into a mixed media piece. I have scanned it into a photoshop document and then digitally stitched around the edges. Of course this could also be done on a sewing machine as an applique.

A Wonderful Day

I had a wonderful day yesterday at GoMA, viewing some of Picasso's works and his collection. At the same time there is a Sydney Nolan Retrospective showing at the regular Art Gallery so we were just able to squeeze that in after a quick lunch break. I also found time to visit the shop and pick up a book and some fridge magnets. It was so interesting to learn different things about Picasso and the way he amassed his collection and displayed it in his home and many studios. Seems like he used to haunt thrift shops and found one very valuable painting for just a few francs, and he also traded his work with other artists he admired.

I discovered that his favourite painting is the same as mine, a still life of Oranges by Matisse - except that sadly mine is a print which I purchased in 1995 at the Matisse exhibition in Brisbane. :) I spent almost half an hour looking at the original, just amazing. I also discovered that he liked to lean paintings on walls, on the ground and move them often, and I do this too. These photos show a group of us at the exhibition and my print, displayed on the floor.

Picasso and his Collection

I'm excited tonight as tomorrow I am off with some fellow `Friends of the Gallery' on a bus trip to Brisbane to see `Picasso and his Collection' at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. This is the first time this exhibition has been shown in Australia. So I will see works by Matisse, Renoir, Cezanne, Rousseau, Modigliano and Braque plus 80 important works by the artist himself.

It will be a 2 hour trip down but definitely worth it. I will take a packed lunch and forget about my tendonitis. In honour of this occasion I have created my own piece of modern art in ArtRage and Photoshop.

Magic Happens

I did this page for this week's Frameworthy challenge, just a bit of fun. I need that this week as I have been back to the Doctor with Tendonitis which I have had since late May and which is getting worse rather than better. Seems like the only cure is total rest of my right arm (luckily I'm left handed) but I am getting frustrated with the constant pain and inability to do very much. Yesterday I had Acupuncture (recommended by my Doctor) and it seemed to help a bit so I will go back next week. In the meantime I am working hard at being positive and keeping my energy levels up - and hoping for a bit of magic :)

First Sighting

August 1 and still a while until what we experience as Spring begins `officially'. There is frost on the ground in the mornings, but I have found that the Jasmine and the Brunfelsia are beginning to flower in our garden and this always means that the weather is changing. It is always interesting reading Blogs from the Northern Hemisphere where I can tell that people are beginning to tire of Summer. It seems like we all want what we haven't got. I really envy people who experience seasons, especially in the Northern Hemisphere where the Festivals like Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving mesh in so beautifully with the right sort of weather, as they were designed to do. I think this gives life a kind of rhythm which must be so settling, especially for children. Here it seems everything is always upside down and for us of course there isn't really a Spring or Autumn. Also winter can be very long and dreary in some places without holidays and festivals to break it up. Ah well - roll on Summer :)