Laughter is the thread that binds us.

I am a huge lover of on-line tutorials and a voracious consumer of on-line how-to videos; I taught myself to knit using Youtube. More recently, when I wanted to learn to paint, I turned once again to the Internet for help.
From the moment I saw people doing art journals, I knew this was for me. I have been art journalling for years (I just didn't know that was what it was). My notes from university are covered with drawings, I now understand that I did this as my way of staying present (mindfulness in action) as it was often the less engaging lectures where I found the need to draw. Up until just over a year ago my journalling was sporadic and then that I discovered The Documented Life Project. You can head over there yourself to find details. Suffice to say that it is an awesome project that anyone can become part of, for free. Lots of tutorials, inspiration and support from a generous group of teachers. I started just reading the blog posts and how to's and incorporating techniques into my pages and have been doing my own thing, while reading what the artists do. That was until the last 2 weeks.

The prompt for this week is about laughter and stitches. It made me think about all the laughter I had with my mum while sewing. She taught me to sew when I was very little. I used to make dolls clothes and bed linen and homewares for my dolls' house. She had so much patience, allowing me to make mistakes and helping me work things out. Many years later we would sew together, one Christmas we made 30 separate garments as presents. Mum does not sew any more. I thought about how much we laughed together over the years, we had so much fun! We had such a bond, creating things together and laughter was very much part of that bond.

Last week the theme was about using fabric to get texture into your work. So how could I resist? I started with a piece of fabric left over from a project I did with my daughter and this is the result. 

Mum used to paint. We were always painting when I was little. She dedicated a whole wall for our gallery when I was a little girl. Showcasing our latest efforts with pride. She stopped painting a while ago, but lately I have been helping her to paint again. I introduced her to intuitive painting, stencil use and collage. She is no longer able to hold a brush steady, so we are doing work that does not need a steady hand. I should be able to show you some results soon.

Things to do while being unemployed.....

I spent nearly the whole day today being unemployed. What I mean is, I spent nearly the whole day looking for and applying for a job. I have had to learn a whole new set of skills to be unemployed. Addressing selection criteria is my daily grind, and I have no idea if I am doing it right. I ring people for feedback, they don't call back. I ask people for advice, I get irrelevant information. Applying for a job takes is tedious and time consuming, and doing it every day with no success, is soul destroying.
Being unemployed is like taking a trip to a great city and spending the whole time in a hotel room (did that when I went to Japan, but that is another story). I have all this time, but I spend it all looking for work and writing incredible job applications. I change it each time (following the advice of those careers counsellors) and I update my CV on a regular basis. Being unemployed does mean however that I have a severe shortage of funds, so even if I did have time, I can't afford to go and do anything.

The whole process of job applications is completely demoralising. I understand there has to be a process, and employers need some way of sorting wheat from the chaff but this is hideous. Part of the problem lays inherently with me. I am from a conservative background and was taught from a young age to be modest, never vain, always humble and gratefully accept what I was given. Todays workplace environment is the complete antithesis of this. You have to be bold, sing out your own self praise, brag about your  marvellous qualities that make you the best candidate for the job. I am seriously out of touch and out of my comfort zone.
I am also completely tired of hearing stories of people who landed their dream job when they weren't even trying. Truth is, this does not happen very often. The rest of the world has to suffer with repeated rejection, day after day.

I decided to go and study because all the jobs I wanted to do required a qualification. Now that I am qualified, all the jobs are asking for experience. I can't get experience without a job: catch 22. What I really need now is a fairy godperson (fairy godmother or father, I don't mind) or somebody who really loves my paintings to buy a few and sponsor an exhibition. I would like to be discovered, now would be nice please. I will continue to find things to do while being unemployed because sadly, I know this is the real world and miracles and fairy godpeople don't exist. Not for people like me anyway.

Reinvention and moving on.....

Last time I blogged here, I was knitting and spinning up a storm. Then stuff happened, life got in the way, I went to uni and became an OT, I got diagnosed with a couple of autoimmune diseases, just your usual stuff.

Sadly, thanks to the auto immune stuff going on, I can't knit for very long any more, but I discovered I can paint. Just over a year ago I began to feverishly draw pictures. Mostly as a way of maintaining my sanity though the last and final year of study. Looking back, I realised that in times of stress I have always been drawn to create. I drew greeting cards for all my friends when I should have been studying for my year 12 exams; I started designing clothes when I hated my job in a bank; I took up photography when I was going out of my head, alone at home after quitting the bank. Then, I took up knitting as a way to relieve the loneliness and isolation I experienced when I was no longer a person and became a mother.
I have always loved coloured pencils as a media. I liked the control and portability of them, not to mention the affordability. I dug out my old set of trusty Faber-Castells and set about falling in love all over again. I bought my set over 25 years ago for what was then a small fortune and have kept them safely in their tin. I recently gave them to my daughter after purchasing a set of Prismacolors, but I digress. I soon progressed to watercolours, acrylic paint, ink and anything else I can get my hands on to make images with (I have still to try oils...there is still time...).

You can learn anything on the internet, well maybe not quite anything...anyway, if you want to learn how to do something let YouTube teach you! I learn to knit socks from YouTube videos, goodness knows I used it all the time to learn all the muscles and joint names for the Functional Anatomy exam. Learning to draw and paint is well represented in the YouTubiverse, but finding the good ones can be a bit tedious. Suffice to say I discovered a few favorited and watched everything they had to offer for free. This of course led to my paying for some classes. To date I have not regretted any of the online classes I have taken, and when push comes to shove, online classes are good value! I should know, I have just finished a Bachelor of Science and I have the debt to prove it!
From here on in I intend to share with you more about my journey as an artist, what I have liked and what I haven't, and how I did some things too.
Stay tuned, next time I will share some of the classes I have taken.

A New year

This year is going to be great. I just know it. I have got so many plans, if I only implement 1/2 of them I will be happy.

The creativity is off to a great start with the completion of 2 projects already!
I did not knit anything for my daughter when she was a baby, and regret that. My head space was just not there (there was a lot going on with my business at the time) and whilst I did sew a couple of things, they were nothing I would like to keep. My Aunts all gave me crocheted blankets, one gave me a blanket that had belonged to her son (very precious indeed) and I treasure them all. One of the husband's Aunts knitted a couple of delightful cardigans too (now carefully cleaned and stored).
There are of course considerations to be made when knitting for babies. Most importantly it must be easy care. No precious "hand wash only I will felt if you look at me sideways" kinds of things allowed. What new mother has the time or energy to handwash? Baby garments also must be easy to put on. It is most unpleasant if you have to wrestle with the wee one whilst trying to clothe him/her. And then there is the heat factor. These days there is a lot of talk about overheating babies, perhaps it stems from the fact that many of us come from european migrant families, where keeping babies warm is really important. This country is however very different to that where I was born, and keeping cool is far more of an issue.
With this in mind I chose some 100% Bamboo yarn in a lovely pale blue for my new (Great) Nephew. A few careful questions let me know that my niece had more clothes for this baby than he will ever wear for at least the next 10 months, so my hopes of making something tiny for a newborn were dashed. Thinking cap on, needed to think 1 year old/summer/trendy young mum.
With this in mind I went for one of my favorite styles when my daughter was a baby: the kimono style wrap thingies. They seemed to be able to be worn for a lot longer than other things, very easy to put on, still allowed plenty of movement and therefore comfort. So I took measurements from one of hers and set about making a top down raglan kimono. I am really pleased with the result, and it was completed the day before he was born.

I have long wanted to make a sock monkey. I think they are adorable, and so does my daughter it seems. This little monkey only took 5 nights. I based him on this baby monkey Patons pattern, with a few minor changes I will have to make another one now for her, she is insisting hers be pink.
Little Miss A has been insisting on "test hugging" him to make sure he is just right for the new baby!