My Creative Space.........

I am playing along with Kootoyou with her running series of "My Creative Space".

Today this is mine..........



I am pulling together lots of packs of 5 cards to go into my shop but am waiting for a brighter day to do the proper photography. This week has been really dull. Yesterday it was snowing, then it turned to sleet - and today, it is raining!

If I keep singing happy spring songs, do you think it will make it happen?!

Have a great day lovely crafty people.

OM xx

It's all FREE!!

I changed all of my items in my Oive Mac etsy shop to postage FREE!



That's right, no matter where in the world you live all items won't cost you a penny/cent/euro etc etc for postage.

I am also listing packs of 5 greeting cards.......



all postage free - did I say that already? :-)

Hope you are having a lovely day - it's snowing here in Scotland again.....brrrr......

OM xx

This weekend......

....... was mostly spent:-

walking by the river
taking photos of our shadows
finding faces in trees
and just watching the world go by.....

Quality time......

It is not often these days that I get some quality one-to-one time with my six year old son. But, somehow we managed to grab some......

Firstly we ate some eggs (laid same day).

Then we crushed the eggshells.



Then we added paint and PVA glue to the crushed eggshells.



Then we painted with said gluey paint and added a couple of more colours (minus the eggshells).



And finally ended up with an absract beach scene.

acrylic on canvas

But most of all we had lots of fun, and a good giggle doing it. Thank you gorgeous boy!

OM xx

Something new from something old......

I was given a bolt of vintage (1950) grey wool fabric, uncut on the roll, a few months back and to be honest I have been a bit scared to put my scissors through it. The fabric sat wrapped in brown paper in someone's attic for almost 60 years! I did make a courier bag to use to take my art materials to my art night school, but the rest of it has been sitting in my material store, looking pretty and lonely!

I have been looking at various snood-type scarves in the shops for a while but have been put off buying them because of their simplicity and my attitude of "I can make that!". Well today I took it apon myself to put my words into action......

I thought it was only appropriate to use my vintage Singer sewing machine to make it - here is the lovely fabric........



and here are my scissors nervously cutting through it....... yikes!



I basically cut a very long length of fabric, folded it in half lengthways and sewed up the open seam. I then turned the fabric the right way out and sewed up the ends.....





Then wrapped it round my neck three times, and here it is........



I know that this will now be my new favorite accessory!

OM xx

Valentine's and cute vintage purses......

Happy Valentine's Day to all.

To me Valentine's day shouldn't just be a day to celebrate your love for your spouse or partner, it should be to celebrate your love for your family and friends too! We are just about to sit down to a wonderful family Valentine's breakfast which is being made by my husband as I type. Yumm!!

I also want to take time to show a couple of vintage purses which I bought on eBay on Friday, and they arrived yesterday (Saturday)! How speedy was that - I was just delighted to open up the package to see all of the vintage loveliness.....




and this one is a vintage sewing kit and manicure kit in one - how cool is that?



Wishing you all a lovely Valentine's day - our plan is a refreshing walk/play with the kids on the beach followed by a yummy Sunday roast - mmmmmm, can't wait......

OM xx

Living a Handmade Life......

has featured me on her lovely blog.....



Check out her blog here. It is a lovely read - full of eye candy!

OM xx

In her own style.......

My children just LOVE drawing. Whilst having a bit of a drawing session the other day my daughter produced this........



Doesn't it resemble this? ..................



That just tickled me - she is only 5!

OM xx

I am smiling.....

..... because one of my wee illustrations made it to the front page of Etsy :-)



I am just tickled and totally delighted!!

OM xx

sewing birds and 3 lovely girlies.....

I did this at the end of last year, but I forgot to blog about this wonderful tutorial I found on Clutterpunk's blog. It is a step by step on how to free machine sew a bird. I just love it! Now, please remember that I have never free sketched with my sewing machine before, but I think that you will agree with me that it did turn out to actually look like a bird! - amazing!



Now, I know that it is not brilliant but as a first attempt, I am very happy with it.

Click here for the link to Clutterpunk's tutorial to see how the expert does it - it is just excellent, and her blog is a truly lovely read!

I also managed to frame the three different versions of my "girl" print.



Hope that your day is bright!!

OM xx

Some lovely reading for an evening with no plans...

I am so desperate to get back onto my sewing machine - I haven't touched it this year at all! I feel that I have lost my sewing confidence a bit so need to find the right project to get back in the swing of it. I am now about to relax in my "comfy's" with a cup of tea and thumb through these lovely reads.... Bliss!

OM xx

Busy busy in the Olive Mac studio

I love it when I am busy, and I have been this week. I have been trying to kick start the year with a few more illustrations and they have been added to my Etsy shop tonight.







I have come down with a stinky cold today so have had a lovely evening curled up on the sofa, cuddling my children - just bliss!

OM xx

New Colour Schemes.........

Two new colour versions of my "Girl" print......




I plan to put all three of these prints together in my hall. Framing them will be my project of the day!

Have a great day.

OM xx

First new illustrations of 2010

Well, it has taken me almost a month to post the first new Olive Mac illustrations of 2010.






I have set myself a few goals for 2010. 2009 was a pretty rubbish year for my family so I am more than determined that 2010 will be a fantastic year! Some of my goals are:-

1. Not to drink any alcohol during the month of January - detox
2. Eat more healthily - less chocolate!
3. Do do at least one new drawing for Olive Mac a week
4. Not to buy myself any new clothes - only to buy vintage/second hand
5. Be more creative in everything that I do
6. Spend only quality time on my laptop
7. Have lots of fun with my children!!!
8. Be more organised

These are just some of my New Year's resolutions and I am actually managing to stick to them so far! Amazing, I know....

I am loving the challenge of only buying vintage/second hand clothes for myself. I am having such great fun bidding for things on ebay and searching etsy for some lovely finds.......

OM xx

Don't speak too soon....

Well didn't I just say in my last post that I am totally getting used to driving in these snowy conditions!! Well I am taking that right back!

Yesterday, I got STUCK...... Yes, totally stuck on a back country road on my way to pick up my son and three of his friends from a party at a zoo. It did add a bit of excitement to the afternoon.

As I was way in the back of beyond (and the snow was a bit crazy) instead of being dug out using one of these.........



i was dug out using one of these.........



I had contacted the party so the kids had an extra 40 minutes of play, but to be honest I think that they would have had the best fun watching my car being towed by the tractor - I know I did!!

OM xx

Welcoming 2010!

Welcome 2010, I have been waiting for you to come around for a few months now. 2009 was a particularly challenging year for myself and my family so we have entered 2010 with a very positive, upbeat attitude. This is going to be a great year!

So far this year has been fun - we have had snow here in Edinburgh for almost a month now (we have never had snow that has lasted so long in my lifetime). Out kids have just LOVED it - sledging, snowman making and snowball fights a go-go.....

We are set to still have snow for at least another week, and to be honest I am getting quite used to it. Used to walking on compact slippy snow, used to driving on ice-y roads and am very much enjoying how beautiful everything looks covered in snow.

I am also happy to find myself in a teasury just now......



Many thanks to Rose Lullaby Dolls for putting my little round boy into her lovely treasury. She makes really truly lovely dolls!

Happy New Year to you all.

OM xx

Not fading into the background!!

I spent yesterday tidying up my etsy shop and giving it a spring clean for the New Year. All my prints now have a coloured background and will all be printed to A5 size with a white border.

This makes them super easy for framing.

Here are a few of them for a sneeky peek.......






I wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best for 2010. See you next year!!!!

OM xx

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.......

This is how beautiful my hometown Edinburgh looks in winter - and I can tell you that we appear to be in the throws of winter today. Ice-y roads, snow falling as a blizzard and snowmen being made in our garden! My kids have been out in the snow for hours today, until their hands were bright red underneath their gloves. We don't really get to see snow like we have seen today so it is making us feel all very festive in the run up to the big man in the red suit visiting us next week.

Today has been a day for making soup and baking banana bread - I have even managed to get a bit of housework done and have washed floors and cleaned bathrooms (dull I know, but I feel great for having done it!!). It has been a lovely day for pottering and pondering. I have managed to catch up on the blogs that I read and have been inspired by each and every one of them. Looking ahead to next year, I am planning big things for my wee etsy shop and hope to get lots of new drawings done over the holidays.

Hope your hometown is bustling with festivities this weekend - enjoy!!

OM xx

What a bad blogger I am!

I do apologise for letting this blog slip by the wayside - new year's resolution for 2010 is to get it right back on track! Here is a wee pic of a recent piece of work that I have for sale on Etsy.



Over the past couple of months, I have gone back to art school as an evening class and I have had such a great time. It has finished now for over the festive but I have learnt lots of new techniques and have learned how to visualise things differently to what I was doing before. It is funny how you get a bit stuck in your old ways so it was great to break from the mould a bit.

Hope you are all organised to the upcoming festivities - I have still so much in my head that I need to do before Christmas which involves getting my sewing machine out, getting baking and doing lots of wrapping!

Bye for now,
OM XX

Etsy Purchase...... Love it!

I just realized this week that I go on and on about the goodness of Etsy and how wonderful it is and how much I want people to buy my illustrations and have them hanging on their walls at home, and do you know what? What? I hear you say..... I have never bought anything on Etsy yet from another seller - yes, you heard me right, NEVER!!!! How shameful is that?

Well I am happy to announce that that has now been rectified and I am soooo excited, I have just bought these........



Pic courtesy of Rhinestone n Rust Vintage

I hope you can see them as the pic is a bit small (I will post a bigger pic when they arrive). They are a set of three Silhouette wooden plaques and are just fabulous. They are being shipped to me today from the States so I should have them in the next week - I can't wait - I have a position for them already in the house!

They are from Rhinestone n Rust Vintage. Thanks Pam.

OM x