art appreciation

It makes me feel so good when recipients of my art love it!  At the end of last year I painted mum a picture of her and dad (steve and viv) in my version of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss.  This was them way back when they were first married – when dad still had hair and mum wore a long braid and seeing it framed like this made my week!  (And hers too I think :)

a to zion commercial for Saint George Utah

Here are some images from a commercial I did hair and makeup on about a year ago.   It was a really fun crew and a beautiful location – St George Utah.  These pics are from my friend and director Matthew McClellands Krop Site.  Check out his amazing work either at Krop or www.amenat.com.  He seriously rocks.

Matt and his team also created the amazing new St George site – it blows my mind.  Go take a look.

jasmine’s got a new groove

I woke up this morning to the gentle touch of tiny inquisitive hands exploring my new dreaded head.  When I walked in the house last night after a day in the dread chair at Weird Sistas in Fremantle, Phoenix squeeled: “Oh wooOOoooow mummy!  You look so booooooodiful!”  Bless her precious little heart ♥  She makes my heart warm with her sweet compliments.  Then this morning while I slept on mums couch (my home for the last few weeks of my stay here) Phoenix came out to explore my new hair.  ”It feel nice and sofff” she whispered :)

As we say goodbye to the land down under by having our final swim at Quinns Beach, I say hello to my fourth nose ring (much to my mums despair haha – I took out my last one when Isis was a baby 7 years ago [I cant remember why exactly]) and a head covered in dread locks woohoo!

I had a great day at Weird Sistas – they have a wonderful vibe, and I got to hang out all day with Emily and her boooodiful squishy-bummed babe as Emily had her dreads neatened at the same time!

I LOVE the Weird Sistas!  I love the aromatherapy that met me as I walked through their door, I love their quirky stories and the sound of their laughter, I love the bright colours and uniqueness of their studio – and I love their Barbie-Art! Very, very clever!  I couldn’t stop taking photos at the marvelous “Barbaric” creations adorning the far corner of the room.

xox

wedding + hot february day

I spent today capturing Eli + Tamra’s special day in the dripping heat that is February in Australia.  And what a beautiful day it was, despite the sweat beading on our brows and trickling beneath our clothes.  The ceremony was on the beach and it took all of my will power not to sprint right into the sparkling water, clothes and all!

Tonight, as I stretched out my sore muscles from my very first ever rugby game two nights ago, I had a quick look at what I snapped today and this lovely pic of Tamra jumped out at me.  I thought I would share :)  I hope you like her makeup, because I did that too :)

xox

Nine to Seven With Loralee

A day in the life of blogger, mother, singer and all-a-round nutter, Loralee Choate.

Written and Photographed for LP Creative Humans Magazine by Jasmine Bailey-Barfuss, author of www.glooart.com

Perhaps the author who penned the words, “You can only complain of a hurt so many times, then you have to be better, whether you are better or not.” is right. Perhaps it’s cultural expectation. It’s how we are trained from birth. I mean, who of us actually answers truthfully when asked, “How are you today?”  We are a culture of plastic facades; of pain-killers and anti-depressants; of appearing to be strong on the outside while melting down on the inside.  My mother said to me today that if everyone stopped lying, our whole society would crumble.  And perhaps she is right.  But there is one voice out there that dares speak it – the truth that is – and it is like a breath of fresh air to hear:  Her name is Loralee Choate.

And I got to follow her around for a day.

Having the opportunity to be a fly on her wall (with my camera in hand) presented me with a unique opportunity to see what life was really like behind her popular blog ‘Loralee’s Looney Tunes’.

And what I saw was just like her blog: pretty darn real, and pretty darn not-ordinary. She’s also just…darn pretty, but not in a Barbie way. She is uniquely Loralee; an original unlike any other.  She is very down-to-earth and can wear pajama pants to shop at WalMart, yet also remains a diva through and through.  When she needs to pop out to get her morning wake-up Diet Coke from the local gas station, she simply pulls her hair back, whacks on some lippie and voila! In two seconds she is transformed from bed-head-stay-at-home-mom to hot babe with no effort at all.

As I walked into her cluttered but pretty kitchen, a lone vase of flowers sat in the center of her empty stainless steel table – a reminder of her difficult and emotional anniversary the day before my visit.  It marked the sixth anniversary of the death of Loralee’s four-month-old son, Matthew to SIDS.

But today her face is brave.

She’s survived, “barely…it was really touch and go there for a long, long time”, and with each day her newborn son, Aaron, grows older and stronger. Loving eyes watch him day and night. When I arrived at 9am, a bleary-eyed Loralee was saying goodbye to her mother. Loralee watches over Aaron every night until 3 or 4 am. Then her husband, Jonathan takes over until her mother comes so she can help with the children and Jonathan can get ready for work. It is a family tag-team event each day to help prevent the pain of their past tragic loss from ever happening again. “I know it may be futile and that we can’t keep up watching him around the clock forever, but Aaron is just the age Matthew was when he died and well…it’s what we have to do right now so that we can all keep breathing through the anxiety and fear.”

I find myself thinking that I would do the exact same thing in her position.

Many of her blog followers know the pain of losing a child or, as in my case having sick children, and in a strengthening kind of way, we band together in fellow bloghood; our shared pain and creativity being the bond that brings us together – hoping to rub off a little joy and gladness into each others sometimes dark lives along the way.

“The lamest ‘Made-For-TV-Movie’, EVER!“, Loralee jokes and rolls her eyes over her crazy life.  Blissfully white trash one moment, then singing Handel’s Messiah in front of an orchestra in an evening gown the next is normal for Loralee.  There are many facets to this woman – hilarity to be sure, but it is mingled with a serious side that runs painfully deep. One moment you are crying like a baby as she intimately shares some of the darkest moments in her life and in the blink of an eye she can get you laughing until your old caesarean scar pops (I swear I had to check mine after spending the day with her).  You never know what you are going to get with Loralee, but you know it is never going to be dull.

When she spoke about what made her successful and a stand out from so many hundreds of thousands of bloggers out there, she chalked it up to luck, perseverance, and most important – the way she views things. “I have such a wild imagination. Being in my head can be like constant partying like it’s 1999 or like the darkest chapters of Grapes of Wrath with a Dante’s Inferno chaser.  Most people could write adequately about the bigger issues in my life, it’s the little day-to-day stuff that will bite you.  For example: say that I overcooked the carrots for dinner.  If my Vulcan-like husband wrote about it, it would be rather prosaic and short and boring (sorry, honey). “Loralee cooked carrots that were soggy and bland…” he would say, whereas I would make it a PARTY OF WHEEE!!!! and write, “My carrots turned out like flaccid Oompa-Loompa penises that are in desperate need of some produce Viagra so their Willy’s can get Wonking!“ It is still the same conversation, still about carrots, but TOTALLY different. If you can’t make the mundane interesting and put your own personality on it, you probably won’t last long as a personal blogger.”

Her personality is a reason so many follow her blog; why so many want to be a part of her existence: some of us just like the odd laugh, others love the drama-slash-train-wreck that is her life, but for most of us - we can relate to her.  We can relate to her joy and her pain on some level, and we find ourselves cheering for her from the sidelines and biting our nails as she allows us to follow her on a life that often reads like a novel with the kind of twists and turns that are usually reserved for a world outside of the real one in which we live.

As the day went on I thought on several occasions that her life was just begging to be made into a book. “I hear that all the time. The thing is, I feel like that is exactly what I am doing with my blog. It’s the way I write the book of my life. I can do things in segmented blog posts that most accurately portray what and who I am that wouldn’t necessarily work in book form. And since I am hugely fond of the word “rad”, exclamation points, and emoticons, I am perfectly fine with it staying that way.”

More than once I found my jaw dangling down around my chest just listening to her speak and I wasn’t sure that I agreed that she was not cut out to be the star in her own novel. Don’t get me wrong, her days are filled with a lot of what may look like your life and mine, like boredom and tiredness, pajamas and Diet Coke, mothering and being a wife, grocery shopping and sleep deprivation.  But there are also large amounts of passion and intrigue, success and failure, love and loss, guest lecturing for college classes, evening gowns and solo performances, radio interviews, news clips and blogging to an audience of thousands; attending and speaking at conferences and meeting with The White House.

Over lunch with a good girlfriend that Loralee met through her blog and bonded with over the mutual loss of their children to SIDS, we discussed how Loralee’s recent high-risk pregnancy was deemed a pre-existing condition by her insurance, how huge medical bills are, and how utterly broken the current healthcare system is.  Having two children with Muscular Dystrophy myself, I know all too well how dark and dirty the battle for health coverage in America is – a struggle that Loralee bravely talked about on her blog one day.  “I am never political on my blog, but I grew a spine and finally talked about it.”

The discussion sparked the interest of The White House and eventually lead to an invitation for Choate and her husband to visit there with Valerie Jarett, Senior Advisor to the President, just in time for Loralee’s 35th birthday. “It definitely made the horrifyingly large number of candles on the cake MUCH easier to cope with.”

Humbled by her experience, Loralee confessed, “Who would have thought that an often silly, looney, little blog that I started as a promise to a friend in a desperate attempt to keep myself sane after the death of my son could open so many doors?”

I believe her to be beautifully imperfect and perfectly beautiful and it was a pleasure having the opportunity recently to catch a glimpse into her amazingly ‘ordinary’ life.

It made me smile.

Visit Loralees Blog here: Loralees Looney Tunes

Subscribe to LP Creative Humans Magazine here: LP Creative Humans Magazine

Lost Friends…

As I sit here mending my broken heart over lost friends and lost loves, I wonder if I will ever learn how to be a good, true friend.  It hurts so much when friendships fall apart – to the point where I am tempted to just live in my own safe little world, relationship-free, just me and the children….

Meanwhile, back in Utah…

Meanwhile, back in Utah my widdle guy Isis makes his way down Gentle Ben at Beaver Mountain with the help of Common Ground Program Director David Kriner.  ”Pow-Pow” yells David as the two tear into over a foot of fresh powder.  Isis is worried but enjoying the ride, knowing he is in safe hands.  Way to go kiddo!  I am so proud of you!

Common Ground Outdoor Adventures‘ mission is to provide life-enhancing outdoor recreational opportunities for youth and adults with disabilities. They provide adaptive equipment and support, which enable people with disabilities to participate in outdoor recreation alongside their peers. These experiences reduce stereotypes, raise awareness, and empower people to realize their full potential.

I ♥ heart ♥ Common Ground.  Thank you for giving my son an AWESOME day!!!

Meanwhile, here in sunny Australia, we have been collecting mermaid sea-shells and making mermaid tails!

xox

on the road again and sleeping under the milky way…. ahhhhh

We’re back on the road again, sleeping in a 4wd camper and going wherever the wind blows us.  As I looked up at the sky after putting Phoenix to sleep the other night at Emu Point (which is down on the bottom on Western Australia), I could not believe the heavens above.  THERE-WERE-SO-MANY-STARS.  How could I look up at that creamy band of distant stars and galaxies and not start singing “Under the Milky Way toooniiiight……”  quietly to myself and the empty caravan park by the bay.  It was simply breath-taking.  No city lights to dim the stars, no noisy campers, just the universe in all of it sparkling glory.As I took these pictures with a thirty second shutter speed, a car pulled up by me at the beach to have a bit of a quiet session with some mull wrapped in a joint.  I chuckled to myself as I heard them coughing away in their own little world inside the car, blasting some classic Jimmy Barns on the stereo.  Their break lights (it didn’t really light the tree to my eyes) made the trees look bright red with a thirty second shutter.  Very cool!

We’ve also camped out at the Pinnacles.  I really enjoyed that.  The sand at the beach near the Pinnacles Desert is pure bright white (which you wouldn’t guess looking at how yellow the pinnacles are) and is as fine as icing sugar.  But despite it’s fineness, the beaches are very firm to walk on – very easy for Phoenix (and for me).  In fact, if we had stayed there longer, I would have tried having Phoenix walk to the shore in her walker – it is that firm.

I LOVE DRIVING THROUGH OUTBACK AUSTRALIA!  I know it’s not really the out-out-outback (as in the barren red interior), but it’s pretty out!  And I did get lost and have to drive along a red dirt road!  It reeeeally felt like the outback then!  Going both north and south have shown the most beautifully bleached rolling paddocks splattered with native trees and lots of cows and sheep.  I am falling in love with this sunburnt country.  It’s like I have new eyes and are seeing for the first time.

Now we are in Albany – ahhhhh. It is so pretty here.  AND SO MANY SHELLS!  Oh my gosh!  I have to take pictures of our shells!  And yesterday we stumbled across Festival of Perth events happening all the way down here – like this lovely coral reef all knitted and crocheted by a million different gorgeous ladies; a guitar workshop run by a well-know american country singer chick (can’t remember her name but she has gifted hands on that guitar of hers and was quite the character) and craft activities – fun!

Beauty and The Beach

You know when you have one of those days where you are just plain sleep deprived and can barely put two words together?  Today is one of those days.  So instead of tired drivel with a plethora of spelling errors, I thought I would just share these beautiful pictures I took the other day instead :) xox

a beach to one’s self

I love the beach in the evenings just after everyone has left for the day to eat their dinners and rehydrate, or tuck their exhausted but happy children into bed.  You would never know from the smooth look of this windswept beach that just hours earlier hundreds of people crowded it’s shores due to a massive surf life saving competition.  The strong sea breeze this afternoon has smoothed the footprints and four-wheeler tracks in the sand, leaving the quiet beach with a feeling of untouchedness and peace.  The only hint of the days activities is the faint scent of hotdogs still lingering in the air.  Hotdogs mixed with seaweed mixed with salty water occupied my olfactory sensors as I took these images a couple of hours ago at Quinns Beach near mums.  I love the feeling of the ocean wind washing through me; I find it cleansing to my often tormented and slightly cuckoo soul.  I have missed this place - there is almost nothing more relaxing to me than watching a sunset over the ocean, alone.

*bliss*

xox

Put a smile on your dial: Beverly Sills in ‘Pigoletto’ and Renee Fleming singing about numbers :D

having fun in the sun!!!

Geepers creepers I haven’t posted for a while aye!  How slack am I!  You know what it is?  It’s because I knew that I was making you all barf with jealousy over those hawaii pics, so I had to pull back a little hahahaha.  Nah, just kidding ya!  But guess, what?  I have some SERIOUSLY EXCITING NEWS:  Phoenix walked 5 steps ALL BY HERSELF yesterday!!!  She walked from mum to me and back again over and over and over and over – woohoo!  And then today, she stepped away from her walker and started dancing to Hannah Montana!!!  No hands!  Arrrrr!!!  So exciting!!!  I am so proud of my beautiful and very determined little girl.  She is blossoming here in Australia and it has been to wonderful to see. This morning I woke up to her cuddling me in bed – she had her leg and arm across my body and was patting me gently.  What a sweety.  ”I love cuggles” she said quietly, in her whisper voice because I was asleep.  Then she sang a song to herself.

Our journey in Australia so far has mainly been: Enjoying Friendships; treasuring, cultivating and renewing friendships.  I have missed having friends!  I love you all so much!  Australia has also marked the first proper singing lessons for me.  I love the challenge.  I love it when I ‘get it’.  I get frustrated with 32 years of bad singing habits that I have to ‘unlearn’.  But let me tell you, I now have a whole new respect for opera singers – I BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP YOU ALL!!!!  Even the bad ones!  I worship you too because I understand how difficult it is to sing like that and have it sound beautiful now…  

I have also been capturing a lot of images-of-love for friends and old clients…

hee hee little cutie pies.  Phoenix loved playing on their farm SO MUCH!!!  Unfortunately, I have become a little too busy, and long for the feeling of ‘holidaying’ to return.  I’ve had to turn down several photo shoots – which is always hard to do because I love it so much :)

Mmmmm and we’ve also been spending time at the beach *bliss*

Since being in Australia for such a long period of time, I have also taken the opportunity (interestingly) to take note of my hormones and how my mood is affected at different stages of my cycle – holy cow!  I have never, ever done this before and what a nut am I!!  I mean, I knew I was kind of cuckoo, but heck, I am all over the place: happy, sad, horny, angry, hateful, loving, paranoid, trustful – ARRRG!  What a nightmare!!  AB-SO-LUTE NIGHTMARE!!  Today I discovered that just before I ovulate and just after, I think the whole world hates me for one or two days.  Geesh!  Is anyone else like this?  Is it just me?

Psychotically Yours,

Love Jaz

xox

a special world

Laughed = Check. Touched a Sting Ray = Check. Made Phoenix Giggle = Check. Forty Minute Chinese Massage = Check. Kissed on The Hand By a Handsome Man in a Wheelchair = Check. Photographed by My Daughter from an Extremely Low Angle = check.  Today was a good day.

A special world for you and me
A special bond one cannot see
It wraps us up in its cocoon
And holds us fiercely in its womb.

Its fingers spread like fine spun gold
Gently nestling us to the fold
Like silken thread it holds us fast
Bonds like this are meant to last.

And though at times a thread may break
A new one forms in its wake
To bind us closer and keep us strong
In a special world, where we belong.

- Sheelagh Lennon -

Commander Isis

The Warhammer Nerd Gene runs deep in this family.  My husband has it; my son has it; I have it…  And only a true carrier of the gene could make a Halloween costume this cool out of card board.  

Meet Commander Isis, Space Marine.  Bow before the Emperor, or prepare to die in a very bloody fashion…