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Since the end of last year I've been really interested in mindfulness. Making my mental health a priority has been essential to my personal growth. I use an app called Smiling Mind to meditate before bed, I see a counsellor once a month, I've been able to make small changes to my patterns of thinking and I know small positive actions that can help when I am feeling anxious or depressed. I'm still working at it of course. Finding Flow Magazine has been lovely and fortuitous because of the focus that it places on mindfulness, interspersed with gorgeous illustrations and clever articles.

In the past I bought Frankie magazine as my go-to, but I'd tend to flick through it once or twice, nothing really standing out to me and then I'd shelve it with my other copies. I think that Frankie does still have a lot to offer but I think it's stopped feeling relevant to my life. Flow however gets me thinking and I often catch myself later in the day still pondering on something I read in it.

I've been buying English editions of Flow from my local bookstore (the original Flow magazine is Dutch) , but they take forever to come in and they're a little on the pricey side. My sweet NZ friend Pip sent me a copy out of the blue a few months ago which was a lovely surprise. I'd love to be able to afford a subscription.

Every issue has a sweet little papery inclusion (above) and lots of tear-out frameable images. Some of my favourite articles have been about making time for play, learning the right way to fight, accepting unhappiness, the glorification of 'busy', overriding negativity bias, enjoying the everyday, time prosperity, living in the now, making time to consciously and constructively evaluate your life and lots of great pieces about artists and makers.

I think it's really constructive, uplifting and inspiring little magazine, and for that reason I can justify spending a bit of money acquiring each issue. It's for my mental health!

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While I was in Newcastle with Theo we spent some time hanging out with my older brother Luke. He is an artist and works in childcare and was recently able to set up a sweet little studio just off Newcastle Mall in Wolfe Studios as part of the Renew Newcastle project - he calls it Tiny Boat Productions. While I was there checking it out I took some quick snapshots.

It has been a total joy to watch my brother's progression as an artist over the past few years - he seems so much more fulfilled, motivated and energetic. He drew a lot as a kid, but then took a decade or two off. Him picking the pencil back up has been wonderful to watch. His talents are many; he is an incredible musician, a really fun, playful dad to my niece Rose and in recent times he has self published two little children's books (which you can click through here), made a really moving animation about asylum seeker children in detention in Australia, had two really successful exhibitions and facilitated lots of art workshops and creative storytelling. If you've ever been to Newcastle, you've probably seen some of his little paste-ups which appear in numerous places around the city. 

His space is full of imaginative pen sketches (of moons, owls, funny little men, rocket ships, animals, monsters, robots and hot air balloons), art supplies, musical instruments, paper cut outs, stories, books and cute little plants on the windowsills.

Seeing my brother's creative space was really inspiring and has spurred me on a little to look for a studio space outside of home and to think more seriously about my vocation. 

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Theo and I recently went away for ten days to visit family in NSW and Victoria and while we were in Newcastle, I threw a little park picnic birthday party for Theo. A nice bunch of our friends and family attended. It was Theo's first real time eating junk food and he sampled each jelly snake and salty ridged chip with delight and reckless abandon.

Below is the little digital invitation I illustrated for the occasion.

I took a couple of photos on the day, just with my iPhone, but my sister, sister-in-law and Aunt also sent me a few photos that they took, so please excuse the varied quality of these shots!

I bought a dozen fantastic cupcakes from Cupcake Espresso for the party and despite Theo being fascinated watching the cupcakes being made through the glass window inside the shop and delighting in getting to choose each of the twelve cupcakes that were placed into the box, he did not care for the taste of the cupcakes whatsoever. Everyone was poised to capture photographs of him stuffing his face, but he ran off to play on the grass instead. And, he refused point blank to wear a party hat. Oh well, haha. 

The amazing balloon monkey pictured above was created by a rogue balloon artist named Michael AhMazing who approached us and asked if he could gatecrash the party as he'd just moved to Newcastle and was looking to get his skills known in the local area. Of course, we couldn't refuse and he didn't disappoint! 

It was fun to spend time with our interstate family and friends. Theo and I got a terrible flu while we were away and I lost my voice for the second half of our trip (this seems to happen to me in Winter every year). Theo wasn't really himself while we were away and had lots of tantrums and meltdowns, which are usually very rare for him. I think the travel took it out of both of us. I am happy to be home and back to my creature comforts (despite it being sub zero most nights/mornings lately!). Some of my highlights from time away included attending the Other Worlds Zine Fair, spending time with my beautiful half sister in Melbourne and her two sweet boys (Theo and Connor are two months apart and were inseparable) and seeing Morrissey at the Sydney Opera House in the second row, center with my friend Ash for free!

Any glimpses of Theo looking like a baby these days are quickly disappearing, it is of course bittersweet! He is two! He's a real boy! Wow. It's such a good time being his mother.

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Hi there! Apologies for the unexpected radio silence around these parts. Life got busy and complicated but now I'm ready to resume my normal regimen of semi-sporadic, aimless posts. Hooray! 

My friend Jaine gave me this sweet vintage dress out of the blue one day and it is now on high rotation in my wardrobe (and by wardrobe I mean floordrobe). Over the last few months I have started to foster much closer, meaningful relationships with female friends and I can't overstate how refreshing and important that has been for me. It is ridiculously sweet to go out for coffee dates with ladies I like and then receive texts from them later saying how much they enjoyed our hang outs. During and after high school most of my close friends were male and I was often hesitant to form close female friendships (having been spurned in a close friendship long ago). Having fun, clever, supportive lady friends is the best.

I probably don't need to tell you that red is my favourite colour or that I refuse to wear it sparingly. Wearing it is a pick-me-up on days when I'm feeling lacklustre. Last week I was walking in the city (not wearing red however) and an old man stopped me to thank me for looking like a "Summer's day". It definitely caught me off guard and was one of the nicest compliments I've ever received. 

My mum is staying with me for the next week and then Theo and I are spending a little over a week in NSW with family. In the meantime, I am up to my ears in really fun freelance work. I really need to work on scheduling out my life better because I flounder when it comes to time management. I know it's a skill developed over time and I'll get there eventually. I need to befriend early mornings and make better use of my Filofax.

Life is good at the moment. I hope you're feeling the same way.