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 This is: "the contents of my bag." Almost didn't do it this week (and am late again), but what the hell. So this is what's in my bag, minus the scrunched up shopping lists and crap I just cleared out. I don't carry much these days as I'm never going too far. Just the essentials really... And note that my purse isn't fat with cash, it's chubby with receipts of past purchases and various business cards I've collected. I'm finding life so simplified these days that I often leave the house without a bag at all. A door key in one pocket, a $10 note in the other, sunnies on my face, and away I go.
 Some of you may remember how excited I was about the first ever Earth Hour last year. Well it's on again, and this time the rest of the world are joining in. It's on tomorrow night, 29th March, and the idea is that at 8pm you switch off your lights and unplug all non-essential appliances for just one hour in a plan to save electricity and reduce emissions. Last year the aim was to reach a 5% reduction in Sydney, but the result was a 10.2% energy reduction across the city, surprising the organisers, and proving that a small act can make a big difference. So pencil it in, make a mini-event of it. Sit in the dark, or by candle light, make shadow puppets, lie in the backyard on a big rug and look up at the stars, go for a walk and enjoy the stillness of the night... use your imagination, just don't use electricity or a motor. It was a beautiful event in Sydney last year. Restaurants filled with hundreds of candles, people walking around the streets either lazily with their dogs, or dashing to make it to their destination before the "switch-off". And without using electricity, the vibe was electric. For more information visit: www.earthhour.orgOn March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming – coal-fired electricity – by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. What began as one city taking a stand against global warming caught the attention of the world.
In 2008, 24 global cities will participate in Earth Hour at 8pm on March 29. Earth Hour is the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis. It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.
 This is: "my demon." (a bit late this week)I love the internet, but it's also my downfall. Along with all the good things like inspiration, participation and communication (all the "ions"), it also represents my huge amounts of procrastination, laziness, lots of lost time, and feelings of inferiority. And that dichotomy highlights problems in itself. Ho-hum.... Last week a friend and I talked about sharing the same issue, and seriously considered hiring someone to set up a net-nanny to restrict our daily net-browsing to an hour in the morning and another hour in the evening. We couldn't set it up ourselves as we'd just hack through our own passwords. No we'd need someone else to come and set it up... Sounds like a niche business opportunity to me. Any takers?
 Have you visited pikaland yet? If not you really should, it’s a fantastic resource for illustrators and those who love it. If you have been there then you’ll know why I’m so thrilled to have been featured in pikaland last Thursday. (Big thank-you to the mayor of pikaland!). Amy of re:makeables fame launched pikaland earlier this year, and has quickly created a “place to be”. And it’s pretty! Really pretty. She really caught my attention recently with one of her lovely illustrations for Illustration Friday. The theme was “leap” and she spoke about making the leap from her fulltime job/career, to becoming a self employed arty type. It was a perfect topic for her that week, and it reminded me of when I was going through the same thing a year and a half ago and the week’s IF theme was “change”. It seemed incredibly prophetic at the time, and if you’re a fan of The Alchemist, then you’ll understand what I mean when I say I felt like I was suppose to read the omens. Just this week I’ve been emailing with Amy about my experiences during that period. It’s bringing up lots of memories about that time, and I’ve been looking back through my posts too… - agonising over my future (rambling post) - actually quitting my job (in Spring) - and the fear that arose in the time between quitting and actually leaving work (my “change” illustration) It’s all there. Funnily, I got a shock when I realised it’s been a year and a half since then. It still feels like it was about 4 months ago. Honestly. Anyway, I’m so excited for Amy; the mayor of pikaland and queen of re:makeables. I’m re-living all the feelings I had, only this time they’re for her and I’m leaving out all the fear and anxiety, and enjoying all the fun and excitement… because I know that she’ll never look back!
 Let me start by saying I had the BEST time. The day we arrived in Sydney was 6 months since the day we left (to the day), and it was the first time I had been back. We stayed with our dear friends Elle and Kilkenny, where, from their kitchen window you can see over the rooftops to where we used to live. We had hoped this trip would be easy going and relaxed, but it very quickly filled up to a very busy week. Packed with errands only a big city can fulfill, work meetings, and catching up with friends. Our days were spent fully booked, with an hour or two of rest in the afternoons before getting ready and going out again in the evenings. We caught up with everyone, in a mix of intimate home cooked meals, picnics, restaurants, cafes and pubs. One night turned wild in the kind of way you can never plan, ending in karaoke with group shouting, dancing and air guitar. It was so much fun. We got to spend time with our god-daughter, and meet newly hatched babies. :) We had a roast dinner with my Uncle and Aunt, and spent quality D&M time with best friends.  We went to the art gallery to see Del Kathryn Bar's winning portrait, which as expected, took my breath away. There was no photography allowed so I can't show you any close-ups, but I bought a book with some of her other work, so I'll show you that soon. We were able to overhear peoples comments, most good, others not; "It's not painting is it? It's just like colouring in." I went to my favourite book stores, and spent a day meandering in shops with Elle. We walked as much as we could, and Mr You went skating at his favourite ramps as much as he was able. I'd like to say we got our fill of Asian, Lebanese and Greek food, but despite our best efforts we didn't get through nearly as much as I would have liked. A couple of friends bought some of my original paintings, despite me trying to give them as gifts they insisted on paying huge sums for them. At first this made me really uncomfortable, but after much coaching I was coerced into accepting their gesture as a sincere offering of support, encouragement and friendship. Our trip climaxed on the final night with the Sinead O'Connor concert. Elle and I were obsessed with Sinead when we were teenagers, and despite challenges (including reggae), have continued our fan-dom ever since. So seeing her in concert together, in the first concert she has EVER performed in Australia, was an event I will not likely forget. What made it even more special was that Kilkenny (Elle's husband) paid for all our tickets, and refused to accept any money, telling us he wanted to give them to us as a gift!!! The very next morning Mr You got me up at an un-Godly hour to drive home, hoping to beat the city traffic. But as we drove through the city in the morning darkness, with as much traffic as ever, I took some bleery photo's. Hoping to document all the cars on the road before dawn, we were inspired to see angels of light above us in the photo's when we returned home. It was a "magic-like" way to end a week that lived up to all expectations, and soaked us full with a new dose of sincere friendship. 
hello? I'm home. We just got back today after a whirlwind week in Sydney, catching up with friends, food and favourite haunts. It was busy, so so busy, I don't think I stopped all week. Luckily I had the excitement build up beforehand to propel me through. But now, after another late night, a 5am start, and an 8hr drive home today I feel like gravity has kidnapped my eyelids. I'm so tired my speech is slurring. Tomorrow I'm hoping to be lucid, so I'll tell you more then.
 ...back in a week
 This is: "looking out my front door." I really like the topic of this weeks "this is" meme. Two days from now will mark exactly 6 months since we moved from a tiny terrace house in Sydney to this place. It may have already been six wizzed-by months, but each day I am still completely spun-out by where we now live. Nestled among palm trees, beaches at the end of the road, and bush out the back. I woke up early yesterday and went to the kitchen to turn on the kettle when I heard strange noises. Just over the back fence the kangaroos had returned, now the babies are growing up and the young males were practicing boxing (hence the grunting noises). They laid around out there for most of the day, dozing in the shade and munching on the grass beneath the birdsong. It's just so surreal!
Last year I talked about my favourite piece in the Archibald Prize (national portrait prize); a painting by Del Kathryn Barton. I spoke about how thrilled I was to see her work in the exhibition, and how I'd always considered her work to be more along the lines of illustration. This lead me to talk about my thoughts on the definitions between illustration and high "art", and to look further into this phenomenon we seem to be witnessing at the moment (especially in America it seems) where illustration is forming a whole art movement of it's own. I keep trying to talk to people about this, telling them about this exciting surge that's occurring, but I'm not sure the people I talk to really understand. People seem to define illustration as strictly what you find in children's books... Come to think of it, maybe I need to try and define exactly what I think illustration is, because it obviously differs from many people's idea. What do you think? Anyway, I was thrilled today when the winner of this years Archibald Prize was announced. She won! Del Kathryn Barton won the Archibald Prize. Here's a link to her winning work (make sure you click to see it a bit bigger). This time next week I'll be in Sydney, and I'll definitely be going to get a closer look. I'll try and get some photo's, if I'm able, because the line detail in her works are gorgeous. Plus the work is BIG, and I want to see it in all it's glory! I can't wait.
 My Illustration Friday attempt for leap. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon style leap. One of the most mesmerising elements of that movie was the silence: you'd hear the last foot leaving the last tree top, and you'd hear the first foot landing on the next tree top, but inbetween, during the leaps, there was complete quiet. Beautiful! Just a quick one this week. I missed last week and didn't want to miss another one, so this is my quick illo to get me by until I find more time.
 Waaaaay back in November Anastasia won my 2nd annual Thanksgiving raffle, and this was her prize! She asked if I would paint something for her boys bedroom. She told me they like animals and that she prefers muted colours, and the rest was up to me.... this is what came out. I'm told they are all very happy with it, and the boys think it's so funny that the tiger is eating a sandwich. :) Thank-you Anastasia, I hope your boys enjoy their adventure with their new tiger friend!
 This is: "My inspiration board." Actually, this is my inspiration folder. I don't have an inspiration board, but I do have a folder. This folder was born from a humble beginning. Waaaaay back when I was a teenager I used to keep all my magazines, as I grew up and stared moving houses I realised carting boxes of magazines around was a bad idea... So one day I sat down and sorted through them all. I tore out all of the pages I liked and threw out the rest (in the recycling of course). I continued this practice over the years, until eventually I had a box of pages... When I started a little photography business a while back I went a bought this folder, hundreds of plastic sleeves and a few packets of tab stickers, and spent a good weekend sorting all my pages into categories. Some pictures ended up in a scrap book I keep (fashion, jewellery, hats, bags, art, etc), and the rest were relocated into this folder. There are pictures in there that are recent, and some that date back to Dolly magazines from the late 80's; what's interesting though is that many shoots are styled and photographed so well, that they haven't seemed to have dated at all. It was a fantastic resource for photography at the time. The night before a shoot I would plough through my folder and mark interesting poses, or lighting techniques, or general moods, ready to be inspired for the shoot the next day. I gave up the photography thing about a year ago, but I keep the folder now for inspiration for my illustrations. Sometimes it's great for finding a particular hand, or face at a certain angle, and other times it's a nice exercise to straight out copy the picture, and interpret it in your own style. It also comes in very handy when you need to flatten something because it weighs half a tonne!   
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