Melbourne Type

Spent the weekend and a bit in Melbourne, assisting with the assessment of ISTD submissions from students throughout Australasia. I slept in the swag on my wonderful friend Juliette's floor and took the opportunity to do something for every waking moment! I had a great time.
The ISTD assessment involved five professional designers being paired with 5 design educators, in turn moderated by Becky Chilcott (of Chil3) and the Chair of the ISTD, Freda Sack (of The Foundry). Besides seeing some lovely student work, we got to meet a few of our design 'heroes'!
When we weren't ISTD-ing Juliette and I were hitting the vintage markets, eating out a lot, drinking at roof top bars and generally having a ball. What fun.
So now... I'm all fired up for the new year. I want to go back to study and attend Massey, in Wellington. I want to visit Melbourne  more regularly... and I am back to missing Juliette - she rocks.

Mixtape Love

I've been accused a not being very romantic, so I'm making an effort. My first attempt is making a mixtape for my other half. I'm trying to choose songs that have a bit of meaning to us, or are appropriate to being on a 'love' mixtape kind of thing. Some I've got in mind are a bit of a laugh but that's ok! It's hard excluding songs that you like but don't fit the criteria!
I'd love to hear any suggestions.
So far my list includes...
• Gotye: Hearts A Mess
• Angus & Julia Stone: Paper Aeroplane
• Jose Gonzales: Heartbeats
• Tea Party: Winter Solstice
• Sarah Blasko: Flame Trees
• MGF: My Ex-girlfriend's Boyfriend
• Hilltop Hoods: Chase That Feeling
• Feist: Brandy Alexander
• Faithless: Don't Leave; We Come One
• Cat Empire: Protons, Neutrons, Electrons; Two Shoes
• Bran Van 3000: Willard
• Ben Lee: Gamble Everything for Love
• Biftek: We Think You're Dishy
• Architecture in Helsinki: Heart It Races
• Johnny Cash: Jackson (ok, so not so romantic but we love it!); If I Were A Carpenter
• Jeff Buckley: Satisfied Mind
• Alex Lloyd: Amazing (...)
• FOTC: Business Time

Little Lauren's Kite Party

It was Little Lauren's 8th birthday yesterday so her mum and dad organised a kite for each girl to decorate then we all went down to the foreshore to fly them - fantastic idea! They had a ball, and they made some fantastic kites with killer graphics, even some lettering. Ahhh!

Heading to Melbourne, end November

Am heading over to Melbourne for the last week or so of November and would love to hear any suggestions on what to see or do.
Old favourites mean dropping by the Metropolis Bookstore in the Curtin Building, Sticky, the NVG (don't you love that it's called the 'National'?!). Planning to check out the Gorker Gallery too.
Thanks go to Sundari for posting a similar request and her readers for offering the following suggestions... Breakfast, Lamington Drive and a small Japanese bakery - Breadtop.

I can't wait!

** Edit: Thanks for the tips from Jo and Gregory.
• Burlesque Bar on Friday night or Sunday
• Red Door Burlesque
• The Ruby Review
• Australian Centre of Performing Arts

• Retrostar for an awesome collection of clothes

• Good guide for cool stuff in Melbs, www.norfguide.com.au
• G's favourite place was Galerie Montmarte for vintage French posters

• Guy Matthews at 54 Johnston St, Fitzroy

• Circa Vintage Clothing is excellent too - 102 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

• Good bar, Silk Road
• Very recommended for food: Nyala African Food, 131 Brunswick St, Fitzroy (03) 9419 9128

Little Space

 It's been over a month since the last post – slack? Yes. Busy? Definitely! I've moved into a new little space in Subiaco. The pic on the left, above, is the room as it was three weeks ago – bright blue window sills, canary yellow skirting boards and mouldings (is that what they're called?) and pink door frame! We painted the whole thing white, added some furniture and a light globe, and Bob's your uncle!

Still settling in and been busy with Semi-Permanent so hoping next week all is back to normal and I'm back into getting lots of work done...

Passionate Eggs

It's now spring and our passionfruit vines are still fruiting. We have a constant supply, along with eggs from our garden chooks. We get about two eggs a day, plus one more if Mrs Pecky isn't being her usual clucky self, warming the straw in her nest. With the wind blowing everything around we're getting 4 or 5 passionfruit a day too.. I can't keep up. Eggs and passionfruit - perhaps some sort of custard recipe beckons?

Comics and Fists

Went to an event at the Rosemount tonight featuring the works and presentations by Gestalt - including illustrators Justin Randall and Anton Mckay. Amazing stuff. Justin took us through some conceptual development and the process he uses to get his stories and imagery happening. Check out it out.

Commercial Rap Farm Style

I love the new look and website for City Farmers - I like that a local store made good can be a great example of decent branding (from their identity right through to their service in store).
I ducked into their Belmont store today to pick up dog nuts (B's endearing term for dog biscuits...). Everyone smiled at me, no one bothered me, the guy at the counter came and met me half way to the till when he saw I was laden up with 4 bags of nuts (they had a special on). They even helped carry the nuts to the car - scrub that, they didn't help - they carried, I watched. Anyway, enough of a rant and free ad - I like 'em fine.

Spec Me Up

I'm not usually one to promote 'spec' work but what the hell - this is for Triple J (government sponsored youth radio station), a brand I enjoy. It's a bit of fun. Limit yourself to 30mins and you have a nice little hourly rate. It's also part of the SemiPermanent exercise, which is kinda nice too.

"Come up with any design you like on the theme ‘triple it’ and submit it to tshirt@semipermanent.com (with your name & mobile). Please submit your entry as a low res JPG. If your design wins you’ll receive $1000 and have your design released as part of the triple j t-shirt range so everyone can see it."

Feel free to disagree.

Change Your Thinking

After being recommended the course by a lovely friend of mine, Mum and I started (and finished last night) a 10 week course in changing your thinking. It was surprisingly good - it exposed me to the whole 'rational-irrational' thought process which, though very obvious and logical, is amazingly applicable to handling your everyday life and emotions.
At the end of our last class we listed a few goals for the next five years. Mine included "to live in the moment more" and "to appreciate what I have and not take anything I love or anything I have for granted." After listening to someone else I added one of their goals, to "surround myself with positive people." I like this because it's similar to one of B's and my favourite ideas, to "work with people better than you".

Felting Feels Fine

Through happy coincidences I am led to book a friend and myself in for a felting class. The obviously talented Pauline Franklin happens to be married to like-wise talented graphic design/painter Paul Dennis - whose work I have admired since the Bethany packaging. Paul and I also work together for our industry association, AGDA. My friend Aud is from Norway where felting is quite popular. These little babushka dolls are so sweet, maybe we can do that class a bit further down the line...

Hello stop!

How cool is this? I'm definitely sending one the next chance I get!

Sweet Photographer

Happended across the work of 16 year old, Australian photographer, Nirrimi via Lost in E Minor. Wonderful eye and great composition. Check it out...

Rainbow Road

B and I drove back from Kalbarri yesterday - spotted a double rainbow on the way. Times like this when I wish I had a proper camera!

Swing it baby!

Third class in our intro to swing dancing course last night, last class next Monday. Hmmm! What fun... but between B and I we have no 'natural talent', so everything we're doing is quite measured. We take a while for things to click but we're determined to persevere! Shane and Ruth are entertaining instructors, making the whole effort worthwhile, as do the lollies, free badge pins and lovely fellow learners.

12 films in 12 weeks...

Thanks to RB on Twitter for link to this nifty project. US based collaborative project between 4 core guys who act/direct/produce/everything else along with a collection of other talented... talent.

From the website comes their goals:
• to promote creativity and adaptability by imposing a strict once-a-week deadline
• to explore the short-film format from a variety of angles – thematic, stylistic, and logistical
• to meet and collaborate with a large number of actors, artists, and technicians
• to create quality work that represents our interests and abilities, as individuals and as a group
• to work our butts off
• to have barrels of fun

Very inspiring! First movie looks great (although quite sad).

Date night

Had a very 'American' date Sunday night with B - a burger at the only place open (and close to the local cinema) at 9.30pm on a Sunday night, then caught 'Star Trek: 11' - we had the WHOLE cinema to ourselves! Had to run out and find staff to remind them to turn the lights off and pull the curtains open. Ahh, the laughs... anyway, not a bad movie! The extent of our Star Trek knowledge topped out at "Beam me up Scotty" and "Energise" but it didn't matter. Entertaining and interesting. Sylar (I mean Zachary Quinto) made a great Spock and Karl Urban was perfect as Bones (last time I saw him was in 'Doom' and as Eomer in 'Lord of the Rings').

Bike nerd

Check it out... free running for bikes!

coin keys phone markers notebook

Finally got around to trialling a bit of lino-equivalent block printing... stuff (substrate?). Might need to refine my technique a bit!

Retro WAFL Tea Towels

Wow. What a find! Found these very cool tea towels with the old WAFL teams colours. Where? At the Aladdin's cave of newsagency stores - the one near The Imp on Albany Hwy. This place is amazing! I always drop by to see what they have hidden away. Only $1 each!

Shadow Letters

Spelling with shadow letters...

Stuff from Melbourne weekend

Spent the long weekend (WA) in Victoria with B and the lovely J (another third of mayk). We drove along the Great Ocean Road, up to the Grampians then back to Melbourne for a day or two. Here's a few highlights...

Zine Festival @ Fed Square ~ Saturday 30th May
www.shelbyville.com.au/
www.gracialouise.com/zines.html
Just my luck - seriously. What a lovely coincidence! Dropped by the zine stands at Fed Square - paradise! Bought a couple of zines from Gracia and Louise & 'Laundromatic' courtesy of Shelbyville. I was spoilt for choice. Saw "MoTHER [has words...]" for sale too! Go Perth.

Breakfast in Peh-raaaan ~ Monday 1st June
www.threethousand.com.au/eat-drink/borsch-vodka-and-tears/
Great coffee, lovely service and fantastic setting! Food was spot on.

Shoppin' in the city ~ Monday 1st June
www.metropolisbookshop.com.au/
I. Love. Bookstores. Especially arty, design specific ones with a quality selection and latest titles. Ahhhh.

Birthday drinks and dinner out at The Imp

Birthday today! Heading to the Imp, our local cafe, for tapas and wine. Pulled out a Howard Park Cab Sauv Merlot '99 we were given for our wedding in 2005. Wines not for keeping, it's for drinking!

Finders Keepers

Loving Finders Keepers blog and site - and following from there, one of their featured artists, Marcela Restrepo from Columbia, check out ww.leftyhand.com

The Good Egg

We *finally* got our first egg from our backyard chickens yesterday. We didn't even need to resort to leaving the axe by their door. Maybe they just heard us talking about it? I got 2 chickens as a Christmas present from B (Featherfoot and Mrs Pecky), with Mrs Pecky sitting on a few eggs. Eggs have hatched and now we have an extra little hen called "The Raptor" (the boys went back to the farm... seriously). Since my mum moved we have adopted one of her chooks, Vera. I think we can safely attribute this first egg to her... and by the sounds of it I think another might be on its way!

Breakfast catch up

Working from home is great but can leave you feeling a bit isolated at times. So, what better way to catch up and share ideas than over a good cup of coffee and breakfast? Have sent on to a few mates, if you're keen to join us let me know.
Breaky: Wednesday 27th May, 7.30am @ The Imp, Albany Hwy, Vic Park.

Op Shop School Desk

I bought this desk for $8 at an op shop, no in too bad nick. Will sand or strip and repaint if required. Thinking maybe a blackboard paint top and glossy black for the rest? Maybe. Originally thought o keep it outside and use for potting plants etc but am inclined to use it in our guest room as a bedside table. Might just add a small edge on the inclined top, so books won't slide off. Any suggestions?!

Garage Sale Plant Leaf

I bought a plant at a garage sale recently - no idea what it is, but it dropped a leaf. I bought the plant because I liked the leaves, the holes are interesting!

Beautiful invitations

Lovely, hand-lettered invitations to a wedding in the mountains. Wonderful colours and illustration too :D

Desk space wanted!

I've been asking around, trying to find desk space to rent for 2 or 3 days a week, in a creative studio or office. I'm getting a bit stir crazy working at home by myself. I'm not looking for something necessarily in a design studio, but any place where there's a few people, doing creative stuff. Not looking to get involved with their work etc, just improve my current work atmosphere a bit!

If you hear of anything, leave a message!

My other option, which I haven't looked into a great deal at this stage, is to go back and do some more study...

Yonlu

Music from the south west of Brazil, created by 16 year old Vinicius Gageiro Marques. Yonlu (his online moniker) sounds like Elliot Smith – another fave, another tragic figure. Check him out...

Harvey Milk, but not from down south...

I finally got 'round to seeing 'Milk', the film celebrating the efforts of Harvey Milk towards gay rights. Well worth a look - Sean Penn does a great job, as do most of the actors. Second film I've seen Josh Brolin in, in a week, watched '.W' earlier - not sure whether to feel sorry for GWB or amazed that he got as far as he did...

Sandy Syd

My Dad left on Saturday to do a solo walk in the Simpson Desert. He got a lift in with a 4WD mob (they'll also pick him up on the way back). He looks like being away for around 3 weeks, carting all his own food and gear. He's got an EPIRB and GPS sorted, now we just have to see how he goes...