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 My Illustration Friday attempt for " run". This one was tricky. 'Running make-up' is where it ended up. Also, to everyone who asked last week, my 'match' illo was inspired by the twins I photographed (although they are not really conjoined in real life). Twins make me so curious; that connection they share is second nature. Although, of all the identical twins I've ever known there's alway one who enjoys being a twin, and another who is really bothered by it. Even at the age of 3 I could see this in those boys already. Yet, the connection remains. These boys took ages to learn how to talk because they developed a language between themselves first. They would have entire babytalk conversations together that no one else could understand, but they continued as though they were really communicating. At points one would even crack the other one up with a joke of somekind and they'd both end up in hysterics, leaving the rest of us wondering what was so funny. So fascinating!
 I spent this past weekend in Melbourne on a trip Sister Sparkle arranged. It's the first time we've ever done anything like this; a girls weekend away for Sister Sparkle, Mum and myself. As we were on the plane on the way there Mum was telling us the last time we all flew together was when Sister Sparkle was only 5 weeks old, and I was 5 years old. That's a fair while. When the idea was first raised I must admit I was frightened, you see it was planned as a shopping trip and holy moley can those women shop! I flashed back to times when I've been shopping with each of them separately, hours and hours of me begging to stop for a cup of tea, only to see them disappear into another shop calling back "Sure, I'll just have a quick look in here first" over and over. I knew this was a special occasion though, so I went willingly stating my only conditions were that we stop for a drink and a bit of a rest every 2.5 - 3 hours, and I get to go to a craft shop I remember going to last time I was there. We did both, thankfully. And it was fun. I went into training 3 months in advance; in the lead up I didn't go anywhere near a shop just so my thirst for shopping was somewhere on the same level as theirs. It worked. It was good fun in the end. We didn't get to see any landmarks or do any sightseeing - it was serious clothes shopping only. I didn't mind, this was my 5th trip to Melbourne (I love Melbourne) and it was good to have a different type of trip to what I'm used to. The shopping part was successful, I picked up a few cute items so I was happy. Sister Sparkle on the other hand... Well she was happy too... $685 later!!!! (that was on clothes alone, and in one single day). I told you they were serious shoppers.
 My Illustration Friday attempt for " match".
 "Stop! Stop! Stop! Coming Grab Bargain" yells a new banner that has been errected at a temporary shoe sale along my journey to work. Gives me a giggle each morning.
 I recently did a photoshoot of these adorable 3 year old identical twins for a friend (they're her boys). They're soooooo freakin' cute. It was a little tricky catching them both in the same photo, but heaps of fun all the same. Anyway after this I've decided that I might try and do more family/kiddy photo's. More light hearted and spontaneous than weddings. (p.s. I've used this somewhat ambiguous photo here to protect their cute little privacy from the big wide web).This weekend I also finished a 2 part picture framing workshop, and now have a nice new framed painting on my wall. So now I'm all kitted out and skilled up to make my own frames, or frame Mr You's life drawings like I said I would. I'm rambling, it's because I'm distracted. I think I've decided once again that I should leave my job (shhhh! no one, except Mr You, knows anything about this yet, so don't say anything). I've been there 8 years. Can you believe it?! I can't. I'm depressed that all that time has gone by without me having explored anything else. So that's what I'm thinking about. But I don't have an "if I leave this job what am I going to do" plan. I don't want one. And I'm trying to stick to that, against my better judgement, and every fibre of my far-too-sensible-being. I want to stop planning for a bit and just allow some space to let something happen. But that is so unlike me. It hurts and I'm scared. Petrified! So why am I doing it? Because I'm at the stage where if I don't do something I'm going to start crying and never ever stop. I don't hate my job, I'm just in what they call a BIG old rut. I need to do something brave to get out. I haven't done anything yet, I may still chicken out and change my mind. But I can't, I need to do something... I'm rambling, it's because I'm distracted...
 My Illustration Friday attempt for " play". What if Snakes and Ladders is a form of economic propaganda, and all these years and I've never noticed? What if it's encouraging us all from an early age to climb the ladders of success, join the "straight and narrow", and ignore the playful snakes. Those evil snakes will bring you down, ignore the urges and pagan desires to live your life in a natural, creative, playful fashion. The only way to better your standing in society is to join the queue, step in line, and work hard for big business. If obeyed, you may be rewarded with a shortcut up one of the many ladders of success.Poor misrepresented snakes.
For about 6 years in a row my Dad and Stepmum gave me self-help books every birthday and Christmas. I'm not sure if they thought I liked them, or they thought I needed them, either way I built up quite a library which required some fast talking to explain to new flatmates. The majority remained unread, and now have moved on to more grateful owners. With one of the books came a pack of affirmation cards. You know the kind, those self help, positive affirmation, fortune type cards. You're suppose to hold them in your hand, let your "energy" seep into them then select one at random, and the divine powers that be make sure that card holds the answer you need. (Note all of this is in a seriously sarcastic tone, for which I apologise if anyone really values this kind of stuff. It's not that I don't think there is value in it, it's just that after 6 years of unchanging gifts I became rather peeved by the whole stupid thing. There's a more to it, obviously, which has created this contempt, but "6 years" is my explanation for today).Anyway (end sarcasm, seriously) the books have long gone but I really like these cards. The illustrations are quirky and warm, and maybe the pictures speak more to me than the words. But every now and then when I need a little help'n I reach in, do the divine shuffle, and pull a card out. The small doses of card-sized self help are about as much as I can take, but the pretty pictures help me to swallow it. I must admit I do cheat though, I keep reading through them one at a time, until I find one that I like. I guess my sarcasm has caused transmission interference with the divine powers that be. In any case I like the cards, and that's a start. 
Tuesday night saw us be diligent little citizens and fill out our national census form. There were a few pages to it, but it was simple enough, or so I thought… Question 48 asked how much housework we’d each done in the past week.  Keep in mind I had been buried under a blanket on the lounge suffering from the Winter Flu most of last week, so the truth of the matter was I had done very little (if any) housework. I added up how many minutes I had accumulated making cups of tea, and wondered if filling up a hot water bottle counted. I begged Mr You to let me fudge it a little and pretend I’d done more, because I had a cold, and that’s not fair. Eventually we came to a compromise (5-14hrs), but he teased me so much about lying to the government that I got up early one day this week and scrubbed the bejesus out of the loo, just to ease my guilt. Question 39 asked us to describe the main duties we perform in our jobs. Mr You had trouble, as he’s always doing something unique, none of which are easily summarised in 54 little boxes. (For example the 2 projects he’s been working on for the past few months are now on exhibit, one was programming a GPS drawing artwork where members of the public borrow a handheld GPS unit for a couple of hours, return it, the data is downloaded, combined with others and turned into an artwork.
The other was programming an interactive wall, which is essentially an artwork projected on a wall that responds to it’s surroundings and can also display images sent to it by the public. But then he also does screen graphics for the occasional movie. It varies greatly. It’s hard to describe to people, which is why most of the folk in his home town think he’s a graphic designer for an ad agency. It’s easier to let them think that than try to explain what he does and why.…see more than 54 boxes. At this point he gave up and broke his answer into the most basic description possible.  When Mr You read my answer to Question 21, which asks if you need assistance with body movement “for example, getting out of bed”, (in other words do you have bad arthritis, or paralysation of any sort, etc) he pointed at me accusingly and announced “I have to push you out of bed every single day!”  This IS true, but it’s not because I’m incapacitated, it’s because I’m lazy and hate getting up. They should have included another question… Question 21b – Is this because you are: A) medically incapacitated in some way B) OR a big old lazy bum
Last night Mr You took me out on a date! You know, the full dinner, followed by a slow stroll, stopping to share an icecream sunday, and then letting me perve on Johnny Depp for two and a half hours... yeah, that kind of a night. It was sweeeet. Had a few laughs along the way... Did you now there is a movie coming out called "Snakes on a Plane"?!!!! I'll give you three guesses what it's about!  I didn't have my camera on me, but as I was doubled over laughing, Mr You managed to get a shot of this shop for me on his phone. Yes, that's right; "R Soles"! R Soles Branded European Designer Lables, on sale no less. Either this shop owner has a cheeky sense of humour, or a HUGE chip on their shoulder. (p.s. just realised this may not be so funny if you're reading it in an american or canadian accent, so you'll have to read this one in an aussie or english accent - go on try it! But by-crikey please don't make it a Crocodile Hunter accent, think more Sandra Dee in Grease - "Oh Danny!" Yeah, sweeet).
 My Illustration Friday attempt for " capture". Ran out of time on this one, had to colour it digitally.
 TaaDaaaa! Today I finished Shoofly's bag for the swap we are doing. The swap was postponed for a bit while my sewing machine was on the blink and she was on her amazing well-timed pre-war trip to Lebanon. But now it's aaalll finished, and I'm so excited to be posting it this week. I can't wait to show you all the finished bag, but I'm not going to until it's safely in the hands of it's new owner. I'd hate to ruin the surprise. I hope she likes it. I've got the 'too familiar syndrome', you know the thing where you work on something for so long you can no longer tell if it's any good or not. That sounds really bad, I'm pretty sure it's nice. Anyway, the one bit I am going to show is the lable! (Yes, a lable of my very own!) I was so happy that these arrived in time to add one on Shoofly's bag. Now I'm going to get busy stitching them on all of the bags I've been stock piling.
 I've got the flu, so I've been off work for the past few days. When I arrived home from work early the other day, Mr You was just making himself some lunch (he's one of those lucky freelancers who works from home). "What are you having for lunch?" I asked as I came into the kitchen "Oh, just some staples" I peered into the bowl, burst out laughing and dashed off to grab my camera as quickly as my sick little body would allow, hearing him call after me... "It's not finished yet! There's going be topping!" I managed to get a snap before the "topping" of SAUSAGES was added!!! (I just want to add at this point that Mr You is a grown man who usually cooks very nice meals for us. Clearly the lunches are his time to be more "experimental")
 My Illustration Friday attempt for " clean". Come dirty, tired, cold, sad, sick or just bored, standing under a nice hot shower magically drains it all away.
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