+ & + & + & +

The night before last I stayed up until 7am watching the 3rd season of Dexter (it's so hard to stop when you have the whole series) and then had to get up three hours later to go to a job helper meeting. I had a sneezing fit before I went in and workmen who were outside were laughing at me and kept saying "Bless you" for every sneeze. When I got in I had this woman help me rewrite my resume, which basically consisted of really slowly cutting and pasting everything from my existing resume into the exact same headings on another page and then adding some adjectives, eg. EXCELLENT customer service skills, EXTENSIVE cash handling experience. Anyway, that took a really long time and after I got out I waited around Darby Street for my friend Manneh to get out of work and when I tracked him down we walked to his new place, which I hadn't been to before (Manneh has a HUGE mailbox shaped like a house) and we watched really awful television. I haven't watched TV in so long, when did TV turn so bad? I can't wait to watch 'World's Strictest Parents' on Wednesday nights. Manneh and I ended up watching some Animal Rescue show and waited for Manneh's friend Noltron and his Swedish friend to come get us to take us out for dinner which Manneh so kindly shouted me. We stayed out until about 10 and by then I was pretty deliriously tired, came home, Skyped C and then fell in bed with the cats.

I woke up this morning with a cat on my pillow next to my face and a huge expanse of bright orange sky out the window. Yesterday almost the entire state had a massive dust storm, wind blowing dust across drought affected remote NSW - so today it's kind of overcast, incredibly windy (the cats are shaking and crying) to the point where it feels like the house might collapse and the sky is this amazing shade of orange. Later today Manneh, my mum and I are catching the train back to Dungog, I don't know if I can even make it to the train station without being blown away.

Today was a very good mail day. I looked out at the mailbox when I got up and saw that it's lid was up and it was getting rained on, so I ran out, just as the parcel post lady was at my gate to give me a very cute parcel from C. There was too much mail for the lid to close which was pretty funny. I got the loveliest envelope and letter from the lovely Chandlerguera. I wish I could photograph the contents of the envelope because there were some gorgeous things in there. She basically packed it full of red ephemera. It's probably one of my favourite envelopes I've ever seen, made out of a page from a calendar, featuring Frida Kahlo;





Also in my tiny mail box today was a lovely long letter from a girl from Poland, a package containing the lovely Chronicle Books Wonder Woman stationery, three Postcrossing postcards and 3 postcards from C. Apparently he is sending my one postcard for every day he's been away, so by the time he gets back I will have received 18 postcards from him. Woah.

Before going to Dungog I have to bake biscuits, clean the house, wash up, wash/hang out/bring in washing, pack, feed the cats, etc. I haven't even gotten to read all of the mail yet.

I hope your Tuesday/Wednesday is very pleasant :)

PS. I thought that all the windows in the house were shut, but there was one in my bedroom that I'd left open a crack, and the bathroom window was opened and now literally EVERYTHING in my whole house is coated with a thin layer of dust. All my friends' Facebook status' are about the dust storm. There is dust in my eyes, in my mouth and in my braaaaaain. Thankfully, my mum missed the train today and drove instead, so she's coming to pick me up at 5. Now off I go to try to remove dust from everything. The floor looks the worst and it's all over my bed :(

^ I'd like to wear this and go out in the rain. Another uncredited Tumblr finding.

I finally willed myself to hang up all of the clothes piled on my bedroom floor today. I decided I would only pick up red clothes, then I hung them all up. Then I decided I would only pick up black clothes, and then I hung them all up. Most of my clothes are red or black. Then I hung up the whites, greys, greens and so on. So now all of my clothes are hung up and sorted by their colours. Then I watered the garden, washed the dishes, swept, cleaned the bathroom and now I'm validating it all by writing about it on my blog :) I am eating overcooked garlic bread. Garlic bread is usually one of my favourite comfort foods, but today it's not very comforting. I am about to go to the shops to buy cornflour and lemons to make my favourite biscuits;



Last night I went to the Newcastle Uni Womens' Soccer Club 'Soccer Ball' on C's behalf, him being in Tasmania and all. He emailed me his speech a few days prior and I had to read it out, it was pretty funny and I spent the rest of the night dancing with the absolutely lovely girls from his team and with T-Bone. The bar was entirely free, but I kind of forgot to drink anything. 'T-Bone' gave me $20 for a cab home, which was very nice of him. Film Society tonight and then watching Dexter until I fall asleep. Ahh, I have an interesting life.

C comes home in one whole week!

In other news, I am making a huge zine mind-map. I hope to have a zine all made up within the next month. I'll probably post all of the pages here for you to see and then put it in Bird In The Hand distro to sell.

I hope you've had a lovely weekend so far :)

Also, I am running a swap @ Swap-bot that requires you to make a postcard out of an old record cover. Wanna join in?

Here is a postcard I made from some cardboard and a page from an old childrens' book I decorated. I am sending it to the makers of Good Mail Day in thanks;

^ of course, this reminded me of C.

Today I'm writing a 'boring list' featuring a whole lot of things I've been putting off, like... the ever increasing pile of clothes on my bedroom floor, paying bills, more washing, mopping the kitchen floor, doing the dishes, figuring out if and what I want to apply for at Tafe, applying for Tafe and doing the necessary post and prior application information finding, ticking off some of the things on my 'employment action plan' (depressingggg), calling ear nose and throat specialists to get exorbitant quotes for single consultations, calling an old teacher to see if she still has photos of my art major work to put in my design portfolio, trying to track down where on earth my art major work is, etc, etc. So, I really don't feel like doing any of those things. Instead, I'm going opshopping with Doug. Doug has to find material for his fibres assignment, so he's going to cut up old dresses. I would like to find interesting paper ephemera for making into post related things. Will report back.

Last night I went on a little band bus to Sydney to the UNSW Roundhouse to see my friends Caleb Skips Chemistry play, to their dismay (and mine) they didn't win, but the bus trip down and the bands were fun.


^ I liked this, unfortunately like most things on Tumblr it's uncredited.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

"Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn't the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating."
(via Something Changed)

Today I had a laugh at Tweeting Too Hard, thought Japanese Cat Cafes are bizarre and kind of wished we had them in Australia (via Meet Me At Mikes' post) and joined this site called We Heart It (after seeing Lick My Cupcakes' account).

Ps. Here are postcards I have received so far from C while he's been away;





Some cute postcards I received today;




^ lovely Taiwanese stamps.



And an envelope I'm sending out to a friend of my sisters;

Today I am reaaaaally excited that my favourite band, Why?, is coming to Australia and playing the Annandale Hotel on the day I come back from Launceston (16th December). Eeeeeeeee! I texted Paige straight away and we are organising going. I am beyond looking forward to it. I actually downloaded their new album today before I found out they were touring here. Of course, much encouragement in you checking them out :) One of my favourite songs is 'The Hollows'.

Last night my mum came to stay, she said we should go out for dinner and after wandering around for a while we decided on my favourite pizza place called Crust. We got a takeaway vegetarian supreme which features such delightful ingredients as grilled eggplant, marinated artichokes, baby spinach, boccochini, pesto aoili and we got stuffed figs on top as well. It was dreamy. Once you have one of the pizzas from this place you can never eat a mediocre pizza again. I said something about Baileys and the next moment we'd gone halves on a small bottle. I always get asked for ID, but I guess the trick is to go into bottle shops with your mum and you won't get asked. We spent most of the night just talking and laughing and drinking Baileys on ice and munching up awesome pizza. I feel like getting one right now... mmm...

I walked past one of the newsagents up the road from me today and it said it was having a closing down sale and stationery was 50%! Sadly, there wasn't too much that caught my eye except some cheap ink and air mail envelopes, but I think I'll go back and stock up on writing utensils tomorrow.

I'm thinking about heading down to Sydney tomorrow night to see some of my best friends from high school's band Caleb Skips Chemistry play the state finals of the uni/Tafe band comp. I always enjoy showing my support.

I've probably mentioned before that I am a compulsive nail biter, really bad, all my life, but as C has stopped smoking, I am matching him in not biting my nails. They're still pretty short, and I'm only just getting used to doing things that require nails that I couldn't do before! Like opening things! Here is a photo of (small) progress. I think it's been like, three weeks. Revlon Red is pretty much the only nail polish I own/buy;





On a completely different topic here is some post related stuff I'm coveting;


^ Uhhhmazing prints from Art&Ghosts you can get printed into postcards (via Decor8)


^ I Love Mail badges and This and That Stationery Set from Assembly of Text.


^ Stitchable Europe postcard, for, y'know, whenever I get to go to Europe + Hemline Stationery Set.


^ Found paper pack and a book called Handmade Hellos.


^ Typewriter tape and Landscape stamp set.


^ Vintage labels and Russian colouring cards.

I made this postcard yesterday out of an index card and some canceled stamps;



Also, I've been working my way through this list of the Top 100 Australian Women Bloggers which features some amazing bloggers, with a special mention to the 1 spot held by Pip from Meet Me At Mikes. There are some very clever Australian women.

Now I'm considering making mashed potato, pumpkin and kumera with sweet chili sauce for dinner (I'm feeling lazy) and powering through the 3rd season of Dexter, which C's sister in law gave to me today. I went to pick up C's niece from school this afternoon and walked her home. It was sweet.

Til tomorrow :)

Ps. Another of C's post office photos. I want to post my letters here!