This is a big project; one we have sat on for many years, just ask our kids, but have finally began.  We are at demolition stage, or as our daughter mentioned to her class in show and tell yesterday … our house is being demented.  And just looking at it here well the word demented is appropriate although she meant to say demolished.  Delightful Miss B wrote it up in her comments to keep book.

So this doesn’t relate to print as art directly.  But as crushed and demented as it now appears it is a canvas nonetheless and our vision is big and bold and beautiful.  Above all it will be a home for family and friends and it will be filled with our art.  So I will use these pages as part of an artful journey and a keepsake.

Sorrento Back Beach | Rockpool

This year for the first time we took our children to Sorrento.  This is Ethan jumping off the big rock into the Sorrento Rockpool for the first time.  The kids watched from the sidelines until they plucked up enough courage to do it for themselves.

Sally Jo changed the design to add a black and white pattern print to the sides of her bag and kept the children’s drawings on the front and back.  Sally Jo downloaded the pattern from Fotolia. Lauren wasn’t so sure that it would work but I knew where Sally Jo was going, doesn’t make it look so much like a kiddy bag.  The contrast works really well.  It’s a hit! 

Here’s the end result.

Hilder Booler Kindergarten bags

Recycled Theatre Banners

+ Sewing Machine

= Super Strong, Upright Shopping Bags sewn with heavy duty coated thread

I’ve got no idea really and felt sick after I purchased it, all those dead end thoughts like “have I wasted my money …, will I use it …,  do I know how to use it …? but now that it has arrived and it’s taking up nearly a whole room in my house well I can’t really avoid it.  Have got plenty of disused Athenaeum banners that I can put to good use, I reckon at least 100 recycled banner bags, and Lauren’s been working with a Qld mum on children’s shopping bag artwork for an upcoming fete.  We are going to print one bag, keeping costs down on the initial bag, but hopefully the orders will compensate for the effort that has gone in to creating the artwork.  The last time we did this parents and grandparents purchased 120 bags.  It’s personalised, functional and a memory keepsake of your child’s time at creche, kinder or school.  While I hone my sewing skills Loz is going to hone the ordering process and then we’ll set out by foot to gauge interest … first stop Williamstown because we think we’ve got a bit of collective sway in our own locale … “order or else!”.

2 broken arms in 3 months, been here, done this before, another operation, another night in hospital and it’s my birthday tomorrow.