^ A gorgeous desktop background for July by Tabitha Emma.

C's parents are up at the moment from Tasmania. We're staying in their house in Launceston for two months while they're on holiday until we find a house down there. There seem to be an endless supply of lovely houses to rent there so I don't think we'll be there too long (hope I don't jinx it). C's parents came to visit and took us out for lunch this week and they brought me up a little present from Tassie;


^ Full of delicious liquorice (not so full any more).

A new month, a new calendar (from Frankie) and a new pin-board arrangement;


This month will involve a lot of packing and fretting (mostly on C's part).

Today I'm feeling bad because I hung up on a telemarketer. I just couldn't muster the effort to bring the fruitless conversation to a proper close so I faked not being able to hear and hung up. Bad. Sad. I'm going to the post office to send a letter. I hope karma doesn't catch me.

Some more sweet giveaways spotted this week:
- The Scribble Project colouring in book giveaway, here (til 5th July).
- Good Mail Day's 'I-cleaned-my-office!' giveaway, here (til 1st July).
- Very Dark Horse's excellent stationery giveaway, here (til 11th July).

+ 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