when do you make time to write?

When do you make time to write?

Our Bassie usually sleeps until 6.30am or 7am if we're really lucky. This morning he woke up at 5am. 5am! It was still dark. We managed to get him back to sleep with a bottle and a dry nappy.

I tried to fall back to sleep but couldn't. I thought it the perfect time to get up early and sit with my laptop, something I've been meaning to do for ages. I usually write at night and at lunchtimes, but I have to admit my brain feels weary and dull at night.

I've read about writers who swear by waking one hour earlier than usual of a morning to "show up" at their laptop. This simple ritual kicks off the day by demonstrating a positive, physical commitment to your craft. As a mum, it gives you a moment of peace, a pause, a calm breath to start the day on your terms, completely absorbed in your own creative world.

I remember my favourite uni lecturer, author and mentor Nike Bourke, telling us she would wake one hour earlier than her children (she has four kids!) every morning. She'd brew herself a cup of tea and sip it slowly in front of her laptop. The words wouldn't always flow, but often they did, and that's the point. The first step is turning up. 

This blog has some interesting tips for writers on how to make the most of those early mornings. And the blog Simple Mom talks generally about the value of waking early here. I've mentioned Elizabeth Gilbert's TED Talk in this space before; she too talks about the importance of "turning up" at the laptop or page.

Before Bassie arrived, I used to wake early before work to write when a deadline was looming. My brain felt fresh and zingy and I loved the stillness and quiet that greeted me just after dawn. But since falling pregnant and having Bassie, sleep has become paramount. It still is - I worship sleep like the sun - but maybe I'm feeling ready to wake a little earlier, even if it's only for deadlines or when Bassie is my impromptu alarm clock.

inspiration is all around

I have been feeling a little ill and weary of late, so I've been looking to others for inspiration. It's heartening to see these women I admire achieve their creative writing dreams. I hope to interview some of these writers in this space soon. 

• My stupendously gifted friend Christine Sharp is an author, illustrator, artist, book designer and editor. Christine will launch her first picture book for children, Bea, on February 28 at Avid Reader in West End, Brisbane. It's about daring to be different and staying true to yourself. I expect to find pure whimsy and joy in those pages. 
• Brisbane photographer, writer and stylist Chantelle Grady's first book, Devorer Montreal (in English, Devour Montreal) is due out soon. It's published in French because it is French! Chantelle hopes an English version will follow soon. She shares how this serendipitous project was born here on her stunning blog. I love this video of how it all came together. Enchanting.  
• Ange Takats is a journalist, author, and singer/songwriter. She is one of those people who makes her dreams happen and if I didn't know her better I'd think good fortune falls in her lap. But I know how hard she works to realise her creative projects. I went along to her charming CD launch at the Sandgate Town Hall. Her new album, Arva, is just delightful. Do yourself a favour and listen here. Being the go-getter she is, she's also written and self-published a book of her travel memoirs, The Buffalo Funeral.
• Writer and interiors stylist Pia Jane Bijkerk will soon release her fourth book, Little Treasures: Made by Hand. Through the very cool Pozible campaign, she called on her creative community to pre-purchase her book to enable her to self publish and they responded! She wrote a post full of gratitude on her blog here. I interviewed Pia for Peppermint magazine in 2011 and I've followed her blog for years. Pia's baby girl turned one last week, which I find a reassuring reminder that you can still achieve your dreams with a little one tugging at your leg (and your heart).  

Inspiration is all around (as my sweet friend helps remind me).

5/52

A portrait of my boy, once a week, every week, in 2013.

Image: Such a busy little bottom.

Joining in with Jodi's 52 project: A portrait a week.

4/52

A portrait of my boy, once a week, every week, in 2013.

Image: So pure.

Joining in with Jodi's 52 project: A portrait a week.

the most thoughtful of christmas presents

If you want to show your love for someone, build them a veggie garden. That's what my family did for me last year as a surprise and I still get choked up thinking about it.

While Chris, Bassie and I were away on holidays last Christmas, my mum, dad, elder sister, brother-in-law, five-year-old niece and two-year-old nephew secretly built us a veggie garden in a neglected patch of our back yard. My sister is a natural green thumb and she wanted us to experience the simple glee of growing food with little Bassie like she does with her cherubs. 

When we returned from our holiday and I first stumbled across our magic garden, I couldn't believe my eyes. There it stood - as if it had sprouted from the dirt - pretty as a picture. It was full of mint, thyme, sage, basil, eggplants, green beans, baby tomatoes and a chilli bush. There were pink flowers dotted all around and the veggie name tags were written in my mum's beautiful calligraphy handwriting. Apparently the littlies had helped count out the screws that held the bed together. I felt so loved.

Sadly, I soon killed our garden with kindness (I think I may have overfertilised it). After its second planting, our resident possums ate every green morsel in one sitting. Its third planting got flooded out by rain. But finally, with a new net and lots of attention, I am proud to say our garden is starting to flourish. 

Bassie and I love spending time near our veggie patch in the afternoons. We potter about pretending we know what we're doing. While I water the patch and pluck out weeds and fallen tree bark, Bassie keeps very busy - poking holes in the soil with his chubby fingers, making mud puddles at my feet, sticking his hand in front of the water spout and licking the cool drops off his fingers. And I'm sure he would sit and twist that hose for hours if I let him. We are so happy here. 

Thank you, my beautiful family. x

NOTE: If you want to see a real veggie garden in action, check out this stunning film vignette of Fig and Fauna Farm in South Florida filmed by the super talented Tiger in a Jar. I consider this film to be meditation. It is just so peaceful and dreamy. 

a fresh start for this blog

Tomorrow marks the end of our decor8 Blogging Your Way e-course. Sniff, sob. It's been such a beautiful, positive, and creative space to visit daily, and I really don't want it to end. It has sparked new ideas that haven't always been about my blog but about my life too. I love that. I highly recommend it for any budding bloggers out there or perhaps those blogging veterans who need a fresh shot of inspiration. A big thank you to our inspiring host Holly Becker of decor8 and our guest lecturers - the lovely Jeanette Lund of By Fryd (www.byfryd.com) and Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely.  

Our final homework challenge was to give our blog a facelift. My original blog header was in dire need of a makeover because it consisted of a fuzzy iPhone photo with some generic blue text clumsily layered over the top. See what I mean:

The new blog header you see at the top of my blog may only stay for a short while. I'm a total novice at Photoshop and this header isn't quite the whimsical design that I am drawn to, but it feels pretty good for now. The apple signifies that our little boy is the apple of my eye and that my apple mac is often by my side. The blue and green colours calm me no end, the blurred speckles remind me of soft raindrops splattered on a window, and the circle (or full moon, if you will) helps centre me.

I guess this new design also says that I write by mood, I seek inspiration in my environment and like to dream while staring at beautiful things, like the moon and raindrops, green apples and our little boy, Bassie.

Thank you so much for visiting this space. I really appreciate it. :)

homegrown honey is liquid gold

A little hand reaches for a little jar of homegrown honey. Both subjects are pure, petite, and made with love.

** Thank you to Mel, Dave and Delilah. Such a treat. I wish you well with your new Downtown Honey Co. venture - to bring urban beekeeping to Brisbane's rooftops and gardens. I did not know that bees dance or of the pagan myth that bees spread our important news on their bee-buzzing journeys. I will ponder these intriguing bee facts as I devour this honey drizzled over chunks of parmesan. Yummmmm. x

a mother's love will flow forever

We are away on our beach holiday. The weather is divine and the time together is most precious. Bassie is lapping up his beach swims and we are loving throwing the bedtime routine out the window. We go for ocean swims at dusk and have picnic dinners peppered with sand. He has become obsessed with his dada, and I wonder if I have become the third wheel in this little team of ours.

Yesterday was such a sad day, but there was also laughter, beauty, and grace all around. Yesterday, we farewelled the mother of one of my dearest friends. Pam lost her fight with cancer after a gallant effort, enduring more than five years of chemo. All the talk was of Pam's beauty, grace, serenity, kindness, and joyful spirit. She was a true lady. Everyone agreed that Pam - an identical twin to the equally gorgeous Fae - made you want to be a better person. To love more and laugh more. To have fun. 

For me, the most beautiful part of the church service was when her loving husband of 42 years (my friend's dear father) said to his two girls: "You are everything to your mother, just as you are." It made me weep on the inside but also made me feel at peace, knowing that a mother's love is unconditional and so strong that nothing can weaken it.

Pam's love will flow to her two daughters forever. They will sense it at the most poignant and most unexpected of times: in ocean breezes and morning sunlight; in Christmas carol celebrations and footy finals; in grocery shopping queues and when putting on lipstick. They will feel her presence at birthday parties and Christmas lunches; when a full moon rises over the ocean and when it eclipses three times in a row. They will feel her everywhere. Because she is all around.

Our focus now is on supporting our dear friend. She is already proving she is brave and strong, although we know her heart is aching desperately. We will be there for her, as she always is for us, so that she knows she is loved and treasured.  

Rest in peace, dear Pammie (although we expect you will be busy up there, moving the furniture around). xx

image above: Pam loved flowers. We threw them to her at sunset, and some floated back to stay a while.

image below: Beautiful trees at the church pointed the way to heaven on a perfect blue sky day.



a beautiful little breather

So, as I discovered last weekend, the wise women around me were right - the anticipation of leaving my little boy for the first time was worse than the actual experience of being away from him. Sure, I missed him and daydreamed about him, but the "missing" didn't hurt like I feared it might. 

After 48 hours away from home and my family, I returned feeling more "me" than I have in a long time. To walk, swim, eat, shower, sleep, do yoga, meditate, be pampered and read (book of choice: Sibella Court's Bowerbird - love, love, thank you Sarah!) at my own pace, as an individual entity, was pure bliss. I haven't felt like that in two years, since before I was pregnant. So refreshing.

The part I didn't enjoy was seeing Bassie's reaction upon my return. At the first sight of me, he beamed the brightest, sweetest smile. But the smile quickly switched to a frown and for the rest of the afternoon he refused to look at me, and preferred to be in his dad's arms rather than mine.

I hear this reaction - to make you pay for leaving - is common. Please tell me it is.

I am so grateful for the love and support around me - for my husband for holding the fort, my mum for helping out and putting Bassie to bed, and my family-in-law for keeping my two boys company. 

Image above: I love this pic of Bassie, taken by my husband.
Image below: i spent a lot of time by this pool. you can see why. 

a boy and a pineapple

Is this perhaps the cutest baby pineapple there ever was? It arrived in our weekly Food Connect fruit and veggie box this week and managed to entertain little Bassie on this spring afternoon. He couldn't quite figure out if he liked touching it or if he really didn't AT ALL. 

I have a post I'd like to share soon about Food Connect and Community Supported Agriculture, but my wireless is giving me issues and Food Connect's website is down too! It's just not meant to be today.

I'm off to cover a story this weekend at an amazing organic health retreat in the Gold Coast hinterland but it will be my first weekend away from Bassie and I'm really not sure how I feel about this yet. He's in good hands with his dad and my mum (thank you, mama!) so I know he will be fine, and I need a recharge so I'm sure I will be more than fine. The wise women around me (i.e. my sister, sisters-in-law and friends) who have been through this 'first-time away' thing tell me the anticipation of leaving is worse than the actual experience of being away. Let's hope they're right. 

When my mum asked me today what I'm most looking forward to about this weekend, I replied that I intend to swim in the infinity pool, and to sit under a tree and stare over the valley for hours on end. All I crave is to be still and quiet. To stretch and to sit. To dream and to breathe. Simple really.

*This adorable pineapple also gave me a good excuse to play with my new portrait lens, a 50mm f/1.8.  
**The photos below are of Bassie getting bored with the whole thing and on the right, biting into a filthy shoe to get my attention away from the camera. 
*** The top image uses my new favourite backdrop, which you'll be seeing a lot of in this space. I love our gum tree that shelters our porch and is right now dropping seed pods, which make the LOUDEST CRACK when they hit our tin roof.

peace among the garden beds

I thought our cafe days were over when our little one started to wake from his newborn slumber. But coffee expeditions are actually more fun now if we get the venue right. We love this local cafe and its veggie gardens - perfect for a boy who likes to clutch at stones with his chubby hands, pull up on wooden benches and swat at flowers. Much more relaxing sitting among the garden beds with coffees in hand than trying to entertain him in a high chair. It sounds obvious, I know, but we're still pretty new at this parenting gig. 

an outing and a green wall

We ventured to the State Library of Queensland today for Toddler Rhyme Time. It was my camera's first real outing and I'm happy I had it close by. Oh, that green wall. Love.

an interview: the flying orchestra by clare mcfadden

The Flying Orchestra is Brisbane artist and illustrator Clare McFadden’s first picture book and, just like Clare, it is full of pure whimsy, joy and wonder. Do you know it? It won The Children’s Book Council of Australia Crichton Award and was adapted into an enchanting theatre play by internationally renowned puppetry artist, Peter Wilson (The Red Tree, How to Train your Dragon, King Kong) for the 2012 Out of the Box Festival in Brisbane. My friend Sarah took her two boys to see it and found herself shedding a tear during – it really is so beautiful.

Clare is a dear friend and I watched her work on her precious manuscript in her warehouse studio at Metro Arts. I admired the heart, soul and precise attention she poured into it over many years, never rushing the process. Since it was published in 2010 I have bought it for so many of my friends’ and family’s little ones – wrapping it with love and handing it to them with a warm glow in my heart, heartened by the delight awaiting them in its thoughtful pages. It was so special buying it for my little Bassie when he turned one last month.

In part, I started this blog to interview writers and creatives like Clare to share what happens behind the scenes as they develop their dream projects. I asked Clare some questions and this is what she replied. As you'll find, she has a beautiful way with words. 

INTERVIEW: 

Frances: What inspired the story of The Flying Orchestra?
Clare: The Flying Orchestra was inspired by a few thing things. Firstly, I wanted to create an entry point into orchestral music for small children. Unfortunately, I think there's often elitism attached to orchestral music, which is ridiculous. Music is for everyone. Secondly, I wanted to honour the deep and complex emotional responses that children have to their world. I think that a child understands their world through aesthetics and through perception - so they have this very sophisticated understanding of art and feeling – and yet, unfortunately, this is not always celebrated.

F: What message do you hope readers find in its pages?
C: I hesitate to answer this only because I think that the book has taken on a life of its own and means different things for different people, which I am thrilled about. The Flying Orchestra symbolises a myriad of things (from being a “soundtrack to your life” to something transcendent or multiple things at once) and I realise in my work with children that, even some very young children, can understand and articulate this, which I find wonderful. Most simply, I hope readers get the message that there are ordinary and extraordinary things that happen to all of us but together, these things form a symphony - and that symphony is always beautiful.

F: How did you learn to draw?
C: I learnt to draw by practicing! I never had lessons and I didn't go to art school. I was drawing from the time I was 18 months old so I still grip my pen like it is a crayon. I sometimes overhear mums say things like “you can draw and paint at kindy” – but it's not enough. I'm putting it out there to the mums reading this blog – give your child paints and pens and paper at the kitchen table. It is simple really. I think I developed some of my techniques for painting while I was at Metro Arts. I was lucky to live next to some great painters who imparted their knowledge and tricks of the trade to me. I still remember Madeleine Kelly teaching me to paint light with Matisse Magenta, yellow and white.  Thank you Madeleine!

F: What do you love about illustrating?
C: I love the challenge of conveying enough of the particular and the detail so that an illustration is grounded and reads as “real”, but still in a way that can be universally accessible and understood. Also, how to capture the essence of something rather than just accurately record - to be evocative in one's work. Vincent Van Gogh expresses this so beautifully in saying (with regards to trying to paint in a way that is not so much anatomically correct but more how something “feels”): "My great longing is to make those very incorrectness’s, those deviations, remodeling, changes in reality, so they become, yes, lies if you like - yet truer than the literal truth." It's really hard! And then having to make each of these pieces artworks in their own right, yet part of a larger body of work. It's a huge job! I tried some of the illustrations for The Flying Orchestra four or five times before I was happy with them. (You can read more about this process on Clare’s blog here)

F: What was most challenging and most rewarding about the process of creating your first children's book?
C: It was really challenging to keep going with no knowledge of how long it was going to take and whether the final product would be any good! It took me, literally, years and I was always going into the studio on weekends, and sometimes (and this may surprise you) I really hated working on it!! Sometimes I loved working on it of course – those moments when you lose yourself in your work, but that process! You just have to have faith that this is a story worth telling and keep going! I can't tell you how rewarding it is to hear children's (and adult’s) responses to the book. To think of it going out into the world and having a life of its own, of being meaningful to children - that would bring a tear to a glass eye! After the stage show adaptation at QPAC earlier this year, I heard that a little boy said to his father on the way home, “That was the best day of my life”. It doesn't get much better than that.

F: How did you secure a book deal with your publisher, the University of Queensland Press (UQP)?
C: Well, I was lucky because I submitted it and they accepted it. I know it is usually not so simple so I am very grateful to UQP for recognising something in it as the first people I presented it to.

F: Can you please share the moment when you held a published copy in your hot little hands for the first time?
C: Well, it was great of course, but you know, probably even greater was seeing it performed as the stage show this year. In many ways, because of all the sign-offs in the publishing process, the printed book doesn't really come as a surprise ... you've seen the proofs etc. But, sitting in the Lyric Theatre, and seeing the brilliant job Peter Wilson and his team at QPAC had made of bringing the book to life ... that was just so wonderful. Like the little boy, it was one of the best days of my life.

F: What's next for Clare and The Flying Orchestra?
C: Well, the second book is coming along at the speed of a relaxed snail. I'm currently based in the US doing my Masters in Arts in Education, which is sensational but all consuming. So there hasn't been a lot of time to sit at the kitchen table with the paints. Perhaps over the Christmas holidays, when it's snowing outside and I'm missing Stradbroke Island. That might be a good time to get cracking on it.

Thank you dear Clare! 

The Flying Orchestra is available at all good bookstores. I get my copies from independent bookstore Black Cat Books in Paddington, Brisbane - they always seem to have plenty of copies on the shelves. 

Images by Yan Chen

An outdoor reading of The Flying Orchestra at South Bank for Father's Day 2010. 

to health and deadlines

A little tear slides down his cheek ... We're both a little worse for wear today. Bassie is teething and I often go down hill after I've put a run of stories to bed. That's when I retreat to my parents' house because mum always makes everything better. Right now she's making me sweet potato and quinoa salad for lunch while the boy sleeps. I love her. 

I'm gluten intolerant and not so great with dairy either, which you think would motivate me to avoid the stuff. I eat mostly whole foods and fresh produce and I love to cook but when story deadlines are looming I tend to let my guard down and eat whatever is easiest, which is often of the bread variety. After I eat bits of gluten for a few days in a row, the nausea sets in, the guilt follows soon after and then I really feel terrible! 

When the deadline fog has lifted, I immediately attempt to repair the damage by visiting these sites for gluten-free eating and living inspiration: Cannelle et Vanille, Sarah Wilson, and Jude Blereau. The Gwinganna Health Retreat recipe book, "Gwinganna ... from garden to gourmet" is also full of delicious recipes for gluten- and dairy-free whole food meals. 

But this self-sabotage has to stop. My new plan of action when I see story deadlines on the horizon is to stock the pantry and prepare protein-filled salads for the fridge. I must start applying the same care and attention to preparing meals for myself as I do for Bassie. I need to apply "aeroplane rules", as my husband likes to call it: it's important to fit your own oxygen mask before assisting others.

Every day is a new day, I like to tell myself. I wonder when I will learn? 

(P.S. Tips for finding dietary willpower are most welcome.)

the nursery - baby steps in photography

It's been a long time since I asked my brain to learn something completely new. Like out-of-the-box new. My first DSLR - a Canon 60D - arrived just days before I attended Tim Coulson's The Nursery photography for beginners workshop in Noosa last Saturday. I had story deadlines to tackle last week so my camera remained in its box - alone in the dark - until the night before the workshop. Hopeless!
 
The images above are two of the first DSLR photos I've ever taken. I know there are so many things wrong with them (for starters, the first photo is blurry and over-exposed!) but I love them just the same. The first is of the gorgeous Steph and the second is of my dear friend Sarah. I love her smile in this shot - she was laughing at just how amateurish we looked. I think she looks like a pro already.

Tim is a natural teacher and his photography style is fresh, honest and beautiful. He confirmed what I suspected - there is no magic trick to mastering the camera. It simply takes buckets of practice and patience. And if you seek an emotional connection with your subject, well that's where you'll find true beauty. It'll take baby steps. Here we go. Thank you Tim, Kesh and sweet little Roo.

Jodi from Che and Fidel writes a beautiful wrap-up of The Nursery here. 

birthday art for baby

I've decided to buy Bassie a piece of art every year as part of his birthday present. As his collection grows with him, I hope each piece and the story it tells will spark his imagination in some magical way. For his first birthday, I think I'll order this Hobo the Bear print (above) by illustration artist Jayme McGowan. Just looking at it makes me smile. The James and the Giant Peach and the Flight by Kite prints are cute-as-pie too. Jayme sketches her illustrations, then carefully cuts and layers them to create miniature paper scenes, which she then photographs. They're kind of like theatre sets, except built with pencils, paper, tweezers and teeny scissors instead of timber, hammer and nails. Here's a time lapse video of her creating a piece for an advert. So clever. 

image and art by Jayme McGowan

the first day of spring

It’s because of Bassie that I’ve started this blog. Our boy, Sebastian (Bassie for short), arrived in September 2011 and has made our lives brighter, for sure. Now we really know what love is. While I'm at home with Bassie I'm working as a freelance writer so the challenge is to muster the brain power and energy to write while the boy sleeps or when my hubbie or my mum are on baby watch. I’ve started this blog to capture and share things that are important to me - naturally, Bassie rates highest on that list and then there's my writing work, the books I love to read, and my quest to learn photography. I'd also like to share ideas from other mums, writers and creative types about how they live, work and pursue their creativity. I’d say I’m a pretty private person so this whole blog platform feels a little odd, but I figure it’s more likely to breed good than evil. At the very least, I hope it inspires my little sister to start a blog about her life in Italy. It's the first day of spring today. How poignant!

image by Damien Bowerman