HOME SWEET CARDBOARD JUNGLE.

Goodness gracious me! What a crazy past week its been.

Mick and I have been hard out on the house hunt for the past few months with very little popping up in our price range that suits our needs. Having only found 2 houses, that clearly didn't work out, we weren't feeling too "glass half full" about the matter. So even with our friend Randy from Germany staying with us after Sydney, we had to keep looking, and against all odds we found a super nifty converted shop online that ticked almost all our boxes. Begrudgingly & without getting our hopes up we got up much too early for tattooists and battled the traffic across town to inspect our potential dream home. To our surprise and delight the house was even more lovely than its photos online, which is so rarely the case. We promptly handed our application forms and dwindling hopes to the real-estate agent and left for work to begin the waiting game. Two days later we got the phone call we had been waiting for and surprise upon surprise, we had been approved and the little converted shop was ours for the taking!

Photos from instagram...

Because I don't know the location of my camera.

This past 4 days we have packed our little victorian cottage, loaded our lives into a removal van, driven across town more than enough times, unloaded our lives into a new house, cleaned our old home to the brink of sterile and watched potential tenants walk through the house where we started our journey as a little family. 

So much has happened in our little house on Roseberry street. Two beautiful fur family members have come into our lives and one has left, we've bickered and we've snuggled, we've become a tight little team under that rickety roof and I may have shed a tiny little tear as we drove away for the last time. But we've outgrown our little 2x1 and we're moving up in the suburban world. 

Bye bye little house! Thanks for everything!

I can't wait to see what adventures our new home will hold. After we clear the cardboard jungle that is.

Kitty xx

WEARY TRAVELING.

I just seem to be getting further and further behind in my blogging. Life just seems to be getting busier by the day, there is just so much going on in my little world. I wouldn't even know how to blog about everything thats been happening lately, but I will share a little about my recent trip to Sydney.

So this year was the 4th annual Sydney tattoo & Body Art Expo. I think I mentioned in an earlier blog that I originally wasn't going to be able to make it but thanks to my superhero boyfriend that situation soon changed around and we were both on a plane to Sydney before we knew it.

Done at the convention.

I always feel that no matter how much preparation I put into an event something will always find a way to come undone. So when orders for business cards went awry although I wasn't completely surprised I did completely loose my cool and turn into a blithering mess of a girl. Thank goodness for this damsel in distress my boyfriend is an aforementioned superhero and saved the day yet again.

Done at the convention.

The rest of the week and the convention itself went swimmingly and I had such an amazing time catching up with old friends and making new ones and got to do some fun tattoos on some fun people to boot. Hands down my best convention experience to far and I can't wait until the Rites of Passage convention in April to do it all over again, but with a home ground advantage, which will be so lovely.

If you would like to get tattooed at the Rites of Passage Convention or any other time you can email me at info@kittydearest.com.

Hope you all having a splendid week so far and are enjoying the start to your Autumn,

Kitty xx

TO INFINITY & BEYOND.

ATTENTION EVERYONE! I AM MOVING TATTOO STUDIOS!

As of the 1st of March I will be packing up my little tattoo corner at my current studio and moving to a shop in Westmeadows. Not quite infinity perhaps, but still. The time has come to say goodbye to the tattoo family that took me in when I first moved to Melbourne. I have nothing but kind words to say about all of you and I will miss our little team so much. I part here with nothing but gratitude & happy memories.

I will be moving to join the trouble makers at Addictive Tattoos in Westmeadows. I'm really looking forward to the change, there is something so invigorating about a fresh start. I'm especially looking forward to decorating a new tattoo area. I hope the team are is ok with my slightly overzealous approach to decorating. 

And because I had no pictures to go with this a threw in a couple of fun tattoos I've done of late.

To fresh starts,

Kittyxx

BUILD ME UP PEANUT BUTTERCUP.

So as most of you know, not long ago Mick and I lost our beautiful British Bulldog pup Winston, and I've had a particularly hard time dealing with it.
Although I know all too well that nothing & no-one can ever replace Winston, the opportunity for a darling female French Bulldog came up and we just couldn't say no.
I've been through a roller coaster of emotions with the decision to get another puppy, and ultimately wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do, but he she is, and here we are, back at square one with a brand new puppy.
I will always hold Winston on a pedestal in my heart but I know that there is plenty of room in there for a new fury friend. So with no further ado, please welcome Peanut to our family. Weighing in at mere 2.5kgs, her favourite activities include eating, sleeping, making guinea pig like noises & running around in circles.
Please be kind to her, she has some very large shoes to fill.

I grow more confident each day that she and I are going to be the best of friends.
Kitty xx

ATTENTION SYDNEY FOLK!

I will officially be attending the up coming Sydney tattoo & Body Art Expo! In a very uncharacteristic bout of spontaneity I have decided to work at the Sydney Expo. I didn't think I was going to be able to make it this year, but HAZZAR I will indeed be going after all, I worked the show last year and had a blast, I can't wait to do it all over again.

The convention is from Friday the 9th of March to Sunday the 11th of March. So if any of you Sydney dwellers fancy getting tattooed during my brief visit please email me at kittydearest@hotmail.com with "SYDNEY TATTOO EXPO" in the subject bar.
Kitty xx

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD.

Ive always found that the more things I get done, the more I'm able do get done. So I'm trying to get myself on roll early in the year with art projects as well as things around the house.
My drawing and tattooing is always developing & improving as I grow as an artist and as a person. Right now feels like a good time for a fresh start and Im really keen to put together a new portfolio of where I'm at right now with both my tattoos and other artwork. I'm hoping to do some really fun custom tattoos next month and already have a few lined up, so keep your eyes out.
Heres a few fun things that I've been working on as of late.

My last piece of 2011.

A few fun tattoos for the start of the year.

Animal tattoos are always super fun for me.

You can check out more on my website kittydearest.com
Kitty xx

PMA. ALL DAY. EVERY DAY.

Whenever something bad happens I always try to take a step back and look at the things in my life that are wonderful.
One of the reasons that I started this blog was to help myself look for the small every day things that make me smile and write about them. I was hoping that by cumulating these happy moments I might be able to keep out of the dark recesses of my mind that I so often find myself in. It's not that I'm a "half empty"kind of person, I just seem to have the unfortunate habit of letting my thoughts become clouded over by the negative things and forget to appreciate the countless parts of my life that are amazing.
So in honour of staying out of my head, here are a few things that have brought me joy over the past 24 hours.

• My ever delightful boyfriend taking me out for a Japanese dinner and the Kitty Daisy and Lewis side show last night, and they were AWESOME! 
• Buying the new Kitty Daisy and Lewis double heavyweight edition record.
• Staying out late and coming home with ringing ears. For those of you who know me I'm actually a nanna hermit who spends most of her time at home hiding from world, so this was a very nice change.
• Managing to get both myself & Mick out of bed early this morning to hit the Camberwell vintage markets.
• Scoring an awesome cable knit sweater for $5 and finding a mint record by The Jam, an old British punk band that my papa used to listen to.
• Coming home and making lemon iced tea because its at lease 100 degrees in our house with it's abysmal evaporative cooling.
• Actually making the time to blog.

Here's hoping that I can hold onto a positive attitude this week and get back into making regular blog updates.

Fingers crossed.

Kitty xx