Post-it bombs

A funny thing happened on the Internet the other day. I typed "recipe for arnotts hundreds and thousands biscuits" into Google to see what would come up (side note: I LOVE those biscuits. Does anyone know how to replicate this flavour at home?)... anyhoo, via a circuitous interwebs route, I came across the blog of Queensland artist Fee Harding, Burntfeather. Fee lived in Japan for a year and while she was there, she embarked on what she called "the 100 post it note project." She drew sweet little pictures on post-it notes and carried them with her everywhere, leaving these tiny pieces of portable art in public places. She called it a less invasive form of street art, which I think is true and rather considerate of her, don't you?

I just love this idea, and Fee has given me permission to replicate some of her lovely, impermanent drawings here on this blog. Others have picked up on the idea, and there's even a PostProject Flickr group if you want to get in on the action (or see what other post-it bombers are doing). Neat, huh?

All images used with Fee's kind permission, from here.

In Edinburgh Gardens

The jasmine tumbling over the fence in our back courtyard filled the entire house with fragrance today, as the big, yellow sun pressed perfumed oil from every petal. Summer gave a cheeky grin. "I'm almost here," it whispered. "I'm just around the corner." And for once I smiled back.

So I strapped on the sling, and Madeleine and I took Oliver for a walk and a picnic in the park.

Madeleine's roly poly dimples.

A fragrant breeze.

Laughing children.

A banjo-strumming troubadour.

Cloud patterns.

Delicious daydreams.

Little purple flowers in the grass.

Why hello, Summer. Perhaps, this year, I'll be happy to greet you after all.

Always-Sometimes-Never

I always...

mime Madeleine sleeping for Mr B before waking her sniff the pages of old books wish I could bundle all my dear friends up and bring them to Melbourne crave summer fruit (oh! plums, nectarines, mangoes, cherries, more more more) love winter and long for snow to fall on my town

I sometimes...

make a cup of tea and read blogs in the morning do my hair and put on makeup just to feel awake wish I lived in my own house, instead of renting long to travel again cry when I look at Madeleine, just because I love her so much

I never...

let the pets into the bedroom (any more) get too excited about hot weather, even at the beach skip breakfast remember phone numbers eat offal

Always-Sometimes-Never was inspired by a little cutie pie called Janee from Yellow Bird Yellow Beard, and she was inspired by the equally cute Danni from Oh Hello Friend (I read both these blogs). Will you take a turn now?

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And on another matter, Madeleine! (No surprises there). We plan to buy her a cot this weekend, as she has grown too big for her bassinette. Each night she wiggles around in her sleep, kicks off from the sides, and pushes herself up into the far right corner of the cradle in a bizarre angle. It never seems to bother her, though, and she always wakes up in the best of moods. My little angel.

More mail

Good morning, friend. I am in an excellent mood today, due to the fact that we had Em down to visit us this weekend, and we spent a beautiful two days during which we did very little indeed. But they were days full of love, and just right. I managed to find the time to finish wrapping some parcels for the post, including gifts from Madeleine for five of her cousins in Bendigo. As the littlest member of the family Madeleine is in considerable demand, and her cousins fight one another over who gets to cuddle and kiss her the most. This is something she does not appear to mind one bit.

The last time we went down for a visit, they all requested "Madeleine souvenirs." Each of them held her, one at a time, while I took photographs ("Use the big camera, not the iPhone"). And now I am posting them the results: mugs, t-shirts, playing cards, notepads and magnets, all with a photo of a cousin holding Madeleine on it.

(We sent a pack of the playing cards with Madeleine on the back of them to Nanna a while back. The kids love to play with them, and are particularly fond of the game they now call "Madeleine Snap").

I also had time to wrap and send another batch of free copies of Airmail to the lovely, lovely folk who subscribe to this blog. If you'd like a copy, there are still some left so you can go here for more information (this giveaway is open to people who have already subscribed as well as new subscribers).

How was your weekend? Busy? Relaxed? Existential? Tell me all about it...

UPDATE 5 July 2014: as of today I have run out of copies of Airmail to send you. However I would still love to send you something nice by snail-mail to say thank you for reading this blog, and I will still do my best to make it look pretty. If you have subscribed to this blog (or you want to), simply fill in your postal details on this page. And if you’re still keen to read Airmail, there’s a list of stockists here.

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And here's what you might have missed last week:

* This video is stunningly simple and beautiful * A rooftop vegetable patch in the city * The pop-up picnic action plan * Links R US

Ink music

The wind is howling outside. All afternoon, from the back of our house, we watched the century-old palm trees that lined Canning Street bend and weave. Icy air is piercing through the cracks in our own old window panes and, after a week of short sleeves and cold drinks, the heater is back on and turned up high. I wish the wind would create this beautiful ink music on our walls.

irregular flow from ozan tekin on Vimeo.

Have a beautiful weekend.

Greening the city

Living in the city is a trade-off. Small home, great food, high rent, arts and entertainment, rotten traffic, shorter commute, smog in summer, walkable everywhere. And so on. For me, that trade-off is worth it. And I absolutely love where I live now, because our little community is very old, very gentle and very quiet, yet I am a short walk from wonderful precincts like Brunswick Street, Lygon Street, Rathdowne Village and Nicholson Village, and only half an hour's walk from the centre of the city.

But I miss having a garden. A few straggly ferns and agapanthus plus one giant rosemary bush, bordering weed-filled paving in a tiny back courtyard, do not a garden make. We are renters, so there's not much I can do to change that (except get ride of the weeds between the paving bricks. I really must get on to that).

Cue the good people at Federation Square and The Little Veggie Patch Co, who have collaborated to create an AWESOME city project: the Pop Up Patch.

What is it? Smack bang in the heart of the city, it is your very own organic vegetable patch. Each 'patch' is made out of wooden fruit crates. It is filled with organic material and soil, ready to plant. You're given seedlings (three sets a year, to work within the seasons), all the tools you need, and all-week help from gardening staff on-site. The garden is kept locked and secure. They water your vege patch for you when you're away. And all this for $3.50 a day, over 12 months.

Brilliant, oui? This will be perfect for people who work in the CBD. They can stop by on their way home from work to dig a little, weed a little, and bite down on a juicy cherry tomato, warm from the summer sun, before heading home.

I am sorely tempted to book myself a Pop Up Patch of my very own, friends. SORELY tempted. For me and Madeleine it would be a commitment, requiring a dedicated trip in several times a week to visit our garden. But it's not far, and we could walk or take the tram. Would I stick with it enough to make it worth it? This decision requires a degree of self-knowledge I'm not sure I possess.

What do you think? Should I do it? Will I see you there?

(All images from The Little Veggie Patch Co website)

ps. These books are going fast. Get a copy while they're still free!

UPDATE 15 October: I sneaked over to Federation Square once the Pop Up Patch was open, and took some photos. You can see them here (scroll to the bottom).

Pop-up picnic

I am throwing a birthday party for a friend and, since spring has so gloriously sprung in Melbourne, I thought I'd make it a picnic. But not just any picnic. I was thinking I'd put on an outdoor high tea.

I will bake little cakes and ice little biscuits and serve scones with jam and whipped cream, and make little sandwich fingers with the crusts cut off. I will set out a big bowl of strawberries. I will haunt the beautiful blog of hello naomi for more inspiration.

For drinks, we'll sip champagne from old-fashioned glasses, slurp homemade lemonade from striped straws, and I thought I'd get around the no-access-to-electricity-and-no-use-of-open-flame-in-fire-season hurdle to serving tea and coffee, by mixing up a big jug of sweetened iced tea instead.

Originally, I wanted to hire a trestle table and some chairs, and go all-out, as though we were in an outdoor restaurant. Jordan of Oh Happy Day hosts pop-up dinner parties for her friends like these, and I find them so inspiring I've always wanted to try something similar myself.

But I want to surprise the birthday girl, so I've only told her the party is a picnic, nothing more. And I love her dearly but she's a bit of a scatterbrain. I couldn't trust her to turn up on time or stick to specific guest numbers, and it's not exactly easy to find an extra chair and an extra set of specially-ordered vintage china if your fancy dinner is in the middle of a field. So both formal seating and hot food are out.

Instead, I figured I could bring along a table just to set out the food, then spread blankets all around so that we are all one, big picnic together.

I also thought I'd get hold of half a dozen of these beautiful big, round balloons, make some sweet tassles to fancy them up, and peg them on string to the ground, to kind of mark out our picnic area.

I wanted to string bunting or little lanterns from a tree, but thankfully I had the foresight to case my probable venue the other day, and realised the branches of the trees in that park were much too high for me to reach!

What else should I consider? I'd love your ideas and suggestions.

UPDATE: we had the party at the end of October. Photos and details here

ps. Oh how I wish I had the budget to bring along Betsy the caravan to my picnic. Wouldn't you agree?

ps2. Are you ever to old to need your mum & dad?

ps3. A free book! And I'll send it to you by old-fashioned post!

Spring giveaway

Dear friend,

This is the easiest giveaway you will ever enter, because you are guaranteed to win. I'm giving away a copy of my award-winning novella Airmail to everyone who subscribes to this blog. And if you've already subscribed, you can still get the freebie anyway.

Just go here for more details and to enter. I'll pop your free book in the post.

Tell all your friends! These ladies are dancing for joy.

Yours truly, Naomi xo

(image licensed under creative commons, from here)

UPDATE 5 July 2014: as of today I have run out of copies of Airmail to send you. However I would still love to send you something nice by snail-mail to say thank you for reading this blog, and I will still do my best to make it look pretty. If you have subscribed to this blog (or you want to), simply fill in your postal details on this page. And if you're still keen to read Airmail, there's a list of stockists here.

Spring love + links

How was your weekend? We are soaking up the warmer weather, and I think the best part is that Madeleine gets to bare her fat little arms and fat little legs and chubby little toes. There is just so much more of her to kiss all the time! I have ordered two pairs of espadrilles from the The Iconic, ready to pound the pavement in ice cream pastel style with my little darling as much as we can, before the weather gets too hot.

To ease you into Monday, here is the cutest little across-the-ages love story (originally seen here), plus some more fun links from around the web...

Balance your roles and be the best you

What would you make from this collection of polka dot DIYs?

Let's do ice cream

Squeeze 'n spray this lemon

Festival des metiers

Adorable zines (ferns! thrift stores!)

This strawberry wildflower cake makes me so excited about spring

Ralph Lauren's new Downton Abbey inspired collection

Orange bunting: on pants, on a purse

Hello stranger on the street, could you please tell me how to take care of my baby?

Flapper inspired champagne cocktail. Cheers.

Get to bed!

And on another note, happy birthday to my wonderful brother Adam. We fought like cats and dogs when we were little, but we have been best of friends for many, many years. Even though we don't see as much of each other since I moved away (to New York, to Queensland, to Adelaide, to Melbourne), you are still very, very dear to me. I'm so proud to be your sister! Love you Hulbs.

Carnival

One golden afternoon wandering around the Melbourne Show. Madeleine, in her big pink sunhat, looked like a mushroom sprouting chubby legs. Punnets of perfectly ripe strawberries, homemade licorice, ice-cream sandwiches, lucky numbers that remained resolutely unlucky.

Warm spring days, precious family time, this is why I look forward to weekends.