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This morning my uncle Pete died after battling pancreatic and liver cancer. There’s not much I can write that doesn’t sound cliched, but he was a great man… actually he was the kind of man this sort of thing shouldn’t happen to. Unfortunately cancer doesn’t care how nice a person you are, or how many good things you do for the community, or how you’ve created three lovely children, or contributed to a happy and joyous extended family. Pancreatic cancer is particularly cruel and leaves us with barely enough time to say goodbye.

Goodbye Pete, I had fun getting to know you. You were an excellent uncle. You supported me at times when others wouldn’t and I’ll always remember sharing cheeky jokes and ciggies, especially when you came back to Brisbane. As the third most elderly grandchild, I will make sure to keep an extra eye out for my cousins even though they’re awesome and probably won’t need it, but they will always be in my heart. When I think about your love for Sue, I want to cry. It seems so cruel that you should meet each other and put your lives together (creating Jack in the process) only to be denied the smug joy of growing old together, when you’re a couple who would grow old together so well.

Pancreatic cancer is desperately underfunded, if only because patients rarely survive more than five years and prognosis is generally grim. Avner’s Fund is trying to reach $1 million in order to carry out clinical trials research into pancreatic cancer. If you can donate, it would be greatly appreciated by my family and many others.

Yesterday was a big day. I set off early to visit my grandmother down the coast with my sisters, but we had to come back shortly after lunch because one of my uncles is very sick in hospital with pancreatic and liver cancer and it’s not looking good. It was a pretty sad day, and the rainy weather matched my mood perfectly.

Tshirt – www.yoursclothing.co.uk
Dress – City Chic
Shoes – Crocs (don’t hate)
Umbrella – no idea, but I’ve had it for years!
Brooch – Babushka’s, Melbourne
Bag – Dangerfield

I’m sending out much love and support to my uncle, aunty and cousin at this sad time. I’m sending out much anger to pancreatic cancer and how poorly funded and supported it is.

Today is my Dad’s birthday! I’m not sure I’ve posted photos from when I was a little girl, but today is probably the best day to do this because my Dad’s moustache was hilarious and there’s no better day to make fun of your father than his birthday!

The day I was born. Look at that mo!

Dawwww. And taken with a proper Polaroid camera, none of this Poladroid business!

A photo from more recent years to show his fashion sense (and facial hair) situation has improved! That’s my Mum behind him, I guess I get a lot of my ~~unique~~ personality from them.

Happy birthday Boonge!

Ahh the day of fussing over hangovers, and wondering what on earth you’re going to do with all this stuff you were given yesterday. And shopping the sales, if you do that sort of thing (I’ve only done it once, never again!) I hope you all had a safe and happy day yesterday, and that you enjoyed all the people around you, the food you ate and the gifts you gave and received.

Here’s a few photos from my Giftmas:

Happy birthday Nana!

And the best husband ever gave me a Holga camera! I can’t wait to see how my first roll turned out

Today is my sister’s birthday! I made her a head piece out of a remnant of sky blue satin and drew her this card. Sometimes I think it’d be a lot easier if I just bought presents from the shops!

Happy birthday Manda.

Annnnd I wanted to leave a photo of her dog, Stanley. He is adorable but such a troublemaker!

It’s Father’s Day in Australia and New Zealand tonight, so we went over to Mum and Dad’s to have a big family dinner. I gave Dad this card, which I made from reclaimed materials (including: card from Reverse Garbage, drawing from my notebook and paper from Frankie magazine).

We also made Dad special home made strawberry jam, or “Boonge’s Conservative Conserve”. I can never remember where “Boonge” came from, but it’s a name bestowed on Dad by some of my uncles on a fishing trip many years ago.

Anyway when I went over, Dad told me that he’d come across some photos of his Mum’s family, taken in 1945 by Pix Magazine. They lived in a mining town that had been producing munitions during the war, and the magazine was looking at the effect the end of the war had on families in the town.

This is my great-grandfather, who was a power attendant in the factory. He was also a part-time boxer and through the magic of google, Dad’s been in touch with the son of the man who lost a finger and the match to my great-grandfather!

This is most of my grandmother’s family – she’s sitting on the far side of the table, just right of the centre.

Pretty cool, eh?! I love the internet!

I have discovered that a big part of what I do involves buttloads of time and love. People must think I’m crazy for spending hours drawing tiny lines or baking things from scratch, but it’s one of the only ways my primitive consciousness knows how to properly convey love and affection. A small part of me frets that people don’t value what I do – I worry that people throw away the things I make for them as if they were Hallmark products, but in the end I have no control over that. The only thing I really have control over is my love, and even if they did throw away my gifts I’d still spend time making them.

I have been incredibly busy lately, which is awesome, but I fell behind in making cards for Mother’s Day. So yesterday was spent drawing furiously… and making cupcakes. I finished icing the cupcakes and gluing the cards about half an hour before we left to have lunch at my sister’s place today… I was frazzled and half resentful because I feared how my gifts would be received. I needn’t have worried – my family always appreciate what I do, and I am so grateful for that because otherwise I’d be one bitter headcase

Thanks to the women in my life, including most of all – my Mum and Nana. You are brilliant, and my very limited vocabulary can not express how much I am indebted to you for helping me become who I am.

If you want to show someone you really think they are tops but you can’t express it in words, print off this recipe and make them some amazing cupcakes. They’ll get it

My sister visited the Jurlique Farm a few weeks ago and took this photo of some Chamomile flowers. They are so cute, you can imagine one as a kind of ridiculous hat!

I painted this for my other sister’s birthday. She’s been travelling Greece and Egypt and is in London at the moment. Her birthday was actually yesterday, but I couldn’t finish it until today. I say it still counts because it is still yesterday today in London… get it?!