Hot Chip, Sydney and a wedding cake count down

March could be my busiest month yet. There are five sleeps til my brother Zachary's wedding and I've been baking cake layers after work for the past week and a bit. The cake itself is done and in the freezer, which leaves me this week to practice icing (I'm going to try Swiss meringue buttercream for the first time!) and get everything organised to go to Sydney. I'm happy with my progress but have real moments of stress, especially because there's only so much you can do before the day. Thankfully I know people who have done it before (including Le who does it professionally!) who have been sharing their tips and helping me make good choices :)

One of the highlights of the last fortnight have been seeing Hot Chip - we bought last minute tickets to their show in Canberra, which was also our 12 year anniversary. We chose one of their songs for wedding dance so it felt like the best way to celebrate. They are so fun live.

Because I've listened to their music for more than 10 years there were some surprises too. They opened with a song I listened to constantly when I going through a rough patch in Wagga Wagga. There was a big restructure happening at work and Tony was away from home a lot for art fairs and residencies. The song is extremely upbeat and it used to trick me into thinking I had more energy than I did at the time. They also played songs I listened to before I met Tony, when I was at uni and going to see bands every other weekend. It felt like most big moments of my life were covered across their songs.  And in some ways, it was a very Canberra gig - at one point we were dancing right next to a barista from a favourite cafe, a guy from our yoga studio and the newsreader from my work 😆

It's a long weekend in Canberra  and we spent part of the weekend in Sydney, a super fast trip that was also super fun. Tony had a painting collected by Artbank last year and it was in an exhibition as part of Art Month Sydney. It's a work he made after Donald Trump was elected in 2017, which goes a way to explain some of its intensity. He called it 'Not enough blue to hold it down' and it's always been a favourite of mine. Artbank leases work to businesses, so I'm so excited to see where this one ends up.

My uncle had invited us to stay in his apartment in the city, a generous offer that came at just the right time. We both have a bit of travel coming up in March and were trying to work out if we could afford to go to Sydney for the exhibition opening when he texted to say it was empty and we were welcome. Being in town that weekend almost meant we could join a birthday dinner at my friend Angie's house, which was epic!

It was the ultimate menu for a rainy night. She made pici in a ragu sauce (I've pinched the recipe and often make it for new parents, it's so good), gnocchi in a creamy truffle sauce, cacio e pepe, an eggplant melanzane with smoked mozzarella, followed by a giant choc chip cookie with malt ice cream for dessert. We went home with full bellies and hearts - it's always so nice just to be in the same room as my friends, especially as it's been close to 10 years since we lived in Sydney.

Because it was still raining on Sunday, we decided to take it easy on the drive home. We had coffee in Surry Hills (this place is so great!), bought some bread from Bourke St Bakery, moseyed through book shops before heading home. It's extra nice to have a Monday off to catch up on sleep and tinker around with some cake things.

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Popping up in Tony's iPad drawings

I am forever using my phone to take photos of my everyday life, from yummy meals to weekend adventures and baking successes but I can't remember the last time Tony took a photo with his phone. Instead, he prefers to draw things he has seen and wants to remember.

The Archibald Prize

It's been a crazy two weeks in our house ever since Tony was named a finalist in the 2015 Archibald Prize. It's a huge achievement, being one of Australia's most recognised and celebrated art prizes and we've just come back from Sydney where the exhibition was launched. Here are a few snaps from a very exciting trip:

Tony entered a portrait of our friend Luke Grealy in the prize and the pair spent two days at the Art Gallery of New South Wales attending a bunch of different events, from an artist and sitters lunch to the all-important announcement of the winner. I snuck in some family time before the opening party on Friday night.

It felt like a proper celebration, with fancy lighting, a paint-splattered red carpet and waitstaff in bow-ties. We had six tickets all up - two for us, two for Tony's sitter Luke and his wife Moyra (who works with me at the ABC) and Tony saved the last two as a surprise for his father's birthday, which was the next day :)

Tony's painting is the very first on the right as you enter the exhibition. It was so exciting to walk into a gallery that I've been visiting since I was a child, where my parents took me to see everything from surrealism exhibitions to Renoir, only to see my husband's painting on display.

Moyra made a snap-decision to buy the painting of her husband at Tony's exhibition closing party a few months ago but won't see it for about a year because after the Archibald exhibition wraps up in Sydney, it'll go on a tour of regional Australia.

While the opening night was pinch-me great (Annabel Crabb was there and we chatted with artists whose work I've long admired - Richard Bell was the first person I met!) it's been some of the more personal celebrations that have been the most memorable.

I threw a surprise party for Tony the night of the Archibald finalists were announced and had friends and neighbours help to hide the booze and cheese around town to keep things under wraps. My parents had a special lunch for Tony and my extended family showed up to celebrate, and our friends Angie and Dave busted open a special bottle of whiskey and had us stay for the weekend.

And after driving close to 3000 kilometres in a few short weeks, we arrived home in Wagga Wagga last night and went straight to our friend Tim and Sophie's house for a home cooked dinner, baby cuddles and a very special bottle of wine.

I love that Tony entered a painting of our friend Luke who has been so generous and welcoming ever since we arrived in Wagga Wagga over four years ago. Both Luke and Moyra have shown us how to contribute and be part of a community that has been so supportive of us both. It's felt like the town has been right behind Tony and his Archibald news in these last few weeks.

If you'd like to see the show, it'll be on display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until September 27. My sister says she'll take my gorgeous niece to the city for the first time to see her uncle's work on display, which warms my heart. I can't wait to buy the catalogue :)

A huge shared milestone

Over the weekend Tony completed his PhD in Fine Art and it felt huge, exciting and surreal. It ended in the best possible way, with a party to celebrate the final days of his exhibition Stay, which was three years in the making.

To celebrate, both sets of parents came to stay, along with some close and new friends from Sydney. It felt very festive and in between portrait sittings and big family meals out, there was also horse riding and afternoon teas. I hardly took any photos but thankfully my friend Angie did!

A proud owner photographs her new painting :)

While Tony's exhibition at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery has been extended and will remain open this week, Sunday marked the end of his residency in the space, where he has been drawing anyone who booked in for an hour long portrait sitting. All up he drew 222 portraits in 43 days.

I loved seeing the drawings as they popped up on Facebook, Instagram and Flickr, and because most of his sitters were from Wagga Wagga, it became a bit of a guessing game. It was lovely to see so many of our friends change their Facebook profile pictures over to Tony's drawings as the show progressed. My friend Amy even wrote about her experience of sitting for a portrait on her birthday.

It's been a busy few months and we've welcomed lots of visitors who came to see Tony's show and take part in the exhibition, some even travelled from Sydney for the day. It was particularly busy for Tony who drew six days a week and taught at university on his day off. He also boldly decided to skip lunch on his drawing days, so he could fit the maximum of six sitters per day.

I booked in to sit on the first and last day of the show and was the final sitter of the project. I didn't know what to wear for my second sitting, having observed lots of fun outfits and strong poses over the last two months, and I asked Tony if he had any suggestions. He suggested a dress I bought years ago and wore at our wedding, which I was nervous about but posed in. 

I love the final drawing, it's my most considered sitting yet and felt more like a collaboration. Most of the time I've been drawn in coffee shops whilst reading, or at home in my not-so-cute pyjamas!

A lot has happened in the three years that Tony's been working on his PhD, he's had three solo exhibitions, a residency at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, been hung in the Salon de Refuses and been a finalist in the Brett Whitley Travelling Art Scholarship. We've also been engaged and married, become an aunty and uncle, gone overseas and lived apart so we could work in Canberra and Sydney.

On Saturday night at the closing event I loved looking around the gallery and recognising people who had been drawn, along with all of our Wagga friends who came to celebrate the show and our family and friends from Sydney who travelled to support Tony. It was such a proud moment.