moopy & me

Sunshine

We had 3 and a half hours to spare in the Brisbane airport on our transfere to Cairns.... so like any nutter I hauled my family onto a train, to the city and over a river to the Gallery of Modern Art ... We of course got lost... well we weren't lost we could see perfectly well where we were and where we had to go but the Brisbane river was in our way.... after 30 minutes of trying to get up to the bridge we finally got to the Gallery... and boy was it worth the effort!!! We only had time to wizz around to all of the children's installations... but I couldn't have been happier. Lily watched a little Haka performance and much to my excitment later on when we went to do the Run, run, run activity (Kwon Ki-soo) Lily made a little person with their tongue poking out (above)

And the other awesome part of the GoMA was Christy coming to meet us. It would have been crazy to fly half way across Australia. Stop. and not hang out with my bestest buddy... thanks for wizzing around with us Button.

Well we have been swimming in cascading tropical rainforest lagoons... heaven...Lily got to play with a turtle who came over to say hello and Chris whooshed down all the natural water slides... more photos coming ... I am going to bore you with holiday snaps whether you like it or not.

Space to breath

ahhh that's better.... I had been looking at the mess for over a year and finally (thanks to having my wisdom teeth out) had the time to clear up... it took me three whole days I tell you!! I am not kidding... the junk was waist high and over the entire floor, there was a crowded desk at the end of the room that has since been re-claimed by Chris for his study nook and proudly replaced with a bench that runs the length of the room. I just bought three trestle legs from IKEA and a 3 metre length of MDF to wack on top ..hey presto! A little nudge from Alex in my comments box also helped... I don't think she was going to let me get away without showing pics and getting on with some illustration work.

So the latest on the picture book adventure is :: I sent through something that vaguely resembled text for a story .... a few hours later it was sent back with corrections and okayed for storyboarding... now the work begins... there are no guarantees that the text or concept will get the final nod..but it is a very nice feeling to have something to work on.

We are flying off to our hot sunny holiday destination, (Yorkeys Knob)Cairns, in a couple of days... I have been looking forward to this break for such a long time .... and working really hard to get my work completed so that I can relax. For those of you interested in enrolling in the Nest Studio art classes for children in term one, you can still do so ... I will simply take your calls while sipping champaign on the beach. Actually I will be updating the shop blog with all the relevant info as well as a downloadable enrolment form, just to make things more accessible.

I will leave you with these sweet birds

Sleeping-in the new year

Leading by example here, I have been enjoying some lovely sleep-ins this week as the new year rolled in...Chris and I have been taking it in turns.

Boy doesn't time fly when you have children. A year used to feel like a year but now a year feels like 12 weeks.... I wasn't ready for Christmas and now all of a sudden I am looking February in the face.... and as many business owners know you feel like you are already looking at 2008...

One of my 'things to do' in '06 was to organise my studio so that I could actually work in it.. at the moment it still looks more like a storage cupboard fell down and couldn't get itself up.... I am tempted to embarrass myself into getting it cleaned up by showing you pictures... I wonder if I said to myself (you) that if I don't get it cleaned up by ..... January 24 (holiday to Cairns) then I have to show you the photos.... My biggest motivation to clean the studio is also so that I can get started on that super secret project...... ......

sorry ....I just stopped writing my post there for a few hours.. while we all headed down to the beach after dinner for a big walk.. like a million other people around the world, one of the things I want to focus on in 2007 is my fitness... but I thought if I started before Christmas then the whole new year pressure would be eliminated... so far so good... and my new (early birthday present from mum) running sneakers have helped for sure..

Many moons ago ... lets say around 1500 of them... I used to jog almost every night and thought nothing of doing 10 clicks along linear park, I loved it so much ...especially the part where you can drink beer and eat chocolate completely guilt free. So tonight I did a little jog-walk, that is where you are so unfit you can only make it 100 metres before you have to stop ...catch your breath and do another 100 metres..... Moopy loves the breeze in her hair while I am jogging...so much so that when I stop to catch my breath she says "keep running!! keep running!!" .... to which I say "not yet sweety I have lost my breath", to which she says with a conserned tone "is it lost on the ground, do we have to go back and get it off the ground?" so cute.

Ok back to the project..  in October last year, a brilliant children's book publisher, one that I have so much respect for, contacted me to write and illustrate a children's book... I know! I came a way from that meeting where they said so many lovely things... wondering if I was in some kind of dream world... it took me quite some time to take it all in..and now is the time to stop all the thinking and start doing. I was a bit worried to talk about this here but the reality is, this is such a supportive community I would be silly not to share right from the start. It will be so wonderful to get back to some good old drawing...where I can play freely without worrying about what I am meant to be doing because that is what I am meant to be doing...

So you're on, if that blessed studio is not organised by the 24th then I will be airing the shame right here in full colour.

There are a couple on new Cheeky Moopy bunnies up for sale in my shop too.