Mini-conference with Nick and Jen

Oh dear, these photos are all a bit mixed around. The sisters all went out with Jen Vasiliades this afternoon before their meeting, and we shopped at an outlet store block and then off up to the Kauri Gumstore cafe for coffee. This is us THERE>
Two angles so that you can appreciate the lovely scarves that Jen, Lorna and Jenny are wearing, that Lorna's friend knitted.
ER, the photo that is out of place. It's a portion of the meeting this evening with ROger who came down from the North for the meeting, talking to Nick, and Lorna talking to niece Magda.
And back to the Kauri Gumstore for the sight of the food!
. . . and Jen V outside
. . . and the actual sisters' meeting with us all moving our legs in swift motion simultaneously. A feat we are rather proud of. Poor Nick.

Dissertation night

Yep, it's finally happened! We had our exhibition of our dissertations at a gallery in St Paul's St last night, with wine (in polystyrene) and nibbles. Very nice event with a chance for fellow students and I to relax and read each other's work and to invite family and friends to see our work.
Here's my friend Catherine Gardner and I hovering over a disseration on Vodka!
And this was my entire contingent: Niece Magda, Catherine, Helen and niece Jem.
The gallery and the tables spread with our work.
LAST weekend, my sister-in-law (and Magda's Mum) was here and we celebrated with a meal she put on!! on Helen's place. That's Mum and Jem with Magda and Lizzie.
The family gathered around the table. Great food. Great company.

Inklings website uploaded and nearly there. . .

Just thought you should know that the Inklings website is nearly finished and you can see it now on the link to the right!!
If you click on the return to Designershome button on each page you will be taken back to our as yet uncompleted class website. Don't get stuck there!!
Enjoy
J

Stuff

Friend in the class took photos of us all in black and white. I quite liked this one, so it'll be on my website. Watch out for www.inklings.co.nz which WILL happen one day soon. At the moment working on the class website, and being 'Webmaster' (read 'whipmaster') I am pretty pleased that I was able to upload SOMETHING to start with. See www.designershome.co.nz and keep an eye on the space. That's where all the class projects and profiles will happen soon.
Until then. . .

Squirrel mania

We don't get these little blighters over here which is why it's so cute to see one again. Someone sent Dad an email about this little fella and how he was found at the base of a tree, and this lady hand reared him, and her dog took him under her wing. So sweet. I think I even forgive the squirrel (Madam Nutkin) who once bit me on the finger and caused me to have to have a rabies shot.
See, settling in to the pack just like the other puppies.

Aw. . .I want one!

A normal Sunday I guess

And the day started at Mum's (Dad is in hospital of course) with a brunch consisting of corn fritters, donuts and cake, and celebrating Helen's birthday. That's her and her crowd of onlookers enjoying her new fake mink blankie and card. It was just the start of her 'treat me like a princess' day.
This is the princess blowing out the candle on her cake - be glad you don't get a closer view. Coffee sponge it was. And an old candle my mother unearthed.
Slightly out of order, this is the roast chicken dinner waiting for Magda and I at home, when we finally got there. Steve cooked it!! AND provided the wine. Lovely lad that.
This is where I spend my days - alone in this case - at the computer lab in the University. I have been asked to be webmaster for the class, so more long hours spent in here are ahead. Oh joy. That's a day in the life of Jenny 'Inklings' Jeffries. Hope it was worth it to you.

UPdate

Just a brief update to any interested parties:
Dad had pacemaker installed today at 10am, and is returned to the Waitakere Hospital near us so how convenient for visiting! It was only a local anaesthetic so he is feeling the pain now but eating dinner so can't be too bad.
AND
my dissertation sent for binding yesterday. Whew.
Now it's just the class publication and the website and our individual webpages to do.
Onward and upward.

Dad in hospital

The rather sad sight of my father in the coronary care unit at Waitakere after fainting today and knocking one of his teeth up into his head. He's being monitored because of irregularity in his heart beat over the next few days and THEN I guess the swelling in his face and the dental stuff can be dealt with.
He's okay. May have to have a pacemaker put in.

My dissertation

I just have to say I feel like I'm living, breathing, eating my dissertation and web design these days. Only a few more weeks to go and it's ALL GO. I am thrilled that both Steadman and Leunig (Australia) agreed to let me use their 'wild line' illustrations in my dissertation. Here's a favourite from Michael Leunig. You got to love him. He signed the book too, when he was out here a few years ago.
Here's the present state of my dissertation. In case you don't know, it's on the WILD LINE in contemporary New Zealand illustration. I've interviewed eight artists and pieced it all together and now I'm designing the book and facing getting it bound and printed. Has to be done in a week.
And THIS is the state of the side of my bedroom, filled with papers and bits and pieces which all mean something, but I'm not quite sure what at the moment. I scored my first A for the latest assignment on magazine, done in Quark, so feeling pretty pleased with myself. If you don't see another blog for a while, I hope this one explains why.

Autumn

How I like these early crisp mornings, on a Sunday, when you can just come out at leisure and make your coffee and sit and view the sun rising through the network of branches on the front lawn.

This is my studio, next to the kitchen, in which I struggle through a variety of tasks. I'm heading in to AUT where the better computer is today though, AFTER a bit of a leisurely Sunday start.
This is the alternative view in the morning, and I did sit here, with coffee and crumpets and enjoy the neighbours back yard and the slightly frosty feel to things. Ah, well, I'd best get to planting those black Irises for Spring and readying myself for some work in at the Uni.

Late night 'work' ha ha

Oh, gulp, is that really me in my pyjamas, sitting hunched in front of my laptop, viewing the Harry Potter website with zeal and relish. Oops. All my work spread out on the bed behind me, and silly escapist thoughts filling my head. I blame all my work on Flash for web design today.
See, I've moved on and am now in gmail checking for a message from YOU! I'd best to bed I think. Good night

The final toadstool stages

And here it is. . . long after the fairies have left, and it is fading to a mellow orange, and becoming merely a memory.
How does something so bizarre and vibrant suddenly spring up from the ground near the path and live a short extraordinary life which touches so many people? Hey, that's good - OH to live life like a toadstool!

The toadstool grows

And here is the next progression of the mighty fairy toadstool. Pretty huh?
Ah, lovely to have Autumn here at last. Enjoy

Old photos

Feeling cranky about still suffering the ill effects of a cold virus, and only slightly better today. Ne'er mind. Here's a shot of my brother and I that I found, taken in our teens and attempting to look 'old fashioned'. It seems only yesterday, but hey, it's about 30 years ago. Gulp.Onwards and upwards. I'll give you updates on the toadstool progress (see previous blog). And hopefully by the time the toadstool is dying off, so will my cold.

Toadstool time

It's toadstool time out there at the moment. Lots of rain, growing cold weather, and Magda found this on our lawn. Now she's out checking for fairies. Cute.
She took these shots, and I've borrowed them for my blog. The toadstool must have taken the photo of her.

Visitors to our meeting

Wow, we just had the most amazing meeting! The visitors exceeded the normal number in the church here. Lovely group of people - about 6 adults, 5 children, 2 late teens, all Maori bar 2, came and fellowshipped with us this afternoon. They sang us a few songs in Maori, on the theme we had been talking about 'THE RIVER'!!! And the well. This photo is of Ra talking to his children.
We three sisters having to sit against the window because we were all stuffed up with colds, but that didn't stop US from talking, oh no.
Soaking it all up
This is Ra, and Mark, and Jan, and one of Ra's sisters, after the meeting when we shared where we'd all been coming from. They've been reading some of Gene's books and its shaken them up. We're just thrilled that some MAORI have taken an interest, and we all enjoyed today, sharing Christ together. It was just glorious.
This is Granny, who has had 14 children, and was so sweet, sitting next to brother Steve. And Wayne, just beyond him, who has been in prison etc, but now just wants so much of the Lord.

And this soft focus shot is of the four children (there's another one somewhere) who came in during a cup of tea, and their father calmed them down a bit. How the Boyd girls enjoyed their company!!

We've just finished having an excited natter about what a meeting it was, and how encouraging for us all, to have shared so much of Christ. AND WE DID. Hallelujah.

Just in case you think I haven't been working

I have!! I've been practicing illustrations on my new drawing board. In case you were'nt aware, I have ANOTHER blog site in which I put only my artwork, so please feel free to check it out. When I work out how to add a link to the present site, I'll put it on there.
Enjoy: http://inkyblogger.blogspot.com/

Looking a little better today

Okay, feeling a tad better today despite having spent some of last night on some street with the traffic rushing by and a cold wind blowing down my neck, enjoying a meal with friend Meg, up from Christchurch.
Tongue at least is active, which is a great relief.
That's bed in the background which is where I've spent every OTHER waking hour.
Just watched Napoleon Dynamite on DVD, lent to me by aforementioned friend Meg, who loves it. I have been told by so many to see this movie, including SARAH, that I at last have seen it. Funny. . . could obviously do with a few viewings.
Back to some more docile activity I think.

Ah, sniff, the first winter cold

AND the last we hope. Yes, revenge of the sugar rush!! Perhaps it was overloading my fragile system with all that chocolate. . . too late I threw the last crumpled foil into the bin to join the rapidly growing pile of tissues.
Anyway, Autumn's ode for me is no longer:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom friend of the setting sun

but

Season of sniffs and hollow coughfulness
Close bosom friend of the windy gale

Don't know why I bothered with the photo - I'm sure you'd have got the picture anyway. Perhaps in a few days when the next photo is up there, it'll look so much the better for the contrast. I live in hope.
Until then, sniff, I'm off to sneeze again.

Easter Sunday

Okay, these photos are all in the wrong order. But - here is the day so far. It's late afternoon, I'm swamped in a sugar buzz so high that I even resorted to taking my own photo - Helen couldn't hold the camera still enough. That's her in the next shot. Those eggs no longer exist.






































And then there's the one of my mother arriving from the hallway with her cluster of packages bright with cellophane and Easter eggs for the family. How our eyes LIT UP.
ANd finally there's the photo of the meeting of the church this morning. We've already devoured the hot cross buns, sung some songs, had some coffee, shared some pretty meaningful things, and now we're working our way through a bowl of small chocolate eggs, and Jan is checking her daugher's hair for lice!! Ha ha. Church life, aye? Oh, and catch the single brother doing the dishes, bless him. We're in Tracey's house.
HAPPY EASTER

Good Friday

Into THIS dark
THIS sightless void
THIS formless cavern
Bereft and bare
Through crusted layers
of self-made shields
heartless ambitions
driven by greed

Into THIS space
His broken body was placed

A sigh
A word
A soft light glowing
A gentle whispering breeze is flowing
stirring, crumbling
rocks are tumbling
the entrance cracks from side to side
and through the fissure
rides the tide

LOVE
JOY
PEACE
RIGHTEOUSNESS
HOLINESS
LONG SUFFERING
GRACE
MERCY
FORGIVENESS

Latest project

Just for a change from the old blog, here's my magazine cover for a recent assignment. I called my magazine WEST, after the district in Auckland I live, and my articles are all about wine, the train trip, orchards, the Lopdell House art gallery, and coffee. Hence the silver tray and articles on it.
That, of course, is Jemma my niece on the front. Whew, the assignment is in.

This is the latest one of the church

It's a bit scary because of the large green creature taking up the main centre of the shot, but not a bad one of us all anyway.
Yep, we're down to eight, but what an enthusiastic eight we are! We're going to take another photo, and align folks in it better, but in the meantime here's what we look like now.
Enjoy, and I'll blog again soon.
J