Wrapping up the year

The end of the year has been a mixture of frantically trying to finish off work for the exhibition, orders and gifts and collapsing in a heap.  I always forget how fraught the lead up to Christmas is.  The weather veers all over the place but, in Brisbane is hot and steamy.  It is the end of the work year so everyone is tense trying to finish jobs off.  Everyone suddenly decides to throw parties and it is impossible to go to all of them. There is a mad rush  to buy and make presents for Christmas, and buy and make seasonal food.  All the bills come in, and you are spending more money than at any other time of the year.  If you are travelling, you are trying to clean up the house and pack, according to the airplane or car's limits.  Kids finish school.  People are emotional. And, generally this is the season when one or more disasters tends to get reported in the media, which adds to the stress.  Nevertheless, I always remember how much I like Christmas.  I love catching up with the nearest and dearest.  I love cooking the treats and sharing them with other people.  This year, I made individual cathedral cakes, panaforte, prunes in port and rocky road.  I love decorating the house when I have children around.  I love GOOD Christmas carols in the background (I still haven't forgiven you for stealing and binning my "Little Drummer Boy" cd, Nick).  I love planning who will get what, and giving presents.  I love checking out the lights people put up - from the truly awful displays of kitsch to the ones that surprise you into admiring them (very rare).

The Brisbane Instititute of Art had its exhibition of student's art, "Parade", on the 7th December, and I was happy that other people seemed to like my work too, judging by the comments and the fact that I managed to sell 11 pieces.  It has inspired me to get my act together and start putting things up for sale on Etsy, and maybe MadeIt, next year. The large quilt, a scarf, a shirt, the bird, the fish, the napkins, the tea towel, the fish and a t-shirt went, and I got orders too. I also loved a lot of the pieces that other people made - especially some of the pottery and the sculpture ( Deb Magee is an artist to watch).  Unfortunately, a lot of what I coveted was not for sale, or someone had bought it first.  Never mind, there will be other exhibitions.

Since then, I have been finishing off Christmas presents and completing work to be put up for sale next year. 

My birds are nearly finished.  They are made of hand printed fabric which has been embroidered and then varnished so they are stiff, glossy and easy to clean.  I got absoutely fed up with the amount of sanding and respraying they needed and am thinking of doing a range that are not varnished, and more embroidered.  They just need their hangers made, and they are ready to go to new homes.

I took a detour, and did some watercolour work on some of my prints and am pleased with the results .  (These will be for sale in January at a special price of $50 AUD plus postage and handling).

Tree Moods I.

Tree Moods 2.

Tree Moods 3.

Tree Moods 4.

Tree Moods 5.

I also started making my new quilt which uses samples of my hand dyed fabrics embroidered onto a piece of fabric that I clamped and dip-dyed to make a square pattern.  I want the finished work to look a bit like a patchwork quilt, but completely different (great description).  I am very amused that after all these years, I am embroidering again.  When I started learning embroidery at St. Augustine Girls'  High School in Trinidad years ago, the teacher was very condemning of my efforts and told me I sewed like a cobbler.  That put me off, somewhat.  Then, years ago, my only time out from being a mother was a weekly night out with a group of friends that we called "Bitch and Stitch".  There was a lot of laughter and a lot of cake eating, but we did do some craft.  One of our friends, Sue Cooper, was a very talented embroiderer and she taught us the stitches so we could we could make wool embroidery hot water bottle woolen bags and cushions.  She was so kind, tolerant, patient and encouraging that I got interested and did a series of samplers for each child and some little pictures of houses with cottage gardens. I even got my daughters interested, using Diana Lampe's two books  "Embroidered Garden Flowers"  and  "More Embroidered Garden Flowers" as our guide.  (They did not embroider like cobblers).  I gave up the fine work when I began to need magnifying glasses to see it, but I still occasionally enjoy doing it.  I have never been a perfectionist kind of embroiderer, and I still sew like a cobbler, but I think it suits the style of the work I produce.  It is individual in style!  So now, I seem to be adding it to a lot of my work.  This quilt has been great for the days I want to collapse.  Yesterday I did the unheard of and lounged all day on the couch, watching a series of taped of episoodes of the Swedish Wallander and Silent Witness while I embroidered.  Unheard of but very therapeutic. 

 

 

Lastly, I have finished all my presents.  Still got to wrap them, but the feeling of running against the clock is over.  Now I can give them out, and hope that the recipients like them!

Apart from art, Bob has been involving me in his new coffee craze. For most of his life, he never drank coffee, but he has suddenly become an afficionado and loves trying out new coffee places - usually in the the most unlikely places.  He is very funny after a cup as the caffeine really affects him and he gets terribly talkative and uses his hands a lot while he talks.  Kind of Micky Mouse on speed.

On Sunday he took me to a favourite, Elixir, located in an industrial district in what looks like an old motor mechanics shop.  I was very dubious, but inside the food was very good, slightly Italian in style, and the coffee excellent.  In spite of its unlikely location there were queues waiting to order.  Obviously, word of mouth was at work.

 So Brisbane!  Because of the more liberal planning laws, all sorts of shops can be found in industrial and residential areas which is exceedingly strange for someone coming from Melbourne where laws are very tight.  Round the corner from me, in amongst all the homes is a piano shop.  Near my old house was a tropical fish store.  My favourite store for quilting fabrics is in a sort of layby.

Another cafe in an unlikely location, where I had a nice Vietnamese chicken salad, which wasn't very Vietnamese, but which was yummy, is a  cafe called Dello Mano in Doggett st, Fortitude Valley.  I was very tempted by their chocolate treats too, but didn't succumb.  The chocolate salamis looked amazing.  The coffee was good too.  Plus, it is near a great shop for buying things for the house, Mediterranean Living, and a very good wool shop,Tangled Yarns.

  Some of my readers are Christian, and this time of year is of special significance to you as the time of new promise and hope for mankind.  Some of you are not, and for many, this is just a holiday for you.  Whoever you are, I hope that you manage to spend some time with your friends and family, both receiving and giving kindness, appreciation and warmth, as 2012 draws to a close and 2013 begins. May the year ahead be filled with love, laughter, enjoyment, fun and creativity.  I have learned so much this year, and received so much kindness and generosity from old and new friends, and even from strangers.  I hope that I have given a little of that back too.  I am really looking forward to seeing what 2013 has in store!  Have a great Christmas and New Year period!  Eat, laugh, talk and play! 

And now, time to go look for the cat, which has chosen to disappear before we can pack her up for her new life as my son's cat.  Wish she would fill my life with joy!  Bah!  Humbug!