Cabin Fever – and some link love

It’s been a while. I haven’t posted, because I haven’t had anything to write about it – literally. In the past week and a half I have left the house only to go to the doctor and supermarket. Otherwise, my time has been spent trying to keep warm, laying on the couch under a mountain of blankets and coughing. Violently.

Not exactly fun or wonderful. My mind is still buzzing with all sorts of ideas, but I can’t do anything. I want to see people, but it’s not reasonable to inflict this on someone else. So, it’s horrible, but it is hardly the kind of stuff I want this blog to be about. The show will go on.

In the meantime, here are some of the things I have been amusing myself with from bed:

• I want gradient tights! The Coveted has a very straight forward tutorial on how to do this at home, rather than paying $88+ for a single pair (I’m sure they are lovely, but with the lifespan of my tights, no thanks).
• Cornify is the best invention known to mankind. Rainbows, hearts, unicorns and sparkles make EVERYTHING better. Presenting.. me, cornified. It’s like Blingee for cool people. Or dorks. You decide. 

• Hyperbole and a Half has been amusing me to no end, especially this post on sneaky hate spirals! My favourite part: a man, throwing a stone at a bird, while screaming “stop taunting me with your powers of flight!”
• This Coca-Cola vending machine skirt is a completely ingenious idea by a Japanese designer, to help women ward off attackers. It’s based on the idea of a ninja disguising themselves at night. Designer Aya Tsukioka says, “These ideas might strike foreigners as far-fetched, but in Japan, they can become reality.” I love this – I wish that far-fetched, magical, imaginative innovations were realistic everywhere..

• Cheap Chic Weddings just announced the winners of their annual toilet paper wedding dress competition; I am so amazed. Here is a detail of one of the dresses:I only found out about the competition after it closed, but I would love to enter next year. It could be a really fun excuse to have friends over, make cupcakes and mocktails, and spend a day making dream dresses!
• I have been daydreaming constantly about Rupert; we finally get to meet him tomorrow, and the nervous excitement is almost too much! It is going to be a huge adjustment for everybody, and I’m really scared about the possibility of it not working out.. but I’m hopeful. I mean, look at this gorgeous little guy!
• Finally: Pip from Meet Me at Mikes is running a super cute project/competition – The Envelope Project. The idea is to decorate an envelope, fill it with a couple of pretty paper/crafty things and mail it to her – she will display the envelopes in her storefront and one lucky person will receive the contents of ALL the envelopes at the end. I’m definitely planning on entering.

What interesting things have you came across recently?

xx B

But for now..

I can’t just leave you with nothing. So, here are some other gorgeous things I’ve come across on teh interwebz (and in real life) this week:

1. Despite the fact that I almost always wear skirts and dresses, I only have a handful of pairs of really boring black opaque tights – this must change! These gorgeous Les Queues des Sardines stockings are screen printed by hand in limited editions. Want, want, want. The only place in Australia that sells them is in Sydney, alas.

2. Often, I find that every single pair of socks I own are in the wash at the same time. Nathanator realized my plight and did something particularly gorgeous last night – totally unexpectedly, he brought me home a cute little pair of pink sheepskin boots and a bunch of thermal explorer socks (IN CUTE COLOURS AND STRIPES, as opposed to all the ‘man’ colours they normally have). I’m so lucky to have a man who cares about my feet!

3. I’ve been reading up on how to grow strawberries (among other things) – last winter I totally forgot that you actually have to plant things at certain times of the year and missed out. My Dad has strawberries, mint, spinach, tomatoes, .. everything growing in his little inner-city garden – if he can do it, I should be able to, right? I found these ones via flickr and they look almost too good to be true – I can’t believe they came from someone’s garden.

image via..

4. I chanced upon a really thorough and detailed corset-making tutorial that I can’t wait to try. The only thing putting me off is the huge amount of specialized materials involved, and it seems like something you get better at over time. But then I see pictures of Dita von Teese and I forget all that!

5. Back on house decorating, it often seems like most of Australia is stuck in this mid-nineties super-masculine sterile minimalist rut. A lot of people here build houses with companies who only offer a few design options – you only really get to pick out things like wall colours and doorknobs, but again, from a very limited range. As a result, a lot of people’s houses look pretty much the same, and people tend to buy/arrange furniture in the same sparse style they saw it in the example house. When looking for design inspiration, I often feel a bit lost and having to turn to international blogs and magazines, which presents even MORE problems because all the retailers are overseas! Here are some photos from my house inspiration folder (I’ve had them for a long time and have lost most of the sources, but if you know, let me know?):

We have doors exactly like this and far too many books; the plan is to build the bookcases from scratch. Summer project, I think!

This is what I want my room to look like! I love the colour - no wimpy non-committal 'feature wall', it's fierce.

I love the blue/green in an otherwise white kitchen, and how there is so much going on, but it still feels clean, light and airy - via Apartment Therapy.

I love thoughtful arrangements of photography and art - whether it's a grid or something more freeform. And mismatching cushions win, at everything.

6. I rediscovered Ruffled this week – a blog full of eye candy for anybody planning a unique vintage-inspired wedding. Being so geographically isolated from the rest of the world, it often feels like a lot of people in Australia are very behind on trends or stylistic ideas; conservative and scared to stray from what is ‘accepted’. I guess the same is true of how people decorate their houses. It’s a little bit sad – shouldn’t a wedding be a reflection of the couple, their unique style and interests, rather than a “we must have fifty million roses and the bridesmaids need matching haircuts and my shoes must match my dress and we need white taffeta on EVERYTHING, in a church (even though we’re not religious) with silver ribbon everywhere… and doves” affair? This couple is from the latest post on Ruffled, wearing a tweed jacket and a vintage dress found on eBay, and I think they look beautiful.

If I ever get married – we would eat cake, drink soda, dance to our favourite music, Nath wants to wear a top hat, I want to wear a tea-length peach dress with a magenta sash, and we want figurines of Mario and Princess Peach on top of a cake (or Skeletor and Lady Lovelylocks). Actually, I’m lazy – we’d probably just elope.

xx Bunny

Theatricality

I am thinking about dyeing my hair a shade more usually associated with cupcakes, crayons and My Little Pony. If I hate it, I can always dye it back – it’s only hair, right? Jaz posted a little while ago about her total love for harajuku style, and I am sick of admiring my alternative fashion icons from the sidelines. Details (and photos) when I gather the courage to actually go through with it!

And for something completely different, here are some quotes from Nathanator on Friday night –

My feet feel all.. magic.

I imagine this is like an indie movie, at the end, when they just curl up in bed and hug and stuff… yeah.

So, yes. Seeing as I am totally wrapped up in the unpacking/resettling process and seem to have had a mini-flu-relapse, I have nothing of interest to report. Sorry. So I present you with a list of nothing in particular:

• This is one of the most hysterical things I’ve come across in a while – My Immortal, a Mary Sue infested ‘goffik’ Harry Potter fanfic trainwreck from hell, featuring the one and only Miss Ebony (also spelled Enoby) Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way. Still not totally sure whether or not it is just one giant troll, which I guess is to its credit.
• Tonight I cooked dinner: lamb kofta, vegetable tagine, cous cous and mint yoghurt. Tomorrow: honey chili glazed chicken with ginger stirfried carrot and bok choy. Me: culinary master, occasionally.
• This is the week I get back my pencils, pastels, paints, easel, brushes, pens, paper, canvases, felt, sewing machine, buttons and other paraphernalia. I am so excited.. also, it’d be nice to finally be able to draw/paint some things for this blog.
• I am dying to go to Mamasita. Anybody want to be my date? Email me!
• The Odds of Dying – a comprehensive analysis based on information from the US Census Bureau. Assuming that the numbers would be quite similar for someone living in Australia, it worries me that I have a 1 in 211 (or thereabouts) chance of being murdered. But oh well – at least ‘death by tram’ is much less probable – 1 in 3,556,975.. yay!
• And finally.. can anybody enlighten me as to why on earth Justin Bieber (or whatever his name is) is appealing, in any way? I am very, very, very confused.

So posting may be patchy, boring and sporadic for the next week or so. But after that expect art, photos, adventures and even maybe a giveaway (also known as ‘Bunny knits compulsively and has decided to be charitable’). Stay tuned, chipmunks.

xx Bunnykins

I love..

.. that such a thing exists as a cloud atlas. I couldn’t sleep last night, so I eventually ended up googling and researching cloud types (naturally, this is the logical thing to do..). We tend to think of clouds as harmless, puffy little things; it reminded me of how absolutely epic they can be. These are some of my favourite types:

An arcus cloud, shelf type. I actually remember seeing one of these - Australia Day, years ago, at Eastern Beach. It was insanely scary how quickly it tore across the bay.

Noctilucent clouds - these are made up of tiny ice crystals that become coated with sodium and iron, which makes them reflect light and literally shine in the night sky.

Undulatus asperatus clouds - only recently discovered. I think it looks like oil and water, semi-solidified and then whipped.

Yes I am a geek. Sorry. But hey, now you know some stuff about clouds – it could be the million dollar question one day.

… that even diehard Catholics are finally seeing that the Vatican has been overrun by lunatics. I don’t have an issue with individual spirituality and believing in a god, whatever, I do have an issue (A Big One) with organized spirituality (i.e. religion) when it indoctrinates, abuses, squashes and generally curtails basic human rights. As if the sexual abuse wasn’t bad enough, blaming it on the Jews? Are they serious? Well, I suppose these are the same people who are trying to convince the whole world that gays trigger tsunamis and atheists are the reason the Holocaust happened. At least in amongst all the bad, a positive emerges: change. A lot of people finally seem to be questioning their allegiance with an organization that is rotting from the inside out, moving away from the Church and finally examining faith on their own terms, sans sexual abuse.

… apparently Nath would like to be henceforth referred to on this blog as ‘Lord Cocksmith’.
Hmmm. Nope.
Maybe on his birthday.

… this:

… hot chocolate, fluffy socks, fairy bread, cuddly puppies, red ribbon,  snuggling, vintage buttons, wearing dresses, travel daydreams, Posietron, Nathanator, Snuff Box, homemade lasagna, and time to read non-prescribed literature. But all those things go without saying.

… that although it is freaking freezing and I am stressed out of my brain with school (amongst other things), there is suddenly a delicious sense of hope.

xx Bunny Florentine

Last night, at the Monster Ball..

Aunty Marie, Cat, Jen and I went to Lady Gaga on Friday night. I have to admit that I wasn’t particularly excited initially; she is not exactly my generally preferred sort of music. But hearing certain songs blasted into my consciousness every time I’m in a car/shopping mall/wherever, they sort of grew on me. And in watching the amazing theatricality and artistically breathtaking conceptual designs in everything she does… I am a bit smitten. Yup – enough to make me smile THIS BIG —>

I am fierce.

Jen pried hundreds of little mirrors off a disco ball and glued them to a bra; Catty wore 8 inch PVC fetish thigh high platform boots. I was totally boring in comparison, but fun was had.

Highlights: an incendiary piano and mad improvisation involving a boot, the ‘Glinda’ outfit, her nonsensical but somehow endearing “I love you, be true to yourself, what we have is so pure and true!” spiels, and….. Bad Romance. Wow.

She promised to come back next year. In return, I promise to go all out (possibly even naked) in coming to a show then.

xx Bunny Florentine

Cement Machine

I have the flu. Kill. Me. Please.
It feels like my sinuses have been pumped full of cement. Heavy head, swollen neck, aching jaw, raging fever, and total feeling of malaise so bad that I wish I could just have my entire body amputated.. from itself.

Therefore, I am going to share with you some of the things that have amused me while I’m in Deathville (aka bed, swimming in a sea of tissues):

• Francis Lam at Salon gives some tasty torture tips for making marshmallow peeps brŭlée – the comments are too funny.
• I wish someone would buy me all the Penguin clothbound hardback classics, they are so beautiful:
• Knitting a scarf, eating nutella and avoiding my Hamlet essay, due next week.
• And finally, this is the trailer for the documentary film Nath, Aaron and I went to see on Friday:

xx Bunny Florentine

multitudinous seas incarnadine

… has been floating around my head all day. Such musical words. A snippet of Shakespeare that I came across in my copy of The Little Red Writing Book, but I’m not sure where it is from originally – bets on the Sonnets though.

I really, really, really wish I: a) knew where my camera is, or b) was rich enough to buy the new one I want, so I could show you all what I got up to today. Spectacular sights galore. So, I have raided google image search for some approximations.

ours were not this pretty

Nath and I met up for lunch; Shanghai Dumpling Restaurant! Prawn and chicken, pork and a big plate of Chinese broccoli. I made a huge mess and, of course, ordered at least five times more than I was capable of eating. Nath summed it up as “okay” – I think it’s only fair to interpret that as “I like yours better”.

We went to Mind Games because he simply needed some Warhammer paints, then stood in a bus shelter talking and watching the traffic lights change; again and again and again. He finally went back to work and it was a bit sad..

Uprisings by kozyndan

Next stop: Outre. I wanted to buy everything. EVERYTHING. Especially this piece by kozyndan (see right); very similar to Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa except for one vital detail – the frothy crests of the waves consist of hundreds of white tumbling bunnies. I want it.. there were a few more giclee prints of Japanese inspired bunny-art by kozyndan as well; maybe I need them all.

Other eye candy included prints by Angelique Houtkamp, the beautiful Mark Ryden, the ubiquitous Shag, a print of Royal Disorder Poison Party by Camille Rose Garcia, and then Niagara who I hadn’t encountered before but loved. I had to restrain myself from calling people who didn’t even care just to tell them how brilliant some of these works were…… which I suppose is sort of what I am doing now. Just one more…

Delfina y Maria by Sylvia Ji - I wanted this one too.

Okay. Being an art wanker = over.

I wandered off to Lincraft to get some supplies and walked away totally disappointed – why oh why do they only stock A4 sheets of horrible acrylic felt? It defies logic.

.. someone's cupcake. mine was cuter this time. and chocolate.

Anyway, my disappointment was so great that I needed to do two things: buy some bamboo knitting needles and a ball of pretty wool to entertain myself with, and a chocolate mini cupcake with cream cheese frosting to nibble whilst wandering around Degraves St. Having previously discussed the virtues of ‘mini-food’ on Facebook (conclusion: everything ‘mini’ is cuter therefore tastier), it seemed necessary.

So. Now we can pretend that all I do in life is look at art, knit and eat cupcakes. I did laundry? Hunted through a dusty garage and dangled preciously from a teetering ladder while hunting for super glue? Spent half an hour scrubbing a pair of particularly gross shoes with an old toothbrush and methylated spirits? Swept up a small mountain of dog hair from the hallway alone? Am currently doing another small mountain of homework? NEVER.

xx

Vortex

via Perry Bible Fellowship:

(it is too big for the column, which refuses to stretch, so click for full size)

Also, I had fruit loops. At 6pm, shortly after waking up. I guess this makes them dinner and breakfast.

xx