Glossy Covers: Anthology Issue Three!

Glossy Covers: Anthology Issue Three!

The theme for issue three of Anthology magazine (Spring 2011) is "Life is a party!": now that's a sentiment I'm happy to subscribe to! Aussies can secure their subscription through Magnation. Meanwhile, here's the issue's Vimeo...

Girl With a Satchel

GWAS Notes: A bloggy backlog

GWAS Notes: A bloggy backlog

L to R: Bel, Erin and Kasey from Enhance magazine.

I used to get terribly antsy over being unable to post on a regular basis, setting myself impossible deadlines for updates (those 'Media Musings' posts? They would take FOREVER to compile, as do proper magazine reviews), completely running myself into the ground to achieve them: no sick days, staying up all hours, sometimes no weekends. I am the worst boss (of me) ever.

To cut a LONG-WINDED story (my area of expertise) short, that changed about 12 months ago when I took on extra work at QUT and resolved that if GWAS was meant to be, some of you would graciously hang around while I let it flail away in my absence of screen time. Thankfully, many of you did, though I am aware that GWAS has changed a lot as I've evolved and have found a voice, and content template, more commensurate with my interests, passions and Christian sense and sensibility (and that doesn't sit well with all, but has brought new people along to the party – welcome!).

It is near-on impossible to keep up with the pace of media/magazine news when it is just you and your MacBook and you have to put dinner on or drive to Sydney for your dad's birthday or or attend a photo shoot (like yesterday: more on Enhance magazine to come!) or check out your husband's new horse (see Dan on the SatchelGirl Facebook page) or mark a zillion university papers (okay, 40 or so), let alone get some exercise and sleep and cuddles.

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GWAS Short & Sweet

This morning's reading fare and a posy from a friend.

Yesterday morning, after thumping my way down the stairs in the manner of a petulant two-year-old, I found myself completely and utterly glum. "Lord, please pull me out of this fug!" I pleaded, knowing full well what had conspired to pull me downwards towards this state of despair: me! Instead of stopping, confessing my mistakes, counting my blessings and carrying on, I got busy: a walk, grocery shopping and cleaning. "I don't need you, God, I can get happy myself!"      

My folly never ceases to surprise me. As I desperately wrestled with the feelings – guilt, shame, frustration – and pinpointed the moments that had led to this momentary fall from grace, Husband came to the rescue. "I am a crappy little Christian this morning," I disclosed. "I feel bad, too," he said. He'd been away for the weekend, living his Man From Snowy River dreams, and had returned the previous night with a horse... yes, we now have a horse. Its name is Dan. His name is Jim. If you're familiar with The Man From Snowy River, you will laugh.

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Aesthete: Subtle lilac infusions

Aesthete: Subtle lilac infusions

Country Style magazine, June 2011

House & Garden magazine, June 2011

Inside Out magazine, June 2011

Girl With a Satchel

Glossy Covers: A Slow magazine for a long weekend

Glossy Covers: A Slow magazine for a long weekend

I was smitten with Slow the first time we caught up and can hardly believe this magazine is into its eighth issue and third year of publishing, scooping up an award or two along the way, as I contemplate pawing through it with my hands in mittens this long weekend. 

"Our cover story is all about Sherry McArdle English who has treechanged, only to find a love for truffles, which she produces with the help of her husband and well-trained truffle hound Snuffles," says editor Jacqui Mott. "Yes, Snuffles can sniff out truffles, that's for sure! This is a tale about a dynamic woman who tackles all of life's challenges head-on.

Two stylists have been let loose on the fashion section with a brief to show readers how you can cycle (as in bicycle) in style without donning lyrca; Brendan McCarthy captures Beechworth's old asylum with his camera lens; artist John Woseley is profiled in 'Slow Art'; and stories on London's first slow consultancy and Goolwa, Australia's first CittaSlow town (and the first to be registered by Italy's CittaSlow outside Europe) are in there, too. So I'm told. Sounds like a good one to cuddle up with in the cold.

Girl With a Satchel

GWAS Bulletin Board: Leeloo's "Indie GoGo" Berlin Project

GWAS Bulletin Board: Leeloo's "Indie GoGo" Berlin Project

I love seeing women giving their all to their passions, and Leeloo's Angela D'Alton and Renee Baker are two such ladies making it happen. Much like the Cherry Pick Me ladies, their online creative hub was started with the view to giving exposure to "young people who show talent and need a start, but may not necessarily have the time or skills to do all of the work themselves". 

And now they wish to attend the Hello Etsy conference in Berlin to equip them with the skills and knowledge to help further nurture their growing community. This means funds. If you wish, you can take part "Indie GoGo" funding project by making a financial contribution ranging from $10 to $250, each with its own perk (i.e. win raffle tickets, discounts, art prints and originals). There is also an online auction of the girls' stuff, including vintage clothing, accessories, homewares, books and handbags, happening at eBay, which seems an excellent and fun bartering concept.

Girl With a Satchel

Meet & Greet: Sam, The Felt Pony Maker

Sam Dawson has turned a hobby for hobbyhorse making into a business.

Some girls dream of growing up, meeting a handsome man and living in Paris. Sam Dawson, 26, has lived it. After falling in love with a Frenchman named Jerome, she found herself, at 20, living in a town near Bordeaux for three years. "He was like, 'Would you think about coming back with me?', and I was like, 'France, hmm, that's a tough one!'" she says. 

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Glossy Covers: Dynamic Business

Glossy Covers: Dynamic Business

"I feel the need to do it. It's not a career, it's just a calling. Someone is almost whispering and telling me I have to do this," says Yiying Lu, Dynamic Business magazine's June cover girl and (coincidental) creator of the Twitter 'fail whale' graphic. Lu's story is one of the power of social networking to help you find like-minded people to bring your dreams to fruition. 

The Sydney-based designer has rubbed shoulders with Twitter's CEO and creative directors and Wordpress CEO Matt Mullenweg, created work for Conan O'Brien – who spotted her work on Mashable – and attracted the attention of business investors who've partnered with her to start up Walls 360, which brings art prints to life on giant self-adhesive fabric prints. 

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Beauty Talk: Pastel shades of pale

Beauty Talk: Pastel shades of pale 

Opening Ceremony's Kate Foley and cat Weenie seen @ Refinery 29

The pastel hair trend has now filtered down to the girl on the streets, with every lady and her cat adding a pink or lilac streak. Spare a thought for your nan, says Emma Plant.

It has been a gradual acceptance from our feet and most currently to our hair. What started with dipping our toes into mere puddles of nanna-ish fashion, has led to neo-conservatism of every outfit kind.

Brogues appeared on the catwalk, then on the soles of the fashion opinion leaders; now they step even toddlers and babes. Cardigans of old mixed with leather, sexy pullovers with tweed elbow patches and stockings with ‘Pat’ or ‘Gertrude’ written all over them. This is the cycle: everything old is new, repeat.

Heralding the rebirth of this sweet, Great Gatsby style, the rebelliousness of our current age brings a need to emulate the fashion with an anti-establishment, rock-and-roll edge. Mission accomplished: leather and knit are new BFFs. But now there is much ado with our hair: the ‘cherry on the cake’ of our outfits.

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Media Talk: Practical Parenting editor on new offering, fashion, Today Tonight and breakfast-time stories

Media Talk: Practical Parenting editor on new offering, fashion, Today Tonight and breakfast-time stories

"We've got fashion clients who are interested in us now. In the past they probably didn't associate kids fashion with Practical Parenting, when in fact it's something our readers are really into... In the past, we've been very much a 'how-to' guide. We tell you how to treat your baby for teething problems, fevers or colds or how to get them to sleep. We're still covering that, but we've also broadened our features. In the June issue we've got a story about how birth has changed since your grandmother's day. In the past if you were pregnant, you'd read the pregnancy pages. Now we try to incorporate stories that if you're at any stage in parenting, you'll want to read... Things come up in the news all the time that are very much parenting related. I've done stories on Today Tonight about cafes trying to ban babies and stories on the Bonds Baby Search competition when the mums started turning nasty on each other. There's so many contentious issues within parenting and they often need me to give me an opinion... It would be hard for me to do my job if I hadn't gone through [parenting]. I get inspiration for stories just by what happens at the breakfast table in the morning."

Genevieve Quigley, editor, Practical Parenting, and mother of two, c/o Mediaweek Australia, June 6 2011. Quigley has been editing the magazine since January, overseeing a redesign.

Glossy Covers: Bringing darkness to light

If you've ever spent time around a dinner table with someone who was domineering by nature, meekly having your say in hushed tones beneath your breath, you'd know that it stifles your ability to have your own opinion voiced and heard. While not all of us want or wish to be liked, we at least like to be heard. And if we're not, we're prone to taking that pent-up frustration and unleashing it on our nearest and dearest, others or ourselves.

I can barely imagine the frustration of asylum seekers who act out as they do. And I often wonder what causes people to vent their vitriol online, more particularly under the generic pseudonym "Anonymous", a word that strikes fear in the eyes of your average blogger and which has come to represent the seedy underside of the internet where seething hatred manifests as in the underground tunnels of Afghanistan where the Taliban make their home.

 What's driving the haters to hate, the invisi-bullies to bully, and what can be done to protect those who join online communities to have their say in a rational, thoughtful, web-enhancing way?

Christine Jackman's cover story, 'War of Words', in The Weekend Australian Magazine makes some ground in this regard. Bringing to light some of the nasty, threatening and intimidating comments directed at anti-violence campaigner, media researcher and 2010 Australian of the Year state finalist Nina Funnell, Sky newsreader Jacinta Tynan, advertising executive Sean Cummins, anti-pornography campaigner Melinda Tankard Reist and Kids Free 2B Kids founder Julie Gale, while weaving in her own hate mail experience, Jackman canvasses "cyber-bile", rumour masquerading as fact and the repercussions for those targeted (Cummins contemplated suicide).

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Media Talk: Should tweens blog?

Media Talk: Should tweens blog?

"Blogging is like putting your hand up in class and always being chosen. It's Zuckerberg meets show-and-tell. Writing solely for your teacher is one thing, but blogging with classmates is a pretty cool way to learn to respect others' opinions. And, unlike their luddite parents, they'll have technological literacy embedded in them without realising. Of course, I'm not suggesting they wander alone in cyberspace. Access to their sites must be restricted, password protected and vigilantly monitored. Parents (and teachers) need to teach appropriate ways to interact online, but surely that's as vital in the modern world as learning fractions and road safety."

Angela Mollard, 'Lost in Cyberspace', Sunday magazine, June 5 2011