Gum leaf

Coloured Pencil, 297 x 420mm, 220gsm acid free paper

Little things

We went on an adventure into country NSW, Australia with our local friends. I baked some almond raspberry cookies to thank the neighbours for feeding the pets whilst we were gone.

Sweet little biscuits made with marzipan and almond meal, piped into a mini muffin tin, then filled with heated and cooled raspberry jam

Autumn

The bench seat in our local playground

Little boys taking the cricket stumps out for a sword fight whilst no one notices

Garlic harvested

Chocolate cookies baking whilst the fire place keeps us warm

Abstract

Coloured pencils on (A3) 297 x 420mm acid free 220g paper

Baking again

Quiet day baking. We have no spare cash, so frugal living is in order. I firmly believe that children are better off with home baked cakes and cookies. Children love sugar. When we are all out of cakes and cookies, little messyfish goes straight for artificially coloured lollies and additive laden store bought icecreams. Supermarket chains have palm oil in there hot cross buns. Orangutans are dying for it. Chemicals and additives are in the cookies and cakes that are bought from the shops. What the hell is 471? There are no bags of 471 in my cupboard.
At home, I use flour, sugar, butter, free range eggs, lemon, cream. Simple. Cheap. Delicious. The house smells great, maths and science lessons occurred, fine motor skills, working together, helping each other, organisation, and well most important of all... Joy, happiness and freedom to be. Now that's one important day then hey?

Lemon Sour Cream Cake

Cupcakes

Hot Cross Buns, fruit free, peel free and raspberry (not apricot) jam glaze, for little messyfish

Testing watermarks for my artwork

I thought I would be happy to post more of my art here, if I could easily apply a watermark. It turns out there are a number of apps that do it easily. So here is my first test. It only took a second, which is going to work nicely for me :-)

Scratching away the melancholy

Drawing day! What a great way to reconnect to self. How simple it is to lay down colour and use my hands to help connect to my heart... Because underneath all that intellectual bullshit lies the truth. Drawing is my meditation. It quietens the mind. Reveals the truth, alleviates unfounded fears, others fears.

Quiet home days

Lovely quiet days reading, cleaning, baking, creating, building, sculpting and playing with new secondhand toys that we picked up (via ebay) at the general store...

Autumn is here

We spent a magical day at the new local Steiner kindergarten. Little messyfish enjoyed joining in some of the activities, and I loved connecting with the other mums. Even grandma messyfish was able to met us there, where we enjoyed a delicious vegetarian lunch, and she was treated to a lesson all about turtles and snails by little messyfish. Best of all little messyfish had a great rough and tough and tumble outside play with sticks and sand and rocks and rope with mixed ages in the late afternoon, while mums were packing up.

Delicious and beautiful displays in the markets in Vietnam

Yes, there is also Lipton tea and Oreos being sold in a tiny cupboard behind this display, that has a broken latch being held together by an elastic band.... but the locally grown fruits, locally made sweets such as peanut and sesame brittle, and locally baked cakes and cookies are most prominent. It's so much easier to eat healthier food when the shops look like this! We barely eat any processed or packaged goods when we are in Vietnam. The cows milk products are not great here....mostly UHT and lots of cane sugar added. Most Vietnamese get their calcium needs met through eating the bones of small fish. I like to get it from the delicious nut and sesame snacks! The dairy authority have a big advertising budget back home, and promotes dairy as a great source of calcium, but you can also get calcium from sardines, salmon, prawns, sesame seeds, almonds, tofu, broccoli, brazil nuts, dried figs and a whole bunch of other foods.

Community Garden

A community garden is more than just growing. I love to paint vegetable gardens, especially when I can be part of the community.

Sydney Botanic Gardens

Love guache, love sitting in gardens and drawing, here is a little snippet from my artists journal...

Saigon Zoo

 We went to the saigon Zoo on our last day. The guide books dont give it a good review. For the $1 entry fee we paid, the extensive gardens, carnival rides and amazing display of animals, I would have to say it was excellent! The lions cage design was such that if we wanted to we could have touched the lion! I guess thats why the guide books dont give it a good rewiew. Its not exactly very safe there. But after 6 weeks in Vietnam, we have become accustomed to the differences in public safety and are able to asses the situations and take personal responsibility. There were many cages that could have easily ended up with a kid inside, and some of the cages were of the old fashioned design, where the people were prioritised over the animals. We therefore were able to see the animals very well, as there were no tress, or large enclosures where we were not able to find the animal. I really loved the old style monkey cage, the fabulous snacks and meals available, seeing Zebras in real life for the first tiemever, and best of all the flamingoes. years ago Taronga Zoo in Sydney had flamingoes. they are my favourite bird. It was so lovely being able to see them again.

monkey cage

lots to climb on and space to roam

hippopotamus right there!...not a great shot, but I was keeping little messy fish safe!

not at all crowded and plently of places to sit and watch the animals

fun amusement park rides for little kids, I will be better prepared next time and allow more time for this, seeing as each ride cost 50c

my all time favourite flamingoes!

delicious snacks and cheap and delicious as always food available in shady spots under the trees

Embracing our differences

The beautiful thing about being sensitive, means that we are sensitive. We sense stuff. We can REALLY taste, smell, see, hear. As a parent of a sensitive child, it can be hard. I have an inner voice that sometimes just wants little messyfish to not be so sensitive so MY life is easier. BUT I know I can't make him less sensitive. I know what could happen is I could make him feel bad for being sensitive. Make him feel bad for who he is. That would be the worst thing ever....Just so it's easier for me to be with him temporarily? Ouch. No. We don't do that. We honour his sensitivities, we allow him to be, we encourage him.


Still life, by little messyfish. Quiet creative days at home. Lots of them. And NO, he doesn't want friends around because they mess up his things!


The Chinese Gardens in Sydney, a quiet and welcome relief from the visual confusion of darling harbour.


Eating Pho Bò for breakfast. Its hot, fragrant, nourishing, and because small cardboard like flakes floating round in bowls of cold cows milk doesn't appeal.



Freaking out when we enter a loud and crowded restaurant. Insisting that he sits under the table the entire time. Me feeling pressure to make him "be sensible", and join the table. Me realising that he is 4. He can't do that. He won't do that. Me, setting him up under there, where he feels safer. iPad, drink, rice and steamed fish with ginger and shallots (all green bits removed).
Again, as the adult, I get to choose whether I make him feel bad and force him to do things he doesn't want to do, or I face the wrath of the socially acceptable robots. I choose to let him be. A strong and confident child is not created by making them be performing seals. Acting confident is not confidence. It's not a surface job. He was SURE he was going to sit there. Quiet confident indeed!

Local life

I see people everywhere buying this buying that. There are markets, shops and radio stations saying buy a vacuum cleaner buy a house but new pillows. If people are on the streets they are buying stuff or drinking cows milk coffees in the cafes. The other crowd puller is the sports ground. Football this, soccer that. I don't care about any of it. In fact if I never experienced other cultures and lived other ways to be, I would be very depressed right now about the culture I live in. Thankfully I have a beautiful place to live, where we can go walking and dip our feet in the creeks and pluck blackberries from the bushes as black cockatoo's fly over head. I don't want my hobby to be "Shopping", or "cafe going". Thankfully I doesn't have to be... Thankfully we simplified our lives and made choices that I am happy with today. From cloth nappy and pads, to bread baking, to choosing to be a stay at home mother. Perhaps this is why I love to visit cultures that work simply as well?


Local activities, regional art gallery, indoor swimming pool, library and playgrounds for little messyfish.


Beautiful Autumn days, misty mornings, warm sunny skies. Almost time for the fire again...


Library books. Lots of delicious reading for me, as I plan my next adventure...

Artists Date

Consuming images at a voracious rate in Sydney. Missing desperately the images of Vietnam...