stop reminding me

ooooo, scandal over at Illustration Friday! (not really I'm just being a tad dramatic). The new theme went up; "aging" but we'd done that one in August last year. It's usually against my self-imposed rules to submit old works, but this week I was going to break out and post my illo from last year in a desperate attempt to get a link up earlier in the week (and as a bit of a protest of being reminded that I'm getting wrinkley all over again).

BUT, luckily I checked again right before I was about to post, otherwise I would have looked a damn fool, egg on my face and all...
Someone twigged on, and the topic has been gazumped, it's now "sacrifice".
(I tell you what, they run a tight ship over at i-Fri don't they? They're amazing!)

Too bad for those early birds who now have links to an unrelated topic. Call me cruel, but I'm kinda looking forward to sitting back and watching the comments roll in from onlookers unaware of the topic mishap:
"Sick man, you think aging is a sacrifice do you? Well let me tell you something sonny boy, it's not by choice you insensitive little *&%*#@!"

hehehehehe. No, don't panic, I'm sure it'll all be fine, just fine.

skyline

My Illustration Friday attempt for "skyline".

The suburb I live in is not in the city centre full of apartment blocks, and long before the sprawling suburbs. It's inbetween I guess; where the streets become a little quieter and the scenery more green than concrete, but where you can still spend the afternoon in a cafe and get to the city centre in a jiffy.

You'd never guess that the skyline of tree silhouettes and red tile roofs would be interrupted by a flour mill.

It's completely unexpected and quite beautiful really. It's still operational, and I guess it must have been there a long before land and house prices in the area soared. Not sure how long it will last in the ever expanding sprawl, but for the time being it adds an impressive shape to our skyline.

new tunes

So desperate for new music at the moment, yesterday I went and bought 2 new CDs and tickets to a concert. One of the CD purchases was because I like the band (Howling Bells), and the other was purely in aid of the cool illustrated tracklist and even better cut-out cover sleeve. To tell you the truth, I haven't even listened to this one yet, (Gravity Won't Get You High, by The Grates) and am not even sure I like their music, but the cover, seriously, I think it was worth it just for that!

Both CDs have excellent illustrated cover art, a very nice shift from the stock-standard photography covers you're usually fed.

The Howling Bells Illustrated by Mikko Rantanen.
The Grates credit their artwork as being their own.

can recommend

Still at a bit of a loss as to what to chat about, so I thought I'd show you a photo of this cool old original side show contraption. A couple of weeks back we helped a friend celebrate her birthday at Luna Park. Luna Park has been around for ever as far as I'm concerned. I remember going as a child and it being like nowhere I'd ever been before (this was before all of the DreamWorlds and SeaWorlds and MovieWorlds that are around these days).

I was so impressed to see that many of the original features of the park have been retained. All the hand-painted signage and wall decoration, along with a few old machines (no longer working) standing around the edges, still watching on from the sidelines.

I was particularly taken with this kiss tester, the brass hand plate rubbed smooth from many contenders, many years ago.
I liked to imagine all the sailors and soldiers trying their luck during World War II.

I think our friends were a little perplexed as they dashed off to the next spew-inducing ride, Mr You and I stalled inbetween to look at all the old photographs and paintings on the walls and these great old machines.

sticky

My Illustration Friday attempt for "sticky".

Completely unrelated to my illustration, but sticky all the same...
At a big wedding on the weekend I witnessed the aftermath of a chocolate fondue fountain exploding all over a bunch of children. They all came running outside, splattered from head to toe in big dollops of chocolate, squealing... with joy. It took us a moment to work out if they were squealing in pain from being burnt, but no, they were running around and around in circles, with the biggest of them yelling out "It's a very chocolatey chocolatey day!", as if to thank the gods for this fortunate event.
The rabble punctuated occasionally with each of them stopping for a pit stop licking some chocolate off their knee or arm or anywhere else really. Seriously they were covered in it!

an F minus in speed reading

My little heart broke last night when we went to see Superman Returns. Mr You worked on the movie at Fox studios last year (he’s not in it, but his fine handy work is), so with much anticipation and a little trepidation we went along to see it.

I’ll admit I’ve always had a soft spot for the man in tights even when I was young. He’s got so much dignity… apart from that dicky little curl and the undies on top of his tights business that is, which, well you know, not so dignified. Anyway it’s not surprising that I enjoyed it. But my heart broke during the credits as I craned my neck and put all my speed reading skills into action to see my Mr You’s name on the big screen… and missed it! (snap)

Did you see it? he asked excitedly
“What? No! Where?! Nooooooo” but it was too late, it scrolled up and off the screen before there was time. (crack)
heartbreak…

Even so, I’m still awfully proud.

lack and abundance

Nothing much to report really. Feeling much less fowl about the jacket incident thanks to your understanding comments.
Haven't had a chance to make anything, although I did finally get my sewing machine out of protective custody.

This week for some reason I bought 3 different bags of buttons. I have no idea what I'm planning on using them for. I think it's related to the severe case I have of 'Jack of all' that Creative Kismet described. Symptoms include stockpiling craft goods and fabrics, unfinished and even more unstarted projects clogging up space, and a mind fat with ideas accompanied by a lingering feeling of frustration.

At these times, instead of getting stuck-in and doing stuff I spend hours lusting about other people's wonderfulness.

A highly abbreviated list of those who's illustrations are bringing me joy at the moment (illo's only, don't get me started on sewing or craft):

Mutt Ink who's illo's are cleverly pumped with a yummy plumpness.

Girl Vs World's elegant, patterned ladies. Great etsy store too.

Troglodyte mignon with amazing watercolour skill and quirky interesting characters, who each seem endearingly flawed.

Mareike Engelke, who, no matter which medium is chosen, manages to keep a consistent style.

Allison Sommers with odd folk, floating hands and a vintage hue.