I listened to the last peep show zoom call this morning with Bec Griffiths and Yan Palmer. I learnt so much over the last 6 weeks. Here’s a few things that stuck in my heart and have been tormenting my brain to write them out of my head. There were hundreds of conversations, questions during […]
Read more "The Creative"
I love telling stories through pictures and words. My photography work is documentary style, my writing is essay style. My heart fancies a good story, one of my joys is to tell stories, hear stories, and share stories. My website is full of stories of mine, and wonderful women that I have interviewed. My writing […]
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I love telling stories through pictures and words. My photography work is documentary style, my writing is essay style. My heart fancies a good story, one of my joys is to tell stories, hear stories, and share stories. My website is full of stories of mine, and wonderful women that I have interviewed. My writing […]
Read more "Rural and farming family documentary session"
Hi, my names is Melinda and I love telling stories through pictures and words. My photography work is documentary style, my writing is essay style. My heart fancies a good story, one of my joys is to tell stories, hear stories, and share stories. My website is full of stories of mine, and wonderful women […]
Read more "Family documentary session"
Marina. A magical, sparkly shop was where we scheduled our meeting, surrounded by stained glass lighting, imported handcrafted Turkish rugs and handbags, time pieces hanging from every wall, sparkling jewels and trinkets on every surface. The aroma of the coffee machine seduced us away from the window shopping and straight to Bengü, Gallery B’s exotic […]
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matriarch ˈmeɪtrɪɑːk noun: matriarch; plural noun: matriarchs a woman who is the head of a family or tribe. “in some cultures the mother proceeds to the status of a matriarch” an older woman who is powerful within a family or organization. “a domineering matriarch” I am perched on the edge of the visitors chair in […]
Read more "Yvonne Rinaldi"
GRANDMA family-history Noun (plural family histories) 1. an extension to genealogy in which the life and times of the people concerned are investigated Family history puts flesh on the bones of genealogy. Mum phoned Grandma and papa, and told them we would pop down for a cuppa and morning tea. I selfishly want my grandma’s […]
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Sandra Conte. Sandi and I meet at a local coffee shop, we get settled at our table with chai latte each and I ask the first question and am taken away, this is why I love doing this, I get lost in the conversation, her story flows. Sandi is incredibly open, honest, and generous, at […]
Read more "Sandra Conte"I sat in an art studio today and heard life experiences from a lady who kindly wanted to share for LUV. I had never met this woman before, she emailed me a couple of weeks ago after I put a call out for women to share their story for LUV. When I arrived at […]
Read more "Today 5th October"
boarding (bɔːʳdɪŋ ) uncountable noun Boarding is an arrangement by which children live at school during the school term. I left my boys with my sister and drove down the dirt road for my interview with Bella, these interviews that I organise have me anxious and out of my comfort zone every single time. I […]
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Yesterday scrolling through Instagram I found a local treasure and I went to visit Mel at Gin Rummy vintage today. I remember when I was little it was a treat to get into mum’s cupboard with all her clothes and jewellery and the shoes (there is photo evidence of me somewhere actually in mum’s clothes). […]
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11.05.17 If you have read my blog you know that there is a coffee shop I go to on a Wednesday morning with the school mums. Well it has changed hands, had a facelift and a new menu. I haven’t been there for a while, but yesterday there was a post on Instagram saying […]
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They were in a concentration camp, they were enclosed within the perimeter of a wire fence, they lived in dormitories and their clothes were not suitable for the climate. Their language was taken away from them and if they spoke it they would be punished severely, their culture, their traditions were prohibited from being practiced […]
Read more "Dale Harding"
Julie – owner of JPS Hair and Beauty, and I sat down in her pedicure lounge with a coffee and cheesecake and had a chat. This lady boss who is celebrating 19 years in her salon was modest in telling “her” story. “I mean, it’s not just me this is my sister tribe. Lots of […]
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I chose the “hippie school” I knew nothing about Montessori when I had my first child, at the time my sister-in law was working as a nanny in London for some very wealthy families. She sent me an email saying that I needed to find a Montessori school or Children’s house to send […]
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When I go shopping or buy gifts, I am conscious of buying local products, supporting local business or sourcing handmade, sustainable, pieces. As we walked around the Byron Bay Design festival, I made a point of lovingly and stealthily telling my husband that he could buy my Christmas present from one of the creatives at […]
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I floated around the Byron Bay festival of design drooling over all of the handmade, ethically made treasures like clothes, art, jewellery. My little family traipsed behind me ( I say traipsed because my little tribe is all boys – including a teenager and a pre-teen, this was not their idea of a good time, in a town with surf beaches). […]
Read more "Ursula Yraola"
Ania Caffarena I walked into the space at the Festival of design where Ania and Kat had their art displayed. The blonde and brunette haired beauties, one from Germany and one from Italy, made use of pine wood pallets as supports for black and white pencil drawings of whales, fish and swim suits. Green leafy […]
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I asked Kat Deschan Illustrator, if she would have a quick chat with me, while I was admiring her stunning hand drawn art work, she was kind enough to say yes. Her art work was on display at the Byron Bay Festival of Design. The black and white pencil A1 drawing of a pair of one piece […]
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We are grateful to be only 3 hours down the highway and to have the good fortune of holidaying in Byron Bay the nature loving, surf metropolis that thrums to its own vibe. I enjoy the melting pot of diversity of the people that are attracted to the famous coastal town. Bare footed surfers, backpackers, […]
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Post 99 In nearly 100 posts, lots has happened. Winter to summer, school to school holidays, I was at the peak of working hard on my marriage. Now we are still working on it but not in such an acute I love you but really do hate you way. Now it’s more of an I […]
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Post 98. “Oh your boy’s are so independent, I was watching you set up your site yesterday and was envious of you and your hubby. The boy’s jumped out of your car and went and found their friends and you two laughed and worked together putting together your camp site.” This was said to me […]
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As a 16 year old I knew that I wanted to work with pre-schoolers, I was always interest in the early years. In year 12 a lady came to our school as part of a careers information session. She was from The Nanny School in Brisbane. She spoke about The Nanny School, being a nanny, […]
Read more "Nanny Becca "
I want to send a big thank you to Daphne, an Amazon Top 100 bestselling author, for our Skype conversation. I was read the first few chapters of 100 days of Solitude and I felt like a connected with her on so many levels, I knew I had to contact her and see if she […]
Read more "Daphne Kapsali"
I have always known Peta, to be a woman that waves the flag very passionately for feminism, and celebrating women and their accomplishments. I have known her, to be a loyal and devoted friend to the people around her. Peta is very aware of her emotions, and from conversations with her, she tries to live […]
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The third lady in my #mesistertribe series is Amanda Metelli. Metelli and I meet at a coffee shop for our interview and were seated in booth seating, it was the perfect setting for our fun chat. This gorgeous lady, saves lives everyday as an emergency department nurse. I was fascinated by her plans to […]
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Lounging in the sun at a coffee shop enjoying a heavenly caramel latte, with my photographer friend Marina and her pot of tea. We were discussing her love of photography, the sentimental importance of photographs, and the memories they can induce. Marina reminisced about her grandmother when speaking about photos that are most valuable to her. “I […]
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I interviewed my Mum. “As a child we moved to Redcliffe when there was still dirt roads, we had to clear our own piece of land so that the house could be built. When Grandma was pregnant with your Aunty Kelli, I would take our dog for a walk in the pram practicing for when […]
Read more "My Mum"I have a fear of writing. A deep seated anxiety that I am not good enough, that my grammar is appalling, that I cannot express adequately in words the beauty that I experience. That I cannot express emotions effectively and make them beautiful or haunting in text. I fear that what I write no […]
Read more "Rhonda Ryde – Stella’s Awakening"After the initial pounding of my heart and hysterical laughter, at me being chosen for the boudoir model shoot, my emotions swung from: Excitement about, wearing pretty knickers, getting hair and makeup done and feel all girly. To freaking the hell out that I have answered an ad on Instagram. I am meeting a stranger in […]
Read more "Pretty Knickers and preparation"
I don’t find this woman particularly inspiring, I find her an interesting woman who lived in a time of great change for women. The 1960s were a decade of revolution and change in politics, music and society. It was an era of protest. The civil rights movement had people protesting about the rights of different […]
Read more "Janis Joplin"
I spent time today just sitting. Sitting outside on a long wooden bench seat at Suffolk Park bakery. Taking delight in a caramel latte, dressed in cut off denim shorts, a bikini top, and a chiffon kimono top (I would NEVER dress like this to go the bakery at home). Suffolk Park is about 6km […]
Read more "People at the bakery."
Ok, there is one beach activity that I am finding fascinating while on holidays. Every day we walk over the headland to a lookout, to the right of the lookout is a gorgeous little cove that is called Kings Beach. Kings Beach is a nude beach/ clothes optional/ au naturel beach – whatever you want […]
Read more "Getting naked."
Here is my review of Australian Womankind magazine. At first when I picked up the magazine, the first thing that I noticed was the beautiful images. As I mentioned in my last post it takes a lot for me to part with $14.95 for a mag, so I wasn’t just looking for pretty pictures to […]
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End of school for another year. THANK god. I am extremely excited to not have to do school lunches, iron uniforms, and battle the ridiculous school traffic for the next seven weeks. I am over the moon that I don’t have to even try and attempt to help with year 8 homework (especially algebra) and […]
Read more "School holidays tomorrow"
I follow theartidote on Instagram. One of the posts from this week started like this: “I hope you meet someone who wants to experience you and not just see you by their eyes.” Another excerpt was: Someone who wants to experience you like a masterpiece: Whenever we observe a masterpiece, we get the urge to touch it – […]
Read more "Lets experience each other."
30th November my last day of 30 days of blogging. I really didn’t have faith in myself on 1st November that I would actually make the 30 days. I am so glad that I did though, it has been a fun but confronting and scary challenge for me. I have found it incredibly nerve wracking […]
Read more "The tattoo no one knew about."
Saturday 28th November. Merry Christmas, yes today my side of the family celebrated Christmas. We won’t all be together for the 25th December 2015, and this weekend was the only weekend that we were all going to be in the same vicinity, (except my sister who had to drive 6hrs to be with us). Everyone […]
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It made me think of my husband’s Pa. This was one of his favourite quotes. He was a wise old farmer, who had lived and worked on the land all of his life, he was blessed with a large family of 8 kids. My husband’s favourite childhood memories are from spending time at the farm […]
Read more "Todays people"
All women live in safety free from all forms of men’s violence. – This is the vision for Originating in Canada in 1991, the all-male led initiative aims to end male violence against women. November 25 – White Ribbon day is the start of 16 Days of Activism to Stop Violence against Women, which […]
Read more "White Ribbon Day"
Worked today. Being conscious of my skinny fat situation, I parked in the furthest car park from the office that I have access to (so NOT me, I usually seek out the car park closest to the door – hence skinny fat). Dressed in my work uniform of synthetic top, charcoal tailored knee length skirt […]
Read more "Getting to work like a lady"
In my first post of the month NaBloPoMo, I wrote about how nervous I was at starting a blog, I was freaking the hell out in case someone read the blog, in case someone didn’t read the blog, I mean gosh what if someone commented or liked it. In the last 22 days a very […]
Read more "Lifer"
Person one from today. A homeless guy was brought into work today, he didn’t want to be there, he wanted to be discharged, go find his friends and drink some metho. He was brought in because he was found unconscious on the floor of a toilet in a local shopping centre. He said he was fine, […]
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Today I melted my brain on an assignment, for the unit I am studying at the moment Engaging Media via Curtin Uni. It was based heavily on blogging……. I am participating in theNaBloPoMo. I have also signed up to the blogging course Ready, Set Blog with Kate from Secret Bloggers Business, so I […]
Read more "Blogging and feeling like the ugly kid"
(One of my favourite poses – this is not me) Sitting at the red light in traffic, with every other harried Mumma at 8.15am, I glance over at the Bootcamp/PT gym that I drive past every day. Push-ups by 4 fluro covered women is going on in one area, another 4 women in equally bright […]
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This picture was posted on Instagram this morning and it inspired this post. Early this year 80% of Queensland was declared in drought, with early stages of el Nino meaning drought breaking rain in winter and spring were highly unlikely. One particular lady always says when I ask if the skies have blessed her property […]
Read more "Every family needs a farmer"
Yesterday morning, I was on Facebook and found this great article that I blogged about later in the day. This morning I was on Instagram scrolling through stunning images of people on holiday, baby photos, breakfast photos, selfies, memes the list goes on. A little orange heart pops up to tell me that Luca […]
Read more "Instagram likes"
“Blogging”, lets learn some interesting facts about blogging. The word “Blog” is a combination of web and log. Blogging was thought to have started in the early nineties, by an American college student. Initially blogs were a platform that people used as an online diary. That has expanded now and there are some people who […]
Read more "Learn something new everyday."
Today was fly out day for us, the end of 7 days of R and R for my husband and back to work for 21 days. We have lived this routine for 2.5 years now. Some fly out days are tough, like crying and lots of emotion tough. Other fly out days aren’t as bad, […]
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This study period via Open Learning University, I am study engaging media through Curtin Uni. The main theme of this unit is participatory culture. I am fascinated to learning about this concept that we are currently living. We are a generation that has the most amazing advantage of having the ability to connect, communicate, contribute […]
Read more "Be kind or be quiet on social media"