Calendar Girls

When I left that last flight, almost a year ago now, and finally made it back to my little country hideaway on this side of the world, I never in my wildest dreams would have expected this year to end with love in my heart, a fire in my soul, and applause (APPLAUSE?!?!?!?!) upon entering a room...

Those who have been following my blog for a while might recall that I've been much more open to leaving things to fate in recent times.  If you missed it, have a read here. It's amazing, awesome, fantastic, and incredible what can happen in a short space of time.  Eight months can teach me I actually do have patience, I just don't like using it, and a month.... In a month two women with a vision can create something magical and bring a whole community together.

The Kollective

Months ago I was introduced to a group of local business women through the local cafe (the only one we have - it's a small town, but the cafe is aweseome!) and it was great to catch up regularly with women who were in the same position as me.  At that very first meeting, once people knew what I did, the idea of a calendar was mentioned.  I think it was after the second meeting, or maybe a little later that I discussed the idea further with Vicki who is a hair & makeup artist, also living here in Kooralbyn.  We got together and started talking about the idea of presenting our fellow business women in images which spoke to what they do, in a playful and somewhat cheeky manner.  We came up with a bunch of ideas for quite a few of the business women, and decided to take it to the group as a project we'd like to do.

Miss January

Unfortunately, the next meeting I went to only had a few people there.  We talked about the idea and it was received well, but without others to consult with we weren't really sure how to move on it.  I got busy with my design and product photography work, and the next few meetings were called off due to school holidays.  After that, I didn't really know when they were on so I kind of skipped a few and concentrated on my work.

Then, fate firmly kicked me up the butt.

 Miss February

I lost the design work I had been doing every 3 weeks, almost like clockwork for the past seven years, and with it 40 percent of my income.  It was a shock to the system, but not a surprise.  I had seen the signs, and steeled myself against the blow.  I just wasn't entirely sure how I was going to move forward.  All I knew was I had to push, fast and hard, into the abyss of starving artistry.  It was time to hold on tight, and go for a ride.

The October Lads

Three days later, that kick finally landed.  I had felt pretty blue for a few days.  It was the end of an era, afterall and a pretty scary idea to no longer have a regular income.  I really wasn't feeling like being around people, or talking about business when I felt I had none.  Meetings for the group had moved to Thursday afternoons at the pub across the road, and I decided that I needed to drag my butt outside, smack that happy face on, and be around people.

Miss March

To my joyful surprise, I arrived to see Jo sitting with Vicki.  Jo hadn't been to any of the meetings that I'd been at, but I knew her through taking some photos for her corporate website and doing some designs for her earlier in the year.  It was just the three of us this meeting, but oh my did fate have something in store for us.  Jo laid out some new ideas for the group.  Firstly, the name Kooralbyn Kollective, and the focus: Local business women unite to develop and grow services and events in our community.  We talked about a whole host of things, including better communication and roles within the group so things were more organised and better able to move forward.  As soon as I mentioned what had happened with my work, Vicki's response was to ask if we could now do the calendar.  Better yet, can we get it done before Christmas.  Keep in mind, this was late October (maybe even early November).  I said yes, but we would have to get right on it and make it happen.   That's exactly what we did.

Miss November

The very next meeting, there was a whole bunch of people.  Thanks to our new drive, organisation and communication.  I came with pricing and an idea of how the logistics could work.  I also had pictures as examples of what we wanted to do.  I expected people to be hesitant, and negative about having their pictures taken.  No such thing happened.  Everyone was amazingly positive, and enough people put their hands up that we had the majority of slots filled there and then.  The calendar was a happening thing, and we had exactly a month to get it all organised, shot, edited and designed.  My time was officially filled!!

Miss July

With the help of Leigh doing the calling and organising, selling ad space and generally project managing so that Vicki and I could concentrate on the creative work we pulled it together.  14 photoshoots, lots of early mornings, several venues, hair, makeup, costumes, lighting, smiles, tears, cheers, 3 all-nighters and major exhaustion and it all came together.  The wait to have them back from print was nerve wracking.  I'd never used this printer before.  To my delight, they arrived three days early and looked fantastic!!!

Me!  Back Cover Girl

Monday 22nd December saw us having the Kooralbyn Kollective 2015 Calendar Launch Party.  Cheryl from Australian Mortgage Brokers sponsored the drinks, and Valley kitchen the nibbles.  There was a local lad playing an acoustic set for some great background music and we even had Santa join us and get some photos with the kids.  The place was full, lively, loud and, best of all positive!!!  The feedback from the calendar has been just amazing.  It's brought a real positive streak to this hideaway country town, and I just can't wait to see what fate has in store to come.  Yes.... I do say that with fingers crossed, eyes closed chanting "a trip to...".  There's two endings to that sentence, and two people who know them both...

xx

 

Calendar Girls & Guys & Santa at the Launch Party

PS - There's more to come.  I'll be posting profiles and pics for each month as I edit images so watch this space!

PPS - You can also buy the calendar!!  It's only $6 plus postage.  Just visit www.scarletharlotte.com and click on the Kooralbyn Kollective 2015 Calendar link.

About Time

It's been a while since my last post. When I saw that it was back in October, my first thought was geez I've been slack. There are some very good reasons though. It's currently well past 2am, on what I guess now is Christmas eve so I won't elaborate too much. I will though, dear reader, let you in on a peek at what has been my life for the past 2 and a bit months.  

Burngate
As you may or may not be aware, I am just about the most accident prone person in existence. If there's an accident waiting to happen, I'm the one it's happening with. Four days after my last blog post, I went above and beyond, and managed to outdo anything I've done before. I was cooking a stir-fry (oh.... yeah if you're squeamish at all, you might want to skip a few paragraphs) in my rather massive wok, and had the oil all nice and smoking hot, as you do when cooking a stir-fry. Especially when it's on an electric stove (groan). Admittedly, I did put more oil in than I would normally have done. Not a huge lot, but I generally use very little in a stir-fry. As I put the meat in from its packet, it kind of came out in an unexpected lump, and fell at the side of the wok, instead of closer to the middle. By now, you probably know what's coming next. The wok tipped with the weight of the meat on the side, and the hot oil was flung from wok, to me. As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, I had just gotten out of a bath, and popped on my favourite little satin chemise for the night (I've mentioned my lingerie obsession, right?). The satin and smoking hot oil combination really isn't a good one. I won't go into the really gory details. All I will say is I'm very glad my bathroom is right next to my kitchen so I could run for the shower. A month's worth of hospital visits later, including the burns ward at Royal Brisbane, and I was able to leave the super special silver-laced dressings behind. It's been a bit over a month since that point now, and the healing is going well. I did manage a spot of full-thickness (never one to do something half-way) and the rest was 2nd degree, in splotches from just past my elbow to just above my navel and all bits n pieces in between on my right-hand side. I've been pretty darned lucky to be honest. Nothing of significance on my face or really anywhere I can't cover with a t-shirt. It's now just time to heal, while my "crispy bits", as I have donned them, fade into insignificance. It will be a few months away yet, but all in good time.

 Yes, I am learning patience the hard way.

I kept working through it all, of course. But once the dressings were off, I could dive in again at full function (my shoulder copped the brunt, so editing was a bit tricky and uncomfortable). Sadly, the catalogues I have been designing every 3 weeks for a client have been sent to print-heaven and so that work was no more. As fate would have it though, the local business women's group I am involved in kicked into high gear in that very same week. I'll save the details for my next post, but I have spent the last 5 weeks shooting, designing, editing, promoting and celebrating a calendar for the group.

 I've been a very busy gal!!

 I also finally got around to making www.scarletharlotte.com a living, breathing, thing today. You should definitely check it out, and share far and wide.

Until next time, here's a bit of an arty image I shot when I was all patched up with dressings. It's a bit of a multiple-meaning storytelling arty thing. Just like me I guess!