When my children were small I dreaded going to the local primary school. I used to have to take deep breaths as I walked through the school gates, past the icy stares of the reebok squad and the condescending nods of the glitterati girls. It really felt like I was walking through a gauntlet of disdain and disapproval because I was the one who lived an alternate lifestyle.
When David saw me at school he would launch himself at me and I used to have to brace myself so that the force of his hug didn’t knock me over. Then together, we would walk out the school gates holding hands, swinging our arms and smiling to each other. Away from the horror that was a small town primary school full of prejudices.
We were that family. When everyone around us was building McMansions and driving the latest cars. We were building our house room by room from recycled materials. The fact that we had an outside toilet was a major talking point and my children were teased mercilessly by the children of relatives as well as the children of the school establishment. People that had never been to my home would tell stories in lurid detail of the wild drug orgies we participated in and the squalor in which we lived. The fact that we had few visitors and that alcohol was the only drug I used was quite beside the point.
At a time in Australia when people were encouraged to buy buy buy and credit was king. We stayed debt free and went without. The spouse was labelled a dole bludger because he was unable to work due to the pain of his Ehlers Danlos. We didn’t know it was EDS then we just thought he was broken and that his constant pain was due to a very serious motorcycle accident he had been involved in, in 1992 and then compounded by the injuries received when he was shot in a hunting accident in 1993. The label of dole bludger is a horrible one to carry though and living below the poverty line makes you appreciate the things you have.
If people were happy to make snap judgements based on the way I looked I was also more than happy to encourage their misunderstandings by dressing differently and not explaining myself or my motives.
Now that I am a bit more grown up I am ready to start to explain myself a bit. I look at the glitterati girls and they are still desperately holding onto their fragile crowns, their makeup is getting thicker as they try to hold back the years and I find it hard to imagine that these women’s gossip and innuendo once made my life difficult.
I am ready to step out into the light of my small community and announce that here I am, I am an artist.
Members of the Greater Green Ponds branch of Tasmanian Regional Arts are building up a collection of art and craft created in the Southern Midlands area. Their plan is to acquire works and lease them for display in public and private spaces through out the Southern Midlands.
I am going to ring them up today and offer to donate Boganvillainy to their collection.
I am a bit nervous, but it certainly isn’t as daunting as walking through those school gates were a few years ago.
Hello my lovelies I am in need of your help. I will be sitting in the shop “Off Centre” every second Tuesday and I want to be able to access the internet from my laptop while I am there.
Yesterday was my first day in the shop and there is a lot of time when it is just me and the pots. It isn’t practical to take any work up with me to finish off up there and reading novels of a daytime makes me sleepy.
I bought a prepaid vodaphone usb stick thingy for my laptop and I installed that yesterday but oh my gosh what a pain in the butt it was. The internet connection kept on dropping out and when I did manage to connect it was incredibly, painfully, frustratingly slow. I would just get twitter to load to the point of signing in and then bam my connection would time out.
So how do you connect to the internetz when you are away from home? Who do you reckon I should talk to? Do you think that a mobile phone might be the way to go instead of using my laptop? Bearing in mind that I have to be frugal and that I can’t use a mobile phone here at home as we are in a Telstra black hole of doom, reception wise.
I want to be able to connect to twitter, my email, my blog and google reader. Now surely in the 21st century it should be simple.
I am off to the studio today to make the mould for the dragon eggs, I will try and remember to photograph the process so I can show you. But in the meantime Iam really really looking forward to hearing what you have to say about my connectivity problem. Cheers Kim
For years I have had as my intro blurb thingy on various social networking sites, as well as in my about me page of my blog, a line that says I balance amazing cooking with indifferent housekeeping.I have been so busy lately that my indifferent housekeeping has fast descended into damn near non-existent and my cooking is only just barely covering my arse.
The Spouse is very fastidious, some might even say a touch OCD. Where as I am just a human bomb of chaotic clutter. I am a collector of everything from rusty nails and interesting rocks, to bells and antique bottles. I cannot walk past a secondhand bookshop and I am in dire need of more shelves.
When I was contacted by Nuffnang last week to say that a company that produces cleaning products wanted to advertise on my blog I thought it was a hilariously, delicious irony. Of course I agreed as I am always hopeful that one day I will catch the cleaning bug and my house will look lovely and shiny.
I work in my kitchen at the moment and so when I should be practicing my domestic skills I am messing about with buckets of clay.
As I was writing this post this morning I was forced to actually notice the amount of dust that has accumulated on my bottle collection. The bottles are on a shelf behind the woodheater and are a bit tricky to get to but instead of cleaning the bottles I photographed them instead.
Then I noticed this spiderweb, it is on the left, near the plant. I have lots of spiderwebs in my house, the spiders catch the flies for me and so I leave them alone. I will have to remember to ask The Spouse not to remove it yet as he is forever destroying the spider’s homes, the minute my back is turned. I would like to see the spider catch at least one fly before all her hard work is ruined.
I have run out of space to store my moulds and so I had to put them somewhere where they wouldn’t get damaged. Plonked in the middle of the lounge room floor seemed a logical choice. The coffee table is also covered with books, novels and half completed assignments but I will tidy that up later.
The Spouse was absolutely chuffed when Amy walked into the house the other day and saw my moulds in the middle of the room. She looked at me and very seriously asked me, “Nanny what’s this mess?”
So there you go my lovelies, If your husbands start to nag you about your messy houses just show them this post and you will be off the hook.
I have been asked to help spread the word about the Breast Cancer Network Australia’s field of women LIVE event 2010,which is going to be held in Melbourne.
It’s taking place on Friday, 7 May 2010 and will see 14,000 women and men standing together in pink ponchos to form the Pink Lady silhouette on the MCG, reflecting the number of women expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. The event aims to raise awareness and much needed funds to support women diagnosed with breast cancer (BCNA is a unique not for profit organisation, its sole focus is on providing complete support for women who are diagnosed with breast cancer and their families).
I remember the cold terror that gripped my heart when my twenty one year old daughter told me that she had a hard lump in her breast. I remember the fantastic relief when the lump was just a cyst.
My grandmother had a masectomy in her seventies and is still going strong at the ripe old age of eighty seven. I have had three lumps in my breasts over the years and they have all been benign.
So I am more than happy to help spread the word here on my blog and you can help as well my lovelies.
You can follow them on Twitter @BCNApinklady
You can join the Breast Cancer Network Australia Facebook fan page.
You can register to attend the event at www.fieldofwomenlive.org.au
You can provide a link to the event www.fieldofwomenlive.org.au on your blog and encourage your readers to promote this link on their websites and blogs as well.
You are more than welcome to copy this and post it onto your blog as well.
by frogpondsrock on April 20, 2010
in ceramics
I am really excited, so excited in fact, that I keep on hugging myself and having a quiet, girly squeee.
I have just been accepted into the ceramic co-operative,“Off Centre”.
I was approached by one of the partners a few weeks ago and invited to join the co-op. I had to submit photographs of my work to be approved by the whole group at their monthly meeting. I didn’t realize how nervous I was until I received an email the other night saying that my submission had been successful. (Time for another girly squeee)
For those of you who don’t know your way around Hobart, Off Centre has a shop, upstairs in the Salamanca Arts Centre in Salamanca place, opposite the Long Gallery . This is right in the heart of the arty/touristy area of the waterfront. There are a lot of small galleries and specialty shops down there as well as the famous Salamanca market which is held every Saturday.
All together now Squeeeee!!!
So here I am sitting in front of the computer trying to concentrate on writing this post with my head full of ceramic dreams. I am watching the sky begin to colour up as the sun rises and it looks like it is going to be another lovely day. I spent most of the day yesterday making my slipcast tall cups, some shells and bottles as well. I will spend today finishing those off and making some more as I need to have some work together for the shop by the first of May, which is less than a fortnight away. Eeeek!
I have started work on some hand built platters as well as more rock bowls. I have a prototype of something blue with butterflies for Tiff drying out and I have started work on the four cups I promised Brenda.I am thinking of something for my chocolate fairy and I also need to make some cups for a friend in WA, as well as get some work together to display in a twitter friend’s cafe gallery here as well. Phew. The dragon eggs are simmering away in the back of my mind and I need to remember to contact the trustees of the Chauncy Vale wildlife sanctuary to confirm my outdoor exhibition there next year.
So I am a tad busy at the moment.
