definatalie.com

The other day when I was getting ready to go out I thought I’d record my ritual. This is my “bare minimum” face for being presentable outside my house and I’ve done it since I was in my teens. I have acne that is impervious to over the counter treatments (believe me, I’ve wasted so much money!) so make up has always been my mask. I feel very self conscious if I am without foundation and in a way, it is quite limiting having this anxiety about showing my real face. I guess this video is about unveiling my mask and my ritual, more than anything.

The song “Marie-Claire” is by Elfes, and the lyrics are in French but when I passed them through Google Translate (I hope that link works!) they spoke about body image anxiety – so I thought it was rather appropriate!

What makes you happy? – shot on 5DMKII from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

@thedesignfiles posted a link to one of Jon Rawlinson’s short films, Kuroshio Sea (which is also awesome, check it out) and being the curious cat that I am I clicked onto the next video which posed the question, “What makes you happy?”

A few years ago now, I used to have a VW Beetle, and I would ponder the question of happiness a lot as I drove late at night. Back then, my list of things that made me happy included:

• A full tank of petrol
• A full packet of ciggies (sigh, oh the past!)
• Driving home after a lovely night with my friends
• Singing songs really loud (my Beetle didn’t have a radio!)
• Driving the bug

Right now, I have a very bland sort of car and while it’s very reliable and doesn’t strand me on scary motorways in the middle of the night (with no mobile phone credit, I had to flag down a stranger!) it doesn’t really give me any happiness. I absolutely hated breaking down all the time in Poberty Jane (my bug) but driving it was thrilling and engaging. In a new car there doesn’t seem to be any kind of engagement or thrill (unless you buy something really fast, fancy and expensive!)

So, the things that make me happy must surely have shifted. I met and married Nick since those times, and I have embarked on a career as a graphic artist and designer. So let’s revisit the happy list, yeah?

Things that make me happy, 2009

• Solving a design problem
• Laughing with my family and friends
• Emptying my pencil sharpener
• Absent-minded doodling
• Stimulating conversation
• Seeing new places and exploring them by foot (like waterfalls!)
• Writing something that reflects how I feel as accurately and succinctly as possible
• Learning new things
• Collaborating with people
• Making beautiful food
• Expressing myself through personal styling (I hate to use the term “fashion” since styling one’s identity extends beyond that!)
• Meeting people I connect with
• Cracking jokes that people laugh at

I guess I could go on and on… and I feel pretty grateful for that! What makes you happy?

⇒ My friend Pete posted this video on twitter yesterday, it’s just gorgeous!

⇒ I said it on tumblr, and I’ll say it here: So fancy it makes my eyes water. Via Design*Sponge.

⇒ Lady Agnew by John Singer Sargent. I saw a few of Sargent’s paintings last Friday night, in the flesh!

⇒ Now that I have my Nana’s display cabinet here, I can start saving up so I can collect tea cups like this one from Vandelized Vintage! (Gifts of said tea cups always graciously accepted, teehee!)

⇒ This is by Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir… and one day I want to do my hair like this. Incredible.

⇒ I have no information on this photo. All I know is that it’s the fanciest thing on earth.

I just realised I forgot to update y’all with my Bridge to Brisbane debriefing! You can watch the end of this video to see my footage, as well as things that fill my heart with glee.

You can see that I was true to my word, and wore a tutu! Nick and I are totally going to participate in more fun runs from now on but I think I enjoyed it a little more than him. He brought up the rear, finishing a whole 4 or so seconds after me! I would like to step up my pace next time – a few of the #btub crew participated in the B2B so it was more of a social dawdle.

If you want to support my fundraising for JDRF, you’ve only got a couple of weeks to donate before they close my page. Go here now to donate! I’ve raised over $100 so far which is more than I’ve ever raised for anything in my life, but considering that my target was $1000 it seems kind of paltry!

Last week was insanely busy, and one of the highlights (of my LIFE) was seeing Aimee Mann at the Powerhouse! I never thought I’d get the chance to see her come to Australia, but I’m glad to be proven wrong! She was fantastic! If you haven’t heard her music, go out and buy all her albums. Her music has pretty much been the soundtrack to the last decade of my life

I’ve been wanting to start experimenting with using wood as a support, and I bought a big piece of plywood from Bunnings weeks ago but hadn’t had the time to cut it up or paint any of my ideas for personal work. This week I’ve decided is my week; on Monday I got electrocuted by our crappy circuit reset button (and the power died too) then I went over to use Kate’s powertools to cut up the plywood! Horah! Last night I sanded back and stained a couple of the boards and recovered from my day (no, really I was totally ok – minor shock). Yesterday I painted up one drawing I had in my sketchbook for a month or so and took a little video and did awesomely scintillating live-action updates with my mobile phone.

I like to document the process, just so I can go back later and revise what I’ve done so I know better for next time. A few people say they actually enjoy the updates too!

Here’s the video! The music is really cute, it’s by Julandrew and it’s called “Get Back In Line“. I was introduced by Melissa to Creative Commons music and I’m really impressed by some of the things I’ve found! Also, it’s nice being able to use music in a video without worrying that anyone will sue you.

On Saturday I went to the Equal Love rally to march in support of same-sex marriage. I went to support this key human right for all people, even though I am privileged insofar that my relationship is legally recorded as a marriage. The government and religion should have little to do with each other, and much MUCH less to do with dictating who can love who. Recognising same-sex marriage will not harm my marriage to Nick, nor will it destroy society; in fact I might be so bold as to venture that it can only do GOOD! People will feel less anxiety when it comes to talking about their relationships; more children will grow up in loving homes with parents that are in a legally recognised couple; and who can argue that love is bad? Surely you’d have to have fairy floss for brains.

Brisbane Tweeps for Equality by David Jackmanson

If you support love (and you’re Australian!) please make a submission to the Senate enquiry into the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2009. The last bill was rejected because the anti marriage equality groups pulled more numbers than the pro same-sex marriage groups even though the last Galaxy poll declared that a majority of Australians support same-sex marriage. The other side has mobilised and they are a minority – why are you sitting on your arse waiting for other people to pitch in? Go make a submission to the Senate enquiry online now!

• Animated gifs that are fancy! Go see this full screen – so awesome it will make your nose bleed.

• Amy Winehouse – Me and Mr Jones. I love Amy Winehouse without shame, she is an incredible vocalist who writes the most poignant lyrics. This song is one of my favourites just to belt out randomly at any given moment and because of that, it’s fancy.

• Directors Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura and Masayoshi Nakamura developed one of the most inventive video clips I’ve ever seen for Sour by using the band’s fans to create the video. It’s so finely choreographed – now that’s thinking with your fancy!

• Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland – fancy by name and fancy by nature. This lady is one of my heroes, and I’ve never read any of her books. I just love her incredible countenance, and I hope to grow up to be just like her.

• Ice cream cookie sandwiches! I’m not a huge fan of ice cream, but Makia sent me a link to Bakerella’s blog on Twitter and I had to post it because Bakerella’s food photography is so edible.

• I found this video the other week because I was on the hunt for calligraphy demonstrations, and I was stunned at the confidence in this artist’s hand. Letterarte does some beautiful work, and you should check out his channel for more!

• This. Just because it’s hilarious.

Everyone likes a larf, right? Here’s some stuff that’s made me giggle.

• Matt Preston, one of the judges from MasterChef Australia. Aside from being a dapper dresser, he has a way with words. He described a perfect panna cotta as having the consistency of a “5′10″ rubenesque woman on stilettos = perfect”.

• This is from a Something Awful thread, which I can’t access EVEN THOUGH I HAVE AN ACCOUNT. CAPSLOCK INSANITYYYY. It was years ago and a friend bought it for me as I didn’t have a credit card and they didn’t accept Paypal back then, so I have no record of my account. Consider this a BOOHOO Something Awful, thanks for taking my money and being jerks. Anyway, this picture is hilarious. And free.

• Kittens Inspired by Kittens. And old ‘un but a good ‘un. I don’t even like cats and I cry with laughter at this.

• Les Larbey and Margaret Bland’s Galaxy of Dance. Classic. CLASSIC. When I need cheering up I always come back to this video.

• I found this on tumblr. Sure, it’s childish but… don’t judge!

• And now, a dramatic reading of a REAL breakup letter from a REAL person. I don’t know how I missed this, but I only came across this last night. I had tears streaming down my face, it’s that hilarious! Promise.

• Another tumblr find… it’s funny and sad!

• sadtrombone.com. I am giving you the power of the sad trombone. It’s a powerful tool. Use it wisely. Or you could just cut and paste the url in response to friends’ whingey facebook status updates.

I thought I’d get off the video thing but yesterday I realised I hadn’t done a “video portfolio” and I wanted to see if I could top my old one, done in September last year. Because I’ve now got an iMac, I also have iMovie… so I’m able to do all kinds of rad edity things that I couldn’t do last year with Windows Movie Maker **gag** You might notice on most of the still frames there is movement across them – that’s called the Ken Burns Effect, and I might have abused it a little bit on this video because I just learnt how to do it. ha!

The music in the video is all Creative Commons licensed! Isn’t it awesome? Melissa Maples recently turned me on to CC resources, and I’ve been so impressed by the quality and the scope of music available. You can see who created the three songs I’ve used in this video by hanging out until the end, or just going to the YouTube page where I’ve also supplied links to the song pages on ccMixter.

Video has been intriguing me lately. I never thought I could do it – in the past I’ve attempted animation but the one thing that kept tripping me up was the dimension of time, and how to manipulate it while using all the other design principles that have been drummed into my head for two dimensional work. I am having heaps of fun experimenting with iMovie though, it’s definitely a less intimidating jumping off point into the world of video editing. I’ve boldly told Nick that I would like a video camera for my birthday, plskthx! (Though I’m fairly realistic about my small chances there… unless I pull some super huge fantastical commissions soon!)

I’m not sucking up at all (Hey Nick ILU pls buy me a video camera) but here are some photos of the beautiful bunch of flowers he bought me the other night. It is a HUGE bunch. There are literally 20 billions of dimensions of flowers in them!

They make me want to start drawing flowers more.

Do you have any requests for video stuff? It seems like there’s a whole world out there for me to talk about, but I don’t know where to start! Leave me some requests or suggestions in the comments or on my YouTube channel and I’ll do my best to get some new videos up!

I did a vlog version of the “How to love yourself in 8 really hard steps” today because I thought it might be good practice to get into the swing of talking and making videos. I actually surprised myself – I think I had about 20 minutes of babbling that I had to edit fairly brutally in order to come under YouTube’s 10 minute limit!

Please watch, rate, comment, subscribe and give me your first born child’s toenails. I bronze them and sell them on Etsy as earrings.