Lost Aussie on the loose

Lest We Forget

In Australia we have ANZAC Day, in the UK there is Rememberance Day and here in the US, there is Memorial Day.  I don't think there are ever enough ways to thank the true and trusting men and women who challenge the World's traumas on our behalf.

I come from a Family well peppered with Colonels, Majors and Captains who have fought the good fight at various times over the decades and now we have a Son, stationed in Iraq for the last six months doing just the same thing.

Along with many others I know, we pray for their safety and return home with life, limb and mind intact.

Godspeed Ryan.

Happy Snappies

As a very nice ILY treat my Husband gifted me this week with a brand new Camera.  I have been very pleased with my Canon Rebel XT, but this Nikon is just da bomb with lots of great features and many more variables to tweak.
To give it a good test drive we skipped out on "Relo" chores today and headed to Philly for some good picture fodder.
Thanks to the new long lens technology I managed to capture this long legged lady on 3rd Street as she made her a'hem..appointments for the night (or so it seemed).
We also found a great spot in Camden where a whole building had the most amazing graffiti on the walls.  I love this one...

The Unknown

I can't really begin to post a blog entry that adequately reflects that last few days of frantic flurry and mayhem.
We've started the process of house inspections and Realtor appraisals and I have started the rounds of cleaning, clearing and generally getting the house ready for sale.  After this weekend it will all pretty much be in the lap of the gods as I fly home to Australia on Tuesday.

Before I leave there has also been a myriad of things to accomplish on the art-side of life, including an ABRR that needed a book to be made, Cover art and profile for Issue Three of Auzz-Art Zine plus a wholesale order from Creavil that snuck in the door at the last minute.
Watch out Germany, here your stamps come!

I am not sure where I will be living in two months time or what the house will look like but at this point I am just looking forward to not only seeing the boys, but the chance to kick back and enjoy a bit of quiet time and pampering on the flight home..everything else can wait!

And So We Begin

For fear of repeating the broken ankle scenario I traipse these days with a phone on each floor and one cinched to my waist!  Good job too, as the phone has started ringing constantly to schedule home inspections, well inspections, termites, septics - you name it we have it....not to mention the new and dubious thrill  of working with yet another"relocation" agent.
What is most frustrating really is that having moved so much and so often, I can spy a 40ft container and tell you whether our effects will fit or not and just where in the grand scheme of things what should be put where, or how this should be done like that...perhaps in another life I should write a book about "How One Survives the Corporate Move"

Thank heavens this process has not been "OUTSOURCED" to another Continent just yet...though I am sure the time will come!

At Long Last

I think in March I posted that we would be moving, and we didn't ...BUT it seems that after several dastardly months of uncertainty and corporate torture that a clear path for our future is now at hand... New York here we come!

Of course it can't be as simple as that, because I have already planned to head back down to Australia for two months to be with the boys, so the buy-sell move process will have to be put on hold until I return.

Sad that we are just getting used to this house, after having been in it barely a year, nevertheless I am very much looking forward to our new adventure and the possibilities that being in and around such a vibrant city will bring...not to mention the few art buddies that I will have close at hand!
As Deb might say... Yee Ha Cowgirl!! Can't wait!!

Countdown

Only 10 more sleeps until I hop on the jet-plane and head back down to see my Boys!  After the last fiasco with falling down the stairs and wrecking my ankle there is a strong inclination to stay wrapped up in cotton wool for the next week or so, but I daresay that will not happen.  I can say that I will not be dashing down or up stairs in the intervening days!

I am hard at work though, beavering away at the "To-Do" list, mailing stamp orders, printing artwork, completing a collage exchange and adding the final touches to an altered book for a Round Robin that I will be doing with a bi-continental group from Aus' and the US.  I'm hoping fervently that this one will go better than the last one I played in, which even after two and a half years is not done and we are struggling to get the books back home.  Fingers crossed!!

A Little FLower Power

Snatching a little of the fair weather before the next Nor'Easter hits us this weekend, DH and I tripped off to Longwood Gardens today.  What a gloroius place. One of the old DuPont Estates that is now open to the public and dedicated to botanical and horticultural displays, it's absolute eyecandy for any plant and flower lover.  We spent a pleasant afternoon meanding through green-houses filled with orchids and rare plants and wandered down trails that met with fountains, lakes and gardens filled with a sense of peace and tranquility.  Although the Spring blossoms were past their best and the summer plantings not quite done there was much to capture the interest of the camera lens.  Thanks to digital technology I snapped some 175 pics, a few of which I have posted here.  As you can tell I am a big fan of colour, texture and detail.

The only downside to our day out was that I had taken the card out of Dh's camera a few days ago to copy some pictures and forgotten to return it, so instead of two cameras and two sets of eyes, we were left with just mine...so sorry honey!

Art Hearts

ETSY News

Since it will probably be a short while until I have the new rubber stamp designs loaded into the shopping cart on the website I have popped them into the LOST AUSSIE ETSY Store

I've also added a few other bits and pieces including one of the new Digital Print Variants - Old Piano and an assemblage piece I did recently.

Have fun looking and let me know if you have any questions!  :-)) Thanks

Happy Mother's Day

A Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms, Mums and Mothers around the Globe!  Especially to mine!  I miss you, but as David just said, only 17 more sleeps!

I'll leave you with a snipped that I wrote a few years ago for my boys and was penned so very elegantly in calligraphic script by my friend Patti and while the hands of my sons might be larger now, they are no less trusting and the sentiment remains the same - for all Mothers, I'm sure!