We went to Sydney

Last week Gareth and I spend a few days up in Sydney. Leaving the warm hot embrace of Melbourne was a little sad as the weather reported Sydney would only be a measly 27 degrees. We arrived a few hours late due to someone removing an emergency sticker from the plane (nice souvenir??) and got to Potts Point hungry and scanning Twitter like crazy due to the resignation of the premier.

We had a pretty delish meal at an Italian place Gareth found, along with a nice bottle of plonk, hoping for an early night so we could get up and hit the beach. Not as early as I envisioned we got the train/bus to Bondi and spend an hour or so in the water with me splashing about saying it was the best thing ever. I have to admit I was a tad jealous looking around at all the houses and imagining living so close to such a lovely beach.

We then hit the Art Gallery of New South Wales, had a spot of lunch and soaked up the artwork. My two favourite artworks were Anish Kapoor's Void Field and Ugo Rondinone's if there were anywhere but desert. wednesday. It's funny when you look at art and think about your own personal criteria for making something 'good art' and to be honest there were other artworks I sound more aesthetically pleasing. These artworks where deemed my favourite purely for the affect it had on me and knowing I'll remember them for years to come. I think I spent a good few minute's looking at the Kapoor work trying to work out what the void was. The confusion coming from not knowing if it was pigment or if it was actually hollowed out. In the end we asked the security guard as I was too afraid to touch it. As for the clown artwork, I don't think I'm someone who is scared of clowns and compared to a Muick it wasn't that 'lifelike' but the sounds combined with the way it* was sat there I was seriously expecting it to come alive.


*see what I did there!

We also went to visit a few shops that we stock which is always a fun oh look it's our cards experience. One shop that was high on the list to visit was Koskela in Rosebery. I had been before but wanted to take Gareth and also try the Kitchen By Mike menu for lunch. We had a great time pottering around, eating and being inspired by all the amazing products and art they house. The space really does fall into the category of dream space you only imagine exists on pinterest.

We had a lovely early dinner the day we flew out at Ms. G's and after naming the file below I wondered if it was a play on MSG? We got to the restaurant just as it opened and our Jerry Seinfeld parent-ness rewarded us with the best seat in the house overlooking the big bay window. The food was pretty good although we sadly didn't try the dessert called Stoner's Delight.

Now you may be wondering why we were in Sydney? Although we did do a bunch of work stuff it was also my birthday. Yay happy birthday me. I'm now heading into the prestigious mid thirties section of my life. A time everyone aged between 19 and 29 only dreams about. Well guess what young people, it is totally AMAZEBALLS! We also happened to discover our friends from Jubly-Umph were also in town and had a night of drinking and Mexican food (not the trendy kind) to celebrate. We even saw a cat on our walk to the gallery, so all in all it was a good way to say hello 33.

Wee Bairn

Gareth comes from Scotland, a place where they call babies and children 'bairns' and I was born in a town called Bainsdale. Coincidence? I think so. You might also be wondering if this is Gareth's official tartan but sadly it is not. I asked him if pink was a common tartan colour and he said he didn't think it was, but then we found this website that had lots of pink hues but wondered if they were once red.

If you have any Scottish friends that recently had a baby this this might be just the card for them, and it is available here. When you hand it over you can maybe even say the line out loud in a thick Scottish accent. I've been practicing mine and  it can only be described (by Gareth) as the worst Scottish accent he has ever heard.

Thank you dance

What would a special thank you dance look like? If you're in your undies then I think it can involve high kicks without risk of ripping your trousers. I drew this image and I am suddenly confusion by the lack of trousers along with the socks and shoes. Did they go on after the trousers came off or did they come off over the shoes because that is hard to do especially in slim leg pants. So many questions but can you figure out the answers through the medium of dance? Probably not.

The card is available on Etsy, sadly without any hints on appropriate dance moves.

Restoring the balance after yesteday's post

An email from my Father

Information you might like to know:

1. Subject line of the email: Anna with a dog 001

2. My Mum is wearing a handmade raffia hat.

3. I am not wearing shorts, they are overalls.

4. We got the dog my Mum is holding. His name was Pete and he had a fondness for brooms.

5. Cats are still better than dogs.

Custom Book Covers

I did these custom book covers for a friend's birthday recently and I thought I would share them on the blog. They were originally designs for a card but I figured they would also look good as bigger prints. I did them in a style a little different to the way I usually work with the cards and it gave me a chance to  play around with the pen and ink, one of my favourite mediums.

After drawing them and waiting a day or two to let them dry completely (our old scanner was a hotbed of black marks due to my impatience with waiting for things to fully dry coupled with my forgetfulness with removing them from the scanner) I scanned them and then turned them into vector images in Illustrator. I removed all the white so they were transparent except for the black lines then took them back into Photoshop to colour in.

Although I love working on paper and nothing really beats it, the luxury of having endless layers and the undo button really does indulge my I want to try all the colours mindset. I knowing ruining things is a good learning experience as an artist, but being able to test things out excites me a lot and the process is always really interesting. Working with a mouse however can be frustrating and I really do think it is time I invested in a tablet, so if anyone has any recommendations I'm all ears.

Keep on wishing