Hi Loves,
So apparently there is an arctic blast hitting southeast Australia and I can tell you that from my little studio in central west NSW we are definitely having an arctic blast and feeling the cold to our bones.
Looking out my window this morning and seeing the sky thick with heavy black clouds I said to the terrible trio that if we lived just a little higher (as in elevation) we would have snow today.
Of course they didn’t hear the beginning of that statement they just heard snow and became super excited and of course I had to be the killjoy telling them no, we would just have rain and very cold winds. (A perpetual lament of mine growing up was that we never had snow just icy winds from our snowy neighbours. #valleyliving )
We’ve had such a mild autumn that this cold snap is a real shock to our system. Jackets have been pulled out and beanies have replaced caps, electric blankets are no longer dormant and the flannel sheets are being pulled out of summer storage.
Everything outside is beginning to slow down and hibernate. The trees are suddenly loosing there leaves and Jack Frost is coming to visit. But in the studio winter is not a time of hibernation or slowing down. It for me has become a time of creation and of pulling all those threads of ideas and inspiration from the summer and autumn together.
Winter has become the time I can dig into those bigger projects that have been brewing in the back ground. It has become a time that I look forward to with eager anticipation and to be completely honest with slight trepidation.
So I have a canvas on my easel again for the first time since last year. An angel that is slowly coming together that will have lots of collage elements which I have been experimenting more with in the last year returning to my very early 18 year old HSC major art work roots. (I will have to tell you about that one day!)
I have the beginnings of a new art book which will document some of my lockdown/ pandemic art journalling with some thoughts I had during that time and some quotes that really resonated with me.
I have my trusty cricut and some sticker sheets which I am about experiment with. I have always loved stickers – who else collected stickers from their school book and put them in a dedicated sticker book? And also how great were scratch ’n’ sniffs? So now I can have my very own LilliBean stickers to play with.
And I have a new stash of blank wee beasties arriving very shortly which I am excited to create a collection I am currently calling the ‘guardian beasties’, which will be combining my love of wee beasties with my 30 year long obsession with crystals. Watch this space!
Thanks to all your responses to my 5 question survey, I have some fantastic ideas about what content y’all would love more of. This month I want to create a little course/ video with 3 ways to art journal with a limited art stash. (i.e. things you probably have in the home already) You will be the first to know when I release that.
Also if you haven’t had a chance to answer my five questions pop over now to have your say. It’s totally anonymous and only takes 2 minutes to answer.
Very excitingly there are quite a few new readers to the LilliBean emails. Thank you for joining me and a big WELCOME to you. I hope you enjoy my little snippets popping into your inbox. And if you haven’t subscribed to my little e-letter pop over here to join in the fun!
Thank you so much for being here with me. I hope my Northern Hemisphere friends are enjoying the beginnings of your summer, spare us down under a thought now and then 😜
From my Whimsy World to yours.
