20.11.09

the countdown is on...


this little person has been talking about what cake she will have for her 4th birthday for approximately 11 months now...  and for the most part is has remained the same - a ladybird cake.  so that's what it will be, together with a ladybird pinata as well.  the pinata has now become a birthday tradition in our family, one which i really love.  as the children get older, they'll be more and more help with the making of it too...  and speaking of traditions - here's a new one for us taken from one of my favourite crafting books the creative family by amanda blake soule.  it's miss m's birthday crown, which hopefully will be worn and enjoyed for many birthdays to come.  it's a very easy pattern and is sewn from felt.   the idea is to add a small embellishment for each year and that in time as the birthday girl/boy looks/reflects upon the various additions, the memories of that day remain strong and precious. when i spent a year travelling the us - i especially loved the traditions of thanksgiving, halloween and christmas.  yes, we do celebrate christmas here!  but it was so nice to have a COLD one! and the beautiful family i spent my christmas break with LOVED their traditions too.  a few weeks out, the oven would start up, the same cookie cutters would come out, the saved cookie tins too, and the family would get baking.  as children, the brothers and sisters would enjoy decorating the spice cookies in various ways, and as i understand, certain decorations and patterns became almost copywrited by each member, repeated with accuracy year after year!    these cookies would then get boxed up, placed in tins and mailed to friends and family around the country and world as special gifts from the heart. 
each year they would make tree decorations, and each year as they dressed the tree, the family would reminisce , telling the funny stories and anecdotes about how such-and-such spilt the glitter all over the dog, or the paint that got spilled on mum's good lounge...  these are the traditions i love.  the home-made ones.  the ones that just get better with time. the ones that make you feel loved, warm and wanted.  these are the moments and traditions i'd like to build into my family. 
  marking certain days as extra special, celebrating our small poeple and big people alike, and the contributions they make to our family and to ourselves is so important.  slowly we are building in traditions to our family, and our own special days and i'm hoping that with every year those traditions and activites help to strengthen and build the bonds of our family.  
do you have any great family traditions?  make a comment and share the love - go on, it's (nearly) christmas!

thanks for stopping by, x me

19.11.09

look what landed on my doorstep yesterday...



woohoo!  they're finally here!  my first ever run of cards.  a couple of months later than i had hoped/anticipated, but here none-the-less.  so it's lots of folding, folding and more folding for me with 1500 of these little beauties!  and then some collating, and then...  stocking the ETSY store!  i will be selling these both individually and in packs of 6.  i'm just finalising prices in my head so stay tuned as i'm hoping that by end of next week these will all be available for purchase!
thanks for stopping by, x me

16.11.09

*heart* this big time

do you like folk music?  if yes - then go and check out http://www.folkalley.com/ registering takes about 1 minute - and you can then stream non-stop folk music from around the globe 24/7!  i have been introduced to some awesome artists - so many i could listen to over and over.  it's now my absolute favourite tunes to have on in the studio whilst painting.  check it out!

13.11.09

a matter of courage...



my life seems to be ticking over at a very nice rate at the moment - not too fast, not too slow...  little by little i am making headway with the business, and any day now my first batch of cards will arrive on my doorstep! stepping out into the unknown for me has been an exciting move, but none-the-less requiring a certain amount of courage. as always there is a deceptively sweet small voice in the back of my mind giving me a list of reasons not to dream too big, or expect too much. so these words lately have been my own words of advice - or as we used to say in the army 'orders to myself only'!


tust my wings - fly with courage in my heart...
it's been so long since i've painted, and i've been pining to do so, so when i started this painting a day ago, my muse was with me and everything seemed to meld and gel and come together so well. i used some new paints by Matisse which being earthy tones was a step outside my usual bright and sunny pallette.   i had lots of fun scraping paint with an old business card, stamping circles with lids and even using my 4 year old's foam brushes as well!  i spent up big at scrap central in perth and experimented with the new tim holtz crackle paint here as well.  on her wings i used the clear crackle paint and then rubbed in ink to make the lines more visible. 
i had so much fun with this one - and apart from a minor mishap with some surface tension breaker which left the paint looking like curdled milk on the canvas (paper covers a multitude of sins!) everything worked so well...
hopefully i'll be able to ride this wave again soon as i desperately need to paint paint and paint some more!
hope life is well for you in your part of the world,

thanks for stopping by, x me

11.11.09

Old Friends...


it's been twenty years since i've seen these people...  twenty years.  i can hardly believe it.  my head is still spinning from the events of the weekend - what an awesome time i had catching up with this crew!  i think we had somewhere around 120 students in our year - so it wasn't a bad turnout.  we left at the sweet ages of 15 and 16 and returned as adults.  mothers, fathers, business men and women, stay at home parents, soldiers, policemen, stockbrokers and managers.  artists, nurses and everything in between.  most of us have been through the school of hard knocks in one form or another - and one of us never made it at all...  and yet here we were - another moment in time, talking like there was no tomorrow, catching up on 20 years of life!  and it occurred to me that there were also a few poeple there whom i'd been to school with for 13 years!  such a long time to share with friends - and it really was just like catching up with my extended family.  i had an absolute ball!


"here's to us by God!  To us and them, and privileges of youth.  Here's to us and what we were.  and what we'll be"

cheers everyone!





x don
PS: my cards are still at the printer!!!  so please be patient with me - as soon as i have them in my hot little hand i'll have another great giveaway for you all - so please stay tuned!

6.11.09

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!

4.11.09

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

1.11.09

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