Welcome to my yearly newsletter!
Yes... it's been quite a year of great things, not so great things and some interesting developments; and all over 12 months!
Okay - are you ready for this crazy roller coaster right to get underway? No? Well, neither am I, let's strap in and hope and pray it's not too bad, okay?
Well, from January through to April, I hung out with my best friend, and wonderful ginger-sister, Tutasi Wesley-Tufuga. We had the best time while she was visiting here from the USA, even though the heat wasn't really treating her the best. And she spent Christmas here too. We had Thursday's out op-shopping and enjoyed coffee at Simply Beans together chatting and gossiping together... what a great time we had. We're best friends!
While I was doing that, I was also attending my second year of art school at the Logan Artists Association. Mondays were when my classes were on and I returned from the coast with a great idea for my year in my class. I wanted to paint a series of paintings of Brunswick Heads and have an exhibition to sell them all! My teacher told me that it was a good idea, but it took me time to pick out my first painting... yep, I took a lot of photos over the 2017 time I was at the coast.
In February, it was my Dad's birthday and I had made Mango-cello for is birthday present. He loved it, but it backfired as I didn't use a strong enough vodka to make it... the whole batch fermented and we had to chuck it all out. Bummer... oh well, guess you live and learn, right? But I started knitting big this month, painting big too, and my brother and his partner spent 2 weeks in Japan - very cool!
March was me being op-shop crazy! I donated a lot of stuff and bought a lot of op-shop things. And it was a great time of year to be op-shopping - even to browse. I also got my hair coloured for the World's Greatest Shave and raised a little over $100... next year, my hair will be long enough to shave and that's where I raise the most money!
In April, my ginger-sister, Tutasi headed back home. I was going to miss her badly. And the day after she went home, I was going into hospital for day surgery - at the time she had offered to help me out to look after me so my Mum didn't have to. Unfortunately, the best laid plans usually go astray.
Oh man... May was the worst month this year. I lost one of the most wonderful people in my life I've ever known. Hannah Northedge, a jazz singer who I've known since I was 9 years old, killed herself; after months of me trying to help her from the other side of the planet. Yep, I was here in Australia and she was in the UK and we would chat over Facebook, but she wouldn't let me phone her. I really had a bad case of the guilts for a long time and have been in therapy about her death. I still have moments where it all feels really fresh.
June had me finishing off a scrap scarf, pulling apart my garden some of the first few weeks of Winter and getting in and working on getting a greenhouse for my garden. A new stereo system was installed into the car - as the original one was stuffed - and I just kept myself incredibly busy as hell so I didn't think about Hannah at all... easy to do when you have a lot of things to do normally around your life. I also put on the very first Vintage Clothing Day in honour of Hannah Northedge on 5th June - the day she was laid to rest; seeing they really don't know when she died, only the day they identified her (which was Star Wars Day... I'm not going to ruin that day). If you missed out this year, I'm doing Vintage Clothing Day next year... don't worry, it'll be on Facebook as a public event.
July and August had me in my garden most of the time, organising it, cleaning it up, throwing out plants and making it into a useful and pretty place - all ready for the coming Spring and Summer months. I also joined a gym to get myself fit and healthy so I could lose some of the jiggled I hated about myself and gain some muscle I needed.
September was Mum's Birthday. But we couldn't get together and have it as my brother's family were really sick - so we got together and had a party a week or so later at their house. I brought the vinyls and my brother and his partner pulled together a Japanese feast of grand proportions! It was a great night! Also in September, I bought myself my birthday presents of 2 sets of shelves from Stratco, and started working on new paintings in my own style away from the classes I have been taking at the LAA on Monday's.
October was a busy month for me. As I said before, we had Mum's Birthday this month for good reasons. Then, we had my birthday this month too. The day before my birthday, I was booted from my art class by the teacher. We had a disagreement about style and how things were done in my paintings - basically, he didn't like it that I didn't paint exactly like he did. So, I was out... I made an official complaint to the LAA committee and they've dealt with him.
I got to mind my brother's dog, Ellie. Such a sweetheart she is. And then Halloween came around and nobody dropped by my place for any lollies... it just doesn't happen in a unit complex, not even if you dress up the house, so I didn't bother.
I had dinner at my folks' house - a first ever for me. I found a Bush Turkey in my back yard - and scared the crap out of it enough that it never came back. I harvested my first Black Cherry Tomatoes and I began knitting and making Christmas presents... wow, yep, a busy month.
November saw me going on the Logan Art Gallery Christmas Party to Toowoomba. We had a great time, lost somebody (they had a bad sense of direction) and found them again, then we roasted and came home... what a great day. I bought a necklace I haven't taken off since then of a sterling silver archer's arrow.
I spent time down the coast at Brunswick Heads, started a painting down there, went to the Tweed River Art Gallery and enjoyed my time with Mum. We made a toilet stop at a small town famous for its sugar mill... and when I opened the sweet aroma of molasses hit our noses! I was amazed! We had pulled into the car park of the bowls club and when I went inside the place, it looked like it hadn't left the 70's; right down to the toilets. Talk about stepping back in time! Well, at least I was dressed well enough.
This month of December has been huge. I've been to 2 morning teas in 1 day. Have got artwork in 2 different art galleries and I'm still working hard on my series of paintings of Brunswick Heads. I've begun attending another art group, but it's a social group which gathers on Tuesdays, now and it $15 cheaper than the other class I was kicked out of. Not a bad deal, seeing it gets me out of my house.
Christmas is just next week and I've got all my presents fixed up. I've learned how to wrap all my presents in cloth in the Japanese way of wrapping called Furoshiki - which I'm still getting the hang of - and I've just been to the optometrist today to find out why my left eye was bothering me. He's got all my glasses to upgrade all the lenses for me.
Yep, this year has been huge for me... Hannah's 44th Birthday has just been. I'm going to stay in touch with her Mum through the mail and I'm looking forward to next year where I've got many other things to get myself into. Yeah, this year was my turning point year... lots got done, at home as well as in the world, and I'm not done yet - not by a long shot. I know I haven't been on this blog as much as I should have been - and now you know why.
So, I hope you all stick around the see what's going to happen next year for me. I do have plans, they're going to work out and yeah, they'll take time to do. Until my next post, take care, stay safe this Christmas season and remember, I'm always here.
Yes... it's been quite a year of great things, not so great things and some interesting developments; and all over 12 months!
Okay - are you ready for this crazy roller coaster right to get underway? No? Well, neither am I, let's strap in and hope and pray it's not too bad, okay?
Well, from January through to April, I hung out with my best friend, and wonderful ginger-sister, Tutasi Wesley-Tufuga. We had the best time while she was visiting here from the USA, even though the heat wasn't really treating her the best. And she spent Christmas here too. We had Thursday's out op-shopping and enjoyed coffee at Simply Beans together chatting and gossiping together... what a great time we had. We're best friends!
While I was doing that, I was also attending my second year of art school at the Logan Artists Association. Mondays were when my classes were on and I returned from the coast with a great idea for my year in my class. I wanted to paint a series of paintings of Brunswick Heads and have an exhibition to sell them all! My teacher told me that it was a good idea, but it took me time to pick out my first painting... yep, I took a lot of photos over the 2017 time I was at the coast.
In February, it was my Dad's birthday and I had made Mango-cello for is birthday present. He loved it, but it backfired as I didn't use a strong enough vodka to make it... the whole batch fermented and we had to chuck it all out. Bummer... oh well, guess you live and learn, right? But I started knitting big this month, painting big too, and my brother and his partner spent 2 weeks in Japan - very cool!
March was me being op-shop crazy! I donated a lot of stuff and bought a lot of op-shop things. And it was a great time of year to be op-shopping - even to browse. I also got my hair coloured for the World's Greatest Shave and raised a little over $100... next year, my hair will be long enough to shave and that's where I raise the most money!
In April, my ginger-sister, Tutasi headed back home. I was going to miss her badly. And the day after she went home, I was going into hospital for day surgery - at the time she had offered to help me out to look after me so my Mum didn't have to. Unfortunately, the best laid plans usually go astray.
Oh man... May was the worst month this year. I lost one of the most wonderful people in my life I've ever known. Hannah Northedge, a jazz singer who I've known since I was 9 years old, killed herself; after months of me trying to help her from the other side of the planet. Yep, I was here in Australia and she was in the UK and we would chat over Facebook, but she wouldn't let me phone her. I really had a bad case of the guilts for a long time and have been in therapy about her death. I still have moments where it all feels really fresh.
June had me finishing off a scrap scarf, pulling apart my garden some of the first few weeks of Winter and getting in and working on getting a greenhouse for my garden. A new stereo system was installed into the car - as the original one was stuffed - and I just kept myself incredibly busy as hell so I didn't think about Hannah at all... easy to do when you have a lot of things to do normally around your life. I also put on the very first Vintage Clothing Day in honour of Hannah Northedge on 5th June - the day she was laid to rest; seeing they really don't know when she died, only the day they identified her (which was Star Wars Day... I'm not going to ruin that day). If you missed out this year, I'm doing Vintage Clothing Day next year... don't worry, it'll be on Facebook as a public event.
July and August had me in my garden most of the time, organising it, cleaning it up, throwing out plants and making it into a useful and pretty place - all ready for the coming Spring and Summer months. I also joined a gym to get myself fit and healthy so I could lose some of the jiggled I hated about myself and gain some muscle I needed.
September was Mum's Birthday. But we couldn't get together and have it as my brother's family were really sick - so we got together and had a party a week or so later at their house. I brought the vinyls and my brother and his partner pulled together a Japanese feast of grand proportions! It was a great night! Also in September, I bought myself my birthday presents of 2 sets of shelves from Stratco, and started working on new paintings in my own style away from the classes I have been taking at the LAA on Monday's.
October was a busy month for me. As I said before, we had Mum's Birthday this month for good reasons. Then, we had my birthday this month too. The day before my birthday, I was booted from my art class by the teacher. We had a disagreement about style and how things were done in my paintings - basically, he didn't like it that I didn't paint exactly like he did. So, I was out... I made an official complaint to the LAA committee and they've dealt with him.
I got to mind my brother's dog, Ellie. Such a sweetheart she is. And then Halloween came around and nobody dropped by my place for any lollies... it just doesn't happen in a unit complex, not even if you dress up the house, so I didn't bother.
I had dinner at my folks' house - a first ever for me. I found a Bush Turkey in my back yard - and scared the crap out of it enough that it never came back. I harvested my first Black Cherry Tomatoes and I began knitting and making Christmas presents... wow, yep, a busy month.
November saw me going on the Logan Art Gallery Christmas Party to Toowoomba. We had a great time, lost somebody (they had a bad sense of direction) and found them again, then we roasted and came home... what a great day. I bought a necklace I haven't taken off since then of a sterling silver archer's arrow.
I spent time down the coast at Brunswick Heads, started a painting down there, went to the Tweed River Art Gallery and enjoyed my time with Mum. We made a toilet stop at a small town famous for its sugar mill... and when I opened the sweet aroma of molasses hit our noses! I was amazed! We had pulled into the car park of the bowls club and when I went inside the place, it looked like it hadn't left the 70's; right down to the toilets. Talk about stepping back in time! Well, at least I was dressed well enough.
This month of December has been huge. I've been to 2 morning teas in 1 day. Have got artwork in 2 different art galleries and I'm still working hard on my series of paintings of Brunswick Heads. I've begun attending another art group, but it's a social group which gathers on Tuesdays, now and it $15 cheaper than the other class I was kicked out of. Not a bad deal, seeing it gets me out of my house.
Christmas is just next week and I've got all my presents fixed up. I've learned how to wrap all my presents in cloth in the Japanese way of wrapping called Furoshiki - which I'm still getting the hang of - and I've just been to the optometrist today to find out why my left eye was bothering me. He's got all my glasses to upgrade all the lenses for me.
Yep, this year has been huge for me... Hannah's 44th Birthday has just been. I'm going to stay in touch with her Mum through the mail and I'm looking forward to next year where I've got many other things to get myself into. Yeah, this year was my turning point year... lots got done, at home as well as in the world, and I'm not done yet - not by a long shot. I know I haven't been on this blog as much as I should have been - and now you know why.
So, I hope you all stick around the see what's going to happen next year for me. I do have plans, they're going to work out and yeah, they'll take time to do. Until my next post, take care, stay safe this Christmas season and remember, I'm always here.
No comments:
Post a Comment