The BIG something

Alejandro Saunderson, Melbourne

The current mix of conversation between Lilly and I looks something like this arrangement of paper cranes flown in from Melbourne by photographer Alejandro Saunderson. Each thought specific and detailed but of all of them together a furious runway.We take it step by step, looking to Dora, age 5 from Sydney for the clarity and focus of her gorgeous bird in making each BIG decision.

Meanwhile, it seems everyone is teething. The baby with swollen gums. The grinning boy showing off his fallen tooth and wanting to put a hidden camera to document any tooth fairy activity. The ache of editing the BIG media kit as we respond to generous and exacting feedback, re-working our way through both the specificity of red lines and more ongoing conceptual decisions.

A great friend asked me the other day if BIG was 'something' yet, or if it was still 'just a blog'. Well. We think the blog is something. That blogging is something. And it got us thinking about the male point of view on all this. The majority of blogs I follow or visit have women at the helm, and reluctantly it moves me toward the question of value. Maybe blogging is a bit like mothering. Overworked, undervalued and oh SO fulfilling. I say this with tongue firmly in cheek and mean to stereotype no one.

For his benefit however, I will say that BIG has been is major discussion about becoming a fully fledged company. We are getting great advice and have an awesome team of supporters pointing and prodding at our future. We are also, maybe to his despair, thinking of carrying on as we are. Of devoting the time we have to the continued creative firing and invigorating process which is driving this BIG thing. Sooner or later we will have no choice but to become a company and we look forward to it greatly and then he will be the first we contact (for me thinks he does not follow the blog).
The BIG something, however is right here. Alive, transparent, discovering and sharing. When we hold the magazine in our hands it will be something else indeed but we think of this journey as being as much about what BIG is, as what the magazine or the books or the Ipad apps ( oh yes... in the pipeline folks!) will look like.

We have BIG announcements to follow in the next few days. But right now I go to catch some sleep  between nursing the little long tooth in the quiet of night. My boys went back to school this week and I realise (again) how precious this (night) time is with the babygirl before she very quickly, like her brothers, gets so big. Now that is Something I want my bones to absorb; the closeness and proximity of the darkness and otherworld of irrational hours spent between me and my littleBIGgirl.


Stay tuned for the next episode of the BIG process. x

Dora, 5 yrs

'A Happy Pile of Rubbish' Alejandro