Whimsy paintings

I recently channelled my inner whimsy-child thanks to Mindy Lacefield and Juliette Crane and completed two new paintings - acrylic paints and ink on watercolour paper. I was going to give them away as Christmas presents but I love them too much, so I'm going to see if I can scan them and make prints instead. Sorry Hannah's teacher, you miss out!

Eeeeeek!

I have just signed up for this ....

I made the mistake of complaining about my post-sickness weight and loss of fitness to my PT today, and she talked me into the beach bod boost. What it means for my fitness schedule is I'm going to have intense bootcamp sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a PT session sandwiched in the middle, which means going into schools on Thursdays and Fridays and smiling at the little angels, pretending that every muscle in my body is not screaming out for hospitalisation. Ha! However, I will see great results if I stick to the menu and exercise plan and forbid anyone from bringing chocolate into the house on pain of death. So ... I will bite back the grimaces and the desire to scream "Oh my effing heck, I'm a lunatic" and happily view the receding numbers on the scales each week. Wish me luck :)

Chickens!

About 4 months ago we became the proud parents (and sister) of two little Pekin chickens. They are absolutely delightful, though it would be even more delightful if they could be toilet trained. Most days I'll don the chicken-shoes and hang out with them for a little while. They make cute little noises, love to dig, dust-bathe and forage, have eaten all the weeds in the back garden (yay!) and will probably eat all the vegie seedlings I plan to pop in when it gets warmer (not yay). They both laid yummalicious eggs for a couple of months in winter, but Pekins are known for a short laying season so we're having to go back to store-bought eggs until they start laying again next winter. Check out their feathery feet and big boofy bottoms!

In other news ...
Kylie

• I've finally been accepted into the education system as a casual teacher, so I'm madly preparing resources for that. It's been a long process to get into the system and I'm hoping it won't affect my chances of getting work.
• Unfortunately I've had a very sick winter so my fitness has suffered again, as has my weight. It's all very disappointing, but onwards and upwards right? :)
• I've recently taken up playing percussion! I've been musical for most of my life, having played flute, piano and guitar at various times, but never percussion. My very talented musical Mum was conducting the orchestra for a recent season of The Magic Flute when her percussionist walked out. In desperation she asked me to play timpani, which I did. I even managed to hit most of the right notes at the right time by the last performance! Well done Kylie! I enjoyed it enough to agree to play for Brigadoon which will be performed by the Queanbeyan Players at The Q in October. 
• I'm still enjoying playing with art supplies. Earlier this year I joined an online workshop by Flora Bowley, who teaches students to let go of needing to control their paintings and to tune into their intuition. This is one of my works-in-progress. I've taken out the bunny since this photo was taken, it just wasn't working for me so I found him a new home :) My apologies for the glare from the phone's flash ...

Miss H

• Miss H recently showed off her work during her school's Learning Journey to her parents and grandparents. We all had a great morning, and loved seeing Miss H's progress with her school work. She's continuing to enjoy learning and being at school, which is fantastic. Here's some of her work that she showed off to us.

• I just realised that her skeleton picture needs a hip replacement. Ha!
• Miss H is continuing to thrive at swimming and has moved up two levels this year. She can now swim independently and is working on her strokes.
• We made a kite a little while a go, to Miss H's specifications, and decided to try it out recently on a very windy day. It did actually fly, which I think surprised me more than her. The phone camera does NOT do motion very well, but I think this photo captures the essence of the moment.

• Guess who's riding without training wheels? It's been a relatively painless process, which makes me think that with all the swimming and swinging etc that she does, she's probably got a pretty strong core.

James

• James is the more settled one of the family and so there's not much to report except that this gorgeous, clever boy got his promotion! We're all very proud of him and hope he can continue to find work that he can really sink his teeth into and enjoy.

A little piece of me



Copyright 2012 - Kylie Robertson

And she is little, at about 10 x 10 cm; took a surprising amount of time to make for such a little thing. There are several layers of paint on this baby, as well as the crackle paste squares and the final wax layer. And for the first time ever I feel that I've created something that is all from me, and wasn't heavily inspired by the art-work of others, apart from a couple of techniques I learned along the way. I have plans for more little cuties, but unfortunately they will have to wait for me to finish up some job applications I really need to complete within the next couple of weeks, sigh.

I can't leave without sharing a little piece of Miss H while I'm at it. James and I are fighting over who gets to keep this little beauty. My campaign strategy is to bury it under piles of paperwork until he forgets about it :)

Art journal love

For a blog that was supposed to document my art journey, among other things, it's been slightly devoid of art. Slightly. I guess I felt a bit shy about sharing, buuuuuuut, today I'm actually going to do it. I'm going to post some art. Yes, it's true! I've been motivated to do quite a bit of work in my art journal lately, practicing techniques I've learned through various online workshops hosted and/or run by Christy Tomlinson, Tam of Willowing, and Jane Davenport. I'm still developing my own individual art-voice, but I can only do that through practice, right?

The girls in this one were learned from Mindy Lacefield's Zine. Love, love, love her style! I think I went a little overboard with a new flower stencil I received recently :)

Miss H and I worked on this one together :)

Okay, time to go be a parent again. More art updates soon (I hope!).



A year in review

Hello poor neglected blog, remember me? I'm sorry I haven't paid any attention to you lately, I'll endeavour to do better this year, okay?

I feel the need to get this little blog up-to-date. Here goes ...

Kylie

• Has finally finished a teaching degree, having taken 5 years to complete a 2 year degree. And what can I say but woohoo, I've finished, happy dance around the huge pile of notes and assignment drafts! Stay tuned for the ceremonial burning ...
• Is currently unemployed, but is working on rectifying that situation. I have decided to do casual relief teaching for a while so that I have time to help out Miss H's class one morning a week and also practice mess-making, otherwise known as art. Theoretically that would also give me time to keep up with housework, but I would miss the whirly-whirls of cat hair and dirt and am resisting changing everything in my life.
• Lost 7 kg, after putting on all of the weight I lost the year before. My personal trainer is my friend and, ummm, I love pain? Not. But I have discovered a love for Body Combat and am slightly worried about happy grin on face when kicking up a storm in class. I've also taken up swimming - James and I started stroke correction lessons this year and we're making good progress.
• Is getting more serious about art; I plan to keep this blog updated with my learnings and doings.
• Has a child in Kindergarten. When did that happen? When?
• Retired the dinosaur phone for XMAS and guess what? The new phone has Internet access, and can take photos! I'm so excited, though I do realise that normal people have had these phone features for years now. The photos in this blog post were taken and edited on this phone. They're not the best quality but I'm still a proud phone-mummy!

James

• Is rocking along okay at work, though may look elsewhere if a promised and well-deserved promotion does not go ahead. We'll see.
• Has taken up swimming and is loving it; it doesn't hurt his knees and what do you know but he's actually good at it! Check out the sexy goggle-look! In desperate times I have been known to wear my tinted goggles while driving, though the silly things do have a tendency to fog up.

Miss H

• Started swimming lessons in 2011 and has come along amazingly. We're so proud of her!
• Has developed a real love for anything creative.
• Has turned into a very sweet, intelligent, considerate and polite young lady, though she does have her off-moments as all nearly-6 year olds must have.
• Enjoys listening to us reading chapter books. We started with some Enid Blyton last year and have had many adventures since - great fun for all!
• Started school this year; her reading is coming along well and apparently her favourite activity at school is maths rotations. I was pretty surprised she told me that, as she's a typical child who usually responds with "I dunno" to my questions.
• Has shot up and is now taller than many kids a year older than her.
• Discovered a love for climbing trees. I remember my tree-climbing days with fondness and encourage her, and yes we are being as safety conscious as possible.

Eric and Rosie

• It took some time, but the new cat, Rosie, did end up working things out with our old boy-cat Eric. They now behave like typical siblings - they pretend to hate each other when anyone's looking but are secretly glad to have each other around. We've even caught them sleeping close together on occasion. They make us laugh and give us lots of love; I'm really glad to have both cats in our lives.
• That's Rosie below. As you can see she is not at all relaxed and happy with her home situation ...

And that's 2011/2012 (so far) in a nut-shell! I promise it won't be another year before the next post.

Feline antics

Meet feline number 2:

She's a rescued 2 yo tabby put up for adoption by our local vet clinic. She has been there for a while because she doesn't fit in very well with other animals, especially dogs. So out of pity, and because she's just so darned cute, we decided to take her home for a trial. And it's going ... ummm well ... okay? It didn't take her long at all to get used to us humans, and we found her to be a super-sweet, laid-back and affectionate girl-cat. Though not a lap-cat, she suffers (oh the suffering!) to be petted, stroked, loved and played with by the whole family.

The down-side is that Eric can't enter the same room as her without her hissing and growling at him. Eric, understandably, has taken offense at this rude and unexpected behaviour in HIS home. In the last few days we've been treated to an ear-bashing blend of hisses, growls and yowls. And Eric hates me. Boohoo! Today it's been a little bit better. They have mostly been sitting/laying at either end of the house, staring at each other, with just a little hissing to let each other know that they want to be in a one-cat family. We're willing to wait another few days to see how it goes; we really, really want this to work.