I found this brilliant photograph amongst Mr. Peterson’s collection on flickr. It was shot in 2006 in Kenya. This is a beautiful image to remind us all that the Kenyan people are still in crisis and need the support of us, the international community. So how can we help at this stage? Just talk about it, mention it amongst your friends, be aware of what is going on and be supportive.

This stunning image also leads me perfectly into the collective project that I am about to launch here tomorrow. See if you can guess what it might be as I put the finishing touches on it, I’d love to hear what you think it could be (I think I’ve unwittingly lead you off the track!). I am rather excited by this project, I LOVE collaborating and I think we are really going to have fun with this. See you tomorrow!

Incredible non?! I met the lovely Dutch photographer Maria at Frank Visser’s studio a couple of months back, and beside captivating me by being a beautiful person to chat with, she then handed me her business card: a seemingly tiny little square piece of card that i needed to look closely at, reading ‘the glove theatre’ and then the card popped open accordion style, presenting me with the full story of shots that you see below. It brought a smile from my heart straight to me face. Check out more of her work here. I predict we have a star in the making my dears…

Styled this for Le Forge in Sydney a few months ago, with photographer Brian Gilkes. I just love this image. We shot it at the end of the day, it was raining, we were tired, but I had seen this fantastic wall in the car park on my way in that morning and I was determined to capture one of the Le Forge pieces against it. I picked this piece from the new range at the Le Forge studio and with poppies under my arm I dragged Brian and his divine wife Trish outside in the rain. They both indulged me but I’m quite sure there was eye rolling going on behind me. But once outside, with lots of passionate arm flailing to explain my idea, they were both hooked on it. In the end, it was I who had to drag them away from the shot!

Another fun day at work, thanks to the Le Forge team and Brian & Trish. I will be posting more on Brian’s work soon.

If you haven’t already spotted them wandering around the (blog)house, my new guests David Knight and Michelle Verghis settled themselves in the guest quarters yesterday evening (yes my head is now throbbing from a little over zealous ‘welcome to the (blog)house!’ party last night). I am thrilled to introduce this dynamo couple to you – David is a photographer who has just been selected as a finalist in the inaugural National Photographic Portrait Prize for the National Portrait Gallery with this beauty:

And Michelle is a fabulous illustrator who designs information graphics for news as well as T-shirt graphics and artwork for private and corporate clients.

I will display more of Michelle and David’s work during their stay in the (blog)house, but for now please make them feel welcome by saying hello, and be sure to follow the links to their associated websites because there is a lot more to see.

Hope you like your stay guys! ooh and watch your feet in the (blog)abong there, some nasties like to think it’s feeding time…

Who else receives the gift of Bob Sherman’s Daily Doses in their inbox each day (thanks to DesignDNA for leading me to him!)? Bob won me over with his Daily Doses when I read that he sends an image and a quote or two each day. HEAVEN for my obsession confession #1! And after a day of mayhem, it is the nicest email to receive.

Noticing that Bob has such a variety of images from all over the world, I thought I’d ask him if he had been to Africa and if he would allow me to borrow some images for one of my Africa In The Spotlight posts. He replied in the affirmative, and lead me to a video that his fiancé Beth Chapman had made to raise awareness for the children of South Africa. I watched the video, titled “Sometimes I feel Like A Motherless Child” which is accompanied by Beth’s magical voice, and another piece of my heart promptly fell out of its little shell and crashed to the floor. A beautifully created video from Beth and Bob, please make the time today to watch it.

World powers have been shocked and horrified by the violence in Kenya – it is or ‘was’ one of the most stable countries in Africa. Over 500 people have been killed, and there are recent reports of a massacre of about 30 people sheltering in a church near the western town of Eldoret.

But what does that have to do with you? Everything. This is happening in our world and the world is our backyard. Imagine yourself standing at your window, watching your children and neighbours playing in the backyard and then noticing that one is bashing another. And then you turn away and go and have a cup of tea.

The petition now has over 10 000 signatures from the international community. Just by signing your name you are helping to restore democracy and peace in Kenya – that is the beauty of the internet these days – it brings all of us together to be able to make a difference in the world. It empowers us to show that we care what goes on in Kenya and the rest of the world, just like it was going on in our own backyard. It gives us the means to speak to our world leaders quickly and efficiently and guide them.

So let’s say you’ve had your cup of tea, hoping that the bashing between the kids has settled itself, and you decide to take another look out your back window. Guess what you see: your entire backyard destroyed – plants ripped up, your expensive imported palms on fire, complete destruction. You didn’t think forward to consider that the bullying and bashing could actually take direct affect on you. If you acted swiftly and intervened you could have saved that child from suffering and saved your backyard, and more over been a model for all the kids in the backyard, showing them that it is possible to speak up when you know something is just not right.

So, to show support for Kenya we can sign the petition, we can support African designers and artists who support their local community which in turn will help put the power of peace for their country in their own hands, and we can advise our friends to do the same. That way, we all enjoy a cup of tea.

Thanks again Bob, for such beautiful images and for your support.