^ She & Him.

2009 music survey;

What song sums up 2009 for you?
Funny Little Frog - Belle & Sebastian.

What albums did you listen to over and over?
- 500 Days of Summer Sountrack
- Emotionalism by The Avett Brothers
- Alopecia and Elephant Eyelash by Why?
- The Hazards of Love - The Decemberists
- Memories and Dust & Feeding the Wolves by Josh Pyke.


^ Josh Pyke.

What was the best gig you went to?
I didn't see much this year, but I did have a ticket to see Tim Minchin, Ladyhawke and Why? gifted to me and they were all glorious.

What songs did you have on repeat?
- Rubber Traits by Why?
- Forget Her by Jeff Buckley
- The Doldrums by Josh Pyke
- Tightrope by Yeasayer
- The Ballad of Love and Hate by The Avett Brothers
- Oh No by Andrew Bird
- Wrapped In Piano Strings by Radical Face
- Growing With Love by George
- The Hollows by Why?
- Blood Bank by Bon Iver
- Glass by Bat For Lashes
- The Vowels Part 2 by Why?
- Boy With The Thorn In His Side by Jeff Buckley
- I Know It's Over by The Smiths


^ The Avett Brothers.

What was your best musical discovery this year?
Why? (again), The Avett Brothers, Josh Pyke, Fionn Regan, Grizzly Bear, Neko Case, Bat For Lashes, Andrew Bird, Belle & Sebastian, Bon Iver, Iron & Wine, many more.

What 5 musicians/bands did you listen to the most?
According to Last.fm, I listened to most (in this order): Why?, Josh Pyke, Morrissey, Death Cab For Cutie & Jeff Buckley.

What was the best CD you bought?
I rarely buy CDs, but C does so that counts right? He bought Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear and it was great.


^ Death Cab For Cutie.

Did you buy any music DVDs this year?
I don't think so.

What are the best lyrics you heard this year?
Absolutely everything by Why?. That guy is a lyrical maniac.

Did you stop liking any musicians/bands?
Less heavy stuff, more 'quiet is the new loud' stuff.


^ Kate Miller-Heidke.

Did you learn an instrument this year? If so, did you play any gigs?
I didn't play much, but I think I played two or three gigs.

What band did you hate this year?
Nickelback is always up the top of that list for me.

Did you have a musical guilty pleasure this year?
...Rah rah ah ah ah roma roma ma ga ga ooh la la.


^ Bat For Lashes.

What was the worst song of the year?
I didn't listen to mainstream radio or video shows so I was probably sheltered from the brunt of it. 'Party In The USA' by Miley Cyrus gets burnt on my brain and I can't get it out of my head, so I hate it for that.

What was the coolest music video you saw this year?
Totally out of my music taste, but the video for Bad Romance by Lady Gaga is pretty bizarre.

Did you watch Idol/the arias/grammys/mtv awards?
The Arias sucked. Idol is my guilty pleasure.


^ Neko Case.

What was the worst musical comeback of the past year?
I can't think of any. Oh wait, I heard Creed reformed this year, that sucks.

What was the best musical comeback of the year?
I can't think of any.

Who were your favourite female vocalists?
Neko Case, Katie Noonan, Natasha Khan (Bat For Lashes), Leslie Feist, Clare Bowditch, Zooey Deschanel (She & Him), Adele, Duffy, Kate Miller-Heidke.

Who were your favourite male vocalists?
Angus Stone, Yoni Wolf (Why?), Steven Morrissey, Josh Pyke, Jeff Buckley, Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), The Avett Brothers, Glen Hansard, Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), Sam Beam (Iron & Wine), Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe (Kings of Convenience).


^ The Decemberists.

What radio station did you listen to most?
None.

What was the biggest band you saw this year?
Eh, I didn't see anything really big. I saw Def Leppard this time last year though, ha.

If you have one, how often did you listen your iPod/mp3 player this year?
My mum gave me an iPod for my birthday, I don't use it much, I just used the stereo.

What was your favourite soundtrack to a film this year?
The 500 Days of Summer soundtrack has had a lot of plays for me this year.


^ Why?.

What was your favourite music themed film you saw this year?
I watched Boyzvoice last night actually, it was funny.

What was the best local band you heard/saw this year?
Mojo Juju and the Snake Oil Merchants never disappoint.

Did you meet any famous musicians?
Does Wes Carr count? Ha.


^ Kings of Convenience.

Did you put up any music posters around your room/house?
I picked up a sweet Why? poster the other day.

Totalled, how much do you think you spent on music this year (cds, merch, tickets, etc)?
Not much, I'd love to have more money for that kind of thing.

What type of music did you find yourself listening to most this year?
'Quiet is the new loud' kind of stuff, soft rock, some hip hop.

Best song to be happy to you listened to this year?
It's an oldie, but I love 'You Make My Dreams' by Hall and Oates. So feel good.

Best song to be sad to you listened to this year?
Lover Spit by Feist.


^ Iron & Wine.

Band/singer with the best style this year?
I still love Kate Miller-Heidke's style.

What shows are you looking forward to in the new year?
Lots that I can't afford.

Did you buy any band merchandise this year?
Nothing I can recall. I really wanted a Why? shirt but my bank account said no.

Did you pirate any music this year?
Indeed...


^ Feist.

Did you miss out on going to any really good concerts this year?
Probably a whole heap, but I'd rather pretend I don't know.

What was the last gig you went to?
Why? at the Annandale.

How many songs are on your computer/itunes?
A few thousand.

What are you listening to now?
Now, Now by St. Vincent.

^ cori kindred.

Listening to: Lungs - Florence and the Machine
Eating: Marmalade on multi grain toast.
Drinking: Hot chocolate.

If you celebrated it, I hope you had a lovely Christmas (or Giftmas as I've been referring to it as). C and I slept in late, then I called some family, C made some risotto, my friend Paige and her boyfriend came over and then C and I just lounged around with cats on our laps and watched Six Feet Under episodes. The most Christmassy we got was that I dressed in red and green, by accident. After my family return from Canberra we're going to have a Summer Solstice get together and have a big lunch in a couple of weeks. That's one part about Christmas that I do enjoy, sitting around with family and overeating. Last year I made two pavlovas and a trifle.

Bits:
♡ Everything at the Jelio store is incredible. I'd like one of every item;

^ cupcake coffee table, xylophone coffee table.

^ gummy bear lights, rubix cube coffee table.

♡ Sick of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter? Want to delete yourself from the social networking world as quickly as possible? Pay a visit to the Suicide Machine.

♡ An underground Swiss mountain house;


♡ I downloaded this font, printed it out and tried to construct a couple of letters to spell something out and it was an amazing failure of my patience, Punched Out;


♡ Pay a visit to The Moment Jars.

♡ The most amazing bus stop advertisements ever;




♡ I spotted this indescribable 25 million dollar clock tower Brooklyn apartment via Gala Darling and I can't stop re-clicking through the pictures;


♡ I love this diagram by Rachel Dukes. I definitely do the 'leap frog', 'fetal punch' and the 'static cling';

♡ Beautiful toilet paper roll forest cut-outs by Yuken Teruya (via Swissmiss);


♡ I love David Horvitz's ideas - I'd love to try out this one;


♡ Ever reply to a spam email?



Here are some envelopes I've been making lately from different kinds of paper and magazine cut-outs - I've been doing a bit of a production line of them while I've been watching Six Feet Under episodes over the last few days. I have a huge pile and I'm not sure what to do with them all. I'd like to make a few more sets using my own images or creative commons images to sell at the markets/on Etsy, though I think these ones with collages of other people's images are okay for personal use;









And here are a few envelopes, from ten that I made, cut from an Italian language version of the gorgeous children's book The Rainbow Fish;

^ 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.