Wednesday 19 October 2011

Endings and beginnings

This week marks the end of an era.  An era of the primary and high school education of our girls.  This Friday, Miss G. has her last school assembly which is a bit of an event to say the least.  I know there will be tears of sadness and of happiness.  Sadness because one phase of her life has finished and happiness because there are new things to look forward too, new challenges to face.  There will be changes for me too with no more school drop offs and pick ups.  When I first started taking the girls to kinder, I thought of all those years ahead of me and now I'm at the end of them.   It's truly amazing to think and wonder where the time went
 
It's been a bit of a contemplative time for me these past few weeks so I've been keeping myself occupied in my spare moments with making stars for Christmas bunting.

Working on my giant granny square throw.

I've been enjoying the flowers in the garden.
Bungee snuck into the photo.
The first rose of spring.
Trying to take photos of the elusive and shy Wattle birds feeding from the Chinese Lantern.  This photo is taken through the window and not clear because of the fly screen behind the glass.

Can you see him on the left of the photo with his head upside down.
I've been tidying up the pantry and getting rid of some of the plastic storage containers.  I found these wonderful glass containers at a discount shop for $1.00 and just the perfect size for herbs and spices.  Here they are draining and air drying after a good hot soapy scrub.

This is a very satisfying sight.
I've been making wholemeal Melt and Mix Shortbread to keep the biscuit tin full.

And I've been working on my portrait painting.  I must say I now have mixed feelings about the painting as it has been worked on quite extensively by my teacher.  My teacher is very good but unfortunately gets carried away when showing you how to do a technique which results in important aspects of the face such as the eyes being her work and not mine.  I suppose this sound quite silly, but I really want a painting to be my work with it's imperfections and not my teachers work.  I must sound ungrateful, I really need her to teach me how, just not do it all.  The hair has been worked on extensively by my  teacher too (not yet finished), once again I needed to learn the technique, but not have it all done by her.  Grumble, grumble.  Anyway, here's the painting.

I must admit I fiddled with the eyes just a little when I came home from class.  I softened the lines that make up her eyelid and eyes and darkened the colour of her eyes to a darker brown.  I can see all the imperfections I made to her eyes but I feel better about it having some of my touch.  I will say happily that the nose and mouth are all my work.  I sound very picky, but I am quite passionate and pocessive about my paintings and want them to be my work.  O.k., I think I've said enough on the subject for the moment.

In other news, I can report that Miss C. is going for her drivers test this afternoon.  For all the Australian readers out there, I would have to say that sitting the computerised hazard perception test first is ridiculous.  The computer imagery for the driving conditions and situations is not clear, dodgy at best.  After her 4th attempt, Charlotte finally passed this morning and her Dad is going with her for the test this afternoon.  Fingers crossed for a successful outcome.

I'm off out to get my hair attended too and perhaps check out the delights of Spotlight.

Take care everyone,

Anne  xx

11 comments:

  1. How sad that you have to have one of those teachers - they are the worst because they don't really teach just model. While you were grizzling I was looking at the ladies face and thought what exquisite features she has but mostly her mouth, nose and cheeks. How I wish I had the those skinny genes. I hope you have a better time at spotlight than I had yesterday. It is so huge that I came away again with only a small portion of what I needed because the choice was too much to make. Cherrie

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  2. Oh wow - so much good stuff in this post.
    Love your Chinese Lantern it's beautiful - and a purple rose!
    Your granny rug is looking fabulous - I love the mix of colour you have selected.
    Shortbread bickies - yummo - in my top 3 favourite biscuits of all time.
    Great little bargain jars - great that the lids are clear.
    I think your painting is coming along beautifully - I love the pot in the background.
    And it must be so bitter sweet to see your girls growing up so quickly - my sister's eldest is 14 and it's hard to think in 3 short years he'll be off to university and on his way to grown-upness.
    Driving tests seem a lot more tricky than they used to be.

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  3. I love the colours of your star bunting.
    The garden looks lovely, I've never seen a rose that colour before, it's gorgeous.
    How annoying to have an art teacher like that.

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  4. That really is too annoying of your teacher. If she must show you then she should do it on a piece of scrap canvas or whatever. It's recognised as being bad form. No one wants their work taken over. You shouldn't do it to children and neither should you with adults! I think I would say something. Perhaps after a lesson; tell her how it made me feel etc.

    I think it looks great any way. Excellent nose I thought, and they are not easy.

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  5. Hey Anne, lots of hooky happiness going on at your place.......

    Nice wander around your garden, beautiful blossoms.

    Love all the little glass jars they looks so sweet all lined up full of spices and that shortbread, yummo........

    Your painting is coming along and I was admiring the nose as well, great job.
    Your teacher sounds rather frustrating, some people are born to teach and have the knack and others well...........
    If your ever do another portrait I'm sure you'll nail it and won't need any help at all.
    Hope you found some bargains at Spotlight,

    Claire :}

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  6. I hope all went well with Miss C!

    I love your crochet Anne - have you got a pattern for those little stars? I'm supposed to be making a garland for the girls Christmas fair.

    How frustrating that your teacher 'does' rather than teaches. The painting is stunning though! xx

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  7. I can understand how you must feel about your painting - but I still think that what you have painted is very good. I also know how you feel about the end of school - it's a big change, and yes, it does all fly by so horribly quickly.

    Pomona x

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  8. I love the purple rose! I've never seen a purple one before. Those little jars are great, Dave had some similar ones but we got rid of them before he moved (we got rid of most if his kitchen stuff) to cut down on what was to be put in storage.

    I think you should try to speak to your art teacher about her 'taking over' on your painting... if you are brave enough you could just mention that it felt like she was doing it for you and would prefer it if she demonstrated techniques on separate paper for you. As long as you are polite (which I know you would be!) I'm sure she wouldn't mind and would understand what you say about wanting it to be your own work.

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  9. Your little storage jars are delightful. I would be upset too about your painting ! Silly teacher !
    I love seeing your plants & wildlife so different to here.

    Good luck with the driving test today !

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  10. Wow!
    Your painting is beautiful - I know what you mean about that sort of teacher- v annoying, to say the least, but still, it IS lovely.
    Cute crochet stars and great colours in your granny blanket too.
    Have a super weekend.
    Xx

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  11. What a great post, so many of your things appeal to me, your crochet is lovely and those stars are so pretty.

    Those jars look like a great find, nice they are all uniform. It's nice to have things jarred up like a little squirrel isn't it? I have a few jars of jelly I've made recently but they are all higgledy-piggledy.

    I love life drawing and painting, I did a lot of it in college and I feel your pain, we had a teacher that used to out charcoal lines on our work and say 'oh, you can rub it out' but you never could! I paint a lot, but honestly my crocheting has rather taken over....I must get a better balance somehow.

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