My creative space: the owls are not what they seem

A day off calls for:

 Real coffee

Impractical silver boots

Saying hello to the pigeons

 And printing up a storm.  

On my day off my lounge has been invaded by owls - I've been screenprinting a whole lot of these owl totes.  I might do some with a matching blue feather print next...or maybe some owls in a different colour...

Joining in today with "My Creative Space" over here.

Happy Thursday!

Roses in a rush

 I photographed some mattress textiles in the inorganic collection on Sunday, but I was greedy for more.  I started to feel a mild panic that the start of the working week, leaving in a hurry, coming home in the dark, would mean that I wouldn't have any more photo opportunities before the rubbish was taken away.  So I decided that I would have to multitask, turn an early morning run into a mattress photo session, and that's what I did this morning. 

 If I looked weird taking photos of old mattresses before, I must have looked a whole lot weirder taking photos of them at 7am in my stripy running leggings (thank goodness I wasn't wearing the leopard-print headband that is often part of my running costume)!  But I was rewarded with the photos of this blousy blue rose fabric (above) and with not a moment to spare.  As I was running home the rubbish guys were driving down the street and collecting all the inorganic rubbish.  Whew!

Oh and here are some I photographed in the weekend.  You can see some of my other mattress-photographing endeavours here and here and other people's here. 

Inorganicing

 Thanks to BBC Homes and Antiques magazine, I have learnt the word "vintiquing" - when you have a minibreak and look at antiques in adorable small towns, preferebly with cobbled streets.  I did a more budget version in the weekend, which I've decided to call "inorganicing," where you wander round the streets taking photos of the rubbish people have put out for the inorganic collection (and maybe spot some treasure).  These beautiful yellow trees made it more picturesque:

 And there was a bit of a yellow theme going on with the things I found.  I liked this beautiful bungalow window without a house attached to it:

 And this beautiful 70s sun umbrella with raggedy tassels. 

How about you, do you enjoy a spot of inorganicing?

On brown paper

 I've finally gotten around to starting my "things I didn't buy from the op shop" zine.  I've been redrawing images from my sketchbook on brown paper and I'm going to paint over that.  Here are the ones I've redrawn so far:

 And you can see them in my sketchbook here, here, and here. 

My creative space: burgundy

 I finished trimming, interfacing and zigzagging my big pile of burgundy feathers this afternoon and now they're all ready to be sewn on as patches, turned into brooches, used as bookmarks...

  I'm having fun screenprinting coloured feathers instead of my usual black and white - I'm thinking bright red or gold might be then next colour I try.

And speaking of burgundy how red was the sunset last night!  So pretty.  

Joining in with My Creative Space today.

Happy Thursday to you! 

Lunchtime drawing

 I thought I'd show you one of my lunchtime drawing spots. I walk down the street trying not to spill my mug of coffee and sit under this cabbage tree:

 I share some of my lunch with the cheeky sparrows and hope that they'll sit still long enough for me to sketch them.  And I look at this lovely view of the cathedral.  On a sunny day it's a treat!

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie

I needed a quick making things fix this afternoon so I screenprinted some more of my feather patches, in a burgundy ink this time.  When they were all laid out I thought the colour of the calico looked like a delicious pie crust.  The way the cat was weaving around them when I was trying to take photos made me think she wouldn't have minded eating a giant feather pie!

Walking to the sea

 We had the day off on Friday, so we walked into town to play the ukulele by the sea, taking photos all the way.  There was a bit of a yellow and grey theme going on:

 I loved these angry birds on top of a building:

And this one was cutest, so here's a closeup!

Carousel at the end of the world

There are few things I like more than a bleak seaside funfair.  So when I stumbled upon a carousel at the end of Silo Park, which can be deliciously bleak in the right weather, I was so excited that I had to come back three times with two different cameras to photograph it!  Apparently it is the oldest carousel in New Zealand.

 Unfortunately none of the times I went back was at a particularly good time of day for light, but I think that added to the bleakness.  It looked like it was a carousel at the end of the world.

First Thursdays

Outside, K Road was festooned with decorations: 

and bicycles:

and red balloons:

and instructions:

Inside, St. Kevin's Arcade was bustling with market-goers:

 

And in the corner was the Millicent Crow stall:

 

  

 I didn't get a chance to leave my stall but I heard there was lots happening on K Road, including a man running around in a skeleton suit with glow in the dark bones!  Such a lovely, busy night.  Thanks, Annie for organising the market!