crazy-busy days

Ari posed for some pics for my life drawing portfolio, inspired

by Pablo Picasso's 'Harlequins' and the 1960s 'Big Eye' prints

smiley cookie from a city cafe. studying in town= good coffee :)

rough sketch for a new series of drawings that I'm working on

Crazy days. Busy days. Crazy-busy days.

Sorry for the absence of late. I've been taking a bit of an

unplanned hiatus from blogging whilst adjusting to my new 

schedule of study. I hope to be back with more regular

posts soon and some peeks at what I've been working 

on. When I'm not here, you can find me on Pinterest.

And on occasion over here.  I just posted there about

a little project I finished today... in Haute Couture. Take a peek.

Hope your days have been busy and creative too.

Not too crazy-busy though. xox

spooky rumpus

I made Ari this skeleton costume to wear to his little friend
Marlon's Spooky 5th Birthday Party last week.

It was hot, windy and uncomfortable costume-wearing weather
(hence the grimacing photo face... ah, you thought it was part of the spooky skeleton act, didn't you?) Ari insisted on dressing up though,
and he had a blast wreaking havoc with the other little frights.

He does make a rather cute little ghoul (despite the grimacing),
wouldn't you agree?

Update: J pointed out that there's a marked
resemblance to Beetlejuice going on here ↓

We are HUGE Tim Burton fans around here.

I think we may have Ari's Halloween costume.

Here come the clowns... Part Two

Ari  'the sad little clown'

The school concert was really wonderful! Everyone did a great job.

Ari was practising his sad clown face and routine for weeks! 

I made ruffles, bow-ties and hats for the boys. They looked super cute 

but it was so very hot that night, that we had a hard time keeping them on. Ari, however, was so pleased with his costume and face-paint that I had a hard time getting them off and he ended up sleeping with the paint still on.

I think we may be looking into theatre classes in the New Year :)

MORE wonderful images from Messy Fish Dot Com
...this time fabulous card collections.

Love this shop.

Here come the clowns... Part One

I've been much inspired by these wonderful vintage patterns 

in the clown costumes that I'm making for Ari's little classmates. 

When I worked as a costume maker I would find inspiration in

all sorts of places from toy clothes to graffiti art to old children's

book illustrations and porcelain figurines... it was all useful.

It's incredible what comes up when you ask Mr Google sometimes.

We decided that since the kids are bringing their own outfits,

and each one will be a little different, to make the accessories

and faces different too.  So there will be some double ruffles, 

some single ruffles with bows like those pictured above,

and some little clowns with tails and bowties. Plus an array 

of hats, though I am partial to the pointy pom pom variety.

Actually, I do quite fancy making a hat for myself... 

to wear to parties and the like. Maybe a ruff too, though 

I don't fancy you'd catch me dead in a clown suit!

I'll load some pics of my work in progress if I have time. xo

The Little Elf

Ari outgrew his little elf suit sometime ago, but he managed 

to squeeze into it for a trip to the local plaza the other day. 

This weekend past, as well as the market, we made a trip to the

North Pole to buy a Christmas tree and baked some gingerbread.

I haven't got out the decorations yet... we are hoping Grandad 

might take some time out from his busy work schedule to help 

us trim the tree.  Ari's Nanna's staying up here at the moment. 

Mum kindly offered her assistance for the mammoth sewing 

task that I have at hand... making costumes for the end of year 

school play. I volunteered to stitch up ruffs and make hats for 

25 little 6 year old clowns. Plus costumes for a queen and two 

little princess dresses, and a bevy of crowns and tiaras. Yikes!

And just as I got started, my overlocker threw a tantrum and

had to be sent to our local sewing machine centre to be fixed.

This is turning out to be an equally fun and stress-filled week.

We're hoping to fit in a visit to town to see Santa Claus though. 

And that ought to bring more fun-filled adventure our way! 

On another note...

 The end of year has been so hectic with work, school and home

that I've decided to delay the shop opening for the time being. 

I've been planning my online shop for such a long time now, 

that I don't want to rush it, before I'm ready to operate it.

SO, stay tuned...   Grand Shop Opening in 2012. Hopefully!

    xox

Ari & co. (one year ago)

Ariel Gray and Scarlett Rose were both five years old.

Modelling more fantastic opportunity shop finds,

& we couldn't get them to stand still then either!

The beautiful cubby house was an Ebay score that

Scarlett's very talented mummy, Emily re-vamped.

It recently grew a lovely garden of plastic flowers.

Isn't it just wonderful?

kickcan and conkers

Did I ever tell you that in my past life I was 

a Costume Maker and a Performance Artist?

bear mask by kissmego

crocodile veste by Bouille de Clown

queen of hearts by Oeuf

It's quite true.

And so I could happily play dress ups with Ari every day. I think
I could also quite happily spend a whole week in the blog where I
found these lovely images. It's filled absolutely to the brim with the
most wonderful links to lovely things, and it's one of my favourites:

kickan and conkers

Deborah's holding a wonderful giveaway at the moment ↓

for this beautiful vintage french botanical illustration.


I sure would love to win that!  Go, take a peek at her blog.

The contest ends on the 5th of September,  so you better get

your skates on and hurry over there. Click here for details...

xox