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I SEE RED

^ Paul Octavious.

Last week I put a lay by on a rather fetching coat and bag at a shop that always lures me in near my house. They were both a little pricey and although I had the money to spare I figured that lay by would be the most responsible way to buy them, little by little. Well, it turns out I'm really bad at lay by... My sister came by today to give me a birthday present, which my mum had talked about being the most 'me' thing she'd ever seen and that it cost my sister quite a bit (she's sixteen and works in a takeway shop) but she had to get it for me. My sister handed over the gift and inside the wrapping I found the most beautiful red ruffly pointed-tipped umbrella. It's just gorgeous and I really can't wait until it rains. There's an umbrella shop in Launceston and I'd eyed this one off in the window when we were there! So, I really just had to go get my red coat and bag to match and I ran back to the shop and paid them off entirely and brought them home. Yes, I may be a little obsessed with red...


^ I almost forgot to mention, because it blends in with the rest of the red, that I'm wearing the scarf my mum gave me for my birthday.

When I was in the shop I made friends with the girl at the desk and we talked for about half an hour. I thought I'd try on a dress and took it into the change rooms. Then the worst thing that any woman can encounter while in public change rooms happened to me... I got stuck in the dress. I had a tug-o-war with it in there for about twenty minutes, trying every possible position to get it off me, I heard it tear a tiny bit but it still didn't give all the while trying to be as quite as possible so as not to alert the sales girl. After a lot of work and pulled muscles I pried myself out of it, put my dress back on, stumbled out, put it back on its hanger and awkwardly left.

Some of today's lovely incoming;


^ Bree decorates envelopes in the most beautiful way, and she's an impeccable letter writer. I love the stationery she used.



^ A big, lovely gift from my friend Paige. I'd never seen that magazine before and it's quite wonderful. The chocolate is long since devoured. How does Hersheys seem to taste so much better than any Australian chocolate? And, without intending it, she gave me the gift of seventeen stamps, as the package arrived uncancelled, so I peeled off all the stamps and reused them. Stingey or resourceful? It's a shame they're of unfortunate looking Australian authors. I wish I could draw moustaches and glasses on them (without making them invalid).


^ The aftermath of opening the package.


^ Zoe's letter was beautiful, she also has a great blog. Again, with the Australian quarantine opening my mail! Again, nothing taken out. As far as I have read tea is not a prohibited item to be sent to Australia (unless it contains seeds).

And a meagre outgoing;


^ My first letter to Argentina, made from a page from a numerology book, with reused stamps.


^ Another numerology book creation. Love that peacock.

I went to uni today for a lecture but felt too sick to stay the three hours until my tutorial. Ick, so much work to catch up on I bet. Well, shower, bed and sleep in are on the agenda for me at the moment. Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Neatest Hand

^ link.

Today is my sick day, I have a very unhappy stomach. I went to the doctors and she sent me off to buy some strange electrolyte juice. I have to sip 200ml every half hour. It takes me about half an hour to sip it all as it's quite unpleasant. So that's basically constant sipping until I go to bed. At least it's a fun colour, bright purple. I missed a tutorial yesterday and today due to the ills and I'd really like to not miss tomorrow as I am quite enjoying my subjects (don't quote me on that though, I'll change my mind tomorrow). Today being a sick day, it has been a good day for letter writing;


^ I chopped up Brody Dalle's face and fashioned it into an envelope for the winsome miss Carly. I found a bunch of old posters I'd packed up in a box from my early teen years and this was one I chopped.


^ A letter to a lady named Belen. She sent me a fantastic Swapbot package some time ago and I had to write to thank her personally. This envelope is made from a page of a numerology book and collaged.

I recieved a darling little first letter from a girl named Kristin today. I have never seen handwriting so perfect, I was certain it was a font;



Today is St Patrick's Day. I am pretty confident in making the assumption that Australians celebrate this day with more vigour than the Irish. I'm sure that nobody has a clue or a care what the day actually means, it's just an excuse to do an all day pub crawl and get very drunk. I accidentally wore a green jacket earlier, but swiftly took it off upon realising.

Walking back from the doctors C took some photos. I am really enjoying this new camera (the memory for it arrived today);


^ This camera is so good it makes up for my no make-up sick face.

Mini mix of things I've been listening to:
+ Protection Racket - Fionn Regan
+ Lisztomania - Phoenix
+ Grounds For Divorce - Elbow
+ Goeorgia Vs Yo La Tengo - Yo La Tengo
+ All This Beauty - The Weepies
+ Neatest Hand - The Guild League (a song about letters)
+ French Navy - Camera Obscura

Blueberries are like $2 a punnet at Aldi at the moment, I am SO making this pie.

I just saw this bag via Red Letter Day and I am obsessed... no words...

^ Then I remembered Belen has one, so I decided I must fly to California and steal it from her.

Swarms!

^ Rune Guneriussen.

Still no memory for my new camera yet - I have this pretty shiny new camera beside me but can't take any pictures yet! Patience, hmpf. Today I came home early from ewnie and missed a class to come home and nap off sickness. It was a great nap. Hard to wake up. We have a house inspection tomorrow so I've been thinking of things that need doing and pointing C in their direction, heh.

I spotted a link today on the Frankie website to a place called 'The Package Project" and was eager to share. I'm not sure if I'll participate yet as I'm trying to concentrate on the ever growing mail pile in front of me, but it sounds awesome! Check it mail children.


THE IN:
This beauteous letter arrived from Milly today, I love her drawings. I saw it on her blog before I received it and she did an awesome little series of these envelopes. So cute! Tiny postman! It was a little worrying though as the envelope was completely open when it arrived, hope nothing jumped out in transit;


^ How good is Kitpup and the mail delivering spider?

One of the first places we went when we arrived in Launceston in November was this little touristy shop with postcards and Tasmanian paraphernalia and I spotted this hilarious giant hundreds-and-thousands chocolate freckle shaped like Tasmania. It was too expensive to buy for the novelty, but I really wanted it. Low and behold, C's parents sent me a little birthday present this week;


^ The note said to share it with someone I love or eat it all myself, so I ate it all myself. Nah, I shared. I got to eat Launceston, C ate a bit of the North West Coast and Manneh ate some Hobart. Tasty, tasty Tasmania. I also had a really cute Facebook conversation later with C's mum and she was so excited about us moving down there, she said "you don't know how much you guys moving here means to us". Awwh. I asked C if he'd told them it was my birthday this week and he was like "No, you wrote it in huge letters on their calendar". Haha, oh right :D



^ This fantastically decorated envelope arrived today from my friend Min. I've recently been rediscovering the joy of Msn Messenger and C keeps laughing at me because I laugh so much when I'm on Msn. Min is a funny lady. I have NO IDEA how to pronounce the suburb she lives in...


^ I believe this may be my Benevolent Postcard Society pc for March.

THE OUT:
I've been starting to chip off letters from the pile in my spare time. Taking letters to uni is a good idea. It's funny, as soon as I receive a letter from somebody I make up an envelope for my reply and it sits in a pile until I get around to filling it with a letter. I made the below envelopes so long ago!


^ This envelope was made from a magazine page of Maggie Gyllenhaal's pretty painted face. Please excuse my horrific drawings of California and the USA. Funnily enough my drawings of New South Wales and Australia overside are just as bad. This envelope was quite thick as I included a little Aus-themed surprise for Miss Belen. The 'Belen' card on the back of the envelope actually came in an amazing Swapbot letter from a lady whose first name is Belen and it is her business card, hope she doesn't mind me passing it on to another Belen!


^ To lovely Linsey. Her name is written in 3-d stickers. Every time I sent something through the post with them on it they get all mashed up and melted by postal machines, so I am interested to see if these ones survive the journey unscathed.

I also sent a bunch of postcards, but I never think to photograph them. Oh wells.


^ Currently cooking (except with blueberries instead). C ripped the recipe off the back of last week's Aldi catalogue.

Have I mentioned lately how bad the mosquitos at uni are? SWARMS. HUGE SWARMS! I'm bitten all over.

I've decided to scrap the list's 12, 14 & 15 entires as I couldn't think of anything to contribute, so I am replacing them with; 13. Something that makes you laugh, 14. Something you're thinking about and 15. A mix of songs you're listening to lately. Number 15 will come tomorrow.




^ Well, they both did the first few times I watched it, now I've seen them both about 50 times! I just reread over this post and realised I'd posted two very immature videos, haha.

THINKING ABOUT: What to do for my twentieth birthday (Saturday). I'm totally out of ideas. I have four days left of teendom and I am excited and daunted by what this decade will be like. Twenties. I think I've posted this before, but here's a list of some birthday traditions from around the world. Maybe I'll try to incorporate some of them into my day. I was thinking about taking C to see Alice In Wonderland with me but I haven't heard as many awesome reviews as I'd like. I'm thinking about just taking my new camera out and snapping photos around Newcastle with C for the day, having some lunch, walking around the beach. Very low key. Any suggestions on an appropriate way to celebrate the anniversary of my birth?

10, 11, 12

^ I am so going to make these.

Oh will I ever get a chance to write letters again? Die uni die. I did get quite a bit of work done this evening which is a good feeling. Making further preparations for moving. It's hard to live in the now when you're constantly planning for being in a different place.

Here are some items to tick off the list;

^ A photo of me taken over ten years ago. Sitting on my Nana's couch.


^ The most recent photo ever (taken as I was writing this)


^ An oldie but a goodie.


^ Hello new camera (I don't have any memory for it yet so I haven't been able to take any pictures yet!).


^ Hello home made sushi.

Listening to: The Mighty Boosh radio series.
Eating: Left over sushi, lemon sago.