man decor

I really like this rug (via I'm Revolting).

I also really like and want this book (via Vena Cava), and would like to have it in my home which I would like to look something like these homes.

That's all.

i think i like you

This is relevant to my youth

Wild things is on television right now. I'm watching it and keep being reminded of Neve Campbell's skin peeling scene in The Craft. The acting in this movie is almost as bad as the shoes, but there's nothing not to love. Wtf Bill Murray?

mash up

Rittenhouse

Surface too deep

Jennie Ford for Marimekko

good for nothing

I am not of the best health at the moment. I have a vitamin b and possibly iron deficiency. I know this because I have angular cheilitis. This self-diagnosis has been informed by advice from various friends and colleagues, and at least an hour or so on the internet. Angular cheilitis, it turns out, is what they call the terribly annoying and persistent cuts that can develop in the corner of one's mouth. They are PAINFUL and DISGUSTING and do. not. heal. They aren't cold sores but they may as well be, they are equally as GROSS and render one equally as unlikely to ever be kissed again in their LIFE. They also make it difficult to laugh, yawn, brush one's teeth, and eat anything larger than a grape, or anything on a fork.

So there've been a range of suggestions about what might have caused the face wounds, and after two weeks of no apparent improvements (in fact it got worse, double bad) the common theme I'm hearing is vitamin b. I actually spoke to a real pharmacist about this, they're the free version of a doctor, or at least slightly more informed than me after a dr google consultation. Admittedly the pharmacist I spoke to was working at chemist warehouse (the only place I buy my drugs) but they agreed with my self assessment and the ego boost was enough to send me away with a bottle of some super ultra multi B complex pills. Never have been much of a supplement taker though, and I am now sitting here munching on salmon, broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, leafy greens, beetroot, brussel sprouts and brown rice, trying to work out how I can possibly incorporate millet, wheat germ and beef livers into my diet as well... I am an easily sold hypochondriac.

dreamy

I've been having the strangest, most vivid dreams recently. It's probably the seasons changing or something. Unfortunately for most people around, I've been compelled to share them with whoever I can, in person, on facebook, and yay now with you. You're welcome.

Not really, it's too late in the evening to write anything compelling about something that occured in my own subconscious over 12 hours ago. But here are a bunch of pictures that somehow fit into the bizarreness and loveliness of this whole scenario, as I seem to have begun to mush all the recent dreams into an ongoing state of being that I'm having a hard time pulling myself out of when awake.

A few tidbits: model planes made of chickpeas and rainbow garlic // b grade celebrity look alikes mouthing silently along with gangster rap for hours // sleeping in a hat on a couch at a party // straw // forests // grey skies // warm hands, cold weather // that's all.

champ fest

Wa-hey, Champ Press Creators Supplement showed up in my mailbox last night and isn't it delightful!



A lovely little thing printed on a beautiful old press, here in Melbourne, this journal is full of pictures and words from some of the most inspirational people creating around the world. Editors from Apartamento and Monocle (my two actual favourite bits of print), designers from Tokyo, Berlin and London, I'm excited to actually sit down and read it all.

You can buy the supplement, and Ala Champfest the magazine at a bunch of shops around Melbourne and the world, and online, have a look at the website for stockists.


I took these photos on my phone.

knit picks

see what I did there?

I would be so happy if all of my friends wore these all of the time, including me.

I am obsessed with All Knitwear, ever since I saw it in a shop on Gertrude Street that was shut every time I walked past. Admittedly I only walked past at night, until about two months ago when I walked past in the middle of the day, and it was open. I went in and found that these sweaters and minis and scarves are even better in person than through the window/online. The shop is called Dagmar Rousset and is full of really great things. Please go there if you are in Melbourne. You could even get french lessons there if you wanted, which you should.

If you're in Auckland, which I think a few of you are, All Knitwear is stocked at Douglas + Bec in St Mary's Bay, a shop which I don't think existed when I lived there.

we are children of the nineties

This weekend I sat by a lake with eight others of roughly the same age, and turned 25 as we sang along to the smashing pumpkins, spice girls, ace of base and alanis morisette. We still remembered every word.

We communed with nature, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer and red wine in the mud. Wearing polyester blankets patterned in leopard print. We made new friends and ate chinese takeaway in the middle of a tiny town, deserted at 10pm but for a few hangers on at the pokies.

We talked about Kurt Cobain, 2 Pac and Biggie. We rowed in Kayaks on another lake, our iPods and portable speakers splashed with water but continuing to play incredibly offensive gangster rap. (We turned it off when we realised how many children we were sharing the lake with).

We spent hundreds of dollars, on beer, breakfast, barbecue supplies. We feasted on sandwiches and easter eggs in the middle of the night and powerade and golden pash the next morning. We got lost on the way there and the way home, but we got back to the city in time for the unfortunate few who had to work.

quarter life crisis

 It's my birthday on Monday, dear rich friends and family (all of you) please note:

 I would like the fox dress

 This perfume

These sunglasses

Flowers, always

A cocktail ring or two, particularly this one, in smokey quartz

A timepiece that isn't my cell phone. Preferably a large-ish man-ish gold or silver watch with a big round face

And a new computer,

Thanks.

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.

i exist

 And I like things:

My giant velvet polka dot dress from Twenty Seven Names

Wearing said dress with a ridiculous cardigan covered in mini pom poms, burgundy tights, or a skin coloured slip

Smokey quartz everything

99 Problems, my new local* with the nicest proprietors ever

The fact that I am going to see Bone Thugs N Harmony next week

The wonderful, amazing trip I just got back from in little ole New Zealand, and all the babes I got to see naked in the ocean after two of our beautiful pals tied the knot

In fact, everything about that day, except the sweat during the ceremony, and the entire missing outfit

Hanging out with my granny

Hanging out with my friends' babies

Being home

The Asos package that just arrived

This lovely distraction (select journey)**

Winter's approach,

and my acceptance of it.

Thanks for your time

xL

* it is, dangerously close to my house 

** found via Lolita, thanks!

*** both of the autumney wintery photos are from Le Portillon, my new favourite

no-neck monsters!

RIP Liz. Once I dressed up as her for Halloween (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof). I can't imagine a world without Elizabeth Taylor.

This has been very encouraging

Last night, when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Tom Waits said this:

I just want to know if there's a keychain version that I can keep with me just in case I hear someone say, "Pete, take the cuffs off. I think he's a Hall of Famer." Thank you for the kind words, Neil. I'm honored to be honored. And, gee, I don't know where to begin. Songs, uh, are really just interesting things to be doing with the air. I love working with tunes. I love music, but we really want music to love us. Neil was saying the other night, he said, "When there's a song approaching it's kind of like there's an animal in the room, and you don't want it to run off." You know, how did it get in?

I was, uh, fifteen and I snuck in to see Lightnin' Hopkins. I put white-out in my hair and I drew on a mustache and I put on an overcoat and I stood there and I said, "Ticket for one." Amazing show. Every time he opened his mouth, that orchestra of gold teeth was just devastating. And then I saw him leave the show and he walked through a door and slammed the door behind him. And on the door, it said, I swear to God, "KEEP OUT. THIS ROOM IS FOR ENTERTAINERS ONLY." And I knew at that moment that I had to get into show business as soon as possible. So, uh, that was a real big one for me. And I've had the pleasure and the privilege of playing with a lot of great musicians over the years. Some of you are here and some of you are not here. Some of us are on the wrong side of the dirt, as they say. But any day on this side of the dirt is a good day, for me and for all of us.

Let's see, what else? They told me I should talk for quite a while, but I don't intend to. I fully do not intend to. I'd like to thank my family. They know me and they love me anyway. My wife and her incandescent light that has guided me and kept me alive and breathing and sparkling. And my kids who, well, they taught me everything I know. Or maybe they taught me everything they know. I don't know. They taught me a lot.

Okay, I did the bit about the door and the club. Um, the first time I went onstage, my face felt like it was made of plaster and if I smiled, it would crack off, and I thought, "This is such an interesting [Christian?] experience" and somehow wanted more of it. They say I have no hits and I'm difficult to work with, and they say that like it's a bad thing. [crowd cheers] The only thing I really can compare this to is I was given the key to the city of El Paso several months ago. It was a really kind offer. They told me there's only one key to the city, but I found out later there were a whole lot of them, and they fit nothing. So, I'm just hoping there are some fringe benefits that go along with this baby. Thank you very much. This has been very encouraging.

Taken one year before her first album was released. So cool. Photo by Richard Corman.