Retail Therapy... and I blame Donna Downey!!

That Donna Downey has a lot and I mean A LOT to answer for... good thing she is such a lovely lady and so easy to forgive.
I've always been a fan of Donna's though have never really religiously followed her blog or her YouTube channel. But then I met her in person at Creative Adventures Downunder earlier this year and now I follow her posts and her channel considerably more frequently... I'm even going through all her back videos...
Donna is a huge fan of the Golden brand of products and she explained why during the class we had with her. She also extols their virtues whenever she uses their products in her projects and art journal pages. As a result of this, I set my mind to investing in some Golden Paints when I finally had some money to spend.
Let me say they are very hard to get hold of here in New Zealand. I've finally found somewhere and luckily they have a shop here in Auckland, though it has taken some digging to find where to get them locally.
Gordon Harris, the Art and Graphic Store, has been around a while. I remember as a student, back in the day, buying my art supplies from my local store down in Christchurch. I could spend hours in there looking over papers, pencils, paints and all sorts of artist's paraphernalia. I built up my supply of Caran D'Arche water colour pencils, one at a time there over a period of years. I still use them now and still marvel at the intensity of colour. They have three stores here in Auckland - Albany, Newmarket and Symonds Street as well as stores in Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch (all be it in a new location from the one I used to frequent).
Anyway... I popped in over the weekend, dragging my family and extras on a day of shopping around town, and finally laid my eyes upon the fabled Golden product display. Bonus time - all Golden products were discounted 20%... this is a good sign!
My first dilemma and one I had been contemplating for a while was what colours do I invest in first. I was working to a budget, and the individual paints are quite pricey (as good quality usually is) so it was an important question to be answered. I had also set my mind to getting some glazing fluid... thanks for that Donna Downey... after see the amazing effects Donna had been able to achieve in her art journal using the aforementioned glazing fluid.
I looked over the colour range. I looked for the price labels... couldn't find any... looked to the top of the shelf (easier said that done when you are my height) and found a chart of prices and decided I may need to sell my step children into slavery. The prices ranged from $6.50 to $45.00 odd for a single bottle of paint. Making my budget stretch to more than one colour was looking like being even more of a challenge than I had originally anticipated.
I decided not to panic, clam down, breathe deeply, wander around a little more then go back for another look once my blood pressure had reduced a little.
I had optimistically picked up a basket as I walked in the door of the Newmarket store, so clutched it a little tighter and rounded the display stand to see all the Golden mediums and there in the middle the haloed glazing fluid. I picked up a bottled read the label (to make it look like I knew what I was doing) then placed it in my basket... Donna Downey 1 point.
By now the blood pressure was back down to normal so I carried on around the display heading back to where I had started, ready to make the big decision of what colours to invest in first. As I rounded the corner my attention was momentarily distracted but a large table in the centre of the store with some multi-packs of paint on display including... a Golden starter pack with 10 colours of paint in 30ml bottles and at a discounted price.
I ummed and ahhed and looked at it and decided this was the answer to my dilemma. Instead of me struggling over what colours to get, Golden had done the hard work for me and here ready to use was a selection of colours to get me started and most importantly it was within my budget including allowing me to get the glazing fluid as well.
Before I could change my mind, question my decision or spend any more money I went up to the counter, to the very helpful staff member and made my purchase.
So here they are my Golden purchases which I still put the blame squarely on Donna Downey's shoulders for forcing me (okay encouraging me) to buy.

If I'm being honest I also need to confess that a couple of days earlier I had already had some more retail therapy. At Warehouse Stationery I had picked up the Yellow and Blue packs of Faber Castell Gelatos... also Donna's fault! And then at the Art Supplies store in the Meadowlands Shopping Centre I had bought some eyes droppers for my liquid inks (mainly my Indian Ink) and some FW liquid acrylic ink in White and Pearlescent Green/Yellow.. also Donna's fault.

I am looking forward to creating with all of these products. I've completed one Art Journal page which I will share in another post but I also want to try to experiment with them in my scrap booking... so be sure to watch this space to see what happens when the ink and the paint meets the paper.