LOOK LINK

Check out my new 'Look Link' to the right >>>

Every so often I'll feature my favorite artists, blogs, inspiration or whatever takes my fancy. They'll get their very own special button that will take you on journey right into their warm little laps. One of my fav's is local Melbourne artist Liz from Betty Jo Design, go on, get clickity clicking!

Morgan Wills

I stumbled across the beautiful work of Melbourne designer Morgan Wills some where, some how... One of those pleasant serendipitous moments. I LOVE colour and recycled fabric and Morgan isn't afraid to use either. One day when i can afford it I'm going to lash out and buy a scarf and one of her gorgeous Mumma and Baby bushka's. Visit her site and blog to view more of her lovely, sweet things.

I LOVE GERRY'S

Gerry's Milk bar is our favorite local food joint, bar none. Karl and I don't eat out too often and when we do make the effort you expect to at least enjoy your meal and get a little value for money yet all too often you're let down and made to feel rather unwelcome when you bring the kidlets along. Not so with Gerry's and fortunately for us Gerry's is only 10 mins down the road heading West towards Elwood, so we don't have to hike to the other side of the city to get a good feed and we can whip the kids back home in time for naps. It is a local institute formally an old corner milk bar, it has a wonderful retro atmosphere with a lovely old lolly cabinet that has a stock pile of sugary favs such as fads (formally fags before the politically correct days), teeth, choc bullets and plenty of old school yum-yums, Ahhh dreamy! The menu is decent with plenty of tasty treats on offer, apparently the coffee is good but I prefer the hot chockies and the service is always warm and friendly. The best part of the Gerry's experience is that they're not allergic to kids and they make you and the tribe feel welcome and relaxed, which is a bit of a rarity at times, oh and they have the best courtyard complete with funky decking and loads of kids toys! Walk 2 minutes down the road and you're at the beach, Heaven...

I couldn't resist adding this pic of Ada, she was so exhausted after her big outing that she fell asleep in her car seat as soon as I turned the engine on, she looked like an adorable little egg all curled up!

New Prints

In the next week or so I'll be adding 4 new limited edition giclee prints to my bigcartel shop. The original work was made for my bob boutique show which ends this Thursday. Big thanks again to all the lovelies who helped promote the show and to all the peeps who made the trip up to Bendigo. Big shout out to Mick n' Dick and Sally n' Gracie who travelled all the way up via the v/line express, what a massive effort. Bit sad to farewell bob boutique, Sonia has been a gem. Maybe later in the year you'll see a bit more of my work at Bob's. After my show ends apparently the next exhibition features local artists from the Bender's region, plenty of good country talent to check out!

blue girl

voyage

black swan

bird on cross

Big Girls Bed

We finally did the bed swap... Wilhelmina moved into her big bed on the weekend and Ada graduated into the cot. The girls have adapted to their new slumber spots quite well, surprisingly!

We were a little worried about W jumping out of bed in the middle of the night to explore her room as she is usually quite bold and adventurous. So far she stays put comforted by her new doona and fluffy pillows. She looks SO small in such a big bed. She calls out to us in the morning when she's awake but she dares not step off on her own. Hopefully she wont get the urge to party too much with her new freedom to explore! Wilhelmina spotted Karl taking Ada's wicker bassinet out to the shed and told him to "put it in the bin now daddy" in a very serious voice. I don't think my sister would be too happy, she generously loaned it to us and it has been a warm little nest for all her five children (yes five!)

In the pics below you may notice we replaced all the little art works/light and other nic nacs on her wall with her big family portrait (pre Ada). She used to pull everything down and pick all the blutak off and play with it in bed. Drove me crazy! Cheeky monkey.

Before: Wilhelmina's old cot

After: Wilhelmina's BIG bed

The 2009 Jacky Winter Group Showreel

I couldn't resist posting about the 2009 Jacky Winter Group Showreel. It showcases all the artists in the agency with a quirky soundtrack that grows on me every time I listen to it! See if you can pick my work...

The Jacky Winter Group 2009 Showreel from Jacky Winter on Vimeo.

Credits:

A video showcase featuring the talents of the 32 Australian Illustrators making up The Jacky Winter Group, and the 15 members of our incubator agency, The Hatch. For full portfolios please visit jackywinter.com/
Video: Produced by 21-19.com
Audio: 'Circles' From the Album Q&A. Produced and Composed by Cornel Wilczek. Mush records, 2008.quamusic.com
Bird Calls: Jacky Winter

Heavy Metal Salute!

Baby Ada is officially a finger sucker... Not just your ordinary thumb sucking action either, she's adopted the heavy metal salute. I swear the photo below is not staged. When she starts dozing off she slips the two middle fingers in, every time she hits a jackpot with the same fingers! It's very amusing to watch. Karls impressed with the heavy metal salute as he's done a bit of the old saluting himself especially when he's listening to his old fav Danzig. Speaking of Danzig, Karl found an interesting clip on youtube of a danzig/shakira mix. I'm not sure if he laughed or cried when he discovered the song. Very wacky, Check it out here

Here's to you Danzig!

Wilhelmina is a dummy sucker, still is. Something we need to ween off but we're not too fussed at the moment, considering all the big life changes since the arrival of Ada. W's moving into her own big bed this weekend, we bought her a lovely old second hand Victorian cast iron bed with loads of character, bought it for a steal. I'll post some pics when it is all assembled. Ada is upgrading to W's cot. I unearthed some of Wilhelmina's old cot blankys for Ada to use see pic below. Mum and I collaborated on a little project together utilizing Mums amazing old school sewing tricks with my unorthodox crafty techniques. I decorated a plain woolen cot blanket using the dry felting technique and mum trimmed it with some satin edging and made the backing. We bought the lovely green polka dot backing fabric from Patchwork on Central Park.

The dry felting technique is very simple (and I love an easy project) a good tip is to hand sew some rough stitches over the detail at the back so picky little fingers can't pull it out! Zart Art in Box Hill, Melbourne sells all the dry felting equipment, you'll need wool tops, special needles and some foam to place at the back while you're felting away. Try not to stab yourself :o)

Wilhelmina's dry felted blanky

Loads of shuffling to do in little birdsville over the weekend! Have a lovely long weekend to all the Melburnians.

KINGS WAY

The Beginnings of Australian Graffiti:

Melbourne 1983-93'

I've begged and pleaded with my hubby Mr Karl to post about the highly anticipated book he's been working on for almost 10 years with co-authors and old school graf pals Duro and Marty. Kings Way profiles the beginnings of Melbourne graffiti between 1983 to 1993. Up until now it's all been quite hush hush but finally the book is complete and almost ready for release. Over the past months the guys have been working tirelessly fine tuning and tweaking the book, it almost took priority when baby Ada was born but I had to draw the line when Mr Karl took a call to discuss the book while I was in labor (thanks for calling at a convenient time duro...)

Over the years I've been privy to most of the books content randomly laying about the house with piles of photographs stacking up to the ceiling and thinking that the book will never be finished but the boys have finally got there and the end product is amazing. The other day Karl actually held a copy in his hot little hands and he was more than chuffed! The release date is July 1 2009 and there will be an official book launch at ACMI, Federation Square mid July. It's going to be a ripper seeing all the old writers and finding out what they've all been up to post graffiti days. Check out the Kings Way blog for updates and info regarding the exclusive 'writers' edition which will be boxed and limited to 300 only or pre-purchase a copy via the Kings Way bigcartel shop. Most of them are already spoken for but the rest will be available at the launch and I'm sure the guys will be all too pleased to 'tag' a copy for you. Here's some exclusive and previously unreleased pics which are also some of my favs from the book...