beautiful bovine

Rosie

Lovely is the bovine

Who's shiny fur reflects the beautiful zesty spirit within.

Large eyes

and a big nose

Perky udder swaying in the breeze

before she climbs on new-bull-friend Arthur.

Rosie

welcome to our family

who are as full of character as you are.

And when you're done with Arthur

(who lives at the neighbours place)

we'll take you home

read you bed time stories

give you the moozley take-away food you seem to love

and tuck you in safely at night.

We love you Rosie

no trip to the meat works for you.

Instead a life of frivolity awaits!

A sweet milking Mooooooooooo is a

Beautiful Bovine.

life

is worth LIVING:
(love this, there's piggies in it and Mooos and sheepies etc etc, so sold already. Warning it makes some people cry...)

veggies for life

I have decided:
I am becoming a vegetarian. It was likely to happen.
This nagging awareness that I was doing something silly.
How could I possibly eat those that are my friends?


When words unsaid are spoken
Nose to nose
When my curly hair is torn from my skull as they nibble
the practicing of their social rites of fitting me into
their group (because I smell funny goat Mia says).


How could I possibly eat my friends?


I have started to understand them 
that I know what they want
When they have pain and where
and what they want for dinner.
And how they want their beds made.
When they need clean water.
When they want cuddles and hoof holding.


How could I possibly eat my friends?


And even when Lisa the mini goat gets stuck in the fence again
as she's always curious
and always eager for the greener grass
I keep pulling her out and setting her free again.
As she dances off with a guilty face
I know she will do it again anyway but that's ok.
Looking after them is top priority.


How could I possibly eat my friends?


Why would it be hard to give up eating meat
when I can stop eating my friends.
And I can look them in the eye and say:
don't worry I'm one of you now:
I only eat greens.
I am part of your fuzzy tribe.


How could I possibly eat my friends?

(picture of Kuddles our 2 year old highland steer)

the lofty design process

I was reading a blog post (here) on how much time it can take to design a fabric. The lady in question said it could take up to 6 months. And it's not as easy as it seems. How interesting!


Now I remember when dad tried to teach me how to ride a push bike when I was a grasshopper. I fell over. I might have scraped my knees. I'm sure I must have bawled my wee eyes out and screamed I would never get back on the thing. I would be afraid of the big bike. I would yell dad had to not let go. This I remember clearly (poor dad). Then there's the memories of me naturally cycling at top speed on bikes of any size and chasing friends around. Lots of shouting, yelling and laughing going on. Still the occasional scraped knee but nothing to worry about.


My fabric designing days started organically. I designed my cows and couches in wait for it... a weekend. Not months. Now either I'm the next Van Gogh (I don't think so, too fond of my ears etc) or a more likely explanation: all that preceded to the point of Hemptech taking me on as a designer was the fact I attended Artschool in the Netherlands, I had my own studio for a few years, I emigrated to New Zealand, and kept designing for family and other relations while working as an interior stylist and later, interior decorator/designer. 


The fact is that people who are good in what they do (I'm not saying I am, I have my humble moments of perplexity that others like my stuff), lies more in the experience, and honing of one's skills, the repetition of the exercise,  which allows magic to happen, more so then forcing it out of us (or stomping our feet when it doesn't happen).


Athletes will tell you they didn't get that medal at the end or got to the Olympics after 6 months of training. We're talking years of dedication people. Don't expect you'll hit the jackpot in 6 months (although you very well might financially if you buy a ticket and good on you too.)


So as boring as it may sound: if you know how to paddle that bike-kanoe, ride that horse or swim that ocean, you are likely to have done it quite some time before you reach the other side. Process is continuous growth. Truth is, you're never "there". Society nowadays seem to crave instant success, instant meals, instant love making and instant customer service. Instant, now and immediate seems to be a lot to expect. Which means there also will be a lot of disappointments. It depends on the skills and the honing of said skills what the time frame will be of any result.


Practice makes perfect. There's no way around that.

good stuff

Good stuff is happening. I'm trying to get my act together again for designing more fabric. The phone rings: a local design store is interested to do work with me, to display and sell my cushions. They also hinted that they would like to host a wine evening and have me present there along with a furniture designer from Auckland who will be flying down. Where will my Mooo cushions sit on top of? On his lovely chaise. Exactly. Awesome.


Because the farm work has been coming out of our ears, and the calfs are sprouting left right and center, we've been a bit busy. Just a tad. One calf need bottle feeding twice a day for another 8 weeks.

Hemptech is seriously due for a new series of ass kicking design. I better get my tush in gear. Really really. The inspi juices are flowing. They need to be directed or they will go to waste.

Well I will give you a glimpse of what I have done so far. And I will do more. You can count on it. Wine evenings or no wine evenings.

Over and out.

Moooh!

Today the theme is cows people. Above is a design I did, made out of 6 mm thich whiteboard. Moooooh!

And that's one of the cushions released of my 'cows and couches' design .... there's a new release in the pipeline featuring a New Zealand native bird so I will keep you posted. If you're a retailer and keen to stock it order fabric here and if you like to get the cushion yourself you can order them from your local interior store. I have discussed designing something for a lady who owns a fashion boutique in town so will see how that goes. I'm keen to do a lot more fabric designing and have met some wonderful people recently. My work continues to be quite busy so will see how it all pans out. I'm trying to streamline more activities as things can get a little hectic owning a lifestyle block, working fulltime in a furniture/interior store and also trying to get my necklaces and fabric designs off the ground. The good news is: the weather has been fabulous for winter in the last few days so everything feels more like spring!

We had a wonderful weekend hanging out with the animals. (Pictured above is Cutie one of our half breed highland girls.) Poor Kuddles the 4 month old wee mancalf got castrated by us. (To clarify: that doesn't happen with nasty cuts and blood gushing everywhere, it means getting a steel scissors like tool and using that to put a rubber ring around his bits. It's still not very pleasant but beats the old fashioned way by a 1000 miles.)

So onwards and upwards! And not to worry, whatever happens, I'm not going to use transport means a la above in future.... I know it's hila but I'd rather ride a quadbike.
So have a great week and enjoy. Moooooooh.....