Hello, little robot, are you lost?

Say what you will about New Yorkers, they are very good at giving directions. They'll even stop to help a sweet and vulnerable little cardboard robot find its lonely way across the park.

What you're seeing here is Sam the Tweenbot, and I'm willing to admit he is EVEN CUTER than the vintage pink robot called Mavis that I gave Mr B on our first Valentine's Day as a couple. And Mavis is pretty adorable.

Artist and designer Kacie Kinzer set this little guy loose in Washington Square Park, with his destination printed on the flag so that passers-by could help him if he got into trouble (read: fell into a pothole, ran into a bench, got stuck in a bush). Here's a video of his journey.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/22825752 w=525&h=397]

Tweenbots from kacie kinzer on Vimeo.

Favourite things: make this

Ah, Friday. Any minute now, my muscles will begin to unwind. (Any minute now, shoulders and neck, you hear me? Any minute...). Em's coming to stay this weekend. Happy joy time! We always love a good project together, so I've gathered up five fun things to make this weekend.* Be sure to let me know if you try any of them yourself. 1. Peach cobbler On a scale of one to 10, how much is your mouth watering right now? I'm not ashamed to tell you I'm drooling in a socially uncomfortable manner. I only discovered cobblers a few years ago, while living in New York, and I'm SO excited to try this recipe, adapted by Tina Jeffers over on Blissful Blog. Roll on summer. Roll on peach season.

2. Your very own newspaper No kidding! Newspaper Club will put your portfolio in print, pull together a unique and pretty darn special family newsletter, get crafty in telling your school or charity's story. These are a bit pricey but they get cheaper the more you order. One day, I'll use this to publish Em's and Meg's wonderful stories, drawings, fashion designs and photographs. What a family treasure!

3. Art, made out of maps Inspired by artist Shannon Rankin, as featured on this post on Yellow Bird + Yellow Beard. I know I know, I don't have her talent. Maybe you do? If you create a map collage, please show me!

4. Decorative vintage bottles Using the downloadable vintage cheques and clever advice from Cathe Hoden at Just Something I Made. I've already printed these lovely cheques off. All I need now is a stash of bottles. At the very least, I suspect I can talk Em into drinking a bottle or two of soft drink this weekend.

5. Photo frames from vintage books I am so excited to make these, I want to do four or five and hang them up in my new study above my desk. The problem is, I can't bring myself to destroy any of my beloved books, so I'll need to go shopping for replicas before I put knife to paper. Thanks to Lauren, on Papersnitch.

*Of course Dreamworld also calls, so who knows if we'll actually manage any of these projects in the next two days. What are your plans for the weekend?

Roll up, roll up

Source: wishwishwish.net via Naomi on Pinterest

Lately I've been thinking about circuses, inspired partly by this post from the rather charming Sophie over at Her Library Adventures. I'm thinking back to a time of elusive magic, when I couldn't see the tarnish, and believed each and every animal in a circus must be the happiest animal alive.

The circus, in my childhood memory, is a place where a carousel may actually spin you into other worlds, if you close your eyes. White horses, plumed pink and yellow, dance with such grace that they seem to float above the sawdust. And aerial acrobats - soaring through hoops and shimmying up ribbons - are the most beautiful men and women the world has ever seen.

Where else does the circus take me?

* To Mr Galliano's Circus, by Enid Blyton. I must have read this book 20 times as a child, wishing I had special, soothing talent with animals and that my family, too, would run away and join the circus. I'm going to hunt Mr Galliano down in a second hand store and revisit the magic.

* To memories of a rare me-and-Dad date at the Lennon Bros Circus when I'm still quite small, sitting on the edge of my hard wooden bench, knuckles white with tension, as a man sways above me on a tightrope. Dad saying "My bum is numb" and me thinking that was the best thing in the world, because "Daddy said a bad word."

* To gypsy caravans. Once upon a time, my friend Deborah and I dreamed of renting a horse-drawn caravan and rambling across Ireland. Many years ago, we said words that hurt each other, and lost touch. Today I found an email from Deborah in my inbox. Precious gift! I am remembered, and forgiven! And I am reminiscing about our gypsy caravan dream.

* To a sweet tune and whimsical video by my friend Nadia Ackerman, the title track to her CD The Circus is Back in Town. I know, I've blogged about this before. But watch this clip and tell me if you can stop singing the little doodle-doodle-doodle-dee ditty at the end. I bet you can't.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGBDFnc3GIM] Where do circus memories take you today?

Favourite things: impossible possible

Hooray for Friday! To take you into the weekend with a smile and a sigh, today I bring you: five things that should not be possible but somehow are. And I'm ever so glad they are. 1. Trees that draw pictures using pens attached to their branches and assisted by the movement of the wind, no less (The artist is Tim Knowles, and I learned about him from singer, songwriter, blogger and all-round Seattle sweetheart Shannon Eileen of Happiness Is.)

2. Reliving all the fun of the Ikea ballroom even though you are all grown up, and the balls are now GOLD BALLOONS. So much better (For the joy, the inspiration, and to learn how fun this could be, I have Rachel of The By & By to thank.)

3. A super pretty dress with a matching hat, made entirely out of postcards (Rachel Burke of I Make My Day is making a dress a day for a whole year to raise funds for The Starlight Foundation. This dress was from day 75.)

4. This man's facial hair (Take a look at the World Beard and Moustache Championships website. There are no words.)

5. The Winchester Mystery House, built under the instruction of spirits, complete with twisting corridors, secret passageways, stairs that lead to nowhere, and more than 160 rooms (More about the Mystery House here, and the photo comes from here.)

Happy Friday!

Don't be afraid to dream big

(Image via Ditte Isager for Bloomingdales) Don't be afraid to dream big and to follow your dreams wherever they may lead you. Open your eyes to their beauty; open your mind to their magic; open your heart to their possibilities. Julie Anne Ford

I dream of so many things.

I dream of owning a big, rambling old home in the English countryside, where I can write books. When I’m not writing I can grow herbs and forage for mushrooms, keep chickens and ride horses, and never once worry about drought.

I dream of becoming a baking queen, making cupcakes, shortcake, French-style bread and cookies every day, and never getting fat.

I dream that one of my books will overnight become a phenomenon of Harry Potter standards, so I can quit my day job and spend the rest of my working life creating worlds and peopling them with marvelous characters.

I dream of taking a whole year off, or maybe two, and exploring the world, digging literally and figuratively for the answers to ancient mysteries, learning new cultures and languages, making new friends.

I dream of moving back to New York, even though I know New York will have moved on without me, and it could never be the same, just as Sydney had moved on without me when I returned to it last year.

So I dream of finding a place that once again feels like home and, when I do, building a community there.

And I have another little dream, but that’s secret for now.

What are your dreams?

New York trash - alive!

I’m always going to love street art. What’s not to love about generous, creative souls who package up magical little (or big) surprises for us as we go about our daily lives? Why do they do it? Just because. And I think that’s gold.

The air vents on the pavements and roads of New York are everywhere, and they're almost as iconic as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. When I lived in SoHo, those vents gave my dog nightmares, and he went to great and at times life-threatening (given the New York traffic) lengths to avoid stepping on them.

I wonder what my dog would have made of the vents if he’d been there when the trash strewn over them suddenly came to life.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH6xCT2aTSo]

Five fabulous field-books

When I'm on a long telephone conversation, I doodle on whatever paper comes to hand. I tend to draw swirls and concentric circles, and a mermaid or two. Mermaids? Yeah, I don't know why.

What do you doodle? Because let's face it, everyone loves a good scribble. Maybe there's something subconscious about using our hands while talking on the phone... I don't know.

Mr B writes his name over and over again, and my name, and the girls' names, like he's practicing our signatures. You'll find lists of names on loose sheets of paper, in the sleeves of books, on napkins, pretty much anywhere that Mr B has been talking on the telephone.

Of course, some people have a real knack for doodling. So it's these folk that I'm going to celebrate in today's mashup of fabulous field-books. (Field-books in this case meaning: doodles done well, and then a step beyond).

In no particular order...

1. First up, the Frankie magazine project. Frankie sent empty field-books out to just these types of creative doodling folks recently, and asked them to fill the books any which way they saw fit. The books are slowly filtering back, stuffed with drawings, paintings, decoupage and myriad other wonderful, artistic techniques.

2. I love Joanne Thies' red and pink themed field-book, sent to Frankie, filled with intricate patterns and lines, layered one over the other. I wish I had this notebook to thumb through for an hour or eight. Her blog is also well worth a follow, full of lovely things hand-drawn.

3. Super crafter Elise Blaha also has a field-book I love. She calls it a Summer Minibook, and uses a base of coloured or patterned paper to collect "an entire season through photos, ephemera and text."

4. I've blogged about the fascinating Burning House project before. More recently, I fell in love with this travel journal, created by Burning House participant Sarah E Farbo by using an old classic as the base. The book was the Ancient History of Herodotus, "a special gift I recieved on my 21st birthday, which I then used as a journal on my adventures through Europe." What a fabulous idea! When my own field-book is full, I'm going to try something like this next. I wonder what book I should choose...

5. And, finally, we return to doodles. The aptly named blog The Notebook Doodles is another online pool I love to dip my toes into regularly. It's filled with sweet, sometimes sad sayings, drawings and photos, scribbled over grid paper in a moleskin book.

Chocolate record!

Oh, gosh, whatever shall I get Naomi for her birthday? Why, I know! How about this little 7-inch Found record sung with delicious Scottish accents that, when she has finished listening to it, she can EAT. Oh, yes. That would be the BEST. PRESENT. EVER.

The secret bookstore

Imagine being so passionate about something that you do it even if it doesn't pay the bills, even if it's illegal, and even if you believe it is ultimately doomed. [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/26293855 w=525&h=295]

There's No Place Like Here: Brazenhead Books from Etsy on Vimeo.

Michael, the owner of Brazenhead Books in New York, is that passionate. Michael sells his books illegally from a secret, private residence, because the rents in NYC make it impossible for secondhand booksellers to survive, he says. But Michael has always been a bookseller and he's not going to stop now. If you really want to find him, he's in the phone book.

Thank you to Andrew David Watson for making this poignant and inspiring short film about Michael, his passion, and his haven of a bookstore. More about the making of this film here.

A thousand bees

Imagine a thousand bees. Scary? Or pretty? Then imagine taking more than four thousand photographs, and editing them together into a sweet little Sara Lov stop-motion music video. Definitely scary, although the result is very pretty indeed. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxHFV4v2rAc]