I really wish I knew what to do with these sketches. They build up in my moleskine notebook and then they sit there waiting patiently for me to use them. Of course I’ve mentioned a few ideas in the past but I just haven’t put them into action. I’d love to turn these into embroidery or even into large colourful paintings….ah well, I’ll keep sketching and add the ideas to my list.
I am not afraid to say that I am a strong believer in God creating the world. I believe that Evolution was a made up theory and here is one reason why. Take a minute to look at the details and follow along as God had a lot of fun creating the variety of plants from the tropics.
God dipped his brush in the bright pink paint pot and painted some leaves.
He had a few blank ones left over so he used up the left over paint with a few strokes.
He mixed a little black and continued to paint.
But then thought he’d try plain black and white.
Seeing as he had some white paint on his brush he tried stripes for a change (being a little bit random).
To use up the left over white paint he flicked it over some shiny green leaves he’d just created.
Turning His attention to the fruit he decided to try mini pineapples.
And then wondered what they’d look like in red….
Realising he had a good amount of pineapple yellow left over, he swirled the green and yellow together to get a brighter green and added some stripes with the left over bright pink paint.
He then flicked his brush to get spots on the same sort of plant.
Blending his greens and whites with a touch of black he decided to try a colour that stood out from the rest and create some flowers.
God must have had so much fun……and really I haven’t talked much about the amazing flowers or insects we saw at the Botanical Gardens. No, the world could not have been made randomly or by accident, there is too much detail.
The final thing that we got the kids to make while in Cairns was a giant pom-pom each. I hadn’t made a pom-pom in years and the kids had never tried it before, I was really proud of their stick-ability. They watched me with curiosity when I was making up the templates and before long they were winding the yarn around the circles and then asking for more yarn.
My nephew made a yellow one and Miss K did a pink one, both got to use their favourite colours. After about two days of them independently winding the yarn around and around I decided it was time to cut them and make the pom-poms. The kids were very pleased with their hard work and we were all impressed. Here’s some photos:
While in Cairns I had the opportunity to make one of these rice memory games. It was fun to go through the steps of colouring the rice and then putting it all together. I can’t remember where I first saw these but I know a lot of people have made them at home and they do cost a bit if you buy them from a toy shop. I can give credit to two other bloggers who I know have made them, Unplug Your Kids and my friend Christie (who just won a major blog award in Singapore, well done Christie!!!) from Childhood 101.
I’ve been wanting to try this for a while now. I left this one in Cairns for my nephews and plan on doing a new one with miss K sometime in the near future. If you try this be aware that………..colouring rice can be addictive!!
I somehow managed to forget to take photos of the most fun part of the process, dying the rice but I’m sure you get the idea. I didn’t use alcohol in with the food colouring and it came out bright enough for us. I also did as someone else suggested and took a photo of the objects before putting them in the jar and then printed them out later for them to refer to. The jar is plastic and cost $2.50 from a cheap shop. So, here is our rice memory game from start to finish.
Last week we took the kids to a fantastic free water playground here in Cairns called Muddy’s. It seems that the best things to do in Cairns are free including that playground, the Botanical Gardens and the beaches. Muddy’s has two water playground areas as well as about four dry playground areas, I’m amazed that such a place costs nothing!
I set my camera to sport’s function and managed to get some good water shots. The only complaint I had was that the cafe in the middle of the area had no high chairs. That seemed a bit odd to me considering its clientele. The kids had a fabulous time and we managed to get a bit wet ourselves. Here are the pics:
As I start to think about returning to Perth at the end of this week I decided to start fresh with a new look for the blog. Didn’t take long but I’ve finally worked out how to put things on the side in an orderly fashion instead of all over the place. Anyway, this look is fresh and much closer to what I want. If only I knew html and could design my own banner etc…one day! Enjoy!
As I said in an earlier post I went to the Cairns Botanical Gardens again the other day. My brother and I both enjoy a bit of photography although mine is most definitely the more amateur. He takes fantastic photos although he says they aren’t worth putting in any competitions (I think he’d win hands down). Before I share what we found let me point you to a few places around the internet where you can purchase his work:
The Creator’s Canvas
JD Burns on RedBubble
The Creator’s Canvas on Cafe Press
When you go to a place like the botanical gardens its important to go slowly, if you don’t you will miss the tiniest details. Of course a place like the tropics is always full of surprises as anything grows here. We found some incredible flowers and some unbelievable leaves but the find of the day was the Jade Vine from the Philippines. The colour of it almost made you think it was fake. There are photos of it below (the teal/aqua green pea shaped flower).
Enjoy this gallery of what we found and click on any image to see it larger. If you want to see the full set of photos, please visit this section of my flickr page: Cairns Botanical Gardens.
The second thing we did with the polypipe I bought (for $8) was use it to make oars. Before we made the oars however we made a rowboat to put them in. It was really easy and involved using a large box and some packing tape. The kids love the boat and spent the next few days climbing into it and out again. We even put on their swimming ‘life jackets’ to add some realism. So much fun! Here are the shots:
While I’ve been away I have not been using my creative skills as much, well not for the usual things anyway. Instead I feel as if I’ve been gathering information in the form of photos in order to inspire new artworks and jewellery.
The challenge will be however how to turn some of the things I’ve photographed into pieces of art. How do you go from seeing something inspirational to creating something original? I know of a lot of artists and jewellery makers who would class themselves as nature-inspired/organic artists and I would love to put myself in this category too, except that I would say that God is my artistic inspiration. His work is what inspires my work.
I will be spending a bit more time this morning at the botanical gardens as we only got half way around last time. Hopefully I can have a few moments to do some sketching not just take photos.
Here are a few of my favourite shots from this trip so far, these are what I would say will be a starting point when it comes to going from inspired to original work.
Feel free to make any suggestions as to what you would love to see using some of the pictures below (click on them to make them bigger):
One of the things I love about Cairns (or the tropics in general) is that if you take a moment stop and look, there are so many interesting plants, flowers and animals right there in front of you. One thing I love (and collect at home) is seed pods. Here they come in so many shapes and sizes. If I could take them home with me I would (Western Australia has very strict quarantine so I can’t). God doesn’t need a building to display his artwork, its everywhere we go!
Here are a few beauties I’ve found just by keeping an eye out while wandering around the area.
