Cheers!

Well, what a month it's been! 

Since I last posted I've been flat out animating, drawing, recording and hassling friends for snow gear for my impending trip to Denver, a place I'm typing from at this very moment :) 

It's been quite a way to end whats been a year of ups, downs and the occasional round and round. I've travelled overseas twice, been picked up by the Andrea Brown literary agency under Kelly Sonnack, worked with a  bunch of new clients, met with old ones, made a host of awesome new friends in the industry, Got picked up by the school magazine (something I've imagined since being in school and reading it myself), had my first licensing gig and a bunch of other stuff I'll stop mentioning as this is starting to sound like a shopping list of brags... 

Things definitely haven't been boring though... well, unless you count October, when I had no tech equipment and got so lost I tried to take up crocheting which got me in a bit of a knot... literally, and saw me embroidering my jumper, something people only sigh with pity towards when being told. 

Hope everyone has a brilliant Holiday and gets time to relax, party and eat with friends and family - Thanks so much for reading my blog guys, your viewing numbers and comments really make my day, you're all awesome ^_^ 

Happy Holidays and see you all next year - every week, I promise! 

Hey Doodle Dandy

A poem and some sketches for you guys ~sigh~ I'm becoming one of those people that updates their blog frustratingly sporadically so I'm going to seriously try and get back on track for the new year... For now I'm busy working on a few new projects that among other things have got me back to animating... more sketches to come - I just didn't want to dump all 50 photos on here at once :) 

Here's to all the ugly kids 

Not quite cute but funny kids

The rolly polly one browed boys 

The short stout speccy four-eyed girls. 

Thanks to all the kids with spots

upon who's skin you'd join the dots

Stand proud the frizzy messy haired

Pale skinned large nose and dairy-aired 

You may not be conventional

belong in Milk or Bambino 

But your the kids I love to see 

All bony elbows and scabby knees

The kids that know who they are 

The ones that end up going far

See I should know how this is true 

I was ugly just like you 

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?

I know I know, I promised part 2 the very next week and what is it? Three weeks later… I could lie to you and blame the fact I’ve been without a computer, unfortunately I’m a bad liar, (I have already prefaced this with an omission of guilt). So I won’t lie, I have been without a computer though – the last three days have seemed an eternity – I feel like I’ve lost a child – the stress of not knowing where he is (not sure how my mac became gender specific, but there you go), not knowing who's looking after him or if he’s ok… It’s been tough… I’m like a junky too, every time I see a computer my fingers start tingling and a get all twitchy… people have been super nice, offering up their’s while I wait, the desperation in my face must be getting obvious, either that or the beads of sweat running down my forehead are giving me away. I haven’t obliged though – I’m worried I’ll get so carried away they’ll never get it back.

Oh man, as always I digress. To end the rant though you may be wondering how, given my current horrifying circumstances, I am managing to type this up. I finally caved and agreed to use the computers in the library (despite the sticky key boards and slow running times) they are at least bolted to the table so no chance of trying to discreetly stuff them in my backpack. 

Part 2 of nicknames.

As you loyal readers are aware I covered the subject of given nicknames last entry (those that aren’t can go back and read it… go on…. No don’t just keep reading because you think I won’t know you haven’t checked… We’re all waiting… oh fine then). 

This entry I wanted to mention the nicknames we get but aren’t really aware of. I’m not talking so much about the nasty ones, I’d rather not mention those… mostly because I’ve had my fair share and don't particularly want to reminisce swell because I’d prefer to keep this blog somewhat light hearted (first entry about my fish dyeing not included).

The nicknames I’m referring to are more likely known as 'identifiers' and always come as a bit of a shock when you become privy to them... even though it comes out a fair amount of time after it's use has been discontinued to avoid such embarrassments. My first was headband girl... let me explain. Before year 7, in order to give myself a little makeover, mum convinced me to get my hair layered. The people reading this with thick curly hair are already cringing in the knowledge how bad an idea this was… even before I found out the hairdresser couldn't cut a straight line to save her life. The do kept getting shorter and shorter, poofier and poofier until my tears forced her to stop. 

It. Looked. Shocking. 

so as a method of disguise I decided the large width elastic headband in navy blue (to match my uniform) was my best accessory. I wore it for a year, until mum finally forced me to stop claiming it made my head sweat and thus smell kinda funky. Luckily she intervened before stinky head became my new identifier. I found out about 'headband girl' years later on the bus with my best friend Luce. 

"Really, headband girl? surely that wasn't my most distinguishable feature"..

"Well it was more that it was the first thing you could make out on your approach... short.. brown hair... headband….Lesley!"

My latest, and the inspiration for this entry, is... "eggplant girl"... Unfortunately this charming alias is still in use, thanks to the lovely people at my local sushi counter... what can I say, I'm a girl who knows what she likes... and I LEEEERVE me some eggplant.

So anyone else find out about an identifier they had OR have you give one to someone else? I know those of us who spent time in the service industry have a few... yeah I'm thinking of you "More berries man"

Lel

          

        

           

Nicknames

Like every Australian I've grown up with nicknames. This is due to the fact that most people from Oz refuse to pronounce anything longer than two syllables. I'm guilty as well, it's not until you're in another country shortening strangers names after your first encounter that you start to realise how weird it can be. It doesn't stop at a nicknames - there are even nicknames for nicknames.. I think it has something to do with the statue of limitation on the first nickname… once people have sufficiently forgotten the object, place or persons original alias and the nickname has become it's identifier then that name will be shortened as well. On top of this is our tendency to slur so words become sewn together in a sentence like a patchwork quilt. How are you doing today becomes  

"howyadointday?" 

You're starting to get the picture. In short, nicknames are unavoidable. Unfortunately I have a name that lends itself to nicknames I would rather not go by. Lesley so often becomes - Les (a boys name) or some way of implying my sexual orientation - lessy, lesso, or as one friend so eloquently put it lesby… maybe if I actually was a lesbian it would make sense, but I'm not. I tried making up my own nickname - but for those of you who have ever tried that, you will understand how pointless this pursuit turned out to be. 

The story ends happily though - when my little sister was born she couldn't pronounce my full name - so Lesley quickly became Lely, and just like that - my nickname was born - a 1 year old had solved a problem I'd been facing for 11 years - I was elated to say the least and tried to convince my parents to let me take my sister with me everywhere so people could hear the nickname and it would stick. they weren't convinced... 

It did stick though and to this day my friends and family still call me Lely.. or Lel as the second round of nickname mania has shortened it to. I like it - ironically it sounds a lot like the hungarian pronunciation of my name - which is how my parents came across it in the first place - mum wanted a uni-sex name that would give me a fair chance in the work force and Dad wanted a name from the family - my noni's maiden name was picked and that was that. 

Part 2 of nicknames next week...

In the meantime - do you have a nickname? 

A-choooo!

For anyone who happens to check my Facebook page now and then - hey to both of you… you may already know that I have been seriously suffering from the worst sneezing fits I've had since I was little…er... seriously I've been like sneezy the dwarf for three days now! 

I've always suffered from hay fever and sinusitis , but there's a lot more than pollen that gets me going, I still remember being forced to do the prick test when I was about 11. They drew a grid on my arm and slowly pricked the different squares with a variety of essences most common to cause distress. Most squares quickly filled up with small red welts, nothing too serious, the biggest was dairy, that after only a minute or two, had already started creeping into the neighbouring squares. 

The final square was dust. As the doctor lowered the needle I stopped him and said, that's ok, I know I'm allergic to dust, we don't have to prove anything here today. He looked at me over his glasses, a half patronising smile on his face thinking, listen girly, just let me do my job. I released his arm and as soon as the needle pierced my skin a giant angry red welt erupted across it's white surface, blotting out all other welts and causing me at once to feel the need for 9 inch nails so I could scratch the flesh of my bones. 

Gruesome, but true. For those of you who've ever suffered allergies you'll understand my suffering. It sucks. 

Enough woe is me though, things have been a lot better for me over the last few years, I try and stay away from highly polluted areas, dope up on Zyrtek in pollen season, have warned all that know me to cross chocolate, flowers and incense off my birthday list and lastly drastically change what I eat. Easy enough once you get the hang of it. 

But this weekend I was a mess, on Sunday night after what I'm sure was about 50 sneezes in a row (and like most in my family, these are quite violent, often ending in pulled muscles, thrown discs or impaling ones self on sharp objects), a turn at sticking my finger half way to my brain through my ear to scratch the itch and weird clicking noises I make with my tongue to tickle the back of my throat I looked around wildly for a reason this could be happening. After all, there is only so many times you can dust your room. 

As I scanned the scene with hazy, itchy eyes I suddenly came across the GIANT bag of lavender I had bought on Friday to stuff a toy I was making. It struck, like the scene in ratatouille when the critic is propelled back to his childhood in the South of France, skipping home from school on dirty tracks and feasting on the delicious rustic delights of his dear mother. I saw the welt on my skin, the one labelled... lavender… 

Acting quickly with freshly gloved hands I grabbed the bag and chucked it out of my room, across the hall and down the stairs. In hindsight that may have been a little over dramatic. I had succeeded in removing the cause of my sudden Flu though and finally got a good nights sleep. 

So the next time your suffering bad allergies and are convinced you just have a cold - have another look around - you may have unknowingly sabotaged yourself with a giant bag of your worst. nightmare. 

Have a great week everyone!

I'm not completely certain this much saliva comes out of my mouth when
I sneeze... but I could be wrong

Sketch Dump

I haven't really had time to finish anything so I thought I'd put up some sketches in the meantime :) 

Hope you guys like them - the photos are a little dodgy - my sketch book doesn't really fit in the scanner... one day I'll have an A3 one... 

I did these over the last few days, looking at the books - Lydie and The Best Birthday Party Ever! I've been feeling a little rusty from not sketching for a while so this is usually what I do to break through the barrier - just try and do as much as I can as fast as I can so I don't over think asnything - much easier to do when you have reference as you don't feel the pressure to create from scratch... 

Hope everyone has been well - Promise I'll have some more finished stuff up here soon :)