January is always project heavy because I'm on holidays from my school job and I can work late into the night with long daylight hours. I am now back at school and it's been a particularly fabulous summer holiday break. I completed so many projects, you can catch up on my part one review post about cards HERE!
We started the new year with a week away in Akaroa and Christchurch. So blessed to live in this gorgeous country and so hard to pick highlights so I will just share the artistic ones. The Giant's House in Akaroa - a garden of international significance. Created by artist Josie Martin, it's a sculpture mosaic garden. It's colourful, beautiful, quirky, inspiring - we spent a couple of hours here and this is a tiny taste. 
Christchurch had a massive earthquake in 2011, and the city has been remaking itself since that event. We went to the Earthquake museum and I was reminded of the initiative of Hearts for Christchurch. People from all over NZ and then the world created stuffed hearts and sent them to Christchurch. First they were used to create an amazing exhibition and then distributed to people affected by the quake.
And now to my creative joys this month. I had to stop all my other creativity from Christmas til mid-January so I could make this quilt for my sister-in-law's 60th birthday.
See more detail about it HERE.
I spent most of January on my "Advice from the Sea" deck and starting my new weekly card project. Sorry I have to share another photo - I just adore these projects so much!
Erin Bishop of E B Mixed Media has released a class called Fabulous Florals. Free for a limited time HERE (no idea when the limited time ends but current as I do this post).
On the last weekend of my holiday, I finally got a chance to explore her lessons and now have this beautiful floral fodder to play with.
Such fun techniques. And even when you think they're not going to turn out, somehow the line work followed by fussy cutting makes magic. Highly recommended. You might also like to check her demos out on Youtube and I am always inspired by her Instagram account.
Looking towards February and beyond, I know I won't have as much to show you because I am back at work, but I am hoping that I might finish my journal which I started as December Daily-ish and get back to working in my JIYA Journal. There are a few reasons I am hopeful for this. I made good use of birthday money last year and now have a lovely supply of Megan Quinlan's Art Foamies - I have so many ways I need to explore these. Check out her YouTube for free ideas.
And I was very excited to get my stencils from Leaca Young at the end of the year. I ordered them Wed 29/11 and they arrived on Thurs 21/12 in time to be a Christmas gift. Very impressive for postage from Alaska to New Zealand. 
As well as those things, Wendy Solganik is running a cohort for all those who have previously enrolled in "Love your (Imperfect) Letters". I signed up when she had a special on this class in March last year and while I did the drills and found my alphabet, I never finished all the lessons to experiment with gorgeous lettering. I managed to do some drills while on holiday 
And am hoping that I can share more work from this class soon.
Fav free inspiration this month - Roben-Marie offered a tutorial making these gorgeous neutral papers
And since this blog is about all of me, I'm finishing with an introduction to our 3 new family members living at our house. Meet Oscar (tabby), Obi (ginger) and Arthur (golden retriever puppy). We haven't had pets for a while and although a lot of work, they bring great joy and help us to slow down and be present 💜
You can see why I decided to split my January review in two! You won't hear from me as often now that term has started, but I will continue to try and post here monthly and more regularly on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page.
Thanks for sharing your trip. The mosaic garden is delightful. Your new pets are as well. What fun (and work, too, but mostly fun). You've had a very busy and productive month. Thanks for visiting my blog and "meeting" our animals, too!
ReplyDeleteFeel so lucky to have had such a fabulous January
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