It’s that time of the year again, when we can over indulge ourselves with chocolate decadence and be free from the impending guilt, well, almost. While chocolate eggs and bunnies steal the limelight at Easter time, the Australian Bilby shapes our national Easter treat. For an extra sweet Easter gift, visit Darrell Lea and take home a beautiful Easter Bilby. Darrell Lea has been producing and selling bilby shaped chocolate creations since 1994, and donate all proceeds to the Save the Bilby Fund to protect the 6000 bilbies left in Australia.

Bilbies are an enchanting little animal, with large ears, a silky coat and a long tail, they are endangered in Queensland, declared vulnerable throughout the country. Like many native animals, bilbies must compete with introduced animals, such as rabbits and cattle for their food, and their homes have been destroyed by development.

Bilbies are also hunted by foxes and feral cats, dwindling the marsupial’s population and hastening the Save the Bilby Foundation’s efforts. Sadly, the bilby was once part of a large family of Australian bandicoots, but is now the sole survivor of the six different types. The Save the Bilby Foundation is working hard to support the animal’s habitat, and run a bilby sanctuary in the Currawinya National Park near Charleville to reintroduce the bilby into the wild. To support the bilby, select a white, plain or dark chocolate bilby from Darrell Lea this Easter. It is a delicious way to support this well-deserved cause.

Before the movie business embraced the green screen, CGI effects or million-dollar budgets, the art of the motion picture honed in on our imagination to create our own colour scheme, script and soundtrack. Only one copy of this 1903 silent version of Alice in Wonderland remains, and it was restored by the British Film Institute.

The great thing about the internet is that it gives a voice to any who wants one (and has a computer); the bad thing is that sometimes it’s hard to sort through the chaff to find something that truly piques your interest. New Yorkers Piera Gelardi and Philippe von Borries are two people who have managed to pique the interest of close to a million fashion lovers across the world with their online fashion publication REFINERY29. The cool-savvy duo will be sharing some of their online wisdom this week as part of the ‘Portable Presents‘ series, which delivers international leaders in digital and online businesses to Australia. Each series follows trends and those leaders that create them across areas as diverse as television, music, fashion, education and politics. Hosted by The Edge at SLQ, Piera, Philippe and friends will share their thoughts on fashion-based social media, trends in online retail, and new directions in fashion reporting and business.

map magazine is giving away a free ticket to the presentation at SLQ’s The Edge this Friday March 12 at 3:00 pm. To win, email mikki@mapmagazine.com.au by Wednesday March 10.

Invigoration of the senses is what elicits fire in the heart of Nick Smart – property lawyer, fragrance connoisseur and inveterate traveller. In particular, it’s the moments of sensorial stimulation whilst in a foreign city that inspire his passion and creativity. “I really draw inspiration from travelling. I’m very sensory and that’s why I travel a lot,” he muses, his blue eyes sparkling as he leans casually on the beautiful counter that watches over the Libertine Parfumerie boutique in New Farm. “I love Paris. I know it’s a cliche. I just like walking through the streets of a city – whether it’s in Italy, France or wherever – and pondering the fact that there have been 1300 years of people walking 
on that particular cobblestone path. You go to a place and it can be because of a building, a scent or a meal, but you’re just transported away to a different place. I’m really creative and I find my mind is consumed by everything that surrounds me – be it food, or wine, or fragrance, or fashion or 500-year-old churches. I can’t help but be inspired.”

After wandering the world, being endlessly stimulated and inspired by the confounding bouquet that accompanies the experience of travel, Nick has now channelled such inspiration into an elegant emporium of sensory delights. Just over 12 months old, Libertine Parfumerie (which Nick runs alongside co-directors Jason Carlton and Joel Morehu-Barlow) has found its way into the olfactory palates of discerning denizens of Brisbane, as well as acolytes in Sydney and Melbourne.

Like any tale of success in history, the birth of Libertine came down to a particular moment in time – a crossing of fates – which, fittingly, involved the experience of travel. But in this particular story, it was not Nick who was doing the travelling, but rather an editor of Vogue Living. It was 14 years ago, and Nick was studying law at the University of Queensland. To make ends meet, he began selling essential oils on the weekends at the Riverside Markets. On one fortuitous day, an editor of Vogue Living happened to be wandering through the markets whilst holidaying in Brisbane. Enamoured by Nick’s fragrant wares, she snapped a photo of the products and they subsequently appeared in the pages 
of the magazine soon after. The business then began to grow and Nick was soon selling his products throughout the world and had set up a manufacturing company that made products for retailers under their own brand (such clients include Wheel 
and Barrow, Harvey Norman and the New South Wales Prison System).

Upon finishing his law degree, Nick began practising as a lawyer and became one of Queensland’s youngest law practitioners when he opened Smart Legal at age 29. Then, two years ago when searching for a new locale to house the practice, Nick discovered a charming little shopfront in West End that was a 100-year-old tailor’s nook. 
“I said to my business partner at the time that we couldn’t put a law practice in the front of the building because 
it was so beautiful,” he recalls of the moment. “That’s how Libertine was born. I’d travelled the world for years sourcing products, packaging and fragrance, or I’d go to the south of France buying fragrance for the people we manufactured for. A lot of the fragrances you could access overseas just weren’t available here and you’d have to get a friend to pick them up for you while they were in New York, Paris or London.”

Seizing the opportunity to fill a void in the market with his own passion, Nick set about establishing a distribution company, Agence de Parfum, as well as the French-inspired fragrance boutique that now sits proudly on the upper end of Hardgrave Road. The key, he knew, was to obtain the exclusive wholesale distribution rights to brands that so many fragrance lovers coveted but that few were able to get their hands on in Australia. But with no reputation to speak of that might tempt such elusive brands, Nick faced the challenge of convincing them to relinquish their product into his hands. Again, it was the course of fate that played its inscrutable hand. “Years ago when I used to go to New York, I shopped at Barneys and I discovered they had a niche counter. I loved Costume Nationale Scent Intense,” he intones. “I’d buy it every time I went to New York – you couldn’t get it anywhere in Australia. So when we were searching for brands to start up our own distribution company in Australia, I told my directors that it would be a coup to get Costume Nationale.”

Impossible, they told him.

“It’s an amazing high-end fashion label and everyone told me that there was no way that we’d get the rights,” he recalls. “That was an obstacle we faced from the start – we wanted the exclusive rights to sell these in Australia, and we were based in Brisbane, which obviously nobody had ever heard of in Paris or Italy. But it was almost like it was meant to be. You know, those moments in your life when you realise that there’s some kind of greater purpose – you know things are greater than the decisions you’re making. I had the affinity with Costume Nationale because I loved it so much, but people said ‘you won’t get Costume Nationale, that’s like getting Chanel’. So I basically just went to Italy and said ‘I love your product. No one loves it more than I do. I’ve worn it for years and I will nurture it and look after it in Australia.’ They were the first company to sign up with us.”

There’s no doubt that Nick’s palpable passion for the fragrances he sells, evident in the ardent enthusiasm that abounds whenever he speaks of them, was infectious when it came to convincing the decision-makers of some of the world’s most esteemed perfume houses. Agence de Parfum now holds the exclusive distribution rights to ten brands including Lubin, Creed, Rancé and Jean-Charles Brosseau. And each brand, as Nick will eagerly convey, has a unique tale of its own.

“A lot of the fragrances that we’ve brought into the store have been steeped in history. Creed made fragrances for people like Cary Grant and Jackie Onassis and Grace Kelly,” he enthuses. “Fragrance is everybody’s personal choice, but the olfactory senses are so powerful and we like to provide something that’s a little bit different. To me, fragrance is about your emotion – it’s a recreation of your memories. I know that the clients we have at Libertine will come back to Libertine. They won’t buy fragrance at the chemist or department store, because they know they can come here, have a glass of champagne and discover something interesting – and someone will take the time to tell them about it.“

As to whether or not he is successful, Nick believes such things are determined internally. “I think I’m successful 
because I live my life with integrity and I’m humble, grateful and honest. Everything we have is invested into our businesses – I don’t take a wage from the manufacturing side of it and I never have. Even if tomorrow the organisation falters and collapses, there are still lessons to be learned. If you’re honest and you do things with integrity and gratitude, it’s hard for things not to work. If you come from a great place internally, you’ll go far. We’re not driven by money and I’m really humbled by how many people know about Libertine.”

Still, the next year promises to be a fruitful one for Libertine, following the successful launch of an exclusive fragrance counter in David Jones in Melbourne’s Bourke Street as well as helping to create a new concept ‘Scent Room’ soon to be launched in the Myer store on the same street. “We’ve also just come out with our own range of soaps and lotions, called Napoleon’s Triumph,” Nick shares. “Napoleon was known as ‘Corporal Violet’ because he was obsessed with violets. We just launched it and already we’re about to export it to Japan.”

Where things go from here, Nick is happy to leave to the whim of the fates that have brought him to this point. His main objective is to simply enjoy the journey. “I think it’s really just about living your life by a set of principles,” 
he says serenely. “We love what we do at Libertine and we take pride in that.”

Interview and photography by Mikki Brammer

How did the exhibition evolve?
It started out with the idea that 
I would just come in and look at some hats based on the archive at the V&A. Then, gradually, it became a bigger and bigger thing and was moved from the costume gallery to the contemporary gallery, so we received more funding. I was also given a fabulous co-curator, Oriole Cullen. Suddenly, everyone 
got onboard. The V&A is such a huge institution, some of it was catalogued and some of it wasn’t – they didn’t even know where some of it was. When I first went in there, I had no real idea what I was going to do at all. We just took each day as it came and went into the big cupboards and I think we ended up looking at around 3,000 hats. Then I started to go around the world and look at different collections in America and at private collections in France and Italy. I didn’t want it to be a very esoteric exhibition that only fashion nuts would understand. I wanted something that was, 
in a funny way, demystifying fashion but showing that it really is a wonderful mystery that still can be hugely enjoyable for everybody.

What aspects of a person’s physical appearance or personality inspire your designs?
It’s always about designing with somebody. I think fashion designers always have to impose their vision on the world or on people, dictating that they should look a certain way. If you’re a milliner you have to have a vision, but you also have to be a very good listener. That’s the most interesting part of it – somehow combining a person’s character with the design. Everybody is different. Sometimes people want hats to be just like they are, but sometimes people want hats to make them look like somebody different. They might feel like a mum 364 days of the year but on this day they want 
to look like a glamourpuss. Hats are like costumes and often it’s about being a good amateur psychoanalyst – finding out who someone is inside 
and who they aspire to be.

Working with so many different high-profile designers, how do you come up with something that complements their distinct visions?
It’s actually the same thing as working with a private client – it’s about being a good listener. Often they don’t really know about hats, so what I’m trying to do is interpret what they would like to have while bringing my experience to the table. For example, working with John Galliano is completely different to working with Rae Kawakubo from Comme des Garcons, but what you really do is celebrate that difference. They’re completely different people. 
In a strange way, you just try to interpret the relationship you have with that person into a hat.

Fashion designers often get a bad rap from the media. Working with them as closely as you do, do you think it’s unwarranted?
Sometimes it’s with good reason, but Rae, or John, or Marc Jacobs, or Ralph Lauren, they are all very thankful for the way their lives have turned out. They are absolutely humble because they realise how easy it could be for them to have a different life. You have to work hard, be talented and be lucky while also making your own luck – and even those things mightn’t work. They really appreciate their good fortune and are always prepared to learn.

Which era in fashion history captures your heart the most?
I think probably the 1940s during the war, just because people didn’t have money or resources so they had to be completely inventive. In Britain, people were remaking 1930s clothes or men’s jackets into hats. Or in France, they weren’t allowed to have any materials and all of the German officers’ wives were wearing very chic Parisian hats, so all the Parisian girls were wearing huge turbans to make themselves look different. They would literally take 
a curtain and wind it up and put it on their head. Old second-hand materials are often the most beautiful. In the Dior Haute Couture show earlier this year, for the beginning of the show we made a kind of riding hat, but all of the veils we used were antique veils that we got from the flea markets in Paris. They were from the beginning of the last century – they just don’t make anything as beautiful as that anymore.

What was your childhood dream?
I wanted to do something creative; that was all. I was good at art and painting – that came very naturally to my family. My mother is a great colourist and my father is a wonderful illustrator. But really, my dream was just to come to London and go to exciting parties!

What has been your greatest challenge to date?
If you love what you’re doing, the things you do that should be a challenge seem to melt away. You don’t worry about being tired, or not being able to pay the bills. You feel very privileged because you are able to do what you love. I always think the biggest challenge is people. I’m not just a milliner by myself; I work with a workroom and so always the biggest challenge is to be able to explain things and work with people. But that’s also the joy too.

What has been your greatest achievement?
I think it is the V&A exhibition. I was just doing what I loved and it turned into this whole big thing. I think that’s probably my greatest achievement.

What is success to you?
It’s about being creatively fulfilled and being able to get a cab into work like I did this morning! Also, there are so many other wonderful milliners, some of whom are in the exhibition, who have come through my workroom. To be able to share a bit of my knowledge and enthusiasm with people and to help train them is a great pleasure.

Why do you care?
In the early eighties just after I left college, I had a whole group of friends and we were always going out together – we were coming out of the nightmare of the miners’ strikes and the depression and recessions that were going on in Britain in the seventies. My friends and I felt sort of invincible, almost as if we could do anything. Then suddenly, in ‘83/’84, AIDS was discovered and that stopped me and my generation in our tracks. So many of our friends were dying and nobody knew what was going on – it was really scary. So after that, I really learned to appreciate each day that came. I think that’s also part of growing up. I really began to appreciate what I had and felt very lucky to be able to be involved in the world of hats and to do what I wanted to do.

What inspires you?
Certainly the designers I work with, like Marc Jacobs, John Galliano and Rae Kawakubo. But then I never stop being inspired. I don’t have a muse, because I’m very good at making something suit a particular person. If I had a muse, it would suit only her and nobody else. Literally every waking moment inspires me. It can be a fabulous person, a great designer, going to a museum, getting up in the morning, a cup of coffee or a conversation. It tends usually to be a person, or a film or architecture.

What are your words of wisdom?
Don’t look before you leap. If you think too much about it, it will terrify you! Just get on with things and it will all work out fine.

Interview by Mikki Brammer

Photograph: Stephen Jones and John Galliano put the finishing touches on a model for Christian Dior’s Haute Couture, autumn/winter 2008 © Sophie Carre

Jemima first ventured into 
a contemporary art gallery at 15 where she found the people, as much as the artworks, to be the main attraction. Like-minded individuals who happily discussed politics, poetry, art and life, provided Jemima a level of excitement, intellectual development and community unlike anything she 
had experienced in Mackay. In the milieu of artists, Jemima had found her place.

Study at QUT led to employment in the university’s workshops teaching students the practicalities of making art before Jemima completed her honours and took 
up an academic role. In the background of creating art, studying and teaching, Jemima was also applying for a highly desirable scholarship to study overseas. After three applications over a seven-year period she was awarded the prestigious Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship. Afraid her ‘brain would freeze over in New York’ and, more importantly inspired by its history of performance and conceptual art, Jemima completed her Master’s in Fine Arts at CalArt – the California Institute of Art founded by Walt Disney and boasting an alumni of contemporary artists along with the likes of Tim Burton and Pee Wee Herman.

On her return to Australia, Jemima once again became the struggling artist, working three jobs to pay the bills and maintain the art practice, reconnecting with Brisbane and re-establishing herself in the local and national arts scene.

Not one to pigeon-hole her work, Jemima works in a broad range of visual disciplines including photographic collage, video, painting, soft sculpture and wallpapers. Some recent works were inspired by liberation armies and an interest in the aesthetic and subversive undertones of camouflage and masks. The fear of who is behind the mask; the homogenisation of people through costume and uniform; the power of symbols such as a balaclava to unite and empower large numbers of individuals joined in a grass roots uprising. These are the underlying considerations in her series of work, Combat Drag.

Delving deeper into the art practice itself, Jemima reveals the four pillars of her work that exist at varied levels with the clear aim to promote a visceral response form the viewer. Large scale works, intensity of colour and aggressive patterning are some of the optical tricks that Jemima uses to create a visual onslaught. The other three elements are humour, violence and sexuality. “The works play on our fears and desires, our contemporary anxieties,” she explains. “Whether the viewer finds the work erotic, humourous or scary I want them to go away and consider why they have had such 
a physical reaction to the piece.”

That’s not to imply that Jemima’s works are overtly confronting and nor, for that matter, is she. In fact Jemima is very affable, open and engaging, never threatening or in fact particularly challenging. “My challenge to the status quo,” she says, “happens through my art practice and within the sphere of contemporary art – not from my personal daily interactions. That’s why I work in this area – because it’s a safe way to express 
my thoughts and interests.”

A hard-working artist with discipline and respect for ‘self-imposed pressures’, Jemima seems to have a very pragmatic view of her chosen life. “There’s not a day in my life that I haven’t made use of professionally,” she says. “But you also have to be realistic and not have an expectation of external reward. Success, for me, is measured through maintaining integrity and finding fulfilment in what I do – like being in a position where I can afford to live in LA, to continue to make art and collaborate with others.”

Acknowledging a combination of opportunity and luck, along with an investment of hard work in her art practice, Jemima attributes part of her journey’s success to clear decision-making. “Whenever opportunities have arisen or decisions have to be made, I’ve been sensitive to the direction 
I had to take in order to maintain my own integrity and focus. It’s about being sensitive to what’s important to myself – what my own desires 
and ambitions are, then trying to keep on track.”

For the next few years at least, that means surviving in LA. It’s a long way from Mackay and, based on her successes to date, Jemima is confident it’s an easier proposition than making it in LA’s performing-arts scene. “I’d have to get botox, a face lift, extensions, a therapist and a script for prozac to pull that off,” she laughs. Much easier to throw on flannels and a balaclava!

Interview by Stefan Treyvaud

Sometimes a talent is truly discovered when its possessor is challenged to redefine everything they thought they knew and start from the beginning. For 26-year-old Kym Ellery, the eponymous founder of blooming Australian fashion label Ellery, there was never a question of whether or not she would become a fashion designer. But the moment that she truly began her journey to success was whilst doing a short course at Central St Martins College in London, when one particular tutor took everything she thought she knew about art and design, and turned it on its head. Some fashion designers find their inspiration for collections in the shape of nature, others in an iconic period 
of history, or in the architecture of a foreign city. The inspiration for Kym Ellery’s autumn/winter 2010 collection came to her whilst she was waiting in a hospital emergency room with a friend.

“I was sitting there waiting and I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be cool to do a whole hospital-inspired collection?’” Kym reveals with a laugh. “I wanted to bring in elements that were kind of ‘hospital chic’ and base all the colours on things like tans for bandages, reds for blood, and grey and black death tones.”

Whilst the imagination might automatically lean towards visions of models draped in slinky lab coats and embellished surgical scrubs, ‘A Tribute to Dr Strange’ (as the collection is called), is far from such images. Instead, Kym has created a sophisticated yet unmistakably sexy collection using imported Italian brocade, lace, divinely soft leathers, luxurious sheer jersey, silks and crepes. “I ended up doing different kinds of embellishments that were based on different parts of the anatomy, like the heart or rib cage, and then put them on the garments where they actually lie along the body,” she explains. “I really wanted to look at the human body and the designs developed from that. My inspiration for the collections really does just come from anywhere. I think creative ideas come more often when you’re relaxed, like when I’m going to sleep or I’m having a shower or going for a walk. It’s those moments in between when your brain is preoccupied with things like spreadsheets. Usually it’s when I’m just sitting quietly that ideas pop into my head.”

Kym’s previous collections are further indications of her wild imagination and ability to draw creative inspiration from random sources. Her AW08 show was inspired by black magic, The Doors and the musical Hair, while last year’s turn on the runway was a cheeky nod to a particular teen horror flick. “I like the idea of irony and I like to do things that are a little bit twisted,” she says. “Like the beauty pageant theme of my show for fashion week last year. It was meant to be a tiny bit dark, with the motif of a heart dripping blood – a little bit like the film Carrie. It was kind of just taking a sideways look at a theme but not delving into it too heavily.”

Growing up in small towns north of Perth, Kym was far from the frenetic fashion sphere she occupies today. “I had a really avid interest in fashion from a young age and I didn’t know how to get there but I knew it was what I wanted to do,” she recalls. “I didn’t really fully understand what I wanted to do until I moved to Sydney when I was about 19.”

In her early twenties, Kym travelled to London to do a short course at the prestigious fashion incubator, Central St Martins College. Though her experience at the college was only relatively brief, it shifted Kym’s perspective on art and fashion completely. “My mother’s an artist and I’ve always been brought up around art and galleries,” she explains. “A large part of what we talk about together is art and she was in London while I was there. I said to her, ‘they’ve broken down everything I’ve learned in my entire life – no offence to you!’ In my first lesson the tutor just scrapped everything and explained things from an anatomical point of view. He even cut up dead bodies to understand how the muscles lie under the skin. It was so interesting how he could break down everything I thought I knew and rebuild it again in such a short space of time.”

Upon returning to Sydney in search of a further fashion education, Kym soon found herself in the coveted position of stylist for Australian fashion magazine, Russh, throwing her right in the middle of the world she’d dreamed of as a child. “When I worked at Russh, I was exposed to absolutely everything in fashion,” she reveals. “It wasn’t until then that I worked out how I could achieve what I wanted to.”

What it helped her realise was that, above all, she wanted to be a fashion designer. And so she began to dedicate her evenings and weekends to designing her own garments. Soon it grew from side project, to fledgling label (launched in 2007), to one of Australia’s most exciting fashion talents. And what began to become achingly evident was that it needed full-time attention. “The work just started growing out of what I could do at night and on weekends,” Kym reveals of her decision to leave the magazine 
to concentrate on her brand. “It’s really grown a lot in the past year and I actually don’t know how I used to do it all as well as work full time!”

Ellery now consists of three full-time staff and an army of interns without whom Kym would be lost. The task now is to withstand the growing pains of a business on a meteoric trajectory. “My greatest challenge has been not having enough resources, whether 
it’s staff or access to fabrics or types of machines that do certain stitches,” she laments amiably. “We don’t really have a manufacturing culture in Australia and the government doesn’t help to make it financially viable to manufacture here. For the kind of work I want to achieve, it is really difficult. It’s not until you go to places like Italy where sewing is a craft and there’s generations of knowledge in a factory and people really care about it. It’s that sort of thing that I can’t wait to experience one day – seeing what the factories overseas can produce.”

A sojourn in New York or Paris is certainly a dream for Kym as her label grows and presents more opportunities overseas. “I’d like to always be based in Australia, but I’m still only 26 and I’d like to live overseas before I’m too settled. I think it’s a timing thing at the moment,” she says.

But with Ellery’s reputation making its way overseas, the opportunity for Kym to take her talents to the Northern Hemisphere might come sooner than she expects. The label has already piqued the interest of several important fashion eyes in the US and Europe. 
“My most exciting moment was when Madonna’s stylist called to request some clothes for her music-video shoot in Milan,” she recounts animatedly. “We’ve also had a lot of requests from US & UK Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, which will hopefully help things 
grow internationally.”

As for her own fashion inspirations, Kym is reluctant to narrow it down. “It’s like asking me my favourite colour … I could never answer that!” she giggles. “I do love many eras of fashion and how people interpret them. I love how people like Karl Lagerfeld can take any period of time and translate that into something that’s relevant today. I also love Nicolas Ghesquière for Balenciaga – I think he’s a genius – and Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy and Christophe Decarnin for Balmain. They’re my favourites at the moment but that changes depending on the collections.”

If last year was hectic for Kym, the year ahead looks even more insane. Following in the footsteps of labels like Stella McCartney and Rodarte who have designed collections for Target and H&M, Ellery will soon be launching a collaboration with Sportsgirl, in stores in April. Kym is also enthusiastically creating her summer collection for Rosemount Australian Fashion Week.

When pressed for the advice she would offer other young fashion designers, Kym doesn’t sugarcoat. “Work hard, and make sure it’s something you really want to do first before you commit to it because it’s a lot of hard work and it ain’t that glamorous,” she laughs. “Everyone should live and fulfil their own ambitions and not someone else’s. Only then can you be truly happy.”

Interview by Mikki Brammer

Not long to wait for the release of the new album from Broken Bells, a wicked collaboration between Danger Mouse and The Shins frontman, James Mercer.

GIVIT is a new Brisbane online giving portal designed to connect a community of givers to our community of people who need to receive.  It is a site that requests quality goods and pro-bono services for members of the community who are marginalised, vulnerable and disadvantaged, and anyone can step up to help meet a request.   I’m in the process of moving house and it’s been great to use GIVIT to donate several things to the Pindari Homeless Women’s Service.  There is something nice about knowing who your goods go to directly.  

This idea of making requests and people helping out is a community model and online model that could be used for anything.  I have a friend who was interested in creating a way to barter, trade and share things in a local neighbourhood.  For example tools (like lawnmowers etc) could be shared where not every house needs to own one.  A web portal could be way to do that.  For me, I’d like to see community dreams and ideas shared in this way, so that community groups could be matched with design and technical skills to realize projects.  Public Architecture in San Francisco is a model that offers pro-bono architectural services and Trade School in New York was also a fun and interesting barter system for artists and designers.

Pause midway through chasing your dreams and take stock of your happiness quota, and soak up Bobby McFerrin’s manta, Don’t Worry Be Happy. As Bobby jived his way through 1988 with his hit single, he brought to life the reality that human beings are programmed to search for happiness. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, we spend a large proportion of our days aiming to achieve a state of contentment, satisfaction and to find those heart-warming-eye-crinkling good vibes. His Holiness the Dalai Lama believes that, “…The most fundamental aspiration of all human beings is to seek happiness, to overcome suffering. We may go to bed at night confronted with many problems in our lives. But we go to bed hoping we will wake up the next morning! And then the next morning, in a way, it is hope that motivates us to get out of bed and carry on with our lives – the hope that we will eventually be able to achieve our aspiration for happiness.” So when we wake up tomorrow morning, let’s try to remember to put a smile on our faces before we jump out of bed.

We have all heard the phrase, ‘when I was your age’, and as soon as we do, we tend to block out the following advice because we assume it’s probably exaggerated, irrelevant, or expired. As Charles Wadsworth once quoted, ‘by the time a man realises that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.’ To solve this generational problem, Walker Lamond, a writer and producer, wrote a book of rules for his (not then born) son, rules that were comprised before Lamond could become old and somewhat uncool. For example, Lamond advises to his son that there are only a few times that he can wear velvet, New Year’s Eve would be one. He also tells his son to take a vacation from the internet, lose the adverbs, to not jog shirtless and to always accept drinking challenges. In fact, Lamond, together with contributing bloggers, has collated a list of more than 450 very useful and learned lessons for any son to apply in life. You can read a full list of his suggestions on his blog and also make contributions to the list. May fathers never be doubted again.

“Literacy unlocks the door to learning throughout life, is essential to development and health, and opens the way for democratic participation and active citizenship.” – Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General. While many of us in the Western world view education as a given right, children in Third World countries are forced to relinquish their right to an education – an education that could enable them to escape poverty. The vicious cycle of lack of education and its link to poverty is well-recognised, and remains a significant humanitarian challenge that must be overcome, with more than 774 million illiterate people in the world. For every year a girl is educated above the average, her wages will increase by 15%. It is powerful facts like these that have driven organisations to invest in providing desperately needed educational resources. Room to Read is a foundation that aims to provide an education to underprivileged children in Asia and Africa. Their main objectives are to run programs that provide and create access to educational resources such as libraries, increase the awareness of literacy in schools and communities, and to provide administration support to facilitate educational centers. You can help Room to Read continue their efforts by donating to their website through personal contributions, fundraising, employee involvement, or hosting book drives.