^ apartment therapy.

A few weeks ago I did a favourite covers mix swap on Swap-bot and sadly one of the cds arrived to its recipient broken in the post, so she asked me to upload the mix and I thought I'd post it here too. Here are some of my favourite covers (obviously a lot of them are Smiths songs), I wrote at the end of each track who the original was by;

TRACKLISTING:
♡ The Boy With The Thorn In His Side - Jeff Buckley | The Smiths
♡ Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want - She & Him | The Smiths
♡ Here Comes Your Man - Meaghan Smith | The Pixies
♡ Hallelujah - Clare Bowditch | Leonard Cohen
♡ Train Song - Feist & Ben Gibbard | Vashti Bunyan
♡ Such Great Heights - Iron & Wine | The Postal Service
♡ This Charming Man - Death Cab For Cutie | The Smiths
♡ Creep - Sophie Koh | Radiohead
♡ Panic - The Puppini Sisters | The Smiths
♡ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The Lucksmiths | The Smiths
♡ The Giant Of Illinois - Andrew Bird | The Handsome Family
♡ Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me - Grant-Lee Phillips | The Smiths
♡ Here Comes The Sun - Nina Simone | The Beatles
♡ Flame Trees - Sarah Blasko | Cold Chisel
♡ Bigmouth Strikes Again - Placebo | The Smiths
♡ I Found A Reason - Cat Power | Velvet Underground
♡ Wuthering Heights - Josh Pyke | Kate Bush
♡ River - Angus Stone | Joni Mitchell

Download here.

C just informed me that there might not be any mail today as postal workers in Australia are rallying today. Lately you can apparently post any item without a stamp in Australia and it will be delivered (therefore still delivering the mail, but no revenue goes to Australia Post) or you can put a stamp on it but they won't cancel it and will still deliver it.

Some lovely post from yesterday;






^ Beautiful Paprys card and envelope and a postcard from Lauren in Naples, FL. She used the ice cream cone stamp from TinyBazaar. I want one!




^ A great letter from Milly. I adore the stationery she used and it's written with a cursive typewriter! I want!




^ A lass named Sheri in Cali sent this to me, it's quite thick and layered and gorgeous. I stuck it on my wall.

And some outgoing (I currently have $0, literally, so I'll have to wait a while to post them);




^ For a while we kept receiving heaps and heaps of Reader's Digest mail so I started keeping the envelopes and stickers and putting them on things. I love the see-through pane.




^ Another record cover envelope.




^ I originally made this as an envelope from a record cover, but I didn't like the back so I made it into a really large postcard.

I've been trying my hand at making envelopes out of all different papers, these two envelopes were made out of a thick brown paper bag. I'm thinking of making a whole lot of them, if I can find more bags. I opened up an existing airmail envelope for the template and then when I was finished with it I thought I could just stick it on the inside of the new envelope. The address labels are painstakingly hand-drawn on copy paper. What do you think?;





C and I watched 500 Days Of Summer the night before last and really enjoyed it. Zooey Deschanel was so perfectly dislikeable in it. I feel like watching it again!

Yesterday C's friend Marianne who is over visiting from England came to visit and made a batch of Nigella Lawson's glazed mint chocolate chip cookies and they were heavenly (as Nigella would say).

Oh, and I just saw this on 365 Letters and I thought it was a great quote;

"I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."
- Mark Twain

^ A gorgeous photo by Roddyjen.

Upon arriving home on Thursday afternoon, C and I both rushed inside (leaving our suitcases at the front door), he to greet the cats, and me to inspect the mail haul. I was hoping there'd be a couple of things when I returned, but it was totally overwhelming. I think I had tears in my eyes at one point, haha. I felt rather sad that I didn't have a camera on hand to photograph it all (we borrowed C's parents' in Tasmania) - my sister had arranged it quite beautifully. I don't know when I'll get around to scanning it all - I should probably spend my time trying to reply to it all in the next month! I just checked and I have 20+ letters to write.

One of the most amazing things I received was a little Christmas wrapped gift box full of the most lovely things from a pen pal, Wendy from Ohio. She gave me so many lovely things, some of my favourites would have to be - a penguin necklace (my favourite animal), a bundle of awesome postcards, a fountain pen and some ink cartridges (I haven't stopped using it since I got it) and a miniature decorated mail box with my name on it. Opening it was overwhelming! Here's the front of the box and a cute Christmas card she included;





Another very special mention goes to Faiza from Canada for a gorgeous package of beautiful earrings. Here's the beautifully decorated envelope they came in;



Here are a couple (a lot) of scans I made, hopefully I can scan the rest later on. Thank you so much if you sent me a letter or postcard in the last few weeks. It was amazing to come home to so many wonderful things;


^ from Linsey in Oklahoma.


^ An adorable swap-bot cat postcard from Missive Maven.


^ A great pc from Tejal from All My Hues in New Jersey


^ from Carla in California.




^ An amazing envelope from Sirpa in Finland.


^ A great letter from Mary in Kentucky.


^ A lovely fabric postcrossing postcard from Taiwan.






^ A great envelope and gorgeous card from Lauren in Florida.




^ A lovely little letter from Sarah in South Australia.




^ A sweet letter from Melody from Rolismail from Washington.


^ A fabulously decorated envelope from Linsey.

Gorgeous stuff huh? :)

Some outgoing this week too;


^ Sent to my grandma (from the bundle of postcards from Wendy).








^ Both from a fresh set of stationery that arrived while I was away, C bought it as a gift for me for Christmas. It's from the Kathy Olivas Stationery Set from Dark Horse. I'm going to run out of it already!




^ Hand-decorated envie for the lovely Chandlerguera.

C and I just spent our afternoon rearranging our loungeroom, unpacking and cleaning and now the house feels good. Tonight we're going to watch 500 Days Of Summer (C has been wanting to watch it for forever, he's so cute) and some Six Feet Under and eat a whole tub of frozen yoghurt and then our friend Ash is staying the night. Hope you're having a lovely weekend so far :) And now, just to make this post even more picture heavy, here are some left over photos from our Launceston trip;


^ Mine and C's feet at the water at the caravan park in Port Arthur;



^ A magic place.


^ Upon arriving at Port Arthur historical site you're given a playing card with an image on it that corresponds to the recount of the life of a convict downstairs. I bought a pack of the cards and C bought the corresponding book.



^ So many beautiful views; Something is DEFINITELY misspelled on this caravan park sign.



^ The back of a peacock at Cataract Gorge; a Launceston neighbourhood cat who C took a shining to.


^ Amazing lavender fields at Bridestowe.

^ via wish to peace.

Aloha,
Long time no blogs! C and I have a 3-hour train journey home from Sydney later today, and after painfully lugging my four bags through the streets of Redfern yesterday I'm really wishing I'd brought a whole lot less stuff. We got back to Sydney on Tuesday, leaving Launceston at 6am, and making a connecting flight from Melbourne to Sydney. I fell asleep on the second flight and woke up going 'Where the hell am I?' and realised I was 6000 metres above the ground. I am not enjoying having returned to sickly hot New South Wales weather. I miss you Launceston and I hope to return to you again soon. Last night my friend Paige, C and I went to the Annandale Hotel to see my favourite band, Why?, and they certainly delivered. We got there really early and could see Yoni, the lead singer, sitting in the bistro eating his dinner. C kept telling us we should go over and talk to him, but Paige and I couldn't think of what we'd say so we decided to just watch him. They were thoroughly enjoyable and totally surpassed my (already high) expectations. I am really looking forward to getting back to my bed, the cats, my mail and the mundanities of being home. During this holiday I have slept on some of the most uncomfortable beds ever.

Bits:
♡ Gorgeous hand-calligraphed envelope seals from K is for Calligraphy (via Letter Writers Alliance);


♡ Postcups! You write your message on them with a special pen and then put it in the oven to seal it;


♡ The Johnson Banks Post Office self sealing aerogramme letters, so cute!;


♡ French foot long mallows, aaaamazing (via Incredible Things);


♡ (via)


♡ Amazing wall adornments from Da Da Da Studio;


♡ Awhh, pleaaaaase... 12 Months of Colour Daily Planner;


♡ Incredible desk sets from Elum Designs, expensive, but full of amazing things;


♡ Yann Tiersen, one of my favourite musicians, playing on 6 iPhones (via swissmiss);


I have almost 900 items in my Google Reader waiting to be read when I get home, eep!

^ link.


Obviously not much time to post of late, but as soon as I return to hot, hot Newcastle on Thursday, regular posts will resume. I just wanted to show you a cute little cupcakery we found today while we were rushing around the sprawling mall of sunny (then rainy, then sunny, then rainy) Hobart.



We got back from Hobart today where we camped, wandered around Port Arthur historical site for a day, drove around one of the most beautiful coast lines ever and stayed with our friend Mel's parents. When we get back to New South Wales on Tuesday we're staying in Sydney for a few days to see friends and watch my favourite band Why? perform at the Annandale Hotel (tickets very kindly donated to me by my friend Jade). I have about 600 items waiting for me in my Google Reader and I'm feeling totally out of sync with the internet world (which isn't all bad of course). Still considering a move to Tasmania, but also looking forward to getting back to my comfy bed and our cats and my mail!

Here's some outgoing mail I found a little bit of time to write this week;


^ A cow postcard I picked up at Ashgrove cheese farm; three postcards from a postcard book I picked up in Launceston this week called 'If You Don't Love Books, You're Going To Love This Book' by SomeEcards, some of the postcards actually make me laugh out loud; and my last little Tassie devil postcard sent to a very worthy recipient.

I'm currently watching an awful movie on SBS starring Billie Piper, using up all of the tissues in C's parents' house on my (always) runny nose and wishing the bed in the spare room would spontaneously become comfortable and not crippling!