I have lived...

in my parents home, where I spent my first seventeen years in a lilac coloured bedroom - my favorite colour as a child. We walked to school, we jumped the back fence to play with our neighbors, we skinned our knees on the driveway, we smoked cigarettes in the park at the end of our street. Now when I return as an adult, the same glow in the dark stars adhere to the ceiling above the same lilac walls.

in the ground floor of my a small apartment building, across a busy road from a cemetery. At nights the sounds of trucks and trains would lull me to sleep. There were mice in the kitchen. They had babies behind the fridge. The first night we set traps we couldn't sleep. When we heard them 'snap' we didn't want to leave our beds to deal with the consequences. In the morning trap and all went in the bin. When I moved it took me a long time to adjust to the silence of a suburban night without trucks and trains.

in an old Queenslander, where I grew my first tomatoes outside the kitchen window. I turned the sleep-out in to my studio while I studied at Uni. Eventually I realised I would never be the artist I dreamt of being. I wasn't destined to be a painter, as much as my heart desired it. Instead I started searching for my medium and studied photography, installation, book binding and writing, before serendipitously arriving at gold and silver-smithing - and realising I'd found it. In that house I learnt more about love and friendship than ever before. A little part of me is still there, stepping on the creaking floor boards and looking out the stained glass windows.

in a share house full of uni students. The washing machine broke and we washed our clothes in the bath. I had a Venus fly trap in a small pot on my balcony. A milk crate as a bedside table. I would jump the back fence to visit my friends. I learnt about breaking up, when love alone isn't enough. The nights were coloured by wine, cigarettes, music and talk of art.

in units, cottages, apartments and houses in Ipswich, Brisbane, Greece and the Gold Coast. I have walked their streets, spoken to their neighbours, checked their letter boxes, locked their doors, unpacked and packed within their walls.

in my home, where my children sleep in their beds with toys and blankets that I have made for them. Where I've turned the garden over to fruit, vegetables and herbs. Where I get lost in my own world, working at my jewellery bench in my studio, with the desire to create something new. Where I watch as my tummy grows and we await the arrival of another blessing. And where I see myself, roots firmly planted, helping my children choose paint colours and stick glowing stars to their ceilings.