picnic in the sun

what to call them?

A moment of panic when I realised that the back of the fabric was just as pretty as the front. Aargh!

I used it anyway and made three little creatures, a bit bit like bears, a bit like grins, but not quite either.

Why does everything I make lately come with a scarf? I don't know, but tiny scarfs sure are cute.

Uh-huh. What would you call them?

(ps. thanks for all your lovely nesting comments, I feel a sense of comradeship that is helping, it really is! I'll be back soon, I think)

have you seen

Meet Me At Mike's new forum?


Oh I'm super excited about it. A place to share ideas and inspirations, talk about crafty things and discuss issues and new perspectives. A place to get advice, find out things, and see what other people think. A place to find out what's new and coming up and what you can get involved in, a place to meet new peeps and make new friends. Yes. I'm excited. If you haven't already, go join now.
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Pip has done it again. I'll see you there! Hurray!

nesting

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When I am confused about the world, or my place in it, when I am a bit sad, or feel a bit out-of-place, or when change whirls around me and makes my head spin, I nest. You know what I mean; so far today I have cleaned the house, done laundry, rearranged noticeboards, moved furniture, updated my inspiration board, sorted books and papers, and now I'm baking. I find this kind of domesticity calming and soothing , and I guess it's because no matter what is going on in the world, if I can get your little corner of it neat and pretty, I feel like you I a handle on something. If it's just colour coordinating cushions. Even if I know that, really, it makes no difference in the grand scheme of things. It makes me feel better, so when all else fails, I alphabetise my recipes.
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I was thinking of these things when taking the rubbish out to the lane way behind my house, and when I found a nest lying in the gutter. Coincidence, no?

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When I'm done, I know I will sit for a while, in my nest and think about things, then I will feel better and able to go out into the world again.

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Do you nest? When? What kind do you do? Does it make you feel better?

tweet tweet

I've finally done it. I've succumbed to the madness that is twitter. Looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about, and having another thing to do when I feel like bludging but looking Very Busy And Important.

I like this explanation of Twitter from First Blog on the Moon

I like Twitter because it takes the funnest of inconsequential human interactions and turns them into a web application. It is a zillion overheard conversations at the shop, on the train, in the park. It is a quick chat in the hall at work with someone about something related not to work or related to it. You can dip in and out as you like. It makes eavesdropping a good thing (as if it wasn’t).

Are you on twitter? What's your favourite thing about it? Is there a twitter code of manners I ought to know about?

Oh ps. it would be cool if you followed me, but only if you want to.

I'll be ready

from Home Sweet Home via {whimsicalities}

he speaks the truth

and he's cute too.

from i can read

a blog written by a pigeon

If you'd like to spend/waste a few hours looking at exciting new blogs/ the worst blogs you've ever seen head on over and check out the nominations for the 2009 bloggers choice awards.
Categories include best business blog, best hobby blog, best animal blog, best blog of all time, worst blog of all time, most freakish blog.
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My personal favourites include:
pigeon blog. Written by Brian. A pigeon.
As I Was Saying. A personal journal with some funny funny stuff. Funny. Read it.
Cook to Bang. Recipes to get you laid. I have no personal experience to back this up. I will let you know.
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You can also nominate a blog for an award and/or vote for one already nominated. There are so many great blogs out there, I think we ought to recognise them, don't you?

I just nominated pottymouthmama for Hottest Mommy Blogger and Hobby Blog . If you don't know her already, Lexu is funny and down-to-earth and always makes me smile with her ongoing adventures in baby-wrangling (her words), trash hunting, second-hand shopping, craftiness and everyday life. Check out her blog, and make sure you go vote for her!

(you need to register to vote, but it only takes a sec and then you can vote for other blogs too, or nominate your favourites.) Go on, go vote!

WE ARE... happy

Loving this collaborative project that brings together etsy artists to illustrate a monthly themed colouring book. It's printed on lovely thick paper and this edition features 14 artists. Also the theme is splendid. (Almost said awesome. Used thesaurus. Excellent.)

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It's the WE ARE... colouring book. Tremendous.

travel size

Do you remember when I went on a monster binge a while back? When I brought out the very first one I made, my lovely sweet awesome housemate Ruth stared, and without a word tucked him under her arm, named him Weeoo, and refused to give him back. Now she is jetting off to Morocco in only 2 sleeps and with very limited packing space cannot take frivolous things, even if they do have three eyes and are very very cute. That made her a bit sad.

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So I made her a travel Weeoo. Pocket sized. With handy keyring attachment.

He's gonna travel the world, keep her safe and after all the fun and amazing journeys and new friends and sites seen and general incredibleness, bring her back home to drink wine, talk about boys and mull over the meaning of life. Oh and eat holoumi. Best.Cheese.Ever.

I'm going to miss you Ruth.

x

spell-it-out

You, yes you, can win one of these lovely scrabble word brooches just by visiting this lovely blog and leaving a comment! Yes, you can!

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You can see more on the Chasing Snails blog. I like the the 'hope' one. And the 'nerd' one too. Yes, I do. If you win, you can pick whichever one you like. Off you go!

little monsters

So I got an email last week from these guys, saying that my work was selling so well, could I send some more please? So I went *gasp* well of course and stitched and stitched and posted off these little guys today.

They're much much smaller than Leon, I used up the leftover fur and felt and had more fun embroidering little tattoos.

I almost kept them...

guys backflipping into jeans

Watch Guys backflip into jeans in Entertainment View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

found via Icing Gala

photo a day in August (Part 3)

Day 9

Day 12

Day 13


Day 14

Day 15

(for photo a day)

Super (dooper)

Ruban Rat is a designer toy store and gallery that have just moved from Newtown just a skip and a jump away to Stanmore in Sydney's Inner West. They have clothes and art too. Super dooper glad I found them because I was sad to think they'd disappeared.

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This is what the store looked like in Newtown. I can't wait to visit the new one and get all inspired up.

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I especially love it because it's the first place I saw the work of cat rabbit who is double super dooper. Really.

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TRIPLE super dooper is the Monster Invasion plushie exhibition they're having soon.
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I know I'm spruiking them heaps but, well, I am unashamedly because they're a plushie art gallery and local designers and I love!

quick! QUICK!

(image)

During the year I have felt creeping around the corners a sense of urgency in my creativeness and working life that I have only now put a name to. I don't like it. A feeling that somehow you can only do great leaps of things when you're a certain age, that I better make up my mind because I'm getting older. Of course logically I know this is a load of rubbish, but it still niggles like a true irrational thought. I don't like to think that I must decide and stick to something. I'm more of a sporadic 'ooh look at that shiny thing follow it follow it.. ooh look over there that looks like fun follow it follow it follow it...' kind of girl (which is another thing, do you call yourself a woman or a girl? 'Woman' seems to imply more than I can fit on my shoulders sometimes). Like perhaps with age my enthusiasms and interest will escape me and if I haven't achieved something extraordinary then I may wake up and wonder what happened.

Seeing those damn teenage entrepreneurs in the paper doesn't help. Or the middle-aged people on the train that seem resigned to whatever their lot is, standing slumped and withdrawn. They scare me. They leapt over puddles once. Where does creativity and zeal go? Can you keep learning and exploring all of your long long life? Can I keep wandering around through life trying things and seeing how they go? Or is there some kind of maturity code that stipulates the time to 'settle down' and make up your mind? Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? Will we ever know?

Have you ever felt this urgency? What did you do?

when can it be delivered?

The TV Tub is by industrial designer Karim Rashid. It's a one piece design, which includes a waterproof television. The TV is incorporated organically into the shape and design of the tub. The TV Tub is part of the Karim Rashid Collection for Saturn Bath Company of Korea. The oval tub is made out of liquid acrylic resin.
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Bubble bath with wine while watching a great movie? I'll take two.

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Via Unplgged

clones please

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Sometimes I wish there were more than one of me. One doesn't seem enough to do the things I want, to try every idea, follow every dream, pursue all the interesting things in the world, read all the good books, meet all the lovely people, go to all the amazing places. I'd like a few clones please. Or perhaps more hours in the day? The ability to survive without sleep? (although that is one of my favourite things).

Argh. I am exasperated today. It seems I find so many things so darn interesting that I pursue so much and never get anything done. I mean I know I must, but sometimes it-just-doesn't-feel-like-it. Can I live this life over twice?

Greatness

by eddie. damn straight.

Prairie Boots

Comfy and cozy Prairie Boots will get you through the coldest of winters. Turn them down for ankle length or leave them up to keep your shins warm. You don’t need to seam – just add funky buttons and they are ready to wear. Warning: it is so fun to watch them take shape on your needles that you may become addicted. But that’s okay, they make great gifts!

(make a pair for me, m-kay?) pattern at CocoKnits

fabulous

The awesome Laura at BrownEyedGirl has tagged me, yay! I do like being tagged, it often leads to thinking about and posting about something I wouldn't usually. It is about things that make you feel fabulous/sexy/beautiful, so here I go (the rules say you have to list 5 things and then tag five others to do the same.)

1. That feeling you get when your outfit all matches and you're pretty sure you look totally awesome, so you walk with a bounce in your step.

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(image)

2. Random compliments. From strangers, or friends.

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3. New tattoo (slightly dodgy pic)

4. New underwear. Matching ones.

(etsy)

5. Forehead kisses.
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(image)

So what makes you feel fabulous?

(p.s. has anyone noticed that I seem to have substituted 'awesome' for 'lovely' in the word-I-use-an-awful-lot?)

I tag:
Mim at Cornflakes for Tea
Jess at ALifeSoPeachy
Bek at RedChocolate
Kathy at ChunkyChooky
and Jenny at PaperLion

I am pretty awesome, actually

Sally at Georgie love has been posting this week about what makes her AWESOME (and she is pretty darn awesome) and about how and why it is so hard for many of us to admit to our own awesomeness.
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Here is some of her post.
It genuinely distresses me to think how much time and energy we ALL secretly invest into feeling bad about ourselves. All that time and energy we invest wanting to be thinner, smarter, beautiful, more creative, more like that other girl over there, I want to live in their house, but have her bank balance and that wardrobe. I don't want my daughter Ruby to grow up feeling like she needs to change herself in any way to be happy, the idea makes me both angry and sick. I don't want to pass on all my paranoia and fears and moments of self loathing. I have spent a LOT of time thinking about these sorts of things and subsequently removing all the people out of my life who don't make me feel good to be around.I am sick of media who attempt to make us feel unworthy so we spend and waste money to feel better about ourselves. Mean people who put others down so they feel better about themselves, but I don't blame them. I am 100% responsible for how I feel about myself and whether I fall for that bullshit. (note: edited to clarify that I don't read magazines apart from Frankie & cooking ones usually!)So today I will tell you that I am TOPS. I am very, very nice. And especially so are you. Every day for a week I am going to write something that I like about myself and I think you should too because I like you and we need to spend our time and mental energy on more positive and productive things, yes? We need to live and be happy in the here and now, rather thinking that we will be happy or more desirable if we were different in any way. We are perfect now. You know what IS IN. Confidence and happiness. I'll be having some of that please.


And so this week I have been thinking about what makes me pretty darn awesome just-the-way-I-am. I will post about it this week. Sally's right, it is hard to talk about self-awesomeness. But I will try.

I wonder...

If i... from Tim Brown on Vimeo.

(via the lovely SwissMiss)

little gooey balls of goodness

On the weekend I made gnocchi with my friend/housemate. It's very nice to post something a bit culinary for Recipe Monday, instead of takeout and red wine. They were little gooey balls of goodness. Really, they were.

Ruth's Gnocchi

Boil some potatoes until cooked. The trick is to keep out as much water as you can so you need less flour later on, so don't chop the potatoes into small pieces, and use waxy potatoes like those ones with the purple skin.

When they're cooked, whiz them up to a smooth mash paste. You can add an egg now if you like. We did.

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Then stir in flour until it's doughy. Just a bit sticky, but so you can pick up a blob.

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Now pick up a blob and roll it around to make a little ball of dough. Repeat until you've used up all your dough, or have enough little blobs for your dinner. I recommend watching Flight of The Concord's during this stage. Also good for chatting.

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Try to make them all the same size, not varying wildly like mine. Mine also had cracks and lumps, but I think that gave them character.

Drop into boiling water in small batches. They sink and then, in a few seconds, blop! they rise up and float. Scoop the floating ones out and into a colander.

Add sauce (this one is cream tomato, but I tried them on Sunday just with butter and herbs and that was yummy too), baby spinach leaves and Parmesan cheese.

Pour a glass of wine, make loud 'mmMMMMmmm' noises as you chomp them all up, and leave the flour-covered kitchen for later.

vintage sewing patterns

Over the past few days I have spent a ridiculous amount on vintage sewing patterns on ebay. I like to consider them an investment, for this shop which is yet to be but feels closer every day. I've been randomly stockpiling crafty stuff and supplier details, and have been writing business and financial plans and such. It may not be just a dream after all, and I'll tell you more about it when I have more to tell, I promise.
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Meanwhile, it's rice and beans for me for a few weeks- but aren't they lovely?
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(while writing this post I've surreptitiously bid on 3 more patterns. A 50's rockabilly dress at only 3 bucks? I need to STEP AWAY FROM EBAY)