This ‘n’ That

Was just roaming around my files and had the idea to post a few ‘This ‘n’ That’.  It is a cold day here in Melbourne today. We are all finding it a bit hard to get used to as up until now we have had the most beautiful Autumn weather.

On the good side of this weather is the fact that I am now sitting on my computer enjoying being in the warmth. So here are a few things of This ‘n’ That.

I had a lovely cappuccino at ‘Mrs. Fields‘. It was cute I didn’t want to spoil it. Clever Barista.

 It is a bit early for Christmas but I took a photo of these last year. It was a display in Riot Art and Craft Shop. They are so cute. I made some for Christmas then adapted it for Halloween

I saw these beautiful butterflies in a shop. I love origami.

I haven’t made any of these myself but this is a photo of one that seemed to pose for me

Hope you have enjoyed This ‘n’ That

Advertisement

SEA SERPENT – BIRTHDAY TABLE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My daughter made a birthday table. Such a great idea and simple to do.

I like to play a game on my computer called ‘Fishdom‘ so my daughter decided on a ‘fish‘ theme.

As you can see below the wrapping paper was the bouncing off point. $2 shop paper. She bought enough paper to wrap the present and had extra to cut the fish out. She used one fish (the green fish you can see on the table) and fashioned that into a head of the serpent and another of the same fish to make his tail. She backed them with cardboard so they would have strength; then from the leftover scraps of paper she cut them into approx. 2cm strips (any width would work though).

From the craft shop she purchased two polystyrene circles approx 12cm in diameter and cut them in half. Wrapping three of the halves with the strips of paper she placed them as you see in the second picture with the head and tail sitting in blue tac to keep them upright.

Spreading the fish cutouts along the table (on a black tablecloth) with her fantastic sea serpent, completed a very clever and creative birthday table.

This would be lovely for a children’s birthday table as well. (after all…I am a big kid at heart).

 

SIMPLE ACCORDION STYLE BOOKS

I decided to make a set of handmade books as gifts for my volunteering work with an aged care facility. The theme was ‘books’ and I always  like to give them all a small gift.

It was so much fun doing these. As you can see they are so simple to make with ribbons as ties glued across the back and were presented closed with the ribbons tied in a bow. I used cutting from magazines; buttons and stickers from my wonderful $2 shop and was excited to find some ribbon with buttons on it at the Reject Shop (love all these type of shops as well as Op Shops of course. My favourite pen, the unipin waterproof black came in handy to add to the pictures with frames etc.

Origami is a favourite of mine as well, especially the crane so they had to have a showing.

The ladies and gentlemen loved them so not only was it fun and creative to do it spread a little love as well.

RECYCLING – HANDMADE BOOKS

 

 

 

 

I was given used manilla folders to recycle in someway. I decided to make simple handmade books.

I cut the manilla folders down to a size a little larger than A4. cutting off the fold and the curved edges. With the remnants I cut shapes for stencils. I took everything outside and spray painted the them with a can of blue gloss, using a mask of course. Using the stencils as I went, spraying under and over and dribbling, (not spraying fully, just holding my finger lightly on the nozzle and letting it drip and blob to add some character. I found a nearly empty can of silver gloss and sprayed that as well, although I do feel that dulled things down a little.

Finding some long wooden skewers in my stash I cut them to size, rounded the ends with sandpaper and sprayed them blue as well; leaving everything outside to dry and allow the odour to dissipate. Whilst I am not a lover of that type of paint, it is quicker when doing multiples.

Back inside whilst my paint was drying I collated cheap A4 computer paper into lots of 20 sheets and made two holes in each batch. Once the odour had gone and the paint was dry I began sorting the covers and papers into books and matching up the holes from the paper with the covers. I was so ‘in tune’ and enjoying myself I didn’t realise that I had made the holes on the covers so that many of them had the printed part of the business on the front, oh dear!  I made a coffee and considered how I could turn this into a ‘happy accident’.

Finally I hopefully found an answer by going back to my stash of goodies and found some light blue card which led to a beautiful time of carving my birds. I began to carve out the birds wings but it didn’t look right when I placed them on the covers. After another time of considering I backed the area with black card and felt that worked well.

I left them for a while and when I came back, the black behind the wing seemed to be ‘the odd one out’ so to speak. Drawing with a black unipin pen is one of my delights so I had a  wonderful creative time drawing legs, flowers and anything else that came to mind. Finally I felt they were finished.

Just using elastic bands and the painted skewers I completed each book, 30 in all. What will I do with them? Haven’t figured that out yet.

Recycling led me to a fantastic creative couple of days.

The Soul of Driftwoods

A Cup of Tea With This Crazy Nia

Another amazing sculpture, but driftwood-sculpture by Jeffro Uitto

Jeffro Uitto http://pinterest.com/jeffrouitto/driftwood-love-by-jeffro/

http://www.jeffrouitto.com/

View original post

I Can Feel Their Wind

A Cup of Tea With This Crazy Nia

This is amazing…. Fascinated me. It would be so nice to be there and to sit and to watch… I can watch for hours… What a creative work.

The world’s largest equestrian sculpture was created by Robert Glen and is located in Irving, Texas. A great place to take silly pictures with horses that are 1 1/2 times the size of regular horses. http://www.mustangsoflascolinas.com

View original post

Terry McDonagh, berni m janssen, Meg McNena + open readings

Invitation

To

poetry@fedsquare

–  18 May, 2013, 2-4pm

Grill room/BEER DELUXE

Federation Square, Melbourne

The FREE poetry@fedsquare  program is supported by federation square management, with the cooperation of Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV). 

Feature poets on 18 May 2013 will be:

Terry McDonagh, berni m janssen, Meg McNena + open readings  

 Irish poet and dramatist, Terry McDonagh, www.terry-mcdonagh.com, taught creative writing at the University of Hamburg and was Drama Director at the International School Hamburg for 15 years. He now works freelance. He has been writer in residence in Europe, Asia and Australia. He has published seven poetry collections, a book of letters, as well as prose and poetry for young people Translated into Indonesian and German and distributed internationally by Syracuse Uni. Press. His latest poetry collection: Ripple Effect in due for publication in May 2013 – Arlen House – and his next children’s story, Michel the Merman, illustrated by Marc Barnes (NZ), is to be published in September 2013. He lives in Hamburg and Ireland

berni m janssen, poet, performer, facilitator, creative director, artist working with communities. She has worked with writers, composers, sound designers, musicians, visual artists, performers, communities. Her work spans words on page; words as music; words as images; words spoken or sung by one, two or many. Her work has been presented in Spain, Italy, USA, England, Germany, Phillipines, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan and www. Although she does not perform frequently these days, her performances are renowned for full bodied, full throated, intensely present, vocally playful, ‘sonic embrace’. This is ‘live’ poetry.

Meg McNena migrated to Melbourne as a child with Irish parents and has since lived in Ireland several times. In the 1990s she worked on an Ulster cross-border peace project for European Peace and   Reconciliation. Her poetry has been published locally (eg Eureka   Street, Quadrant, The Australian, Wet Ink) and overseas (eg Antipodes, Pearl, The Healing Muse). She is the poetry editor of the online  Australian Irish magazine, Tintéan, which accepts poems of interest to   the Irish Diaspora (submissions: editorial@tintean.org.au).  Her poetry has been awarded by Amnesty International and the  Fellowship of Australian Writers and several her of plays have been staged  and awarded. She co-wrote the poetry collection, True North, published  in 2006.

Authors  wishing  to go on the list for the open readings (approximately  five minutes each) can  confirm or reconfirm it via email please.

poetry@fedsquare is a FREE program supported by federationsquare management in cooperation with Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV).

It is a platform for new voices and new works in English, and in English translation which are presented in a public setting for an ever-changing audience.

Over the years, this program which was started by poet and bookseller John Di Mase in 2006, made it possible for more than 1000 authors to read their work or the work of other authors in translation.    

POETRY AT FED SQUARE, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

About poetry@fedsquare:

 

Poetry@fedsquare is a FREE program of poetry, music and performance which has been running since 2006. 

 

poetry@fedsquare can be  different things to different presenters, but above all, it is an opportunity for new voices and new works to be presented in a public setting with an ever-changing audience.

 

Readers and presenters in the poetry@fedsquare events come from all walks of literary life.  Some are published authors. Some are translators, and  some are first time authors with a piece of work in progress who want to test it out in the 5 minutes open readings; while others,  will read/ present the bilingual writing of another author, for example, a parallel text in English/ Serbian.

 

Over the years more than 1000  different poets, translators and open readers  have  participated in the program. 

 

The regular  format allows for two feature presenters to read for up to 20 minutes each, and  up to ten open readers who can read or recite in English & in other languages ( up to 5  minutes maximum each). 

 

Feature readers are authors who have had one or more book/s published.

 

There is an honorarium for Feature Readers, and this varies if the author is local or comes from interstate. 

 

In the open readings, authors can participate without booking in advance; but please note that there is no payment for open readers. 

 

The program is supported by Federation Square management, in collaboration with Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV); and is presented each third Saturday of the month, February to November. It is

 

In the warm months, February to April it is presented in the Atrium (Flinders Street entrance); during winter, May to August it is presented in the Grill Room –BEER DELUXE (enter from the main square).

 

World Poetry is a movement which was founded in 2004 under the auspices of Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV).

 

One of World Poetry’s principal objectives is to foster and sustain an invigorating and inclusive climate for dialogue which cultivates and promotes the inclusion of literatures in translation, in mainstream literary Australian literary landscape. 

 

lella cariddi

World Poetry  Co-Foundation Creative Director and  Curator &  presenter of poetry@fedsquare       

Needle Felt Art Dolls

Nia finds the best things. These are just adorable

A Cup of Tea With This Crazy Nia

Autumn Alchemy : Needle Felt Art Dolls

View original post

Teeny Tiny Moth

This little fellow is a Green Blotched Moth.
The moth is brown with a wavy green pattern on the forewings. Apparently found in most parts of Australia. He was on my white tiled floor when I got up one morning and even though he was no longer than 1cm long the bright green captured my eye. It wasn’t until I zoomed in with my camera I could see the amazing markings. Nature is fantastic.
 The shot is a little blurry but I just had to record my little find.