dreams and late night messages

I keep having dreams about shrooms. I DONT KNOW WHY.

It's been so long since I said I would write about this that I have basically forgotten what I wanted to write. Hmmm...

I'll write what I remember.

Mr. Hill emailed me the other night. I think it was past midnight and it was quite unexpected. We email him every so often. I normally ask how TES is going and how the art classes are and if the new students are cool and whether he's been good. He doesn't usually reply straight away, it probably takes him like a month to reply .. I kind of don't expect to receive mail from him... so it's nice surprise when I do!

That night he sent me a whole bunch of photographs of his most recent paintings. He asked me to critique them and "be honest". Hahaha. It reminds me of this one time Sarah and I visited the art room and he showed us his two new paintings. I pointed at one and asked, "what's it about?" and he replied, "death."

I really do miss the days in the art room. Feeling so nervous whenever anyone would come up the stairs to see my work.... Thinking, "Ahh it's not done yet." and thinking, "is it ever finished?"

I need to paint more.

awkward birthday celebrations

 bahaha saro

panda and adam had the BEST COSTUME EVER. HAHAHAHA they made an elevator (adam is wearing out primary school jumper... i can't believe it still fits)

OK. Theme: Awkward.

Mum came as a GOTH and my dad came as her goth partner. My mum awkwardly added a LEASH to his outfit and dad wore leather gloves and a spiky necklace. It was kind of horrific (and very awkward) to experience this. It'd say that it was equally as awkward as my sister and I walking into like three sex shops to try and find an apron with naked body on it (that was the costume we wanted for my dad originally... cus dad cooked the dinner) We even went to "Adam and Eve" (all canberra people will know their TV ad) and when we walked in I started singing it "... Adam and eeeve in the garden of eden THERE'S SOMETHING FOR EEEEVERRRYONE at ADAM AND EVE.. do do do do do" - there wasn't something for us though. Hahahaha. Gee.

My brother came as himself but had his shirt caught in his fly and had toilet paper taped to the bottom of his shoe. My sister came as my identical twin (people kept going to her during the night and asking her questions - thinking that she was me) it was quite funny to watch. 

I had such a fantastic 21st party. A lot of my friends got into the spirit and dressed up which made me super happy!

The night was extremely chill. We set up a couple of fires outside and also some lights that hung around the backyard. My friends and family got comfortable and roasted marshmallows.

The food was super good!! Dad and mum cooked us a FEAST!

I was talking to Harry for about 10 minutes about how GREAT tofu is. "we should have a tofu partayyyy!" Hahaha. yes please.

I was so glad that most of my best friends were able to make it : ) ... Even the ones I haven't spoken to in a really long time (Like Panda and Adam)

They are SUCH good guys. They baked me a giant cookie that said "happy birthday". It's actually so kind that they thought of doing that for me and I was so impressed by their costume!!

I was also really glad to have my family and old family friends come!

We had a karaoke/juke box and Kylie and brother Will  were singing their faces off and IT WAS GREAT AND HILARIOUS. 

It was time for the cake and everyone was like "WHO IS DOING THE SPEECH?" and mum said "oooh i ammm!" and like... she did the most awkward and hilarious speech ever. She thanked everybody in the room for coming and then said "Izzy, we love you very much." while putting her hand on my shoulder and slowly pushing me away. - I can't really even describe this properly. It was meant to be a short speech... it went for a long time. 

In the morning, mum asked me "Does cider have alcohol....??" and I looked at her suspiciously and replied, ".... yes???? WHY?" and she said "Oh I had a couple of glasses." and my sister and I replied, "THAT'S WHY YOUR SPEECH WAS WEIRD!"

tipsy mother. you are great, thank you. (she doesn't normally drink)

At each of our 21st birthdays (sister, brother + mine) mum has put together a photo album with captioned images of our lives. It is very sweet and a really good short summary of what we've done and also sometimes quite funny the photos she chooses to put in. Friends and family are asked to write little notes at the back of it for me to read later. Gifts are really nice to receive... But I really loved reading what people wrote. I think it's so nice to put thought into writing something special. 

Thank you to my beautiful and magical family and friends for making my night so relaxing and happy.

XXOO

canberra is not a hole

I have seriously been enjoying my holiday here. This is the winter I love. Every morning the world is covered in a thin layer of frost. The air is cold around me, but the sky is most always a bright and cheery.

I woke up early one day and went outside, took my slippers off, and pressed my feet to the cold frost. It felt so nice.

I have been bike riding a lot. The first time hurt my legs, my seat is kind of uncomfortable.... but my bike is super light and great. I lifted the seat up so it was more comfortable. I rode around the lake and through parks which had pink and white plum blossoms. It was so nice to see the petals falling slowly to the ground. 

There is so much life in the winter time. I still wake up to the calls of birds in the morning and at night I hear possums in trees (I almost walked into one the other night because it was sitting on a low branch and I almost didn't see it)

I find the winter so refreshing and beautiful. The air is so crisp, I feel like I'm breathing in something purifying.

One day the clouds came over Canberra and I thought it would snow. I really wanted to see snow falling from the sky. I suppose it was too warm though, because none appeared. 

I love the weather here. It makes me very happy. I like going on bike rides and have random people wave hello. I like going down hills and putting my hands out to feel the air and imagine I'm flying. I like all the different trees and the smells they have. 

i see you

i got new glasses. hello!

spider-man

Holy shiz. GO SEE IT NOW. It is amazing!!

FAT BIRD

Ahhhhh!!!!!! I just finished doing a super short one on one class at the Canberra Glassworks and I was able to make a little bird paper weight! (we got to choose to make either a balloon, sphere or bird) I unintentionally made it obese... But I love it. I'm super happy I got to do this!! I am definitely going to try and do a weekend class at the end of the year!

 glass colours

the tools 

our birds in the furnace

MY BABY LOVE

things YOU need to see

OK. Before I start writing about:

1. Awkward birthday celebrations
2. Canberra is not a hole
3. Dreams and late night messages
4. Friend, piano, bicycle and cat love

I wanted to make a list of things that I think are great and that I think you need to see (if anyone still reads this blog... haha. I will also write this for my future self, in case I am lost for inspiration or smiles.)


M/V:

Advice on living the creative life

Neil Gaiman is pretty rad cakes. I found his words wise, funny and awesome. So watch it now.

Indie Games

I mentioned this in one of my latest posts. I actually found this film super cool pie because it just made me realise how gaming is another form of creative expression - This is totally ignorant of me and I feel silly. But watching the moving opened my mind to how time consuming and personal the creative process of making a game is. It is an art. These people put themselves into the games they create. It was pretty beautiful and some of the characters were super cute (like Fez!!) and the stories between others were pretty adorable (super meat boy and bandage girl - so super meat boy is this boy who doesn't have any skin and who is vulnerable to the elements & he has to save his love who is this girl made out of bandages and they basically need each other not because they have affection for one another but literally because they were made for one another. Anyway the creator explains this in a much more beautiful way than I just wrote, hahaha)

8 Secrets of success - Richard St. John (TED)

The first time I watched this was in Taipei. It is inspiring an funny and also super short.

"they're not work-a-holics... they're work-a-FROLICS" hahaha, oh god every time.

My Mushroom Burial Suit - Jae Rhim Lee

I want to be buried in this. That is all.

A:


Scott C. (tumblr)
Scott C. (website)

OK. I've been following Scott. C on tumblr forever now and all his works makes me cry. His style is so freaking cute. I die. Go on archive and look at them all! This guy is seriously skilled and I can't help but adore him.

Tiffany Ford - Samson at work (tumblr)

She's an LA character animation student & she's awesome. I always look forward to seeing her Samson at work stories.

Alex Noriega - Stuff No One Told Me

His cartoons = the shiz. I stumbled upon his "Only in Taiwan" Comic strip & immediately fell in love with his style and writing. (He was totally spot on about Taiwan btw!!)


More to come...

8.5 hours

After watching Brave on Monday, I went to Abbey's house. On the way we picked up our traditional chocolate bullets to snack on while we played games.

I honestly love this girl. She radiates happiness and it consumes me and sometimes is totally overwhelming to the point where I am in pain (she is very used to this reaction from me)

We literally played games from 3:30pm - 11pm. The time went so quickly. It was hilarious though. Firstly, she showed me this game she bought on Xbox and it was some Alice in Wonderland game but totally messed up like... Alice was going around stabbing people because Wonderland had "changed". It was pretty cool but a bit too creepy for me to want to play.

We moved onto Pokemon Puzzle league... Which is our favourite game ever. IT IS ACTUALLY THE GREATEST. We get to exercise our miiiinds when we play (... cus it's a puzzle game). We crack up each time at the sounds the characters make. Sabrina's "PLAYYY WITH MEE." and Team Rocket's "I'M FEELING GIDDY!"

For some reason I always imitate the noises that either the pokemon or the characters make. It's embarrassing but hilarious. Abbey did an impersonation of a magma and I cried a bit. What is great about this game is that we both get super involved in it. Abbey was literally screaming at me, "IM GOING TO KILL YOU AHHHH." and whenever I managed to win she would crawl up into a ball and  whisper "... I am so emotionally involved with this game."

We took a break and played Pokemon Stadium, then the mini games and then we played Perfect Dark.

While we were playing the games her dog Maxie kept wanting affection and so Abbey had to use one of her legs to continuously rub Maxie's stomach. Then after like an hour he suddenly decided he loved me (this actually never happens. I normally run away because Maxie is a big dog) and he wouldn't leave me alone.

being a cutie

Abbey was super surprised about how much he seemed to like me! I spent the rest of the time rubbing his stomach. It was quite a work out because if I stopped for a second, he would put his paw on my my leg or my knee or even get up and sit on me.

I had such a great afternoon with Abbey. It was super super chill and we talked about life and "the old days" of us playing games at my house HAHAHA... and other random past times.

shorter posts!

OK. So I haven't updated properly in a little while and there is a bunch of things I want to write about. I'm going to make smaller posts so that it's easier to read! & also so that I can keep track of what I've done more easily!

Firstly, I just finished watching Indie Games. You can watch the trailer here!


I found the movie super inspiring and insightful. I loved how each of the game designers put so much of themselves into the games they created. Fez looks adorable... I really want to play it. The movie makes me want to learn some really really really basic programming... Just so I can understand just a little bit.

I've also went to the movies with Liz, Abbey, Sandra and Dee. Together we watched Brave. It was super stressful for a Disney movies and most of the girls were screaming half the time (Liz was laughing her head off at everyone else) I thought the movie was really good, probably not my favourite Disney movie, but it was pretty funny and the animation was awesome. Merida's hair was a bit awesome.

I also watched The Hunger Games. I haven't read the book yet... But I actually got super into the movie. The costumes reminded me of one episode of Casanova (the David Tennant one) I actually really love Stanley Tucci. He is so cool.

i'm happy

: )