Merry Christmas!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas no matter what you are doing. I've been meaning to post a few pics of my Christmas ornaments that I bough while I was in the US...

I absolutely love them. I was lucky enough to get them while they were 40% off at Macys.
I wish I bought more of them though... oh well guess Ill have to go back there :)

'Tis the season to get baking!

I've been baking for a few days now, in preparation for the festive season, which has come around again so quickly. So I thought I would post one of my favorite Christmas recipes... simple to make and oh so tasty, Chocolate Shortbread! Enjoy!


Chocolate Short Bread Stars
• makes about 45
• Prep time is 15 minutes + 1hr chilling time and 10 minutes cooling time
• 25 minutes cooking time
• Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks


Ingredients:
200 g butter, cubed at room temperature
150g (1cup) icing sugar, sifted
1 egg, at room temperature
1tsp vanilla essence
350g (2, 1/2 cups) plain flour
50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
1 egg white, lightly whisked
2tbs sugar


Time to cook:
1. Use electric beaters to beat butter and icing sugar in a medium bowl for 2-3 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add egg and vanilla essence and beat for a further 10 minutes or until well combined.
2. Sift together the flour and cocoa and add to the butter mixture gradually. Use the slowest speed on the electric beaters to mix the sifted ingredients into the butter mixture, until the mixture starts to come together (don't allow to form a ball). Bring the mixture together with your hands and shape into a disc. Cut the disc in half, wrap each portion in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour to chill.
3. Preheat oven to 180c. Line 2 large baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
4. Roll out one portion of dough on a lightly floured surface, using a pressing movement with the rolling pin, until 1.5cm thick. Use a biscuit cutter to cut the dough into shapes. Place the shapes on the lined trays about 1cm apart. gather the dough scraps together and repeat the process.
5. Brush the surface of the cookies with egg white and sprinkle evenly with sugar.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 12-13 minutes or until the shortbread is firm to touch. remove from the oven and cool on trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.


Repeat steps 4 to 6 with the second portion of dough.


Here are some pics of the process and the yummy yummy finished cookies....

Cookies about to go into the oven...

Cookies cooling...

Mmmmm... Cookies!

Make sure you make them thick, like this.

We have a winner.... Sara Lynn

Congratulations to Sara who posted Mary Blair as her favorite artist. Sara is an illustrator, a vegetarian, and a librarian-in-training. She enjoys children's books and would someday like to write and illustrate her own (as would I). She also enjoys toys, making bread, and watching Disney movies (as do I).

Thanks to everyone who loved my Paulie enough to enter.

Now here is a little about Sara's chosen artist Mary Blair....

Mary Blair was a concept artist and colour stylist at Disney, working on films such as The Three Caballeros, Peter Pan, Cinderella, and Alice In Wonderland (no wonder I love her too).

After retiring from Disney she became a freelance artist doing advertisements, book illustration, and paintings. She was eventually called to come back so she could design the famous theme park attraction, It’s A Small World.

Mary Blair’s whimsical style is still an influence for many young artists.

Her work contributed to the films that children still know and love. She helped break the glass ceiling that barred women from moving up in animation-related fields.

Just a beautiful style of illustration.

Thanks again Sara for sharing your favorite artist with us. I'll be sure to send Paulie on his way to you. If not before Christmas, he'll be on his way in the New Year.

Please be sure to visit Sara's blog and her etsy store.

Im Back!!!

Hi guys, sorry I haven't blogged for soooo long. After my trip things got a bit hectic.. work, Christmas shopping etc. Its a crazy time of year, as I'm sure you all know.

Here are a few pics of my favorite sites of NYC, starting with Central Park. It was freezing cold compared to Melbourne but the sun was out and the trees were beautiful and we were lucky enough to see quite a few squirrels hunting around in the leaf litter for acorns. Absolutely Loved it!

We were lucky enough to have stayed right in the heart of the action, Times Square. No matter what time of day or night the streets were swamped with people. Great sites, great food (loaded with sugar) and GREAT shopping :)

Times Square

View from lower Manhattan. Of Jersey I think :)

Grand Central Station

Busy city streets, view of the Chrysler Building

The city of Manhattan as seen from our hotel.

So now I'm back and I promise Ill draw the winner of my give away soon. Ill extend the deadline to this Friday the 10th, So if you're still interested in winning, comment on the previous give away post. Good luck and hope all of your Christmas shopping is going well!

Give Away Day!

Thank you to all my followers! I was very excited to finally reach the 50 mark and I appreciate every single one of you. I love hearing your thoughts on my artwork and other bits n bobs that I post about.

To show my appreciation I want to give you the chance to win 'Paulie' my sweet but sad little birdie painting from my recent exhibition.

Paulie needs a good home and all you have to do to be in the draw is tell me...

Who's your favorite artist?

I'm heading off on a work trip soon so I'll draw the winner when I return on the 26th of November.

Good luck :)

Jess Purser - Purrr's Shop

I'm always drawn to illustrations that have been created directly onto ages book pages. I though these little images were just adorable.

Jess Purser is a designer/illustrator from Surrey in the UK.

These beautiful little illos are created using ink and acrylic on vintage books, then they are mounted onto plain white card.

What I also love about these pieces are the figures relate to the books that they now reside on.

You can purchase her work on Etsy or see what else she has been up to on her Typepad page.

Spring has Sprung!

I'm loving spring... here are a few pics from around my house.

Beautiful Blooms

I was lucky enough to win this beautiful tree from work, after we used it in our display at the Life In Style Fair this year. I'm told that its a crab apple tree. But I'm not 100% sure. So if you think it might be something else, please let me know :)

Flutter-by

I bought this Butterfly from EziBuy Home magazine. I have to hold my self back, there are quite a few things that I could by for there.

Puddles

Awah, so cute when they are sleeping, so naughty when they are not.

Pebbles

 If only I could just walk up and cuddle her instead of chasing her all over the backyard when its time to go to bed.

Paper Paint and Pixel Exhibition

It's hard to believe that our opening night for our exhibition was over a month ago now and I am only just posting some photos. It was a fantastic night, full of family and friends. Can't wait for the next one.

Incandescent Garden

Fantastic Outcome, Half sold :)

Some of the fantastic girls I work with
(some of them fellow exhibitors)

Six of my piece are still available for purchase. If you're interested just shoot me an email.

Jasmine Beckett-Griffiths

I have to thank my sister Nicole for this one. She bought me an Alice in wonderland print for my Birthday a few months back and while she was hunting online for that she came across Jasmine Beckett-Griffiths. It took me quite a while to actually look her up, but I instantly fell in love with her work, especially the pieces with a dark side. I decided I wanted to buy one of her pieces but couldn't decide which one, cause she has so many. So here are the ones I like... Which ones your favorite?

 

Jasmine lives in Florida with her husband and her two cats. Painting is her full time job (I'm so jealous) and she has been creating these wonderful paintings since 1997. I hope that I get to the stage when all I do is paint. Sounds like heaven.

So i decided that there is no possible way for me to decide on which one I would like to buy, so instead I'm going to purchase her portfolio books, both volume I and II from Amazon.

Hope you liked Jasmines work as much as I did.

Buttoned up

I have painted up my Buttoned Up characters. After visiting the Tim Burton Exhibition this weekend, I have been inspired to create these little characters into detailed little clay sculptures. Ill buy some clay this week and make a start on them. See how I go, could be a big disaster, but I wont know until I try, hey!? Ill keep you posted :)

The Cheshire Cat

The White Rabbit

Sunday Scribbles

Sunday arvo scribbles. Pen to paper, no thinking, here's the outcome... Hope you like it :)

Finder Keepers

Off I went to the Docklands to the Finders Keepers Market on Saturday morning. Perfect sunny day to take a look at what the new and exciting independent artists of today have on show, all in one place.

And of course I couldn't go past this sweet letterpress print from Bespoke. "Her loves a Pony" by Kristal Melson. Handprinted in Australia using an antique 1893 letterpress printing press on 100% tree free cotton rag paper. This scan does not do it justice, It's absolutely stunning.

Incandescent Garden

Some of the pieces I currently have
on display at Hogan Gallery.

Buttoned Up

I can finally breath a sigh of relief as the girls and I have completed setting up our Paper, Paint and Pixels Exhibition. My plan was to spend tonight vegging out in front of the Idiot Box. However, when I got home this arvo, out of nowhere, I got inspired and these lil images popped into my head. So I thought I better get them out before I forgot them.

Introducing... Buttoned Up!

The White rabbit

The Cheshire Cat

The Caterpillar

Planning on painting them up into dark tones of grey and black with one or two focal colors each.

Paper, Paint & Pixels

It's approaching fast and you're all invited. If your in melbourne that is. We have some fantastic artists involved in the 2 week exhibition including myself, Renae Moore, Imogen Cook, Liz Alpass, Belinda Strong, Jeesoo Lee, Lauren Kenny and Porntima Lekhawichit.

So if you can, come on down to Hogan Gallery, Smith Street, Collingwood, between the 15th and 30th of September. It's sure to be a big success!