earth hour

Last Saturday night I was dancing about in a swan dress.
This Saturday night I hope to be sitting quietly in the dark.

At 7:30pm tonight, households and businesses across Sydney are being invited to turn off their lights and appliances for one hour. It’s called Earth Hour and it’s an initiative to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s been well planned to fall at a time of the year where people aren’t likely to need heaters or air conditioning on. It’s also been well publicised. The main aim is to get all those skyscrapers that keep their lights on during the night (when no-one is working) to switch them off. Big buildings lit up at night is an iconic sight, something we all identify with a city. So imagine what it will be like to have all the lights switched off. Haunting. Perhaps, for some, it will also be reminiscent of the brown-outs during WW2.

Part of me is so freakin’ proud that an entire city can share in a single community spirit to get something like this done. Another part is simply excited to experience the rare opportunity of watching the city skyline vanish into the darkness as the lights all flick off. I really want to go and sit at a spot where we have a good outlook across the city just so I can witness it happen.

Yet part of me is cynical that a few greedy building will keep their lights on just to get the spotlight exposure (although it will be in very bad spirit). Obviously restaurants and pubs won’t be able to switch their lights off, and I guess streetlights will probably have to stay on for liability reasons too. But I hope that it all goes to plan, and shows everyone how doing small bits together we can affect change.

I wonder if we’ll get to see the stars the way you can in the country.


*EDIT: Well, sadly, it wasn't THAT impressive. The harbour bridge and opera house turned off their lights (except the street lights on the bridge and footpath lights around the opera house), and most of the skyscrapers too, but there were still a few that didn't (mainly a floor or two in some buildings). It was a significant reduction though which is better than nothing. If all the street lights had been switched off it would have made a HUGE difference.
The atmosphere was so great (like a mini NYE, but without all the nasty drunk boys staggering about), and I'm really proud to say that most restaurants and pubs that we saw had turned off their lights and were all lit with candles. It was really beautiful actually, quite an occasion.
This is the first time anything like this has been attempted, so hopefully next year there'll be more of a following, and perhaps it will even spread to other cities.

wilson st

There's a great new blog initiative that's just started up called Street (thanks to Love Squalor for the link).
The Street Project Team select a street name, and it's up to the rest of us to locate and photograph that street name in our local area and share it. It's like travelling without having to pack your bags.

I love spending time looking at little towns in other countries on Google Earth, but this has much more peronality and is far more charming.

The first street is Wilson St.


This Wilson Street is in Newtown, Sydney, Australia.
(I just happened to go there yesterday because my local art supply store is a few blocks up on the same street).

duck duck goose

Two of my friends had a combined 30th birthday party on Saturday night. It was a huge bash, great fun, and what's more it was a costume party! We all had to come dressed as something to do with music.

I chose to make myself the frock that Bjork was persecuted for wearing to the oscars. That's right, the swan dress! Although mine looked a little more goose like. Can you pick which one is which? (...the nobbly knees may give it away).

I loved wearing it, and much like the formal dress I only got to wear for one night at the end of my schooling years, I wish I could wear it out again, hehe. So many of the costumes where excellent, and Mr You cut a fine figure dressed as the Blue Wiggle!

(Urgh, now I'm looking at it I wish I'd superimposed Bjork's cute knees over mine as well as her adorable face - talk about fantasy!)

the monstor one year on

This week last year we met Larry, a tropical cyclone who ruined our paradise holiday. It feels so much longer than a year ago, but it's a holiday I'll never forget. I say "ruined our holiday" but really it wasn't that bad. It was inconvenient, frightening, NOT relaxing, but we came away unharmed and with a wild tale to tell, so all's well that ends well right?

If you missed it, there were 3 long drawn out posts about it (one, two and three), and this illustration (which is still one of my favourites).

four and a half hours of hydration

When I left my job last year, instead of being bestowed a gold watch, I was given a box full of Jurlique products and gift vouchers for the day spa (yes, incredibly spoilt). I've never been to day spa before. I've never had a manicure, and I've only ever had one facial. So when I went on Thursday the whole procedure was an entirely new experience for me.

I was there from 10:30 in the morning until 3pm in the afternoon. It was a whole day of indulgence which included 2 different types of mud, more lotions and moisturisers and essential oils than ice in Antarctica, being wrapped up like an ocean rescue victim, about 50 hot towels, 4 head massages! And that wasn’t even half of it.

Giving you an intricate description would take hours, so I’ve been so kind as to provide a quick visual presentation…



It's another world I tell you. The best part was all of the amazing smells. I still have more gift vouchers, but I’ll save them up until I’m in desperate need of another good mud slatherin’.

heart strings

My Illustration Friday attempt for "wired".

my kinda dna

Love Squalor had a go at this, so I throught I'd have a go. I must say I liked the way it turned out, and I'm much happier about sharing the results of this one, than the one a did a while back. (Which was a test to see what kind of love partner you are... Well, I chucked quite the tantrum when it said I was a big baby and gave me a picture of a pacifier to "share with my friends" Pfff)

No baby stuff here...

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the warp and the weft

I'm really having trouble blogging lately. I'm not sure why. I'm busy, but I do have plenty of pockets of time on the computer, and reading other peoples blogs. My chatter has just gone quiet I guess.

I really want to blog, but without anything to say I'm going to just show you some things instead.
As you know I gather fabrics at an alarming rate. I have cupboards full of the stuff, and now it's even stacked knee height in the corner of the loungeroom too. It's all waiting for when I finally get around to sewing again. (Mind you it will seriously take me years to get through it all now). So these are some of the more unusual fabrics I have accumulated recently.


Exhibit A: bold fabrics. The two on the right are small offcuts from expensive designer fabrics. One of them is even teflon coated (lasting up to 20 washes apparently), I guess it's an upholstery fabric. The blue and white swirly one in the middle came from a second-hand shop, it even had the original receipt hidden inside its folds. Bought on the 13th November in 1975, and it only cost 60c back then! The two on the right are from Ikea.

These are my favourites at the moment. The 1970's vintage caravan look. All of these came from second-hand shops in remote country towns (from our road trip back in October), and were all super cheap.





Mr You's mum gave this to me out of her impressive stash of fabric. How cute is it?


Finally this is the end of the most amazing silk scarf I found at a second hand shop nearby. I don't know what I'll do with this yet, but it's far too sweet to cut up.

Hopefully I'll have something more to say soon, otherwise you'll find me rumaging through my house trying to find something else interesting enough to take photos of.

gothic mansion

Have you ever wondered how lovely it would be to have a gothic mansion living on your lounge? Well, I can happily report that it rates very highly on the lovelyometer.

This little fella was the final item left to arrive from my Christmas Etsy shopping spree. Sadly he got lost in the post and never arrived. LUCKILY Mamadelic (who sold it to me) turned out to be one of the kindest people on Earth and willingly offered to replace the missing cushion at no cost. As wonderful as this offer was, I felt very guilty about her sending another one, so we came to a happy compromise. She posted me a replacement cushion cover (at no cost), I got my own cushion insert, and I surprised her by paying the extra shipping. We both felt really good about the outcome, and both agreed we love happy endings.

Now when I look at this beautiful cushion (made of vintage screenprinted fabric from the 70's), it not only brings me joy with it's hot spunky looks, but also warm fuzzy feelings reminding me about the kindness of others.

a day in the sun

As Summer officially comes to an end I've been trying to make the most of the hot sunny weather before it dissolves away. Yesterday we drove down to a national park, to a little beachside town nestled in among the pink gum trees, out in the middle of the national park. It was a really hot day, so we took advantage of the beautiful sea and bobbed about in the aqua-blue water for ages. We took a stroll all the way to the end of the beach, and I coveted a couple of charming white houses right on the beach! (Who are those lucky people who get to live in places like that?)
We visited a gallery set up in the front room of an artists house, and chatted to her about how the town hadn’t really changed much at all in the 27 years she’s lived there. She told us the community there is dense with arty types, and it isn’t hard to see why.

It felt so good to get out of the house for a whole day, I’m happy to be feeling a little rejuvenated. It’s amazing what a little fresh air, blue water, soft sand and bunches of old trees can do for the soul.

a little bird told me

My Illustration Friday attempt for "communication".