portraits from summer...

so what have i done this summer??

I keep thinking whether this summer has been productive or not.. so im gonna list it out..

1. I met a great family from Austria with 2 beautiful children
2. I traveled 11 cities/towns in Italy in 11 days with a good friend
3. I stocked up on vit D
4. I got to meet Zoe in Salerno!
5. I sold my art for the first time
6. I finished the Twilight saga
7. I painted
8. I saw Oasis! with great supporting bands
9. I read Nanny Matilda a book in German
10. I went up to st ands for grad week
11. I did a 250m high top rope thing
12. I fell in love with a country that I never expected to - Austria
13. I went to Tyrol.. seen some of the alps
14. I learnt a lot of austrian cooking
15. I never got stressed or angry or sad once when I was in Austria.. im very chilled these days...
16. The kids made me laugh until my tummy hurt everyday when I was in Austria

... I'll keep thinking... this shall be updated

sooo the last week or so!!

last weekend we had americans staying and we did sooo much touristy things around carinthia! we went top rope climbing, hiking along waterfalls and did some crazy height things.. which i was a bit scared.. but i managed!

this week has been a bit slow.. its been soooo hot here! im tired everyday and the kids are going mental! haha

babysat them 2 nights ago.. maybe my worst night as they wouldnt stop screaming.. Tina this Tina that etc etc! i went a bit nuts.. but it inspired me that night somehow.. I wrote a song in less than 20 minutes.. i was quite pleased.

The kids are really bonding with me these days and Im getting very attached which i dont think is good. The little one is always 'Tina.. where are you!?' in a funny german accent.. 

Im moving out the house on sunday as im staying with the grandparents next week with the kids as well as the mum. It makes the moving easier. So i have to pack this weekend.. kinda starting to kick in that I have to leave this place.. man im gonna miss all of this..

Kinda getting sad now.. haha but ive been soo busyyy doing what i dont even know.. just trying to spend time playing with the kids as much as possible these days.. they are really funny kids.. 

living the weekends..

Last weekend I was in Tyrol, the alps of austria and it was .. beautiful.. 

We stayed at the fathers aunts place and she not only spoilt the kids with lots of sugar goodness but me too.. soo i was very much hyper the entire weekend. We chilled at her house a lot and her 'pond is her swimming' pool.. i was swimming with water lilies.

We hiked up around the hills behind up and saw some very stereotypical alpine landscape.. waterfalls, trees and deers!

We came back from Tyrol on Monday and it has been sooo busy since..

I shall write up these days soon after this weekend.. 2 weeks left here.. im absorbing as much as I can as the family, the country, the landscape is.. beautiful.. I have already made my retirement plans.. :)

busy busy VIENNA!!

Soo these last few days I have been away from the kids and St Kollmanns. From sunday to wednesday I was in Vienna on my own staying with the mum's brother's family. Her brother and girlfriend were really nice and they helped me a lot with my travel plans!

On sunday I arrived in vienna around 1pm and went to schonbrunn palace which was really near to her brother's flat. The palace was gorgeous and I did an audio guide tour and saw 40 rooms in the palace which was spectacular. I walked around the grounds and the plants and views were soo beautiful! 

On monday I went and walked all around district 1 and saw most of the palaces and monuments. It was sooo tiring! I then saw harry potter haha (it started to rain!) bit disappointed with the film, and then later I watched Carmen the opera on the big screen outside the Rathouse.

On tuesday it was raining soo heavily that I decided to do museums! well first in the morning i went to the stadtpark and then later I went to Kunsthistorisches museum.. took me a long time.. and the highlight had to be the Rafael paintings. I managed to get into a viennese coffee shop which was very cutesy. Later at night I went to see the opera the Vogelhandler at the schonnbrunn theater.. apart from that it was all in german and that I struggled with the humours etc I felt I got the idea of the opera. 

But yeah all in all Vienna was a great break from the kids and I felt I was back traveling again.. however it made me missed daz and zoe. 

I will put up the photos later!

Another great news my HOLGA 135 camera has arrived!! and it is beautiful.. its a toy camera what do you expect! im soo excited to start taking film now! enough of this digital crap..

Oh and I am going to Tyrol tomorrow! its near the Alps and we get to drive up some greta mountains! im excited! will be back on monday.. 

This week..

This week has been quite hectic.. we've had a lot of tiring days and nights!

Yesterday we were at a party in a fairy tale castle! it was lovely but there were about 20 odd children and I had to keep my eye out for our boys. The boys went to sleep at 11 the latest ever! and i was exhausted. 

The dad is back and the boys can not keep away from him, currently they are away with the dad somewhere as I have my day off and the mum needs the much needed rest!

I am getting to know the au pair of her sister-in-law's children quite well, she is from wales and is very easy to talk to.

This week the 4 year old seems to be in a mood with me.. but apparently from the mum he has phases like that.. kinda reminds me of myself when I was little! haha 

The 2 year old is always happy but always wants more and everything is his.. ich haben, meine, noch eine are his favourite words! but he is very polite and always says Dankyou! such a sweetheart!

This morning I went for a run.. it was too hot.. but the views were fantastic.

Oh and I have started on some painting and I sketched the little one the other day (see photo)! 

Tuesday 21st - Caves, castles, chill...

We left to the grandparents house and me, the mum and the 4 year old went to a cave. The cave was very small but soo pretty. We then climbed the hill behind, lots of steps. Ended up at a castle ruin site and there was a cafe there. The view was georgeous. 

Life here us soo chilled out, just what I need. The scenery is beautiful.. having tea on the baucany watching the sunset.. I feel like I'm on holiday. The mum is really nice, she's planning a lot if touristy and fun things for all of us to do. 
I've got tomorrow morning off and then we are going swimming in the lake tomorrow again. Instead of beaches we have hills and lakes. Instead of jellyfish we get ticks haha I'm still paranoid both the kids have already had ticks on them. 
Oh and the older boy loves pink.. Everything has to be pink.. plates, cup, toothbrush.. I draw him a picture has to be pink.. I have drawn a lot of pink houses! Its really funny actually.. 
Tomorow morning I am going to start the paintings. What a life eh! 

Italy posts are up! :)

Today is my day off.. and I've literally just spent the entire day doing these Italy posts and eating icecream :)

If you find it too small.. CLICK on it and it should open up and be bigger

There should be 10 posts in total.. enjoy!

Today has been really nice, most of the time I am alone the house which I rarely have. Yesterday's family party has worn my out, as the kids were running about and I was chasing after them haha. I am babysitting tonight.. hopefully they should be sleeping.. fingers crossed! 

Italy! Day 11

Italy! Day 10

Italy! Day 9

Italy! Day 8

Italy! Day 7

Italy! Day 6

Italy! Day 5

Italy! Day 4

Italy! Day 3

Italy! Day 2

* click on the image if its too small to see.. im trying to be fancy by doing this on this Pages application.. its a bit complicated

settling in Austria...

Soo first few days.. 

Heres is where I am staying at and a cheeky view from my window.. yes I love my view

  

Yesterday went to the mum's sister in laws house, it was massive! huge! and their garden was just a perfect place for kids to grow up in.. I was impressed.. they have a welsh au pair didnt get to to talk to her much but she seemed nice. They have 3 girls and I played some games with them.. the youngest daughter was sooo sweet!

Later that night I met the kids father for the first time, he came back only for short time, he goes hunting and works.. so I rarely see him. 

Today it rained soo much this morning but as I am writing this now it is sunny again! One of the boys woke up crying.. and soo the house was in a mood by the time I came down stairs. I watched the kids as they watched some german dvd.. was a little weird.. but apparently its a well known book! I am meant to have this afternoon off.. but I am hanging about the kitchen. Oh this morning a baked a cake with the mum's help and then helped her make lunch. Lunch was special.. we had dumplings but with a whole apricot inside! yes I am going to come home cooking austrian dishes! 

They have a macbook pro.. yes! soo hopefully I will start writing about the italy trip soon. The thing is I can have free time but because it is only the first few days I am spending it with the family as I feel I don't know the kids well enough.. maybe later on the weeks I will use my free time and start some painting!

Tomorrow I am going to the mum's aunt's 70th birthday party.. its in a castle somewhere. I have ran out of clothes.. and cant do washing as I think it will rain soon.. hmm

AUSTRIA!!!!!! :)

Sooo I am in Austria at the moment.. I am in a small village near Klagenfurt.

The family Im staying with has two boys, 2 and 4, and they are very cheeky but painfully adorable! I feel like I live in the middle of nowhere! but I kinda got used to that last year in camp! I live in mountainy hills and yes there are TICKS! grhh ... ahh well!

The house is really beautiful and big and they have a new pool! I shall put up photos soon!! However I shall be doing my breakdown of Italy in the next couple of days!!

Met the grandparents today, they are lovely! Later in the afternoon we went to a lake and went swimming, the scenery was beautiful .. and the sun was out so I caught a tan pretty quickly!

Okay will be writing the last 11 days in full soon! 

from art.. to.. travels

SO originally this blog was for my random doodles over summer... however my summer plans of doing nothing has changed!
I'm going travelling for a bit.. well until start of september..

It all started like this:
Zoe, is au pairing in italy this summer. Me and Daz decide to visit her. So we thought since we are in Italy .. might as well travel around a bit. With our interrail ticket this became our journey - edinburgh - manchester - bergamo - milan - venice - florence - pisa - rome - naples - pompei - salerno - ascea - some coasts - milan - manchester - home sweet home
Exciting stoooff!!

However.. I decide to be even more spontaneous... 3 days before I'm gonna leave to Italy this happens:
I was having a bad day, so news from all the jobs I have applied - nothing. I dont like having nothing to do in summer. So I go on au pair world and had a look.. the families all seem real nice.. why not i thought! my second last summer.. lets apply
Immediately that evening I hear back from a family, they are austrian but live in london, but are going to Austria on holiday and they need an au pair. The time suited me, basically meaning instead of going home I'm going straight to Austria. Sounds good ... 1 day later.. contract signed.. I'm going to Austria!

soo my plans for summer is this.. I shall keep it posted..

some left handed doodles...

My plan for this summer is to write left handed.. yes i really do have this much free time..
soo ive started with a few doodles :) enjoy!

Back from Lanzarote!

Managed to draw a little on holiday... couple of sketches here and there... did some left handed sketches too but will upload those later

Painted this painting at Playa Blanca... along the coast under the sun...

Playa Blanca - 09/06/09

and so summer starts..

I'm determined to paint this summer.. its gonna happen

some past works to start it off...

[lay lady lay] - exhibit your curiosities art exhibition
02/2009

Camp drawings from summer 08


Gift to Granddad
2006