close to my heart

this is the latest promotional material I have been working on for HeartKids.

just a few facts:

• six babies are born with heart disease in australia every day

• heart disease is the main reason children are admitted to intensive care

• heart disease is the leading cause of death in australian children under the age of 5

• heart defects are found in one in every 100 babies born in australia

• heart defects are the most common birth abnormality

to support, go to www.heartkids.org.au

birthday girl and bump

it is my beautiful sister in law's birthday on sunday.

isn't her baby bump so adorable!

one of the most amazing, perfect pregnant people you will ever see.

love you sweety.

happy happy birthday.

love you too spec – can't wait to meet you.

photo from when katie was in perth a few weeks ago.

good times.

christmas present preview

i've been spending some spare moments (i have spare time!?) to design christmas presents for my tassie family who i get to visit again at the end of december.

turning out to be a BIG project, coming up with unique and exciting presents for all 12 of them.

i think it's 12... (5 siblings + parent x 2 + in laws x 2 + 3 kids = 12)

can't wait til it's 13 in January!

anyway this is the project i'm working on for darren.

just showing the illustrations at this stage.

not that he even checks my blog much and is coming to wa tonight anyway.

family visits coming out of my ears!

i love.

little people fun

babychino's down on the waterfront in freo.

lots of zoo excitement with animals, icecreams, carousels and sunny skies.

my heart pancakes for breakfast with my fabulous blueberry sauce.

(yes sometimes I enter the kitchen... reluctantly)

and so much more...

lots of love

aren't they a beautiful little family!

i had the most wonderful, fun (rather tiring and still recovering) week with my little people + sisel (christine) + ed.

traveling with 3 little ones across the country is to be admired in itself.

lots of love to you all for the visit, the millions of hugs, the games, the laughter and the love.

pics from our yummy dinner at the norfolk in fremantle

buckets of love

i'm so excited!

just about to go and pick my little people up from the airport!

that equates to my nieces alannah (6) and imogen (3), and my nephew finn (8ish months).

well really my sister and brother in law too.

oh, I am looking forward to seeing them too but especially my little people who I miss so so much.

imogen just had her birthday and alannah's is soon, so I made them some buckets of love.

each contains:

• bucket and spade for the beach

• cute little racer back tank tops

• a handbag

• play-doh

• colouring-in pictures

• crayons

• bowl, cup and cutlery

looking for aunty of the year award or what?

where the sea meets the sand

...on a sunday sunset at cottesloe.

the colours and textures mesmerise me.

access wardrobes

here's another design – this one done this week for my uncle in tassie.

starting his own business – i'm the designer in the family.

couple of sketches, bit of a play with shape and colour and here you have it.

great that i can do this for my family from all the way across the country.

tell me – what did people do when there was no email?

(says the girl who adores snail mail – the letter type, not bills)

they're engaged

i've been a busy little design beaver this week.

here's one of the projects for my friends.

josh & cherri's got engaged last weekend!

i didn't believe them at first – but that's a whole other story.

so where there's a party, there must be an invite.

blackboard footprints poem

so i finally got around to getting my blackboard up.

a plan since i saw the ugly bare wooden panel that houses the fridge in our kitchen.

so cousin daniel (aka blonde daniel) who also happens to be housemate mel's uncle (weird but true), got us a piece of mdf cut to size.

so i primed, painted and tacked it on.

so in love with it.

friends at our housewarming had a great time writing poems, drawing pictures and even notes about coming events.

currently it is home to my favourite poem, footprints in the sand.

i have a new awe for teachers who can write in straight lines on a chalkboard.

not easy.

click to enlarge pic

these are a few of my favourite things...

my gorgeous handmade silver bird earings from cocoon.

coco chanel pefume. sigh. it's an empty bottle but still smells divine.

note to self: buy some more. or get a boyfriend so he can. ha ha

my mirror brooches.

i have a girl and a bunny from my DARLING big sis for my last birthday.

they do blind people when they catch the light though.

'U2 boy' original record.

great find at my brother's school fair.

one of my favourite album covers ever.

i have a thing for sesame street

i love the google pics.

(you know how they make the word google into an image on their home page to celebrate some occasion)

but this sesame street series takes the cake.

it was to celebrate the 40th anniversary.

how clever are these!!!

i loved sesame street as a kid.

one of my earliest childhood memories is waking up from my afternoon sleep and bert and ernie were on tv.

just remember being so happy.

thanks for the memories google.

the sj and tom story

she's beautiful and about the funniest girl you'll ever meet.

sarah-jane (sj) created this little masterpiece of her and her 'man' tom.

i love the quirky design.

(all done in paint would you believe!)

more please sj!

(click the pic to enlarge)

my new visual image recording device

i got a fabulous new camera!

it's only a digital compact (canon powershot SX120 IS) but does a pretty good job for that.

yes christine and ed, it's a model up from yours and i paid less that you.

mini ha ha.

so saturday after work (yes – i worked saturday)

sj, bunky (two of my MOST AWESOME friends) and me

went down to south beach (fremantle) at sunset for a photo sesh.

just a bit of silliness really.

dear (birthday) musketeer

tomorrow is one of my musketeers birthday!

happy birthday to my darling best friend.

i wish i could be there, but only 49 more sleeps until i see you again.

ten (of the many) reasons I love sylvia:

1 she has always loved me unconditionally.

2 she sticks up for her friends.

3 she has exuberance the energiser bunny would have a hard time matching.

4 she sings at the top of her lungs, often with wrong (made-up) words.

5 she has an amazing ability to laugh at herself.

6 she is kind and patient with EVERYONE.

7 when i see her she hugs me so hard it hurts.

8 she cries at the drop of a hat, even over tv programs like the biggest loser.

9 she makes the best chicken wraps.

10 she is the most beautiful person in the world.

what i wore today

inspired by these little gems i had a little quick sketch of my own.

not one to be bothered with pens and scanning and effort for a little lunchtime experiment, i just drew it using my 'pencil' in illustrator.

cute and fun.

might become a regular feature.

(click the pic to enlarge)

lighthouse logo

here's a logo i recently designed for lighthouse ministries – a christian outreach program based in rockingham, western australia.

bronya asked me to create this.

she designs 'on the side' (has two most adorable little girls to look after).

and said she was having a bit of trouble making a lighthouse look like a lighthouse.

i daresay i would have had the same issue, so i decided to go with a different approach of focusing on the 'light'.

always good to use my 'talents' for God's kingdom work.

ouch

been a bit absent again i know.

my back and i are no longer friends.

it put me in hospital last week.

only upside – i had a cute british doctor who made the pain bearable with a wonderful drug cocktail.

and he gave me a hug.

now i'm struggling on.

trying to work.

trying to design.

trying to stay awake.

(meant to be at home flat on my back with a heat pack, but life must go on.)

so apologies in advance if my posts are few and far between.

pic via here