Ooou! Did you see? Pretty...

Hey you know when a brand new blog starts SUPER strong and lays on the awesome? I LOVE that.
Specifically, did you guys find Speckless yet? You should you should! Lookit the CUTE:

Eggies! Totally making one of those.
Set of these too.

And Heidi has a great eye for the pretties and an etsy shop that I could live in. What I'm saying is awesomeness. And you should maybe visit.
x

Not The September Issue

So. I've been thinking a bit about fashion. Mostly because at this time of year I get all "GAH WHAD AM I GONNA WEAR" almost everyday. Le sigh, I miss summer.
But here's my problem. I'm not a big fan of fashion magazines. They make me feel bad. (oh hey, look how nerdy I sound).

Which is not to say that I don't think fashion matters. It DOES. I'm just not sure that the ridiculous self importance of designers and vicious, industry-wide, body type standards are worth subjecting myself to.
I used to consume Vogue et al like crack; but these days I feel pretty disconnected from breakable-looking adolescents wearing $1000 t-shirts.

So my inspiration comes from other places, actual humans for the most part. I'm p'ticly talking about the Wardrobe Remix pool on flickr. LOVE those girls. Finding it two years ago was a pretty big deal for me.
Anyway. Inspired is what I'm saying and just recently I've been SUPER inspired by one blogger, Vanessa, who's tagline is Big Girl Small Budget Tiny Town. (I realised I was clicking/thinking "favorite" on pretty much every outfit she posts and was all "huh, I hope this doesn't make me look creepy" )
This is how she rolls:


Unintended creepiness aside, Vanessa has a LASER eye for detail (and a bargain), she's fearless about colour and a good photographer; more importantly though, she has that unfakable thing, genuine style.
You should totally head over and say hi.

Counting Down to 32

So. Today would be the 7th of October. Which means that in 'sactly one month I will be 32. Which, aside from setting off submarine klaxon noises in my head, is actually OK. Really. I mean, 32 beats the hell out of the alternative doesn't it?
So, I've given myself a blog-based birthday present. See the shiny? With the flashing? And the Orange? (LOVE orange!)
That's my to-myself birthday present.
This is what it's all about:



12 years old. Which was 20 years ago for me, 20 brilliant, shiny years for which I am immensely grateful. SO.
I'll be leaving it up until November 7th. (And hey fambly of mine, if you were wondering what I wanted for my burfday, then VOILA!)
You can find the rest of the skinny here, and the rest of the videos here, and the check out the stuff for passing the message along right here.
x
P.S. smooches at these girls here for passing this along.

8 Questions, finally.

Ages ago the lovely Andreae from With The Crickets done tagged me with 8 questions. I've had rather a brutal case of the MEHs for the last few weeks. I haven't really wanted to make or do anything in fact mostly all I've wanted is to shovel carbs into my piehole and read 1950's ballet books (what? that's a thing!) but RIGHT NOW seems like the perfect time to knock that nonsense off. And do something actually fun. Like answer some questions about me me me me me.

So. First question:

1. Is there anything you've ever eaten that was so delicious that you think of it and go kind of misty-eyed to this very day?
YAH there is! It's sun dried sheep's cheese. Made by my Maltese honorary-Grandpa, dried in racks on his flat barn roof or kept soft in salted water in the kitchen. It's glorious. Tastes like summer. and warmth. and fat, happy babies. and sheep a bit.

2. Are you a city person or country person? Half and half? Why?
City. City. City! I love the city (and specifically I love this city). I love being able to walk everywhere. I love public sculpture. I love that there is always something to see or do. I love how kind this city is. And that you can throw a rock from my house and hit a few different types of extraordinarily good food. And that if you get tired of noisy cityness it's a skip and a hop and a jaunty ferry ride to the islands. And MUSEUMS! I love being walking distance to the ROM. I like streetcars. In fact I just like the WORD streetcar, so much sexier than tram (I like tram too, but I like streetcar more). I like having this many neighbours, lots of whom are very good friends. I like that I can't walk around the block without running into someone we know. And that folks in the shops know us (and certainly Teddy) by name. It's a crazy mix of tiny-villageness and anonymity.

3. You know how, before you actually have kids, you have all these parenting principles ("I'm going to home-school/make all the clothes/never buy junk food/bury the tv in the back yard"), and then when you actually have to raise a kid/kids, you end up kind of abandoning said principles? Do you have any of those? Do you feel guilty? Liberated? Indifferent?
Heh. One or two. Turns out my house is not a haven of wooden toys and genius design, with nary a piece of plastic to be seen. And I'm OK with that. Really I am. A lot of the stuff that I expected and wanted early on in my pregnancy went poof after my brother's accident. And I'm OK with that too, in fact I think yay for adapability. I figure doing the best you can with what you have is the most you can hope from yourself.

4. What's the loveliest place you've ever traveled? Could be wildly exotic or comfortingly local.
I've been lucky enough to have traveled a LOT. But my favorite places are the ones I've been to with my sweetie, madly in love. Paris for the first time with him, where we barely made it out of the hotel room (ou la la my blushes!), and we ate cake for breakfast at 1.30 in cafes near the Sorbonne. Or the Altas Mountains at this hotel, where it smells like roses and I said "sure, why not!" to an important question.

5. Okay, same as Sigrid: Laundry tips? Please?
Line drying. Finest kind.

6. Do you have a life plan, or do you just sort of truck along?
truck truck truck. I don't EXACTLY believe that the world will purposely bite me on the ass if I make a plan; but I do find myself keeping an eye out for low flying geese and open manholes when I do.

7. Would friends of the teenage you recognize the current you? Would you still get along?
Friends of the teenage me are friends of the current me. In fact the person who occupies the best friend space in my head is someone I have know since I was 7 or 8. (Hey Philip, if you happen to be reading this, I love you. Also, I have a poop story to tell you.)

8. Any novels to recommend for an almost-seven-year-old girl? What were your favourites? Which are you looking forward to sharing with your own kid(s)?
I've been thinking about this one LOADS. I'm a firm believer in the the power of literature to build better humans, and I made a list!
Some of these are better as read along with yer folks books, I don't know if most almost-7 year olds go for that, but we TOTALLY did. Mostly cause my ma is BRILLIANT story teller.

1. The Julian Stories, sweet, funny, still-quote-it-to-your-sibis-25-years-later good.
2. The Borrowers Books by Mary Norton. Because tiny stuff is just cool
3. The Wind in the Willows. I literally can't wait to read this to my bear. Our childhood copy is sat on his shelves.
4. Anything By Dick King-Smith, his warmth and humour is even better than I remember it being.
5. and of course ANYTHING by L.M Montgomery... the first book I ever stayed up too late reading was Anne of Green Gables, but I like the Emily books better.

OK that's me done.
AND I'm passing the whole gig on to:
Liz over at Little Dash, who's writing style is as charming and awesome as a raucous-laugh-after-a-dirty-joke. and who throws a brill party by the looksa things.
Renaissance woman Affi'enia at blue frog sticks who sews, knits AND plays in the dirt, farmer style!
Stephanie (who's new table I literally want to steal) of Made in Australia By Stephanie
Erin from Howl, who inspires me keep running (and to not stuff cake into my face!)
And of course Emme. Who is a hero. An honestly and truly one.

And my questions are...

1. Is there anything you feel nekkid without? (aside from clothes!) For me it's painted toenails, even in the winter, I just feel better with two coats of dark red on my piggies.

2. Books, magazines, games, comics, pieces of art that made you who you are today? Hello Sassy magazine. Talking of which, have you seen this?

3. Monkey or Robot? Which would you rather have?

4. Food you make when the poop hits the fan? Do you cook/eat for comfort?

5. How did you meet your sweetie? Is it romantic? (Will I need a tissue?... no really, I cry at everything).

These next two are the same as Andreae's

6. Do you have a life plan, or do you just sort of truck along?

7. Would friends of the teenage you recognize the current you? Would you still get along?

8. Could you show me something pretty? Please?

Here's a random picture of some balloons that I strung to a tree on the island at a BBQ last weekend. because posts feel naked without pictures.

Still Alive... And PLOTTING!

I am I am!

I've been... slacking. And lounging. And playing out. And ignoring housework. And sipping martinis in our courtyard with my girl chums. and stomping to the parks. and sewing summer dresses (because I don't have enough of those nope nope nope). and watching my bear play with his new water table. And sitting in the sunshine with my brother. And eating icecream with my sweetheart (who is turning swoon-inducingly blond in the sun). And spotting new awesome street art projects to see with Teddy. and and and...*
It's sunshiny, see.
And cleaning the bathroom when it's sunshiny outside is like honking a spit in Mother Nature's eye.
That's my theory and I'm sticking with it.

Anyway. I have good intentions and there's rain in the forecast, so here's what's coming up chez my blooge over the next little while:


June is Sew What month with two of my favorite bloggers. Melissa of Until Wednesday Calls and the Cynthia (The Sewing Dork herself!) are running a challenge where you pick one type of fabric (linen, denim, whathaveyou) and stick with it for each project. I'm going with knits (because they scare me and I want to practice). You guys should join in, s'going to be heaps o' fun!

They other thing I'm doing is this



Which is just what it says. It's a creative kick in the pants. Only without the kicking (or the... pants?)
It's free, there's no obligation to share if your don't want and a bunch of pretty awesome folks are on board. I'm going to be using my camera. And I SUPER excited about it. (and also maybe a bit nervous? but in a good way).
There's still time if you want to play along with either of these. And hey maybe we could compare notes?

*Wow. Reading that list back is funny. I don't mean to sound smug (Do I sound smug? Maybe? Little bit? Sorry if I do...) it's just that I feel like my life is pretty charmed and writing down what's good is a nice way of reminding myself.

A Love Story

Before I get all posty about the other stuff we got up to this weekend I wanted to share what I've been thinking about a lot just recently.
Last week I got some really kind comments on a post I wrote about my brother. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you guys' words. I worry a bit about writing the not-fun stuff down, but I do it anyway because then it doesn't have to live in my head.
Anyway, a comment from Emme led me to her blog PTSD: A Love Story. I ended up reading every post in practically one sitting.
It's an incredible story, Emme writes about her sweetie and the (unimaginably difficult) experience they are having even now with a matter-of-fact clarity and HOPE that left me just breathless.
And it really is a love story, you can see devotion and courage in every word.
I think you guys should have a read (Mum, you definitely should).
And Emme, this corner of the world is sending all the goodwill and warm wishes in the world to you and yours.