Special Things

I had a birthday a few weeks ago and turned a big 32. Only one year away from 33 (For some reason I've always looked forward to that age. Double numbers are cool.) Hurrah! We usually have a quiet celebration doing whatever we feel like. I got to have pancakes for breakfast, lunch at a favourite bakery, noodles for dinner and a nice ice cream cake for dessert. Yummo. It was fun.


Anyways, as birthdays sometimes go when you get older, I woke up thinking about my lovely grandfather who passed away ten years ago. He was such a driving force of goodness in my life and while I feel that in some way, he is still with me, every now and then I miss that goodness terribly. He always had a way of making me feel so incredibly special. I have countless books with little cut out book plates of teddy bears bearing my name. Daintily cut out with big hands and carpenter's fingers. He would write me long letters, even when I was a punked out teenager. He taped me the entire series of The Wonder Years from TV. He recorded Triple J off the radio because I couldn't get reception in my country town. I love him dearly for that. I love him dearly for so many things. There aren't many people in life who express love so selflessly. I hope that one day, I might express that kind of love to my kids. It is so needed, especially when you're young. But also when you're older, in a different way. To know you are loved unconditionally. Not for what you have or what you can give to someone else. Just for who you are. No strings attached.

So with tears in my eyes, I open my present. It is from Chris and is preceded by a card. I open that card and this is what I see -


It makes me laugh out loud. Then I see this -


I laugh a little more. And then I see this -


Needless to say, by the end of the card I was smiling again. How could I not be :) Especially realising that while I've lost someone very dear to me, I have another in my life right now, equally as special. Hehe. Poor smoldering Edward. And poor sparkly Chris. He's a keeper.

PS> While we're on the topic (kinda) of vampires, look what we got the other day! Tru Blood YEAH!!


Complete with Beaver mascot. He was the only thing I could find with big teeth...

The month that was...February!

Phew! What a month! February went by in a complete blur for us both. The weather has been unbelievably gorgeous and we had a lovely visit with some family from the USA. Visitors don't happen too often so we probably went a little overboard with wanting to show too many things! That being said, it's been an absolutely fab summer (we even have tans, whoop!). Things have settled down now and it's just the two of us and kitty again. That means we've both had a chance to make things :D

I just finished my Little Red Lap Quilt (now available on Etsy) and a custom order of lavender filled Babushkas for this lovely lass.








Chris made a great little zine for a subscription club that he's part of too! He had to do a zine for the month of February. It's called The Littel Dragun.


There's a change in the air for me this year as well! It's exciting :) I'll post more when it's official.

Oh, and I'll have a stall at the Eastside Makers Market on March 28th. I'm planning on having a couple of mini quilts and some lavender Babushkas. Check out their blog for details and come support local handmade!

Pucca Love

Our kitty cat Pucca is loved on A LOT. We think she's the best kitty ever. She even gets her own mail and has her own personalised Christmas decoration.
For two years straight it's been Pucca who has received the first Christmas card of the season. I love it! Thanks to Pucca's home away from home, the lovely Catnip. Love! xoxoxoxox


Even though she spends most of her time lounging on the bed, couch, chair, etc, she totally deserves her own Christmas decoration :) Made by me for 2009.


Her name embroidered on the back (the "a" doesn't come out too well on this pic) along with her little red ball - a favourite toy we would be lost without.


Me attempting to pack my Softies for Mirabel donation and not getting too far. Pucca would not let me put the toy in bubble wrap. She kept diving under it and hiding. You can just make her out under there. Chris says she looks like a wrapped sausage.


Meeeow! Bubble wrap!!!


All tuckered out and looking like a Christmas pudding.

And we're off!

It's a crazy windy day in Hobart and we're gearing up to head to Devonport tomorrow. It's a 3 hour drive from here to the North West coast of Tassie so we're hoping the wind will settle before tomorrow. Chris is teaching at Don College for 2 days doing a short course for secondary school students on comics. It's part lecture and part workshop. He's preparing for it now and it looks like it will be a great day. I'm looking forward to some R&R at the hotel and then some family time on Tuesday night with my mum and gran. There's a cute cat fleece scarf that I want to make too! It's in this book by Aranzi Aronzo. They are super fab and have some nifty sewing projects to boot.

In other news, I've decided to retire from review writing for now. I've been working as an arts writer for over ten years and have some great mags under my belt but for the last year, I've been falling out of love with the reviewing process. While I enjoyed the writing, having to wrestle with gallery staff (over the most simple requests) on my days off was tiresome and time consuming. Sometimes I wondered if we were speaking the same language! Having less time to myself has also made me really think about how I want to spend it. There's a lot less pressure to make money from writing now (oh look, I wrote for a whole week and got paid $75!) and frankly, I'm a little bored with contemporary art and all the fancy-pants networking that goes with it. That's not to say I don't appreciate some of it still. Our lives are just taking us in new directions. I'm having so much fun learning how to sew. I'm starting to enjoy my time off and we're on the road to preparing to add to our little family. It's an exciting and really fulfilling time. Plus, it's nice to devote time to special things like catalogue essays and comics. In short, I'm not missing the reviews at all!

So, after Devonport our next big thing is the Young Writers Festival in Newcastle (October 1 - 5). We need to get our butts into gear and book our flights to Sydney, eek! I'm still in two minds about going to see Tori Amos in November as well. I haven't been keen on her new stuff but I adore everything before To Venus and Back. She's one of the last on my must-see list. Seen Tom Waits, the Eels, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Decisions, decisions!

By the way, if this was our kid I would totally pee my pants. He is awesome.



PS. Pucca gets to go to Catnip while we're away. Yep, that's a feline resort folks.

Kitty hearts Comics

Pucca loves sitting on Chris's shoulders. Here he's trying hard to ignore her and work on his blog. What a sweet kitty :)
PS> Also note the red Nanna-blanket over legs.