Look! I made two fonts!

I came across this website called YourFonts.com (via What Katie Does) where you basically download their template, print it out and fill in all the characters, scan it back in, upload and it generates a font based on your handwriting. My normal handwriting is similar to those, but more pointy and jagged and upright (I'm sure a handwriting expert would say I was anxious and stressed out or something). I can't really see the use in paying US$9 a pop for my own handwriting, but it's a sweet idea.

I sent my sister off this morning and C and I are about to go for a walk to post some things (two of the postcards I put up last night have already being sent off!). It occurred to me yesterday that a large portion of my $$$'s goes towards mail related things (envelopes, postcards, paper, stamps, etc) and that I basically buy a whole heap of stuff that I send away to other people. Despite the satisfaction and enjoyment I obtain from this 'hobby' (I hate the word hobby), not a whole lot is returned. I really enjoy it though. I think it's nice to have a 'hobby' that is basically about giving to other people.

In other news I HAVE CARPAL TUNNEL AND IT HURTS SO M*THERF*CKING MUCH!

Today my sister came over (I'm forcing her to watch back to back episodes of Dollhouse behind me as we speak). We had a play with the warped effects on my Macbook;




Then went for a wander around Newcastle. Again plagued by this mind-numbing headache and throat infection I didn't spend the day feeling so great, but we had a fun time.

I took Sara to Blackbird Corner and got more postcards;




We got lunch at Natural Tucker and then walked around until we found this little shop with all of these overpacked shelves and tiny aisles filled with paper delights, all kinds of envelopes and paper and stamps and things. I gave myself a $40 budget for the day, so all I bought there was a pack of cute (pricey) pink recycled paper envelopes;



Further up the street was this incredible soap shop called 'Usopia' with a million different soaps that all look like I need to eat them.

Eventually we found what we were looking for and came across Bird In The Hand distro and I have a feeling I'll be making a few more trips back. The girl there was really sweet and informed me of the monthly zine making day running between Bird In The Hand and the Octapod. The first one is on this Saturday at Bird In The Hand, should be sweet. Today there I picked up a zine called 'Joe Jobs' which is quite hilarious about two girls' (Regina Walter & Raquel Ormella) bad job related experiences, Vanessa Berry's 'I Am Camera #13' and a postcard by Arlene Texta Queen. I wanted to get more of her postcards, but I felt that the images on them were just a little too explicit to send to people I don't know in other countries;



Sara bought some picks for her friend's birthday from Muso's Corner, then we ended up at Spotlight and I bought some cute felt stickers. I had to resist buying multiple packs, especially the bright red Helvetica font ones. At $6 a pack I'm glad I stopped myself at one;



So in making up my mind about uni (and anticipating receiving my course materials this/next week), I have made a bit of an ultimatum with myself - while I am doing uni by correspondence I will make another zine. I made one back in 2006 when I was in year ten, for a class, and I really enjoyed it;



We'll see how it goes. I'd like to have it prepared for the This Is Not Art Zine Fair in September and maybe have a table with Paige.
Pay day tomorrow, Sara and I are going to go out for breakfast I think and then she has to catch the train back to Dungog for work in the afternoon.

Design your own converse:
I've only ever had second hand pairs of (ebay) converse and I feel a little unsure about the Nike owned company and it's business practices (as well as the super duper trendiness of the shooz in question), but I discovered today that you
can design your own pair online and buy them and they'll make them for you. Sadly they don't ship overseas, but I'm sure I could get somebody in the states to help me out. Here are two pairs I whipped up. Cute huh?:






My sister is coming to stay tomorrow, should be sweet. I'm certain I haven't seen her in at least four or five months. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm going to go tidy up the house a bit soon (I am aware that it is 12am). I have had a killer headache and a swollen jaw today so things weren't so fun. C's cute little Netbook/Eebook arrived and he's been exploring it. I got another Postcrossing postcard today, this time from Finland, and I got one on Monday from Brussels:



I had a nice chat to my mum earlier, who is bed-ridden and nobody is taking care of her. If my sister wasn't coming to stay I'd make C come with me to Stroud for a few days to take care of her. Poor Mum. My mum has a Facebook and was commenting on all of my stuff today, it was funny.

Going to tidy up and shower and snooooooooze :)

Today I:
+ Sat outside and read Perfume by Patrick Suskind in the sun and watched the cats (that book is like a sensory explosion, every ten seconds I'm sniffing around trying to smell things in the air, imagining what scents would look or sound like, etc).
+ Felt really ill, so C went to check out a rental, which seems promising, and he bought me home chocolate and 2 pretty hair clips among other things.
+ Had Manneh ('The Villain' as my mum calls him) over, we watched The Mighty Boosh and C made us food and then we sent him to ride the long way home on a rickety old Pokemon 'roller-board'.
+ Got my first Postcrossing postcard (from Brussels), and another from a different post-related website of a huge smiling mouth that says "Smile, While You Still Have Teeth". Wasn't sure what to make of it.
+ Decided to forget about the money/scholarship and going back to Newcastle Uni this semester, and choose UTAS for uni after all. I'd like to try it out at least. Money is just money, and I'm sure I can go another 6 months without a camera, or I could find a job, like a normal person? Wtf.
+ Applied for jobs with Australia Post :D It is pretty much my dream to work in the mail sorting room.
+ Discovered that my blog won't allow me to do the old '& hearts ;' style love heart. How disappointing. I must rectify this, the & hearts ; is a very important typographic character.

+ This shirt reminds me of C and I:

^ from Toddland (I had to trawl the internet to find where this was from)

+ I'm pretty sure I can't live without these bumper stickers:

^ via Rebel Art

+ I thought this was pretty clever (and I love anything font related):

^ Matt Robinson: “Measuring Type”: Robinson selected a number of the most commonly-used typefaces and, using the same point size for each one, drew them on the wall with a ballpoint pen, “allowing the remaining ink levels to display the ink efficiency of each typeface. (The same guy who was a part of the HP Invent printer video)

+ Also came across this music project called In B Flat (bandwidth heavy), wherein this guy (Darren Solomon from Science For Girls) collected a whole lot of Youtube videos of people playing in B flat and you basically click them individually and make one, some or all of them play at the same time. Pretty neat, very interesting sounds.

+ I thought these 'sun prints' were cute and I've been trying to do it for a few days but my paper keeps blowing away!:

^ sun prints from via.

I never knew I could make my own chalk:

^ recipe via.

+ This clock speaks for itself:

^ from Kibardin Design.

PS. Stop lurking my blog, Manneh :P