+ the designer cookie (via pretty foods)

pluses:
+ organic aldi nutella sandwiches
+ clicking through old posts by jane
+ impromptu couch naps
+ good guests
+ anything green (clothes, vegetables, pens)
+ greek yoghurt, organic muesli & honey breakfasts
+ cat snuggles (even if i was suddenly bitten afterward)
+ singing smiths songs while browsing ebay for smiths shirts
+ pugly pixel's lovely posts about yours truly (1|2)
+ palmer's dark chocolate & mint lip butter (i have bought so many packets of mint slice since i bought it)
+ new and old penpals
+ my 9-month old niece's cute face
+ sending off designs for avantcard to print my collage into 20, 000 postcards :O
+ 4°C/39°F bike rides with c home from dinner
+ this red tv, in honor of our new prime minister's hair
+ art by long live analog
+ no caps

minuses:
- no longer backlit macbook screen
- contemplating the $ to replace macbook
- cold extremities
- unhappy bellies
- the price of stamps going up this week (aus mail - 60c, int mail $2.20)
- packing anxiety
- bad hair
- the htda shirt i ordered for c's birthday not fitting
- shaped internet for the last hour of the month, haha.

got any pluses or minuses today?


^ my new desktop wallpaper.

^ (via mry pwrs)



The good mail was flowing this week...


^ This beautifully decorated envelope arrived this week from Nicola in Scotland containing some very cute postcards.


^ An expectedly lovely letter from Melody.


^ A lovely tiny newspaper envelope from Rebecca. Does that postmark look a bit like a moustache to you?


^ Siobhan sent me a package containing the loveliest things. Gorgeous stationery, some fun UK history guides and two zines by Chanell Kristen which I was so excited to look through. I'll be sending you something this week lady!


^ A very sweet letter from Rashel.


^ Another great letter from Tejal. She wrote part of the letter on the back of these 'Worst Case Scenario' daily desk calendar notes - they made me laugh.


^ At last year's This Is Not Art festival I picked up a pack of these flat collaged 'Thicket' cards by Studio Racket for $5 a pack - I've been using them as postcards but I saw on their website that they are actually listed as a zine/puzzle and fit together - so I bought another set (I'd sent off a few of them in the first set as postcards) and put 'em together.


^ Wendy you shouldn't have! Lovely, newly-wedded Wendy sent me this great box of stuff this week including (my first!) little red Moleskine and a gorgeous red fountain pen. Too generous! I'm going to send her a big ol' care package after the move.


^ I saw these postcards in Frank & Dean's online shop and bought a pack of ten for $7. Gorgeous designs.


^ This may be the tiniest postcard I have ever received - it measures 10cm x 7cm. Why are tiny things so cute?!




^ An Escher for Sirpa.


^ I finally sent off my contribution to Pip's Envelope Project this week. I was having a really bad day when I took it to the post office and I got the particularly unpleasant post office attendant who just stuck an ugly sticker in place of a stamp on it and threw it into a bucket with other mail while I was watching and it looked a little damaged. I hope it arrives safely. If you've not sent anything to the Envelope Project yet there's definitely still time.


^ For miss Sophie B in Melbourne.


^ A fat little Escher envelope tied up with string for Carla in San Diego.


^ A first letter to Melissa in Georgia in a Cathy Olivas envelope.

While walking to the post office last week I noticed that a cafe near my house has a rack of free postcards and sneakily shoved as many as I could in my bag. I spotted these pretties sitting there too - the postcards I made for Bird In The Hand. I hadn't seen them in the flesh before and I like 'em;



How's your mail box?

I'm not generally too keen on 'outfit shots'. I think other people do it ridiculously well, and although I love nice clothes, clothes are still just clothes to me and I don't make any claims on being very fashionable. My fashion motto is - if it's red, I'll wear it. Being a not-entirely-body-comfortable twenty year old female, putting photos of my body on display makes me a little uneasy, but, regardless of my lack of fashion-photogenia, I wanted to show two vintage dresses I bought this week. I keep alternating between them and haven't worn anything else all week. Also, I can't stop cutting my hair. I've cut about 3/4 of its length off this week just on a whim. I need to go to the hairdressers to get it styled, but it's been fun leaving a big pile of cut hair all over the bathroom floor;

\



^ I'm very photogenic :D The dresses are from a newly-opened vintage shop around the corner from my house called 'Lil & I'. The lady who owns it is one of the sweetest shop-keeps ever.

Tonight I am going to an 'Ugly Sweater Party'. Check my sweater - I actually think it's adorable and I've had it since I was a kid, haha. It is worn through in parts, covered in pills and stained but I can't help but love it;


^ Yes, the teddy's jumper unzips too :D

^ Liesl Pfeffer.

Some sweet as giveaways spotted lately;
♡ One of my favourite drawing ladies, Gemma Correll, is giving away one of her prints, here.
♡ The Dainty Squid & MungoCrafts are giving away an awesome handmade hoodie, here (27/6).
♡ Dawbis, paper queen, is giving away three different excellent paper ephemera packs, here (28/6).
♡ I Art U is giving away a very cute 'La Dolce Vita' banner, here (28/6).
♡ Rhianne is celebrating 400 followers with a Studio MME print of your choice, here (29/6).
♡ Haute Whimsy has a stationery set of your choice by Lily Jane to give away, here (29/6).
♡ Lovely Kim-Anh Nguyen is giving away some of her very pretty paintings, here (30/6).

♡ Belen has lots of reasons to celebrate and 3 lucky winners will take away some goodies, here (30/6).
♡ GirlZoot is giving away some postcards from her stash in exchange for you sharing your favourite movie or book featuring a letter or postcard, here (30/6).

STOP PRESS:
♡ The fabulous women at Good Mail Day are giving away too many great papery things to mention, here (1/7).
♡ Also, the lovely Very Dark Horse has some great postcards and stationery to send your way, here (10/7).

Today I woke up to a new Prime Minister. This morning Australia ushered in its first female, unmarried, childless, (red-headed) and non-relgiously-affiliated prime minister. I feel generally neutral on the whole matter, but our first female prime minister is quite a landmark. It took this long?! What is it 1950? Later today C and I walked up to Maitland Road to peek in at a new vintage clothes store that has opened in our suburb, Lil & Me. I had seen the shopfront earlier in the week with my mum while it was closed and I had already spotted something I knew I had to have in the window. We met the shop's lovely owner and I came home with two totally fabulous red vintage dresses which I will have to show you tomorrow. Not cheap, but very worth it. I hope that there are shops like this one to be discovered in Launceston. We had dinner with C's brother's family and I changed into one of my new dresses for the walk home. It's very Zooey Deschanel. On a totally unrelated matter, I made up a new blog header and I'm trialling it for a week to see how it goes. What do you reckon - a yay or nay? :)

♡ Days until we migrate to Tasmania: 26

♡ Days until all of our possessions are packed into truck bound for Tasmania: 25
♡ Days until Sophie comes to stay: 11
♡ Days until Goodnight Little Spoon's 1st birthday: 15
♡ Days until the final of the World Cup: 18
♡ Days until Dexter Season 5 premieres : 94
♡ Days until I am 21: 269 (heh).