2011 in review

I have a blogging tradition of looking back at the previous year and all the highlights and lowlights that made up the 365 days of the year that was. The look back at 2010 was full of exciting highlights but 2011 has been a hard year for me. Living away from friends and family has been hard, especially as my grandfather got sick and then passed away last month. I am lucky that with the work that I do I was able to take time off and go spend a few weeks with my family to help them through that period, but then I missed my other family, namely my Sydney family of my husband Henry and Hachiko our handsome hound. Professionally I'm in a better place than I was 12 months ago, but I'm still not at the point I would like to be so 2011 almost feels like it was one long pointless struggle. Perhaps I feel like this because there was no overseas travel for me, even if there were lots of trips back to Melbourne and one to Perth it just wasn't the same. I do have plans in place to travel overseas this year already so I guess 2012 is looking up? Oh yeah and I dislocated my knee at the start of 2011, that really sucked balls and screwed up some of my plans (did I ever mention I did it whilst getting ready to be filmed by ABC TV who were unable to reschedule the interview so they cancelled it, yeah that's like adding an extra layer of sucky to the sucky you already knew) Anyway lets take a look back at 2011.

Proud

Firstly I want to say I am proud of myself for taking the initiative and launching my SOS Japan fundraiser after Japan's terrible earthquake and tsunami in March. With the help of some amazing local designers, bloggers and creative's who all donated to the charity auction we raised $1784 all of which went to the Red Cross's efforts in the affected area.

Career highlights

Styling the Vice x Westfield advertising campaign

Elle USA magazine street style photography capturing the best of Sydney's streets for their global street chic feature.

Styling, creative direction and copy writing of Westfield x Fashion Journal advertorials. A fun youth based bi-monthly campaign that has been a pleasure to work on all year.

Styling the Sydney band Circle Pit for their feature in Fashion Journal.

Styling the September cover editorial for Fashion Journal.

Fashion Weeks

Wow I attended no less than four fashion weeks this year, all of them in Australia (which in itself is pretty cool, Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi and all that). First up was Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival in March, struggling along on my crutches after I dislocated my knee a few weeks before. LMFF was almost the death of me I swear, it was so hard not only physically because of my knee but emotionally too as the Tsunami in Japan happened mid week and I was a wreck worrying about friends back in Tokyo (who were all fine, the radiation and aftershocks were the main worry). The fashion was good though and seeing friends was the perfect medicine after a difficult couple of weeks.

RAFW in May was an epic 24/7 affair for me and the On The Streets of Sydney team but boy it was worth it. Seeing Josh Goot's return to the Aussie runway was a highlight of my year.

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week will always be my favourite of all fashion weeks because it was the first I ever attended, way back when I was a teen. Its come a long way since then and every year the RMIT student show blows me away so I will always make time for MSFW.

My first trip to Western Australia for Perth Fashion Festival was super exciting. Perth has such a unique fashion voice that rarely gets heard on the east coast and its about time that changed. I hope to be able to return to PFF this year.

Bullying
I experienced intense bullying on twitter this year, worse than anything I ever experienced in high school. I don't want to dwell on it or give the bullies any more attention other than to say I was hurt by it as anyone with feelings would be, but I learnt a lot from it...mostly that people given the ability to leave comments or tweet anonymously can by cunts sometimes. Lesson learnt and I'm going to ignore it as much as possible from now on.

So what does 2012 have in store for me?

• In May I'll be heading to Tokyo for my birthday and I'm terribly excited. Its been way too long.
• Lots of hard work, my goal is to get published in print at least three times before May.
• Relaunch On The Streets of Sydney. This does not mean a re-design as I still like the layout, it just means actually working on creating original content again. We all got so terribly burnt out after RAFW that it has just sat there for a while, but I'm ready to jump back in and shake up Sydney's style again.

2011 was a hard year for me and I'm glad to see the back of it. Looking back on it though has proved to me that maybe it wasn't so bad. There were so many good times with friends new and old, great moments in my styling career and my blog took me to the most isolated city in the world so I have to remember to not dwell on the bad stuff so much and look at all the positives. 2012 watch out xxx