^ This was the first thing I saw this morning when I logged into Google Reader (via Swissmiss) and it pretty much made my day. Gummy bear chandelier, from Jellio.

Well, I have returned to the machine. Today was my second day back at uni and so far I'm feeling really interested but really overwhelmed. One particular subject I've taken called Drawing for Design asks for 65 self portraits as one of the (4) assignments. I am really not looking forward to drawing myself that many times (my lecturer recommended we actually draw three times that amount, cull, then submit 'the best' ones). So, four subjects a semester each with four major projects a semester = argh, when will I have time for a life?! I haven't written any letters in the last three days, but next week when tutorials start I can totally imagine myself sneakily writing letters in classes and lectures and tucking blank envelopes in my textbooks for decorating in my breaks. The content for all of the subjects I am taking is really interesting, I am really looking forward to it, but it's going to labour-intensive and it will take a lot of readjusting to not having 24/7 uninterrupted free time! I'm scrambling to get into the tutorials I want, but at present I have three 9am starts, and only have to go three days a week.


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Yesterday I went to the mall to buy comfortable uni shoes. I came home with no shoes (at all) and I lost my phone. The shoes I was wearing were ridiculously uncomfortable so halfway through the journey home (half on a bus, half on foot) I threw them in a bin and walked home barefoot in the rain, haha. This morning I got a phone call from somebody who had found my phone and I organised to go pick it up. I have a very crappy phone, but I was very glad someone found it as I would never have been able to afford to replace it. I wasn't entirely sure what the protocal for this kind of situation is - do I just say thanks and leave? Should I have offered him money in reward? Food? Just my gushing thanks? After a recommendation from a Facebook friend I bought a 6-pack of good beer (well, I really wouldn't know, I've never tried beer, but it wasn't cheap beer) and set off on the bus to retrieve the misplaced phone (hoping he wasn't a recovering alcoholic). C was really hoping the guy would decline my offer of beer so I could take it home for him, but no such luck. Islington seems like paradise compared to the suburb I visited today - it was made up entirely of one or two room housing commission flats as far as the eye could see and there was one point when I was sitting at the bus stop to come home (for forty minutes) that I thought maybe I was just waiting for a bus that would never come and I'd be stuck in this bizarre place, sitting next to an elderly man with blue lips who kept looking down my shirt and a very loud, very talkative chain-smoking woman who blew smoke in my face, while various types of bogans and 'derros' walked past (I say 'derro' as I actually heard one person call their friend one as they walked past me). It reminded me of this;


^ Ghost World (he's 'waiting for a bus that never comes')

The best part of the last two days has been... COLD WEATHER. I know anyone North of the hemisphere must feel entirely the opposite right now, but I have missed cold weather so much, it feels like so long ago I didn't feel sunburned, sweaty and disgusting every time I am outside (or inside really) . I got up on Monday morning to get ready for uni and it was 17°C(62°F)! And raining! And it was grand and I wore a big red coat! I love Autumn already.

Also, I came across this sweet package exchange at Oh, Hello Friend that I thought you might be interested (I'm too poor to participate, boo);



I decided that at the start of each month I'd like to take down my cork board, file away everything pinned on it and cover it with a bunch of new things. I'll cover it each month with bits and pieces gleaned from letters, postcards, envelopes, miscellaneous paper from around my house, etc and document it here monthly. Here is what the cork board looked like earlier today (the calendars come free in each issue of Frankie), some of the items had been on there for 4 years;


^ Taking bits off one by one.


^ Some of the things pictured - a picture of C when he was a kid; a 'Student of the Week' badge C and I found in Woolworths in Tasmania; my school captain badge from high school; a painting my friend Sophie did of her pretty rat Lucy; my invitation to my year twelve formal; my ticket to Tim Minchin from last year.


^ Two scrunched up tickets to Twilight, haha; a paper crane my mum's boyfriend gave me four years ago that a lady in China made for him while he was there; a monkey bookmark my brother gave me; a shiny lolly tag that came with a gift from Garci; an anchor badge I've never used.


^ I took everything off and packed it all into this big old honey tin.


^ New calendar (a day late).


^ Arranging. I raided my drawers and opened up my huge letter tub, where I put all of the letters I've replied to (all 130 of them in the last six months) and picked bits and pieces out of them. See anything familiar?


^ The end. 'Til next month.

Want to guess how much money I spent on postage today? Nah, you don't. Here's the last two days' incoming mail;


^ The letter contained within this cute envelope made me laugh out loud several times and I actually read bits aloud to C. Melody, you write wonderful letters.


^ From the lovely Stephanie of Lunsh.


^ A pretty stamp coordinated envelope from Kati in Finland.


^ I get at least one item from this lady a week (I think I got five things last week!) but they never disappoint and there's always something lovely about each. She included a big wad of awesome 'par avion' themed stationery. I can't wait to use it!

Oh, this is my teeny tiny little outgoing for the week - my March Benevolent Postcard Society mail out, off to France;



And a handmade laborious postcard to Aska and her postcard project (it took between 2-3 hours though I don't know how you'd tell by looking at it);


Lastly, I went to visit my brother yesterday and played with my niece a little. Rose has some of the best facial expressions ever. I look at her and see all of my relatives in her face;

^ toey.

Today I wandered around Newcastle, visited my beloved Blackbird Corner, bought some overpriced items at Blue Star Elements and generally pottered around and by the end of the day I must have walked like, 7kms. My feet would really appreciate a nice rub and a foot bath (*hint* C) and my skin has a lovely red hue to it after walking in the sun all day. Here are some of the things I purchased;


^ A Cavallini & Co file folder to cut up into envelopes, Cavallini & Co stickers, two sets of Courtney Brims postcards, double-sided tape, fabric to make bows.

I also spent a big portion of my afternoon/evening doodling on envelopes, like so;

^ I really wish I had a photography light box to take photos like this with better detail. I just saw a DIY light box tutorial, but I don't know if it would be anywhere near as good as the real thing.

How was your day? :)

Incoming mail;


^ Isn't this envelope just a visual feast? I didn't have any idea that it was from a Swapbot swap until well into reading the letter that accompanied the wonderful bundle of things. I keep getting it out and looking over it, so good.


^ A fantastic little envelope from Shona in the UK. She's only fourteen but she writes a wonderful letter.


^ This little envelope is actually from my own little sister. Last time I wrote to her (she lives a little more than an hour away) as one of my mail tag requests I asked for a letter written by her boyfriend, and the letter he wrote me was so good. It made me laugh a lot. I'd post it here, but I think it might embarrass him. When I first moved to Newcastle my sister said something like "Yay, now you live far enough away that we can play mail tag!".

Outgoing mail;

I'm taking a page out of Missive Maven's book with her pledge to reply to 100 letters in March, and I'm trying to write 3 letters a day until my replies pile isn't so hefty. Right now it's at about 25-deep, obviously not as huge as Missive Maven's 100, but still hard to get through!


^ A letter to Passion. The envelope is made from photocopied foreign newspaper and I picked it up here.


^ An overdue letter to Malu. Envelope made from a page from an astrology book that C gave me to cut up.


^ Finally sending out my giveaway package for Garci, full to the brim!


^ A letter to the lovely French Olivia.

The next two envelopes are quite similar and I included similar things, though the letters are obviously very different. I wanted to send something special to these two ladies as they both sent me AMAZING packages this week. Obviously my small gift in return reflects my meagre finances, but I hope they like them nonetheless. I love those Courtney Brims postcard sets, but I'm yet to buy a set for myself!;


^ For Sandra.


^ For Elissa.

Tomorrow is my last sleep in before university starts again :( Waaaaah. And I'm still yet to regulate my sleeping patterns for early mornings. Bed for me!

Listening to: Living of Love - The Avett Brothers (can't wait to see them in April!)
Consuming: Iced biscuits.

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♡ Distraction #74 - The Avett Brothers
♡ Letter - Dan Sultan
♡ Where You Sleep - Dead Man's Bones
♡ Hold My Head Above The Water - Quiet Company
♡ Death of an Interior Decorator - Death Cab For Cutie
♡ Devil Song - theredsunband
♡ Blackberry Stone - Laura Marling
♡ Goeorgia Vs. Yo La Tengo - Yo La Tengo
♡ Little Miss Pipedream - The Wombats
♡ Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric
♡ Don't Ask Me To Explain - Of Montreal
♡ Rubber Traits - Why?
♡ Fun Park Fugitives - Darren Hanlon

^ Artwork by Jordan Clarke.

Well, today I made a little journey to Sydney (two trains and a bus there and back) to pick up a typewriter I bought for $10 on Ebay (well $9.95 really, as the guy tried to give me my 5c change). I left at 11.30am and returned at 7pm and just about all of that time was spent travelling! Argh. I wish I could have spent the day doing fun things in Sydney, like walking around The Rocks or going to Luna Park or the Botanical Gardens or the Zoo - I haven't visited any of those places in years. Sydney generally frightens me, but it has some nice spots. C rode to the shops this morning before I left and made me a packed lunch to take, ahaha. It was so cute (and tasty) and included a cute note.

Today's outfit - I'm winking atchu!;

^ Including my favourite dangly leaf earrings made by Faiza, a bow headband, new op-shop found red circle necklace, 'Holiday Knitting Bag' from markets in Tasmania, high waisted belted skirt I bought on my birthday last year plus the two clothing purchases I made yesterday - Witchery strapless singlet (it's really long and looks like an old fashioned bathing suit) and Expression cardigan = $8.

After catching two trains, I got on a bus which took me to the general area where I was picking up the typewriter and I found the house and knocked on the door repeatedly to no answer, so I decided to find a place to sit and eat my lunch. I sat uncomfortably on a pine barrier around a reserve and drank my juice box and ate my sandwiches and fruit and then I noticed that an old couple whose house was across the road were observing me and kind of giggling (I was basically sitting in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by busy roads sipping a juice box). I laughed too. Then they waved, and I waved back and then I left. Eventually a car drove in the driveway I was waiting at to pick up the typewriter and they were a funny old couple. I think they were Russian, judging by their accents, and the husband really was just the perfect picture of a burly old Russian man. I wish I could have drawn him, he had a rather marvellous face about twice the size of mine with great drooping bags under his eyes, a waddle when he walked and a huge hearty laugh. He told me his wife was born in China, and when I looked surprised (she had a Russian accent and didn't look Chinese) he said "Jesus was born in a stable and he wasn't a horse!", a joke that sounded like it had been told many times, and he laughed. They invited me in and gave me a drink, then asked me a whole lot of questions about where I was from and what my parents did and what I wanted the old typewriter for and then they gave me a lift to the train station, ha. On the train I watched an old Japanese woman fold bits of crumpled paper into origami and observed disgusted and fascinated as an old man cleaned his dentures. I saw a man meditating and two old men who appeared to be twins sitting together not talking and looking sombre who had just come from a funeral (they had funeral programs in their pockets). The rest of the trip was spent watching 'Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist' on my iPod (I just found a program to convert tv and movie to an iPod friendly format) and wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to be, though there are moments of really good dialogue and their relationship imitated real life well in its awkwardness. Regardless, the music was good and it made the long trip fly by.

I'm going to Office Works tomorrow to search for typewriter ribbon as the one that's in there at the moment isn't very inky and is from 1968! It's a simple, easy to use old typewriter and it will be fine for just writing letters and playing around with (C loves the sound already, not) but once we've moved I'd love to be able to start collecting a few more flashy ones;


^ This picture also shows what my toes are (or were) doing and fits with My Teacups In Peony's Feet-Love post.



^ I'm pretty cut up about the lack of exclamation mark - I never realised how often I use that nifty bit of punctuation until I started typing on this thing.



Yesterday I went to run some errands and came back quite a bit poorer after purchasing two new items of red clothing from an op-shop, some stamps, rolls of paper and labels from the newsagents and pills and then Manneh took me to the mall and I bought some cute (extremely pricey) items from Kikki-K. Oh boy, it was hard not to spend a LOT of money there. Here are my meagre purchases;


^ A new fine-tipped gel ink pen (like the one that just ran out that Megan gave me in her giveaway), three types of tape and some brown paper covered with buttons = about $15, eep!

When I got home on Tuesday I was sitting at my computer and I heard this little screaming noise and looked around to see one of our cats sitting patiently and calmly in the kitchen doorway with a tiny live mouse in her mouth that she didn't seem to quite know what to do with. She wouldn't move until everyone in the house had come to see her catch and I think she really thought she'd be praised for catching it and protecting our house from it, but instead I just yelled at her a lot. She took it outside and let it go and it just sat there on its side, so she propped it back up with her paws and tried to push it away, to make it run away so she could catch it again. We watched on for a few moments and she played with her 'toy' until I couldn't stand it and had to catch her and put her inside. Later I let her back outside and she followed its scent trail and found it in seconds so I grabbed her again and she sat at the door meowing for hours and looking genuinely very pissed off at me. I think she might have caught it in our pumpkin patch. C kept saying things like 'It's nature's way", but I had to intervene and play god;


^ Don't worry, as far as I'm aware the mouse survived the ordeal with only a few scratches.

Well, in lieu of my new found typewriter ownership I thought I'd clog up this post with a whole bunch of photers of typewriters! Enjoy!


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Drinking: Preshafruit Apple & Strawberry Juice
Eating: Fried eggs on toast with sweet chilli sauce