Rainbow Toes Update

By Anna | April 5th, 2012

Just to let you know, Annie is still in hospital, however initial scans for secondary cancers have come back clear, despite the fact that there were two additional large tumours found in her breast and there were stacks in her lymph nodes. With a bit of luck she’ll be home for Easter to regroup before the chemo starts.

And she is totally gobsmacked and humbled by the huge wave of supportive rainbow feet that have been flowing in from around the world! I’ve told her that they’ve been sent in, but haven’t been able to actually show her the collection yet. And it has become QUITE a collection! Thank you to everyone who’s rainbowed their toes and emailed me their photos!

There is still time to send photos of your toes in as we have some lovely plans for your fun feet that are bound to put a smile on Annie’s face and maybe even encourage other women to have a mammogram/do a self exam/get that lump checked out.

So if you’re keen to join in this stampede of support, please email your photos to me at anna[at]shinyhappyart[dot]com, and if you have a blog, please help me spread the word and add your blog link to The Official Rainbow Toes Post.

It’s a nice thing to do at Easter, no? And thank you again from the bottom of my toes!

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Rainbow Toes for Annie – The Official Post

By Anna | April 2nd, 2012


Before last weekend, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the last time I painted my toenails. Life has been busy and quite honestly, these days my toes are soooo far away!

Then I twisted my foot, three weeks ago, and have been hobbling around ever since. So two Saturday’s ago, on a long awaited ‘girls weekend’ I decided to treat my poor old feet to a pedicure and came out with lovely navy toenails.

And then my friend Annie was told she’d have to lose her entire left breast and lymph glands to arrest the cluster of breast cancers that had been found in an MRI (they were not seen on a mammogram).

Before she went into hospital, Annie painted her two daughter’s toes and her own in rainbow colours, simply because her three year old is singing The Rainbow Song a lot at the moment, and she wanted her girls to be reminded of how much she loved them each time they looked at their toes. It was a sign of hope, and cheered everyone up just a bit.

So I painted my toes rainbow colours over the navy (not a great look) and her sisters and other friends then started painting their toes too.

Annie had shared a photo of her rainbow toes on her blog, and totally off their own bat, bloggers and blog readers from around the world started painting their toes too…

Just as Knitsofacto mentioned in her latest post, this is what Annie commented when she heard of the rainbow toed army:

“Rainbow solidarity girls!!! Paint your toenails with me and pin them everywhere. Join me in the rage. I want this thing cured before my baby girls grow up!!!!!”

When I mentioned my rainbow toes to another friend today, she spoke about how she actually thinks that social media can be used as a form of prayer, and that by painting our toes we’re showing that we’re walking with Annie in her journey, and towards a cure for this awful disease. So I think these rainbow toes could possibly do a LOT of good.

Last Saturday night I repainted my toes properly, in a session with my four kids and a dear girlfriend. It was something we’d never done before and it really was a fun, caring, thing to do together… for each other and for Annie.

So if you’d like to join in and paint your toes, alone or with friends or family,  I’d love to collect photos of them for Annie, and for the one in seven women that will know breast cancer intimately.

Please send photos of your toes to me at anna[at]shinyhappyart[dot]com . (SPECS – jpg format and around 1 to 3MB in size would be great!)

And if you have a blog and can help spread the word, please add your post to the linky below.

Thank you from the bottom of my (and Annie’s) rainbow toes.

(If you don’t have enough room to leave your full post address in the linky, please leave it in the comments and I’ll fix it up. Thanks!)

RAINBOW TOES FOR ANNIE AND BREAST CANCER
click for description
1. Makeminemidcentury 2. Annie @ knitsofacto 3. Mel
4. Zinta 5. Claire 6. Pippa
7. CurlyPops 8. Catherine 9. emma
10. Deb 11. Ariane the rose 12. Raine and Sage
13. nicole 14. Annie @ knitsofacto 15. brismod
16. TheMamaClub 17. claireinstitches 18. Peeriemoot
19. Gooseberry Jam 20. Fiona 21. mel@bungalowbliss
22. Julie 23. Justine 24. CC
25. Megan 26. mj 27. Donna
28. Regula Bartholdi 29. You're next!
If you are participating, add a comment and click the check box.
To report an inappropriate link, please begin by clicking here.
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Rainbow toes for Annie

By Anna | March 29th, 2012

I’ve just painted rainbow toes a little dodgily over the navy toes I paid to have done last weekend, in honour of Annie who is in surgery having her left breast removed right now. I can’t think of anything else.

20120329-163013.jpg

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She put my glasses on and she said

By Anna | March 20th, 2012

“Hello, my name is Anna Bartlett. Please get away from my desk, and my sewing machine!”

I think I need to do some more memorable things with my kids…

Posted in anna, Blog, family, family | Tagged | 5 Comments

It’s in all of us

By Anna | March 17th, 2012

I’ve been so happy with these latest Butterfly Paint Alongs. Look what beauties last Monday night’s class managed to produce!

And then again on Wednesday…

And everyone happily got stuck into it and trusted me that it would all work out in the end.

And it did.

Thanks to everyone who’s come and painted so far. I’ve got three more sessions on this subject and I am looking forward to opening some more eyes and seeing the proud smiles at the end.

 

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Of feet and arms and heavy breathing

By Anna | March 13th, 2012

Very early last Saturday morning I twisted my foot on an incredibly deadly catseye in the middle of a beautifully sealed road in a gorgeous part of town.

I blame my sister because she was praying for a reason not to run. Obviously she was also praying not to be the one who got injured. I facebooked this photo on the way home, because honestly, if a foot is twisted on the roadway, does anybody hear? No. Only if you facebook it.

So the rest of the day was spent directing some very nice people that I love all over the place to get ready for the Mummy Tree Market event on Sunday.

Thank you family and Whitney!

I did a demo at the market this time. Made it up onto the stage with my crutches and SPEED painted my butterfly design (this month’s Paint Along subject), complete with nervous shaking (not great when you’re painting), a bit of heavy breathing (I had one of those Hi 5 head mounted microphone thingies, very professional) and a bit of tuckshop-lady-arm wobbling as I madly finished my canvas.


So I’m thinking God is just suggesting that I get a bit more sleep this week (no early morning runs!), but that perhaps I spend a bit of time working on the arms instead.

Oh, and The Blackboard Boy has just released his latest idea – Blackboard Bunting. Great for so many occasions. Limited supply. Get yours here.

Now I’m off to put my foot up. Keep yourself lovely. Talk soon.

Posted in Blog, family, golden, markets, painting | 8 Comments

Welcome to the inside of my head

By Anna | March 8th, 2012

I guess you wouldn’t be surprised if I tell you a lot’s been going on around here. Apart from the new ceiling in my studio (thank you Husband!) and the fresh coat of paint also on said studio, I’ve run around and madly photographed a few things to share so that you know I’m still alive…

Firstly, my new business cards have JUST arrived! I did some for Shiny Happy Art -

and Kindy Shorts

with QR codes galore. I’m starting to see them around, but they’re only of use to me since I upgraded my phone. I’m hoping they’ll be useful to other people too… I keep remembering the time when I tried to pretend that Popover Sunglasses were fashionable for some reason. Hopefully these codes are catchier than my self-starting Popover craze. Oh, and because the Kindy Shorts website isn’t actually ready yet, I have to figure out a way of pointing that domain name to the Facebook page. Before Sunday. Hmmm.

The lovely Curlypops also sent me up the remaining collaboration bags we did so that I’ll have them with me at The Mummy Tree Markets this Sunday. So if you’re keen, you can see them in ‘the flesh’. Love the wrapping, Cam! As it so happens our school P&F are planning to buy one of these coffee machines, so now I can read all about it on this box before I head off to Aldi. The kids loved the Christmas paper the best!

Here is a peak at the bags… this is the first time I’ve used this version of the teacup print on fabric… and the iPad covers are in there somewhere too.  Plus, for the first time in ages I’ll also have an eftpos machine (fingers crossed!) which will make things easier for everyone.

Here’s a peek at what I’m slathering on my face ever since my 10 year old asked me ‘if I missed my youth’. Obviously I breastfed for so many years I identify with that lady on the front. She’s cute, no?

And I did a trial run on a friend yesterday, to test out my brand new “Butterflication Technique” (TM) that I’ll be using in next week’s Paint Along classes. We fine tuned a few things and now I’m all set to go. Thanks Mary!

Another highlight this week was receiving this pic of Goose (of Frog, Goose & Bear fame, nothing to do with Top Gun) with some of the lovely things she’s made from my Owls Make It Yourself fabric panel. Love them! Well done Goose!

And finally, here I am with my teammates at the end of the Peak to Park last Sunday morning. I walked the course last year, and this year I jogged it (non-stop – surely a miracle) and I’m thinking that next year I’ll be running it. Got to have a plan! The hats we’re wearing are branded with the word “Travisty” because that’s what it is when I jog this much and am still this size… so perhaps it’s time to concentrate on the food bit, I’m thinking…

I’ve got a 2 year old on my head at the moment, so hope to see you at the Mummy Tree Markets this Sunday, if you’re a local. If not, I plan to return to normal transmission sometime very soon. Promise.

 

Posted in anna, Blog, family, Make It Yourself Fabric Panels, painting, shiny happy art | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Hey, I’m in this magazine!

By Anna | March 1st, 2012

At the end of last year I was approached by local journalist and marketer, Janet Kieseker, to feature in a story for a regional magazine – Highlife Downs Living.

And it’s just been published!

It is strange seeing that many versions of me on the double page spread (imagine what could get done if there was four of me – don’t think my husband would be keen on that though). But the photos (by the talented Melissa Batterham of MiaMia Photography) are lovely and Janet’s article was spot on.

Also delighted that they chose the photo with all the Golden Paints in the background as the main one. The new Golden online shop is right near the top of my Teux Deux list at the moment.

So now I have to get busy and live up to the hype! Lucky Mum’s offered to have the girls tomorrow so it’s ALL ON! If you’re keen to actually read the article, I’ve scanned it a little bigger, so just click here. And thanks for reading my blog!

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Of facebook, shorts, paint and butterflies…

By Anna | February 28th, 2012

Ah… I didn’t mean to be away for quite so long! You may have been concerned that you had lost me to facebook…

… and you would be a little bit right. But I would like to think I can blog and facebook – and you know blogging was my first love.

Don’t tell Maeby the dog. She thinks she was.

So what’s been happening here?

Well, Kindy Shorts now has their own shop page, which is actually connected to the Kindy Shorts facebook page too. Next stop, the website. Plus eight new pairs were listed this morning (and the crowd goes wild!). I am constantly amazed at how much time and effort has to go into establishing a little business that sells $15 kindy shorts. But I can’t get it out of my mind! It may be the beginning of an empire. You heard it here first.

Plus, the Paint Alongs are going super-well. The next painting will be of butterflies and I have scheduled 5 session times into the week starting Monday 12th March. Just see here if you’d like to join me. And because I know you’ll want to know, my Paint Alongs are BYO drinks. We’ll be getting loose (with the paint), people! I’ve actually been working long and hard to make sure that the way I step through the painting of these butterflies is ‘beginner-proof’… and I think I’ve finally figured it out (big smile).

I also finally sewed a cover for this year’s diary. And hey, it’s not even March yet. On a happy note, I think I’ve designed a way to sew a slip on book cover that’s even easier than the way I did it last year. So stay tuned for a photo-laden tutorial on that little gem.

Some more delicious Golden paints arrived today! While I’m still working on the new website that will make it super easy to order online, I have loaded 5 each of these new Fluid and Heavy Body intro packs in the main Shiny Happy Art shop. And if you read it here and use the code BLOGFRIEND before 15 March, I’ll even give you 20% off. Not bad, huh?

Here they are again. The pack of 6 Heavy Body tubes is $44.55 and the intro pack of 10 Fluid bottles is $94.15. Take 20% off and that’s $35.64 and $75.32. Not bad. And a great gift for an arty friend too.

And I sewed my last batch of hankies. You’ll notice a couple of new fabric designs in this pic – well, I’m going to label and list all of these, and then that will be it. I simply don’t have time to sew them any more. And my family is now using so many of my ‘seconds’ that we’re set until about the year 3000. So if you’re a hanky lover, you may like to stockpile. I’ll let you know when they’re ready to go.

Other than that, all is well. The kids are good and there’s school meetings and piano lessons and debating practice galore. I am still running – finished the Couch to 5K program a while ago and have been jogging at least 3 times a week in preparation for the Peak to Park Fun Run this Sunday. Honestly, me and running? It’s a miracle!

If you’re a blog friend and haven’t heard from me lately, please say hi and I’ll ‘drop ’round’. I’ve missed you guys!

And to all my new readers, welcome. I have a new program for this blog, so expect to see more Art Tips, Craft Projects and Recipes very soon. I’ve even got some videos lined up… it’s going to be great. More like what a blog should be, and less like a Christmas letter. That’s the plan anyway! Got to have a plan!

 

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On My Walls

By Anna | February 16th, 2012

I haven’t done a meme in forever, but this latest one of Vic’s was one I couldn’t resist. I just stood up and took two pics.

It’s my office wall. One I’ve recently let myself loose with washi tape on, so it’s expanding. Organically. A bit like everything else in this house.

Those two framed pics at the top are by one of my absolutely favourite artists, Gennine. And the Hydrangea is by the incredibly talented Allison Langton – you will have seen her work in Home Beautiful and she does stacks of other wonderful things.

The postcards on the left are from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They remind me to be free. As do the Lainie’s Ladies hanging in the middle there.

I really really love these little snippets of children’s artwork being nice and close to this letter that my Grandmother wrote me in January 1998. She was a generous letter writer and this is some special paper that I had given her and that I know she would have loved to write on and send back to me. It reminds me to write more letters. They’re important.

There are lots of other interesting walls being revealed this week at Vic’s. Pop on by and have  a squiz for yourself!

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