simone

Actually doing the thing is very helpful. No surprises there. Lots of excuses found though 😅

Milk eggs sleep alone time 🥛🍳😴🧑🏽‍🌾

Collage + gouache combo on the left. Gouache + acrylic on right. I love how the nasturtiums turned out. The poppy only meh. The lily mildy delightful.

I sometimes wish I could write more about what I draw. But I draw so I don’t have to do words. And so it is 😅

Alison was so excited to show me a rose bush budding in the middle of winter. I’m pretty sure this is a dream mostly because I can’t find evidence of this discussion. Equally important: it’s summer over there.

Collage! Real life one! I enjoyed making this. In the process I even answered questions I didn’t know I had. Also this is not a precious sketchbook and wow it’s been liberating!

No frills, just the disarmingly vigorous beauty of the ordinary.

— Christian Ouwens describing Klaas Gubbels’ studio.

Re the social media exodus (that I may or may not be imagining!) – I’m curious: what are people doing with their content from their now defunct or hibernating accounts? I find that I have all these lovely snaps from travels + stuff I’ve made through the years but I don’t have the inclination to go through them all to repost. I know there’s bulk import but it doesn’t feel right to me? Almost like those moments live wherever they were posted and that’s part of the story. Maybe there will be a better way in future. Right now, I have zero bandwidth to tackle my internet past life.

Dear husband. Please.

(A digital collage via Procreate)

Spontaneous video call with my childhood friends for a baby shower. It was so so so cup-filling. I’ve missed them both so much and I’m so grateful T called so I could be part of M’s celebration.

Exam deadline tomorrow. Naturally I’m on eBay looking at terrarium plants and chrysanthemums and considering bidding for a sweet jumper not available in Australia, but is already in Australia. Should I buy it now?!

Type. Delete. Type. Delete…….. I am this. No, no, no. No I am not that. But maybe I should? Arg. (Squishes face with palms.)

If it’s not obvious, I am mildly panicking about mid-life!

Clean as you go, please! Digital sketchbook via Procreate.

Finished study of a bearded iris from this afternoon’s session (’painting’ via Procreate). The ruffles were a fun challenge to nut out - I could have kept going but my alarm to pick up the kids brought me back to earth. I really appreciate the term study as I learned a fair bit from this exercise.

There are moments when raising young children when I really, really want to tell them, “whatever you do, don’t ever have kids."

But of course, I can’t and don’t say it.

I’m going to attempt the Pressed Flowers hat by Amy Christoffers. Fingers crossed youtube can save my ambitious arse 🧶

FINALLY Finished reading: Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson 📚

5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’ve been on off reading this book and never got past Part I. As soon as I did, I could not put it down. What a wild ride! Gutted about certain things - iykyk! I always get so emotionally attached to fictional characters and then feel abandoned when the inevitable happens / the book ends. Looking forward to the second installment!

A spell of sickness that started with me. Kids home for close to a week now. Even M is napping! He never does this. Must be really bad. I’m sort of emerging from the depths. Still get tired quite quickly. I bought heaps of yarn for myself and nano-bugs, lego, and modelling clay for the kids. Yawn 🥱