A Bit Halloweenie

Well I wish I could say that the shop has found a buyer, but sadly this is not the case. I have had a couple of queries, one which was very promising - however she didn't have all the funds..... I would have bet my house that if she did, she would have bought the shop there and then. Oh well, never mind. It will sell when it's meant to sell. I have always believed things happen for a reason, even when it doesn't make sense. So I will bide my time knowing that when the time is right, the right person will come along. There's one thing I have learnt in life, and that is that you can't stress over something that you have no control over. So stop wasting precious time and energy stressing and worrying and get on with what you can control and that's living! 

So speaking of living, what have I been up to? Well I finally built Tango's new day cage yesterday, sorry it's not a great pic. He eyed it off all afternoon lol and he had his first outside bath in it this morning..... I don't think he's all that impressed lol I should add that it does have toys in it, I just hadn't put them in when I took this photo. So he's outside drying off with the dogs who also had fun in the pool. Last week it was 10 degrees and we had the heater on and today it's 37 degrees and stinking hot!!! I'm sure I've said before a million times, I hate the heat! Give me winter any day!

Onto another topic (as I do lol) Halloween is my favourite time of the year, followed closely by Christmas! However since we have had the shop we haven't had a Halloween party because there's a three day event that we attend for the shop and it falls right on Halloween and we don't have time to do both. However that doesn't stop me from loving Halloween! Just the other day my wife and I went to the shopping centre.... I had no intention of buying anything Halloween related due to us not having a party and decorating the house. 

But.... As we walked past an art and craft shop, something caught my eye! LOL!
First I saw little cardboard coffins, then I saw these cute little Jack O'Lantern wooden boxes lol So I decided to get two of each lol Then when I went to the checkout I saw this Halloween Showbag that they had on offer. The showbag is mostly aimed at kids (ok it's purely aimed at kids lol) but it had all these cool little Halloween projects inside. So yes I bought it also lol I have no idea what I'm going to do with these bits and pieces..... A few ideas went through my mind, but I'm yet to make a final decision :) 

One of the projects is this cute little vampire bat lol I figured that the contents are good for those days when you don't feel like taking on a large project, well that's what I tell myself lol To be honest I just love anything Halloween related!
Which is why I also purchased a couple more latch hook kits lol I received an email from Herrschners and they were having a latch hook sale! Given that the Australian dollar is crap at the moment, I figured now would be a good time to buy something, even though I just received a large Halloween latch hook kit from them.

So I purchased these two Halloween kits:- Little Vampire and Little Witch. I had been watching the progress of someone in one of the Facebook groups I'm in, and she has been doing both. They looked quite good :) I also purchased a Christmas Tree surround called Life's Best Gifts.  

Okay well I had better go and check on the green chicken, he's awfully quiet today! Have a great weekend!

Some Latch Hooking

Nothing terribly exciting has been happening here at the moment. There hasn't been much action in terms of selling my shop, I've had a lot of people comment that they wish they were in a position to buy it - but no genuine queries. So for the time being, it's business as usual. Regardless of where you live in the world you'll hear me cheering when someone hands over a cheque! You have no idea how over it I am.

On a more pleasant note I finished a latch hook kit that I started last year. I stopped for two reasons, the 1st reason was that I reached the nose section and there were two orange colours and I couldn't figure out which orange was which! It was sooo frustrating! Even my wife, who examined the colours couldn't figure them out. They were listed as light and bright orange, but telling the two apart was near impossible! The 2nd reason I stopped was because it was summer when I was doing it, and it felt like I had a rug across my knees and it was just too hot lol So when I pulled it out last month I just decided that if I stuffed the orange colours up, tough luck! I wanted it done! As it turned out, I got them right lol

So now I just have to cut the excess canvas off and buy a rod or some rug hanging clips as I'll hang it at Christmas, rather than put it on the floor because my dogs will probably play tug of war with it.

Now I know some (Okay a lot lol) of latch hook kits can look quite tacky and are really suited to kids craft, but I found doing this in front of the TV much easier than cross stitching - especially since I started my first linen project (Eeeekkk!)

So you know I love Halloween! So a couple of weeks ago when I started back on my Christmas kit, I started looking for a Halloween themed latch hook and to be honest, most of them were so basic! I couldn't find anything that I liked. Some of them only had 3-4 colours or looked like something a 5 year old designed. The I found the one pictured above from Herrschners, it was perfect! It was Halloweeny and had enough definition to keep me interested :)

The evening I finished my Christmas one, I was wondering how long until my new one would arrive as I couldn't wait to get started on it lol Guess what? It arrived the next day! Woo Hoo!!

Holey Moley! It's big! On the rug description the size says 69 x 102 cm. That's the finished size, the actual canvas is massive! I started it yesterday and trying to sit on the lounge with it in my lap was an art-form lol  

This kit really is one for the latch hooking adults, I was so impressed with this kit when I opened it up. It came in a clear zip up carry bag, all of the yarn is already separated and in their own little baggies and labeled by colour and yarn dye number! This was one thing I was dreading when I ordered it! I just thought "Oh..... Going through all those colours and separating them is going to take me all day!" The other thing is that the yarn is sooo soft!! Both kits use acrylic yarn, however the Christmas latch hook kit yarn was very cheap feeling. The yarn in this kit, almost feels like real wool. I think due to the size of this kit and the awkwardness of sitting on the lounge with it, it's going to take me a little while to finish lol

I finally picked up the missing wheels for Tango's second cage, so I will put that together at some point - maybe next week if I get a chance. I can't wait to see his reaction as to why he has two cages lol I'll have to post a photo of him checking out his new digs lol 

Anyway, I'll be off! Wish me luck in selling this business!       

A Bit Of Painting

It's been a while since I've been able to do any work on my ceramics. However I had a day last week and I was able to work on two pieces. Excuse the bad photos lol I didn't take them for this post, I take photos of my work as I go so I can later document the colours I've used or mixed, in the event that I want to recreate a colour, style or method. All of these pieces have only been underglazed, once they've been clear glazed and fired the colours will be really bright and pop!

                 

This is a strawberry themed oil burner that I started previously, but ran out of time and was unable to get finished. Because of the dullness of underglazes, you can't really tell that the background colour is yellow. I've since finished it and it just needs to be clear glazed and fired.

            

After finishing the oil burner I started on a mug that's in the theme of The Mexican Day Of The Dead or Dia de Muertos. I have only just started this piece and it's very rough lol so no judgments please lol Ceramics and the glazes are a weird medium to work with..... The colours are very deceiving and because the pieces are often painted in a layering style, in the early stages - especially if you're a beginner, you might be tempted to look at it and think 'This looks like crap! Or What on earth have I painted?!?!?'. It isn't until it all comes together after multiple firings, underglazes and glazes that it actually takes shape and starts to resemble what you have in your minds eye. Understanding the way they work, getting used to the process just takes time, trial and yes... Error! lol

So with this mug, I have painted a bold red heart on the opposite side to the handle and on either side of the mug is a sugar skull. I've only partially painted their faces, the outline that you can see is just lead pencil to assist me with keeping them roughly the same size. Thankfully the lead pencil burns off during the firing process lol Some pieces can get quite messy with all the scribble lol As you can see there's quite a few scribble and doodle lines on this mug, some will be painted on, some will be ignored and left to fire off. I just draw on the piece as ideas come to me, some ideas get trumped by others lol

This Dia de Muertos mug will also have have product called French Dimensions by Duncan Ceramics applied. It's basically an underglaze that works the same way puffy paints do. I'll use them to create bright swirls of colour and accents. When the mug is being fired the French Dimensions will puff up giving a raised textural effect. I really like them, they're easy to use and give a great effect!

While on the topic of The Mexican Day Of The Dead, I'm wanting to paint a plate in a similar style. Due to plates being flat I'm wanting more symmetrical looking skulls, so I spent a good chunk of a day trying to create 'the perfectly' shaped skull template lol I've not created a template before, so I'll see how it goes lol

This is another piece I finished before the oil burner, it just needs to be clear glazed and fired. It's a goblet/cocktail style piece, again this photo wasn't taken to be inserted into a blog post! If it was I would have cleaned up my desk a bit! lol

Okkie dokie ! I'll be off! I'll catch you next time! :) 

Long Time. No Write.

Okay I hope the format of this post isn't all over the place as I'm writing it on my tablet, not my pc (my tablet never seems to keep the right format for some reason?). It's been quite awhile since I last wrote. I don't have the usual "I didn't have time or I've been busy working" excuse. I was actually sick, the sickest I've ever been in my whole life! 

Almost two months ago I felt a bit yuck like I was catching a cold, so I went to the Drs and got checked over. The conclusion was that I had a bit of a chest infection, so my Dr gave me a script for some antibiotics and I was on my way. I was a good patient and took the medication as prescribed for a week. In the meantime my wife was working nightshift, so we weren't seeing much of each other so she wasn't seeing how ill I was. Anyway on the morning that my wife finished her last shift she was still awake when I dragged my backside out of bed to get a drink. I actually hadn't heard her come home. My wife took one look at me and started taking my observations and asking me a bunch of questions. After she had finished being a Registered Nurse with me, we had a backward and forward conversation where she told me I was going to hospital and I kept saying no. 

So why wouldn't I go to hospital? Well my temperature was so high that I was delirious! Yep! I was off with the pixies lol! Finally I was convinced that I needed to go to hospital so off we went. My wife was still wearing her uniform lol When we got there, I couldn't believe it but the first nurse that I saw on entering the emergency department was one of my customers lol Anyway after having more observations taken, blood and xrays done I was hooked up to a drip and spent 3 days and 2 nights in a 4 bedded ward with 3 old codgers lol.

It turned out I had septic pneumonia and if I had put off going to hospital longer than I had, they would have had to knock me out for 2 days while a machine did my breathing for me. When the Dr's agreed that I could go home they told me that for 2 weeks I was to do nothing and that the following weeks I would slowly start to feel better but would be quite tired. Yeah they weren't wrong about the whole tired thing! I pretty much slept for the first 2 weeks. Since then I feel ok, but get tired soo quickly! It's so frustrating! I wake up feeling okay but between 11am - 12pm I seriously run out of energy. If it wasn't for my android tablet I would have gone crazy! I was too tired to do anything. 

One thing I did do just recently is finish a small cross stitch pattern that I had started a while ago. It's called "Queen Rock Band" from Clouds Factory.

Queen Rock Band.

Sorry about the crease, I'm yet to wash and iron it lol I've just started another one called "Tribal Cat", it's supposed to be stitched in black floss on white 14 count aida. I've decided to stitch it in pink floss on black 14 count aida...... Yeah, I'm just trying to my life easy lol I've never stitched on black aida before lol It's a wee bit hard on the eyes, especially without one of those lap light thingamajigs. Here's my progress over the past two days. 

First day.      Second day.  

The pink (DMC 3608) is actually much darker/brighter in real life, for some reason is photographs quite pale :/  

DMC 3608

Tribal Cat - White Willow Stitching

This is what is will look like (hopefully lol) once it's finished. :)

Okay, well I'll be off now! I hope you all have a great Easter and get lots of nice chocies and have a bit of a rest! 

What's Your Hobby?

What's your hobby or hobbies? Some of us have a couple and some of us have loads lol. I like doing lots of different things, I guess it depends on my mood, the weather, the time of day etc. One hobby I found myself interested in a couple of years ago was metal detecting. Not because I was looking to strike it rich, but because I love history and I loved the thought of finding something really old. 

When I first bought my detector back in 2012 (I think) I practiced using it on a local beach. I found AA batteries, soft drink cans, ring pull from cans, bits of foil from food wrappers etc lol My wife on the other hand had a go and found 55 cents lol Due to things going on and life in general, my detector got put into the cupboard - where it still is.

About a month ago as we drove by the beach that we tested the detector on, I commented to my wife that I would like to give it another shot. Then about a week after that, we met up with a friend who mentioned that one of their family members had just bought a detector. So that got me thinking more about it. The problem is finding the time! Plus finding the right location. There's also the issue that since I haven't used it for so long, I've forgotten how it works lol It really isn't as simple as 'waving it all about'. 

I've started checking out the old forums that I used to hangout in, and I've been reading all the 'newbie' info to try and refresh my memory. I haven't actually taken the detector out of the cupboard yet, as I have to re-read the manual regarding the settings for depth, pitch, sensitivity etc etc - See I told you it wasn't as simple as waving it all around lol

I also found some great websites that I hadn't discovered before! One of them allows you to choose a location in the present, then overlay a historical map! It's amazing just from a historical perspective to see what used to be in an area and how much the landscape has changed. At the moment I'm completely hooked on reading all these old maps and I haven't left the house!!! LOL!

Here's an example of this mapping site, it shows where a helipad used to be in 1943:-

Current location image

When you start to overlay the images

The image has been completely overlayed so you're now viewing the 1943 map

I have been looking at areas all over our state, just to see what used to be in certain locations back in history. I love it! :D

Okay, well I'm off! I'll let you get back to your hobbies :)