Hola gorgeous souls,

We’re back with my usual scrapbook of photos + ramblings from the past couple of weeks.

Let me take you on a play by play of how the past coupla weeks have gone downnnnn!!!!

As one season ends, another begins… I started on edits & revisions for the 2017 workbooks!!!!

I know it’s only April but publishing lead times take forever.

Definitely a different kettle of fish to when I first created & released these in the space of 3 days back in 2009!!!!!!

This girl… Happiest when she has pen and paper.

She makes the most intricate little scribings before bellowing

“MUM!!!!!!! LOOK!!!!!!!!!!! A!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Every scrawl is an A in BeffWorld.

First day of the year I get to wear closed in shoes instead of thongs!!! Hellloooooooo Autumn, I’ve been longing for you!!!!

I made a new friend… In the most synchronicious ways.

So… I’m a huge, raving fan of the reality show Farmer Wants A Wife… Like… I can barely cope with it… It’s just everything.

Anywaysies, I had a Farmer Wants A Wife finale party. I posted our little soirée on Instagram (as you do) and immediately got a comment… From my very favourite contestant Belinda Reid… The girl who held so much spark and light and earth angel energy!!!! She!!!! Commenting on my Instagram!!!! Not just that!!!! But she was a fan of ME!!! And had been reading my stuff for years!!!

At this point, I basically defecated my pants. I was emotionally comatose. It was too much. So much goodness.

The next day, I told my bestie about it. She immediately told me “FFS!!! Email her!!! Talk to her!!!!” And I totally ummmmed and ahhhhhhhed because I didn’t want to be a weird fan or seem like I wanted anything from her. Sometimes I feel so damn shy and unworthy of attention!!!

Anywaysies, Sone pushed and pushed me. Until I did. And she wrote me back. And then we started texting.

And I called her today… Thinking we’d chat for just a wee bit… But two hours on… We were still going!!!! We just dived straight in like we were the oldest of friends… Talked about heart and soul and all those big things. About wombats and animal healing and reiki and intentions and all the people we know in common. We pulled the most amazing cards and did a reading. So so magical to meet a mermaid soul sister… A sister of the heart… I have a feeling we are going to have some IRL adventures together this year… It’s totally meant to be.

I love how some part of me was like “That chick on tv? You might think she’s a world away, but she is truly a soul sis and she’s in our tribe.”

Big love to you Queen Bee you are a healer, an earth angel, an empath, a wild woman, an animal dreamer, a fae… And I’m so so glad our paths have finally crossed! Come visit!

It’s autumn and it’s cool and the sun is bright and our garden is a dream and I am happy.

We spent most of the day in the backyard…

It was one of our first real Autumn days and it’s cooled down enough so we don’t get sunburnt… Spent some happy hours painting out here as well, pretending I am Landscape Artist of the Yearrrrrrrr.

It’s way more mayhem and messy because of my 2 year old and way more loud because of my non-stop talker of a 6 year old. It’s not as chill and idyllic as doing it on my own… The mama art way is like an intense sport requiring quick reflexes and fast paint applying… Still… I need art like I need to breath. And it gets easier as they get older, this I know.

So in the meantime, I’ll be here, way messier and louder and quicker in making art than ever… Walking the creative mama way…

I’m a huge fan of Australian Bushflower Essences… I find them stronger than Bach – maybe that’s just because I’m an Aussie and resonate with the energy of the land here – but I’ve noticed even my American friends find the same. Anywaysies, these are even more powerful for me than the Aus Bushflower Essence blends – they are still made from Aus Bushflower Essences but there is something about Naughty Naturopath Mum and her blends and the way she works with the essences and what each one is for that is truly remarkable. Highly recommended.

Also – as always – this is not a sponsored ad – I don’t do that. I just share about shit I love and find useful. Also, hairstyle c/o smearing a duck tonne of coconut oil in it as a moisturising treatment because bleaching and perming my hair has totally messed with its mermaid vitality. Fuuuuuck why didn’t anyone tell me? Oh that’s right, they did. I just didn’t listen. #derp

An afternoon of Sacred Moon Lodge women’s circle… Just what is needed to bring me home, speak my truth & hear messages from Great Spirit. I wish every woman would have the blessing of experiencing a circle like this. I know so many people crave it but then don’t commit when the opportunity comes. It’s such a miracle, I wish it was commonplace habit and on the schedule for every woman.

This one. He respects the Ancient zones. He makes space for me and my work. He protects me even when I argue with him about it. He reminds me again and again to trust my inner voice. He respects sacred women’s work. He will change in an instant if he knows he needs to. He is not afraid of transformation. He is a Scorpio Ox and he is hottttttttt. I’m feeling particularly grateful for my man today after seeing a beautiful, sacred vision of him at the women’s circle. Magicman.

And so it begins… Editing for 2017 workbooks!

I’ve been wanting to spend more weekday afternoons with the Wild fae girls… Usually I spend mornings with the family and work in the afternoons, but since Mermaid Daughter #1 started school full time I’ve been missing her. So I’m playing around with schedule a bit… Today was a hot cross bun picnic in the backyard.

Help I am laying on the floor in the dark trying to get my 2 year old to sleep. We are 2.5 hours in. #sleepseige #hostagesituationunfolding

I’m kind of at that place in my life where I’m seriously considering giving up sleep because it seems a futile exercise anyway. #toddlerdoom #motheroftheyear

GUYS. GUYS. GUYS. Go to What Dog and upload a picture of yourself and find out what dog you most look like. Can NOT stop lafffffing!!!! I, apparently, most resemble an Afghan Hound. I cannot lie… they are pretty damn right on!!!!!!!

Amazing idea!!! Beautiful recipe ebook at www.aussiewellnesswomen.com.au with yummy wholesome recipes from Australia’s leading wellness experts… All funds raised will go to the Luke Batty Foundation which does such incredibly important work I want to cry thinking about it… Go check it out honeys!!!

I feel like Mermaid Daughter #1 is trying to art therapy her excitement about impending Easter.

Open to what comes next. Mermaid Daughter #1, the season of new beginnings and miracles. In many ways I feel like I’m coming home… To my city, my family, my friends, my spirituality, my own inner world…

Fully stocked up on new sketchbooks… Found them at Kmart for $5 each!!!! I wonder what I’ll create in these beauties!!!!! #art #sketchbook #journalling

Afternoon office. Sunset is golden, beer is cold.

What’s happening in me right now… Anais said it best ::::

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

“Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.” – Janis Joplin

Our birthday girl. She is SIX!

<3

Twelve years ago, I was a part of a magical online tribe (SARKettes uuuuniiiite!) They were a bunch of creative, spiritual, passionate, whole-hearted women… I was so lucky these women became my “new normal”. We all became pen pals and had wild women retreats together, many of us finding our BFFs and closest friends (it’s where I found @sonyaforrest too!)

We are all still friends all this time on… And it’s the gift that continues on giving. After my parents separated, I thought it would be suuuuuper funny to set my wild bushman dad up on a blind date with one of my succulent wild women friends… My reasoning being they both had five kids so would have soooooooooo much in common. FIVE KIDS! EACH!!!! Hahahahahaaaaaa!!!! I think we were all a bit surprised when they actually did fall head over heels for each other. Over a year later they are still together… Which is rad because it means I get to see my friend more often! And it’s lovely to see the wild bushman so happy too. I feel like a real life Cupid, you guys! I always thought I had matchmaking skills… Had no idea I would end up being my Dad’s wingman though! Haaaaaaa!!!!

Just finished 120 page journal of lettering and doodling. It’s only taken me a couple of weeks… At night when I’m sitting beside Mr D as he watches TV, I replaced my laptop with an art journal instead! It’s definitely increased my creative time. Now I’ll hand it off to Mr D for digitising and cleaning up and handing off to our designers to be incorporated into new products and social media images.

Brilliant. Fascinating. The South Park documentary on how they produce a show in 6 days! I love watching any kind of shows and insights into the creative process and production!

I sculptured a little ancient goddess doll for myself for a bit of nurturing. She’s a smiling elder crone, and I can feel her love around me. I made her from white air drying clay that I’ve had sitting in the cupboard for years. I have no idea where my sculpting tools are so I used my hands and a dried up pen. Once she was dry I painted her with brown umber gouache watered down. I quite love the effect… She looks leathery and golden.

I’m pretty sedate and understated when I meet people. @april.bevin can vouch for this.

Oh my goodness. What a precious, precious gift to receive. I can’t even tell you how much this means to me… I got teary when I opened the box. A beautiful necklace with my family’s names, a mermaid and on the back, an inscription of my Word For 2016… A stunning creation by Vianna Fere – etsy store.

She was here last week for 24 hours so we could do some business meetings together.

When it came time for her to leave, I asked her not to go. There was still so much to speak about and plan and create. She told me she’d come back in three days, and she did. I had four days with her and I’m pleased as punch.

I even got her and Mr D to do a creative direction meeting with me to brainstorm 2017 book covers… I’m so happy with the results! As fantastic as remote working is, sometimes it is even more fantastic to be working across the table.

Suuuuuper excited to welcome Suzi Istvan to our team!!!

Suzi will be our first full time designer & art director for the company… Something we soooo need to keep up with the ever growing amount of goodies we produce! I’ll still be writing & illustrating of course but Succulent Suzi will be polishing it up and putting it together for print & web design.

You’ll also see her in the Academy presenting a design & branding course or two! Suzi is brilliant & gorgeous & smart & a total goal getter. She is also a mama to three boys and has the cuuuutest puppy. We also realised we both used to harbour political aspirations – she wanted to be Chief of Staff, I wanted to be Prime Minister, and we have both worked in government and politics before! Funny!

Now we prefer to change the world our own way with our work. I’m so excited to be adding Suzi’s superpowers to our team & can’t wait to see what we can create together!!!

And Sone came back for some more live work retreating!

As an important business meeting we went to our Mecca, our Alma Mater, our favourite hippy store in the world… THE HIEROPHANT!!!! We did verrrrry important business things of looking at books and cards and crystals for “market research”.

I’m not particularly close with much of my family for many reasons, so we selected aunties for our girls from our tribe of friends. Aunty Sone spends much of her time with us being sat on, cuddled & doing braids.

It makes my heart happy to see the love unfolding and blooming between them all. As they grow, my girls will be initiated into sacred women’s circles and moon lodges.

I love that they will always have strong, loving, spiritual, wholehearted women surrounding them and loving them and showing them how to walk in this world with joy and heart.

My business planning always happens a bit later than January… Nov-Jan are the three busiest months of our year with 2016 goals workbook sales and this year we had a conference in Feb too.

We’ve spent the last three days going through our past few years of business goals workbooks (yep, I use my own book… I created it for me and my business’ success first… And shared the book publicly so other people could use the system too!) I’m so damn proud of what we’ve been able to achieve and am so excited and sure of what we will create next.

Four days of business planning done.. Interspersed with crystal shops, book shops, cafes & beer in the backyard.

That is basically my ideal work retreat right there. We done good Sone!

This week I did a bunch of cover design mock ups for the 2017 workbooks & diary… We reviewed all the covers from the past seven years and combined the best parts of what worked. I drafted up dozens of quick sketches until we could decide on one. I had Mr D and Sonehelping me. And Mermaid Daughter #2’s of course. She made sure she stood on every one of them.

Next up, I’ll be hand illustrating the different pieces for the cover, cleaning it up in Photoshop and then handing it off to our designer for polishing. Should be fun!

Okay loves… I’m off to sleep… Last day of school before school holidays. I wonder how we can all make it through school holidays without losing our sanity. Our lovely nanny ended up needing to quit to focus on university, so we are flying solo once more. And it’s lovely to have some solid family time. I’ll let you know if it is still as lovely in two weeks.

Okay seriously I should go to sleep now. You hang up! No youuuu hangggg uppppppp

Started and finished “Life without lanyards: from public servant to entrepreneur”. I made the switch six years ago and am well established in my company, but it was still fantastic to read the stories of other Canberran public servants who’ve made the transition.

I think I’ll pass the book on to my darling Deb who just quit the pubes cubes to do massage full time. I couldn’t be more proud of her!!!!

Hey beautiful goddesses… Just want you to know you are loved. And precious. And needed. Big time.

Bloody brilliant. THRIVE. There’s a reason this bookywooky is popular.

School holidays. Such wonder. Such bliss. Such screaming and biting and fighting and whining. ENJOYING EVERY SINGLE MINUTE, GUYZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Nothing says first day of school holidays like a feverish toddler. My poor little kitten!

HOLY SHIT. SUCH A GOOD BOOK. I’m on a reading binge. Chapter 7 is where its at.

HOLYYYYYYY SHITTTT GUYZZZZZ. I just reviewed my 2016 Oracle card reading in the 2016 Shining Year workbook… The first quarter of the year has been incredibly accurate!!!!! Like… Crazy so. Have you checked yours lately???????

Today’s office: backyard blanket. Today’s uniform: pyjamas. #sosupercorporateprofesh

I like to call this “I Forgot To Grocery Shop So We Are Eating Anything We Can Find In The Fridge. Also, I Shan’t Be Cleaning My Creative Mayhem Off The Dining Room Table Anytime Soon.” Such domestic goddess. Very wow.

[HOW I STAY CREATIVE & PRODUCTIVE EVEN WHEN MY HUSBO LOVES TV]

So, my hunky man loves to chill out at night on the couch by watching comedies on TV. And I like to be with him, but also be making art, reading, journaling, collaging. This basket is ze answer to my conundrum.

Every night you’ll find me & Mr D side-by-side on the couch – him chuckling away at TV, me delving into my activity basket. Sometimes it is filled with sewing supplies to make felt toys. Sometimes collage. Sometimes drawing. Sometimes colouring books. Sometimes journaling.

The 100+ page colouring book I designed and gave away was all done on the couch at night. We also have shows we watch together that I give my full attention to but I’m pretty selective. So there ya go… Just wanted to share what works for me & us!

All fancy and in the city at a co-working space waiting to be interviewed for Canberra Startup Stories. Soooooo PROFESH guyssssssss.

I had a super early morning start speaking at Canberra Business In Heels networking breakfast. Thought I would outsource my gift bag stuffing to child labour. They did an excellent job for the first five bags, and then one of them shit their pants and the other one started complaining she was tired. Seriously… child slaves are getting super lazy these days. I’ll have to keep training them up!

I really enjoy 5am starts. At Canberra Business In Heels to speak. I feel super graceful and awake.

I got up at Buttfuck O’Clock to go teach at a Business In Heels networking breakfast. It was such a beautiful time… Love meeting gorgeous souls and love sharing my journey of building a multi-million dollar company. I can’t wait to see what these amazing earth angels do with what they learned today!!!!

Mr D: “How many damn art journals do you need?”

Me: “HOW VERY DARE YOU! I REQUIRE ALL OF THEM!”

He shakes his head and walks away.

Wise decision, Mr D.

I’ve used these art journals since I was 16 years old. I just finished another one, and went a couple of weeks without one because I couldn’t find it in stock anywhere. This is UNACCEPTABLE. So I bought them in bulk this time – they are the Montmarte Sketching Journal, under $10 each. I do a lot of collaging and art journaling in these babies.

It’s nearly the weekend…

There will be books, backyard lounging and women’s circle.

Life is good!

Hoooooray for Autumn magic!

Big love to you all,

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