Saturday

Another week gone. Attended Encore yesterday and Gaye is a delight, she has taken the red dress to finish the hand sewing. I really don't like working with red. I made my daughter a red dress years ago as my mother told me I should. After the first wash I was ironing it and it was leaping up and down-visually that is- and I ripped it to shreds and threw it away. Pam had to wait until she grew up to by red dresses. I think the problem I have with red is that I have 'migrainous eyes' a doctor told me.I think we need to start work on some other periods at Encore I would like to see us make the New Look from Dior 1947. Arthur is going to re bind an old bible with a piece of lovely leather that we have been hanging on to for years. The story of the bible is funny. It belonged to a Catholic friend of my brother's away back in 1948. For some reason it was left with us and I didn't have a bible so I just kept it I think his name was David Price. I will get Bob(my brother) to check that name.

Close To My Heart

Close To My Heart

Monday

What is it with the rain again? Enough already.
Well on Saturday I went to Jolly July Day at Hornsby which is held every year, by and for all the NSW porcelain artist ladies. What a great day it is too. There were three demonstrations of different porcelain techniques. Jan Finch showed us how to paint portraits, Alexandra Weber showed us how to do fine penning work and Robyn Langford-Brown showed us how to paint birds. And boy doesn't Robyn know a lot about birds-she said she was a twitcher and I am sure she is. The girls put on the best home cooked spread of goodies you have ever seen and all this for $25. Only problem was poor Art had to miss his golf because I took the car:)
Now that it is Monday-got over Saturday by doing very little yesterday-have done the washing and nearly got it all dry before the rain and have my head in yet another book-Skin and blister by Victoria Blake. But tomorrow I intend to get into the Craft Room and play around with some cards.

Thursday - Again !

I can't believe it is Thursday again. I have to pick my NRL teams and it seems I have only just done that. I am ahead in our competition-Art and me that's all.
Abby and others have tried to leave a comment but can't. I am not sure why unless you have to subscribe or I might have the wrong settings. I can leave a comment, strange as that sounds! I will check it out.
We had another visit to the dentist today, Art only not me. So this is why I am smiling...
I have done nothing artistic in the last week or so and am getting pretty fed up with that.
I have to get the Gazette ready for publishing sometime next week. Made a couple of mistakes in the June issue so will need to concentrate on this one. The Gazette is the Porcelain Art Magazine for NSW and I am the Editor so if you have any news about porcelain art please feel free to comment on it and I could use it in the magazine. I am always looking for things to write.
That is if you can leave a comment!
My excuse for being so slack is, that I have been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and until I visit the Diabetic Educator I am constantly thinking about it. All will become clear on August 2nd.

Erte lady

Picked up my Erte Ladies from the framer yesterday. A bit expensive but maybe I will sell them in September

Saturday all day

Another weekend. I cannot believe how quickly this year is going-I guess it has to be expected when you reach your 70's but I actually want it to slow down because I have so much to learn.
I tell my family, don't put off doing things you want to do (when you retire) 'cause you don't know how you will be when you reach retirement age. Decisions made in your 30's may no longer be an option at 65.
So do it now.
I was brought up to believe I had to do all my chores before I could possibly enjoy myself and as a result of that, the things I wanted to do-like draw and paint-I never did get around to, with 4 children to look after and a full time job.
So my advice to everyone is:
Every day do something you really enjoy.
Make time for it, even if it is only 15 minutes.
All those minutes will add up and feed your soul.
In 2005 I made a New Year Resolution to draw every day. That is the only NY Resolution I have ever kept but I should have continued into all the following years and I didn't.
I am very exied this morning as i have had a phone call from the framer and my Erte ladies are ready to pick up. I am puting these into our exhibition at Springwood in September. I will add a flyer for your interest :)

Couldn't add the flyer and I really must go and do some of that dreaded housework I was talking about. Art will be home soon for his bacon and egg sandwich, he  has been to golf this morning and his sanger is a Saturday special.

Small Dolls!

Golly! I have been fiddling around for ages editing this and deleting that! I finally managed to upload some of my small dolls. In the process I have lost my first two pages but that's OK.
Encore was interesting, Chris is making a fine job of Sir Maurice O'Connell's jacket, she is almost a tailoress. We have been working on this uniform for quite a while now but as you can imagine men's gear is not as interesting as a ladies' 1850's frock.
The reason I am saying frock is because the Powerhouse Museum has opened an Australian Dress Register and at one of their meetings there was some discussion about the meaning of dress as opposed to the meaning of frock. So the mens' outfits are dress I guess, that rhymes.
This Register is an interesting undertaking as they(the P'House) are asking people to register any garments they might have prior to 1945. Explaining the provenance of same and the condition etc and shoould the P'house have a need to show a garment that you have they will be able to contact you.
Unfortunately as I explained in an earlier blog, I came from Scotland to Australia in 1948 and anything we might have had prior to 1945 was lost forever.
I am sure though that some Australians have wonderful treasures from 'way back if you have take a look at the Register.
Time to go and read another chapter before dinner, I am reading Lying Dead by Ailine Templeton at present.

Two Mein Leiblings, Marlene, Willow and Gretchen.

Fereling very pure after a visit to the dentist. Why is that? I think I get a guilty complex if I haven't been for a while and I decided last year I was only having my teeth cleaned once a year because I think they are rubbing away the porcelain. Do you like that excuse?
Thought I would add a few of the dolls I have made. I made dolls for my daughter my step daughters my 8 grandaughters and my daughters in law-making a total of 15 altogether. That was quite a lot of dolls and they got a doll whether they wanted one or not. I am that kind of gal.
So now I am left with the remainder of the dolls I made. As a little girl I had a French doll which was too large for me to play with and I just kissed her each night before bed. But then the war came and our house was flattened by bombs and my doll and any other dolls I might have had were no more.
My parents split up soon after all that and I never ever got another doll but have always loved them. I do understand that girls don't seem to like dolls as I do but that is OK with me.
My Dad had made me a glorious doll's house and after the Blitz, people used to sympathise with my Mum at having lost her house and I would pipe up and say I lost my house too!
As a result of that I made my poor husband make doll's houses for our granddaughters too. The things we girls make these poor men do. Arthur,that is my beloved, suggested that my daughter's girls share the one house but I told him 'No' that would not work so he had to make three houses for her girls.

Encore

I wanted to put both of these photos together but don't know where I went wrong. However these are some of the dresses or should I say frocks that the Encore Group have sewn. The Anne Marsden frock is a handsewn copy of the original dress which can be seen at the Powerhouse Museum. We are all very proud of this effort and are now working on a reproduction of the uniform worn by women at the St Marys Filling Station during WW2. I am sure some of you will remember the YSL Mondrian dress from the 60's doesn't it look good?

Thank you again Jean! Took me ages to work it out but I finally managed it. Thank you too to Angela. I have removed myself as I somehow became a follower - don't know how. But I hope you can become a follower now. I am off to Cobbitty today to pick up a dressmaker's Dummy for a group i belong to called The Encore Historical Costume Group at St Marys. Wish me luck as I haven't been out Cobbitty way for years so hope I don't get lost. I will post some of my photos of some of our Encore successes.

Thank you Jean for your advice, as I said this is all very new to me so that was most helpful. We are waiting for Greg and Fran to visit today so am looking forward to that. Greg is my eldest son and he is reading up on a problem i have with the computer so that he can put it straight when he gets here. it is so good to have clever kids isn't it.
I swear children these days are born knowing what to do with the computer.
Our grandson Aiden when only just four corrected me when I told him to use the mouse to play a game and he told me:'No, Nanna you use the arrows!' so there.
I also thought it was funny when recently in the car I was telling Stuart(his Dad and my youngest son) about a friend of mine called Dot Ferrie and Stu said dot com and Aiden said dot au!