Party time...

How do I define my blog?

A smidge of crafty creativity

A few fab furniture finds

Some painting creativity

fed well with food and coffee....mmmm

tossed wtih some home musings and renovating

and embraced with a bit of family fun

I hope that this answers the most important of questions being asked at the latest party held by the wonderful Sarah at Modern Country Style.





I am late...as usual! And perhaps that perfectly illustrates my blogging style: I am a relaxed cruisy blogger with all the best intentions of being here more often.  Instead, due to family, work and day-to-day life commitments, I am here maybe once a week.

I love colour - house paint, oils, pastels, acrylics, fabric, leaves, trees, sky...I just love it. It was my constant ramblings of creativity, met with glazed expressions and the "uh-huhs" of my husband (clearly thinking about something else), that led me to engaging with the blogging community.

My affinity for colour means I love to paint, draw and doodle; to dabble in mixing, blending, smoodging (yeh, surely that is an art term!). I love it so much, sometimes in my enthusiasm to get started, I don't change out of my "normal" day clothes - so I have lots of clothes with paint on them.  Whoops!

So that's where my second blog comes in: Paint With Me!

The intention of that blog is to engage and inspire other people who *may* want to give painting a try, but find "learn to paint" or "pay to learn" either intimidating or more of a commitment than they really want.

I figure I love painting and sharing...I love talking!...so why not combine the two and if just one person gets something from it, then that makes me happy.

And, that's me!!

I really am enjoying Sarah's party, because there are some truly wonderful blogs and I feel a little sad that there is just not enough time in the day to pay credit to all the talent that there is out there!

Thank you Sarah for organising a super party!!

Hugs

Cath

My new inspiration addiction

Hi all

Today I wanted to share a new blog and a great new inspiration party to join;

Bird/Like,

Decor and Fashion inspired by birds and nature. 

Wonderful!

Anne from Bird/Like is hosting a Bird Inspired Design Board Monday, and in doing so introduced me to my new addiction: Olioboard!! 

It is a fantastic interactive online tool that allows you to create multiple mood boards, from a wealth of decor items.

Fun!!

I have spent so much time just playing with my very first mood board, inspired by the Bower Bird.

I have to admit this little chap totally inspired me, as did Olioboard, because:

just like a bower bird,

off I went, 

collecting items to store away:

for what?

I have no idea!

But they sure were pretty!!

Please go and take a look at Bird/Like to hook up with Inspiration Monday!!

It sure does promise to be LOTS of fun!!

Hugs

Cath

Garden party!!!

Hello my sweet friends.

Do you like my dress?  I am going to the lovely Sarah's Garden Party over at Modern Country Style.

You should come along! There is a beautiful display of flowers and some lovely frocks in attendance!  Not only that but Sarah promised us a garden bath: perfect for washing our dirty feet if, like me, you plan to run through the grass with no shoes on!

This is my garden in the spring - it was a painting I did in acrylics in about 3 hours non stop.  It was a bit of a challenge, because while I was painitng in the grass, my little man who was 4 at the time was painting the sky brown!!  Lucky acrylic dries fast!

The painting was done with a palette knife and was primarily a study of the light.

Over at TWC - Paint with Me we are working on our backgrounds for our paintings.  We haven't long to go, so be sure to check back in a couple of weeks when we do our "before and after" virtual gallery showing.  Better yet, there is still time to jump right in and join this session.

Take care and enjoy the champers - it really is a gorgeous afternoon for a garden party.

Hugs

Cath

My old gold Christmas Ornaments

Hello my lovelies

I am so sorry for my absence the past week - unfortunately we have been dealing with a full plate at home: aged family challenges, end of school year with exhausted chicklettes, work and anything else we can squeeze in-between. 

But I love and thank you all for checking in to say hi, both in email and here - it's lovely to be missed and it warms my heart to know you have stopped by. 

Right, down to the fun stuff....I have finished my ornaments for the great Christmas Ornament Swap...

Tomorrow these three little babies will be individually packed and posted to Canada and the US.

As you may recall, the challenge was to use red, green or gold (or a combination).  I considered my options for a while, but knowing I wanted to use this particular stamp from Stampin' Up!, I really wanted a classic look, so red and gold it was, topped off with some red velvet ribbon.

Do you like?  I did make it up as I went along, so made many mistakes and learnt from them.  I will provide a tutorial in my next post on what it was I did and what I used - mistake free of course - but in short I had a blast!!

To see all the fun and check out all the beautiful ornaments created for the Christmas Ornament Swap, pop over to the Flickr group here.

I am also going to link these pretties up to Kristin''s Uncommon Slice of Suburbia's Tuesdays Treasures, because I love sharing at Kristin's as she is a total sweetie!!

And speaking about Christmas and total sweeties, I have to finish writing my letter to Santa asking if I could pretty, pretty please, be the lucky recipient of one of these two Giveaways....

{sigh}

Jami is giving away the most beautiful collection of items in celebration of 6 happy months in blog land, as well as reaching 500 followers.

Jami has extended the hand of blog friendship since my beginnings and is an inspirational, creative, textile goddess, not to mention a total sweetie!!

I can only dream to be capable of creating such a whimsical, magical hideaway as the Shabby Streamside Studio...Sandy is celebrating 1 year, and 1000 followers....what a milestone!

Not only that, but this is what Sandy shared when posting about this milestone and giveaway:

"Material things are meaningless compared to the daily cup of joy topped with foamy sunshine you serve me by sharing your visits, blogs, and comments..."

Another sweetie!!

So there you have it my lovelies, my Christmas Ornaments for my swap and a couple of Christmas wishes.

Big hugs to you all,

Cath
xx

Update: the tutorial for these can now be found here.  Enjoy!!

Rednesday link!

Hi all my lovelies

I have linked up to Rednesday at It's a very cherry World - a perfect place for me to link up my Red Dahlia.

If you are popping over from Rednesday, please follow the link to the Red Dahlia post...silly me posted to my home page (I am a new party girl!).

Have a super Wednesday!!

Hugs

Cath

Linked up - White Wednesday

Hello my lovelies

Well, backing off my first foray into the Party scene I have linked my lovely chair up to Faded Charms White Wednesday #68.

Head on over for a look where you can enjoy lots of beautiful links over a coffee...I'm thinking an apple and cinnamon muffin would be perfect too.

Have a beautiful Wednesday.

Hugs

Cath

A hung painting...and exciting news!!

Good evening all my lovelies

Okay, I am busting at the seams and I can't leave my exciting news until last...

The gorgeous and wonderful Kristin, over at an Uncommon Slice of Suburbia chose my little ol' printed fabric label as one of her favourites at her Link Party!!

I am beyond excited - Kristin's was my first peek around the corner at a Link Party: I was the shy chickie in the corner, holding a plate of Anzac cookies and wondering who to talk to.

Well, Kristin just made me feel enormously welcome in a very talented group of ladies. 
Thank you Kristin for the honour!! You are an angel. :-)

So, onto my painting....

Remember the abstract painting I did for my gorgeous sister in law (read about it here) - it is now hung above their fireplace.

My sisters home is warm and inviting, with lovely little details that just make you smile. So it certainly feels odd to walk in and see my painting hanging in the middle of their main living area.

Unlike most other paintings I do, where I see the improvements I can make the more I see them, this one perplexes me: there are elements I like...and whilst I don't dislike it, it challenges me visually. Perhaps this is a good thing!!

Anyway, they love it and that is what counts!!

I hope you have a truly wonderful day and to make it better I am sending everyone super hugs...big squishy ones.

Did I tell you I was excited....

Cath

My first link party

Hi lovelies!!

A quick update following my previous post on my printed fabric label

I have since added the canister to my first ever Link Party over at An Uncommon Slice of Suburbia. I thought it was time to come out of my hidey-hole and join the party :-)

Kristin has also recently posted about printing to fabric - she made a DEVINE cushion - take a looksee at that here...makes me very nervous about sewing a cushion. My personal sewing philosophy that cushions are "curtains with corners" (curtains being pretty much the height of my sewing career) isn't looking too helpful at this stage.

In any case, settle in at Kristin's Uncommon Slice of Suburbia - take a coffee, I am sure she won't mind, and have a really good look around!

Being three blogs in one night...I am heading to bed!

Sweet dreams

Cath