My Room

This is my room,
It's snug and warm and has a bunk bed with a little snug underneath where I sit and read Pride and Prejudice. 

 It has lots of socks and lanterns and a cat that leaves her long hair everywhere. 

Love Katie xx

A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down

Movie Of the Week...

This weeks movie of the week is Mary Poppins. 

Set in England in the Early 1910's, the film contains not only catchy uplifting songs about 'Feeding Birds' and 'Rights for Women,' but also lovely nonsensical words like supacalafragalisticexpialidosious, what's not to love?

The mother, Winifred Banks is a suffragette which is really very uplifting and although the father, Mr Banks is quite boring and dull, he does seem kind, in a strict sort of way.

Jane and Michael are perfectly charming, Michael's expressions of surprise do steal the show though, but not as much as the lead, Julie Andrews (one of my favourite  actresses of all time) as Mary Poppins. Not many heroines can pull off being severely duck-footed and a bit pompous and proud (see 'practically perfect in every way...), but you still love her. The fact that she has a thoroughly amazing carpet bag that not only contains a rather large mirror but also a lamp and a hatstand is really quite impressive, and she CAN fly, which in my book is always an added bonus when it comes to nannies.

One particular highlight of the film is when all the nannies get blown away and go flying down the street upside down and spread eagled with very amusing expressions of surprise on their faces.

bert is as always lovely, though very wacky; but there's nothing wrong with that.

 I thoroughly suggest watching this film if one is feeling down or having a day on the couch with a cup of cocoa, or feeling very sick. It will make you feel a lot better.

10/10 victorian nannies

Love Katie xx

A rap about lanky lads

lanky lads are so rad

they're not like our mum or dad

they're really hip

 their really cool 

...even if they're a bit.... sweaty....

Break out to Jam jar love

yeah,

this goes out to the children of babylon

who probably don't know whats join' on

 our raps are shit we shouldn't post them online

'cos they're not nearly as cool as a zine.

The End.

that's all we have...

An Apology

so I think it's safe to say that I am the worst at this, because I hardly ever blog, which really does makes me a bit of a grade One A-Hole! 

But this is a new leaf, I am truly going to try harder and blog more and try (hopefully not unsuccessfully) to blog much more often than I ever have done. xx

I have found out in just writing this short sentence that, since leaving the wonder-full world of school my spelling has slid down a slippery slope of unknowns and life's confusions, so steep that words such as wonderful and delicious are clinging on for dear life in the hope that I won't turn into a complete Guppy!

My dear friends Iona and Tara and I are all travelling the globe this year in search of some warm weather, sunny smiles, beautiful photographs and foreign boys (wink wink) in the hope that we might find a bit of ourselves that we didn't know was there.

Although we are not all travelling together, we will all travel together through our blog. This is our plan.

So before we set off, lets gear ourselves for some scrummy adventures, filled with lots of un-Australian sand and Pommy tea!

I say, Pip Pip!

P.s I leave you with a wonderful moment from pretty in pink....

Make something, week three.

Quilt

It has been a long ambition of mine to learn to quilt. This week I taught myself the basics from a very 80's quilting book. I made up the pattern, this is what it looked like...

Make Something, week two.

Stars

When we were in class six, an epidemic of measles broke out in our school. All the children who hadn't been vaccinated were bundled home hurriedly by their worried parents with instructions from our teacher to complete a project of their own devising.
I was one of the only children left at school, and spent my time making a small model aqueduct to go across a cellophane and cardboard valley whilst my friends relaxed at home, making rissoles and echidna hats to there hearts content. When they returned, the threat of a measles outbreak then overcome there was a large show and tell project of what people had been doing. One girl had made a night sky full of small origami stars that I instantly fell in love with. I was very jealous of her night-sky and although she patiently tried to show me the delicate art of paper folding, my results never reached the celestial (excuse the pun) heights as hers did.

The other week, inspired by various tumblr images, I decided to revisit my past, and create for myself a small galaxy of sorts, and make some paper stars.

This is how you make them.

The End.

Make Something, week one.

Since I've finished school there has been alot of things I've been learning. Such as how to avoid sleazy chefs and kitchen-hands intent on possesing  ones heart (or grabbing ones bottom) and whether moisturiser works as conditioner.

On of the things I haven't been doing however is making things, that is to say, not on the regular basis of the Steiner Child I once was. And so, I have ventured out, with great trepidation, to the world beyond hessian and large block crayons to more sophisticated forms of self expression, such as; what can one possibly make out of the glutt of googly eyes that have accumulated in ones draw for the past three years.

My quests, which like so many other well intentioned ideas, did not start with any particular inspiration, rather a wim to occupy a particularly boring thursday afternoon. Here it is, I will endevor to learn to make a new thing every week from now until the time where I shall be drained of all artistic juice and merrit, and left lonesom and wandering, without a DIY to tie me to this earth (read about two weeks). So I humbly present the first of my making sessions, the crocheted hat.

I made this for my dear little squeak of a niece Mina Maybe, I have not sent it to her yet and so I hope her head hasn't grown too much.

I just free-styled it all the way from top to bottom, so no pattern today.

So that was that, a small green hat.

The End.

My friend Tara

Meet my friend Tara.

she is very nice,

she drinks tea till her fingers are wrinkly,

and steals roses from gardens.

She loves all things wild and beachy

and cackles and becomes whimply at the slightest gust of wind.

She casts spells and has the dearest blackest little cat you have ever seen.

Her room is matchbox small and filled to the brim with interesting things.

In her house is always open and welcoming.

The door is never closed, nor the walls attached for that matter.

It is filled with kind and beguiling people,

most of whom just tuned up and never left.

She is a true english Rose,
who's parallels to Elli from Girls in Love are numerous.

Her back up career is a mad cat lady.

She falls in love with many boys, 

most of whom fall instantly back, 

or get tangled in her copious hair.

She brims with fairytales,

but is much to fiercely indipendent and humour-full to pass as a princess.

She is very much a Brier-Rose

but one that has become wild an tangled and full of birds nests.

She 

is 

a 

lovely

witchy 

friend.

Tricks from The InterWeb

Ooh look at our tricks

Aren't we fabulous?

Sure brings a new meaning to a formidable bust

I'm not sure many people could top that...

Tea anyone?

My friend Iona

This is my friend Iona

She is seriously cool with a capital K.

She likes to paint, and fashion horses out of squishy liquorice.

She doesn't like tea or coffee but happily sips scalding water.

She likes to make rude jokes with her eyebrows.

She has the bestest snug ever.

She lives in a house with a bat, various rat(s), some possums and a sweet dog named Bandersnatch.

She has a murky crocodile infested dam...(not really)

and a very witchy wood (really) where we chant spells and pick blackberries in the moonlight.

She doesn't like Stupid Deaths (HH) or too much Vegemite
She introduced me to the pain of depilation (waxing)

We sit and hatch plans, huddled on her bed eating jammy hot toast surrounded by her collection of beautiful things and our dreams of taking the world by storm. One rain shower at a time.

Her back up career is naming paint colours.

One of her plans is to have a cat called Harvey Growl and a child called Polyester Cotton.

She speaks Franglish and Japanglish with surprising fluency.

We have a plan to go to the South of France and pick grapes till our mouths are stained purple.

She is lovely.

P.s I was a clutchpig and nicked this horsey girl from a my fav site to waste eye time on.... Retronaut

My friend Kate

This is my friend Kate, she is very nice.

She likes to make rude jokes,

and she also likes flower crowns.

She doesn't  like it when people brush their teeth and don't wash away the foam.

She sleeps in a very high bed that is covered with lanterns and fairy lights and plastic animals.

She has a fish tank, with fish.

When her fish die

Kate gives them viking water burials

 down the toilet.

Her back up career is a fortune teller.

Kate and I have a lot of plans, 

most of which involve two-dolar shops,

and places that we dream of going.

one of the plans that we hatched was this blog.

We wanted to show the world our clever tricks,

But we had to spend our time in high school

and not eating sandwiches, learning to skateboard and making a gang.

So

now that we have finished all that,

we want to re-establish our clever tricks

and both record one a week 

for a month.

That is my friend Kate,

And this is our plan.

Stupid Birds

Its too hot to do anything but drink iced tea and read Weetzie Bat and pretend that you are some slinkster Lanka with snarl-ball hair and rolerskates. Trying to describe Weezie Bat to someone is near impossible, nothing can do it justice. There is no way that the magic of the story can be be explained. The closest I've come is to say that it is like the fairy-floss you buy at Luna Park as a kid, only caught in it is dried rose petals, stars, tiny plastic goats, feathery wings, fake flowers and silvery charms.

If you haven't already, please, do yourself a favour, make up a pot of iced tea and read it, you wont regret it.

"The reason Weetzie Bat hated high school was because no one understood. They didn't even realize where they were living. They didn't care that Marilyn's prints were practically in their backyard at Graumann's; that you could buy tomahawks and plastic palm tree wallets at Farmer's Market, and the wildest, cheapest cheese and bean hot dog and pastrami burritos at Oki Dogs; that the waitresses wore skates at the Jetson-style Tiny Naylor's; that there was a fountain that turned tropical soda-pop colors, and a canyon where Jim Morrison and Houdini used to live, and all-night potato knishes at Canter's, and not too far away was Venice, with columns, and canals, even, like the real Venice but maybe cooler because of the surfers. There was no one who cared. Until Dirk."

Francesca Lia Block, Weetzie Bat .

Happy Birthday Rookie

This is a post dedicated to a website that is very close to our life-singing teenage hearts, Rookie which has turned one year old and inspires us to do all manner many silly crafty things. I wanted to write it a letter, or something of the sort, but websites don't have post office boxes, so it shall just have to a virtual letter.

A letter, and a Rookie inspired illustration.

Doodle Me A River...

A doodle,

made by a girl,

who is far too old

to be in love with River Phoenix

circa Stand By Me,

But who none the less is.

Word of the Week

I have a confession to make,
 I have been a little lazy recently and have got caught up a little too much in my homework, I know how very lazy of me!
...And have therefore fallen a little bit behind in my word of the weeks. I know it is Wednesday here, or perhaps Tuesday if you live somewhere exotic and cool like Madagascar (may i add, where it is legal to have more than one husband), but I am one of those people who believe that it is never too late for a good word to help you through the week. This week's word is...
Blue.
Now, before you sigh and roll your eyes dramatically at the computer screen, as I know you might be doing, think about this word a bit. Blue is the colour of the sky and the ocean and although you may think it a little dull and boring, for word of the week I want you to consider the following examples of Blue as an awesome word, before you judge it! And that means you, yes you who is staring critically at your computer screen...
Try this, even if you're not by yourself...
 Say the word blue over and over out loud. it must be out loud because the sound is only good when you say it.          

Blue. Blue. Blue. Blue.

Now do you see what I am talking about. It sounds and feels so wonderful when you say it that I couldn't possibly not give it the proper credit it deserves.


The other rad thing to do is to make a song out of it, start with a hip-hop jammin' beat, just by saying the word blue over and over again, and then get someone else to come over the top of it and with an awesome solo (they must also be saying the word blue, if your singing in the song you must be saying Blue).
And there you have it.
 There's even someone from the nineties that wrote a who song about it!

And I think that says a lot.

Stories about Men, Bears and Secrets.

There was once a very small man.

Who lived in the forest of Glanomlinom.

He had a lage beard, which was full of secrets.

One day he went for a walk in the wood of Glanomlinom.

There he met a bear.

and the bear said to him.

"Could you knit me a sweater"

and although it just sounded like roars,

The man took it to be a request for a sweater,

So the man knitted a large and bear shaped sweater,

which had lots of pockets for the bear to keep all his knobs and ends in.

knobs and ends? This story isn't going the way I expected.

And the bear was very pleased with his sweater

And was delighted with the pockets in which he could keep all his knobs and ends.

knobs?

And then the was a big rainbow and the man ran right up it to heaven and to God who was an elk, and his antelers were full of secrets and all sorts of people and lanterns and wonderful things, and little hymn books which they were in a lanuage that everyone could understand. And secrets.

A story by Kate, Gemma and Iona, over a pizza.

The Antelers of God

Licorice Review No. 2

In our quest to find the best and most Truly Scrumptious Liquorice in the world Katie and Iona present

Uncle John's

Fresh Licorice.

Good Points.

1. Good kangaroo-poo texture

2. Not too sweet and not too salty flavour.  

3. Generous pieces that could happily be floated on over Niagra-Falls.

4. Groovy 80's-esque wrapping.

5. An alright price of $4 for six pieces, just in our meagre price range.

6. Does turn teeth and tongue black, so as one can happily frighten everybody that one happens to drive past... (including lanky lads and their possum-toting palls... but I think that we might frighten them anyway)

Bad Points.

1. The bag of Uncle John's fresh licorice is hopeful; if beards are full of secrets this bag is full of promise and enticement. However, after closer inspection it appears that the bag is NOT EVEN HALF FULL OF LiCORICE! this leads to the sad conclusion that, like so many other things in life, things full of promise so often end up as things full of disappointment (this is true of all childhood birthday parties)

2. really, really big pieces that could happily floated on over Niagra-Falls. Owing to the sheer size of this licorice, some of the fun goes out of it. This licorice is not fun. This licorice is serious.

General Notes.

Iona: At first I was disappointed by this licorice's texture, but soon my doubts were alleviated when the following was discovered on the back of the packet "HOW TO ENJOY YOUR LICORICE" which tells you that if you like your licorice soft, warm it up in the mirowave for a few seconds (OH ARN"T YOU SO VERY CLEVER. Unfortunately owing to the hippy nature of my family I have used a microwave about twice in my life)despite this the texture and taste is just about perfect... For me however the true disappointment of this licorice came in the sheer solidity of the pieces. this is no ordinary licorice (whatever that is) but MAN-LICORICE, a no nonsense alternative to these silly effeminate things. "Real men eat Uncle John's" should be the slogan. Also what's up with "Licorice", I always thought it was "Liquorice"... the world is becoming an increasingly peculiar place... I give it three and a half plastic cowboys out of five, and now I am going to hide under my bed.

Kate: I have to say, eating these lovely big pieces of Licorice was a very "serious" business, mostly due to their massive size factor!! But though they are the bad boys of the licorice industry, one finds a certain amount of enjoyment in eating them and for some reason you feel like a hardcore cowboy out in the hot sun somewhere in Arizona (if they had cowboys there!! Did they??) In saying all that I can still say that these licorice sticks were very enjoyable. They were just the right amount of sweet and savoury which meant that you didn't get to much of a sugar hit! In saying that we did try to contact our friends and ask them silly questions while eating it... but they could be more fun size i.e a wee bit smaller so that you don't feel like you have to eat a massive piece all at once.  I am giving it four plastic cowboys out of five. Now you go try!!

Obsessions of a Teenage Melodrama

Weekly Obsessions... Try it On

Other than the rather splashing (especially dashing) Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront ......my thoughts have turned to the rather clever but exceedingly daggy poncho.

 As I personally have never been afraid to wear such a previously unfashionable item, their sudden popularity is unsurprising to me. Poncho's are the rage of the age! And that has set me wondering whether 'daggy' is the new 'cool'? Since forever being daggy was it's polar opposite and was chosen by uncool people (me) as a way of actively avoiding the popularity rat race. One must note that Cynicism is over rated, yet preferable to try hard coolness.... here think DARIA...(just act as dead pan as possible). 

Yet Poncho's to me seem a harmless new addition to being trendy, as they're rather woolly and over enveloping, tending to lump it over the better half of one's body.

 As a bonus there is no need for near nudity!

Unless of course you are sporting the string variety, quite popular with 00's crocheters. 
Poncho's, besides their obvious attraction as a highly patterned 'cover it all' are a darn sight useful. They can double as a impromptu picnic rug, tent, sun hat, towel, wash cloth etc.... it's up to your imagination! They are also really great to dance in, as they tend to limit wild hand movements and cover the hesitant starting dance shuffle. Ex American President Bush, not my preferred person at the best of times, has accurately demonstrated my favourite the 'it's alive, it's alive' move! I find that it tends to happen to poncho novices.
Trippy 
So I will happily raise my glass with poncho lovers world wide and recognise the value of a truly multi-talented yet fashionable item! Try it on!
Adiós