The Joker

It is easy to misunderstand something and to get the wrong message.

I decided to print out a couple of old family photos - bad move at the moment - spent half the time crying over the fact my Mum and Dad had passed; I miss them so much, even at 60! I was/am one of those lucky people who had great parents. They were my friends not just my parents. [Image]
Their wedding anniversary (74) is only a couple of weeks away the same day as Mum's birthday and I know I get sentimental and sad around now. Plus Christmas is coming and Mum passed away then.
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I learn to paint from my Dad, learn to weld, how to lay bricks, strip an engine, change a tyre. From Mum how to cook, from them both how to laugh and live. They raised three girls to be confident women, we were taught to reach for the sky and never accept that we weren't good enough. We were taught there is no such thing as sexual stereotypes and if we wanted to do something that boys do then just do it. When I grew older and my sisters had married Mum, Dad and I would take trips away together and when I eventually married (26) and moved away from home we would talk on the phone each day at least, once if not more, for hours.

I studied engineering for four years and Dad love it; he was an ex Trawler captain and a marine engineer/fitter. I worked in Bush Fire research and did voice over work on documentaries. They supported me each time I changed jobs and continued to support me through the troubles with No.1 son. When I started working again after having the my children and went into working with problem children in schools in Behavioural Integration they supported me again. [Image]

But even with them I was the comic, the clown - hiding things behind laughter my early wall building attempts - but I also had the knack of accepting things - if I could change something I would if I couldn't I wouldn't worry about it. To a point I still have that ability and live that way.

At times my Dad introduce me or referred to me as The Joker and it often made me upset to think he thought of me that way even though that was how I showed myself. He would refer to my elder sister as the Posh Loving One and my middle sister as The Quiet Caring One but me - I was The Joker.

When my Dad was in his final few months he lived at a nursing home - I would visit each day, sometimes reading to him, sometimes talking, sometimes sketching; one day a new nurse came into the ward and he called her over. She said she had met my elder sisters and Dad said this is my youngest daughter, S****** ,The Joker. As usual if felt a little upsetting.

We all talked for a little while and she went off to another room. Then Dad said to me "I wish I could have been like you, all your life you had pain and heartache and yet you laughed and smiled and never let anything get on top of you; you accepted what life threw at you and never let it get in the way. I am proud of you, I envied you that ability. I wish I had understood that sooner, learnt to do it; it is only now, at the end of my life, that I can finally do it."

So The Joker was not as I had thought, I wasn't the comic relief of the family - it was a term of respect and love; I was so glad that he told me before he passed - it meant so much to know his true feelings.

The moral of this tale is I should have asked sooner why he called me that and saved years of anguish. I do so miss them.

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Please leave a comment so I know you visited......you know how all bloggers love to read comments!!

And The Winner Is ............................

Had my grandson and my son's partner's little boy over for the weekend so the two boys did the draw for me on who should win the FQ's. I think more names on paper were thrown over the floor than kept into the bag I put them in, but the boys had lots of fun and I got a winner's name.

And the Winner is ................... tada..............

Tasha from Tashalou Creations.

Thanks to everyone who came and visited and left nice messages, it was so exciting to have so many people visit my blog.

I would love you to come back and visit again ..... I will have another giveaway to celebrate my 10000th visitor but as I am only up to 8476 it may be a little while yet ....lol.

Giveways

Three great giveaways I have found at the moment so check them out and see if you can manage to win one of the prizes up for grabs!

1. Di at Snippets and Scraps has a lovely pincushion and thread catcher plus a metre YES A METRE of beautiful chocolate coloured fabric on her blog.

2. Erica at Creative Dabbling has two cute selvedge pincushions on her blog giveaway.

and finally

3. Di is opening a great new website for sewers called Sewn and she has an amazing amount of wonderful goodies as prizes - things like jelly rolls and books and fat quarters and oh so many lovelies!

And if you look on her blog site there is a list to lots more giveaways.

SO to join in the fun I have decided to add a prize to my blog - add a comment and on June 8 I will draw a winner. The prize? How about 2 fat quarters of yummy fabric! Haven't decided what colours yet so add your favourite colour to the comment and that way you will win your favourite colour FQ! Don't forget to add your email so I can contact you if your the lucky winner.

Thursday's Pics

Frog This to This

Been on a bit of a painting craze at the moment..... sadly means my sewing UFOs are still just that but hey, when your in the mood your in the mood!

So my latest painting venture has been a little green frog - a Wallace's Flying Frog to be exact .... lol. B11's son has taken an interest in painting and as it was his birthday last week I sent him an assortment of painting things - brushes, paints, pencils, erasers, pad, etc - and he was asking me about using watercolours. I told him the most important thing to remember is - paint the dark things LAST!!

Sadly this news came too late for his first venture - a snow leopard whose spots and shadows went on first but at least his next effort with be primed with the knowledge he has now learnt first hand ....lol.

Anyway, I decided I would take a picture of the work in progress of the frog and show him what it looked like with the first coat of paint and what the finished work looked like.

I sent off the first picture and his response was "mm doesn't look much like a real frog." .... rotfl.


So then over the next week I labouriously painted layers of colour to make my little frog look just a tad more realistic for him.

Finally he (the frog) is at that stage where you are not sure whether to do any more or to just leave well alone. He is now sitting alongside the Aboriginal elder's portrait and the beautifully coloured Hawkesbury River rock while I decide if any of them are finished yet.

Now I am hunting around trying to decide what to paint next. Have gone through all the pictures I took on my river trip and found a few more interesting rocks and a couple of beautiful trees. Also found a lovely picture of an litle Australian sugar glider. Who knows what I will end up painting but I do know I have this bug in my system and it won't rest until I have produced a few dozen more......rotfl.

I did pin up the hem on a UFO of a supper cloth - finished the embroidery on it and now with the hem pinned it only needs stitching around. At least that did assuaged any guilt feelings (at least for a day or so) I had about not tackling my UFOs for a while.

Lest We Forget

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Excerpt from For The Fallen by Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Also please visit this ANZAC site which shows the memorial place at ANZAC Cove by the Turkish government.

These are the words of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey's first President, at the Anzac Cove.

Those heroes that shed their blood

and lost their lives…

you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.

Therefore rest in peace.

There is no difference between the Johnnies

and the Mehmets where they lie side by side

here in this country of ours…

You the mothers

who sent their sons from far away countries,

wipe away your tears.

Your sons are now lying in our bosom

and are in peace.

Having lost their lives on this land

they have become our sons as well.




Visit the ANZACS

Of Portraits and Rocks .......

Been working on a portrait.

I have never been successful in painting people's faces. Okay I admit to only ever trying three times of which two were absolute failures. That was many years ago and I have never had the guts to try again.

B11 (those who followed my dating blog know who I mean) is very much taken by the fact that his girlfriend considers herself an artist. He was discussing various works that I had done recently which were all of torsos. "Why headless?"

So there I was preening under his praise when he asked the one question I hoped he wouldn't....lol. I explained about my brush with heads and his response was "that was when you were a kid now you are wiser and have more talent." Awww don't you love it!

Well, it spurred me on and I was itching to try a portrait. But what to do? Found a picture of a wonderful native Australian elder who was so regal looking and interesting and decided to give it a go.

I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by how he is looking. I am at a stage now where I have to decide whether to stop or to fine tune him. Bit of a quandary actually.

There are a lot of things wrong with him but overall I am pleased with my attempt. I don't know that I will do a lot of portraits - they still have that scare factor attached to them; but at least I put the boogie to bed and was reasonably successful in my attempt.

I have put him to one side while I consider which way to go with him and am now working on a picture of a rock .... lol. It that the proverbial rock and a hard place one sometimes get between?

Took lots of pics on my recent houseboat holiday with B11 and did some sketches in watercolour, charcoal, pencils and pastels. Now transferring them into detailed work.

The area is full of Hawkesbury River Sandstone which has marvellous colours and shapes as it is exposed to the elements. There are lovely purples, yellows, oranges and golds not to mention blues and greys and reds.

They just sang out to the artist in me and I took photo after photo. At the beginning of the cruise B11 thought I was crazy whenever I would go into raptures over a rock we sailed passed but by the end of our trip he was seeing them through my eyes and pointing them out to me so I wouldn't miss them.

So I have begun a small watercolour of the rock to the left - the colour isn't as vivid in the pic but you get the idea.

I have just completed the fourth 'pass' of wash and colour. I will start the final highlights - the oyster shells, lichen on the rocks, grasses, etc in a bit more detail.

B11 laughs at me - I took over 90 pictures of rocks or rocks and trees and about 10 of the houseboat, him steering or other boats......rotfl; he tells me I have enough inspiration for dozens of paintings - I tell him I need to go on another outing to find more.....