Flight of the Conchords

For those of you who aren't a fan of keads on facebook, you might not have heard we entered a competition to win tickets to see Flight of the Conchords play in Nelson. I've been a FotC fan for years, so I really wanted to win these tickets. When I met Sam, one of the first things we did together was watch Season 1 of the FotC show. They have a dry, awkward sense of humor that we appreciate, and their musical parodies are genius.

Everybody Loves Mike Hamm

Known as much for his big smile as the red moustache that perched atop it, Mikey Hamm was a true star. He has been dearly missed by family and friends from coast to coast, or perhaps I should say around the world, because surely I'm not the only one who said goodbye from across the ocean.



I've been working on and off on these drawings of Mike this year, coming back to them between long breaks, and I think they are nearly finished. I drew them for Mike, for his family, and for his friends that miss him. His birthday is a few days away, so what better time to share them?

When I first decided to draw Mike, I knew I couldn't draw merely one portrait; Mike was a man of many faces: candid, outrageous, silly, and sincere. I looked at dozens hundreds of photos that flooded his facebook page and picked a few that inspired me. I decided to keep them relatively simple, with bright splashes of colors that remind me of Mike. I tried to make them drawings that Mike would have liked.

I think I will run a screen print edition when I'm back in Texas. I haven't printed anything since my wedding invitations, and I find screen printing to be a very therapeutic act. I don't want any profit from them, but perhaps if people are interested, I could ask for a donation to a charity of his family's choosing in exchange for a print. What do you think?

If you would like a print, please let me know in the comments or by email. I would like everyone who wants one to be able to have one, but I also don't want to print way too many.

A Dash of Cuteness

I'm really digging these miniature house spice shakers from Connect Design. They're $8 for a pair (red and green or purple and yellow), or $15 for the set of four.

Synthetic Geodes by Elyse Graham

I have a soft spot for geodes. I like the idea that a plain looking rock could contain such beauty, a tiny world within it that becomes a two sided diorama when cracked. Elyse Graham loves them just as much as I do. She loves them so much, in fact, that she makes her own.

Final Days in Australia

We consider our month in Australia something of a taster. We got to see a lot, but there is so much left to look forward to when we come back: Uluru, the outback, Perth, Melbourne, Tasmania... the list goes on and on.

We were given a few more days to explore Sydney when our flight back to Christchurch was cancelled due to snow.

Vivid Sydney

We were lucky to be in Sydney for the annual Vivid Festival. Vivid transforms the Sydney waterfront with a beautiful, musical and, well, vivid display of light installations.

Beauty in Brisbane

Self portrait in cubes

The weather was touch and go in Brisbane, so we spent a bit of time exploring the museums. My first stop was the GOMA, or Gallery of Modern Arts, which is conveniently located in the Southbank area next to the State Library, a Science Museum and the Queensland Art Gallery.

Brisbane

I don't know what it is, but there's something about Brisbane that I really like. Maybe it's the remarkably efficient public transportation system and free museums, or maybe it's just the way the river snakes through the city, making it curvy and beautiful.

Sale on Laurie Hastings Illustrations!

I met Laurie Hastings when she came to my college for a semester. The next year, I went to her college for a semester. I'm still not sure it was a fair exchange; I'm pretty sure my school got the better of the trade. I've always loved her work, and when I saw this sale I wanted to share it with my readers.

Yeppoon & Rocky

Hand feeding the magpies at Tony's house

Just to warn you, every single photo in this post contain animals!

We stopped in Yeppoon again on our way south, to visit Tony and his wife Katie and hopefully do some fishing. Once again, the fishing was cursed and the weather went sour. Despite the rain, Sam and I enjoyed our time at Tony's place. His deck overlooks a small nature reserve and we were visited by lots of different birds. Some of them walked right into the house to look for scraps until Tony's dog Snoop chased them away.

Stanage

This whole "fishing trip" thing didn't really work out. The fish weren't cooperating. There were setbacks or disappointments in Yeppoon, Mackay, and Dingo Beach, so the guys decided to try one last spot, Stanage. From everything we heard, Stanage is a fishing hotspot. A lot of this information said the best fishing was by boat, but other sources said there was plenty to be caught by land fishing as well. Sam and Matt gave it their best, but Stanage was yet another in a long line of fishing letdowns.

That's not to say we didn't have a nice time! Stanage was a very isolated spot to visit, and we had some excellent sightseeing.

Dingo Beach

Dingo Beach was one of our favorite stops in Australia. We weren't originally planning to go there, but we were bored in Airlie Beach and it wasn't too far away. It is off the beaten path and not at all commercial. The long beaches are almost empty, and covered with chunks of coral.

Airlie Beach

From what we hear, Airlie Beach used to be a small, quiet place to sit on the beach beneath a coconut tree and take in the scenery. Now it's a strip mall, mainly an outpost for people heading to the Great Barrier Reef. We passed a few days here while we waited for the weather to improve before our reef cruise, and it was very beautiful on first sight, but without much to keep us interested.

Mackay

We spent our first afternoon in Mackay exploring the beach at low tide. We walked for a few hours, sunk in quicksand up to our calves, found a wheelbarrow rusting in a tidepool and saw about a thousand tiny blue crabs scuttling en masse across the flats.

Sunshine Coast to Yeppoon

After spending a couple days in Sydney, we used our JetStar vouchers to head north to the Sunshine Coast Airport. Sam's friend Matt was nearby and heading north up the coast, so we went along for the ride.