It has been requested of me to share some more of my blackout art. So here it is, these got  a lot more arty than the first one I did. The umbrella design is one I found another place and copied the idea but what the picture says is of course of my own creation. 

Yes I have a bible that I rescued at the book fair from going to the tip and yes I do use it for craft, and yes I do feel terrible every time I cut a piece out of it and yes it was even worse cutting a page out it it, but also very effective!

I really like how you can add so much by taking away. It is so fun to change what the paper says into something completely different. 

These other pictures that contain people were first sketched from a photos of people I found online but I generally looked at a page and then knew just what picture I needed to find and put on it. 

 The wind idea also came off another persons blackout poetry art piece. I liked it, so I flicked through the pages of the falling apart poetry book I have used for some of these pieces until I found a page with the word 'wind' on it. It turned into this. 

This one was fun. My parents thought I might die from the smell of the permanent markers. It was quite different removing everything else and making the white/blank parts what was there. I also did not intend to make the lady quite so thin, but I forgot that the outline was more like an inline since not the outside of the line but the inside would become the outside. (Sorry if that confused you)

This last one is my favourite though. I saw the words "THE ELDERLY GENTLEMAN" and some of the other words on the page that I have brought out in the image, and I knew instantly what I wanted it too look like. The problem was I couldn't find a photo of an old man with a stick in the position I imagined. Eventually I found one that I could flip and then sketch from. Resulting in this. 

 Do you sketch?
Do you like playing with words?

Have you ever tried any blackout poetry?

I experienced one of those rare magic moments today. I felt as though a portal to some fantasy place had opened for a minute. The experience just seemed too wonderful to belong in this worlds realm. It was kind of like a glimpse of heaven.

I drove past a house the other day and it inspired me to write, this;

Once this was not a sad little house, I am sure. Once a man, or maybe more, laboured on its foundations. Each wooden slat, cut and placed by loving hands. With joy and laughter, looking forward to a brighter future, this house rose up from the steep hill. Finally the wife arrived, the furniture, and the corrugated iron for the roof. It rumbled up on a slow moving wagon, drawn by a team of oxen, maybe. Maybe they had trudged the tree boarded track up the mountains for days, weeks.

Once, maybe once, the young wife ran up and into her husbands arms,  so glad that they were together again. So glad of the beautiful house, a house of her own, with wooden boards to sweep the dust from. Together they would make this their home, possibly.

As the rain fell, it drummed down on the roof, horrendously noisy, but they sat together, knowing that the house was solid built. It would not blow away, or collapse like a tent of canvas. Maybe soon after that children could have come.

Once they could have leaped off the bottom step and run down the slope, crossing over the fallen tree that bridged the creek, and jumped into their fathers arms as he arrived home. Did he come from taking their cattle to market? Or selling the furs of the animals he trapped? Or from the homestead where The Boss lived? 

Other times the children could have run with buckets down to the bubbling mountain stream and tried to catch the little mosquito fish, that darted through the clear water. Little trousers, or skirts, hoisted high. Maybe muddy little feet ran back up the hill to show Mother their prizes. Or maybe they fished out the fat black tadpoles, and kept them in a jar, watching as they grew legs, squiggly tails shrank and then disappeared. 

Once upon a time, long ago, many things could have happened in and around that happy little house. House of promises, hopes and dreams, once. Now though, it sits a weathered grey. On a hillside, far from anywhere, a dull house rots, silent except for the clatter, bang, and scratch of the rusted iron roofing, that has now come loose. Each gust of wind, pulls at the house, and it succumbs, sinking away, slowly returning to dust, and memories.

What memories it must hold though, if only I could hear it speak. If only the creaks, could, be interpreted, or the language of old things found out. But the people who lived there once, have gone, grown old and died. Maybe the children still live on somewhere, I wonder have they forgotten, the once happy little house on a hill. Or are they no longer, here to be able to remember, have they too passed away. I do not know, but I wonder, what does that sad little house remember?

I have set mine eyes upon snow twice in my life. Just a week ago the second time came around. At the beginning of the day we were rather in doubt as to whether the weather would be horrid or not. The predictions spoke of rain, and we did not even know if there would be any snow left, from all the falls on the weekend when everything on Barrington Tops had got covered in a heavy shroud of snow. We set off despite all dire predictions, as we had planed... well rather spontaneously the night before.

I have accepted the challenge by Julia where she asked people to go to an interesting shop in their town and photograph stuff there, a shop they had not yet been into. After going into the antique store I took these photos at I can't believe it has taken me almost eighteen years to go into it! (Though apparently it has not existed that long.) Well I have lived in this town all my life....... so here are photos of some of the things I found in this not so little shop.

Seriously who collects cans? If you know someone who does please tell me!

A beautiful old sewing machine.... I always wonder at the story behind these sort of things

I put my hand into this bowl of buttons and ran my fingers through the buttons, so many and all so different.

There were shelves of lace and whatever you call the stuff in this photo.

This would be perfect for a newborn shoot..... if it were not so expensive.

I saw this one first then the one below and had to laugh.

There were more drawers full of silver, doilies, table runners and such things. 

I just could not stop looking at these pots on the stairs.....and upstairs there was even more!!

One room had mostly just clothing in it.

Pianola rolls. I have once seen a pianola played at out second cousins I think....

Very old copy of one of the Billabong books. These are so good!

I think I have the same edition of Wings Above Billabong.... except I had to stick it together with superglue......

Really cool suitcases.

I had to laugh at this.... A music stand! It looks just like the ones we have at church..... except maybe a little more sturdy...

More suitcases.

I have some books just like the ones down the bottom of this photo too.

Beautiful vases.

These cups were just so green and pretty.

I think some of these are hat boxes.

For these rather cool hats...

... and these hats.

Then back down the stairs,

past the jars again,

and then after about an hour I hurried home.

 I almost did not go into the shop that day, I just happened to drive past it and having nothing I had to do right then. I turned down the next road and went around the block and into the carpark of the shop. I got my camera and hid it under my jumper and ran out through the rain. I am so glad I did do that then, and considering the photos are all taken indoors and on an overcast day they are rather good, considering. Still, I mean to go back, with my sisters, and take photos again on a bright sunny day.... or at least another day, don't know if I shall post about that then but we shall see. I hope you enjoyed the photos and that you actually got to the end of this post!

Are there any small/not so small stores in your town?

You never know what is hidden there until you look!

Please take on the challenge!