Catching up in Melbourne.

Yikes. I feel like I should reintroduce myself. Nah. That would take too long! But here's a nugget. I've always struggled to adequately gauge what's coming at me on my calendar, and this past 6 weeks? Whoa. LIFE is good, but it's been busy lately and I kinda think I should maybe even apologize for suggesting that I would have a FREE classroom up in a few days, ha! 

I'm in Australia. Melbourne to be exact and it's absolutely LOVELY. Above, is the group hug that I requested before leaving for the airport. I'm here with Close To My Heart and I'm ONE DAY AWAY from unveiling the first product of hopefully many in the new Story By Stacy line. I'm putting finishing touches on my two presentations today and then I'm going exploring in this great city. If you're one who doesn't prefer Mondays, then you'd like my week so far, because there was no Monday. I left Spokane Sunday afternoon and arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday morning, just before 7:00am. Crazy! The first day after a flight like that, the goal is to simply stay awake! We all took a free trolley ride around the city to see a few sites. We got off once or twice and I ended up at the NGV Triennial which was amazing. Four floors of art exhibits from over 100 artists and designers in 32 countries. There were traditional paintings, plus film, sculpture, furniture, fabric, virtual reality, and a host of other oddities in a dozen different mediums that I'm not quite sure how to classify. I LOVED it. Yesterday, included a delicious buffet breakfast and yummy lunch and several hours of convention prep, so after a lot of sedentary, I headed out on a walk to revisit one of the parks we passed on the trolley. It was dusk and it felt SO GOOD to move. I walked for several blocks and then crossed the street and entered the park, where the people and bustling sounds of the city gave way to an astonishing volume of nature noises created by birds and insects and then I turned the corner and took in this beautiful scene ...

These trees. I literally walked up to one and just put my hand on the trunk as if I could feel it's spirit or something. They are SO majestic and I can't even imagine the things they've seen as this city has grown up around them. And then it dawns on me, these are the famous Moreton Bay Fig trees, like the ones I recently photographed on Kauai. I'M IN AUSTRALIA. How on earth did I get here and why am I so lucky and how is the world brimming with so much beauty and diversity and well, I just stood there, me and all my feels. 

Then, I remembered what I had in my backpack ... my NEW so-exciting book by Leah Rosenberg, who's fan girl I am. Leah by the way is one of the primary collaborators on Color Factory, in San Francisco, that I visited a few months back but I digress ...

The Color Collector's Handbook  is what I would describe as the offspring of a travel journal and swatch book. You take it with you and you find the colors inside and when you find a color in your surroundings, you get to name it and write about it and then if you find it again, there's room to note that again (and again.) So, anyway, I remembered that I had my color journal in my trusty orange backpack and I pulled it out and began flipping through the pages. My first thought was to find the gorgeous gray of the fig tree trunk, but then I began to see green. Of course GREEN. This glorious dusky green—everywhere—it's number 71 in the book and I've officially named it Treasury Park, because, that's where I was and can't you just imagine standing in the paint aisle and reading the name Treasury Park? I can. What a great name! Treasure Park is the color of the pond as the sun went down, the color of the park benches, lamp posts and garbage cans, the color of the darker leaves on the Moreton Bay Fig tree and I even found it featured in the tail feathers of the very playful ducks that gathered around as I sat ever so still on one of those park benches. 

Ah! Life and color and exploration and YOU. Thank you for reading this. Thank you for your patience as I approach 53 and discover that I'm not willing to stay up all hours of the night to meet self-imposed deadlines.  I am so thrilled to still be able to do what I love. To document and create and teach. I'm excited to show (and tell) you more about what's coming soon. 

Have a wonderful day. 
Get out and do something. Go somewhere, because you can. And, by all means, order Leah's book and start SEEING color and naming it. 
Be happy and grateful and productive.