Introducing the first of the design team ...

I'm delighted to introduce you to the first member of the Pixels and paper design team, Di Hasthorpe.

 

 

Hi,  I'm Di Hasthorpe. I'm married (almost 40 years) with one son. We live in far north east NSW. I've been scrapping for about 5 years and started my blog last year.

I don't really have a set style, layouts are very much dependent on what mood I'm in and what I've been playing with at the time. I really love experimenting with different mediums and quite often use fibres on my work.

 

I enjoy visiting other blogs and attending classes to see what others are up to. I also enjoy reading (again quite varied, depending on mood, but always thick books... the thicker, the better!), photography (mostly natural environments and wildlife), painting (acrylics and watercolours), travelling in Australia (still heaps to visit), gardening and cooking (focus on gluten-free as I'm a coeliac, and using Australian native plant foods).

I also love catching up with friends and fellow crafters.

 

When I first saw your DT call inspiration photo, my first thoughts went immediately to Mary Grant Bruce's books which I enjoyed as a young teen. These books, so Australian were firm  favourites. I had other books also written by early Australian authors, given to me by my mum. She grew up in  this era, having been born in 1911. My other favourite way of sourcing these books was to visit the local Quota shop on Saturday mornings and searching through their preloved book section, and the joy of finding a bargain for sixpence.

 

Looking at your photo, I wondered who this group was waiting for. Could it be grandparents visiting?  a loved one returning from war?  Is the young girl sitting down nursing a doll?

The setting reminded me of stories mum told, of her early married life, working on share farms and living without any form of electricity, during the Depression. The tumbled-down buildings, overgrown with vegetation was also reminiscent of any area I visited as a teen.. an old , once thriving mining town north west of Tenterfield on the new England tablelands... heaps of old, deserted overgrown buildings.

 

This layout is my take on your photo. This is a photo of my late mother-in-law's family and sadly, the only thing I know is that one of the boys is her father. 

 

 

 

Secondly one is of self taken by a school photographer some years ago 

 

 

 and of an old home in the Midlands region of Tasmania.

 

My blog is: http://mytawnyinspirations.blogspot.com.au/  named for some little feathered friends, tawny frogmouths, which reside in my garden during summer.