it's been 20 years...

i can hardly believe it myself, but i have been out of high school for 20 years!!!  and that means a reunion, and that reunion is tomorrow!  so i'm headed south for a few days to catch up with some old friends and faces i haven't seen for a lifetime.  i'm really looking forward to it, now that we're all 'grown ups' :)  so i will be off the page for a few days, but tune back in next wednesday for another great giveaway!

ooroo!

and the winner is...

thankyou so much to everyone who left a comment on my last post-and i'm very excited now to announce the winner of the 'she loves red' print. the random number generator has spoken, and the winner is...

number 2! Vanessa could you please message me with your address and i'll pop her in the post for you!

stay tuned folks - i'll have another giveaway coming up soon - so check back in for another chance to win some lovely donna heart goodies!

have a great week,

donna heart

a new season - the arrival of donna heart - and a giveaway!

hi everyone!  i know i have been a lazy blogger, but i seriously have had my attentions diverted over the last two weeks.  my dear friend Mel has left us all in search of a new life and adventure to the isle of New Zealand - farewell gorgeous friend!!!  and to add to all the farewell happenings associated with that, i've been working with stewart from Goodwin Media to design my new logo and brand.  so without further ado - here 'tis!...

wow - i never knew it would take so much of my time and attention to get to this!  but i'm really happy with the end result, i think it's perfectly me!  there are some gorgeous bookmarks soon to be printed, business cards, and a few other bits and pieces too.  so now all that is completed, i can actually get to the printers and have some cards ready to sell very soon!  I am soo excited to be so close to having this dream become reality.  if you had told me 5 months ago that i'd be going into small business this year- i'd have scoffed!  But here i am!  and to celebrate the creation of 'donna heart - where art and life collide' my new business, i'd like to have a giveaway of one of my prints.

this print is titled 'she loves red' and will arrive to you beautifully and professionally mounted on foam core backing-and matted with an archival quality black mat which shows off these colours beautifully.  it measures 21.5 x 37 cm (8.5 x 14.5 inches)

all you have to do is leave a comment - no more than a sentence in length, answering this question:

 what do you love?

AND! tell a friend about this new blog. I'll draw the winner on wednesday night (4th Nov) at 8 pm western australian time. 

also, in a couple of short weeks, i'll have my ETSY store up and running with beautiful cards and prints for sale in time for christmas.  I love red - what do you love?

Thanks for stopping by,

x donna

the bookfairy has landed...

well it took me all week, but i finally decided on the perfect place to leave Christine's gorgeous gift.  here on a park bench at George's Beach. i had thought about the war memorial, up on the hill overlooking the town and the ocean, or perhaps a bench on the boardwalk in town, plenty of people walk there every day.  and then today as i was driving back from the shops i remembered george's beach.  a gorgeous little peaceful place not far from where i live.  there's a carpark surrounded by gum trees and casuarinas line the grassy edge of the beach.  poeple come here to sit and each lunch, to walk their dogs, or their children -lol!  but what really made my mind up was this...

a few weeks ago now, a magnificent blue humpback whale, for reasons unknown, got wshed up on this beach.  it was an awesome, horrible and sad sad sight.  such a magestic animal, left high and dry in a world not his own (yes, i love whales). and it occurred to me, that it would be nice, or fair, or just to give something back to this place - to balance the universe a bit, to make peace.  something lost, something found.  equilibrium. balance.  give and take.  take and give.  so it is my hope now, that this book will fall into the hands of someone who really needs to read its words - and maybe not all would have been in vain...

i am alive...

i know, i've been a naughty blogger - but i am alive and haven't disappeared off the face of the planet.  it's just that life has been focusing my attention elsewhere lately.  life.   it twists and turns and takes unexpected lurches and leaps.  if you had told me 6 months ago that i'd be starting my own business, i would have laughed.  hysterically.  me, business?  but here i am.  starting my own small business.  emphasis on the word small, but a business none-the-less!  and it is exciting!  ex.ci.ting!  i'm really close to being able to show you my new brand/logo, header, etsy store and other yummy stuff...  after all - if i'm going to do this, i might as well do it properly don't you think?

so stay tuned, because in the not so distant future, i will be focused back on this space, and painting and creating and building and dreaming some more.  oh, it's all quite exhilarating really.  and i've even surprised myself in actually wanting to learn the business/accounting side of it too.  cool.

lots of love to you all - wherever you find yourself right now.  i hope you are following your passions too...

she brightens your day

about a week ago, an old friend of mine felicity, got back in contact with me and asked if i would be interested in doing a comissioned painting for her.  felicity is a miliner,and (you should check out her beautiful hats here) a dear friend of hers who also modelled many of her hats for her, is leaving town.  so felicity sent me a photo of Kate wearing one of her hats and really, the rest is history.  i've turned down a few inquiries about comissioned paintings before  because i've never seen myself as technically able to produce a likeness of another person.  but when i saw this photo of Kate with her hat - i knew i wanted to do it, and i knew it would be great!  and i've also given myself the freedom to produce a painting which doesn't have to be the exact likeness of the person either (that relieved alot of the anxiety!) so here's the photo that Felicity sent me of the gorgeous Kate... 

and here's my finished product...  I'm really happy with the outcome, and it's given me another boost of confidence in what i do.  That someone asked me to create something special for a friend is such an honour, and that they love it is very. deeply.cool... :)

some people really care a whole lot...

look what magical gift arrived in the post for me today...  when i opened the box to find this most stunningly - wrapped gift i was so in awe of it that i really didn't want to open it!  so i had to take a photo of it just to show what heartfelt lengths some people go to to make others feel special and loved...

 and here they are - the most beautiful pair of vintage earrings handmade by the lovely jennifer valentine... 

please go and check out her shop and all the wonderful treasures she has to offer - christmas is just around the corner - and these would be the perfect gift for a special bff, mum, aunty or sister... 

 

and i couldn't help but post these photos taken this afternoon in the fading afternoon light of miss chatterbox herself.  nope - she's not at all shy of the camera, can't you tell? 

hope you have a wonderful week.  i'm finishing off a commissioned piece of art tonight so hopefully will have something 'arty'to show soon.  thanks for stopping by, x me