Happy Valentines Day everyone.

I'm seeing dots...

This Doting on Dots Dress from ModCloth needs to be mine. I've exhausted my rational excuses for buying this dress, but I haven't yet removed it from my favourites bar...

 

Speaking of favourites, and bars, this is my favourite bar. Set on Main St in Samford, Ya Ya Bar and Eatery is the spot for a perfect Whisky Sour and a handful of tasty tapas. The staff are gorgeous (that's Will in the photo - he makes a mean Bloody Mary) and the music is always good. Except when it's Aerosmith, but that's another story...

Black hearts anytime

My favourite Black Heart Earrings, the ones I wear almost every day. I've finally got around to putting these in my shop. Phew! Sometimes the simplest of tasks seem ridiculously hard.

Or maybe it's just me, queen of procrastinators.

Alice quote, a dreamy dress and a missing needle

Alice In Wonderland quote by LitPrints

This colourful quote from LitPrints pretty much speaks for itself. We are. All. Mad. Here.

Look at this amazing handmade dress I found at the op-shop. There is such attention to detail, and real love put into this dress, it just feels like there is a real story behind it. Sigh. If only it fit me!

Sooo, I lost another needle. I big, long, sharp needle is just lying around somewhere in my workroom, waiting, just waiting for the right time, for me to let down my guard and bare some finger, toe or more delicate part for a right old stabbing.

I really hate it when that happens.

I'm thinking of writing a post about all the craft related injuries I've had. I know I'm not the only one.

Obsess much?

Typewriter clutch purse from octopurse on Etsy

Sooooo my birthday is coming up pretty soon and I's just suggesting to the universe at large that it consider for one second that this bag will actually, literally make my life complete.



A quick mention about the sale in my shop - if you use the discount code KISSES000 you'll get 20% off everything, which is nice. Aussie shoppers still have 3 more days to take advantage of the sale before my mailing cut off... then Valentine's Day is upon us!



A photo, a poem

Cockspur Bush

I am lived. I am died.
I was two-leafed three times, and grazed,
but then I was stemmed and multiplied,
sharp-thorned and caned, nested and raised,
earth-salt by sun-sugar. I was innerly sung
by thrushes who need fear no eyed skin thing.
Finched, ant-run, flowered, I am given the years
in now fewer berries, now more of sling
out over directions of luscious dung.
Of water crankshaft, of gases the gears
my shape is cattle-pruned to a crown spread sprung
above the starve-gut instinct to make prairies
of everywhere. My thorns are stuck with caries
of mice and rank lizards by the butcher bird.
Inches in, baby seed-screamers get supplied.
I am lived and died in, vine woven, multiplied.

Les Murray

Thank so much to Kelly Angard for permission to use her photo, Botanica Obscura 2. The dark richness and dainty flower sit in oppostion to the glaring imagery of dust, heat and the prickly cockspur bush.
 I also have to thank Kelly for introducing me to the poetry of Theodore Roethke, who I will introduce you to very soon. It is always such a pleasure to talk to poetry lovers and share the words around.

Verbs are doing words.

Drinking - Rose and French Vanilla iced tea... this could be my new obsession. It's just like normal iced tea, only 50 times better!!!

Crocheting - more hearts for my Valentine garlands. They're so cute no matter what you do with them.

Reading - Wildwood with my little darlings. They get so involved in the story, gasping and exclaiming, it's the sweetest thing. It's a cracking yarn, and I've tried hard not to read ahead and spoil the story for myself. It was written by Colin Meloy, of The Decemberists. He's a funny guy...



I love bed. I do. I really do.



Did you ever!?

Let's go shopping with BrisStyle!

Regency Skull Kitchen Towel Orange by Brilliant Trees Collective

Navy and white drill and red and white floral cotton purse by Shelleyberelli

Ceramic Mixing Bowl by Spunmud 

Ring beadwoven matte black by Afrikitten

1/2m Basic Brights Skull by Windham Fabrics by voodoorabbit



Back in the shop - just in time for Valentines!

St Valentine Heart Garland 1m, $15 from Miuandumi on Etsy

These garlands can also be made to order in different colours and lengths... so if you're wanting a rainbow heart garland... let me know!



See that gorgeous black floral kiss-lock bag hanging in the background? I love that bag. It was made by Vicki of Marcello Neckwear, and I bought it from her at a BrisStyle market over a year ago. When I'm not using the bag, it hangs next to my bed, and greets me with awesomeness every morning when I wake up.

Subversive Cross-stitch on Etsy - Language warning!!!

'Come at me, bro' by the Argenta Collaborative

'I want your beard on my face' by MANJUNK

'I am Jack's smirking revenge' by ValeriePhoto

'F me gently with a chainsaw' by DefiantDamsel

'Jules English Mofo' by Defiant Damsel

Okay, this makes me happy, and also gives me ideas. I think the 'Heathers' quote is my favourite.
It's one of my all time favourite movies.

Have you seen any subversive cross-stitch I should know about?

What day is it?

There's a big blank on the pantry where the 2011 calendar used to hang, so I finally got around to choosing and downloading 12 owl artworks for my 2012 Owl Lover Calendar.

In 2011 Shivani, the creator of My Owl Barn, collaborated with 30 international artists to put together a choose-your-own-image-for-each-month calendar for free. The only problem is choosing 12 images!

Image from 2012 Owl Lover Calendar by Caro Celis

So if you're looking for a new one, look no further!

I once ran away from colour...

I've always shied away from wearing colour. From my delightfully moody teen years, where it was black, black and a little more black, to hitting the mid-thirties and embracing the forgiving qualities of that darkest hue, black has been the staple of my wardrobe.

But...there's so much colour creeping in at the edges. I'm feeling like perhaps I've been too hasty. There's a world of eye-popping technicolour out there...

Rainbow crochet rug - 3 feet, by MonsterBloodIV

This is what happens when hundreds of kids are given thousands of stickers... at the GOMA until March 2012. Absolutely stunning art installation by Yayoi Kusama.

Color Me Katie is an example of extreme colour love. This adorable chick literally surrounds herself with every colour there is, and makes you want to do all her fun little DIYs too. Katie also has a community-based outlook with an emphasis on sharing that is really infectious!

Kaylee Frye's parasol by lizzica

Street art can be good. Street art can be bad. Shall we debate? I just know that if I discovered a rainbow on my fence, I probably wouldn't be too upset!

A trio of treasuries!

Etsy treasury by Rachael from the awesome Hip Brown

 A last minute gift treasury from Sandrine, of the ever-classy SMBoutique

And this cool blue-green selection by the BrisStyle Etsy Street Team. Love!

Red velvet cake, The Ramones and so on...

image via alpineberry.blogspot.com

This is the cake. This one. It's Cameron's birthday today - he's my best friend in the entire world, and I love him so fiercely it's scary. So I'm going to make him a Red Velvet Cake, and maybe add a bit more chocolate cream into the middle. He really likes chocolate.  

This morning I got up with him (at 4.30am, thank you!) and made him coffee and some eats. I played him this...



 and gave him his present...a whipper-snipper! I know, I'm very romantic, but it's what he wanted.

Ada Coat by LittleHouses on Etsy

I'm in a little bit of love with this coat. I don't need it, not at all, but boy, I want it.

One of ny new brooches - a mix of old and new materials which seemed to find each other! The laying out phase of making something new is a dreamy, playful time for me, and I listen carefully for the little voice that hints I'm stepping on my comfort zone. This is when I know I'm heading in the right direction.

Now I just have to come up with a clever name, and write it up in my little shop. Stay tuned!



Happy New Year, you good-looking people

Welcome to 2012.

My pure and fervent hope is that this year is better than the last, for everyone.

Today began with croissants and coffee. And no hangover! I also redesigned my blog and re-opened my Etsy shop, and photographed the new pieces which I will list very soon.

This year my goal is to do more good. To make the most of my time. To put aside the worries that hobble me, and to finally hit my stride!

I'm also thinking I should make a few lists. Of goals and intentions. To really set it out there and illustrate my plans, make myself accountable for the results.

What do you think? Are you a lister? Do you already have your lists in order? 



This one's for all you Santas out there...

Think The Cramps said it best...you got gooooood taste!

Thank you Santa (aka best hobo ever) for my awesome new laptop that I neverrrrr dreamed I'd have, and thank you Secret Santa (aka Mumma Sue, aka Suzie Wong) for making me smell like a mental problem ... Obsession!

I'm a hair-trigger sneezer of the highest order, but since the latest gifts of some really gorgeous bottles of smell, denial isn't just a river in Egypt. Obsession has always made me think of my best peep Cass, and now when I wear it, it's like she's right with me! Hypnôse does the same for my sis. And even though my mum has preferred sandalwood for at least 5 years, whenever I get a hint of Youth Dew, she springs to mind. The human brain is a funny thing.

Speaking of obsession and smelly things, have you read 'Perfume' by Patrick Süskind? This novel delves deeply into the powerful sway of the olfactory sense over one freakishly sensitive blood-hound of a man who goes to spectacular lengths to create the perfect scent. It's a spiral of desperation and murder with an incredible ending, and I highly recommend it.

Sooo, what did Santa bring you?

Happy non-denominational day of gift-giving and eating, y'all!

Artwork by Prynn



You've guessed by now I have not a breath of religion in my body. I also have no need to debate it, throw food scraps on door-to-door bible bashers or make a pilgrimage to Nietzsche's grave.

I'm just not a subscriber. 

But I do love a public holiday, and a chance to get all the family together.

I've made some tasty chocolates, most of which have been devoured by a husband with absolutely no remorse.

The muffin-mould worked a treat for the cranberry, almond and crunchie choc trees.

But the peppermint icing trees were a sad, floppy and totally irresistable failure.

We also discovered Krampus! The Alpine region anti-Santa, who made naughty children rue their wickedness with taste-testers of hell! Brrr, he's a looker alright. The Krampus Christmas cards of the past are a far cry from the snow-flakes and rosy-cheeked Santas of now.
I'd love to know if terrorising children in this manner actually made them behave?

Verbs are doing words

Eating - Miso for lunch, which made me think of this crimp in the Mighty Boosh (one of my all time favourite shows. Thanks Beebs!)

Dreaming - entertaining some lovely Christmas wrapping fantasies... aided by this - gorgeous video of a surprise ball being unwrapped, from Gina Namkung on Vimeo.

Making - A crochet blankie for another very special little bub, due next year, and greatly anticipated!