a banana wrapped in tin foil

My favourite boots fell apart five minutes after I got to Russell, a small town in the Bay of Islands, a few weeks ago and I was left with just my ridiculously high bridesmaid shoes and a pair of jandals borrowed from han. I re-bought the same boots as soon as I got back to Melbourne so it's not as much as a disaster as it could have been, but at the time my only consolation was that I might get to fill the broken pair with plants. Not so, unwearable footwear is not something you want to lug around in a suitcase for three weeks, and they now rest in a bin somewhere in Auckland.

Anyway I'm kind of hung up on the work of Aurelian Arbet and Jeremie Egry (good names too), which features among other things my current favourite plant containers - clothing.

this is not edgy

BUT I LOVE MUPPETS, ESPECIALLY OSCAR THE GROUCH WHEN HE SMIIIILES!

dawwwww

From a 2009 Harpers Bazaar, celebrating Sesame Street's 40th birthday.

leo fuchs

 Tres chic photos by Leo Fuchs of some of my favourite Hollywood dreamboats. More here.

champ

This weekend I plan on getting things done. Furniture shopping and new-room setting up, some gardening if it's sunny and probably a bit of work too. Before all of that though I'm going to the launch of Champfest magazine's second issue, and a travelling exhibition along with it.

Champfest is produced by my lovely new friend Jo and her twin sister in London, and I've been lucky enough to flick through the latest bilingual edition already. It's filled with the work of some incredible international artists, some who will be there tonight and are showing this month at Gorker.

If you're in Melbourne, come along tonight, openings at Gorker tend to be the small, crowded, well-stocked with beer afair you'd hope for and this one will have some reasonably priced prints and a beautifully put together little magazine on offer too. If you're not in Melbourne, you can pick up a copy of Champfest at West Berlin Gallery, Hamburger Eyes in San Fran, ReedSpace in New York, and Colette in Paris. And a bunch of other places besides.

technicolour

I spent quite some time looking at these slides from the Library of Congress. I'm amazed at how beautifully cinematic they are. Its rare that we are able to see the depression and war eras in colour, and it usually makes them feel more recent, and real. Simultaneously, though, to me, they almost look like frames from a film, like fictions. The man in the second to last image could be Paul Newman. I'm not sure if I like the way in which my reading of these incredible images is so totally influenced by films and Steinbeck novels...There are so many to look at, and so many I almost put up here, but then felt a bit odd about (images of depression-era families and children, for example). Regardless, they're amazing, poignant and beautiful, and you should have a look at them.

can't see the wood for the trees

I love these photos, by Amira Fritz, and the beautiful forests they're taken in.

I first saw them on Oh Joy

Joni Mitchell in peasant dress with guitar

I love Jack Robinson's photos of Joni Mitchell. I seem to listen to Blue when I'm feeling any strong emotion. Doesn't matter which one!

'69

I love these Life images of American students in 1969, which I pinched from today's This Recording. My parents have quite a few old Life Magazine books which enthralled me when I was little.

slow life

I love Saya's blog, Life in the Slow Line. She has beautiful taste and has introduced me to the work of architects, Japanese artists, photographers and illustrators all who I've never heard of before. I don't 'follow' the blog (the pictures don't show up in my reader) and so sometimes I forget to visit for a while and then I have lots to catch up on... She makes wonderful looking breakfasts, which you can see more of on her flickr.

All these photos are from Life in the Slow Line, but not all of them are by Saya.

in betweens

The Land Between Here and Mountains is a simple, beautiful blog run by two friends (like us, and these two too.) and contributed to by many. Photos are captioned and contextualised with a sentence about the journey they were taken on, the places they were in between and little import is placed on the destination.

I feel like a road trip, a walk in the bush, an adventure with friends. But it was seven degrees outside last night, and that makes me feel more like soup and socks and not going outside.

Han I want the Wellington town belt. With you, the Mein/Hawker crew, lots of layers and hand holding.

All these photos come from the blog and are credited there...

under things

I love this lookbook from lingerie label The Lake & Stars. I love the model's red hair, the forest setting and the cut-outs, back details, and flashes of chartreuse in the clothes. And I would like one of those zig zag body suits in the last picture.

Photography by Tom Hines, nicked from here.

she wakes up every day with good intentions but ends up eating cakes

This afternoon is grey in a right in between Summer and Winter kind of way. I've decided (once again) not to go to yoga tonight, but to eat something comforting and find something un-productive to do in the warmth of my home. I've been enjoying the drawings and polaroids of Mina Fina, whose name I love and who I discovered after googling the quote which has now been reappropriated as the title of this post. I've been thinking lately about this song called Jamelia, by Caribou, the beginning of which I don't especially like but then the second half makes me really happy. I'm listening to it right now and it's nice.

nostalgia

I think most children of divorced parents find it incredibly bittersweet to look at photos of their childhood. I know I certainly do. I feel this pulling in my chest when I see photos of us all together. That's not to say it makes me feel terribly sad, but there is an indefinable tugging sensation. I think that when my parents separated, my heart was broken for the first time, and looking at those photos makes it ache a little.

One thing I love about my parents is that even though they are separated now, they were together for a long time before they had children.

At around my age they were married and travelling the world together. When they left New Zealand, my Dad had to hide on the other side of the ship so my Mum's very strict Croatian parents would not know they were going away together. They even worked on a kibbutz in Israel (Mum didn't like it and Dad had to spent a lot of time keeping the other men away from her. Did I mention my Mum is really, really pretty?)

When they returned to New Zealand they lived in a dank little flat in Wellington and my Aunty remembers them dancing in the kitchen together while making pumpkin soup. We've found photos they took of themselves, cheek to cheek, holding the camera at arms length. It makes me feel hopeful, knowing that they were that in love, for that long a time.

I found this picture of my dad with either me or my older sister at the beach. I think its quite lovely. xx

decapitados

I like groups of things. Repetitive, matching, colour coded, outnumbered. I'm drawn to displays of merchandise in shops, the work of Andreas Gursky, patterns, stacks of books and big cities. Today I found Public Collectors which I also quite like. Of particular note are the collections of Mexican adult comics and childhood graffiti from antique sources (both pictured above, a lot of the Mexican porn is nsfw).

Other good places to look for this kind of thing are Collection a Day, and Flickr

about a year late

But look...

Gracie (?) of Woolgathering and Miscellany put together a beautiful series of fashion/space images last year. I never would have known about these as I only started following her recently and am glad she reminded everyone. Photos are all from Jak & Jil and NASA. I wish I'd thought of this, they're great!
If you haven't already seen Astronomy Picture of the Day, then go see it. There's a new one, every day! And it's informative. I was following this before I even knew what an RSS feed is (I still don't really). But yeah, it was probably my first regular internet destination, and now you should make it one of yours.

f f f friday

It's almost the weekend! I'm super happy because I can see blue skies and sunshine outside and it's supposed to be sticking around for a few days... What are you doing this weekend? I'm going to the opening of Insert Coin Here tonight at 1000 £ Bend, if you're coming make sure you bring your $2 coins! On Sunday I'm going to pop my Camberwell Markets cherry - apparently crazy that I've still never been - but other than that this weekend is going to be nice and quiet. Have a lovely one you guys!

The beautiful photos above are by a new favourite of mine, Jody Rogac. How amazing is the hair in that last one?