Fan girl

Sometimes I really love how the Internet works. For example: A London-based actress by the name of Kate has a bit of a love for snail mail, and she stumbles across my Airmail board on Pinterest. This leads her to my blog, which leads her to my Instagram, where she leaves a lovely comment. That leads me to her Instagram, which leads me to her blog, which leads me to these very funny "Fan Girl" mock documentaries, that she made. And whammo, my breastfeeding entertainment for the afternoon is set.

Kate's idea for the spoofs came from a similar one that she made as an entry for a competition to bang the gong like the guy (you know the one?) at the beginning of the Rank Organisation movies. She won it.

So now, in case you're in need of a random little giggle too, I thought I'd share that original "gong" spoof with you here. And if the mood takes you, watch your way through the cute little Fan Girl episodes. I'm still smiling from my afternoon foray.

Meanwhile, I'm typing this post with my thumb on my iPhone during the 11pm feed. It will go live at around breakfast tomorrow morning, less than 24 hours after Kate first popped by to say hi. Shazam, speedy Internet.

(And now we will return to our more leisurely paced snail mail activities, which is how this all started in the first place).

~ Photograph of 1888 autograph book via Playing With Brushes, licensed under Creative Commons

Seasons pass

As I write this, Mr B, Emily and I are sitting on couches in our lounge room re-watching Notting Hill and dreaming about moving to London. This is one of Mr B's favourite movies, but I am ambivalent. It's Hugh Grant at his floppy, bumbling best and a fantastically quirky supporting cast, but I never could buy into the Julia Roberts character and how they fell in love. She is such an awful character! Anyway, if you have somehow missed seeing this movie during the past 15 years, it's worth a gander for the hilarity and love and community of the sweet little friendship group, and, Oh! London! What a city, huh?

Anyway, there is a "time passing" scene in the movie and I think it's one of the best I've ever seen so I thought I'd share it with you. Look out for all the tiny details that indicate change and stability co-existing.

Favourite things - leave an impression

From paper to photos to pancakes, here are five clever ways to leave an impression. Brought to you, for no apparent reason, by the letter P. 1. Photos

How great is this "Lightcase"? It's a small, portable studio that you can use to take professional-style photographs of the things you make and love, even with just an iPhone.

2. Pandas

The sweetest little friends ever to sit on your finger: these miniature crocheted animals from SuAmi in Vietnam are the best! This one is a red panda. (Seen via B for Bel)

3. Pancakes

We make a lot of faces out of food around our place these days. But nothing quite as clever as this "Crack a Smile" pancake mold!

4. Paper

These Haibara letter-and-envelope sets caught my eye a few months back, and I keep coming back to them. I love how bold and clean they are, and those red outlines make them look like drawings of envelopes. (Seen via Swiss Miss)

5. Paintings

This has to be one of my favourite public art projects and if you didn't dream about moving to Paris before, you will now. Etienne Lavie replaced billboard advertisements all over the city with classic works of art. Not long after that, he did the same in Milan. Tres belle, oui?

Through the ages

In 1800 BC, Babylon was the biggest city in the world. Queen Sobekneferu of Egypt died, heralding the start of the 13th and 14th Dynasties. In India, the Iron Age got underway. And on the western slope of what is now known as the Sierra Nevadas in California, USA, a sequoia seed germinated in a forest and pushed its way into the sunlight. Ages have come and gone since then: great cities have risen and crumbled, religions have swept across continents, wars have devastated communities and science has unlocked many of our greatest mysteries.

And that little sequoia plant has continued to grow, into a giant tree.

Silent, strong, made powerful with the protection of the forest all around it. Incredibly, it is still growing today, 3200 years later! Untouched by the passing of great civilisations, it is one of the biggest trees in the world, at more than 75 metres (247 feet) high.

And until recently, it had never been photographed in its entirety: there just wasn't a camera lens big enough. The little clip below shows this stunning, ancient tree in a snow-storm, being photographed by National Geographic photographers and National Park scientists.

This tree has looked over us for more than three thousand years. Now, at last, we can look over it.

Favourite things - I did not expect that

Lately a lot of my favourite things collections seem to be about food. Which means that as I've been meandering my way around the Internet late at night while nursing Harry, it's the food posts that have caught my eye and inspired me to hit "save." Maybe it's because I'm a breastfeeding mother who is also racing around after a toddler, and I am permanently hungry. Be that as it may, I think you may just like these unexpected food combinations and constructions, too. 1. Instagram marshmallows

What a fun, quirky, tasty gift these would make! Seen via Poppytalk

2. Beaker BLT

This made me laugh. I'm all about making pictures out of food lately, to get Madeleine to eat her vegetables. Although this certainly blows my smiley-face and cat-face bean-and-carrot concoctions out of the water! And it's just in time for the new Muppets movie, too. Seen on Handmade Charlotte

3. Kombi toaster

Have I shared this one before? I feel like I have. Or was that the Kombi tent. Either way, I'm still a fan and if you are too, you can buy your own from The Fowndry. It's like those burger-shaped telephones we all wanted in our rooms as teenagers (I never got one. Did you?)

4. Beyond burgers

Take a look through Fat & Furious Burger, a bizarre website featuring totally over-the-top photographs of insanely decadent (and somewhat weird) burgers. Then you will look up and think "Wait, where did those three hours just go?"

5. Chocolate terrariums

I've saved the best for last. Look at these. Just look at them! Beautiful works of art, and deliciously tasty too. I would SO love to have one of these served up to me at the end of a meal. Apparently they're actually pretty easy to make, so maybe I'll try them out one day. The tutorial is on The Design Files if you want to have a go.

Favourite things - sweet treats

In my home, sleep deprivation and general exhaustion breed sugar cravings. We know it's not good for us, but Mr B and I are both guilty of over-indulging on the sugar front when the world around us just won't stop. (Even at 2am. And 3. And again at 5. Stop already, world!) It's not even lunch time and as I type, I'm already starting to dream of a sweet treat. Anyway, this collection of favourite things may not be the healthiest I've ever made, but it suits the mood around here. And it sure was fun to do.

1. Cupcake ATMs

Cupcake ATMs are popping up everywhere. This one is in New York. Ahoy there, Sprinkles: in Melbourne, we REALLY LIKE cupcakes too. Just sayin'...

(Photo via East Midtown on Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons)

2. Piñata yo face

This DIY on Photojojo teaches you how to make a piñata out of somebody's photo. They suggest it could be a lovely gesture for, say, a birthday. I put it to them that bashing a picture of somebody's face as hard as you can with a stick until it bursts open isn't exactly a traditional sign of love and affection. On the other hand, all that candy goodness to tumble out would be pretty sweet (pathetic dad-joke pun intended).

3. Sweet Paul book

Sweet Paul has gone from online magazine to print mag and now to book (called Sweet Paul Eat and Make)! If you don't know Sweet Paul, it's all about delicious food, beautiful craft projects and clever home tips.

4. Don't be rude to food

I have bookmarked this post so that I can refer back to it when Madeleine and Harry are old enough to say "Yuck!" about trying new food. I think it will help.

(Photo is of Madeleine being distinctly not rude to a piece of chocolate cake she made herself. Question is, does she extend the same courtesy to broccoli? I think we all know the answer to that.)

5. Teddy-bear bread rolls

And just like that, you will never say no to carbs again. (Look at that little face. How could you say no?) Here's the recipe to make them yourself.

(Seen via the Frankie blog)

Pencil case

Stationery lovers hold your breath. Don't you just love the nostalgia in these sweet little "pencil case" sculptures? They make me think of fresh starts: blank notebooks full of promise; the first day of school; snail mail as-yet unwritten. And this. British artist Camilla Barnard hand-carves each piece out of wood, with the goal of "transforming the mundane into devices of fascination and joy." Mission accomplished. They'd make a lovely collection for the office or creative corner, don't you think?

Joyful, joyful

(Alt. title: THE BEST FLASHMOB YOU WILL EVER SEE OR HEAR) How was your weekend, friends? Mine was pretty average, to be honest. I am happy it's over and ready to start the week fresh.

There were some good parts, especially catching up with some lovely friends who dropped by on Saturday afternoon. But mostly, it was taken up with sleep deprivation and taking care of an increasingly-sick little girl, culminating in a visit to the hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning. She will be ok, but right now she is SO sick and SO miserable. Poor little Harry has been incredibly patient and sweet. I am just praying that by some miracle he won't catch whatever Madeleine has.

On Sunday night over a late dinner with both kids finally asleep in their beds, I looked across at Mr B and the bags under his eyes just about reached the table, as did mine. I felt a surge of love for him. You have never met a man who works as hard as this man. He is phenomenally dedicated to his job, which by the way happens to be a job that helps thousands of hospital patients every year get the care and treatments they desperately need. At the same time, he is also phenomenally dedicated to his family, so we get all his love and all his loyalty and incredible levels of self-sacrifice. There isn't much left for him after all that, and the exhaustion of these past few months with two children so very young has taken its toll on his health. He seems to be catching every little thing lately, just like Madeleine. We had both been awake since 2am that morning and, at at 4am when Madeleine's fever still wouldn't come down despite taking both Panadol and Nurofen, he'd taken her off to the Children's Hospital. After they returned, he spent most of the day with a sweaty, vomit-smelling, unhappy little girl asleep on his chest. Then after dinner he made the two of us the famous Bulger Family Chocolate Pudding as a treat. All of this was despite the towering piles of work he had intended to do on the weekend, meaning the alarm went off at 5am today. Again. And it will probably continue for the rest of the week. I really need to think of some nice things to do for him.

Anyway, while nursing Harry in the midst of all this blah on Sunday afternoon, I saw this video on a friend's Facebook profile (thanks Matt!) and, call it exhaustion or whatever, it brought tears to my eyes. It was a little moment of happiness and goosebumps in my sad and sickly weekend, so I thought I'd share it with you, too. I hope it makes your Monday joyful!

And now for the video:

The Food Justice Truck

It's no secret I'm a fan of a good food truck. I've been slowly eating my way through a good number of them, and you can share that journey with me if you want to, here. But this may well be the best food truck idea yet.

Called the Food Justice Truck, it is a social-enterprise initiative of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), and the goal is to make fresh, healthy food available to asylum-seeker communities who could otherwise simply not afford it.

Riddle me this. On average, it costs $130 a week for an Australian adult to eat well. Most asylum seekers have about $20 a week to spend on food. It doesn't take a mathematical genius to figure out that you have $110 worth of hunger and chronic malnutrition going on right there. In our back yard. On our watch.

The Food Justice Truck will buy locally-sourced, ethically and sustainably produced fruit and vegetables, then resell them in asylum-seeker communities at a 75 percent discount on the rates they'd pay in the shops. In effect, asylum seekers will be able to buy $80 worth of healthy food for themselves and their families, for $20.

By using the truck to get around to communities where the greatest numbers of asylum-seekers are congregated, they estimate they'll be able to help bring healthy food to 2000 asylum-seekers a month. This little video helps explain it all.

If you think this is a great idea, too, you can donate to help them buy a truck and get started via their crowd funding page. If you can't afford to donate but still want to help, how about spreading the word? Let's help get the Food Justice Truck on the road!

Image credits: food truck is a screen shot from the promo video above; market produce is by Natalie Maynor, licensed under Creative Commons

Inside Sarah Jessica Parker's NYC apartment

Can you believe it has been 10 years since Sex and the City the TV series finished? What a fantastic show that was. Boundary-pushing (at least in the early years), clever, witty, oh-so-stylish and, despite the often risque subject matter, heart-warming. It could just as easily have been called Fashion and the City. Or better still, Friendship and the City. But I doubt that last title would have garnered it quite as much attention. My friends and I used to say there was a Sex and the City episode for everything that happened in life. (And if there wasn't, there was sure to be a Seinfeld episode to fill in the gap). Of course that was before I got married and had children.

And now: please indulge me in some of my favourite Carrie Bradshaw fashion moments...

If you're feeling nostalgic, like I am, you might enjoy this little tour through Sarah Jessica Parker's amazing New York apartment, while she speed-answers 73 questions from Vogue that range from odd to, well, more odd.

Yes yes I know, SJP is not Carrie Bradshaw. But that distinctive voice, that impeccable style, so many of those mannerisms... she gave them all to her character and they are so very familiar. I think it could be time to watch this show again.

Were you a fan? Who was your favourite gal?