☆ Round Here [August]

Tweet

August seems to always fly by. With the hustle of life, add in a few birthdays, school commitments, and the emergence of the first daffodils, spring is on our door step - finally!

Round here, we've been...

Excited to see these magnolias bloom - spring is definitely near.

Celebrating forgiveness + friendship with the 70th anniversary of the Cowra Breakout.

Cleaning up the studio + finding gems of forgotten ideas

Had super hero commitments to uphold.

Made a Dolly Vaden Cake with a modern twist - for the gorgeous batgirl who turned 6 [eek!]

Creating my own doodle book - I will be sharing more next month.

Rocking it out to Frozens 'let it go' [Oh my ears are bleeding after the 3672nd time played!]

Wrapped up Listening to your Squeak ecourse

Finishing up last minute prep for the Harvest Markets this weekend

 [Come say hi - if your in the area!!]

What have you been up to this month?? Share your exciting adventures below!

Did you know that I send out a monthly love letter with studio snippets, a monthly give away of one of my paintings or products, a free calendar download + more. Click here or on the image below for more + your free downloadable gratitude angel 

Tweet

☆ Round Here [life as it comes]

Tweet

Seriously, can someone tell me where April has gone.... Again, seriously... Where did my 'relaxing' Easter break go, where did the school holidays go, where did my fabulous time off go...

We've had rainbow nails...

We've tried new things, fallen down + gotten up and tried again. [Bug was awesome!]...

On our school holidays, we've played 'school' incessantly!

I've sketched in the park [so relaxing]

We have had a very cute visitor in our front yard. ["catch him daddy!! Catch him!"]

I had an awesome time at the markets [Mac was the perfect assistant]

And I had two gorgeous helpers [although all they wanted to do was run wild with the glow sticks!]

And then we crazy danced with glow sticks while they 'balloon glowed' [And yes, everyone else thought we were mad!]

So okay, it's been busy, and looking at these photos, we have had a great couple of weeks, but now schools back + I have crap loads of work to catch up on, as well as a house that is in complete disarray + a pile of washing that is just scary!

Back to reality I guess. {sigh}

I hope you had an Awesome April, and that your Easter was was fun + relaxing! I would love to hear what great adventures you had.. 

Tweet

☆ Round

Tweet

What a hellish week.

Absolutely. Hellish. We farewelled my beautiful cousin and it was just about the most painful thing I have ever been through.

But we continue on, because we have to don't we? We move forward three steps, take a few shuffles side ways, and continue on.

We go round.

©2011 Kirstin McCulloch

Thank you those who left such lovely and supportive comments last week. It meant a huge amount, during such a terrible time.

Have a great week.
☆•*¨*•.¸¸


(Linking to AEDM)

Tweet

☆ Perennial [Illustration Friday]

Tweet

I have been very slack with my posts lately - this last month has seen life interrupt the normal flow of days. Birthdays, tea parties, disney on ice, more birthdays, a holiday that wasn't and more runny noses and hacking coughs!

I suppose in a way our life is perennial  (lasting or continuing throughout the entire year, as a stream.) - especially these blasted colds we seem to keep acquiring!

Lupine

Have a great day

☆•*¨*•.¸¸

Tweet

☆ Long Weekend Birthday Bliss...

Tweet

A huge Queens Birthday long weekend for the Mac family with Bugs birthday [hooray!] and my brothers 30th.

Birthday Girl

Three days of food, wine and laughter, three days of long days and short nights and sharing the soap box platform, three days of Bean and her cousin being bestest buddies one minute, arch nemeses and tears the next.

Bugs birthday took on an owl theme - unintentionally the cake was supposed to be an abstract princess castle, but I lacked the energy for that.

Part of her present from us was a hand made owl mobile, and although I have been planing this for months, of course I, the consumate procrastinator left it to the last minute to start.

Still need to be 'mobilised'

Home made bunting - no problem, I'll wip that up the night before! [FYI Sticky velcro spots - good idea in theory, but not so great in practise!]

And finally some work in progress, which I have put aside while I finish this weeks illustration friday.

Hope your weekend was just as much fun as ours - maybe not as tiring though!

☆•*¨*•.¸¸

Tweet

☆ Was I Asleep? [Illustration Friday]

Tweet

How quickly this last year has gone. Not only has it been over a year since we moved into our new home, and nearly two years since we left Scotland, but in a weeks time my baby, who is no longer a baby, Bug, will be one year old.

How can a year possibly pass so quickly? Was I asleep?

I remember when I was younger that years seemed to crawl by at the pace of a tortoise, I always wanted it to pass quicker, my birthday or christmas, or even the local show day all seemed to take ages to arrive. But now as an adult, I am the exact opposite, I want to savour every day, the girls seem to grow up too quickly and I know that I will be one of those mothers who lament the passing of each year with a (imagine shaky falsetto voice here), 'It was only yesterday I was chasing you around in nappies'..

So this weeks illustration friday image come to me relatively easily, I've been feeling the passing of time keenly this week, and also one of Beans favourite princesses is Sleeping Booty (as she says it!) and we have to read it several times a week (sometimes several times a day depending on the princess de jour!)

So here is my image for Asleep inspired by Sleeping Booty -

Tweet

☆ Beginner [Illustration Friday]

Tweet

I have the most amazing family - I was spoiled, pampered and made to feel like I was queen... or as Bean would say the mama princess! It's mothers day in Australia (not sure if it is in other countries and if so, for all the mothers reading, happy mothers day! x), and I was made breakfast, received big hugs from my girls, and husband, a voucher for some badly needed pampering, had morning tea in the glorious autumn sun with mother and 91 year old nan, given some badly needed me time with G taking the girls to the park, and had the washing put out for me.

I am blessed...

A year ago, I was heavily pregnant with Bug, had just moved into our new house, still homesick for Scotland, I was a beginner in this new life we were building together.

Have a great week

☆•*¨*•.¸¸

Tweet

☆ Work in Progress

Tweet

Not much happening this week at Casa de Mac, with day light savings and a snotty head cold knocking all of us around. I used to enjoy turning the clocks back, I would pretend that I would wake an hour early and exercise, but in reality I would just enjoy the extra hours sleep!

However when you have two little girls who are used to waking at 7am, and sleeping at 7am, turning the clocks back is a recipe for cranky, tired and grizzly little girls. Throw in a cold and I am ready for the weekend!

So I thought I'd share the drawing I am currently working on....

My Sky Blue pro marker ran out half way through the colouring, so I had to do an emergency order from  Letraset - but who knows how long it will take to get here from the UK, and I am slightly stumped with colour choice for her top, but I am, so far, please with the progress!

Til next time.

x♥x

Tweet

☆ When Life Gets in the way...

Tweet

It has been far too long since my last post. But as I am sure you all know from your own experiences, sometimes life just gets in the road of good intentions.

I intended to post my illustration friday sketch last week. I intended to complete my final painting for my M3 willowing course. I intended to start my 'faery hollow' mural/ collage  for the girls play room. I intended to exercise at least four times last week to reach my first weight loss goal. And I intended to plant a heap of flowers in the garden with Bean for a splash of colour.

You know what they say about intentions - "Good intentions are not enough. They've never put an onion in the soup yet. " ~ Sonya Levien

So life, in the guise of dentists, tooth extractions, sick bean, teething bug, blood tests, a starter motor thats caput, visits from aunts & uncles, and an ankle sprained derailed my best intentions. And lets be honest, does anyone want to read about the wisdom tooth that needed to be pulled out and how it cost $200 for two minutes work?? Do you?? Well... maybe some people do ;)

Any way I have seemed to got it together this week, and yes I know it is only Monday, but lets be positive huh??

So the point of this long rambling post is to share some sketches I have been doing in my journal, they are fairly basic, and I have some ideas for them, but not sure where I am ultimately going - but isn't that the best thing about the artistic journey - sometimes you end up somewhere you never dreamed of...

Fallen

My Faery & Unicorn for the final M3 class

Have a great Monday

x♥x

Tweet

☆ Illustration Friday

Tweet

Burning

Sometimes when that lump sits in the back 

of your throat like a burning ball of acid

all you can do is relinquish control 

and scream it out...

x♥x

Tweet