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We wandered across the Chinese New Year parade, featuring lions! I think these are way more adorable than the Sunnybank Chinese New Year lions of my youth

Dumplings from the Camy Shanghai Dumpling House – so delicious and cheap too!

A raspberry amandine from Choukette. I love that place!

A white-cheeked gibbon at the Melbourne Zoo. She was my favourite animal there because she was so intriguing.

Cocktails at 1806 – you must go and have a few historical cocktails. It’s educational and drunkening! I can’t speak highly enough of the staff, they were absolutely joyous to watch at work and looked after us superbly.

The Carlton Club is also great for a few drinks. Check out the fancy decor! We also went upstairs to the rooftop bar and had an awesome time with Melbourne buddies.

Some other stuff that’s good (clockwise from top left): card from the Peta Pledger brooch I bought from Meet Me At Mikes; Shanghai Dumpling House card; bag from Koko Black that contained four delicious chocolates; vege2vo card; Corky St Clair card (fantastic jewellery & screenprinted stuff); the actual Peta Pledger love birds brooch; card from Babushkas; card from Cafe Rosamond; our tickets from the Tram Museum; and the brooch I bought from Babushkas.

I’m sorry I missed out on the Friday Fance this week, but there are a few sad things going on in my family at the moment and I’m also very busy with my commissions. I hope you can forgive me.

Yes, Nick and I are back and you can expect a solid week of swooning over Melbourne stuff. But first… the trams. I never thought I’d be so enamored of a public transportation system but after a week of catching several trams daily my love is for sure. We even went to the Hawthorn Tram Depot on our first day in town – mostly because Nick is an avid rail fan, but after seeing the beauty in the old lettering and typography on these finely crafted machines I was won over.

Check out all the photos I took at the museum on flickr.

In the collage I did up the top you’ll see a card featuring one of the destination blinds from the old trams, designed and printed by Poulier + Poulier Design; a handmade tram pillow by Mrs Beckinsale featured in this month’s frankie magazine; and a diecast toy tram by Traffic Toys.

Today is my Dad’s birthday! I’m not sure I’ve posted photos from when I was a little girl, but today is probably the best day to do this because my Dad’s moustache was hilarious and there’s no better day to make fun of your father than his birthday!

The day I was born. Look at that mo!

Dawwww. And taken with a proper Polaroid camera, none of this Poladroid business!

A photo from more recent years to show his fashion sense (and facial hair) situation has improved! That’s my Mum behind him, I guess I get a lot of my ~~unique~~ personality from them.

Happy birthday Boonge!

Today I bought two bunches of lovely dahlias at the markets. I have long loved them but have never seen them to buy them and bring them home and gaze at their loveliness!

When I was unwrapping them and snipping the ends off to put them in a vase I discovered that they drop their petals way too easily. I ended up with a lot of bald flowers. A little googling tells me that the flowers that lose their petals are old flowers that are beyond usefulness.

Though as I was cleaning up, I noticed the petals had a very peppery scent. You must be able to eat them! I checked the wikipedia page and it says

The Aztecs gathered and cultivated the dahlia for food, ceremonies, as well as decorative purposes, and the long woody stem of one variety was used for small pipes.

What a handy little flower

The last few times we’ve been to the markets I forgot to pick up flowers, but today Nick helped me pick out the blooms! I actually saw the green chrysanthemums and grabbed them but didn’t know what to pair them with. Nick thought they’d go well with some white oriental lilies, and what do you know? They look very pretty! We are indeed a budding floral design couple.

I’m still in love with the Hipstamatic app. This is taken with the Kaimal Mark II lens and Ina’s 1969 film.

Taken with the John S lens and Blanko film. Life is simpler through the Hipstamatic’s viewfinder!

It’s so bright and sunny and hot today! We’ll probably be going for another swim at the local pool later.

Things are changing this year, and I’ve got to tell you… I always struggle with change. Nick is on long service leave but is still working hard at home with his freelance business. I’m trying to come up with concepts for a few projects but floundering, or errr, still developing them

This weekend we decided we would focus only on pleasurable things because we have been so busy lately. The ingredients for a happy weekend include: no work, minimal housework, friends, outside, nourishing food and time together. It’s nice to pause and spend time together – because we’ve discovered that working from home together doesn’t necessarily mean we are spending time together!

Yesterday we went to the markets with some friends and the boys held the first ever SAUSAGE CUP, which is exactly what it sounds like. Sausages in a cup. I counted nine of them in one cup! Shaun’s photo above should give you some indication of how vast the sausage selection is at the “Wurst House” at the markets.

Then Nick and I decided to go for a drive to the mountains in the afternoon. There is something about being in the mountains that puts me at peace, and we’re very lucky to have a smorgasbord of lovely mountain places around Brisbane to flee to whenever we get the desire. We went to Mt Glorious and Mt Nebo, and spent a couple of hours dreaming about living up there.

One day I will have a studio in the mountains, and I will never come down! Today we are having a lazy day that will be capped off by a picnic in the park with our friends.

I definitely recommend you get some pleasurable weekend in your life soon!

I am really excited about 2010, and it’s not because I want to see the back of 2009. It’s because this year has been really wonderful: I have made strides in my art career, met so many new friends, reached a place of peace within myself and just generally had a lot of fun.

When I was a teenager I’d make resolutions, and none of them ever stuck. So, when I reached my 20’s I decided to stop making any resolution other than “Natalie, you must have the most excellent year”. Every year has been better than the last, and I feel that it has a lot to do with treating myself kindly and not punishing myself for failing to keep resolutions that are ridiculous.

In the next year I actually want to resolve to do a few things that I feel are realistic:
• I will attend art exhibitions and events and get to know people in the Brisbane scene better.
• I will keep trying new things in my creative practice.
• I will keep up with the Couch to 5k programme, but don’t chastise myself if I need longer to achieve the milestones, or if I miss a session.
• I will listen to my body and my brain, and treat myself accordingly – always with respect and honour.
• I will have lots of fun!

If you are setting goals for next year I hope they are honest and achievable and if you trip up a little, I hope you don’t treat yourself too unkind. I also hope that you’re heralding the new decade in a most excellent and safe manner!

Housekeeping! I haven’t done a desktop for January 2010 yet, but don’t fret – there will be one! The holiday season has been very… relaxing, and I’ve been taking some time out. I’ll update with a new desktop for the new year in a few days!

Ahh the day of fussing over hangovers, and wondering what on earth you’re going to do with all this stuff you were given yesterday. And shopping the sales, if you do that sort of thing (I’ve only done it once, never again!) I hope you all had a safe and happy day yesterday, and that you enjoyed all the people around you, the food you ate and the gifts you gave and received.

Here’s a few photos from my Giftmas:

Happy birthday Nana!

And the best husband ever gave me a Holga camera! I can’t wait to see how my first roll turned out

I need a weekend to recover from the weekend! What a fantastic birthday! I turned 29 with my mates and my family and had bogloads of fun. On Saturday Nick and I went down the coast to a family Christmas dinner, then zoomed back to Brisbane to hang out with friends and sing karaoke in our own private room. We sung, and shouted and laughed so hard that my voice was completely ruined the morning after – but it was so worth it! Then we went to my parents’ for a whole bunch of awesome food that my Mum spent all day making including a fantastic cake made with my favourite fruit.

Holding my cousin’s gorgeous baby girl.

My fancy birthday outfit.

Dress: Yours Clothing
Tights: Kmart
Shoes: Softspots
Necklace: Lola and Bailey

My friends Viv and Mem singing Queen!

My wonderful husband got me Flora by Gucci and a (My Little) Pony! YAY!

Fantastic views of Brisbane’s skyscraper forest from our room at M on Mary.

Super casual in the humidity, going over to my parents’ for birthday dinner.

Blouse: Kmart
Skirt: City Chic
Bow: Gift from Sonya
Thongs: No idea
Sunglasses: Giant Vintage

My Nana gave me this ring and it totally matched my nail polish.

An incredible mangomisu cake Mum made for me – it was delicious.

The lovely Nick who made my birthday so excellent!

Phew. Let’s do it again in say, a year?!

I have loved space since I was a young girl, and things like this make me feel so connected to the cosmos even if we are a tiny part of it! This was posted somewhere else by a friend of mine and I just wanted to share it with everyone because it’s awesome.

Today is my pre birthday! That’s right, it’s the day before my birthday that I am claiming as being part of my birthday so I can demand things all weekend! I bought myself some flowers and arranged them with some clippings from our garden. I may not be a good florist, but I am awesome at my birthday.

Oooh ETA! This is somewhat related to star stuff… it’s Amanda Palmer singing about pop music and art and I love the sentiment!