Photographer Philippe Halsman had a passion for documenting his subjects in mid air. He believed that is when the mask is dropped and the true self is revealed. He published a cheeky yet beautiful collection called Jump Book (1959) and even claimed in a mock academic text that these were studies in 'jumpology'. Halsman as lecturer? I'd enroll in the click of a shutter. 

I recently participated in a little blogger community project which endeavored to connect bloggers from all around the world called The Package Project. Frankie magazine did a little feature on the project and the applications flooded in... I swiftly submitted my blog and details to Nadia, the crafty mastermind behind this experiment (Cupcake Couture blogger, based in South Africa) and she assigned me my package partner. That's when i 'met' Jamie; a talented photographer, craft enthusiast and geologist! My job was to create a unique care package just for her and she would send me one, too.



It reminded me much of having a Pen Pal in primary school. I would receive monthly letters from a little girl in Canada and she would read my scrawled, elementary script in return. The idea of correspondence with a 'stranger' is charming and old worldly. However, since the internet is now part of everyday life the ability to contact those around the world has become infinitely easier. But it cannot compare to receiving a handwritten letter or handmade parcel in the post. Something tangible and graspable (and sometimes edible). It is a special feeling. So i encourage everyone to find a blogging buddy, a package partner. It makes the overwhelming size of the bloggersphere fathomable in the shape of a package in your mailbox.

Here are some of the sweet things Jamie sent to me:

For the first time in a long time, I am finding myself surround by a posse of close female friends. We are in each other's daily lives, we meet up spontaneously. We have coffee, dinner, drinks, or just "laying on the couch and watching masterchef" hang time.

• She is my crunchy granola sister. We found vegetarianism together and then explored alternative lifestyles (as all good yippies do. n.b: yippies = yuppy + hippy) and she always reminds me of the merits of our choices. Even if she misses bacon.

• She is impossibly pretty. Like a little porcelain doll. And she rocks a mean red lips/mad men 'look'.

• She is a knitting demon. In fact, her Mother taught me how to knit. Crafty, crafty ladies.

• She has a super sized brain but still has the childish capacity to look up YouTube videos of kittens falling over and mewing and so on and so forth. I look at them too. We are children cooing over little things together.

• She makes me laugh. Lots. 

•  She makes living in Melbourne more of a home because she is like family. She is that good.