Tuesday, 21 February 2012

looking forwards...

Today in New Zealand it feels like a day to look back and a day to look forward. I'm going to focus on the latter because I'm at a lose for words about the former. So here's a post about thing's I'm looking forward to.
This week I'm looking forward to my first trip to Melbourne, drinking lots of coffee in Fitzroy. Walking the streets with Scott and using his SLR to shoot lots of graffiti, signage and all the other street crap designer types take photos of. I'm looking forward to staying in this amazing looking house (See above). Thanks to twitter for tipping us off about Airbnb, because the hotels we were looking at where awful and out of budget. We're really keen on meeting other creative types while we're in town so if you fancy joining us for a coffee you can find me on twitter @dearcolleen or leave a message here.

I can't wait to catch up with old and new friends in Wellington. I have a few days there on route home from Australia and will do my best to fit visits in with all I can. I guess this means more coffee drinking, oh dear what a shame.

Weirdly I'm starting to look forward to winter. Making soup and snuggling infront of the wood burner. I'm going to buy some wellington boot (that's right wellies, I'm never coming round to the term gummies) and I'm adopting the saying 'no such thing as bad weather only bad clothes' so if you catch me whining about being cold tell me to put a jumper on.

Finally I'm so excited to be all moved into the new studio. Three days DIYing, a creaked neck and a hell of a lot of help from Scott but it's a bright beautiful space. It's pretty much the studio I have been dreaming about since I was a little girl, only it's in Dunedin not New York. Life's a funny old thing. I'll probably make a little film about it at some point but for the time being I'll stop boring everyone and just leave you with these before and after pictures.
1. above: space before work, long work bench which was taking up a whole wall. Black beams and scuffed paint work.
2. Bench cut in half, wooden slaps exposed and sanded to make a window seat for day dreaming/ procrastinating on.
3. Unused door way covered over with a large black board. Plus art work I did for the other studio moved and hung on the wall.
4. Finally after white washing the walls four or five times the black is gone and the space is pretty much finished. Furniture has been moved in and I just need to buy a plant and hang some artwork. A huge thank you to my lovely Scott for giving up his weekend and doing so much hard labour.

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

my studio, a visitor and playing hookie


Time just seems to be flying, which I'm putting down to life being rather lovely. I've just said goodbye to a surprise visitor who dropped by for a long weekend. A friend from crafting circles in Wellington who I spent an enjoyable few day sight seeing and generally just chilling and playing hooky with, mostly at the lovely beaches around Dunedin. Kate is an excellant cook and bright spark who's always up for a giggle so her visit was a breath of fresh air.
Below Kate is the blond in the middle, a seal that scared us half to death at the beach and finally a shot of the ocean, I still can't get over how blue it is here (in New Zealand).
As most shop owners will tell you we're in the quiet months now. The rush of Christmas is over and shoppers of being good and saving their pennies. This means my income is at a low. Most of my spare cash has been going into my studio do up (more about that in a minute) but being a girlie girl I like to treat myself to new outfits as often as I can. Lucky thanks to the January sales and great op shops (charity shops as we call them in the UK) I've managed to score a new pair of trousers and retro dress for just over $20nz... not too much.
Below pattered MC hammer trousers and a retro pussy cat bow blue pattered dress.
Finally I spent the week before last hinden in my studio painting what I am currently calling the 'Weapons Wall'. It's the frist piece of work I have just done for myself in ages. I'm not a 100% sure what the idea is behind it. I just wanted to paint something territorial, I think because I'm renting a shared space. Anyway just as I finished doing up the shared studio a private office in the same building became available. After sleeping on it I know I had to take the new space. It breaks my heart that the 4 weeks hard graft I (we) put into the first space was pretty much wasted time but the new space is perfect so I'm sucking it up and moving on.
Below 'Weapons Wall' and new studio space taken from the talented lens lapse blog.