Christmas Giveaway – Winners

Posted on December 9, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

Thank you for your support of this give away – it is such fun for me when you all enter into the spirit of it!

I didn’t photograph the draw process this time, but did it exactly the same as the last time, [you can see it here if you wish.]

The person who gets to choose a whimsy girl print is

Christi over at Farmlet – Come on down Christi and name your print! 🙂

The person who gets a 5 pack of [A5] greeting cards of their choice is

Wendy over at Quarter Acre Lifestyle – come on down Wendy!!

What made me laugh at these two names is that from the comments we all think we know what Christi will choose and we all know that Wendy has no idea and may take until next Christmas to make up her mind!!

Do you think the gods of random choice are having a laugh?

To those of you whose names were not the ones that leapt into my searching fingers, there will be more chances, I’m sure I will find an excuse early next year to do this again ………stay tuned!

Christi and Wendy, please email me with your choices and addresses.

No rush Wendy! 🙂 You know you can have all the same or all different, right?

I’m adding an addendum to this post – I forgot to say this earlier but was reminded when Christi offered to pay the postage on her prize – not necessary, but aren’t people amazing!! 🙂

A contribution towards the cost of postage for this giveaway was made by Linne over at A Random Harvest when she purchased some of my cards – I repeat – aren’t people amazing!! 🙂

Thank you Linne, thank you Christi, thank you everyone – sometimes I just feel like I know the best people in the entire world 🙂

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did 🙂

Christmas Giveaway

Posted on December 4, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

Hello there, my Bloggie Friends!

Because the Christmas season is upon us, the lights are up and just because I can – there is another giveaway on offer. This time there will be two winners. …Happy, happy dances and big smiley faces!! 🙂

A signed print of your choice from one of these:

A 5 pack of cards of your choice from my Etsy shop

Go to my shop to view the full range and make your choice, this is just one example.

[and yes, you can choose 5 different cards if you want]

Of course, you have to do something to enter – well, two things actually, here are ‘The Rules’:

1] ‘Like’ The Contented Crafter Page on Facebook.*

2] Leave a comment on this post.

*If you have already ‘Liked’ on Facebook, just mention that fact in your comment here.

If you don’t participate in or on Facebook, please let me know that too.

This giveaway is open to all followers old and new – please don’t be shy, make it fun and interesting and exciting for us all – tell me what you think 🙂

The Giveaway Closes on 8th December 2013 at 8pm [my time]

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did and I hope you will take part! 🙂

A Gardener…. Another Mixed Media Painting

Posted on December 1, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

In conversation recently it was noted that I’ve been using blue greens quite a lot as that appears to be my latest colour crush.

Totally, I agreed, any colour associated with the sea seems to be my thing at the moment.

The conversation took an unexpected turn when it was mentioned that orange is a colour never seen in my work. On quick reflection I had to agree, it is never seen….. I didn’t even have an orange paint tube, though I do own a Distress Ink that is orange and it mostly sits unused at the bottom of the pile.

It was wondered if I use much of any of the hues from that portion of the colour wheel – the yellows through reds.

I use yellow quite often I said. A quick hunt through current work and then photos of past work proved the point, I use yellow with blue very often and make lovely greens with them.

I use red I said. By golly yes I do, a little is to be found in most paintings. Whew!!

So I set out to do a painting that didn’t feature any sea type colours and did feature yellow and orange. I even purchased a tube of orange paint!

As I worked I found the colour palette quite heavy [surprisingly – orange should be light and refreshing like it’s name] so I started to add in white which made a huge difference and when I had another of my genius ideas and used the edge of a rectangular paper doily as a frill on the bottom of her dress then things began to pop.

I had no idea what I was going to do when I started and was over halfway through before I could see where we were going – and this is what emerged:

Half successful only, I couldn’t help myself the background just had to be what it is 🙂

I wish I’d chosen a longer canvas to work on so she could have been full length instead of cut off, but that’s what happens when you don’t have a plan!

As I was making the flowers, I found I was thinking of my blogging friend Alys over at Gardening Nirvana and the words just popped into my head.

So what is your opinion of my attempt to use orange?

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did! 🙂

Gift Bags from Newspaper

Posted on November 29, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

I love to recycle and re-purpose – if I can figure out a way to make something that would normally be trashed into something useful or beautiful – or both – I’m up for the challenge.

I’ve been thinking about this project for a while now and finally committed myself to actually having a go. It came about this way…..

Do you remember I made a bunch of small gift bags a while back. I wanted to make some really big ones, you know, the size of a good shopping bag and I had figured I would need six 12 x 12 sheets per bag. Using quality specialist paper would have made the cost prohibitive – I mean $24 just for the paper and I haven’t even put the time in yet …. you can buy big gift bags at the moment for $2.50…..

With my creative mojo firing on all cylinders I had the genius idea I could make them from newspaper – the big giant ones.

I used the Otago Daily Times that I stole from YD’s place when I was cat-sitting the lovely Stanley. [I stole it for this purpose, I don’t read papers – they rarely have anything good or uplifting in them and I don’t want to live with images of all the horrible stuff that the media calls ‘news’]

An open double page measures 80 x 57 cm – I’m sorry I can’t convert that off the top of my head for you non-metric folk…… perhaps someone else might in the comments 🙂 Anyhow, it’s big!

So a couple of evenings back, I covered the floor with more bits of newspaper and hunkered down with a container full of blood red poster paint, a brush and a water jar:

I painted two double page spreads with a thick layer of paint and left them to dry overnight.

The next day I turned the paper over and ~~ran~~ wrestled a length of contact paper over the page. [Contact paper is used to cover books and shelves – sticky on one side and a plasticky / wipeable finish on the other.] I used this to give the newspaper some strength and durability.

I worked out my score lines for width and depth and top and bottom ……. ooooh headaches!!

And made a pair of bags:

I like that you can still see the newsprint showing through – but the photo is not true to the red I used – think blood red and you’ll be closer to the truth of it.

With the basic bag hanging together quite well it is embellishment time – Hurrah!!

I rummaged through my paper stash and found a 12 x 12 vintage collection that I purchased in a sale a year or two back and have never known what to do with – I chose two different pictures and roughly cut out around the images and stuck one on each bag.

Using white, black and gold pens I highlighted the edges of the cut outs, faux stitched outside the edges and outlined different aspects of the woman.

Lace was hot glued all around the top edges and red organza ribbon employed for the handles

Next I punched out some hearts using off-cuts from the vintage girl paper and shiny metallic gold and layered some:

And stuck ’em on both the front

and the back of the bags

The hearts were given faux stitching in black pen.

So, looking good you say – finished?

Nope. Remember, if a little embellishment is good, a lot is better…

The fabric flowers are made from organza and curtain netting – great fun to make as it involves a lighted candle and ~~charring~~ melting ….. 🙂

The beaded flowers I learnt to make from someone on the internet two or three years ago and I’ve completely forgotten who it was – but they too are fun to make. It’s just beads and twisted wire and they hang freely and move about which adds another layer to the whole thing.

I think they are finished – but there is still three weeks til Christmas, you never know what might happen to them between now and then…..

I think they came out quite well for a first try – I learned lots and know how to do it now….

Thanks for coming by today – I love that you did 🙂

The Versatile Blogger Award

Posted on November 23, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

My bloggie friend Wendy over at Quarter Acre Lifestyle just nominated my blog for the Versatile Blogger Award.

http://quarteracrelifestyle.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/the-versatile-blogger-award/

Wendy is a fellow kiwi and has a great blog recording her almost self sufficient life-style – all done with humour, honesty and good intent! She blogs about her garden and random daily doings, reblogs interesting posts and also puts up really great recipes and links to healthy and yummy foods – I’ve squirreled away a few of her recipes now and am addicted to the great nut and seed loaf she introduced me to a few weeks back..

There are rules around these awards and I am copying and pasting from Wendy’s blog to ensure I do it all correctly 🙂

“When you consider nominating a fellow blogger for the Versatile Blogger Award, consider the quality of the writing, the uniqueness of the subjects covered, the level of love displayed in the words on the virtual page. Or, of course, the quality of the photographs and the level of love displayed in the taking of them.

Honor those bloggers who bring something special to your life whether every day or only now and then.”

VBA Rules

Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.
Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it.
Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. (I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)
Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.
Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

So, I’ve said thank you, I’ve given you the link to Wendy’s blog – please do go and have a chat with her, she’s so lovely you won’t regret it.

I have to name 15 names – that’s a lot – I’ll leave it til last I think!

So, 7 things about myself:

I wanted to be a ballet dancer when I was a child, then I wanted to be an opera singer – I can do neither.

I love the ocean with a passion – but you probably knew that already.

I am an early bird, usually up by 5am, sometimes earlier, it’s such a beautiful time of day and it’s often my most creative time.

I love red boots – I love any colour boots!

I am a deep thinker who once took life too seriously.

I love all animals, but am essentially a cat person.

I love living alone.

I could do 15 of these!!

But now I need to find 15 bloggers to nominate for this award.

There’s an aspect to this that I am uncomfortable with because I do not want to miss out any of the people whose blogs I enjoy. And also, I know some bloggers do not accept these awards – I would have been one of them, but Wendy’s words changed my mind:

“I like doing it because it is acknowledgement to others that I really enjoy their blogs, it is a compliment. So…if you cannot for any reason accept your nomination please accept the compliment (nothing more needs to be done.) I enjoy all the blogs I read so if your name isn’t here know I do appreciate all of the ones I follow.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself! 🙂

I went through the list of blogs I follow and chose the blogs I read and enjoy regularly that meet my personal criteria of having substance, humour, honesty and interesting content.

Some are blogs I’ve been reading for as long as I’ve been blogging – others are newer friends, one is very new – but I made a connection! Some publish on a regular schedule, some are more like me and publish ad-hoc as and when the feeling takes them – others are quiet for a long time between posts – which makes them even more appreciated when they do reappear!

If I named you and you don’t accept these awards, I understand – just ignore it, but please do accept the compliment 🙂

And if I missed you, its only because I wasn’t allowed to list 16 blogs!

VB #7

Teddy and Tottie http://teddyandtottie.com

A Random Harvest http://arandomharvest.wordpress.com

The Road to Serendipity http://theroadtoserendipity.wordpress.com

Life Is A Camino http://lifeisacamino.com

Gardening Nirvana http://gardeningnirvana.com

Boomdeeadda http://boomdeeadda.wordpress.com

Fingerprintwriting http://fingerprintwriting.wordpress.com/

My Dogablog http://mydogablog.com/

Farmlet http://farmlet.wordpress.com

Patricia Awapara Blog http://awapara.wordpress.com/

Junguemail Contessa http://junquemail.wordpress.com/

The Top 10 of Anything and Everything http://theverybesttop10.com/

Contadina K http://contadinak.wordpress.com/

Poet4justicedotwordpress.com http://poet4justicedotwordpressdotcom.wordpress.com/

Marking Our Territory http://markingourterritory.wordpress.com/

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did! 🙂

Smallest Things

Posted on November 21, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

It’s raining today – still warm, but wet and grey. Typical spring weather really, yesterday I found I had a tinge of pink on my arms and shoulders after an hour sitting in the garden – medium rare 🙂

I’m been working on 180 gsm water colour paper – but from now on will move to 300 gsm – I don’t like the amount of buckle and curl on this lighter paper – you’ll see it in the photo.

It’s because of all the different mediums I’m playing with.

Acrylic paints, papers, stamps, pencils, pens and inks.

It makes for an interesting texture, there’s loads of ‘layers’ so the eye has a sense of depth.

As so often happens with me, I thought I was painting one thing and ended up painting something else – but I quite like her:

The legend is a quote from AA Milne – it’s in one of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, but I can’t remember which one ‘Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart’

Painted on A4 paper, ready for framing – she is going into the shop today! 🙂

You will have noticed the watermark? I’ve been warned that there are people out there who steal your work and pass it off as their own. I knew this before, but didn’t think that anybody would bother to help themselves to mine – but apparently they have and so now I have to do this for anything I load onto my blog or pinterest .

On the up side – I am flattered that my work is considered good enough to steal. Thank you for the compliment 🙂

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did 🙂

Sitting In The Sunshine – Musings on a Challenging Weekend

Posted on November 19, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

‘The Nightmare of Being Technologically Challenged’ I typed the title for my new post and settled in for a bit of a gripe. It was a challenging weekend trying to sort out all the glitches that had surfaced in my Etsy shop – I thought it was all going way too smoothly!

Luckily for us all, I immediately got interrupted – and leaving my computer, went off to take coffee in my tiny courtyard garden with YD.

The coffee was hot and strong – a bit like the early summer heat – and the remnants of my grumpy mood evaporated like drops of water on a hot stone as we inhaled the scent of jasmine and lavender

Can you see Sidd? His head and cap are just visible under a drooping raceme of jasmine.

[I know it’s not really a raceme, but it’s a good word and needs using!]

And yes, though are weeds in the foreground. [Hangs head in shame]

YD had lots to share from her week and we chatted and laughed and let the sun warm us until the coffee was gone and then we headed off to the post office to send Elaine her prize, the limited edition print of ‘Be a Butterfly’, and also to have a look through a shop selling local artisans work.

We heard a sad story there – the owner will close at Christmas as business is too slow to keep going. Her stock is stunning, she keeps her prices at an affordable level [which means she isn’t adding a huge mark-up] but she can’t compete with on-line sellers.

I felt guilty. I had spent last week cat-sitting and making sure my shop was stocked with pictures and cards………

The shop opened on Thursday and my first day was one of great happiness! Maybe what happened next was karma for being part of the movement that is sending real stores out of business….

Because on day two it all went wrong – there were glitches and problems galore until I was tearing my hair out and found myself on Sunday raising my voice to an automated customer service robot over the phone demanding to speak to a real person.

And blow me over and away, I got a real person and we began to solve the issues! 🙂

Take note dear readers, when you are stuck with a virtual customer service person, get hot under the collar and demand ‘a real person’ and you will maybe get one. I guess they must be programmed now to respond to irate customers by handing us on!

Anyway the issues are solved and all is well again in my world.

Yesterday, with YD returned from her travels and Stanley once more settled in with his mum and Orlando no longer having to sniff out where I’d been going constantly [coming back smelling of another kitty doesn’t really go down that well with spoilt, over-indulged chappies] I was free to try and find my creative mojo again.

I’m still obsessed with faces and seem to have combined that and my obsession with the ocean into one place:

Painted on A4 160 gsm water colour paper, she is definitely mixed media – acrylics, modelling paste, paper, pencils, charcoal and pens.

The legend reads ‘Listen, how the wild sea calls to me’ She is heavily textured with all the paste and needs to be in a frame to really look her best.

There is much about this piece that is successful or interesting, but my personal feeling is that her stare is too challenging to be marketable – I think she is maybe channelling my weekend mood….. 🙂

Tomorrow I shall start again. It will be a new day and the sun will still be shining. The scent of jasmine will still waft in through open windows and with no distractions maybe my paint brush will make something beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by today, I love that you did 🙂

……And The Winner Is …….

Posted on November 14, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

It’s the 14th – well, for we who dwell in the land that sees the first rays of the sun on any new day, it is – and today is the day!

The Contented Crafter Etsy Store is open and the draw has been drawn!

There was one slight glitch in my plan and that was YD’s going out of town for the week – she was to be the guest drawer. So it was down to me as Orlando is no use in that department at all and everybody else was at work.

Every person who commented had their name written in my lovely scrawl on a piece of cut up paper from my notebook – thirteen in all:

If you can’t see your name, it’s because it is underneath somebody else’s – it is there I promise – I just didn’t think to lay them all out side by side. Sometimes it’s your blog name and sometimes it’s your actual name – just depending on which one fell out of my head as I started writing………

Here is the chosen receptacle, my favourite ‘shabby chic’ style coffee mug:

Here are the names in the receptacle

They don’t take up much room!

I put my hand over the top of the mug and shook it energetically, then, without looking, rummaged around and pulled out a strip of paper

Congratulations to Elaine over at fingerprintwriting.

Elaine, you will need to email me your address so I can get your numbered and signed limited edition print of ‘Be a Butterfly’ away to you

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment, I so appreciate all your good wishes, advice and cheering on! Hugs to you all!

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did! 🙂

“WE ARE BUTTERFLIES WHO FLUTTER FOR A DAY AND THINK IT’S FOREVER.” – CARL SAGAN

Posted on November 11, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

I have read these words many times, this is the first time I have heard them – this bears thinking about!

The Old Chair

Posted on November 10, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

While preparing items for my Etsy shop I happened upon a selection of photographs of an old chair, tucked away in a folder resting on my ‘Might Be Useful One Day’ shelf.

Isn’t it great?

Now before you get all excited and think to yourself ‘My, that girl sure can take a good photo – what has she been wittering on about?’ – or words to that effect …… I must give you the full story.

[And if you are a new reader, the back story is that I do not take good photographs, either side of the camera.]

Once upon a time, in a previous life, I spent a portion of my week in a beautiful Botanic Garden, where I oversaw the training of some young people who were learning how to be successfully employed. One of my programmes employed them as trainee groundsmen where they learned gardening skills as well as employment skills..

The kids took their ‘smoko’ breaks outside an old tractor shed and one or the other could be found often perched on an elegant old chair that had once been beautiful, but was now tired and battered, neglected and forlorn.

Waiting for my young charges and their supervisor to appear for their weekly debriefing, I used to look at that chair and wish I had found it earlier, before it was past saving. I imagined it reupholstered and painted in a shabby chic style – I imagined it sitting proudly in a corner of my room – and then my hurly-burly loud and grubby gardeners would hurtle around the corner.

“‘Sup, Pauline” they would greet me and one or the other would flop into the old chair and my attention would shift.

One sunny morning I was waiting for my boys. It was quiet, the sun was making patterns on the concrete retaining wall and in the light the chair was looking determinedly colourful and cheerful. Someone had left a bucket filled with geranium cuttings on a potting bench beside the shed door and the looped hose was dripping water onto the gravel beside the table.

I lifted the bucket of cuttings down to the ground, beside the old chair and stood back, looking at. I moved the chair straighter against the wall and tidied up the hose.

I made a phone call to my friend and colleague up in her office, high above the old shed.

I moved the bucket again, turning it until I had the best of the geraniums showing.

As I finished my friend arrived huffing and puffing around the corner, camera in hand.

She was, and is, an enthusiastic and naturally talented photographer who always had her camera by her side. I waved my hand at the chair and the bucket.

“Really?” she said

Then she looked again “Oh” she said and put the camera to her eye and clicked a few shots in rapid succession, just as the boys came hurtling round the corner.

“‘Sup Pauline” they chorused. “‘Sup Barbara” and the chair and the bucket of geraniums disappeared behind their large and energetic frames.

Later that day my email bore a couple of shots of the old chair.

At the time I was doing a course in Photoshop and spent a happy hour with my instructor playing with the photos to get different effects. He did most of the work, and I couldn’t tell you where to start now, it has all been forgotten.

But I still have the Old Chair saved in my photograph file and the existing printed copies have now been made into cards for my Etsy shop.

From an original photograph, styled by the Contented Crafter 🙂