chat-less

I'm back. I managed to slip away for a few days over Christmas to take our anual trip up north to spend Christmas with Mr You's family. The negotiations at work ended in a compromise that I could go for a few days, if I worked from up there, and if I could prevent the clients from noticing that I was away (shh, don't tell anyone). It worked! I'm back now though, and back at work.

Mr You is still away and I must admit I'm a wee bit lost without him. I'm bored and lonely, I haven't got back into the swing of things yet, and I've forgotten what it is that I do in my spare time (well I remember, I'm just a bit apprehensive about jumping back into them all after such a relaxing weekend).

It's very strange coming home, and then not saying a word or making a sound until you go out the next day.

I miss having someone to welcome me home, and chatter to, and play with. It's really unsatisfying just talking on the phone, I don't like it; it leaves me feeling empty and wilted.

I had a great Christmas weekend get-away, but I'll tell you more about it once I regain my chatter.

merry merry

Wishing happiness to you all this holiday, where ever you may be.

morph

Am I envious or starstruck that my friend Lacey-T got to go to the Morph show in Adelaide? I sent her a huge email when I found out it was going to be on urging her to go. She's not much into blogs, but is quite crafty and can knit up a storm (or a damn fine scarf at least), so I knew she'd love it. I wish I could have gone too, but as Adelaide is a good 2 days drive from here...

Anyway, turns out she did love it, and sent me these mementoes. I just can't believe she got to see Hillary's dolls, and Claire's cats, and Heidi's toast and donuts, not to mention everyone else's stuff too. I'm so so starstruck! It's probably lucky I couldn't go, I may have drooled or tripped or something equally as foolish and destructive.

pocket yourself a pile of...

Okay okay, so I’m running really behind, behind in everything in fact. This entry is for Camilla’s Peeping Friday (thanks to Miss May for the idea). Last week’s topic was “show me what’s inside your handbag”, so here’s mine, somewhat late, although I did take the photos last Friday so technically it’s a-okay.

A while ago the cheap lining in my bag ripped so I re-lined it in a super customised fashion to meet all my bag-like needs. I needed a pocket for my phone so it’s easy to get to in a hurry, I also decided to make a pocket for my keys so I can cut down on that 5 minute rummage outside the door each evening. Then I was on a roll… I made a pocket for my sketchbook, a pocket for my pens and a secure zipped pocket for little bits and pieces. I was about to make a pocket for my sunglasses when I realised that if I kept going there’d be nothing left to put in the actual bag bit. So I stopped just in time.



This was a good day to photograph my bag innards actually, the night before I’d done a bag swap for my work Christmas party fancy dinner thing. The next morning when putting everything back in my trusty day bag I did a bit of a clean out, which is why it look so tidy in there. Rest assured though, there are ample pockets you can’t see still filled with miscellaneous stockpiles of barely-held-together scraps of paper and tissues and other junk. Pockets do wonders!

i'm a greedy weakling

My Christmas shopping plans may have swayed just a little off course this week... I bought something for myself instead! heh-heh.

You see it's like this, when you haven't been shopping in ages, and then you're let loose in amongst a wild shopping frenzy, things are bound to go a little awry. Especially when you’re heading into stores and departments you don’t normally cross, so you can hardly blame me right? I was a helpless victim really.

This week I fell absolutely head-over-heels for this book. Some might say it’s merely a children’s book, mind you it’s children’s books that are usually the most beautiful. It’s presented under the guise of a dolls house, but isn’t really about dolls at all.
(which is my way of saying "I'm cool man. No girly dolls for me. Not me, No Sir")

It takes you through a number of historic periods, starting with Medieval England, 18th Century France, Victorian England, and finally to Belle Époque. Each era outlines the customary costume (including headwear, jewellery, shoes, bags and gloves), and common pastimes, but the best parts are the pop-up houses. The houses show not only the outside but also the inside and talk about home deco and art of the time. The book is filled with fabric swatches, pop-up and fold-out parts, and is all presented in beautiful quaint illustration. Even the front cover has a tactile velvet pattern and a tassel. YES A TASSEL! So you see why I just HAD to have it!

There are lots more photo’s of it in my Flickr.

eiy eiy babushka babushka

I nearly fell over when I realised there's only one weekend left before Christmas. So the frenzied Christmas gift shopping has begun. It's been pretty successful so far, check out these fantastic babushka dolls I picked up! (complete with blurry-bum photo; they're shy). I'm in love.

the good, the bad, and the funny

The good? Today I saw that someone had a huge bunch of fresh green grapes hanging from their rear vision mirror in their car. Such a great idea, I’m always up for a snack.

The funny? Yesterday I walked past the huge Masonic temple building a few blocks from my work. Standing just outside the doorway was a man in a suit with his head buried in a book, furiously reading. As I walked past him I glanced at the book that had him so absorbed. Without a word of a lie the title of the book was “Masonites for dummies”!

Do you think he was on his way to an important meeting, or cramming for his entrance exam?

AND I thought the whole Masonic order was super top secret…

I’ve saved the bad until last.
The bad? Yesterday was so so hot, 40 C, which is about 104 F. One of those days when it’s so hot it feels like the liquid centres of your eyes are cooking like a boiled egg. After work I took myself off to Bronte beach for a swim. At 7:30pm the beach was still packed like it was the middle of the day, but the water was amazing. It was really cooling and cleansing and de-stressing, just the ticket really…Until…

Today Mr You sent me a link to a news report about a shark at Bronte and Bondi yesterday evening. And when I say shark, apparently it was about 4-5 meters long (that’s about 12-16 foot) and it’s fin stuck up out of the water about 1 meter (that’s 3 foot). Holy Crap!

I had no idea, and I certainly didn't hear anyone screaming like a monkey. (read the eyewitness accounts for a good laugh).

small and blue

My Illustration Friday entry for 'blue', and this one is also for 'small'.

I missed IF last week, but because I loved the theme so much, I’ve combined it with this weeks theme. So I’ve illustrated ‘small’ using ‘blue’ (plus she’s looking a little blue).

You see, the fact of the matter is that I am small. I always have been, and now it seems I always will be. With this all over smallness come small hands and small feet. My feet are so small that I spent my high school and uni years with masking tape around my ankles just to stop my ‘normal human’ sized socks from sliding off. I have since resorted to wearing children’s socks, which unfortunately has left me with a sock drawer of teddy bears, puppy dogs, flowers and superheros. It’s so embarrassing.

What’s worse is that last time I went to the physio, while busy bending parts of me this way and that, she reached my feet and said “My what small hoofs you have!”
HOOFS!? Did you hear that? THAT's how small my feet are!

let's call her pinky

We're getting a God Baby! Weeeeeeeeeeee

"What's a God Baby" I hear you ask. Well from what I can work out it's a baby of the best kind. A baby that you don’t have to give birth to (someone else has kindly done that for us), and I’m assured that the process of Mr You and I becoming God parents involves absolutely no pain! Come to think of it I’m not too sure what it does involve, (something about never forgetting birthdays, I’d better google it), but as long as it doesn’t hurt I’m totally in!

We're completely chuffed about the whole thing, but also a little freaked out, we don’t really know anything about babies, except you’re not suppose to shake them. We’ve been friends with her parents for a long time, but shouldn’t there be some kind of interview process? I mean are they aware of all our bad habits?

Do they know that when no one is looking I'll take a huge spoonful of peanut butter right out of the jar and spend the next 20 minutes licking it off?
Or that if there is chocolate in the house Mr You will eat it with his morning coffee, before breakfast?
Or that I clean my teeth using warm water so that each day I can deny there’s any hurting sensation and that I may in fact need to visit a dentist?

Are we the type to be trusted with such a pretty little girl?
Maybe we need to do a course.

come hibernate

I'm still crazy busy at work, only this week I'm feeling much less perky about the whole thing. It all went south when I was told I'd have to work over Christmas...
I've been stressed, frik'n cranky and verging on being a sobbing heap ever since. We were planning on going away (as we do every year), and I was really really hanging out for it. But now it's like my goal posts have been burnt to the ground and there's no end in sight. HHMMPH!

I did warn you about the crankiness.

I could quite conceivably hand in my notice tomorrow and be resigned before Christmas arrives. Arh, but do I have the gall? Probably not. Though the thought does make me smile.

Anyway, at times like these I like to pretend, for small amounts of time, that I never have to go outside into the business world ever again. So come with me, bunker down, and I'll show you some of the interesting aspects of my wee house.
(Including a couple of fireplaces, tiles, stain glass windows, frilly front door screen, and noseless hallway arch sphinx).



Sydney is filled with federation houses built around 1880-1910. Ours is one of them, (I say ours, but sadly it belongs to someone else who, with our help, can afford to own a house). This time last year we lived in a flat (apartment), which was boxy and modern. Now we have a quirky old house with a skylight in the kitchen, a back yard, and shiny shiny floorboards the whole way through. I love it. Let's never leave.

busy busy busy

I love this week's Illustration Friday topic, and I'm dying to do an illo for it, but I've been so busy I haven't had a chance. ("Small" is me to a tea). I might try and do one on the weekend and post it anyway.

I've been in meetings at work all week, my biggest project (that I've been working on since June) is handing over today, eeek. I've really enjoyed this job though, the clients are lovely, which makes a huge difference. I've also finally got stuff up on ebay, and I wont have any illo time tonight either as we're going to the opening night of the new Harry Potter movie! (if I get away from work in time).

It's actually all very exciting! I can't wait to see Harry Potter. Kilkenny managed to score tickets through his seriously perk-filled work, but I don't think he's anywhere near as excited about it as Mr You, Elle and I are.

I also had the bigggest laugh writing the completely fruity descriptions for my ebay items. I'm a bit nervous about how they'll go, they're pretty... well "pretty". It's not my usual style (much more girly than I'm used to), but Jiang at work was my muse for these ones. She's obsessed with that shabby chic style, and has been encouraging me alot (giving me loads of ideas), so we'll see how they go. You've got to start somewhere right? It's been good fun sewing. I actually really love the way the Christmas decorations turned out, considering how simple they are.

If you're into all things "pretty pretty", check them out, and have a good laugh at my awsome copywriting while you're at it.