Tip Tap Tops

This Saturday past, Miss J and I took to the stage once more and wowed our adoring fans.

Translation: We took part in a dance show, with a bunch of 7-11yr olds and my mum clapped for us.

(I take the "make a fool of yourself" part of the quote below very seriously)

About a year and a half ago now, "Ginny" (new blog/nickname) bought my sister a tap lesson for a birthday present and convinced a few of us to join.  I've been happily tapping and living out my daydreams with an invisible Gene Kelly ever since.

So this is a post of thanks to her for her mad ideas which always end up being fun, and a shout out to all the rest of you out there who don't give a hoot what people think of you. Nerds and geeks might not all necessarily rule the world like the 90's told us we might, but you sure end up a bit happier at the end of the day.

These gems just look like they should have taps on them don't they?! I spotted them via Pinterest - my latest vice. Go look and get hooked!

Feeling Sluggish

I was browsing the site of one of my long-time favourite illustrators and found this great image.
(I'd avoided it for a while as I was incapable of emotionally distancing myself from some memories...*cough cough* Don't we all have and hate an evil ex?)

Now if only I hadn't been avoiding the site for that while. This would have been a perfect image for a weird little story.
Have you ever had a slug on you? There are a LOT of ads out there at the moment for snail gel and that sort of...ick. I had up until a year ago managed to avoid the scenario quite effectively. Even through all those weird tasks they set you in primary school (don't tell me I'm the only one?). I mean I've been told I'm a bit of an oddball when I get caught calling a little snail cute, but that does NOT mean any amount of wrinkles are going to make me like the idea of one sliming up my skin.

As I was leaving my friends house I reached down to get my bag and saw an ENORMOUS slug on my arm. Not even I expected the way I freaked out let alone my poor friend's dogs.
There was squealing and jumping around and a lot of post-moment gagging, (from me obviously not the pups) as well as the expected cacophony of laughter from those who'd seen.
Thats fine. If you're me this kind of thing happens all the time. Sure.
Now time for the hug goodbye near the gate. Reach up with both arms and... ANOTHER giant slug!
Cue now BOTH of us squealing and hopping around like lunatics.

Would you believe me if I told you that in the five steps it took me to actually get to that gate and leave her garden we found another 2 slugs on my body? It happened.
I should just get used to this kind of thing like the unphased lass in the pic above.
Love her expression, love the colours, love Stuntkid... and now I want her hair.

Must motivate myself to appear motivated

I'd like to think I've become a teensy bit better at motivating myself and not procrastinating these days. Certainly I'm about a million times better than I was as a teenager (*wabbing was a term I quickly managed to grasp and use and almost every day). I've even created a few tests for myself to do in the next year to check my progress. Sure every time I think about them I get cold sweats and my heart flutters a bit ridiculously, but hey, I'm THINKING about it in the first place which is a start and next you know I'm actually doing it.

After seeing this infogram, new on my list of things to achieve are:
• become a more effective worker in sweatpants and sitting comfy in a la-z-boy.
• never to work with "sensitive" material
• become a person someone else would trust to look after their children

Because THEN I believe I'm well on my way to being allowed to work at home. What a dream that would be huh? Remind me to send this to my boss sometime next year.

by Mindflash via

*Wabbing:   
derive from acronym of "work avoidance behaviour" - the action of finding something else, ANYTHING else to do other than the task at hand (whether studying as a student or working); like sorting your CDs & DVDs again, making yet another cup of coffee, rearranging your desk, reorganising your inbox, vacuuming the carpet or just browsing the internet, surfing cables channels
someone chatting online to friend: "Hey what you up to?"
in reply: "Well not a lot really, just wabbing!"

Had I been immortal...

Had I been immortal I think I would have definitely tried to save all my outfits and made this video!
(also forEVER would have given me time to actually learn these moves... ) In my head all this stuff really happens.

As Diamonds and Dust says on her blog "I can’t stop watching it."
Agreed!

Dots and fulllstops

I started another journal a while back (me and my journal issues huh?) and it reminded me again that I've become ridiculous with writing.
Everything ends on a question? or an outburst! When did I stop expressing myself like a nice normal-toned human being?
Why am I ending everything on an up sound... have I become Australian?
Point is (see what I did there?) that the good old full stop is underrated and I'm going to focus on remembering him in my writing and my speech.

I always used to have the urge to do dot-to-dot with them on book pages. How amazing were dot to dot drawings when you were a kid? Those and those other books where all you needed was some water and a paint brush and an awesome colourful painting would pop out of the page.
I miss them!
Then I found this and now I miss them even more.

Mona Lisa - 6,239 dot to dot drawing from Thomas Pavitte on Vimeo.

Via The Worlds Best Ever 

Now to find out where I can find one for my flat! 

Sorry, I meant flat.

Back in your box!

This image was just too good to resist.

Did I tell you all I'm finally studying web design and some basic programming stuff? huh? huh? I'm enjoying the "being creative in a structured environment" thing I must say!

I mean, I'm sure clients will come around eventually with a few interesting solutions to something I thought was pretty simple... but for now... LOVing it.

Go on, don't listen to everyone else... thinking in the box has it's own set of benefits! Go!

What's better than superhero's?

Superhero Dinosaurs... OBVIOUSLY.

Honestly. WHAT more can you say about that? Done.

Thanks to a colleague I have a new site to follow! Find some more great stuff here at Shortlist.

New Journal... you WILL be mine

...One day!
Yes I say that a lot.
Much the same way I say "One day I will go through and finish all those other journals I started and wrote half way as a teenager".
Maaaan they're scary things.

I found myself starting the journals in a happy head space, getting distracted by life as only a teen can, then only picking them up to write when things on my chest got a little too heavy.
Eventually I'd ignore them completely as I noticed everything I was writing was actually too depressing to even read back to myself! (Heaven forbid someone else actually stumbles across them after my death :P I'm attaching warning labels)
Press stop. Rewind. Press play... and so it loops.
Ridiculous.

It seems I've successfully convinced myself that "if life starts to get you down... toss your old journal into the back of a cupboard and start a new one!" It's a physical put-things-down-on-paper way of starting fresh!

To date my life is documented by about 7, half filled, journals and this blog. And may I once again say, "bless you Internet". You're a magical space where I feel obligated not to moan too much and where wonderful new discoveries wait for me every day to lift any kind of heavy heart.

Or you know... I could just BUY THIS and stop writing altogether. Life is easier to absorb in pretty pictures anyway.



found via The World's Best Ever

Also I was attracted to this because the person is drawing a robot. It makes it THAT much cooler.

I'm not Knit picky

I love google reader, but mostly I'm glad I'm such an obsessive blog follower!

How else would I have found two beautiful projects, so very different and yet both using knitting?

#1. Ginormous knit used to upholster stools

Claire-Anne O'Brien has used a combination of hand and machine knitting to create dramatically oversized patters as upholstery

#2. Teeny Tiny two-year project

Anna Hrachovec embarked on a two-year project after knitting a tiny brain. She's now made over 100 tiny designs and written patterns for some of them! Amazing madness! If you'd like to read an interview with her there's a great one on Craftzine where I found her.

What I would love to be doing right now is reading a book, with my feet happily resting on THIS stool, and THIS cutie-pie of a donut lovingly attached to a silver chain. (or any of the characters from this big little collection - I'm not picky ;))

Move it or Lose it!

We're moving offices this Friday! FINALLY.

This is something that the powers that be have been dangling as a carrot for, oh, about 2 whole years.
Only thing now is we've been told we can pack a box. One. Each. One box will hold all our notes, files, our "help me remembers", our multi-coloured highlighters and pens so very necessary to survive this office jungle. Most disastrous of all, this box will have to hold all our reference magazines.
IMPOSSIBLE.

I wonder if they'd consider me bringing some chairs with me to my new little "pod person" space.
Hmmmmmmm.

This is brilliant and I think I could do with some at home as well. That might just JUST help me out.


by Sut Kutusu
Via Swiss Miss

Oh Hello Monday. Oh? Uhoh... Boom!

Not a Monday person.
I think that will be one of the things said about me one day when I'm gone.
I'm one of those people whose mood actually starts to plummet on a Sunday evening in anticipation of the horrors I suspect are lurking in the next day.

So this is just a quick post for these beautiful pieces (via The Given Collective) by Zach Johnson.

THIS is what I feel like at the beginning of every week!
(or at least it's pretty damn close to what I keep imagining I must look like when the day's tasks POUNCE! and cause my poor unsuspecting brain to explode.)


Boom.

Better than Barbie or Barney fo' sho

Contradiction...
One of the things I try very hard not to be is a hypocrite and yet some days I find little inconsistencies which tug at my brain going "hey... but yesterday you were moaning about that VERY thing!".

Here's an example. I haven't always been treated kindly by my chosen profession. Design is a harsh and fickle deity to worship and loves reminding you that you'll never quite be able to completely absorb or understand everything. So I hate telling people I'm a designer. Absolutely, utterly, hate it. I always feel like they immediately put you in a box. A very pretty creative box, sure, but I've never really felt comfortable there. Don't get me wrong... I still LOVE design (my posts should show a little of that at the very least), but I find the pressure and other people's expectancy to be cool a bit much. (flashbacks to high school *shudder*)
SO I do what I always do... try to ignore it. Deny it. Only buying things I really like and not things just because they're currently fashionable. Sometimes just plain hiding out in the suburbs helps quite a bit. You know that old trick of signing up to be a library monitor on your first day during lunch because you KNOW it's the wrong thing to do but you love books? - That's what I'm still doing.
Ridiculous? Yes! Childish? Yes. I have no excuse.

So here I am coveting these...
Dammit.



If you like them as much as I do you can get the whole LOT of them as part of their launch special over at Tattly

Unbeleafable!

In my defence, I'm surrounded by people who make it impossible not to leap at the opportunity of cheesey wordplay.

These peices are so intricate and beautiful that part of me really itches to try create one... Then my reality returns and the overwhelming thought is WHO HAS TIME? Crepes!

Amazing Cut Leaves Art via Craft:

"Natural leaf carving is actual manual cutting and removal of a leaf's surface to produce an art work on a leaf. The process of carving is performed by artists using tools to carefully remove the surface without cutting or removing the veins. The veins add detail into the subject matter of the carving. The material or most common leaf used in leaf carving is the leaf of a Chinar tree. The Chinar tree is native to India, Pakistan and China. Chinar leaves have a close resemblance to maple leaves."

These next three don't use the Japanese style of keeping the veins of the leaves in tact but are still beautiful! (by Lorenzo Duran via Design Boom)

(Of course I coooould considerrrr spending less time scouring the internet for cool things... Erm... Nah.)

READ it!

This little bit o news on Gizmodo captured my imagination.

It's not that I'm a fan of zombies... I mean who is? (If you are that's definitely not an invitation to meet you as I suspect you're nuts.)

But I am a big fan of this book!

I find it so well written that I describe it as "terrifyingly bloody-well believable!"

But why should I go into a more detailed description when I've found a nice person named Duncan who's done it for me!

World War Z: an oral history of the zombie war is the second zombie book by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks’ son). The first was The Zombie Survival Guide, which I’ve not read, but I believe is basically a lightweight spoof of other ‘survival guides’.The scenario is there was a worldwide zombie outbreak, which pushed humankind to the brink of collapse, but after several years we overcame the walking undead. It’s set in the immediate future, i.e. there are references to current world leaders etc. It’s structured as a series of interviews with some key survivors, ranging from those who first witnessed it, to soldiers who fought in conflict against the zombies.If you ignore the basic zombie plot, this seems to be as much about topics like environmental catastrophe andgeopolitics. The chapters are all set in different locations worldwide, and for the most part are convincing in their attention to detail. There were only a couple of instances which didn’t ring true.There’s lots of nice little surprises along the way too… mainly the way certain country’s fortunes change due to the zombie war, with a few slightly satirical moments to savour....

read the full review on his blog here!

and then READ the book. It makes ya think...

Psst...

Hey you. I know if you could, you would walk around like this the whole day. Masculinity be damned!

Yeah you know who you are... ;)

via Favim.com

Must'ave Mustache

Right interwebs... where can I find these puppies? All I have so far is an image I stumbled upon on a tumblr account. Eep.

I'm assuming (ah assumption. you mother of all...) you can buy them as they have numbers next to them giving a catalog effect.

Thats both the wonder and the problem of this monster we've created. You can find almost anything, but that doesn't mean you're going to necessarily be able to track it down and have it for your very own. This is going to seriously stretch my cyber stalking capabilities, but here goes. If I track them down I'll try to remember to let you all know.

Happy Anniversary X

Here you go... (not that you read my blog :P but just in case you stumble across this my love) THIS is our new unromantic and at the same time romantic song.

And don't judge it on the bad youtube vid. It was unfortunately the only one I could find that wasn't MUCH worse. Find it on your playlist ;)

You are the hole in my head

I am the pain in your neck
You are the lump in my throat
I am the aching in your heart
We are tangled
We are stolen
We are living where things are hidden

You are something in my eye
And I am the shiver down your spine
You are on the lick of my lips
And I am on the tip of your tongue
We are tangled
We are stolen
We are buried up to our necks in sand

We are luck
We are ]fate
We are the feeling you get in the golden state
We are love
We are hate
We are the feeling I get when you walk away….
Walk away

Well you are the dream in my nightmare
I am that falling sensation
You are not needles and pills
I am your hangover morning
We are tangled
We are stolen
We are living where things are hidden

We are luck
We are fate
We are the feeling you get in the golden state
We are love
We are hate
We are the feeling I get when you walk away
Walk away
Walk away

You are the hole in my head
You are the pain in your neck
You are the lump in my throat
I am the aching in your heart

P.S

Thanks for my breakfasts!

Oh I'd DEFINITELY make space for these!

Could I please have all of these for Christmas? These paintings by Jeremy Geddes are so absolutely beautiful they actually make my chest feel tight.

Via The Given

------------------------------------------------

If I were more adept at "assembling" and technical things I would so make one of these for the Foo-boy. Noone I know is more fun when it comes to organising the watching meteor showers or spotting iridium flares. It would be a great gift for someone who keeps you aware that there's a universe out there and we've got our tips of our toes just dipped in.

ISS Lamp Alerts You When Space Station is Flying Overhead @Craftzine.com blog

"The International Space Station (ISS) is a marvel of current technology and humanity. Sadly, we often forget it's there.
This light sits on a desk and lights up when the space station passes overhead. It stays lit as long as the station is more than 10 degrees above the horizon.

Being reminded that there are astronauts doing science over our heads every day helps reconnect us with our space program."

Pandamonium

As Swiss Miss says "there are some serious Panda Loving People out there", and my mum is certainly one of them.

I don't know too many women who'd buy a box of cereal just because they're called panda puffs (or whatever) just because of the name and picture. Good thing my cat seems to love them because none of the humans in our house have been lured into trying them yet.

I found this cutie and thought about how cool it would have been back in the day for the playschool that my mum used to run. Of course ipods would have needed to have been invented 15 or so years earlier as well, but hey, if time travel existed then this would have been the perfect gift!

Panda Pal

panda-monium |ˌpandəˈmōnēəm|
noun
wild and noisy disorder or confusion; uproar : but with cuteness
Panda-monium broke out at the playschool

;) look at me playing with words...

Braided Typography

So this popped up in my reader today via TrendLand

What a great reference for practicing my drawing of hair - something I need to do more often. I'm trying to encourage myself, instead of obsessively doodling little arrows pointing North, South, East and West (yah I'm not sure what that's all about myself...), to try drawing actual things I see in meetings or on my desk while on the phone.
So far I have a very rough brown pen drawing of an earphone. Not much but it's a start! I'm taking my doodling back from my subconscious... it's way too boring these days.

Braided Typography is the outcome of Teagan White’s semester-long research project on pre-Columbian Native American culture for my Ideation & Process class.

(...) Read More about Braided Typography (6 words)