oh my!

came across these prints (which are currently out of stock) at Ork Posters and think this may be the perfect reminder of K's super casual but super excellent proposal whilst we were in Brooklyn, NYC. I can see this framed and hanging in every place we'll ever live....definitely purchasing this once we settle in, in Melbourne.

one last thing

i got back into twine this year....especially since i have started to boycott wrapping paper (unless it's recycled of course!) and this looks like the perfect twine accessory! made by the small object

oh, to nest!

we are moving to melbourne in february and as we have been travelling hobos for a while now, i am so excited about being able to have a house and to be able to buy things in aid of decoration!

found a site called cut and paste which has many cute things and will definitely help with the handmade pledge i am about to make! they stock lots of gorgeous hand made things! including this print by ashley g.

(after posting this i realised that my subconscience must be running wild....the above image appealed to me so much and after looking at it, it is of a man, woman and 'child'....nesting indeed! damn that clucky feeling! eeeep! i can't help it!)

best christmas ever

well folks, that would have to have been the best christmas ever. an extended celebration spanning from the 22nd - 28th and it was LOVELY! Instead of rushing around like crazy, we had days designated for different parts of K and I's family and it was beautiful. not to mention HOT. it was 44 degrees on christmas day and 45 degrees on boxing day....

i've only been blogging for 2 months and have to say, after witnessing everyone's pure genious (craft genious that is) i am already looking forward to the year ahead of continuing on with everything crafty. plus, taking the handmade pledge and delighting in sending my friends and family handmade things. sometimes craft gets hated on....people just need to give it a chance!

check out these cute trees - there is a tutorial at the small object

although now christmas is over it seems like there is nothing between me and the day K and i are getting married. it's seriously soon.....i have major butterflies in my stomach.

am i being greedy?

okay, this always happens. you buy something. you think you are happy. then you see something else and your mind starts to wander....

the white ones of these would go PERFECTLY with my wedding dress!

kyo hashimoto's jewellery is amazing. and not too expensive either (still $72 is a far cry from $5.95)

all i want for christmas...

all i want for christmas is to look as cute as this!

marimekko has done it again!

Bakin' with Bacon (Kevin Bacon that is)

our friends who live on tate street are hosting a christmas party and each of us has been given a job so we can all come together tonight and feast on barbecued meats, whole fish, cocktails, cheese, salads, tapas and more!

now one thing i have always wanted to chef but have never felt i could do, was to bake a lime tart. i don't know why i'm so intimidated by the lime tart. maybe because it's one of my fave desserts to order at a restaurant. anyway, after aquiring a 'loose-bottomed tart pan' (long story but it involves a K tantrum, a last minute trip into Claremont to find the RIGHT tart pan, purchasing a $500 knife set and home again) we began our mission to bake!

by this time it's about 9pm already (daylight savings can make a night slip away!) and i realised that i had missed a vital lime tart ingredient....icing sugar. i am notoriously horrendous at reading recipes which is another reason why i never usually bake such high-class dishes! so at 10pm at night, K and i pull our sneakers on, jump on our bikes and ride off into the night to the closest 24hr supermarket and buy some icing sugar.

i am so besotted by the lime tart that never once did my enthusiasm drop. sure, i complained. sure, K had mini-tantrums. but our dedication to the tart was unwavering!

after making the pastry we decided to take it a notch down and switch from music to television. bad choice. we ended up 'Baking with Kevin Bacon' as some very low-qual tele-movie was on. about how he had been hypnotised and saw dead people...i'm not even going to dignify it with giving it a synopsis. it was shit. K was hooked. our lime tart progressed.

12:30am and lime tart was complete. Kevin Bacon bid us goodnight and we went to bed feeling wholesome, satisfied, and in love!

i will post the recipe next time. it's super easy and apart from all of the 'waiting' 'cooling' 'baking' that comes with pastry - it's a delight to make. especially if you love cooking!

very inspiring

pretty....stuff by thomas campbell

christmas

so many crafty bloggers have been discussing christmas....i wish i had more time and money to get stuck into some handmade gifts this year. next year though, i'm taking the buy only handmade pledge (i've never had a new years resolution before - this will be my first!) but i always make cards. this year i have combined card and gift tag and made these. i have a gorgeous new ink pad and the colour is called 'lettuce'...i like it!

just in time

just when time was beginning to run out and just when i wasn't looking. finally! earrings to wear with my wedding dress. and for some reason i got a huge kick out of the fact that they were only $5.95.

keeping them safe in a little pill box ruth bought back from sri lanka for us...

i want these....

do these make anyone else wanna totally curl up and die in a fit of outrageous desire? maybe it's just that K and i are about to have our own house next year. maybe it's because i'm ready to nest that pillowcases seem so appealing...

find them here (loads of other cool stuff too)

calender obsession

i get so excited about diaries and calenders at normal times of the year, let alone at the end of a year! here is one that is pure eye candy. not sure how practical it would be but maybe it would become a nice morning ritual...

daft punk

with the forecast for thunderstorms, we made our way to the esplanade in the city with our emergency ponchos at the ready, to see daft punk.

what a show. i am going to be drawing triangles for weeks....their giant, lit up pyramid. their robot costumes! their grid of triangles that lit up in a myriad of colours and sequences. it was a visual feast. K and i swore we'd see triangles in our sleep.

i had to laugh at all the people who were out of their tree - i mean, that light show spun me out and i was sober.....

oh daft punk, you are eternally cool.

christmas goodies

today has been a lovely day at the gallery. received 3 gifts! a beautiful handmade christmas cake wrapped in paper and twine from my favourite artist Margaret Vinciguerra, a box of cherries from another artist and some beautiful berry jam from Torbay from another lady. Thank you!

tonight i am looking forward to a quiet night in. i have bought supplies to make christmas cards. after receiving a christmas card from my sister and kids who live in Tom Price, i feel inspired and motivated to get some in the post. I'm going to make 10 and thats it....

early christmas present for myself!

came across this delightful bag by Belle Bijoux and after having coffee with Belle this morning to view the sample, have purchased one. it will be made and ready to pick up before christmas. the leather detail is delish! Thankyou Belle for taking time out of your crazy busy schedule to show me the bag! It's my first, proper, grown-up-lady handbag!

weekend

best weekend in ages. loads of time with K. normally there aren't ever shells on our beach so i was delighted to find these! collected them thinking of mum. ate delicious lunches. cleaned our bedroom (clean sheats, oh yeah!) and had a beer with friends last night. starting to get the beach back into our lives - it is only a 5 minute walk from our house. the weather is sublime. sorry to our friends who are living in the northern hemisphere where it's gettin' chilly....this is what you are missing out on! a hot christmas is the best...

calender

i've been trying to design my own calender for next year after being not so happy with the calenders on offer. i haven't quite managed to finish the design but i did come up with this happy, calender-inspired hand-drawn pattern. excuse the drawings you can see from the other side of the paper. again unfortunately, the scanner does not do my gorgeous polychromos pencils justice!

so perfect

it kills me that this photo is not focused properly. this is a door i spotted somewhere in new york city and it honestly is probably the most accurate image of everything i love at the moment. the shapes, the colour combinations.....it all kills me! can anyone help me out as to where in nyc it is?

adopted lily

ruth saved this lily from the pond of a house that was going to be demolished. it has settled into the backyard pond very well, don't you think? it was begging to have it's photo taken when K and i returned from our saturday morning walk at the beach.

papercuttin'

papercutting is deliciously and instantly gratifying for anyone who wants to cut and play with something pretty in seconds!

bright light of afternoon

having a contemplative cup of peppermint tea. thinking how much i love daylight savings and how annoying people are who complain about it. tired, heavy eyes. been experimenting with hand drawn patterns and it's hard to continue when things don't go so well. luckily my journal has many pages and i just stick another piece of paper over anything i don't like. i close my eyes and pick out two pencils from my pencil box and they are the colours i use for my pattern of the moment. not really making any patterns that i like so much, but i'll keep on - you never know what might pop up!

nathalie lete's cutie-patutti bunnies

these are some gorgeous postcards done by Nathalie Lete and i can't wait to frame them. she is such an amazing illustrator not to mention creator of all things gorgeous! very inspiring.

december rain

novelty rain (such as today's) gets me in the mood for crafting!

i have a few projects on the go and have to be careful not to just do a whole lotta nothing and actually try and finish things carefully.

K and i are going to a late movie tonight at the Luna. Rescue Dawn by Werner Herzog - a favourite director. hopefully it's worth staying up for.

with the prospect of more time on my hands now that volunteering has nearly come to an end, i am happy. trying to convince father christmas to bring me a holgaroid (a holga with a polaroid back)and it looks mighty fun....filled with instant low-fi gratification! c'arn santa!

colouring in is forever

i still love colouring in.

christmas time reminds me of colouring in with my little sister.

here are two buki geometric patterns that i have coloured in. buki is the greatest, cutest, loveliest company that makes educational, crafty toys. they fill me with such nostalgia!

they have loads of great gift ideas for any creative person of any age!

more inspiration...

thanks to anastasia i found this cute website a fine little day...go on, look at it! you know you want too!

(nina, sonny & lici...go on! look!)

so cute it hurts!

was having a lil meander around the place and i found these...knitted hotdogs, robots, cups of coffee, tv dinners! eeep!

the world would be in trouble if i could knit/crochet like this!

BNice2Mice you are so talented!

and so it begins again....

back at work and the exhibition cycle begins again (just had an opening on friday night and i begin organising the next exhibition immediately after).

had a great night volunteering last night. it was the australian premier of stan alley's documentary FIGWIT as part of the ByteMe! 07 digital content festival. Oh yeah, thats what i've been volunteering at. it's on till sunday, check out the website below! i have been picking the brains of some great international and local artists.

very inspiring despite a pathetic attendance from perth locals as usual! oh well, not to be disenchanted!

cups-o-tea & snowbunny sewing in the sun

well my solitary day off has arrived and i am happy to say that i am lounging in my lotus pj pants, drinking cups of tea and finishing up sewing my second snow bunny to the sounds of radio national. no one is home and i've been ignoring the phone (except for when you rang mum!) and it feels very good. i have volunteering again tonight for a few hours which i wish i didn't, but i do.

managed to take a photo of my recent fabric acquisitions. how cute is the gorgeous japanese mushroom fabric? it was only $12.99 from spotlight of all places. i bought 1 metre of each without any project in mind but have since decided upon making a sturdy tote with possibly a pink gingham lining. i'm determined to do one completely by the book and have been scouring online tutorials for the perfect pattern. the mushrooms deserve nothing less than perfection!

ninoo! i miss oo!

today i am crafting away and am reminded of the recent departure of one of my long time crafting besties - nina. love you!

puffy eyed panda

i am beyond exhausted....just wanna stay home in my pj's and finish sewing my new snow bunny and begin other assorted crafty projects. all in the name of a deathly combination of work and volunteering! tomorrow i have the whole day off and all i have in mind is cups of peppermint tea, vegemite toast and hand-sewing in bed. heaven!