Matching Pegs

Mr Matching Pegs (Luke) put in quite a bit of work to solve my photo uploading problems, so now I can show you an odd assortment of school holiday fun (the kids went back to school/kinder today).

Above is a look at my updated flower painting.  I am much happier with the leaves (which used to be Kermit green) and have found a better red colour for half the petals of the flowers (which are just under-painted at this stage).  I still have to mix up a colour I am happy with for the other half of the petals, hence the harlequin look.  As much fun as I had, the whole painting experience was brief and frustrating – the kids just wanted to paint on my canvas too.

This is a photo from the start of the holidays.  The kids spent a whole afternoon playing surfing in the back garden.

They tried for ages to get Lotta surfing too.  Eventually it worked.

I was pretty impressed with their imagination.

On Friday we spent the day at the Healesville Sanctuary – a zoo dedicated entirely to Australian animals.  We had a lovely time, and saw all our favourites.  Mine was the Platypuses, whose enclosure was in twilight, as they are nocturnal – so sadly, no photos.

This Koala (female) is called Prickle.  We heard her keeper talking to a lady (I took to be a wildlife rescue volunteer) who first cared for Prickle, after she was found as a baby at the bottom of a tree.  According to her, Prickle was actually named Bindi for her spiky nature (Bindi-Eyes are a nasty prickly plant that often turn up in your lawn in some parts of Australia – they are originally from South America) and she was renamed by the Sanctuary – I wonder if it is because of Bindi Irwin that she was renamed?

This elusive creature is a Lyrebird – the one on the 10 cent piece.  Known as birds that copy the calls of other birds, they have been known to copy the tones of a phone ringing, or the sound a chainsaw makes.  This one was following a man around who had been playing it R2D2 noises via his mobile phone.  Unfortunately it was too busy listening to give us a serenade.

Today we had an interesting creature of our own at home.

Our very own Lotta had her first haircut – it was done at the Vets and was MUCH shorter than I expected.  She looks very different (and slightly ridiculous).  Tomorrow she is officially allowed to go for a walk, as she had her last shot a week ago.

Here ends the photo update.  Seen any interesting creatures around your way lately?

Something seems to have happened with the last Wordpress (or Firefox) update, and I am having trouble uploading images.  I have several lovely ones to share with you, thanks to our weekend in the country with family for Easter.  Alas, you will have to make do with an old one, which seems to upload just fine.

The kids had a lovely time over Easter catching up with cousins and eating chocolate, as well as enjoying the huge box of Lego that lives at Nanna and Poppa’s house.  There are a few more days left of the school holiday before they head on back to school.

The weather has turned cooler here in the evenings in Melbourne, and last night we had the first casserole of the season – Kangaroo Stew – followed by delicious Bread and Butter Pudding.  Yummy!

I have not cooked much with Kangaroo, but I have to say it is just fantastic meat.  Not only is it a very lean, healthy red meat, (which is easy to overcook but lovely if you get it right) but it is wonderful for the environment.  Kangaroos are of course perfectly suited to our dry climate, and don’t damage the environment in the way that introduced farm animals do with their hooves.  They do not require any clearing of land, nor maintaining of fences.  They need no drenching nor vaccinations.  Best of all, in comparison to cows and sheep, they do not produce much methane – a greenhouse gas (read all about it here and here).  Kangaroo meat is readily available in supermarkets here and apparently it tastes like venison, slightly gamey – I couldn’t vouch for it, as I have never tasted venison.  In my limited experience, it makes a great hearty meal, cooked with things you would traditionally pair with beef.

More random and unrelated news, Kirsten of Tollipop is having an amazing giveaway of some of her beautiful paintings, to mark her one year blogging anniversary.  If you have not seen the beautiful people that she creates, pop on over and have a look.

Hopefully I will get the image thing sorted out soon, (with a lot of help from the in house technical support, otherwise known as Mr Matching Pegs, Luke) so that I can show you progress on my painting which I have worked on a little more lately.

Yesterday the compulsion overcame me to make a little Easter chick.  He may be a little misshapen, but I think I like him.

Of course Easter here does not take place during spring, so I made him in what I think of as Autumnal colours.

You can see here the original sketches I drew when conceiving my chick – those ones at the top are the chick I decided to mould into reality.  For the first time I designed a little softie with a gusset (not sure if that is the right word for it, anyhoo) in the bottom to make him more 3D and give him a base to sit on.  Luckily I made it the right size, first go, but not perhaps the right shape, hence the misshapen appearance.  You can see how I pinned it to sew it on – the green pins represent the section I am not sewing up – the gap for stuffing the chick.  I often colour code my pins this way to indicate where I want to start or stop sewing.

I am really pleased with the beak I designed, it worked out just as I had hoped.  You can see the little paper pattern pieces that show the two shapes I put together to create it.  I think I will be finding more ways to incorporate beaks into my work in the future.

Now you can have a look at the element that just didn’t work……….

Giant felt wings.

They overwhelmed the poor thing and caused him to rock backwards off his base.  They just had to go.

Now, with smaller, more practical wings, he is gadding about all over the place, enjoying the warm Autumn sunshine that Melbourne turns on so well.  In case you think he is the only cute creature round here – here is a piccy, taken today, of our little Lotta, who seems to have doubled in size since we got her.

Can you take any more cute?  You will have to – here is a drawing Michaela (3 1/2 years old) drew two days ago.

She calls it Mr Potato.

Have a wonderful Easter, with those who are dear to you.

My very clever eldest daughter, Amelia, has made her very own Buttercup bag (with a little help from her Mum).

When we were going through the plastic crate of goodness that is my stash, Amelia kept returning to the purple section.  Her bag just had to be made out of a purple fabric.  The other prerequisite was that there had to be some paisley – it seems some tastes are hereditary.  So the lining is a very pale paisley, (too pale to be the feature fabric) and the outside is paisleyesque.  Once it was completed, we decided that it needed a little more purple, so we made a felty flower brooch (which can be removed and worn separately).

We took our photos this afternoon in my Mum and Dad’s lovely garden, and it seemed that everywhere there was pink shouting out for attention.

Rory helped Mum water the plants with her grey water.

Then he accidentally watered Michaela and Lotta right after his shot was taken.

Luckily I had a jacket to swap for the wet shirt for Michaela – no clothing to offer Lotta though!

So this was day four of our school holiday break wrapped up, purple and pink.

There has been very little going on here in the Matching Pegs household, since my new toy arrived.

I am spending lots of time admiring it, and learning about the cool things it can do.  I have also been catching up on my blog surfing, as they all look so lovely on the beautiful screen – have I mentioned that the screen (which was the smaller size on offer when we ordered it) is as big as our TV!

So, in honour of my blog surfing, here are some links for you to enjoy.

Firstly the lovely Daily Paintworks – a collection of 12 artists who post a painting a day.  Each artist has their own blog, and many of the paintings are for sale.

Another fantastic find (via True Up ) are these basic Illustrator tutorials – just what I was after.  They are created by a fashion Professor, Elaine Polvinen, and the more complex ones go on to explain making fabric repeats and texture for use in Second Life.  I have only read the basic ones, but have learnt a few things I didn’t know already.

Now for some pretty funny links, which have given the MP family minutes of entertainment.

Your Logo Makes Me Barf.

and the hilariously bizarre, Creative Grooming, because the world needs more dogs groomed to look like Chickens, Camels or Ninja Turtles.

Enjoy!

Oh, if you want to share a link or two you love in the comments, I will check them out on my beautiful crisp screen.