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…
David stole my camera from me this afternoon and turned it around on me – the cheek! I am usually the one all safe behind the lens, the behind-the-scenes chicky making other people look their best, so having the camera up my nose for a change was completely unnerving! I didn’t even know what to do with myself and I thought, is this is what I put people through every time I take their picture? hahaaaaa I am so sorry!! (not really) haahahaaaa
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE these David – thank you so much! I mean, would you just look how lovely and ’stretched out’ you made me look! Noice! xox
I love it when people inspire me. Most of the time, they have no clue that they’re actually doing it. But I tell you, the feeling that consumes my insides when inspiration strikes is a total rush – I love it; I crave it; I need it in my life. Although so much inspires me, I don’t usually think of myself as the one inspiring others so seeing this writeup by Loise on Aussie Scrap Source this morning was awesome – thanks Loise! I am so glad that something I did prompted a spark of inspiration within you! xox
That’s what it’s all about hey. Inspiring each other. Getting the juices flowing.
To see some more of Loise’s AMAZING creative juices, (and I mean, you will DIE at how amazing she is) visit her personal website here. To see more of her Aussie Scrap article featuring moi, go here.
I was also happy to see Shriners Hospital for Children using some of my Kelly-Rae inspired art for their holiday cards this year. It makes me so happy when others enjoy my creations.
To see the other e-cards made from my art or to donate to Shriners, feel free to visit here. I love Shriners, my children get exceptional care there and, it’s free. Shriners have been like angels to me. While we struggled to figure out ways to pay mounting medical debt in the US, Shriners were like this amazing beacon of hope for us giving the children care without the worry of a bill at the end of each visit. Thank you Shriners! xox
Now, here is what is inspiring me personally today:
1. City and Colour’s facebook photos – I love them! Especially this one. I don’t know who the photographer is, but I find this picture thoroughly inspiring. I love ev-er-y-thing about this photograph. EV-ER-Y-THING.
And get this, my friend Ryan took this picture of Haun’s Hill Massacre recently – it was his first pro still-photo shoot (he is a filmographer and usually works with moving images – he is making the transition into still images look so easy!) His composing skills put mine to shame! I am so inspired by this picture and him!
2. I haven’t been able to stop listening/watching this: Montserrat Caballe “Casta diva” at the Thèatre Antique d’Orange. July 20th, 1974. I find this performance completely mesmerizing in not only her vocal perfection, but the enchanting way the breeze brings the whole stage to life. Beautiful. (Just listen to that crowd roar at the end.)
3. And lastly, I have been inspired a lot lately by David, my friend with the beeeeeautiful tenor voice (he is currently with WA Opera). He has also begun giving me classical singing lessons (brave man!) and has been on the other end of my lens quite a lot this week. Here are some of my favorites:
(As you can see, we’ve been having a bit of fun – haha)
So has anything inspired you this week? If so, please share! Maybe it will inspire me too!
Love Jaz
xox
Our days of late are spent with friends – both old and new – basking in the wonders that are Australia and singing lessons for me.
Fifi is a lover of sand, just like her mumma. I can’t wait to show her my secret shell beach near mums later this week. Meanwhile, my little guy has gone back to America after two wonderful weeks with us here – I miss you already Isy-Spicey! I love you love you love you!
xox
I had a dream last night where I found an old, faceless and picture-less painting that I had apparently created when I was a teenager. I knew that I had made it, and yet had no recollection of ever doing so. At the bottom of the picture was a scrap of twisted sticky-tape, stuck there on one corner. In my dream, I reached out and pulled the tape away and it accidently tore the painting open. Although it didn’t look like it, the painting was not on one piece of paper, but actually two pieces somehow joined together and on the inside, between the two pages, the corner of a crisp white envelope revealed itself.
I thought, “that’s odd, I don’t remember doing that. I don’t really remember any of this.”
I was intrigued.
I tugged the envelope out through the tear and saw that, amoungst other random words my subconscious placed there which I can no longer recall, my name was written on the front. It said:
To Jasmine Bailey
To open in ten years.
My first thought was that I must have written myself this letter in highschool, but the handwriting wasn’t mine. It was my fathers distinct left-handed messy cursive. But I could tell he tried to do it very neatly. He had made special effort to do his best writing. This letter was obviously important to him and my heart thumped loudly at the massive discovery I had just made – especially since dad had died more than six years ago now.
This was like finding a treasure chest.
I turned the envelope over in my hands and just as I was about to open it, I was teleported into my gay friends presence and I was asking him in a half joking way if he would have intimate relations with a female for $50,000 and enjoy it – he was gagging and clearly wanted to change the topic. ”There ain’t no money honey…”
Well, that’s dreams for you. Odd random things they are, jumping here and there and everywhere.
I wonder what that letter from dad would have said? I woke up disappointed this morning that I never found out.
Love Jaz
xox
(By Jasmine Bailey-Barfuss; starring Jasmine and David; Photos by my 9 yr old niece who we discovered really, really, really LIKE-likes my new b.f.f. – bless)
I have a BFF and his name is David.
Yes that’s right, The David Woodward – you’ve heard of him? The beautiful Tenor with a voice so warm he could melt the polar icecaps?
Yep, that’s him.
The guy with high notes so dreamy he could bring even the coldest of hearts to tears?
Yuh-huh, that’s the guy.
With a smile so inviting it could stir the masses into spontaneously hugging each other and, ultimately, inspiring world peace? (It is one of his many super powers.)
Yes sirree! That’s David and yes, he is that powerful.
And cute.
And wonderful.
And I am so in love.
The Blissful Happy Gooey Kind of Love. You know, the kind where you just can’t get enough of every little thing that comes out of that person’s mouth? (Especially when they’re singing?) The kind where they could have a big huge yellow pimple on their swollen chin and it wouldn’t even matter? (Not that he of course would ever have a pimple on that beautiful face of his – but if he did, I swear I wouldn’t even notice!)
And whether he wants it or not, he is most certainly my new bestest-estest friend.
Forever.
I mean, how could I not want to be surrounded by his creative genius and cute eyelashes. It was like love at first sight when I saw him standing there, waiting for his turn to sing at WACO rehearsals the other day (it was as if my sub conscious screamed, ‘this man will be fabulous for your self esteem Jasmine, you must meet him and claim him for yourself – now!’ But of course my conscious mind didn’t hear that, it just slowly gravitated towards him like an electron zips around the outer edges of an alluring atom) – as it was with my other two men-friends who preferred shopping with me, over making out with me.
It’s quite strange actually, the magnetic pull that presents itself just a few times in a lifetime – the pull that drags you to a person even if you are kicking and screaming trying to run the other way. The pull that dragged me to JB in the lunch-line in the cafeteria at Brigham Young University in 1995 – the second we found out that both South Africa and Australia have both vegemite and milo, we were fabulous friends for life; the pull that dragged me to the eccentric and passionate deep-thinker JC in 2000 – the second I heard his booming laugh, I new that I wanted his laughter in my life for the rest of my life; you know that pull that only happens a handful of times? I can count on about six fingers the amount of times I have made an instant bff – the kind that just clicks perfectly like a missing piece to your puzzle, at very first contact – and I can recall vividly the moment each of them entered my life.
And changed it, for the better.
One thing I have recently rediscovered (and my parents knew from birth) is that my personality is the type that craves, well, umm, how do I say this… attention. Maybe its just vanity, maybe I just like to be called ‘Pumpkin’, but I think that people who think that I am fabulous are, well, absolutely positively unbelievably fabulous too!!!
Sigh.
I like friends. I miss friends. Why am I living in America again? She wonders quietly to herself. I have so much a history here, so many more special friends than I ever truly realized. And now I’m making special new ones and it feels so good! Will I ever make friends in America? Am I too confrontational, too independent and non-conformist?? Maybe it will just take more time… maybe… maybe I just need to get out more in America… maybe…
As my new friend and my niece took turns serenading us with their musical voices, I sighed a happy contented sigh and thought, life is good.
I am grateful for good friends. (Especially the kind with big muscles that carry my heavy shopping bags whilst Christmas shopping in the city yesterday.)
Grin.
Love Jaz
xox
Our Talented Photographer, my niece:
Today was a difficult day.
Every now and then I am reminded with sharp clarity that my children do indeed have muscular dystrophy, and that their lives only get more difficult with time rather than better or easier. Trying to shop with them in Ikea today triggered the reality of our lives to come rushing in at full force. It was a painfully slow and exhausting experience. And it is not something most people can relate to, which in turn gives me a strong sense of aloneness in my sorrow and worries, which is intensified by not being able to talk about my worries and fears to a kind and understanding ear.
I guess that’s what shrinks are for – paying someone to HAVE to listen; guaranteeing that kind and understanding ear.
Sigh.
Oh well.
In all reality it sometimes feels that I am constantly grieving with very few breaks in between old grief and new grief. I don’t know how I do it sometimes, like now, when I feel ever so tired and my eyes are all stingy from tears.
I must say that despite the sorrows that I wear hidden deep (and sometimes not so deep) inside, I am glad to be back in The Sunburnt Country. I walked across the road this morning and took this picture at Floreat Beach. I love the blue skies and blue waters of Australia, and I love the white sandy beaches that go on forever.
And the children are loving it here too.
Jaz
xox
PS This kitty here is my brothers spoilt kitty who ONLY eats posh kitty food – you know the marinated chicken kind in the posh silver cans (he literally walks out in a huff if Whiskers is offered – WTFudge mate??) – and his name is Sugar and he thinks he is a princess – this is for you Ti-Pea :)
Thank you all for entering my glooart design giveaway!! We had so many responses and sales as a result, and it made me feel like a legend – thank you!!! And the winners are: Fran (from my blog) and Debi (from Emilies blog).
CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Email me at jasmine@glooart.com with your contact details Fran (I already have Debi’s).
Here is what you have won!
Fran:
Debi:
Thank you so much for entering my glooart jewelry giveaway. Now I am back in civilization I can post you your goodies!
Jaz xox
PS Any Perth friends who need last minute Christmas gifts, I bought I whole bunch of jewelry with me – just let me know!
Jet lag is interesting *yawn* Sitting here at 10:30pm at night, I feel like it’s almost dawn *yawn* My eyes are crossing and my mind is fogging over, but I have so much that I want to tell you! *big juicy yawn* So much has happened in the last three days since arriving in my home town of Perth, like, singing in the WA Charity Orchestra again (Donna and Sam did such a wonderful job pulling that together to raise more funds for Princess Margaret Hospital for Children – charity of which my children are direct recipients – thank you), seeing my family and making more friends than I did this whole last year in Utah – in only three days!
I know, crazy right?
But, because I can barely think straight or see straight at the moment, I want to just take a moment to say, “Goodbye beautiful Hawaii, I loved you, you loved me, you will always have a special place in my jet lagged heart…”
(Wow, I actually fell asleep waiting for that picture to upload)
“And uh, what was I saying, oh yeah – HELLO PERTH!!!”
xox
I tell no fibs, cross my heart and swear to die – we swam here yesterday and today and it was divine! (And only two minutes from where we are staying – choice bra!) I had to bring my camera today so I could share this amazing place with you! The pictures don’t quite capture how HUGE and SHEER those lush rock faces are. It feels like they are as high as the sky when you’re swimming in the water. BREATH-TAKING. AH-MAZING!!!
The water is so warm here, so easy to swim in, so nice :D And then we came home to this afterwards – so perdy:
I had fun taking a few pictures today and Phoenix had fun off-roading it in her walker. We met the loveliest guy with no teeth selling coconuts by the side of the beach. His grand-nephew thrice removed (or something) is a lot like Phoenix. The lady at the bar in the restaurant told me the same thing about her nephew too – turns out they were talking about the same kid. They are all related. Happiness!
Over lunch Phoenix enjoyed putting her hamburger baby to ’sleep’ rather than eating it. (Playing with it is soooo much funner! And when it broke in two there were no tears – it became two babies!!)
I love my little girl.
I-LOVE-KAUAI.
(And I’m pretty sure this is going to be the only picture of me here. Did you ever realize with sudden clarity that you have actually put on thirty pounds? That the scales are not actually lying – that you really have eaten that much chocolate? Mmm. Me too.)
Love Jaz
xox
PS As soon as we reach civilization (ie a town with a post office) Phoenix and I will draw the winner of my jewelry giveaway – stay tuned, and good luck!!
Kauai loves my hair. For starters. In Utah my hair did this fuzzy limp frizz thing – very unflattering. If I ever wanted it to look NOT White Trash I would have to spend upwards of half an hour working with it! I simply do not have that kind of time to spend on myself on an average day.
So, (she shrugs), I go White Trash most of the time. And it doesn’t make me feel super good about myself.
Here in Kauai however, it does this curl thing that I love and it takes no time at all to achieve! I just brush it after my shower (when I actually shower) and let it, well, air-dry, pretty much. I might add a tiny bit of product as it’s drying, or if I’ve been for a swim the salt is product enough, and I end up with no fuzz, just volumous lovely curls.
Kauai loves my hair.
*smile*
And I love Kauai for loving my hair! Thank you sweet Kauai!
Kauai also loves my feet! You would think with all this walking on the sand and wearing flip-flops all day that it would mean painful cracked heals for me, but no! There is so much moisture in the air that my skin never gets dry enough to crack! Nice!
My skin needs less than half the Arbonne that Utah demands of it.
Utah is not friendly on my skin or my hair. In fact, I wonder if Utah likes me at all! Me and Utah have not had a great year this year… Utah is a dry, moisture-sucking place and a little whisper inside of me keeps saying, Pssst! Jasmine! Don’t go back there! Stay here! Figure out a way to live here forever somehow – go on, you can do it! Look at your fabulous hair! It will be well worth it, you know it will! Maybe you could even take up surfing like your brother Jeremy! Think of how fit and fab you will be in no time with all that paddling five miles to catch one wave!
And you know, I would bet my right eyelashes (something I regard very highly indeed as they curl much better than the left) that the locals here on Kauai don’t need to reticulate their gardens. INFACT, I would bet MY ENTIRE SET (right AND left) that even the farmers don’t! You should see this place. Warm rain falls from the sky one minute then the next it is sunny-as. And it’s always warm here, even in ‘winter’. Imagine having a veggie patch here – rain then sun, rain then sun, rain sun rain sun rain sun. The vegetables would be in veggie heaven! Their day’s jam-packed with moistness and warmth, with a growing season lasting all year.
And The Citrus love it here too. They look soooo green and healthy and plentiful – unlike the starving citrus in our water-restricted garden in Perth whose leaves always looked a dry faded green, curled at the edges and whose fruit grew sparingly with little juiciness.
When I worked here ten(ish) years ago on the film Testaments, I fell in love with Kauai. It was real love I tell you and it left me with a strong desire to end up here one day, as a resident. Yes, I have always wanted to live here. My heart was captured and taken hostage by the green mountains with waterfalls; the vines creeping up light posts and power lines; coconuts and chickens, everywhere; gardens so lush and colourful my mouth watered (and I modelled my own garden after in Perth); little one-lane winding roads with the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other; tiny towns; the sound of the waves everywhere you go on the island; green things growing right up to the shore line; fish that glow-in-the-dark; giant sea turtles in the randomest of places (well, not that random, not like the chickens)… the List of Love goes on and on.
Years and years later, I still want to move here above any other place I have ever visited in the whole entire galaxy.
Here, let me help you understand why:
Maybe I could move here? Maybe I really could?? I am my own boss after all. Right? Being separated from my husband means that I can make my own decisions, right???
Hmm.
Except that we have two children together who love their father more than life itself and like to see him all of the time and vice versa.
Suck.
Poop.
Pity Party here in Kauai right now. Wah. Woah is me, woah is me…
While I love that they love their daddy and he loves them, sometimes I just wish that I could do whatever I wanted. Wah.
Tatty-Tantrum.
(Note to single [and only] sister Candy: once you are married and begin spawning, you no longer get to do whatever you want, so live it up now while you can! While you have no one you have to ask permission from to have an adventure and no ultra-important responsibilities that you will suck if you neglect! [like kiddies])
xox
