Hidden colour

I was out in the garden again today and realised I hadn't created a plant photo post for a while! So I got the camera out and am making it up with a lot of images now :)
I hope you enjoy the following photos from our garden.

This one is from a few weeks ago when the onion weed was out and you could hear the constant humming of bees.

A daisy after the rain.

A carpet rose in bud.

The same rose as above in bloom.

Blackberry flowers, although they're a weed I've included them as they're quite pretty.

A rose that's at our front door, we have no idea what it is.
If anyone does know please leave a comment below! We've had it for years and would love to know :)

The flowers below all appeared after clearing up areas of weeds in our back yard over the past 8 months. Most we didn't know existed in the garden but they've obviously survived under the weeds for a long time and are happy to finally have some breathing space.

This fuchsia has bloomed for the first time after we removed a lot of ivy ground cover.

The two photos above are of a pea flower that popped up in the last few days and flowered. We don't know what variety or if it's a native or not.

A Cecile Brunner rose, which we thought was long dead has actually been growing wildly underneath the weeds. Over the past month it's been madly blooming, with up to 20 rose buds on each branch. It's also layered itself in multiple spots and we've been able to break it up and give one plant to my uncle.

This is also the Cecile Brunner in another section of the yard which I haven't cleared yet. I just liked that it looks as though the holly bush has rose flowers :)

The two photos above show another little plant that has appeared in the last few weeks after clearing away ivy. We are not sure what it is yet, but it's very pretty.

Christmas Cards

My 2014 range of Christmas cards are now available!

You can purchase them online:
On my website
In my Etsy shop
The 5 pack is also available through my MadeIt shop

And offline:
in.cube8r gallery - 321 Smith St, Fitzroy
Mt Evelyn markets (all details are posted here on my blog)

I had so much fun creating these. I've cut each design out of one of my photographs (a garden full of tulips) on the scanncut machine we have. Then stuck the cut design onto a square blank greeting card.

Originally I thought of cutting out snowflakes, but decided I wanted to stay away from snow themes as in Australia Christmas is in the middle of Summer, so doesn't really make sense. I ended up with five designs, three reindeer, and two antlered kangaroos, each in a Christmas bauble. 

There was a bit of trial and error in the beginning, but I worked out how to make them the way I wanted them to look and have so many ideas for next year as well!

Individual cards are $5, and the pack of 5 designs is $20.

Blackberry sketch

I'd planned a few blog posts last week but after my computer crashed while doing an update I ended up not being able to access anything and had a stressful time trying to get it back up and running again (thanks to my awesome partner for finally getting it working and re-installing most of the programs I need).
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I decided to try a botanical life drawing, rather than from reference photos, making things up as I go, or computer game plants. This was the first time I've drawn 'from life' and it was a lot of fun, although I needed to finish the flower from a reference photo as it was a hot day and it started wilting by the time I had finished the leaves.

Blackberry plants, although they are considered invasive weeds here, have really pretty flowers, and delicious fruit (although this one isn't quite in fruit yet). I had been working in the backyard cutting back and digging up a lot of smaller blackberry plants that were popping up. So to sit down and create something from this plant instead of destroy it was a nice experience.

Saturday 22nd Nov - Christmas Market

The Community Market at the Mt Evelyn RSL Hall will be my second last market for the year.
And the poster for it features one of my Christmas photos :)
If you're in the area, drop in and say hi!

Thursday 13th - Twilight Market

I'll be back at the Mt Evelyn Twilight Market this Thursday evening!

The Garden of Forking Paths - exhibition

The Garden of Forking Paths is a touring interactive game/art exhibition by dLux MediaArts which is opening tomorrow at the Yarra Ranges Regional Museum. Today I got to have a sneak peek while Greg from Yarra Valley FM was interviewing Neil Jenkins, curator of the exhibition.

The games on show aren't mainstream, often try to break the rules, and come from developers all around the world. I'm really excited about this exhibition as it's very atmospheric, focusing on the art and music, allowing you to really get immersed in each game and experiment with what you can do rather than stick to a conventional play style.

It was still being set up while I was taking photos, but I did get to play on the oldest machine there, a Commodore 64, and the newest, a first gen Oculus Rift. I've also heard there will be a TV robot you can talk to, and what the internet looked like when it first began (although some of us are young enough to still remember that).

The Garden of Forking Paths is showing from November 8th to February 15 at Yarra Ranges Regional Museum, 35-37 Castella St, Lilydale, and admission is free.

Curator Neil Jenkins showing us how it's done.

Puppet Motel was one of my favourites, with no instructions, so much to explore all based on image an sound.

This is the first time I've been able to try out the Oculus Rift. Heaps of fun!

Playing area for The Path

Naturally Treasury

Things are really starting to get busy in the lead up to Christmas and I've been playing catch up this week after the long weekend for Melbourne Cup. I'll be doing a few posts early next week with upcoming markets and new Christmasy things, but until then here's a lovely Etsy treasury I was featured in.


Naturally
An Australian Wandarrah spotlight treasury for EJCDezines, SimpleEmpire and CreaturesOfNat :)

Artist Paint Brush Roll, Embroidered Linen natural beige EJCDezines $25.00	Mens Wedding Boutonniere, Woodland Rustic Style, Linen Buttonhole SimpleEmpire $9.95	Handmade Twig Pencil - Rustic Wooden Pencil - Made in Australia trees4thewood $4.00	CUSTOM poseable BUNNY RABBIT art doll ooak. CreaturesofNat $200.00
Autumn Leaf Fine Art Print, Soft Brown Fall Leaf, Monochromatic Photo, Macro Still Life, Fall Leaf, Leaf Print, 8x10 Nature Photo Print SoakStudio $25.00	Hand Embroidered Necklace or Brooch. Nature. Leaves. Silhouette. Brown. Cream. Mini hoop frame. hummingpea $30.00	Nature Notebook honeydesignbooks $5.00	Connected – Emerging – dendritic limestone, prehnite, iolite and sterling silver ring spiralstone $265.00
Australian passport cover - passport case - kangaroo - light brown - beige and white stripes - OOAK gift for him - Australian nature motif greylittlemouse $19.00	Forest floor woodland leaves clutch purse grey earthy brown green nature fall autumn calm gentle silver veins skeleton botanical camouflage maplemist $18.99	Woodland Bird Photography Print, Peaceful Wall Art, Nature Home Decor EchidnaArtandCards $7.50	Monarch Butterfly nature pencil drawing giclee print TigsGarden $25.00
Linen with chocolate brown floral fabric. tissue holder. Hand embroidered. little bird. edwardandlilly $24.00	Hedgehog earrings, winter, animal earring, kawaii, round, clay stud, polymer clay MyTechnicolourDream $15.00	Woodland slipper boots 2 upcycled wool sweater fabric handmade twotiming $110.00	Laser cut wood necklace - Adorable little foxy fox cameo - natural wooden finish SconnieAndJam $25.00

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Mono-photo challenge

Over the weekend on Facebook I was invited to participate in the mono-photo challenge. Where I put up one photo a day for five days that was monochrome.

This is a slightly edited version of 'Moor' which I had on display at
the Brunswick Street Gallery last week.

If you've been following my blog for a while you may recognise this from
the Doll Heaven Spring Collection photoshoot I did last year. 

One of the locals.

A Gladioli.

One of my favourites I took in Melbourne.