CREATIVITY & ADVENTURE
Community
&
personal projects to enjoy
CREATIVE PROJECTS
A collection of my personal and community projects in art, seasonal eating, and slow living
^^ Meals in the Mail
I invited people to post me their favourite recipes, and tell me why they were special, and received more than 250 letters from all over the world. Now a newsletter, a podcast, and a series of books.
^^ EDIBLE MAPS
This new project launched in July 2022. I’m reaching out to the community to find out what the signature foods, dishes and drinks are for cities and towns across Australia, then I’ll paint a lovely map.
^^ A Year at the Market
A year of creating monthly botanical paintings and carefully-researched “field guides” to make local and seasonal shopping and eating feel accessible and easy to everyone.
^^ Tea stories
A little zine, sharing “tea stories” from around the world. Tea is about taking a moment: it’s about self-care, slowing down, comfort, mindfulness, and the people we love.
^^ 100 Days in Dinan
A hundred tiny, antique postcards. A hundred individual paintings, depicting moments from our time in France. Each of them posted to friends and strangers, across the world.
^^ 1000 Postcards
The challenge: in the space of one year, send 1000 vintage postcards to anyone who wants one, anywhere in the world. I made it, but only just - the final cards were posted on 31 December!
^^ Mail Art Social Club
This is a free, paint-along club. I’ll take you through the making of mail-art (decorated envelopes that can be sent through the post) using Instagram live as a way for us to connect.
^^ Calm Christmas
An email series that later became a mini-book, this project explores easy ways for each of us to embrace and enjoy all the fun and flavour of Christmas, with a little less stress.
^^ Christmas in Covid
During 2020, we celebrated “Christmas in July” as a lockdown distraction that cheered us all. At Christmas 2020, I wrote this magazine about celebrating, even in lockdown.
FRENCH SABBATICAL
Six months in a little French village, with children
Have you ever dreamed of escaping to the French countryside?
Me too!
In retrospect, it sounds like a crazy idea. Bonkers! And honestly, it probably was. I travelled to France with my two children, then aged four and six, and lived in a little village in Brittany that I’d never seen before and where we knew nobody, for almost six months.
It was a sabbatical, of sorts, but it could have gone horribly wrong and been horribly difficult. Instead, it was a period of great joy and personal growth.
This is a collection of the blog posts I wrote during and about our time in France.
There’s not a whole lot of strategy to this list - it’s not exactly curated. The stories are shared here in chronological order: snippets, moments, thoughts, challenges, inspirations, all jumbled up exactly as they were when they spilled out of my mind and heart and onto my blog. I hope you enjoy taking this journey with me.
<< Early morning with a teapot clock (the very beginnings of life in France)
Summer picnic (in the ruins of an ancient castle) >>
<< The magic beach (the day we discovered St Malo)
Pilgrims (journey to Le Mont Saint Michel, searching for ghosts) >>
<< Trees and butterflies (thoughts about home and heritage)
One day in Paris (how to “do” a day in Paris with small children) >>
<< Listening and noticing (lessons on seasonal living)
All the light we see (on the clarity that comes from slowing down) >>
<< The truth about what happens on our walks (come with us on our daily walks in France)
Ode to writing letters, and cauliflower soup (letters home) >>
<< Broceliande (inside the ancient Breton forest)
A seasonal shift (watching our village transform from summer to winter, and us with it) >>
<< Still waters (holding on to the lessons learned)
The shocking moon (the strangeness of coming home) >>
<< Golden (reflecting back on how the children responded to their life in France)
The Memory Map (an illustrated map I painted the entire time we were in France, our stories unfolding with it) >>
And finally, to answer the question I’m so often asked…
Why and how did you come to spend so much time in France, alone?
Think of this self-imposed sabbatical as me cashing in my ‘holiday savings’ after seven years of not stopping. The idea was my husband’s, after he knew he’d be heading to Italy for work that year, and thought that if the children and I were nearby we could all meet up.
We chose to stay in Brittany in France because that’s my family background on my father’s side, and we wanted the children to learn a little of the language and culture that was part of their heritage. At ages four and six, with Scout only in her first year of school, it was an ideal time to travel, before missing so much school became a problem.
I am lucky that I work from home, so I didn’t need to take leave from any bosses. I worked ridiculous hours in the lead-up to the trip, which in retrospect wasn’t the healthiest of ways to save money (ever heard of just “not spending,” Naomi?) but even so, we will be probably be paying off the debts incurred during this time for quite a while.