Web love: F-Stop Magazine

The other day, trying to find my DVD of Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog (more on this later!), Levi went "Em? Why do you have three cameras in your bag?".

And I thought, INDEED. Why do I? I have the Lomo fisheye camera I bought in London (and, sadly, only just finished my first roll of film about two months later, which I was told will cost $50 to get developed! Stupid slide film), the disposable camera we bought in Windsor when we realised that someone (probably me) forgot the digital*, and my digital camera.

*This one made it safely out the back of the camera shop with minimal fuss. I shall pick it up tomorrow :D

So considering I don't really take a lot of photos, that seemed a bit illogical. But I actually do really like photography, so I found this photography magazine again last night and luckily they have a superb archive so I could find my FAVOURITEST EVER series of photos!



Pierre Javelle and Akiko Ida were the featured artists in the Jul/Aug 2006 issue and I love the detail in the pictures!







More things of theirs can be found here, and F-Stop magazine is available here

The boys of the NYPD choir still singing Galway Bay...

Ok, technically its not Christmas anymore, but its still the Boxing Day public holiday, so I am entitled to rock out some Pogues lyrics for my title.

SO. Christmas was excellent, I got very spoilt by my family and friends (like Sian, who gave me two gorgeous necklaces AND a mix CD AND some candy canes :D). I don't have any photos yet because a) I'm lazy and b) the average startup time of computers in this household is horrendous, and my computer is so old it actually won't support the camera software so I have to use Dad's which is even slower and its all quite a kerfuffle.

I also went through all my facebook pictures and it is horrendously disproporitionate, how many pictures I am pulling a pose similar to this:



Actually, this photo is one of my favourite things EVER, yesterday we set Levi's 42" monitor to a picture of his friend Felix. For funsies. Its quite creepy sitting in the computer chair with a gigantic Felix staring at you.

Also, I need a haircut. Suggestions?

All I want for Christmas...

As its December first, I thought it was high time I got my Christmas list organised. Hopefully I'm just freakishly organised (five down, five to go) when it comes to gifts and that!

With two front teeth intact, unfortunately my list is rather boring and practical this year (though, lets be honest, so is wanting two front teeth), probably after my complete frivolity in England and the fact that I'm moving into The Teacup in about six weeks (hopefully! Don't quote me. But the faster I get out of this shocking bakery job, the better!).

Edit: I just searched for ages on Gin in a Teacup (not exactly a waste, the posts are still fabulous the second (or third) time around) for where she references the new apartment as "The Teacup", but maybe I just made that up or it was a conversation we had once? Anyway, I'm moving in with my delightful big sister!

Sexy Stationary and other organisational needs
I have a massive obsession with stationary. In fact, I was rather devastated when I didn't get a callback interview from Officeworks, and now I'm determined to work at kikki.k when I move up. It actually pains me somewhat that I haven't found a 2010 diary yet (A5, week to view if you please!), but I did buy a weekly planner yesterday to ease the hurt :)

I also discovered a delightful etsy store called BoyGirlParty, which has some cute, quirky organisational things like to-do lists, notepads and recipe cards adorned with gorgeous original illustrations. And I am told they have a stockist in Perth, but where exactly is being withheld until Best Friend has done his Christmas shoppping! How exciting.


Bunny and Squirrell recipe cards and Octopus To-Do list from boygirlparty on etsy

I also really want this Personal Library Kit by Knock Knock... it would be very helpful remembering where I've lent all my books out to! I found it on FredFlare, one of my favourite lust-after-everything sites.




More books!

When I was virtually unemployed for about three weeks, I read a considerable amount of books and forgot how much I enjoy it (oh hello, internet! Our long and prosperous relationship has taken a backseat for the moment). My friend Louise and I have a shared dream of owning every single Popular Penguin (wouldn't it just look excellent on your bookshelf, all those orange spines in a row!), and at the moment I only have On The Road in that edition.



I'm also jonesing for some more Bukowski after I read Factotum and found it a lot more hilarious than I'd originally anticipated. And very easy to read, especially after the stream-of-consciousness in On The Road!

Some cute jewellery

I'm actually not a big jewellery wearer, but I do enjoy quirky little pieces like the Charlie Chaplain necklace I got for my birthday and pretty much everything I got at Anna Lou of London. My favourite (that I own already) is this sushi brooch:


but they had some other awesome things that I didn't buy (I think £100 was more than enough to spend!) like these necklaces.

Hello, blogging world!

I finally have a day off work for the first time in almost two weeks. Phew! And also, my computer is back from the fix-it man after it so rudely gave the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH (to Dad, wasn't even polite enough to do it to my face. Horrid machine). So yes! Its all rather sunshiney over this way.

Even the weather is looking up, which is quite nice as its Spring (or so I am led to believe). I spent four hours yesterday face painting at a corporate Christmas function (for families, though I'm sure it would have been a lot more entertaining were there forty year olds in suits asking to be painted as a fairy WITH SPARKLES!). Normally I go quite well with what all the hip kids are about these days - I can paint a Spiderman face in my sleep, and I only do this once or twice a year! - but I was particularly pleased when a plucky little five year old asked to be Optimus Prime and I knew what colours to use. For the record, this is what I had to try to paint him as:



That being said, I also got asked to paint a kid as Four Arms ("Just regular Four Arms, not the other one"), and I had absolutely no idea what he meant. He had a shirt showing the body up to the neck of a red monster with four arms and the Ben 10 logo, so I'm guessing he wanted the right head on his shirt. The power of deduction! I painted his face red and did two more yellow eyes like he asked, then showed him in the mirror and he said "Its not right, but it'll have to do.".
I just googled Four Arms then, and I really only forgot the black stripe, so I guess it wasn't too bad.

And I've been Christmas shopping too, its almost out of the way because I'm super-organised like that :D

Awards and things!

YAY I HAVE AN AWARD.



This is from lovely Sian at monstergirlwrites, "because hopefully this will encourage her to blog a bit more, dammit!". So yes, this is me blogging.

Whats been going on, world? I have some comments in Spanish on the two youtube videos I have which I need to decode, thats my job for the next five minutes. I think one says 'Where do you live? You sound Australian" or similar, and one says "Something something experimental, I liked this until 0:35." So yeah, thanks, you liked the introduction to my Bowie cover, BEFORE I STARTED SINGING. But lets not be petty.

I also saw all my lovely choir kids (I call them 'mine' because I like to think they aspire to be like me when they're 18, and also we're the only under 25s that regularly go to choir so I feel responsibility towards them to make them keep going) in a production of "Alice: The Musical" last night and it was SO GOOD. I'll have to see if I can find pictures somewhere because the sets and the costumes were just amazing. And also that made me think of Sian, who is a little Alice-obsessed. So this blog has done a nice little circle, hasn't it?

Favourite things!

This is my new obsession:



I've had it on repeat for about half an hour. Just lovely <3

Also I put some things up in my shop! So now its a bit less lonely in there. And yes, I'll actually properly blog sometime.

English Breakfast tastes like Darjeeling

So, while I've been not blogging for the past two months, this is what I've been up to:



Wandering London on the hottest day of their summer (32 degrees...) with Levi and his friends Tom and Felix (and Alice, who was taking the picture with Levi)



Playing in Harrod's



Going on a hovercraft!



Having tea...



... and scones



Chilling with Zac Effron (not that I enjoy High School Musical in the slightest, but it was a fun picture)



Also chilling with James Dean



Had a brief weekend in Paris



And hit up the Friends coffee house in Carnaby Street.

Update

Because I am lazy and never post.

Unemployment news: I finally got to have high tea at Tealicious House in Dunsborough. Well worth the $30 each - tiny sandwiches, scones, cakes, and bottomless tea and coffee. Four pots of tea and a chai latte later, we did a trek around Dunsborough then came home.



Also, I am an amazing friend and gave B-Rad this awesome Bowie reference for his 21st.

Be still my geeking heart!

On an "Oh God, how do I do this?" craft rampage through google yesterday that resulted in the google search of "geek crafts", I came upon this sweet eye candy from www.geekcrafts.com. Genius.


RSS Icon pillow from Craftsquatch's etsy store



Domestic Scientist's Guitar Hero scarf (DO WANT. And will get.)


Dalek customised shoes by Kelly_Bear on Craftser

We're online!

Things that have been happening in my absence from blogging:

- Work. Still as soul-destroying as always.
- Cleaning, cooking and generally keeping the house in order
- Clearing out my wardrobe (to make room for new purchases, natch)
- Painting and general craftiness to create THIS (click me I'm a link yay)

Its tiny (2 listings, woo) and I haven't formatted it or anything, but its a start. And I'm pretty impressed with the ship in a bottle picture as well, not bad for two solid hours of work! And people say I'm not productive. Bah.

Flying Solo

Since my parents left for their holiday on Wednesday, the following things have happened:

1. The power short-circuited
2. The seal on the freezer door broke
3. Someone (coughBoyfriendcough) backed into the letterbox and its now on an angle, and too heavy for me to shift back by myself.

Hopefully that's all that happens before they get back! I've had a very domesticated afternoon - I cleaned, did the dishes, washed clothes, and tackled the pile of ironing that I thought had been there for about a month, until I got to the bottom and went "Oh, hey, I haven't worn that since my birthday!". In April. Oops!


*domestic proof*

And now I'm making pumpkin scones. WIN.

Outfit:

Jacket: One Teaspoon
Singlet: Supre
Jeans: Just Jeans

Then, to make defrosting the freezer a more pleasant experience, this is my new friend Curtis.


Curtis is wearing Peppercorn eyes and Chilli Flake mouth.

Recessionista

As much as I hate that phrase, pretty much sums up the greatest purchase of all time. After gin in a teacup's post and a coincidental trip through the mini-shopping centre on Monday to get from Medicare (wooo rebate) to the pharmacy without getting wet, I checked out the sales rack outside a shop which is, I'm not going to lie to you, is "fancypants". (Why yes, I have been told I have the soul, and vocabulary, of an eighty year old, thankyou for asking)

Anyway. I normally wouldn't wear a jacket like this, but I was so caught by the price (Um, hi, $170 down to $50) that I had to buy it. This is generally why I have no money and a lot of "bargains". Point being:








Jacket: One Teaspoon
Scarf: Cotton On
Skirt: I'll get back to you on that one.

Peforming Monkey is Performing!

Ok, shameless spam on my blog, but I found these pictures by the lovely Energy Images that were taken during the Eisteddfod over the past couple of weeks, and I'm feeling narcissistic.

Performing "Creep" by Radiohead on the 11th






"The Song that Goes Like This" from Spamalot with my friend Jeremy




Also, serious lol @ my face:

Project: Wiggle Dress

New project for me: Make a wiggle dress as a costume for the show in November (and, lets be honest, everyday wear as well). I'm ridiculously excited for the show, primarily because its a good excuse to raid Tara's wardrobe :)



I'm not totally convinced on this one - I'm not sure I like the neckline on it. I suppose it's good because it kind of demures it down, but wiggle dresses are essentially out-and-out sexy.



Example: This one. Which is gorgeous. I love sweetheart necklines - I'm not sure I actually own anything with a sweetheart neckline, so I'll obviously have to rectify that now.



Yay for the print! I'm pretty sure I'll end up making a black one, but I could always have more than one... Leave it with me.

eb&ive

A couple of weeks ago, doing the usual rounds of birthday present shopping at eshe, I found a new love in my last-minute purchase at the counter. There was an entire stand of glittery, sparkly and just damn pretty hair clips by eb & ive. If you haven't realised, I'm really one of those "I'll just leave my hair out" girls - probably because I'm insanely lazy - but I picked up this gorgeous clip from their "Social Set" series.


(Apologies for the terrible photo - I'm bad enough at focussing when I can actually see what I'm photographing, let alone holding the camera behind my head and hoping for the best)

I'm not going to lie, the first time I put it in the clip wouldn't fasten properly, so when I thought I finally had it I actually didn't and it fell out and snapped a bit off (which has been glued back together, thankyou for the concern). But consideirng it was $10, I really don't care. More eye (and hair) candy:

Love!

I think I just died of happiness a little bit.

Improvisation

Improvisation: What happens when all of your favourite outfits are in the wash.




Shirt: Laura Marling tour shirt from Splendour (Yay for Tara!)
Belt: God knows, but it was $5 so I couldn't pass it up
Skirt: Present from Levi's famalam
Scarf: Cotton On
Glasses: Vogue

More importantly, SEXY NEW BOOTS:


And me getting all into Mustache May. Okay, so I think Movember is way cooler, but its not my fault I have silly overseas friends who don't appreciate how awesome the word "Movember" is and think alliteration beats that.
(Also, I know its June - shhh)