feeling the heat?

Last week your mind was whisked away to a tropical island just with a colour.

This weeks' colour turns up the heat.  It shows aggression, warns of danger, yet it can be exciting, passionate and sexy.  Living life a little dangerously, we are attracted to this colour even though we know sometimes we ought not to be.

This colour not just wants your attention, it demands it.

How could it be any other colour?

In it's pure vivid form think fire engine red. The eye catching colour advances, making it appear nearer, which makes it appropriate for fire engine or stop lights.

Given its' eye catching nature and that it can stimulate appetite, it is not surprising red features in the logos and interiors of certain international fast food establishments. 

Red is a sign that food is ripe.

So why is red eye catching and makes you feel warm?
A person sees the colour of an object by the size of a wavelength reflected off the object.  For a red object it reflects the longest wavelengths that can be seen by a human eye.  Your eyes have rods and cones which processes longer wavelengths quicker.  Thus your eye will pick up red quicker, which also makes it looks closer than other colours.

Our physical reaction to it can increase blood pressure and adrenaline that creates a sense of warmth. 

Infrared produces a sensation of heat and has longer wavelengths than the colours that can be seen by a human eye.  As it is red that has the longest wavelengths this colour is closest to infrared red.

I hope you see the love of red - have a good weekend

an easter feast

continuing yesterdays taster of the Sydney Easter Show.

My children now think that I can produce something similar for their birthday - at least their birthday parties are towards the end of the year, so hopefully they will have forgotten just how fantastic these creative cakes are.

feeding the animals

A very sharp, shiney axe plus muscles, they made it look easy.  I know I could not do the wood chopping without losing a few toes.

A large display of photos and paintings. There were many that caught my eye, including this one that the style reminded me of some of Margaret Preston's work (a influential Australian artist from 1920-1940s)

Then onto the main arena where the country battled and won against the city in the Rodeo.

A brief history was portrayed of when the postal system in this vast land was delivered by coach and horse - those were the days when post had a much greater importance as a form of correspondance than it does today. Sometimes a coach would set off without a bag of post.  It was up to the skilled stockman (a lone horseman) to gallop, catch up with the coach and throw the swag onto the coach.
3 man teams from 4 of the states and territories competed in races to portray the stockman's job,  finish off carrying the Australian flag around the stadium.

fireworks and lasers rounded the evening off.

taste of easter

here is a little taste of the Easter Show, held each year when the country comes to the city (on til the 27th April if you happen to be in the area)

lunch?  no, one of the many cakes on display

egg decorating

more to follow....

monkey island

Like many boys, my son choose a pirate theme for his party.  As a party does not happen without invitations, I set to work on a few sketches for them, and went with this.

© decoro creativity 2011

We had already got a 'Happy Birthday' banner with a monkey on, so Monkey Island had to be the party island for all these young pirates.  The finished invites were washed over with paint to give an aged look and painted  (unfortunately, I did not make any spares nor did I take a pic of the finished invitation to show you).

The same design was applied to the cake.


© decoro creativity 2011

Then one sunny day the pirates arrived, played their pirate games, found pirate treasure, ate a pirate's feast and of course some pirate cake.

birthday fairy

Asking my daughter for inspiration for her birthday invites she choose fairies.  Having this in mind I saw a fairy sitting on a toadstool.  I looked at various pictures of  fairies to help clarify in my mind elements I wanted to bring to the picture.  Quite quickly she emerged on the paper, with a sweet care-free look about her and maybe a bit of mischievousness - what is she hiding in her hands?

© decoro creativity 2010

Then a bit of colour added 

© decoro creativity 2010

She also made it onto the cake

© decoro creativity 2010

and the party bags, this one for the birthday girl with the words 'love from Mummy'



© decoro creativity 2010