Ho, ho, ho

Ho, ho, ho merrrrr-ry Christmas! We set up cameras in the living room last night and look what they captured! Whatever you do for Christmas, or whether or not you celebrate it, I hope that today is a wonderful day for you, full of laughter and love and good food.

I'm taking a few days' break from blogging to enjoy the season with my family, and I look forward to seeing you again very soon.

Naomi xo

Walking in the air

It's Christmas Eve. All is calm, all is bright. Or is it? Are you a fan of this time of year? Or does all the expectation and commercialism weigh you down? I think I fluctuate wildly from one of these categories to the other at least six or seven times a day throughout December.

So whether it helps to enhance your mood or manages to bring a little magic back into your busy day, I wanted to share with you this truly beautiful moment of flight from the stunning and almost-wordless animated film The Snowman, based on the book by Raymond Briggs.

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

I have to thank Jesse of Head Butler for alerting me to this beautiful clip. I used to read Raymond Briggs books (graphic novels?) as a child, but I'd never come across this film.

Favourite things - surprise!

Do you know what day it is today? Today is the day that will forever be known as the We Survived the Mayan Apocalypse day. Surprise! You are still alive! The future is ours. Let's appreciate each and every day and make them GREAT. 1. The old-book vending machine

This bookstore in Toronto had a dearth of old and unusual books cluttering up the storage spaces. So the owner came up with a novel (sic!) idea: he built an old-timey-looking vending machine that dispensed old books for $2 a pop. You don't know what book you'll be getting until it's in your hands. Now the machine has become so popular that the shop's owner is having trouble finding books he's willing to part with for $2. (First seen on Fast Company).

2. Mail, but not as you know it

I've been decorating more mail packages, sending my book Airmail out to you lovely folk all over the world. Here are some of the latest decorated packages, on English Muse. Did you get yours yet? I'm a bit behind because of all the Christmas chaos, but I promise that if you've subscribed and asked for a book, I'll write to you as soon as possible. (Also a special message to Annie: I LOVED your email! I've sent you a book but I will write back properly, soon. xo)

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.

3. Miniature green worlds

I put out some fairly strong hints that I'd like a terrarium for Christmas. But given that I was recently asked "which item of clothing do you like most, jeans or shirts?" in a nonchalant manner while out shopping together, I won't hold my breath. In my old home town, Sydney, the Council has teamed up with Etsy to create a cute little tutorial on making a terrarium. So maybe I'll get brave and create my own. (Photo credit: incredible artsy terrarium with the house from Beetlejuice, by Face of the Earth on Etsy).

4. Sidewalk secrets

In pursuit of... what? Click here to find out.

5. On mothers and honey

Earlier this year, two of my favourite writers on the Internet, Gill Harrison and Karen Charlton, took stock of their own blogs, creative writing and families, and decided to team up and write together on Karen's reworked blog, Rhythm & Method. If you like wise words beautifully put, this is the place to visit.

Looking in the mirror the other day, I touched the fine lines that were appearing all-too-readily around my eyes (hastened, no doubt, by months on end of broken sleep). I winced at the pimples that had appeared a couple of weeks ago, another fun postpartum hormonal symptom. I poked at my jiggly arms and belly and legs, none of which represented the toned and trim me I still imagine I am in my head (until I look in a mirror or try to zip up my jeans). Overcome with self-loathing, I wondered if Madeleine would find me beautiful when she was older, or if I would embarrass her.

It was in such a mood that I read this post on Reclaiming the beauty in motherhood, by Gill. Thank you, Gill, this was exactly what I needed to hear.

Writers' houses

Can you guess which lonely trio of literary sisters lived among these foxes in the snow? Or who the bookish baby is in the window of the house below? (Answers at the end of this post.) British artist Amanda White is working on a series of paintings and paper-collages that illustrate writers' houses. Through a process of research and imagination, she recreates little vignettes of the home-lives of some of our most beloved authors.

I think a framed set of these would be an amazing addition to a home library, office or reading room, wouldn't you agree?

Amanda has a shop on Etsy that is closed for Christmas, but I'm definitely going to visit in the New Year! If you want to see more of Amanda's work or contact her before then, you can find her on her blog and her website.

All images in this post are reproduced with kind permission from Amanda White. From top to bottom, these are the once homes of the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Vanessa Bell, Vita & Harold Sissinghurst, Derek Jarman, John Keats and Virginia Woolf.

Take tea with Santa

I wanted to make some last-minute, light-weight Christmas gifts to post out to friends this weekend. I'd seen some novelty teabags in a local store and fallen in love with them, but the prices were a little steep ($5 a teabag, thank you very much!). Instead I decided to make some of my own, with a Christmas theme. I decided on Santa, Rudolf, Frosty, and a Christmas angel. It was very easy. You just trace out the basic outline of the head and arms (which will sit in the tea cup), then draw anything or anyone you like inside, and photocopy as many as you need (or print them if you have access to a scanner and colour printer). Staple teabags to the bottom and you're done.

Maybe another time I will Photoshop in the faces of some family members for a funny little "take tea with the Bulgers" set.

The only problem I faced was that I didn't have time to get to a stationery store to buy heavier cardboard, so the paper was a bit too thin and flimsy to rest properly in the tea cups. Hopefully my friends will forgive me this time around.

And I still think they look kind of cute, relaxing in their little tea baths, wouldn't you agree?

Meals on wheels - Gumbo Kitchen

Oh hello, friendly man in the Gumbo Kitchen van. I’ll take my Po’ boy stuffed with deep fried shrimp, thank you very much. Roll the shrimp in spices and batter, make sure the bread is light and fluffy, and now add shredded lettuce, tomato, pickles, Cajun spiced remoulade and hot sauce.

*Please read the above paragraph while imagining me making my very best attempt at a southern (Louisiana) accent.*

Heaven! (Or, Ooooo-WEE!)

Oh and another thing. If you could bring the Po’ boy to me and my friends while we are out enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon of barefoot lawn-bowls in the 'burbs, that would be super nifty as well. Ta.

*Not in a million years can I read that last paragraph in a southern accent. Not even in my head.*

It’s Truck Tuesday, in case you were wondering. Every second Tuesday, I bring you glad tidings of taste-bud joy from one of the many food trucks and vans that motor around Melbourne taking their meals on wheels to the masses.

And I highly recommend that you head over to Gumbo Kitchen on Facebook, hit Like, and then follow them all over Melbourne like a crazy food-stalker. Because Gumbo Kitchen cooks up some serious New Orleans goodness, right here in the (Australian) deep south.

Alongside my INCREDIBLE shrimp Po’ boy, you can also get your hands on a beef debris Po’ boy, chicken and sausage gumbo, seafood gumbo, sweet corn gumbo with hush puppies, red beans and rice, and lemon ice-box pie. For a start.

I’ve actually never tasted gumbo. Not even when I was in New Orleans, which I suspect was a serious oversight on my part. Have you? What should I expect?

I simply wasn’t hungry enough to manage two lunches the other day, plus it was hot and the idea of a stew didn’t appeal so much. But I really want give it a go, so there may be a Part II to this post some day.

Six months

Sunday, 16 December 2012 You and me, Madeleine. We are a silly, crazy team, are we not? We can have the BEST of times with your Dad (even when eating at crazy Vegas-esque food-court-y pub bistros made to look like Greek marketplaces, complete with Doric columns, statues of David, mini temples and painted blue-sky ceilings).

When I pull a funny face, oh how you laugh! When you do a pop-off I say, "What was THAT?" and you burrow your face into my neck with the cheekiest grin.

I say, "Camera's rolling... and... ACTION," and you shake your head back and forth in your favourite dance move, which we call 'The Stevie Wonder'.

Sometimes I lie on the play-mat beside you, on my back, and no matter where you are on the mat and even though you can't yet crawl, you manage to roll and wiggle your way over to me. If I'm not watching out for it, the first sign of your presence is the sloppy embrace of your open-mouthed kiss on my nose.

You like it when I read to you, and you don't much mind which book I choose. Sometimes, you say "Oooh, ooh, ahh ahh" to pretend you are reading, too.

Before you drop off to sleep, you lie in your cot and have little conversations with yourself. Often, you make yourself laugh.

When you are tired, you put one hand in your mouth and then the other on top of it to stop the first one escaping.

You like watching Sesame Street and Mike the Knight but not Playschool or Mouk.

You have discovered how to fake-cough and, when I copy you, you think it is HILARIOUS.

After I feed you, you like to sit up on my knees. Softly, you reach out and explore my mouth and nose, eyes and chin. You love to put my face in your hands.

My heart is already completely in your hands.

Happy six month birthday, my dearest love.

Favourite things - itchy feet

This time of year smells like school holidays. Long stretches of hot, sunny days spent jousting on Pool Ponies in the backyard swimming pool; nursing grass-burns from the muddy puddles that form at the bottom of the slip 'n slide; jumping up and down on the neighbour's trampoline while the hose creates an ankle-deep lake. Cartwheeling through the sprinkler. That was pretty much every summer of my childhood. We had never heard of water restrictions. Often we'd all pile into the car and take a week or two's holiday on the coast, visiting my Grandpa in Queensland. Every day we'd leap through ocean waves, collect seashells, beg for ice cream. Every night we'd fall asleep with salt crusted in our hair.

Family holidays today seem to be so much more sophisticated. Before she was officially a teenager, Emily Rose had already been to India, America, Europe, New Zealand, and had accumulated so many domestic travel miles that she was a Silver Frequent Flyer with Virgin while still an unaccompanied minor. Next year, she will be off to Italy for an excursion with her public school.

Part of me longs for the nostalgia of my own childhood. Of the pure joy we found in the simple things. But at the same time, I am positively itching to get back on a plane myself. And I can't tell you what it would mean to see New York and Paris again, this time through Madeleine's eyes.

So to somewhat ease my itchy feet, this is a rather long and roundabout way of letting you know that today's collection of five favourite things are all about the journey. Have a lovely weekend!

1. La Maisonnette du Coteau

I am devastated that I missed out on entering the competition to win a week's holiday in this stunningly renovated holiday home in the French countryside. After three years of work, Stephanie Brubaker of Stephmodo and her family finally finished renovating "La Maisonnette," and very generously offered a week long vacation for a lucky reader! Can you imagine a more beautiful place for a getaway? Here is the full story of the renovation.

2. The travelling notebooks

This is a project after my own heart. Three travelling notebooks are winding their way around the world. One is being filled with recipes, another with photographs, and a third with favourite things. You sign up for one of the notebooks. When it arrives you find a couple of free pages and add your own entry, then send it off to the next person on the list. I first saw this on Rosalilium and you can see her entry in the recipe book here.

3. The globetrotter gift guide

Plenty of ideas in this lovely gift guide from Honestly WTF for what to get for the globetrotter in your life. Or for the wishes-she-was-a-globetrotter. I'm just sayin'.

4. Babes on a plane!

I have bookmarked this post called Traveling Abroad with Littles from Rockstar Diaries, as well as this one on flying, for the day when I actually am brave enough to take to the skies with Miss Madeleine. I am so excited to show her the world. And so afraid of taking her on a plane, with no escape, and all those other people who also have no escape!

5. An unexpected journey

The long-expected release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is scheduled for Boxing Day in Australia. I'm really looking forward to this movie. I liked the Lord of the Rings trilogy but didn't love it. Kind of how I felt about the books, too. But as a child, I LOVED The Hobbit. I still remember my father giving me the book to read, when I was quite young. His version had a picture of the dragon on the front and, for the first few pages, I was quite confused because I thought a hobbit was a dragon. What do you think? Will you be going to see this?

Summer lovin' the arts

The Arts Centre Melbourne is absolutely killing it with its summer season lineup this year, in this blogger's humble opinion. Who popped in for one night only on the weekend? Just Gotye, that's who. Oh wait, you want more? How about seven choreographers, 12 street dancers, three break dancers and some local talent, in the international street dance sensation BLAZE? And one of the best parts, to my mind? On performance days during the run of this show, the public spaces around Hamer Hall will be turned into venues for free music, dance and street art performances.

There will also be some Christmassy shows, the iconic New Year's music festival Summadayze, a bunch of stuff for kids (Giggle and Hoot's first ever live show, anyone?), and Oh Suivant!, a funny, arty and rather intimate circus-clown performance.

In fact there's a show on every day and every night of summer, except Christmas Day.

I'm hoping to out to a number of these shows this summer, and I'll definitely be heading off to see The Key of Sea live concert, which is on this coming Friday night.

This concert sounds amazing and I can't wait. Produced in association with The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival Inc, and principally supported by Amnesty International, it is a one-night-only opportunity to hear some of Australia's leading musicians who have paired up with musicians from refugee and asylum-seeker backgrounds.

They have released an album (actually two of them, this is the sequel) from which all profits go to Australian refugee and asylum-seeker charities, and Friday is a chance to hear some of them live in concert.

Here is a little video to tell you more about it.

Giveaway

Melbourne friends, do you want to come too? The Arts Centre is giving away a double pass for The Key of Sea, this Friday. Just leave a comment below saying you'd like to come along and I'll draw a winner at midday on Thursday (13 December).

For extra places in the draw, tell your friends: Tweet about it using the hashtag #summerseason, and share it on Facebook, making sure you let me know you've done so. One extra place in the draw for each.

All images of performances (from top: Leo, Oh Suivant!, BLAZE), and rehearsal sessions from The Key of Sea, are used with permission from Arts Centre Melbourne. I am not being paid for this post, however, I did receive two tickets to see The Key of Sea.

UPDATE: This competition is now closed. Congratulations Andie. And The Key of Sea was amazing! If they do it again next year, I highly recommend you go!

Christmas yarn bombs - the sequel

The Christmas elves have been at it again. Hidden away deep within Santa's workshop (otherwise known as Yarn Corner), they have been knitting and crocheting up a yuletide extravaganza for you, me and the bicycles of Fitzroy to enjoy. Over the weekend, the bicycle racks outside the swimming pool at Fitzroy underwent a rather stunning transformation, each of them becoming encased in its own unique pattern of Christmassy yarn. At least one even sported Santa, a snowman, a little Christmas tree and some rhinestone-esque snowflakes.

Madeleine and I walked past the swimming pool this morning and took some photographs of this latest, oh-so-lovely installation, part of a commission from Yarra Council to yarn bomb parts of the city for Christmas. More than 30 people worked for three months so that we could enjoy it today.

While we were there people kept pulling up to park their bikes, and it was so cute to watch their reactions. Two girls rode up and said "Oh my GOD!" One of them breathed softly, "I love this." An old man walked by and stopped to say hello to Madeleine, saying "Look! Look!" and asking her "What is it?" as he pointed out the woolly bike racks. (Madeleine replied "Ooh" and kicked her bare feet.)

ps. Look what happened to the trees on Rathdowne Street!

ps2. Don't miss your last chance to win a Target gift voucher