Chilling....

Hello - how are you? We are in Winter here in NZ, and this week at my house we've had white frosty mornings and only making a top temperature averaging 8 degrees celsius (that's around 46 degrees fahrenheit) during our day. 

I don't mind a crisp day like today when the sun is shining, but grey days make me feel blah, and rain means we haven't been able to get out and have holiday outings. 

Have to say though, I love living where I get to have distinct seasons. Winter means snuggling by the fire, having a good excuse to make art or stitch because it's too cold to be in the garden, reading, watching DVDs and appreciating hot coffee and lovely roast vegies for dinner.

This is the shape made by the soot in my fireplace

- honestly not altered in any way ♥

I'd been a bit concerned this week that with the extra time holidays bring, I haven't felt much like creating. Then I thought I'd look back and see how I was feeling in previous years....2014 I returned to blogging 9th July after I thought I'd stopped blogging altogether in May. 2014 was also the year I started my new job so I needed to learn to balance new expectations. 2013 I was at Taupo quilt symposium - which was hugely inspiring, but in June I was grieving for my Grandmother, and reminding myself that downtime is still part of the creative process. 2012 I needed to get to the beach to recharge.
I've now realised that mid-year is my time to rest, absorb inspiration, think, and try and get to the beach for an hour when possible. I'm going to just chill and be kind to myself.

Of course I've been catching up on a few blogs while I'm on holiday. Until I've got some finished art to share (it's still happening, just slowly), here's some online inspiration for you :
Julie Fei-Fan Balzer recently produced a video where she was testing out a new product Exploring Ken Oliver's Color Burst Powders. I'm not recommending the link because you need to see the new product, but rather because of the interesting ways she played and used the powders as watercolours, turned them into sprays (a good reminder) and also how she made them permanent.... applicable to any of your watercolours. This is one of her tag examples - delicious

I follow Roben-Marie Smith's blog, and through her found out about Quirky Dutch Summer. 

Starting June 15th, Marit has 10 weeks of fun detailed tutorials by herself and some guest artists. You can treat it as a free "summer art school" so I've also added it to my list of cheap and free online artful classes that you can always get to on the top of my right side bar. I'm sure there's something there for winter inspiration too ;-) Read the introduction about it here or go HERE to get all her listings about this project - she also did it in 2012.
Today Alisa Burke shared a tutorial about how to make VERY lovely turquoise rings out of rocks

And if you are in New Zealand and visit Gordon Harris in Wellington (highly recommended for fabulous art supplies), you need to know they've moved

Did you know I also have a link to online and NZ sources of where I shop for supplies in the right hand bar of my blog?  Hope your weekend contains whatever you most need....