Playing with Autumn.

Its become an Autumn tradition, for one of my lovely friends to do something special for my owlettes. Once a year, she rakes together fallen leaves, from her humongous oak tree in her backyard for my children to jump around in. They also get ice-cream at intermission.

Apologies for those who suffer from inner ear infection

Sitting under the old oak tree

The leaf monster

Two heads and a baby foot...where is she?

Such an amazing backyard

They had so much fun. Until next year, my friend:)

Learning to paint.

I've been learning how to paint with Resin. Resin can be a difficult substance to work with due to its temperamental attitude and stubborn ways. But its unpredictability and the inability to control it makes it that much more exciting. The pieces are usually quite abstract- making formal shapes is very difficult and you can't plan exactly how the piece will turn out- its all controlled by the fluidity of the resin. Here are some pictures of experimental pieces from myself and other first timers:

Excuse the flash from my phone.

flash. sorry.

Flashed you. Excuse me.

No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to reproduce the same picture- this is what makes it amazing. Also, the picture transforms in front of you- and you have little influence over it- good therapy for control freaks I guess.

A lot of the abstract images, remind me of underwater themes, or world maps taken from space. Sometimes you can see faces, or a landscape or animals. It looks amazing in real life, and these photos do not do it justice.

These are some canvas works from famous artist Claire Layman...they are so much more amazing in real life!

 I seem to be doing things that are not good around children. I have 3 children.

I am truly amazed by this new found art form. And you can be sure, no matter how much i suck at it, that this Kooky Green Owl is going to give it a red hot go! :)

x

p.s. I have lots of little squares, going on in this post. If you can see them, you are an amzing, awesome person.

Floating

Lets start with the washing pile:

TO BE FOLDED. Mamma mia

Moving on to the children:

Toot toot

Curling hair

Making a new dress:

Admiring another dress although my hand was twitching for the credit card:

Green Bow? Yes please

Punching holes in brass for jewellery:

Looks like I uses a machine gun

The Kooky Green Owl was also very privileged to be included in a new shop launch. FRIDA. was launched on the 11th April at 25 Woods Street Beaconsfield. Labels in store include Douglas & Hope, Mad Love, Living Doll, Homeworks Design and many other designers. FRIDA. features an eclectic mix of accessories, housewares and collectibles. Pictures to come.

I hope you are enjoying your week. I know I am:)

Keeping my medium size hands warm.

Autumn is here! And a mountain girl has to keep warm somehow. A massive mug full of tea solves every chilly issue:)

I've started making cold pressed soap again!. I first started making soap around 5 years ago.....it's very tedious and highly addictive- they make great presents and also feel a lot better on the skin than the commercial stuff you can buy at supermarkets. I've made 3 batches so far (around 53 bars) but they will take 6 weeks to cure.

Making soap is lots of fun, but not great to do around children or animals due to the fumes and and the burning potential of caustic soda. Soap making is a simple process made more difficult by using caustic soda. There is absolutely no way to make soap from scratch without using caustic soda. Even natural soaps used in shops is made using caustic soda But the process of soap making, saponification- neutralises the caustic soda and by the time the soap is cures, there is no caustic soda in the soap. You also need oils or fats to make soap and when mixed with the oils, the caustic soda chemically reacts and neutralises. Caustic soda is the part that cleans, and the oils are the part that feels good on your skin.

Probably the most difficult part is mixing the oils and the caustic soda together. You can only mix them together when both have reached a temperature of 45-50 degrees Celsius. If they are at different temperatures, the soap will not work. You also  need to be prepared to stir for a long time but a stick blender can help that.

You can create different effects with the soap- you can make it look like an iced cake, or you can use perfect molds.

I like mine to look handmade and rough but that's just me. You can also add fragrance at the 'trace' stage (when slight ripples form on the surface and remain there after mixing for a while). But you also need to make sure you don't put too much fragrance in or it can burn. I use essential oils.

There are many books out there, with different recipes. And there are so many lovely oils you can use like coconut oil, macadamia oil, almond oil, palm oil, olive oil (you get the drift)...

If you have the patience and the time, it's worth giving a go.

Have a lovely week.