Bye bye, big sky

Going to be living closer to the ground very soon. I'll really miss the big sky, but the trade-off will be that I will be closer to the sea.

Which is not bad.

Invitation - Melbourne

If you are in Melbourne, you might like to go to the A3 Show in Northcote, which opens on Friday, 18 June. Both my prints from the Sydney show will be in the Melbourne exhibition. You can also buy prints from all participating artists online ... click here.

Party People

Sometimes at a party, you see people you haven't seen for years and years. And you might think: "My, how the passing years have been unkind to them."

Of course, you reassure yourself that time been far gentler to the friends you see all the time. They haven't changed much at all.

Of course.

Rhino Travels

I know a lovely librarian who rides with the rhinos in her dreams, and sometimes also in her holidays.

So that the rhinos recognise her as one of their own, a horn curiously grows on her forehead when she travels to their land. Just as curiously, it disappears again before she goes back to the library.

But I still know it was there.

Sleep

So, what now?

I am very happy that I finished my 30 linoprints, because at the beginning, I wasn't sure I could do it. And even though the project was exhausting and sort of took over my life, I am a bit sad to leave it behind.

Still, it's boring to stick with one thing forever, and I have new ideas that I want to work on. As for this blog, my plan is to put up something new every Tuesday and Saturday twice a week. Stay tuned.

Before that, though, I am going to catch up on some SLEEP.

Day 30 - Washing Lines

Most people hang up their washing all wrong. They don't realise that the most important thing is to get it looking lovely. All the t-shirts together, all the trousers together, all the towels, all the socks, all the undies. And of course each line has to have the same colour pegs all along.

The other thing is that washing should be hung so that things dry quickly (ie, no big overlaps) and so that there are no creases in awkward places (I love washing lines but I really don't like ironing). Most people don't seem to think about this, either.

Whether it's washing that is hung up all higgledy-piggledy, or whether it is perfectly neat, I really enjoy looking at washing lines. And I have discovered that quite a lot of people share my obsession with the matching pegs. Which I find surprising.

Day 29 - Breakfast Sausages

When I was 16, I lived in a town that had pretty cold winters. Often, we would warm ourselves up by starting the day with a full English breakfast. I remember one particular morning:

Jennie: "How many sausages will you have?"
Me: "How many are there?"
Jennie: "Seven."
Me: "I'll have seven."

We sat down to breakfast and Jennie put all the sausages on my plate. They smelt good, and I knew the others really wanted some. And I'm sure they thought that I would be happy enough to call a joke a joke, and then share the sausages.

But in my stubborn teenage mind, it had become a dare, and I had decided I would eat them all, even if I exploded afterwards. Which I nearly did. All day at school, I felt ill. All day at work, the others probably felt hungry.

Funnily enough, I became a vegetarian a few years later.

Day 28 - TV Game Show

Once, I was a contestant on a TV game show. It was a sort of bravery dare to myself and it was exciting but I was very, very nervous.

Apparently I somehow made the other two contestants very nervous too and they made lots of mistakes. Which was surprising because, the night before, David the 'carry-over champion' nearly had the highest score ever. But on this night, the three of us managed to achieve the lowest scoreline in the history of the game.

Anyway, I won lots of prizes even though I only lasted a single episode.

Day 27 - The Perfect Shop

Every Wednesday evening, when all the other shops were closed, we went to our shop and sat on the red sofa and talked and enjoyed a very nice bottle of wine.

It was the perfect shop because it never had any customers, but we closed it after a year.