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Here are a few photographs of my recent trip to my parents house in Northern NSW.

I had a really nice time there and did a lot of roaming around in nature-y places.

We went for a drive up into the mountains and did some bushwalking and stopped at about five different and beautiful lookouts, saw a waterfall that fell into a cave and roamed through a beautiful old growth rainforest. It was very humid though and I would love to go back in winter some time!

On out drive home we found an abandoned stone house that would've been beautiful in it's day. It had a fireplace and stone floors and a really sweet upstairs room and I'm really curious as to what happened to it.

It's been quite cold in Melbourne, which has been a nice change from the Northern humidity, and I've started to really enjoy baking my own bread. It's so much nicer than the supermarket stuff and I find the process to be a really nice way to relax and de-stress!

I apologise for my lack of posts recently but (as I mentioned) I was away over Christmas and when I got home my internet wasn't working! (I am speaking to you now from the public library haha!) It might be a little while before I get my internet back because it will be quite expensive to fix, but I have scheduled a few more posts over the next couple of weeks so you shouldn't miss me too much haha!.

How about you? How has your summer been (or if you are from the Northern Hemisphere your winter) Let me know in the comments section I'd love to hear about it!

x Grace

Workspace Rearrangement

I did a big spring clean of my apartment yesterday and decided to rearrange my living room, which resulted in a rotation of my desk which left it facing the wall instead of the window. I much prefer it this way because I don't get as much glare but I can still look out the window if I want to (plus I get to sit next to my favourite plant!). It also means I can have a wall of nice pictures to look at while I work. 

I really enjoyed spending the afternoon going through magazines and old golden books to find pictures that inspire me and then arranging them in a nice way on the wall. I'm really happy with it and it makes me happy when I see it. I think a friendly workspace makes a huge difference and I can't wait to start working at mine (all I need now is a more comfortable chair haha).

x Grace 

P.S. Sorry for the lack of posts/art lately I'm taking a bit of a break after the busy couple of months I've had. I've been working on some sewing projects (you might have noticed the sewing machine on my desk) which I will share with you very soon.

Some University Things

It's coming up to the end of semester and I am so busy trying to finalise all of my assessments! Anyway, here are the three pieces I made for my drawing assessment:

Even Lovers Drown, Ink and Pencil,
Keep Warm, Pencil
Plant Life, Gouache and Fineliner

CD Cover

I designed the cover for the the compilation CD that the music department at NMIT publishes each year. 

They wanted something that used naive hand lettering and had an urban feel. The head of department said she wanted fox people because they are 'an urban pest, just like musicians' haha. 

Sketches & Constellations

I stayed at home today because I'm feeling a bit under the weather and I thought now would be a good time to update my etsy store. I've added my new zine (pictured here) as well as a compilation pack of all three of my zines which includes an A3 poster of my newest painting (which is the one at the top), and a reprint of Woodland Ladies, featuring a new pastel blue cover!

I also thought I'd show you a few of my favourite pages from my sketchbook. I've been trying to use it a lot more and I'm slowly getting back into the habit! I'd like to eventually start adding colour to my sketches as well seeing as the pages are made from watercolour paper!

Bits and Pieces

I've been really really busy for the last couple of weeks working on projects, including a huge one for university where we have to draw eight observational drawings (above is my favourite one). I've been finding it so hard to work in this lovely spring weather though!

Some things I've been liking: 

- handmade rose body spray I got from a lady at the markets (it smells so amazing, like real roses!)

- Natural Instinct Daily Moisturiser, which I originally bought because of the cute packaging, and the fact it is mostly made of natural things and it's not tested on animals, but it's actually also nice to use and it smells like lavender!

- Gardenia perfume from here, I love the smell of gardenias, they remind me of all the good things: summer, my birthday and nice walks through gardens.

- I got some really pretty crystals super cheap from a lady who was selling them out of her garage in the Burringbar Range. The huge chunk of rose quartz was only $3 and the necklace was $6!

- My lovely new quilt cover. It's so fresh and it's like I have a little piece of the country in my city apartment. It also brings out my windowsill plants haha!

I've also been super busy making zines (including this new one) for a pop up art/zine fair I'm going to in Geelong. If you live in Geelong (or even in Melbourne) you should come along. There'll be heaps of cool artists selling their stuff and I'll be there selling brooches, a super special limited edition new zine, as well as a bunch of other zines both old and new.

Lists

Things to do:

- Finish collection of 8 boring observational drawings

- Write three thousand word essay

- Put together/practice 10 minute accompanying presentation to three thousand word essay

- Design tea logo

- Design tea packaging

- Put together/practice 5 minute presentation to accompany tea packaging and logo

- Make coloured roughs for CD cover design

- Bake a cake for father's day present

- Make a new zine for zine fair

- Make/construct copies of old zines for zine fair.

Things I Need:

- Printer ink

- Paper (coloured, for zines, and plain)

- New water bottle, not made of plastic

Books I want to read:

- White is for witching

- All the birds singing

- Tin House Magazine (not really a book)

Movies I want to see:

- What we do in the shadows