Postcards

I keep stamps in my wallet.
This doesn't mean that I send a lot of letters, though it should.

I love getting emails, especially from people I haven't heard from in a long time, but nothing seems to compare to the definite intent behind real paper post.
I am selling these postcards as a set of 5 for $6 (postage is an extra $2 for anywhere in the world) and I hope that it inspires some people to share the love, be thoughtful, send someone evidence that you were thinking about them and that they matter.

Hopefully it means that I will be using up some of the stamps sitting in my wallet too. Before Australia Post puts the prices up again.

At $1.50 each you can grab some of the other postcards I've made too.  The coloured Triangles, the Orc and the Forest Spirit.

the whanau

This is my family.

Last month we gathered together at Carrs Park and the wonderful Clarissa of Art of Joy Photography took photos of us and here we are!

After all the photos we were all starving so we headed over to Paul's Burgers and filled our faces with award winning burgers and super delicious shakes. YUM.

Apple Blue and why you should comment on blogs

I am a chronic stalker of blogs, its true.
Too often though I don't leave comments on things that inspire, provoke, entertain, or amuse me. Why? Well, unless I know you in real life it seems a bit weird. There are about a bazillion other people who also read your blog probably, and they all leave comments and really how many times does someone need to be told they're awesome by strangers?

The thing I suppose, is that like everything on the internet, there is a filter between real life and what you see through your screen.

Until I am proven wrong I will remain convinced that everyone is human and thus sometimes have days that are utterly miserable. Bloggers too.
So I have decided to make more of an effort to participate in the whole 'interactive' part of blogs where I stop being the creepy stalker that watches without saying anything and acknowledge the work that all these people put into being inspiring, provoking, entertaining and amusing.

I am sharing all these things with you because of Apple Blue.

I only started following this blog about a month ago (if that) and I really like it and then today I saw that Amanda is giving away... heaps of stuff. I don't usually even bother with give aways (as previously mentioned... and mostly cos I didn't win straight away, it's like the lottery - and I am unlucky) but for some reason I thought that this one was great. Because she is offering her time and talents for you the hypothetical winner of the competition as well as a bunch of other awesome things.
Also I really like how approachable and personable her whole blog is. I read a lot of them and while I fail to recreate that in my own blog, I can certainly appreciate it in others.

So go and check it out.
Check everything out, be moved by the efforts of all those hard working bloggers out there... and then TELL THEM ABOUT IT.

ps. Jess, this post is for you too, because I know everyone seems to comment on your facebook about your blog, and not on your blog. There's some broken logic there.

I've got 25 bucks and a cracker

While I went to University, I worked in a scrapbooking shop. One of the teachers who took classes there would find paper that she liked and then dress her children in coordinating clothing so that she could make the perfect page.

Given that scrapbooking has always been (to me at least) about recording memories and things like this, fabricating said memories seems incredibly dishonest and altogether fake. My siblings and I look through our scrapbooks and laugh about moments and remember the times associated with the photos.
Not : "Oh yeah, remember that time mum dressed us in green and red and took Christmas photos of us in January cos she got that nice paper from the shop? Good times!"

After finding out that keeping journals full of art and things was actually a 'craft' (its called an 'Art Journal' ... w/e) I decided to look for some of the things that I had put together throughout my life and I found this.
I made it towards the end of my time in Taiwan doing missionary work for my church and didn't have time to write or draw much, but as you can see there were some moments that captured me enough to make it into the book. They're real, just so you know.

Honest.

I didn't have lots of nice paper, or expensive paints or inks, just a desire to express something that at the time was important to me.
Honesty is the best policy. In every aspect of life, even art journals. 



I've got 25 dollars and a cracker, do you think it's enough, to get us there?