Saturday, February 19, 2011

Whoo hoo!

Whoo hoo, new etegami paper!
My lovely friend from Japan who stayed with me this week arrived with the requested paper and presented it to me as her omiyagi(?)
100 sheets, double whoo hoo!

I asked for paper with a high nijimi rating and that is what I got. On trying it, it makes me even more in awe of Debbie's Here skill in handling this kind of paper but 100 sheets should give me plenty to practice on.
I did two paintings of the magpies who regularly visit my back verandah and get into squabbles over the left over (and sometimes not so leftover , the dog is easily intimidated) dog food.

The darker one is on my regular postcard paper  and the lighter is on the "bleedin'" new stuff lol.
I have used a favourite poem, Magpies, by Judith Wright, a very well known Australian poet as my inspiration although the Prof. thinks the second one looks more like a penguin! I have to agree with him on that.
The visit by my Japanese friend and her American friend went off well. The Prof was out of town working so he was disappointed not to see Yumi but I hope they had a good time in our sleepy little city. The beach is only 5 mins by car from our house and that was a hit, the other day they were here they went sightseeing and antiquing. It was with some trepidation that I introduced them to some fairly basic food and entertainment at the local Returned Servicemen's League club where my friends and I go to a trivia night each week (we won by the way, gloat, gloat). At least they can say they have seen 'real' Australian life.
Sadly two of our trivia team have up sticks and retired to sunny Queensland, hope you have the life you want up there guys!
The weather is stinking hot here again today, so am off to retreat to the one room we have that is airconditioned, toodeloo.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Friends from Japan

My internet friend Etegaminikki (Hatsue) who is very involved in organizing and showing her etegami along with that of her friends  has sent me a beautiful postcard with a lovely message. I wish you could hold the card in your hand as it has a beautiful silky feel and some of the paint is quite raised up.
I hope someday my work will be so nice.
Speaking of Japanese friends I am eagerly awaiting the arrival tomorrow of someone who was a "homestay girl" at my house when I lived in Sydney. She is holidaying in Australia with her partner and I am looking forward to hearing her news so we can catch up after 10 years.
Unfortunately our house was flooded (a flash flood after a devastating storm) three years ago and I lost, along with almost all of our possessions, the address book with the names of all of my homestay girls and because I had moved they could not contact me.
Thankfully a couple have found me via Facebook so I hope more will do so in the future.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Why do we love new shoes?

After wearing slippers in the hospital for two weeks it was a relief to get back into shoes again...shoes mean freedom, freedom to walk wherever you want not hooked up to an IV pole, freedom to dress up a little, freedom to stomp around in the garden...freedom!
Better than all of that is NEW shoes. My first foray into a mega shopping centre (Mall) in 18 months left me a little shell shocked but I was able to gather my wits enough to buy not one but two pairs of redd-ish sandals. Not only are they mega comfortable Joseph Seibel brand they were almost half price! Why not buy two? The Prof left me to decide between two pairs and as a throwaway line he said "get both"..how can a girl resist? Now what to wear with pinkish red sandals? Decisions......

Monday, February 7, 2011

Back in the saddle again,

Yup, the old nag threw me there for a while but I decided to get back into the "etegami thing" as my nearest and dearest like to describe my foray into the inscrutable Japanese art of etegami.
I am having so much fun interacting (a la Marcel Marceau) with  Japanese bloggers who have kindly welcomed me as an aspiring postcard wannabe  that I have been neglecting to actually DO any!
So here is the latest , a pretty commonplace subject I guess but dragonflies do say summer to me and we are blessed with many of these gaudy visitors to our pond at the moment...they are loving the hot weather. I tried drawing this one with a wooden skewer, it doesn't have that lovely hesitant line that a brush held in the correct way gives but I did want to get the detail of the wings.
BTW the blessed cool change came through here last night and at last a good night's sleep!





Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Hot in the city

Yup, it's summer alright, 38 celcius and humid. Unfortunately we are having minor power outages and although I try to keep aircon use to a minimum, these last few days it has been just awful when the electrickery goes out and you sit here in a ball of sweat wondering how you managed in the 'good old days' without it.
I wanted to post some pics of the earrings and brooches I made from origami cranes for the nurses and physios who were so nice to me in hospital. I usually just leave a thank you card but this time I wanted to do a little more and make it a fun thing.

Unfortunately the pictures are a mite fuzzy but I am posting them anyway, my hands are a bit shaky and I was too hot to get out the tripod!
I made twenty pairs of the earrings and now friends of friends etc are wanting to actually buy some so I have a little project to keep me busy while I am stuck inside with cabin fever.
Further to my posts on good neighbours, my friend Jan ( you remember Jan, she bakes) invited me to dinner last night (the Prof is out of town) and we had a lovely cool salad after which we were both soundly beaten at cards (Skip-bo) by her 94 year old mother who is as sharp as a tack and more than a little competitive!
Came home, bunked down in the living room with the aircon on and finally got to sleep at 2am.
Told you my life was exciting!