borrowed suitcase

(Photo by Mel Stringer)

Earlier in the year Mel Stringer invited me to be part of a new zine she was pulling together, Borrowed Suitcase, and last week my copy arrived in the mail! I must say, I'm a little humbled to be in with other artists of such calibre. Thanks so much Mel!

You can buy yourself a copy here, of if you're feeling lucky, you should enter Mel's very first giveaway to win one (along with a huge bounty of other crunchy-cool stuff).

breath of spring

Breath of Spring is the name of the paint colour we are in the middle of painting on our kitchen walls. The name, unlike some paint colours, describes it pretty well I think; a warm citrusy yellowish green.

We've almost finished that bit, and have now moved onto the dark grey feature wall that frames the window. After that it's onto floating shelves me thinks. I've always wanted floating shelves in the kitchen. Although, I hear it creates alot of dusting, but who cares about sticky kitchen dust when there's pretty kitcheny things on shelves for all to see.
_ _ _

(The picture above is not our kitchen, but the colour is pretty much identical. Our kitchen is, at this moment, dismantled and shrouded in plastic cover sheets... which is making the task of preparing food all sorts of tricky.)

Sorry I can't remember where I nabbed that kitchen picture from. Thanks to the source all the same.

friday faves: magic carpet

Fell in upsidedown, insideout, love with this rug this week! From Florian Pucher Carpet Design, they do landscapes from different continents, but the European one is my absolute favourite.






I wonder if they include a few cows when you buy one?


Elsewhere these colourful rugs also caught my fancy...

Scale rug by Carpet Direct on Etsy:






And this painstakingly made, but yummy all the same, bright Felt Ball Rug, by Krita on Etsy:



Hope your feet find something bright and soft to play with this weekend.

annual bloom

Last year were given many lovely wedding gifts, but one of the sweetest was from our neighbours.

Do you remember how we asked each of our wedding guests to bring a flower, and with these they made the circle we stood in?



Well our wedding present from our neighbours were the actual plants they picked their flowers from. They dug the plants out of their garden and potted them for us. They told us that the flowers bloom at the same time each year... So we would be reminded that our anniversary was near when the flowers appeared.

Well last week, this is what happened to those plants:



This past weekend, one year ago, we stood together inside a ring of flowers, and were married. Now we get to be surrounded by those flowers each year, to help us relive the brilliant day we had.



Our first wedding anniversary was sweet. We spent the weekend looking through markets, art exhibitions, eating out, and listening to the recordings of the live music performances from during our ceremony.

Now I'm in just the right frame of mind to start a new project this week. A good lookin' couple from Melbourne have asked me to create personalised wedding invitations for them, in the style of ours. Perfect timing!

look! look!

Last evening I was catching up on visiting some blogs, having a look through Herbert & Friends, by Torunn (who makes the awesome softies), perusing through some snaps she took of lovely shops in Newcastle... and LOOOOOK!



That's MY COLOURING BOOK!!!!!

I have a copy, so I knew it existed, I just have not been able to find out if it is in any shops yet.

But there you go, apparently it is in a shop in Newcastle called 'High Tea With Mrs Woo'. I've been told it's in lots of other places too, I just have no idea where.

So I'm chuffed. It really does exist, and it really IS in shops.

Now I just need to find out where.
In the meantime I plan to get a stack to sell at the Finders Keepers Market in Brisbane in November, and online to anyone else who's interested.

(Photo by Torunn from Herbert and Friends. Thank-you.)

do some findin' and then some keepin'

All you lucky Melbournites must be getting so excited about this weekend. If not, then you should be! Trust me, the first ever Melbourne Finders Keepers Market is going to be amazing. I so wish I was going to be there.


Speaking of which, the news on that front is not all bad. In fact it's quite EXCITING...



I will be having a stall at the Brisbane Finders Keepers Market!!!!

I have only been to Brisbane once before, and that was yeeeaaaars ago. So I'm reeeaaally excited, both about being part of the markets, and also checking out the city... and the GOMA!!!

If you're a local, please tell me what else we should do and see, and places we must go to while we're in your fair river city.

Also, if you have any advice on nice areas to stay in that'd be tops too.


Can't wait. I'll remind you again closer to the time, but for those conscientious among you, mark the 6th & 7th November in your diaries now. ;D

the rescue mission

Do you remember when E.T. went from his normal/healthy pinkish-brown pallor to that terrible pastey deathly white when he nearly died? (Don't pretend you don't remember... I know you cried). Well that's what has happened to all the earth worms here.

It has been bucketing down heavy rain here for 3 days straight now. There comes a point where the ground fills up with water, and to prevent themselves from drowning all the worms start wiggling their way to dry land. (I assume, do worms breath air?)

They've arrived, exhausted, waterlogged and pastey, on our veranda's, the front porch, inside the garage, and underneath the darkness of our doormat. And when I say "they" I mean LOADS of them.

Mr You launched a rescue and retrieval mission yesterday, relocating the survivors into dry potted plants, and removing those who hadn't made it. Sadly, we discovered some that were washed straight into the swimming pool. And when I say "some" I mean, ooh, about 50 or 60! (All together now, eeeewwww).

I watched as Mr You scooped them all out and checked to see if they were alive. At one point he nudged one so many times, from where I stood inside our dry house, I thought he was giving it CPR.

He came inside afterwards sodden and saddened, saying he just didn't like seeing so much death.

While other men of the nation were watching the football grand final, mine was rescuing worms. And, oddly, that makes me so proud.



We have a long history of rescuing slimy creatures together. I must tell you about it sometime...

mittens me smitten

I consider it nothing short of a damn shame that during the few years I lived in a place where Winters actually got cold enough to need gloves, THESE where not around.

Charming embroidered handmade mittens by dadaya in her Etsy Store, Tiny Toad Stool.