i make. you wear it.
June 16, 2010 by Sarah Moran
Filed under Featured Article, Your Say
This week’s guest post comes from Rachel Burke, creator of “i make. you wear it”. 21-year-old Rachel ‘Rahool’ Burke is an innovative fundraiser who hates idle hands, and loves ideas. She believes in hard work and never underestimates a person’s ability to change the world!
In late April of this year I found myself on a long, solitary walk toward Fortitude Valley. The day saw me outwardly troubled – my strides were not meant to be meeting Brisbane turf. On the contrary, my feet and I were supposed to be in Melbourne studying Musical Theatre.
Madelin Newman wears Rachel’s first trial dress for ‘I Make. You Wear It’
Practicing vocal scales, shuffling about in a leotard, and working on my high kicks, THAT was supposed to be my life. However, as I’d decided (after a year of study at VCA) that ‘jazz hands’ weren’t for me, my now Brisbane-based life was watching me stagger across suburban zebra crossings in pursuit of a bacon and cheese burger from Grill’d, and contemplating what on earth I was going to do this year to fill the void of having run away from school.
Yet, somewhere between Kedron and a Kiwi Slurpee from the Lutwyche 7/11 an idea occurred to me that would solve my dilemma. The concept was to set myself a challenge to make a series of dresses in a few hours, over a number of Saturday nights. An on-and-off sewer from way back, and a big fan of the TV show ‘ready, steady…cook.’ the idea of setting myself some sort of creative, time-constricted endeavor, thoroughly appealed.
After an in depth chat to my best friend it was decided that the idea was indeed well suited to a blog and that I should use the concept to try and raise some money for charity.
T
he next day saw me trawling the Internet in pursuit of a charity that I wanted to assist. After lengthy searching I finally found NAPCAN, an Australian charity set up to prevent child abuse and neglect in Australia. Having known many people who, as children, were once affected by abuse and/or neglect, the importance of what this charity strives to do greatly appealed to me. After reading their mission statement I gave NAPCAN a call and told them that I wanted to try and raise their charity $25,000. The rest …beginning on August 7…is history!
The website www.imakeyouwearit.com was created by the incredibly internet-talented and time generous Matt Hickey, and was launched earlier this month. Thus far I have received support from BORDERS stores and I will be doing live dressmakings in both their City and Chermside stores to raise donations and awareness for the project. Currently I have been working on trialing my ‘quick sewing skills’, cultivating interest in NAPCAN to outside sources, and getting people interested in following my online and offline journey to raise $25,000.
Whilst ‘i make. you wear it’ is striving to support NAPCAN and raise awareness, the project also hopes to encourage other young people to actively pursue their ideas and help out in their community. It’s crazy just how possible ANYTHING is if you are willing to put the hard work in. And hey, if you’re feeling uninspired, maybe get a slurpee and go for a hefty stroll. It worked for me…
I Make. You Wear It. Begins on August 7 2010 and goes until January 1 2011. Check out the website on www.imakeyouwearit.com and show your support!
For more information or to contact Rachel directly, email her at: rachel@imakeyouwearit.com.
Gastronomy Gal
May 24, 2010 by Sarah Moran
Filed under Young people defining Brisbane
Gastronomy Gal is a Brisbane blogger who shares her love of food with avid readers with an equal passion for all things food. in her own words:
“I am not a food expert- I am just a food lover, and so want to share my love of food with you.”
Who are you? Give a complete stranger a brief snapshot into your world…
I’m a 23 year old girl living in Qld, my adoptive State. I’ve been in BrisVegas for 5 years after moving here from my cute country hometown in NSW. I work in Communications/PR and write my own food blog. I also write columns for an online magazine. I’m pretty infactuated with all things food (hence the food blog) and spend much of my time trawling around restaurants/providores/food festivals/wine & cocktail bars in Brisbane looking for awesome food and wine to blog about. I also blog about the occasional horrible experience too! Whilst I love eating out, I love cooking in my tiny kitchen with one of my many cooking appliances, re-planting my herb garden after it is inevitably eaten by possums, and reading one of my new books or old vogue, delicious or gourmet traveller magazines.
When do you feel at your best and when you feel at your worst how do you get through it?
I feel at my best when I’m relaxing, eating and drinking with family and friends. Long lazy lunches, bustling through markets and just hanging out and reminiscing. It sounds lazy, but I love it when I have ‘nothing to do’ meaning nothing urgent because I never have ‘nothing to do.’
Obviously, there’s often times when I get sick of blogging and lose motivation, but generally all I have to do is make a conscious decision to take a week or so off and not focus on the problem. Writers block is a killer. Usually the drought is broken when I taste some fabulous food that I want to tell the world about! That, or moan enough to anyone who will listen to me and force them, to force me, to do some work!
Why do you do what you do?
Get Visible: if there’s anything else you’d like to add, speak now or forever hold your peace!
It’s great to see that Brisbane is really surging ahead in the food stakes. It’s no secret that we have been about 20 years behind the other states but we are starting to catch up. I’m really happy to report on all the triumphs happening in QLD – be it restaurants, produce, wineries or anything food related. We are now represented by a small but savvy contingent of food bloggers and people are starting to understand the value of good food. It’s also fabulous to see such a young element to the dining/food scene- lots of enthusiasm and vigour which is really shining through.
Check out the Gastronomy Gal blog at http://gastronomy-gal.blogspot.com/
Lost Generation
May 19, 2010 by Sarah Moran
Filed under Citywide Crew
This video has been viewed over 13.5 million times on YouTube. It speaks to a lot of young people, including a number of those involved in the Brisbane Youth Environment Network.
The Brisbane Youth Environment Network (or BYEN for short) have used this video in presentations to high schools to communicate how they feel and to invite anyone who would like to be involved in their work to join the BYEN team.
BYEN has been meeting at Visible Ink Valley on the first Saturday of each month and generally attracts high school age young people interested in being involved in creating a sustainable future in Brisbane.
The Brisbane Youth Environment Network began as an outcome of the Lord Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council in 2009. Last year, the team developed the idea of “Is this beautiful? Is this inevitable?” as a way of communicating environmental sustainability messages that resonated with a younger audience.
Interested? To find out more, check out the info page on BYEN here or contact the team at brisbaneyouthenviro@gmail.com.
You can also download the BYEN fact sheet to share with your friends here.
Young People Defining Brisbane
January 4, 2010 by Sarah Moran
Filed under Citywide Crew
Brisbane City Council’s youth program, Visible Ink, is looking to showcase young people who are doing interesting things around Brisbane. If you’re an active young person with a story to tell we’d love to show off your stuff on our website!
