My friend Joe and I are a bit like Will and Grace. Except Joe is not gay, nor am I Jewish. But we love each other just the same, and when we were teenagers we used to play a little water game.

You see, Joe and I lived on the Northern Beaches of Sydney which is a strip of land that juts up and out of the Australian coastline, creating a series of beautiful golden sand beaches on one side of the strip, and a number of bays on the other (has anyone seen Home and Away? that is our home – even the school uniform is ours) – our high school was on the bay, our homes were by the bay, and so this is where we played.

We had a little run down runabout, and Joe and I used to take it out every weekend. We would visit out friend Sara across the bay, and we’d hang out by the edges of Scotland Island, or we’d go to one of the creeks and explore (sans funnel web spiders preferably).

And the other day, while I was out on David’s runabout cruising the canals of Amsterdam, memories of my time with Joe on the bay came flooding back.

While Joe and I were in our runabout going from a to b, we would spot the name on a moored boat, and try to come up with a very cool and funny sentence with this strange name in it, and the other person would have to find that boat with the mystery word. It seemed to entertain us for hours, and we would communicate like that for the whole day. Sometimes we would just float our boat amongst all the massive moored yachts, bath in the sunshine, and talk to each other using these boat names. And if we were feeling extra clever we would incorporate two or three boat names in one sentence, or come up with a poem. I’ve forgotten the many beautiful poems we used to create, but the memory of our time is still very vivid. And I remember that Joe was always better at the game than me.

So Joe, this one is for you…

“won’t you be my scialuppa…”

(check comments box for the meaning)

I love meeting new people.

It’s one of the things I love about my job – I am always working with different people, and although sometimes it can be a bit trying on such intense shoots, most of the time it is heaps of fun. And this is one of the things I love about being a blogger too. I’ve made so many new friends, all of whom I hope to meet in person one day. And some of which I am very lucky to have already met in person.

You already know I’ve met Danielle, from the ever popular Style Files, who I’m very looking forward to catching up again with in coming days. And just recently I had the pleasure of having drinks with gorgeous Mary-Laure and the oracle Benjy, from Aurea, and her sister Celine who has just moved to Amsterdam. Thank you Mary-Laure for posting about your visit with me, it made me chuckle and blush. And while in Paris I met the very talented Rachel who I will be writing more about very soon.

Josephine from Red Thread recently came to Europe as a 3 week birthday treat for herself and we were able to hang out in both Amsterdam and Paris while she was here. If you catch her now, she is writing some awesome posts about her time in Antwerp, she has already written about Stockholm, and she has just finished posting about Amsterdam, all complete with photographs. Click here for her floral fixation post (oh Josephine, I wish you were able to see my tulips in bloom!), here for Amsterdam’s gorgeous chinatown which I frequent often, here for her design and art walk, and here for her post about her time with me. Apparently she thinks I’m funny, and I couldnt be happier about that, someone who actually laughs at my humour! We had a fun time, both of us pipelette-ing away, the boys couldnt get a word in unfortunately. Tough luck boys.

And soon I’ll be introducing you to one of my friends who will be arriving in the guest quarters any moment now (he’s a bit late, he’s a very busy boy). But I can tell you this much – he makes me laugh, he loves my little piano concerts, and he is a hit on the dancefloor.

But here are some links I’d love you to check out in the meantime from my new blog friends. Also, please check my blogroll for new links as I always put new ones in but sometimes don’t have the time to write about them in a post.

Danielle just posted about Taschen’s new seaside interiors book here.

Felicity posted an AWESOME interior spread here.

Yoli continues to inspire me daily with her beautiful blog here.

Tiny K posts some really inspiring interiors here.
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All photographs are from the “Subaquatic Beauty” spread shot by Alix Malka via Nyla and Yoli

not by lightening. not by fever. nor by hand… it happened the moment I found this image lurking in an old photo folder on my desktop…

I’m homesick. And I’ve been struck hard.

Why do I do it to myself, why did I have to come up with this water theme which lead me to finding this?

I took this photograph with my AE-1, and I remember it vividly. This represents home. It is Sydney life. My old Sydney life, hanging out on the Hawkesbury River, on a boat called the Avventura, waking up to this view. Okay, it’s not like we did this every day, but on the occassional weekend, all through summer, it’s what we did.

As soon as I saw this image this afternoon I could smell the crisp clean morning air, I could hear the cicadas getting their little wings ready for their incessant (but now so missed!) buzzing. I could feel the sea breeze play with my hair, and the sun touch my skin. Sweet memories. sweet seaside memories.

This is definately the soundtrack to this image. Definately.

“Please close your eyes and then open them with the understanding that you are now in my world…”

That was the screen text on one of my short films I made for uni way back when. It then followed with a non-eventful continuing loop of crappy video footage of water backwash from a motorboat. Yes I went to art college. My poor fellow students, I apologise to you now but I’m sure I must have thought it expressed something inside me worth expressing at the time. Perhaps some inclination for wanting to be one of Kingsley’s captured water babies…

The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby

My mother read it to me as a child and as difficult as it was to try to understand the 19th century English of Charles Kingsley’s at the age of 8, the essence of the story and the beautiful sketches of Jessie Willcox Smith are etched in my heart forever still.

In short, the story is about Tom, a young chimney sweep who falls in the river and unfortunately dies but is transformed into a ‘water baby’. A series of underwater adventures follows with fairies such as Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby and Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid.

This story fuelled my imagination and passion for the sea and inspired many an artwork since, including the above mentioned short film and a number of sketches, photographic stories like the one below, short stories and poems that one day, when back in Sydney, I might take a wander through the attic and perhaps will feel brave enough to post them here in the (blog)house. I am always drawn to water, I can’t help but want to take out my camera and click away, so this week is dedicated to places, things and images water related that have inspired me and continue to inspire my work. I adore the waters edge, finding all sorts of little bits and pieces to make things from… stringing little shells into necklaces and bracelets, gathering driftwood, or just collecting, I always find a gift from mother nature when i take a wander by the sea side…

it’s a little late, but it’s for all the mothers out there.
This photograph is from a series I took a few years ago, with my trusty Canon AE-1. And looking at this image I realise, I am missing film, just a little bit.

3:18pm: It’s afternoon tea time for me. And I’ve decided, while sipping my tea, that this image goes with this song. They both make me feel happy.

3:19pm: Tea time’s over 🙁