Look up

All too often, as we go through life, we spend our days looking down, or out, or behind. Why do we never remember to look up? That could be a metaphor and you could decide I'm quite the philosopher but, in this case, I am being quite literal. Look up!

What do you see? Clouds gathering in a darkening sky? Ornate architraves? Treetops? Towering sky-scrapers? Seagulls? Shooting stars?

When artist Lamadieu Thomas looks up, he sees in his mind's eye strange and wonderful pictures in the pieces of sky that appear between tall buildings.

Thank goodness there are artists like Thomas in the world, because they have the skills and talents to take what is in their minds' eyes and share them with all of us.

In this case, Thomas uses a combination of photography and line drawing to create surprising characters in negative sky-space. He calls it "Sky Art."

All images used here with kind permission from Lamadieu Thomas

Favourite things - hooked on hue

One of my new favourite blogs to read, Bright.Bazaar, is all about colour. "Mr Bazaar" Will Taylor says he is "unashamedly hooked on hue." What a great phrase. We are thinking about renovations of late chez Bulger, and I've been scouring the Internet for ideas. I don't know that I could actually replicate all of the following ideas in my home, but they have definitely got me hooked on hue this week! Have a colourful weekend, dear friends.

1. Psychedelic stripes

By Glasgow-based artist Jim Lambie, in his floor series called Zobop. {Via Honestly WTF}

2. Piñata cake

Oh actually, I think this is one I will replicate at home. {Via B for Bel via A Subtle Revelry}

3. Wacky wallpaper

Joanna Goddard has collected 10 great wallpapers for us to admire and covete. Which do you like best? {Via Cup of Jo}

4. Striped ice cubes

I have bookmarked this idea for spring and summer. I will invite you over for sparkly, colourful, cold, fruity drinks next November. Save the date. {Via Oh Joy!}

5. Stitches alive!

Vibrant embroideries come alive in this short video about love. A little something joyful to take you into the weekend. {Via the Etsy blog}

And that's all, folks!

Le Petit Prince

Oh, the glorious power of imagination! Luka is a 12-year-old boy with muscular dystrophy. He is confined to a wheelchair and only capable of tiny, weak movements with his fingers. Even simple activities like eating and using the bathroom are beyond him.

But Luka has an active imagination. And one day he told his psychologist, Slovenian Matej Peljhan (who also happens to be a photographer), that he wished he could see himself in a photo: walking, running, and getting up to all kinds of boy-like mischief.

Peljhan works with children with special needs, and understands the challenges they face better than many. He was injured himself as a child in an accident with explosive devices left behind after World War II.

Peljhan came up with an idea to shift the perspective, to help grant the little boy his wish. Together they created "Le Petit Prince," a joyful, adventurous series of photographs based on Luka's own drawings, that put him inside his best dreams and depict him doing what he will never be able to experience in real life.

I wrote to Peljhan and he very kindly gave me permission to share some of the photographs with you here.

Doesn't this make you want to cry and smile at the same time?

How to rise above anything. Even the worst

This is my dear friend Ingrid Poulson, doing TEDx last month. If you live in Australia, you might know Ingrid because of her story. It is a doozy. But Ingrid is so much more than just the well-known part of her story. I knew her before her story became a Story, when she was a shy and funny and deeply average teenager like the rest of us. We sang a cappella big-band tunes together with our friends. We told silly stories and wrote them down. Ingrid had a big brother with beautiful eyes and a big sister who was soooo glamorous. Ingrid had a chicken that lived on the shed roof and crowed like a rooster.

Today I am still honoured to have Ingrid as my friend, and to know the kind and funny and brave and loving woman that she is, well beyond any story.

She said on her website that when she was invited to talk at TEDx, "I wanted to tell the story just one more time and that was it. Have it filmed and out there for people to check out and then react in their own time and space."

The next 16 minutes are Ingrid's gift to you. They are her lessons, learned in the hardest possible of ways, on how to RISE (that's an acronym, you'll learn) through and above anything that life throws at you.

I remember reading in Ingrid's amazing book Rise, that she draws a big distinction between strength and resilience. When Ingrid lost everything, people would tell her "You're so strong. You're the strongest person I know." And for Ingrid that became a pressure: she felt she couldn't call on those people on the days she was truly at her lowest, because she would lose the title of Strong, and society places such value on strength. Instead, Ingrid teaches resilience. Resilience lets you hit the lowest of the lows, and that's OK, but you do survive and, in time, you overcome. I highly recommend Rise: it is positive and potentially life-changing.

In the meantime, watch this. Go on! You'll thank me (and Ingrid).

ps. If you'd like to learn from Ingrid in person, get along to this workshop at The Happiness Institute on 15 June

Favourite things - ephemera

Just five things from around the Internet that have been making me think covetous thoughts this week. Have a fantastic weekend! 1. The beautiful bowls

Painted wooden bowls, plates and other homewares from Nicole Porter Design

2. The chrysanthemum clutch

This handmade chrysanthemum silk lined aqua floral clutch from BagNoir in Ireland

3. The gorgeous girls' clothes

When Madeleine is big enough I can't wait to dress her in outfits from Latvian clothing line Aristocrat Kids

4. The 'dorable doormat

See what I did there, with the alliteration? Also, why has nobody invented a 3D doormat before now?

5. The nifty notebook

Are you a person who carries a notebook everywhere for those times when inspiration strikes? Me too. This Dodo iPhone case is also a notebook. 'Nough said!

Welcome home

Have you been following astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield's poetic tweets from space? Somehow, he made "out there" feel so much closer to "in here." As though we were all part of the same universe, and all connected. Which of course we are. While I have been going about my closed little life: working, walking, writing, loving my baby; Commander Hadfield has been floating above and feeling connected to me and my seven billion Earth neighbours in a way that I can barely understand.

These are some of the photographs he has been sending home from his time on the International Space Station, and his accompanying thoughts.

"Tonight's Finale: The Moon rising over a bed of cloud. A constant reminder to us all of what can be achieved."

"Clouds swoop in on Crimea, a white bird on the Black Sea."

"Hamburg, famed port city in northern Germany, on what must have been a lovely day to take a stroll down the Elbe."

"Canada rocks." (Did I mention Commander Hadfield is Canadian?)

"Spaceships glowing blue in the dawn as we leave Florida headed across the Atlantic."

Commander Hadfield is due home today. He tweeted a few hours ago "Hard to express all of my emotions, but mostly gratitude. I came here on behalf of so many people - thank you." It's an extraordinary world we live in, wouldn't you agree?

ps. If you've somehow managed to miss the media storm, here is the fantastic remake of David Bowie's Space Oddity that Commander Hadfield recorded from on board the International Space Station. I would find it super-poignant, except that moustache gives me the giggles and that brings me down to earth. So to speak.

Thank you

This is such a simple way to make someone's day. Who else is going to start carrying post-it notes with them everywhere?

What would Anna Karenina wear?

“He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.” - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina This photo shoot makes me feel like Anna Karenina has just stepped into our time. I am picturing snow, and Grand Tours, and lonely wealth, and art and love and lust and disgrace, and each unhappy family unique from all the others.

It's been many years since I read Anna Karenina. It's one of those sweeping books, I think. It swept me along, miserable in the inevitability of Anna's decline, and yet compelled to keep on reading. It was also grand and vast and old and beautiful.

It might almost be time for me to read it again. Almost. I think I need a few good nights' sleep before I tackle that particular emotional journey.

Meanwhile these dresses, aren't they glorious in all their old-world rewritten charm? They are from here and I don't even know what I'm looking at or what I'm (not) reading, but I couldn't resist sharing because they are so beautiful. Bring back bustles!

“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.” - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Old friends, new links

Last week I met a group of women in a cafe who had been regularly getting together for more than 40 years. They were all in their 70s, enjoying coffee and cake and gossip with each other and a handful of grandchildren. As I apologetically manoeuvred Madeleine's pram past their table, they told me "We understand, that's how we met." Turns out they were all from the same mothers' group and had been friends ever since. Isn't that incredible? It's been a long time since I've shared any links to my writing elsewhere, and I feel like I'm neglecting my old friends, the wonderful websites and publications who support me. Here are some bits and pieces you might enjoy.

Unexpected snail-mail connections

Have you heard of 'slow blogging'?

Amazing (colour!) photographs of Paris a hundred years ago

How to score a business loan (pdf)

What's inside Frida Kahlo's closet?

The nights are long but the years are short

The food of love

Can your business outlive your career?

Dear celebrity, I thought we were friends

(Photo by aftab)

Spoiled for choice

A long time ago I heard a talk by a woman who worked with young girls in Afghanistan. In human rights terms, she said, one of the most important 'rights' was the right of choice. To choose to learn or not, to earn or not, to marry or not... to live or not. Choice was something that we in Australia took entirely for granted. Being 'spoiled for choice' is definitely a first-world problem. In the scheme of things, does it really matter whether we paint our bedroom walls Bit of Blue or Barely Blue? Yet if you were a fly on the wall of many a home renovation (or, let's face it, just watched half an episode of The Block), you'd witness full-on domestic wars arise over just this issue.

Artist Shawn Huckins has explored the concept of choice in his clever and darkly humorous Paint Chip Series. He says, "In today’s abundant American culture, any material thing we could possibly ever want or need is at our fingertips. The Paint Chip Series explores color choice and its meaning in our daily lives."

Each work exactly replicates the proportions, font, layout and hues of the miniature paint cards you find in hardware stores. These are the "bands of color we may choose for our most intimate spaces—bedrooms, kitchens, family rooms," and Huckins says they represent the ideal stage to examine everyday people and objects.

All images used here with the kind permission of the artist.

ps. Take a look at Huckins' tweets from the American Revolution series. Underneath the cheeky tweets in all those teen abbreviations that I can never quite get (thank goodness he 'translates' in the title of each work), these are all hand-painted portraits.