snowbound

...its a bit unheard of ...
Milano?
under snow?
40 cm are you mad ??????
airports closed ? children at home no school ... no public transport...
taxis booked out til year 2010
cars wedged in to massive snow drifts

fantastic ...

i thought ...
until i realised i was flying off to a highland adventure tomorrow...morning ...very early...

i should not wish for things so hard cos they always come true....

o well ...

so i went hunting snowmen...while my computer sends away my last finished images

the rulers of my street...obviously



the fallen snowman
o poverino!!!



i asked my concierge if he was going to build me a snowman ... so he did ...hehehh looking up at my apartment ...but he hasnt got a nose ..!!!

i went down immediately to give the poor fellow a nose ...and "weh! whe! whe! (shark attack music) as i was trying to put his carrot nose on his head split in two and fell off ... araaaaaarghhhhhh
fantastic horror movie suspense moment...
:)


moving right along.....
here he is repaired and with his head back together and with a nose...

and here is my very own jiminy cricket ...


he likes to watch me work :D ...alot
nature always finds me ...
witchyways
i s'pose

may the road rise with you ....

"may the road rise with you "

an old favourite by Johnny Lydon Public Image Limited
i am pretty sure its not his originally but i have never heard anyone else say this...
so to all my friends and family
"may the road rise with you "

2009
.
here is my second day of 2009

how we lost 2008 and gained 2009

so we were all quite happy to see the back end of 2008 ..it hasnt been the favourite year...
i escaped ....

impromptu fleeing from milano ....to find my best friends in the wine-growing hills of north western Italy

staying in Milano just became "not an option"
.....
at around 7pm it started snowing .....big fat flakes falling down and sticking ..... all my wishes (nearly) came true .... wishing and wishing to get snowed in.... :)
it worked ..more friends arrived and we all had a beautiful night seeing the new year in ...in a good way...
... ie snowball fights ... alot of food and wine....

snow-angels

lots of lovely friends
....

4.30 into bed and a big calvados headache the next day .... what more can you want???... here is the first day of 2009 !!! sun snow ... beauty all around.

sweet little kiwi chick

this is what tricksyness my lovely friend Kerrin aka sigmosaics (another Kiwi abroad) got up to yesterday ...
i am really touched
it is a great kindness
thank you so much Kerrin
it's a beautiful etsy treasury

the worlds 200 best ad photographers

...



ahhhh finally the book is out .....

and here is some shameless self promotion ..... i am chosen as one of the worlds 200 best ad photographers by Luerzers Archive 2008/2009.
I have followed Luerzers for years ...buying all their videos of the worlds best ads since the year 1763...i love them... and finally i find myself amongst my heroes ... so i'm really really over the moon

:)

my page .. i couldnt be happier with the layout or the other photographer i am placed beside ..its wonderful!!!

......
the actual campaign ran as billboards and posters.

i worked together with the brilliantly sensitive and creative art director in Milano called Massimo Verrone to create these little girls sleeping on threads and chasing stitching butterflies for Descamps, a superb linen company based in France
...
some of my favourite pages inside the Luerzers bible
...

...

i love Christmas

...call me old fashioned and a peter pan ...but i love it ...

this weekend i escaped from Milano up to my friends' country house
and we set to work making the most amazing Christmas tree ever ...

this involved a long walk in the melting snow and finding the most enormous tree that had fallen down with the weight of the recent snow...
we dragged it about a kilometer back to the house ... trimmed it a bit and started painting it ....
i managed to hand paint about 6 million leaves ... it is an oak
it stands about 10 foot high or about 3 metres :)
made pom poms and christmas cake and wrapped presents for all the rest of the weekend ...

and here it is


......
......

my secret santa

i am over the moon ....

our european street team each year have a game ...."secret santa"

and this year it was organised by the wonderful Mitsy AKA "Artmind"
we all filled out a mega thorough questionnaire which she had compiled;
and then Mitsy matched us all up secretly ...
we have been sneakily working away on things we are almost sure that other person will love ...

fingers crossed fingers crossed...

mine arrived today and i was unable to hold back for Christmas ...
i managed to leave it unopened on my bed for the whole day ...while i tried to accomplish something ...

then at 6 pm there was no patience left
my parcel came from an address i recognised well ...one of my all time favourite etsy artists lives high in the mountains in France ....
..
the card is so brilliantly for me ... a little girl holding fireflies on spiderthread leads

with shaking fingers i opened my pressie ...


"NO WAY!!!!!"

and there it was the Frida Kahlo inspired, french glass garland to die for

..
so totally totally happy !!!!

part of our mission on receiving our secret santa is to photograph ourselves with it...
eeeek so here i am .. whizzing into the bath room to try and shoot myself and my wonderous garland from
Pamela Angus

...

thank you so very very much Pam !!! and thank you Mitsy for being so amazing always!!!!!!

now to find a beautiful little airy apartment in Paris to match my garland !!! :)