My Name is Earl(wolf)

If you follow me anywhere online you would have noticed my partner Scott and I have added a puppy to our family. I still feel a little shocked that we opted for a Chihuahua. Having grown up in a house with German Shepherds and Newfoundlands both huge breeds (here's a link to my parents dog rescue group, yep I come from a dog crazy family). I've literally gone from the biggest of dogs to the smallest. Lucky Scott and I met a tiny Chihuahua when we were up in Wellington and all our preconceived ideas were washed away.

Earlwolf (named after Earl Sweatshirt of odd future in a round about way) is a smart and loving little cookie. I never know Chihuahuas were among one of the oldest, and are one of the brightest dog breeds around. So despite the fact he's a 20th the size of our border collie he is proving to intellectually be his equal. They had a bit of a distant first week but now, three weeks down, they are firmly the best of friends.

This year has been pretty full of worry and heartbreak and it's been so lovely to have this happy ball of fluff in our lives. Scott and I are so lucky that we mostly work at home and are able to look after and be with the pups so much, it sure makes the day job more fun.

On a side note, we planned pretty carefully getting a second dog and have been weighing it up for a couple of years. Also I just found out that Mickey Rourke is a Chihuahua enthusiast... which makes me like Chihuahuas and him all the more.

Amanda Wachob

Image from www.amandawachob.com/blog

I don't usually wright much about other artist, mostly because I keep this blog as a journal for my own creative journey. But last night I stubbled across Amanda Wachobs' work and was really blow away. She's one of those modern creatives crossing the line between tattooing and painting. 

Plus Minus | Bloodline tattoo

Untitled | Tattooed and painted canvas

I don't have any tattoos myself and am not sure if I ever will. I do however spend time thinking about what I would get if I ever took the plunge. Botanical and painterly are the words that best sum up the image in my imagination. 

Image from www.amandawachob.com/blog

Image from www.amandawachob.com/blog

Image from www.amandawachob.com/blog

Her tattoos go far beyond what I had dreamed up. I'm hopelessly smitten with her fluid brush stroke tattoos. She's based in Brooklyn New York and if I ever save the money to go back I hope very much she might be able to fit me in.

A Date with Ryan Gosling (Sort of)

Oh goodness it's been a couple of months between posts. Mostly down to getting my gallbladder taken out... Turns out I was pretty sick and my gallbladder was fairly close to exploding or what ever it's medically called (rupturing I think). Anyway it ended up being a bigger op than planned and a longer recovery. I'm doing great now though.

Anyway on a positive note I got a lovely email from Tina Gephart a few weeks ago, Sorry Tina for being so slow in sharing this. Tina and friends have been taking the Ryan Gosling tea towel on a number of exciting adventures. These girls must be very good friends as they seem happy sharing him on their dates, I'm not sure I would be so kindhearted.

It was a lovely surprise to see these pictures, I often wonder where my products go and how they are received by their new owners. Tina, thank you for having such a laugh and for sharing the fun with me.

Here's Ryan at the Movies, watching the Great Gatsby. Wonder if he liked Leonardo Dicaprio in it, maybe he was jealous of his pink suit!

Ryan enjoying pan cakes for breakfast on a beautiful morning in Manly New South Wale, Australia.

On the road with Ryan! The beautiful Sam, helping to display him.

What a gent, Ryan picking up the tab for some crazy Melbourne girls visiting Manly.

Finally the beautiful Cayte was presented with the Ryan Tea Towel from Tina in Gundaghai, New South Wale.

 Huge THANK YOU to Tina for sharing!

Gallimaufry, a zine about mixed up creatures

Getting this zine done over the past month has been a small win for me. It maybe a tiny, inexpensive item and I'm not imagining it's going to be a huge seller but it's been the only creative project I've been able to focus on lately and the full outpouring of my imagination.

The freelance gig I stared in February is still full on and I'm finding fitting in my Dear Colleen work next to impossible, beyond making sure orders get packed up in a timely manner. I find myself questioning a lot lately if it's really worth my time, if this is the career I want? Anyhow doing work like 'Gallimaufry' reminds me why I love being an independent designer. I can not imagine ever getting paid to produce work like this.

Gallimaufry [gal.uh.maw.free]; hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley
A zine about the left over elements from mythical creatures. This is very much a publication for my 12 year old self who was obsessed with reading and re-reading the 'kid friendly' greek mythology book in my special needs class (I'm hopelessly dyslexic so spent about 25% of high school in special ed).

For me, at least, it feels like concepts can be forming in my brain for years before they become fully rounded ideas, and I think the seeds for this were differently planted a long time ago. Anyway I'm pleased it's out of my head for this issue at least. 

Somethings on my mind

It's been a roller coster week, I know that's one of those phrases that gets a bit over used but really I can't think how else to sum it up. On Wednesday I did my first bit of public speaking for yonks. Thank you everyone who came and to She's Motivated who organising it. The talk wasn't the fully formed finished product I had hoped it would be but like I said it's been a crazy week. It was great to do the talk in the run up to speaking in Wellington, in three weeks (wow that's coming round soon) I feel like I now have a good base to build on. If you're coming along please feel free to suggest areas/topics you would like me to cover. Even if I can't fit it into the talk at least I can think it over for Q&A at the end.

Anyway today, incase some how you have missed it, it's Mother's day (here in New Zealand at least) and I wanted to take a moment to talk about that. Mother's day this year is feeling like a hard day for me. My Mum is in hospital on the other side of the world recovering from a hip replacement op. I wanted/want desperately to be in the UK with her to help out and just genrally hug her and let her know she's loved. Sadly due to work commitments and lack of money it's not posible. Luckily as it turned out it was fortunate I didn't up stick and disappear as my partners Mum was taken unexpectedly and gravely sick at the start of the week. For the first time ever I had a scene of what Mother's day would be like without your Mum and it's given't the day a whole new edge. Not to take anything away from all those amazing mums out there being celebrated but my thoughts today are with all those who don't have their mothers anymore. Sorry if that's a bit of a sad note I just know it must be a very hard day for lots of people. It's been a tough week in my world but at least we got happy endings.

Above is an awful out of focus picture of my parents when they were much younger than I am now. I'm very much a louder, fatter, worse version of my Mum (we look, sound and think alike) so even though we are apart I carry her with me in my genes and in my heart. My partner and I are working incredible hard at the moment to save the funds to visit my family before the end of the year, I can't wait to see them again. Although I love New Zealand I wish it wasn't quite so far away from my family, it's definitely the hardest part of living on the other side of the world.

Secret Garden...

I called this post Secret Garden because I had no idea it existed until last weekend when Scott and I were walking the dog and stumbled across it. In fact it's not secret at all it's the North East Valley Community Garden. 

This blog post has nothing much to do with anything apart from the fact it's a lovely Autumn Sunday here in Dunedin and we walked back there this morning to take some pictures. The space is very peaceful, placed on a hill looking out over the city. There's something about the idea of a vegetable garden for the community that I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge. I'm not sure if you can read the sign above 'Please give a little of your time and labour if you wish to harvest- THANKS'... Seems more than fair to me!

It's pretty much the end of the growing season now in New Zealand but Scott and I will be going along to help out next season, not that either of us are green fingered but we'll learn.

Above images of some of the practical parts of running the garden including a beehive, compost bins made from pallets and a pretty complex irrigation system. 

Greenhouse growing tomatos, peppers and chillies. It smells amazing in there. Someone I knew most of have a greenhouse when I was a kid as the smell took me back but I can't remember who's it was.

Making Zines and Public Speaking

This is a really short post just to let you know I've been asked to do a couple of talks in the coming months. What feels like I life time ago I used to work as a tutor and had to talk to room full's of people on a daily basis but boy I'm feeling rusty. I'm mostly looking forward to it though or will be once I have my images sorted.

On Wednesday 8 May 1pm-2pm I'm speaking at the BNZ Business Centre, Dunedin for She's Motivated. It's free of charge, you can find out more here.

I'm very excited that my partner Scott and I have both been booked to talk and teach a class at this years Handmade in Te Papa, Wellington. Scott is my smarter half and although he'll hate me saying it a sought after public speaker and design tutor. I'm so gutted that my class clashes with his talk time as I was looking forward to hearing him speak. He's also teaching a paper toy making class, which I'm fully intending to gate clash as his assistant.

I'm also giving a talk about the ins and outs of running a online creative business with plenty of insider tricks and tips and teaching a zine making class. I used to teach the same class at Edinburgh College of Art and it was always great fun and kind of magical how you can make a perfect little booklet from one sheet of paper. I hope some of you will be able to join me.