I was on the phone with a friend this morning and when she asked me how I was, I said I am exactly where I want to be.

Just an idea or in sculpture terms, a maquette / small scale study but so cute

There is no competing with the above, it is simply brilliant. Should mention I have a crush on Zohran.

With great affection and gratitude I said goodbye to The Merchants Warehouse. I’m so lucky for the time I was given and the company I kept, thank you Laura and Clo and everyone! It was so cool and so fun, a real thrill and I loved it and I’ll love you forever.

Abdul Abdullah via Art Collector Magazine

…..And then in a neat warehouse exchange, my work is now available at Indian Jane @ Dirty Janes in Bowral! Thank you Heather!! Still at The Emporium Gordon (not online) (thank you Judi!), with my Sewing necklaces available at The Cloth Shop in Ivanhoe, Victoria (Thank you Kim and Anna!), for which I remain deeply grateful.. I haven’t done a market yet this, year will probably do the next Coal Loader….

But friends, it is hard to operate a business in these times.

My products are so beautiful, my prices are so good and my display is so gorgeous; I’m proud of it all but it may not be sustainable and I struggle to understand that

I don’t want it to feel like ‘inventory’ instead of ‘my beautiful products’, and not selling enough can turn that around by the end of a long market day.

I don’t know but I have shifted the whole configuration of the studio, which was largely set up to make my beautiful products and I have bigger artworks in progress. Below is one piece I systematically destroyed which was great. It was an awful painting but breaking focus on jewellery in a flamboyant manner

………HERE COMES THE QUILT…

Then, kind of accidentally and since Feb 13th, I have been making two quilts using all the fabric scraps I have kept for years, saying I would make a quilt with. Its SO MUCH WORK I HAD NO IDEA. But its hard too, and actually sometimes a little too much, several times it has had me quite wretched, hanging my head down at dinner saying quilt, quilt….

Because the above is only some of the 65 blocks I’ve made and I didn’t know, to begin with, that this is only part of the work. Making quilting blocks is actually not all of it, putting them together, adding borders and keeping the whole thing square, its a massive undertaking and I’m making TWO which is now like stupid

I did black sashes and white cornerstones around/between the blocks and it took DISCIPLINE and looks really good! But have identified I have to replace the hot pink patch in the middle of this one.

Now I’m just finishing sewing 6 borders around all them and then it goes to the long-arm quilters to quilt, where a woolly batting is sandwiched between this ‘top’ that I’ve made and a backing fabric I will buy, via all-over stitching, which makes it into what we then call ‘a quilt’.

I will most likely sew the binding around all edges by hand. I know but I think I couldn’t bear to have visible stitching

There are MULTIPLE processes to this even in outsourcing and I’m making TWO its INSANE and I am making jokes about them being on track to deliver by Christmas.

But its very satisfying to have followed through with the decades old intention of making a quilt with my scraps. I cant wait to give them to the boys (grown men); if nothing else of me remains, these quilts might

Then I was watching Frankenstein on Netflix and see that Mia Goth is wearing a scarab necklace and then wanted to go to the studio immediately and make a scarab necklace, then immediately make the hair accessories.

Anyway I didnt do that, but I do admire the production operation on this show, the colourists were on their game. All the blues and greens perfectly calibrated and matched with flashes of heat. The lighting is consistent the whole way through. Marvellous.

Additionally, OMG Jacob Elordi is good and I love this movie. In the end they forgave each other in a transcendent moment that I keep remembering

This one def not Frankenstein level of good but ok

The underwater mood here, all greens and blues, dark filter. This is called Stylised Colour Grading and its a job (John tells me) and “generally the aim is for colour grading to enhance the story and message but not be noticeable”. As we can see, very noticeable here in a murder mystery set in the deep south of USA, and that country at large is sinking into the deep, so that tracks

Joe Alwyn looking fine.

Hamnet and Wuthering Heights round out a full bonnet booking for the start of the year in my show-biz life and I have really enjoyed seeing them at in-person movie theatres. A range of small screens already command my attention daily, so deliberately choosing the big ones has brought some old-times fun

One thing though: - Going into the movie theatre to see Hamnet, we sat down & I rushed back out to get a stack of napkins from the bar because having read Hamnet, I knew there would be crying but had forgotten to bring tissues. Just a heads-up, at Dendy Theatre Newtown, they have black napkins and when the movie ended and we walked out to the street, I had dark smudges all around my eyes and nose, because crying and utilising the black napkins. I cried a lot. Like, I cried a lot, it was wet and copious. And I wasn’t told about my face being blackened until we had sat down for dinner and I still feel embarrassed….I mean we walked the streets and entered a nice restaurant…

What I can say about Wuthering Heights is, I def have a crush on Jacob Elordi

We’ve been doing some deep house cleaning and I came across a folder stuffed with recipes for painted finishes, this having been my livelihood for years. This one was for Sydney City Tattersalls which was a prestigious job in 1999 and would be still. I made a rubber stamp with this fleur-de-lis style design, taken from a scrap of antique fabric in the possession of the interior designer. I used the stamp to print the loose fabric repeat, as seen above on a spongey painted finish but in the end, I printed with size and gilded this pattern on tinted mirror ceiling panels.… It actually looked fantastic but I cannot find photos or anything about it online as before digital times.

I found the stamp! Amazing. Now I’ve joined the NSW State Library because AI tells me there are some photos/info in design magazines such as Belle and Vogue Living of some jobs I did in the 90’s-2000’s. But I’m sure I would’ve noticed that at the time because a big deal but will update you should news come to light

I also found this old photo my father took at our home in Malaysia, I am sitting on my mothers lap and we are eating liquorice. About ten years after taking this he took his life. One always wonders about this.

Then there was a birthday in the house so we did this. First time I’d been there and the location is obviously primo at Circular Quay but it felt like a fair amount of locals were there, not all tourists, and it was good but. The tomato tart was cold, which I felt should be warm, but what do I know

At home the next day, this truly captivating plate of food had been prepared which, upon serving, deserved a photograph. Literally seconds later, the next photo. How we lollllllllllll

Dior Haute Couture Spring Summer 2026 Show. I would wear every garment plus all the accessories and not one at a time

Nearly lost my mind over this dress at Dior. Making some of those darling frond-like or seed-pod tube things is now on my action list and you know I make good on such plans. Have to say I’m not really into dresses (separates=creative variables), but making this as a top, in what looks like a jacquard/embroidered silk and that soft floppy bow with those fronds? …

Mmmmhmmm

will have to learn to crochet those end bits

Some other nice dresses I saved and I see now that some are strapless and I’m not that body, so there’s something in that? The first on top left is a floor length velvet and chiffon skirt omg so