I've been working on something new for the past couple of weeks with kaleidoscopic photography and more silhouettes - this time bugs! Bugs and beetles creep me out, especially when they decided to run across your top at a dinner party like last week! But, they are pretty amazing when you take a closer look. So I thought I'd combine some of the kaleidoscope images of rocks, geodes and crystals I'd been putting together with some cut out shapes. Who knew bugs could be so pretty. Prints are available from my etsy and hard to find stores and I'm busy working on more creepy crawly bling bugs.

Wow! I guess when you step back and take a look at it like this I have been a busy little bee! Lots of fun and colourful new nursery art prints all part of the rainbow bright range. I'm working on adding some more Aussie birds and animals too so watch this space. All available from creative monsoon and please get in touch if you'd like something custom such as your child name adding to a print.

Today is International Day of the Girl, a day dedicated to raising awareness about issues concerning gender inequality around the world. It's also the launch of ‪#‎makeforgood‬, an initiative from etsy Australia with Plan International to change the world for girls. I've created a special edition print just for the event and will be donating 50% of sales to the Because I am a Girl campaign. "Every cloud has a silver lining" is available from my etsy shop as a 10x8" print will real hand painted glitter. 

Here's a little doodle I've been meaning to try for ages! Sketch around your hand lightly onto a page and then draw lines across the page curving over the hand. It creates a really cool 3D effect. I decided to turn mine into a little mummy and baby artwork. Getting a 13month old to sit still and have his hand sketched round was definitely the trickiest part. Plus he decided to 'contribute' to the work by throwing water at it.

creative monsoon's new planet

NASA has discovered a new planet .... no, I just discovered photographing my frying pan is cool.

Inspired by the work of Norwegian photographer Christopher Jonassen who turned worn-out frying pans into undiscovered planets from outer space.

Give it a go yourself. I photographed my frying pan with the hipstermatic iPhone  app, popped it into instagram and added a filter then into photoshop to cut out the circle and add a little inner shadow.

christopher jonassen

This month I'm loving the work of Yumi Okita. These beautiful big textile moths make me wish I could sew.

Glad to see I'm not the only one a little obsessed by envelope lining. These gorgeous 3D flowers are part of Samantha Gazal's latest exhibition at the Butchers Hook Gallery, 52 William St, Paddington in NSW, until July 11.

 Working on something new today...

The next step in the great garden conversion - plants. Kitting out such a big space with herbs and vegetables will be pretty pricey so I've been looking into growing plants from scraps. Above is my mutant capsicum grown in just a week from a few seeds saved from a store bought capsicum. And below the spring onions and leek have started to grow. Testing out some lemon basil too.

It's time for a new diy project around the house. Last year we had two big designs - the kitchen and nursery, well three if you count the baby too! So now we need a big new project to get stuck into and I've decided to create a vegi garden.

Yay! The nursery is done. Except for a few more pictures and obviously lots more baby "stuff" - poor little guy doesn't really have anything except furniture and clothes at the moment. But Im sure that will change and we have plenty of storage space ready for it.

There were quite a few little DIY projects which might explain why I feel so exhausted. But very pleased with how everything turned out, it was worth it. Little one's initials I bought from spotlight, painted the same colour as the wall and used spray glue to attach some glitter scrapbook paper. The painting above the crib is just simple stripes painted on, then strips of ribbon added for more colour and texture.









To finish it off - twinkle curtains. Black out curtains in navy blue with little lazer cut stars that let just a little light in. Oh and we're missing a before shot of the whole room - yup, that's an improvement.

The work of Linda Arthurs caught my eye this week. Big on my to do list has been the idea of mixed media or pen drawn interiors, just full of pattern, and Linda has a few pieces that remind me of this.