Up the wall

I'm waiting for photos to explain what we got up to in the last post.

In the meantime, I've started painting the mural at my best friend Maggie's hairdressing salon. Early days yet, and my moods and feelings are swinging widely between wildly ecstatic and WTF am I doing — how can I possibly get this to work without it looking like someone threw pizzas at the wall, thereby disappointing the entire world?

But oh! The joy bit is really really good. And I haven't really started at all, yet.

And I do so love the chance to work BIG.

This was my bloody big bungarra, which I painted on the front window of our San Diego restaurant before all the fit-out started. That would be mid-2006.

The builders were going to whitewash the windows while work went on inside — I don't know why builders do this. I remember back in the '60s when my grandparents white-washed their windows when they took the curtains down and re-papered the living room. Same thing, I guess.

Anyway, I wanted to do a bit of Aussie art stuff on the restaurant window rather than have it blank and boring white — and it was a huge window — so the builders lent us their hydraulic lift (now THAT was fun!), I did a quick sketch, roped in David and the kids and went for it.

This pic was taken when I had the outline done. Next stage was colouring it in. I don't seem to have any pics of it finished — my hard drive died before I left the US and I lost thousands of pics. But you get the idea.

I remember the same big panicky mood swings between blissful delirium and sweaty-palmed paranoia — so that must be normal!

The girl with the red-hot glue gun

You won't believe what we — Lily, my best friend Dace, my best friend Shelley, and her entire family — got up to yesterday.

Dace and I had started out on Saturday morning with a list of seven houses that were for sale and open for viewing.

But our story suddenly took a big turn and ended up involving a multi-national company, about a thousand roses, six tribal masks and an after-dark get-away.

More later ...

Happy birthday, Laura!

She is my best friend, and I've known her since Will was two weeks old. He'll be 21 in January.

We've been really close friends for the past five or six years, and the day is always sunnier for the time we manage to spend together, which, sadly, is not so much, now Laura's amazing career as a midwife has taken off.

She's a mate, a sounding board and a confidante; and a tower of strength and good sense when I'm feeling pissweak and indecisive. She has an amazing mind — far more organised and analytical than I'd ever be capable of — and an easy sense of humour that makes being with her a seriously good time.

We've been window-shopping on Rokeby Road and walked the Strip in Las Vegas.

We've made stuffed cats together in Perth, we've been had breakfast on Sunset Boulevard. We've been shopping at Spotto, promenading at La Jolla,

and together — and wearing exactly the same outfits but with silly shoes!— we stepped right over the edge of the Grand Canyon.

We've made stuff together and for each other. My stash is her stash and hers is mine.

We've written to one another from across the world — I from Perth to Laura in Wisconsin, and some years later, by email and skype from my home in San Diego to Laura's home in Daglish and then all over the place as she and her husband, Don, did the world.

I'm a richer person for her friendship.

Love ya, Laura! Happy 45th (your prezzie's coming ...)!

Cooee

Just calling in because it's been so long since I posted anything.

I made a banana and walnut cake that sank in the middle because I put in too much banana. Tasted good, though.

:: I'm taking a break from plotting out the mural I'm hoping to paint for the gorgeous Maggie next week.

I love this sort of work, even though designing does not come as easily as the drawing and painting - anyway, I think I'm almost there ...

Or should go more for this sort of all-over flowery bowery effect ...

like in this pic I took of gorgeous artist Emma Hack, who paints all over bodies, continuing a patterned background over the body in such a studied detailed way that, from the correct viewpoint, the body almost disappears. Then she makes large-format photographs of the work. Amazing!

:: It's cold, and I'm sitting at my desk with a hottie on my lap.

I awoke at some ungodly hour this morning absolutely freezing ... I had thrown back the doona and turned on the fan (its remote control is on my bedside table) in what must have been a menopausal moment, then fallen straight back asleep.

:: On TV, I'm loving Place of Execution on Thursday nights. It's a good, tight whodunit/thriller, well-acted and written, and I haven't got a clue what can have actually happened.

I'm also enjoying Lost in Austen, which I didn't manage to see all the way through last time.

:: More news soon, I promise!