Sketchbook Project - Posted!

Three weeks are up! Pencils down, Sketchobooks closed! 

Today I posted AshLee and my sketchbooks to The Sketchbook Project, Brooklyn Art Library. Safe in a plastic registered mail post bag they should arrive from Australia to the USA in about 10 days.

It feels good finishing this project and knowing that it will come back in November on exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria here in Melbourne for all you view! I feel like a real artist!

For AshLee it was different, he'd never even heard of The Sketchbook Project and so it become an awesome birthday present for him (I'm ok if you copy this idea, it is a great present for someone!). Where his theme was 'It's summer where you are', my theme was 'This is a sketchbook'.

Filling my sketchbook did continue to be a challenge. In my handbag it lived; for three weeks. 

Pulling it out as often as possible, yet last night my sketchbook still wasn't full. 

I had even been cheeky enough to take it into a work meeting so I could doodle a little more - hopefully no-one noticed. 

Heading to AshLee's office to pickup his sketchbook for posting back to Brooklyn last night I was relieved to discover that he wasn't quite finished either. 

At his desk we sat till late at night; him madly glueing bits together and me franticly sketching. You know what it reminded me of? High School!

Working on some assignment with a friend/s frantically trying to get it finished before the next morning when it was due. That was high school for me. Plodding along at my own pass most of the time until - BAMB! It's due the next day and I need to pull an all-nighter to get it over the line and finished. That's what it felt like last night. The only difference... high school finished 12 years ago! Ahh to be young again...

Did you often pull all-nighters at high school?

January Photo a Day Challenge

There is this Photo a Day challenge for the month of January. It was organised by Fat Mum Slim.
I found out about it half way through January and kicked off from that day forward. In reverse order...

Day 30 #Nature

Day 28 #Light

Day 27 #Lunch

Day 26 #Colour

Day 25 #Something you made

Day 22 #Your shoes

Day 20 #Someone you love

Day 19 #Sweet

Day 16 #Morning

Day 15 #Happiness

I haven't always remembered to take a picture and I really haven't remembered to use the right hashtag (#janphotoaday) but here non of that matters, here its just about a simple picture fun project!

The Forbidden History of Unpopular People

What project are you working on at the moment?

Topher is a friend of mine who is in the middle of trying to raise enough money to make a feature film! Pretty cool, huh.

As you can see from the title it will be called The Forbidden History of Unpopular People; why free speech is worth the price.

It isn't a stretch to see Topher working on a movie of this nature, it's completely within his sphere of interest and passion. What do I mean, well, if you live in Victoria, Australia  you may have even stumbled on his YouTube channel; Topher's Unpopular View. He has researched (I'm talking hard core research; reading parliamentary transcripts, scientific reports, etc) a few different topics but his main area, so far has been water.
But enough about his past projects, check out his latest concept video below for a feature film!

The Joy of Books

Whether you like reading them, looking in them, or enjoy basking in the knowledge that they contain so many amazing worlds and ideas. It's hard to deny that books are more magical compared to an iPad or kindle when you see such a cute short like this one!

Books Read in 2011

For me slow and steady wins. That's how I read, slow and steady.

Here is a list of books I read in 2011 (according to my Readernaut account).
It's pretty clear that 2011 was a hard year work wise. I was learning how to deal with issues regarding my job, how I'd pay for life now and in the future. Not to mention discovering more about the Lord and where He was in all this and how He was (and did) help me through all this.
The book titles link to Amazon and authors names link to author website.

• When It Pours, He Reigns; Overcoming Life's Storms - Holly Wagner
• The Happy Intercessor - Beni Johnson
• Beginner's Guide to Wealth - James Whittaker, Noel Whittaker
• Managing Your Career (Lessons Learned) - Fifty Lessons

Do you remember what you read in 2011?

Sketchbook Project

Sketchbook Project time!
Last time I joined the fun but the difference is that this year I WILL be posting my sketchbook back to the Brooklyn people.

This year they will be bring exhibiting the project here in Melbourne, which does make a huge difference to my level of motivation.

Delia and Franklin joined the fun last time round but as they are preparing for the arrival of a little chilli (so happy!) this year AshLee has decided to join me for the fun.

Actually sitting down and sketching has been difficult - it's not part of my every day life - but I'm trying. I'm letting you know that what I sketch isn't going to be anything fancy, it's just to keep me sketching and practicing. I'll throw a couple pics of what I draw up here later for you to see; just as long as there is no judgement of my lack of skill.

So with less that three weeks to fill my sketchbook - it's time for me to get back to it!
Hope you all had a lovely weekend :)

Day by day

At the end of last year I started praying about what 2012 would hold. About where God would lead me. To my astonishment and later dread, he told me I would be taking it a day at a time.
When speaking to friends it seemed evident that I should be journaling more this year too.

For those of you that don't know me very well, I plan everything! From the people I feel God asking me to pray for to the major achievements I want to make in a year. In fact last year (2011) was my year of planning, everything was planned out at the start of the year, right down to what I would do each day of the year. I had taken planning to a whole new level but I loved it!  

On the other hand, it's clear that God didn't love all my planning as much as I did. It's clear now that with all my planning going on there was no room for God to unfold his plans in areas where I already had my planning done.

So far living without a plan has been hard! 

Remembering to pray every morning that it's His day to do with what He likes is a challenge. But more than that it's trusting him on a day to day level for all the small little things. 

Trusting in Him when I meet up with friends that we'll have a great time and have heaps to talk about, instead of already knowing things we could talk about before hand. Because there are few people that I just 'click' with, and even fewer that I can happily sit with and not speak to I learnt a long time ago to have an idea of what to talk to a friend about. 

Trusting in Him to have a plan for my weekends instead of planning what to do with friends and family weeks in advance.   

Yup. God is stirring me up! His probably even lovingly laughing at me as I stumble around completely out of my comfort zone and relying on him. You can't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humour, I know he does. At the end of this year I'm sure I'll be laughing at me too!

Welcome!

Welcome to 2012!

Quick prayer
Lord this new years is yours; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.