Zine update
It’s been a bit of a disrupted work week, but here are three more drawings for Tell me about your body in 10 words or less. I didn’t realise how much people’s feelings would affect me, and I have to say it’s slow going at times.
Wooloongabba Antique Centre: amazing
My cousin is getting married very soon and her “bad taste bridesmaid” hen’s night is this weekend so I went with my sister to find some terrible (yet incredible) frocks. We decided on a whim to stop into the Wooloongabba Antique Centre and stayed there for hours exploring the place! It’s a warehouse jam-packed with vintage stuff that will make you weep. The only reason why I didn’t buy so many things was a lack of money and space in our apartment, but you could decorate your whole house with amazing finds.
It is much like the Paddington Antique Centre and Chapel St Bazaar in that the space is given to individuals running stalls within the warehouse. Each stall has its own flavour and products, and some of them are really beautifully styled.
My sister was spoilt for choice in the dress department and went home with two gorgeous frocks (I don’t even think they’re bad taste, I love bad 80s frocks!) I went home with photos and the burning desire to sell everything I own and start again 
Click the link to see the rest of my photos from Wollongabba Antique Centre.
Two oufits: Ikea vs Theatre Opening
Nick and I went to Ikea in search of containers for our kitchen cupboards and I felt like wearing something comfortable and loose. I am a big fan of Susie from Style Bubble and the way she wears oversized clothes with longer proportions, but I also thought it was fun to change my silhouette. I’m an apple shape, but in this skirt I have extra padding on my hips and I quite like it!
This brooch is by Peta Pledger and I bought it from Meet Me at Mikes! I’ve been wearing it constantly since getting back from Melbourne, it’s so cute.
T-shirt: Sara by Ezibuy
Long vest: Moda by Target
Skirt: Target (obtained by clothing swap)
Shoes: Crocs
Sunglasses: Giant Vintage
Brooch: Peta Pledger
My art was shown at the opening of the Tribal Theatre (the old Dendy on George Street) on Thursday night and I thought it was a good opportunity to show Brisbane the cute City Chic dress I also bought in Melbourne. If you’re ever at a loss for something to do, make sure you check out what’s playing at the Tribal Theatre because they’re going to show awesome old movies as well as local films.
Top: ebay
Dress: City Chic
Tights: Kmart
Shoes: Crocs
Bag: Dangerfield
Friday Fance: A pastel mood
This collection of photos is all pale and pastelly by coincidence because I’m not normally drawn to lighter hues. I am very much enjoying all these things right now though!
This is but a sampling of Julie Moon’s lovely sculptural pieces, you really ought to go check her portfolio out! There’s so much stuff I like, from the shapes to the fine and doodly details.
Isn’t this the most adorable outfit ever? cocorosa posted this to chictopia, and I think it’s the best.
Hello, cupcake jars! Photo by earlymourning.
I would love to have a little space like this but it certainly wouldn’t stay neat and cute because I am a whirlwind of destruction. I wish I knew where this came from, so if you know please tell me!
I hope to walk down an avenue lined with cherry blossoms in bloom one day in my life. This lovely photo is by Satomi Shirai, and it was taken in New York.
DIY Turmeric Face Mask
My skin is oily and prone to cystic acne, and I have tried so SO many things to “fix” my face but nothing works. As I am coming to the nice round age of 30 I’ve relaxed quite a lot about my “flaws” and learned to make peace with myself (most of the time, I’m not a superhero!) A few years ago I had a series of glycolic peels before my wedding, and the beautician who treated me was quite a revelation. She told me that in her experience healthy skin comes from reducing anxiety, and that I shouldn’t feel ashamed about my oily skin because it means I won’t have so many wrinkles in years to come. (To be honest, I kind of like wrinkles!) We spoke about how the beauty industry focuses on things like oily skin to make people feel bad about themselves so they buy cosmetics – it’s just insanity!
So, I don’t buy very many beauty products at all these days; just cleanser, moisturiser and a select few make up products. I do have a bit of fun concocting DIY treatments though! I was chatting with my friend Kathleen about the beauty products she encountered on her recent trip to India, and I noticed that many of them contained turmeric. I have a big bag of lovely turmeric bought from the markets, and thought “AHA! It’s time for a DIY face mask!”
And how! It looks like I have plunged face first into cake batter. Here’s the recipe I used:
2 tblsp besan flour (chick pea flour)
1/4 tsp turmeric
Add milk & honey slowly to make a paste
Apply to face with the back of a spoon and chill out for 10 minutes.
Jump in the shower to wash it off with warm water – requires some gentle rubbing!
Fresh out of the shower, wrapped in a towel I promise! (Even if I wasn’t, what are you gonna do?!) Some people had warned of the turmeric staining my skin, but I have zero staining. Any yellow you see on my face is my actual skin tone (I’m a combination of pink and yellow). My skin feels very soft and most of the redness in my skin has calmed down a lot.
I was pretty impressed with this face mask, and will be doing it again! If you have any DIY beauty treatment recipes, I would love to learn about them. It’d be kind of fun to get some friends together for an afternoon of putting all kinds of crazy batter on our faces!
In search of: business card holders
Nick has a new job complete with business cards fresh off the press, so he wants to find a business card holder he can carry around in his pocket. He asked me for help when he couldn’t find anything he liked, and good thing he did because I know I’ll find him something awesome 
I just had a look on etsy and found these!
Horah cephalopods! By CosmicFirefly.
I don’t think the Keep Calm meme has been thrashed quite enough! By bambina.
I like the holes cut into the leather on this one. By LucyBlaireCreations.
Another leather pouch, but simple and beautiful. By sakao.
My favourite, a gorgeous wooden box! By Elegant Wood Boxes and more.
Have you seen any cool business card holders? Let me know.
Tell me about your body
After going to TEDxBrisbane and seeing Dallas Clayton’s video on publishing “An Awesome Book” I have been feeling inspired to self publish a book. I’ve also been reading a few old zines, the FaT GiRL zines from the 90s in particular, and I thought I’d start out by publishing a zine on body image – your body image.
So, I put up a question on a Google Form: Tell me about your body in 10 words or less.
Lots of people have contributed their statements already! Some of them are sad, some are funny, but all of them speak to me of honesty and struggle.
So, how do you feel about your body? You can contribute too. You don’t have to put your real name, but a name is nice because I can illustrate your words and then attribute those words to you. The end product will be an A5 sized zine – I am yet to figure out the details, but I hope to have enough interest in the book to have it colour printed. I will also make the zine available online for free.
If you’re interested in a printed zine, please let me know so I can start figuring out numbers!
Super tangy lemon pudding
I was craving something with a citrus tang last night so I cobbled together a recipe for a microwavable lemon self-saucing pudding.
Ingredients
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 small lemons, rind finely grated (you can substitute any citrus on hand, really)
60g butter, melted, at room temperature (I used olive oil spread)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 egg (replace with apple sauce to veganise)
Sauce
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (again, substitute this for any citrus on hand)
1/2 cup boiling water
Instructions
You’ll need a microwave-safe bowl with at least a 6 cup capacity. I use the big bowl from my Tupperware red stack cooker set.
Combine flour, sugar and rind in the bowl. Whisk together butter, juice and egg in another small bowl then stir into the flour mixture until well combined. Flatten the surface with the back of a spoon.
To make the sauce place sugar, juice and boiling water into a microwave-safe jug and stir to dissolve the sugar. If the sugar hasn’t dissolved, put jug in microwave for short bursts and stir until sugar dissolves. Pour sauce over the back of a large spoon to evenly cover pudding.
Put pudding in the microwave and cook, uncovered, on 50% power for 8 to 9 minutes or until a skewer inserted around edges comes out clean but centre is still a little sticky. Cover tightly with foil. Stand for 5 minutes or until centre is no longer sticky.
Serve with ice-cream, yoghurt or eat it plain and enjoy the tarty bitterness!
(You’ll notice that the bowl I served it in is also Tupperware, I am such a Tupper-tragic!)
Self esteem is revolutionary
In a culture where negative self talk is actively encouraged most of us have days when we feel like we don’t measure up. This practice of comparing ourselves and our bodies with others rarely produces good outcomes. It’s such a damaging culture that even those with high self esteem aren’t immune. Even those who are activists, advocating for fat acceptance, aren’t safe.
When I find myself in these moments where I compare myself to others and despair at the ways I am lacking, I try to remember this. Some people are surprised that I can fight for size diversity, human rights and self-love so fiercely yet still be afflicted with bouts of crippling low confidence – but I’ve got to tell you right now, this is proof of our self-hating culture.
Margaret Cho, someone more eloquent (and hilarious) than I, says it really well.
And I have a lot of self-esteem, which is amazing, because I’m probably somebody who wouldn’t necessarily have a lot of self esteem, as I am considered a minority. And if you are a woman; if you are a person of color; if you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender; if you are a person of size; if you are person of intelligence; if you are a person of integrity, then YOU are considered a minority in this world. And it’s going to be really hard to find messages of self-love and support anywhere, especially women’s and gay men’s culture. It’s all about how you have to look a certain way, or else you’re worthless. You know, when you look in the mirror and think, “Ugh, I’m so ugly, I’m so fat, I’m so old.” Don’t you know that’s not your authentic self? That is billions upon billions of dollars of advertising: magazines, movies, billboards, all geared to make you feel shitty about yourself, so that you will take your hard-earned money, and spend it at the mall on some turn-around creme that doesn’t turn around shit. If you don’t have self-esteem, you will hesitate before you do anything in your life. You will hesitate to go for the job you want to go for. You will hesitate to ask for a raise. You will hesitate to call yourself an American. You will hesitate to report a rape. You will hesitate to defend yourself when you are discriminated against because of your race, your sexuality, your size, your gender. You will hesitate to vote. You will hesitate to dream. For us to have self-esteem is truly an act of revolution, and our revolution is long overdue. I urge you all today, especially today in these times of terrorism and chaos, to love yourselves without reservation and to love each other without restraint. Unless you’re into leather, then by all means, use restraints. Thank you.
Copy and paste this in a txt file, or make it your desktop. Read it all the time and remember it.
Get your nails DIYed
Being an artist and particularly one with a wrist injury, I think a lot about my hands and how useful they are (also how awful it would be if I lost use of them). For years I’ve never really been into decorating my hands with polish because it seemed like a waste – nails are for keeping short and clean so they don’t catch on delicate things or mark any of my projects. The other thing is that I have weak nails and nail polish never seems to last more than a couple of days before chipping off and making me look like a grungy 90s teen.
Recently I’ve been reading Super Kawaii Mama and Violet LeBeaux’s entries on nail art and have been inspired to give it a go. While the 3D stuff is highly impractical for me, 2D techniques using pens and dotting tools are really appealing.
I bought a white Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen the other day, and have experimented a little bit with it but I have a lot of practice to undertake! I think I’ll also try to find and buy an actual dotting tool so I can use the nail polish I have on hand to create designs.
The pen I have is only really good for drawing dots, but I’ve played around with drawing other things and even tried using a toothpick and nail polish. The results weren’t that great, and even using bottom coats and top coats my polish was still chipping after two days! I’ll keep playing around with my nails and I hope one day I happen across the solution. I really want to be able to doodle on my nails the way I do with pen and paper!
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