I only wanna keep you around

I had some visitors on Wednesday afternoon :)

I've been working in my studio every single day for over a week now. I'm really productive there, my large, light filled space lulls me into a rhythm of productivity (most of the time). I love it. I really love it. It's a pity that I have so much work to do at the moment, only in a sense that I haven't been able to be a bit less-productive and loiter around putting things in places and decorating a bit more and starting the task of painting my floor (I want to paint it red) and buying a disco ball (I want it to hang from a convenient chain that remained from the last tenant on the roof)...

I suppose I'll have these aimless hours sometime soon, hopefully. I felt like I still need a bit more time to acquaint myself with my new space, to get things *just so*. In the meantime, I'll continue to arrive, sit straight down at my desk - (or, well, I might put a record on first) and get to work. Mainly I'm working on illustrations for my book (I have a looming deadline that each day I feel surer and surer I'm going to miss...) and various other illustration projects. I'd love to get a canvas started, but I can't foresee having any time to do that until at least March.

January is literally flying by and I can hardly keep up. Someone asked me "how was your summer?" the other day and I double took and realised that in lots of ways we are at the tail end of it, I mean, I'm back into my routines, Autumn/Winter collections are dropping in stores... ha. Time, as usual, hurtles onwards and I'm left in clouds of dust that I futilely try to collect and preserve in vessels with holes in them. I can never just BE. I can never let time simply wash over me. I'm always trying to catch it and haul it up. I am aware that I always write about this. But, it's how I feel.

Hmm. Last weekend was a great one. My weekend actually started on Thursday night when I attended The Thousands x Appleton Rum party that I designed the invitation for. I hung out with B most of the evening, made a couple of new friends, too, and sipped on very sophisticated cocktails with garnishs of orchids. I had fun.

Photography by Brodie Lancaster

Friday night, G and I went to the Ladies of Leisure zine launch at M Pavilion. We arrived early in steamy weather and had a couple of drinks out of large plastic cups...

Photograph by Heather Lighton for The Thousands

On Saturday night, another friend and I went to G's apartment for drinks and dinner. We decided to make pizza, and, whilst I hardly helped more than going to the supermarket and helping to pick ingredients... it turned out delicious. (Come to think of it maybe that was because I didn't help... ha) We ran into some difficulties opening a corked bottle of red wine, so much so that after twenty minutes of watching Youtube tutorials and us three, intelligent, educated girls raising our arms in disbelief that we hadn't managed to crack this one seemingly simple code of adult life... we took it unashamedly down to a nearby bottle shop to see if the people there could help. When THEY couldn't help, the three of us then went to a bar, made a beeline for the only woman we could see behind the bar, and asked for her help. She took the bottle *upstairs* (seemed mysterious...) and came down with it open. We thanked her profusely and on our way out were scoffed at by an old dude drinking a pint of beer and eating a packet of chips by himself... we thought to ourselves - enjoy your Saturday night alone with your beer and chips at a dingy bar dude while together we eat delicious pizza in G's fancy apartment, swirl our glasses of sophisticated (finally open) red wine and discuss worldly issues.

Tonight (Thursday) is the Art Party at the NGV. Look, I was in the Herald Sun last Friday talking about it...

I found this photo hilarious, tbh. Also note typo in caption... Mina. However my name was spelt correctly in the bulk of the article. Curiouser and curiouser.  If you wanna come tonight, (I really think it will be fun!) You can still purchase tickets here.

Nothing else too important to report... I might be going to the beach with my family next week which I think will be fun. After being a staunch non-beach person, when I was sick last summer and I went to the beach I found it to be really healing and relaxing and rejuvenating so I'm an advocate now. As long as I have 50 plus sunscreen, shade, sunglasses, a hat... I digress. Even for a couple of days I'd be pleased to go.

I have to now decide what to wear for tonight! Hopefully will blog here again sooner rather than later. Sorry about that...