Paula Mills Art

Here is a new illustration, done myself , entitled 'pale' for our etsy shop . Amazingly I have found the time to do quite a bit of new work over the school holidays, with all the kids around and in 40 degree heat! Lets just say that other things, like house work have taken a bit of a back seat, oh well. The illustration is of a very special girl who has the courage to do many things - glide with swans in the pale moonlight, fly with angels, make friends, dance like no one is watching, laugh hysterically, breath peacefully, walk gently, I wonder what else she can do? I am sure she doesn't have to hoover the lounge!

I do love collage, in any way or form and was totally inspired by finding an old crate full of images from our travels from the days when we used to print our photo's! Here is one of a series of three which i have put up on my illustration blog .

Sometimes we just have to look at every day things for inspiration.We all have many objects around our homes that are same, same but different. This is an illustration I did entitled 'similar' of the various chairs from around my home. This print is available to buy in our etsy shop. Do everyday things inspire you in any way? What are they?

The kids are still off school (summer holidays stretch on forever - good when your a kid, not so good when your the parent entertaining the kid), and they have helped me a bit with some of the upcoming market items. I give them little jobs to do, like sanding or gluing and they seem to really enjoy it. My eldest then gets all amped up to make her own stuff to sell and i have to field questions like " do you think my egg brooch will sell well at the market mom?" - (the egg brooch in question being a piece of clay shaped like an egg - literally). Its times like these when i feel like its a real home-cottage industry which also reminds me why I do it - as it can give me that precious time with my girls. Other crafty stuff I enjoy doing with them can be found at a great site : http://kidscraftweekly.com/ , I would love to hear about any of your kids craft finds for holiday inspiration. some of the brooches/pins we worked on together:

We are mad paper collectors, we love making these very special paper packs and we love receiving feed back from happy customers who have enjoyed them too. We have just loaded a few new paper packs in our " made it" and "felt" shop s . Have a look.

I (paula) often post illustrations on Illustration Friday , an amazing site to get the illustrative juices flowing. The theme this week was 'contained' and here is my entry, the thought being how our lives can often be contained in our hand bags...

So we all had the most wonderful summer holiday together, but its only a matter of time that we all had to go our separate ways. Paula back to Melbourne, my brother off to the South Island and us.... well we stayed put. Our time together definitely had a "gathering" theme to it - from collecting mussels on the beach, eggs from the chook house, or the big family evening meals with seven children and six adults trying to outdo each other with the noise level. A highlight for Paula and I was some gathering excursions to the local thrift shops. Here is a shot of the collection - My fav. is the metal and glass rack which I will use for the craft market stall for display. It was discovered in a vintage collectors dream of a shop called "ma-mite" - run by two old lady's with a fantastic eye for all things collectible and cool - with some old vinyl playing and the walls strung with vintage bathers, I don't know what was more fun, the lovely finds or the shop itself....

Finding our prints on an Etsy treasury is such a special moment. We feel really touched that somebody has taken the time and energy to compose these amazing mood boards and to have felt we deserved a spot! Its a great feeling i tell you! Thank you to botodesigns for taking the time and compiling a stunning treasury called Muted Journey. The other bonus is you get to see new artists - our heart list is growing! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=38397

Some of the little moments that have brought us joy over this holiday time together. Some found treasures alongside fun family outings. We love to op shop together and we have fossicked some really nice pieces - (look out for some special vintage bits in our shop soon!) This little deer is one of a set we found - one each yay!