Claire's Christmas Gift Suggestibles. For all your gifting needs - as mentioned on Suggestible Pod episode 25th November 2021.

When I was at uni I was asked to create an art project that represented something important to us. We had to journal and diarise our creative process from conception to the final product in a portfolio. I chose Melbourne. I wandered the laneways and streets for hours wrapped in a duffel coat and knitted scarf…

I just finished watching a new TV show called Ms Represented produced by Australian journalist and author Annabel Crabb. In her show she interviews 6 women from all sides of the political spectrum. Across a diverse range of ages and cultural backgrounds, from different political parties the one thing they all have in common is that they were pioneers…

We’re down the coast at the moment. The Great Ocean Road to be precise. I made a decision a few weeks ago when Melbourne went into another lockdown that the only way through the uncertainty of this time in our lives is to lean into doing things however short or fleeting our freedom may be.

Hello! So nice to be back writing to you. Melbourne has come inching out of lockdown this week with lots of restrictions easing and we had friends and their kids spontaneously over last night for pizza…

They say make stuff about what you know and so what I know the most about are feelings and emotions. Big feelings small feelings surprising feelings uncomfortable feelings. If you want to know about a feeling I’m your gal. I’m like an emotional sniffer dog…

For a myriad of reasons gloom and general misery have been following me around this week like a bloke in a bar who wants to buy you a drink but just hasn’t got the message that you are categorically uninterested, even when you and your pals perform the customary close the circle move on the dance floor…

Melbourne is heading back into a lock down which at the outset is 7 days but really the length and breadth of this is very unclear. I want to say from the outset that maybe it will just be a week (fingers and toes very much crossed) but the looming nature of the headlines…

I made chicken stock today in my magic blue pot. There's something really satisfying about making it and I think it's because the usual underlying anxiety around food waste and just general pre-packaged food is just that little bit alleviated…

We’ve been having some tricky mornings at our place. Broken sleep coupled with a wonderful concoction of teething baby, sleeplessness and a 5 year old who leaps out of bed at 5am starving and ready to roll…

I wandered back this morning from the mother's day breakfast at our little human's school today, slightly buzzing from the coffee, conversations with other mums and the pink streamers and tiny glass jars of flowers…

When mental health is fragile there is a strange thing that happens to me. I seem to perpetually forget the things that make it better. The obvious ones are usually the first to go. Early bed times, regular meals, water and exercise…

There are moments in life when you feel breathlessly busy. The privilege of this is not lost on me after a year of PJ pants, zoom catch ups and a long winter of walking stoically for the thousandth time around our neighbourhood…

I want to write about nostalgia and specifically the nostalgia of play. It’s school holidays so my son is happily ensconced in late wake ups, cartoons in his pjs, extra bowls of cereal and most importantly endless hours of potential play stretching out in front of him…

It’s the Easter weekend just in case you weren’t aware and it’s my favourite time of year in Melbourne. Wherever you are in other parts of the world it might be Spring or if you’re in the north of Australia it’s the dry season but here in ‘temperate Melbourne’ it’s Autumn and I just can not get enough…

With two sick kids and not a lot of sleep going on in our house my world has felt increasingly small. It has also coincided with some frankly astonishing revelations about the goings on in our Australian parliament…

Brewing coffee in the small hours of the morning while watching the sun slowly make it’s way over the horizon. Opening the door of my tiny daughter’s bedroom when she is just awake, grinning up at me while determinedly voicing “mama” and doing her customary wiggle…

It was International women’s day on the 8th of March and I am obsessed by one particular thought. Well you caught me, many thoughts about where women find themselves in 2021 but this is the one I’m sticking to today…

My son was climbing on a really difficult climbing frame at the park. It was high up for him with ropes and wooden planks. He looked at me in fear wobbling a bit as each foot tried to wheedle it's way into position. "Ah, ah you need to help!" he said as I stood next to him…

I went bushwalking by the river in the rain today with my baby in her carrier. She just loves to walk around, her little face turned forwards, hands and feet twirling to wave as dogs and people wander past. My secret joy is seeing people’s faces light­­ up…