Hello, I’m back! It’s been a long hiatus, I know, I know – the last couple of months just whooshed by in a flurry of busy activity. First there was an entire April spent up in Brisbane renovating & repairing our rental property (and catching up with family and friends), then there was the return home to a mountain of paperwork, documentation, an insurance claim, my tax return, and a new financial system set-up for my design business.
Throw in a couple of market days (Eveleigh Market and the MCA zine fair), some crazy long hours to complete a tightly-deadlined project at work, and DD’s recent birthday to plan and celebrate, and you’re getting an idea about where my entire May went. And I’m not even mentioning the end-of-year wedding and overseas trip I’m in the middle of organising, or the annoying bout of bronchitis, or the design folio I’m underway with updating (long overdue after so many years working in the industry…)
In short it’s been all systems go around here, but not without some sacrifice and compromises though. Blogging was one of the casualties, and staying on top of the emailing too (hence the backlog of 1377 unread emails in my inbox, but I hold the iPhone partly responsible for that situation), and even housework has lately become simplified down to the basics.
I’ve realised there’s a certain liberation in stepping away from life’s documentation (i.e. the blog) even if it’s just for a short while, because like so many projects we choose to undertake, upkeeping a blog can quickly become an imagined responsibility, a perceived ‘must-do’, and eventually a guilty sort of self-imposed burden, can’t it? So to allow ourselves a break from it really is a bit of a liberty.
So, after a 2-month holiday away from the Shelbyville blog, I’ve returned - renewed and reinvigorated and raring to go again, with plenty of news and projects and events-around-town to share… And I will get to each of these things, I promise. But in the meantime, oh where to begin?
Perhaps a bit of a quick visual backtrack of some treasured Brissie moments:
Easter games
It was a delight to be up in Bris to celebrate the Easter long weekend with my family. We had the nieces work hard for their easter eggs this year - first a traditional ol' treasure hunt for the mini eggs hidden around the living room, followed by a game I came up with involving a basketful of yellow envelopes containing a whole lot of creative challenges inside them. Taking turns, the girls picked out an envelope and took it to their mum who read out the challenge (singing, dancing, drawing bunnies on the Etch-a-Sketch, piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, spelling out HAPPY EASTER with magnetic letters, etc). One 'bonus-round' yellow envelope contained a kid's facepainting kit and everyone was treated to a bunny face by Aunty Shell :) . Once successfully completed, each challenge was rewarded with a single medium-sized easter egg that the girls added to their little baskets of previously collected mini eggs. So much fun!
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Down at the playground
After all the egg-hunting, egg-winning, and egg-gobbling, it was playground time! There's a fantastic new park at the bottom of my parents' street and it's an absolute kid magnet. The nieces and nephew got in a bit of playtime before the rain started to fall, and I got in a couple of cute shots. Is there anything as sweetly gorgeous as kids at play?
^ Charlotte on high rotation
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Backyard games
When the afternoon sun came out, the backyard came alive with the shrieks and giggles of little girls. Racquets and balls, games of Red Rover, cricket, chasey, hide'n'seek - it was like stepping back 25 years into my own childhood, playing simple backyard games with my brothers and cousins - ah, the bittersweet taste of nostalgia...
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Suburban dreams
Staying with mum and dad for most of the month meant an extended return to the heartlands of suburbia, something I've grown unaccustomed to after living in inner-city Sydney for so many years now. And while I can't say I'm in a hurry to return to it, there is a certain charm and quaintness about suburbia that I was trying to capture in this set of 'daily photos':
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Late nights and homebrew
A late-night, alcohol-fuelled conversation with my cousins Mike and Wally. Both are seasoned travellers, and chatting to them is always entertaining, even more so when facilitated by dad's homebrew and a coveted bottle of Canadian Club (a former birthday present I can guess).
We never did resolve the debate about the appropriateness of travellers having omnipresent access to technology (internet access, mobile phone reception, digital photography, etc) and how it affects or even undermines the true authenticity of a travel experience...
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A day at the zoo
For Charlotte's birthday present, I wanted to do something special for her rather than buy her more stuff (she's already a very lucky girl with lots of beautiful clothes and toys of her own) so I opted to take her out for a day at the zoo with her family, nanny & poppy, and me. Since we went to Alma Park Zoo, it was a bit cheeky that Charlotte and Molly were dressed in Bindi Irwin khakis (a la Australia Zoo, which is Alma Park's direct competitor), but gosh they were as cute as buttons.
“Hey Molly, go stand next to that sign for a sec…Smiiiile!”
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A day at the gallery
One thing I never miss doing when in Brisbane is a visit to the wonderful southbank cultural precinct: Qld Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, and the Qld State Library.
Unfortunately GoMA only had a giant bunny to see since it was gearing up for its upcoming Ron Mueck exhibition, but the old Art Gallery had a fabulous exhibition running, Hats: an anthology by Stephen Jones. The Hats exhibition runs until the 27th June 2010, so definitely try to catch it if you find yourself in Brisbane between now and then.
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Before & after
The principal reason for my trip to Brisbane was to project-manage the repairs and renovations of our rental property (and previous first-home). A whole new kitchen, a repaint, new blinds, new lights, and a host of extensive repairs and trips to Bunnings, and our house was looking fantastic and liveable once again. A big, big thanks to my dad (although he never has, and probably never will, read my blog) for all his amazing help with fixing up the house, driving me around Bris, and joining me on all those aforementioned trips to Bunnings - 4 weeks' worth of hardware-related quality time!
I won't bore you with too many pics of renovations, but if you're anything like me, you may like to see a few progress shots and some before & after comparisons:
What was the "original" 1950s kitchen (genuine retro!) was in desperate need of a complete update.
Me and DD de-vinyl the floor - followed by 3 frickin' day's worth of paint-stripping the glue off the boards...
Demolition begins in earnest...
A clean slate before the floors are resanded and polished...
Bye bye yucky old glossy paint...
Construction begins...
Mostly done now...
Just the tiling to go...
The before and after shots...
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Endless summer
I have to admit I do miss Brisbane's glorious year-round sunshine and warmth. Especially as I'm presently freezing my fingers and toes off down here in Sydney's chilly winter climate... Feel free to send some of that sunshine south to us shivering in Sydney!
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Michelle
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Well this is at least a months worth of postings in one go. I love the picks of the kids in the park and the house reno's look great.
Posted by: Linda V | June 09, 2010 at 09:36 AM
What, you did ALL that in one month. You're a super woman, truly. It's lovely to see you back, but I so get what you mean about just letting things slip sometimes. My blog's been a bit all over the place this year. Oh well. Life goes on.
Posted by: katiecrackernuts | June 09, 2010 at 10:41 AM
Aaaaaah, there you are. Lovely to see your photographic essay..
I know what you mean about liberating yourself from blog posting.. it is a quandry...
Posted by: Tara | June 09, 2010 at 11:37 AM
Was fantastic to have you up her for an extended period this time. I really do appreciate the effort you went to for the children...and of course, it has it's benefits because they all adore their Aunty Shell! Look forward to seeing you again soon.
Posted by: Terri | June 18, 2010 at 09:25 AM