Nice Plumage

1. Kita 2. HGTV 3. Jacqueline Roberts 4. Aussie Patches 5. We Heart It 6. James Hoff 7. Eeek Designs 8. Sandy Grafik

Physics - Bragg's Law - the reason for the colour of peacock plumage =

Dates

1. The Sketched Book 2. Zombuki 3. Elle Moss 4. My Folk Lover

It’s that time of year when pop up stalls selling calendars appear at the shopping centres. You know the ones. This year Twilight features heavily; and there’s the usual assortment of cats, dogs, flowers, and views of Paris. Me, I’m boring, using a chrome flip over desk number that gets refilled. I'm a 'one day at a time' kinda girl and do get surprised at times when I flip and find that I'm supposed to be somewhere in half an hour. This flip number has daily quotes to ponder. Todays ‘You cannot make a crab walk straight’ gets me thinking about the improbability of changing others and maybe ditto for self and my mind spins off..... I'm trying to do less thinking though, as my brain needs a little holiday. I think (there I go again) it needs to be filled with less intensity and more calm beauty. So I’m tempted by a few of these Etsy offerings - what an inexpensive way to have more art about. You could also make your own creations with these free templates.

1. Ohxcrap 2. Sara Bear 78 3. Wall Stickz 4. Little Mo and Friends

Extract below from New Year Letter by WH Auden .Auden’s poetry is rich in its language and rhythm, although I try not to read his literal meanings as I find that the pictures in my head as I read are very different to his intended message.

O Unicorn among the cedars,
To whom no magic charm can lead us,
White childhood moving like a sigh
Through the green woods unharmed in thy
Sophisticated innocence,
To call thy true love to the dance,
O Dove of science and of light,
Upon the branches of the night,
O Ichthus playful in the deep
Sea-lodges that forever keep
Their secret of excitement hidden,
O sudden Wind that blows unbidden,
Parting the quiet reeds, O Voice
Within the labyrinth of choice
Only the passive listener hears,
O Clock and Keeper of the years,
O Source of equity and rest,
Quando non fuerit, non est,

Susanna Hertrich's Chrono Shredder runs for 365 days until it has continuously shredded all of its calendar pages.

It without image, paradigm
Of matter, motion, number, time,
The grinning gap of Hell, the hill
Of Venus and the stairs of Will,
Disturb our negligence and chill,
Convict our pride of its offence
In all things, even penitence,
Instruct us in the civil art
Of making from the muddled heart
A desert and a city where
The thoughts that have to labour there
May find locality and peace,
And pent-up feelings their release,
Send strength sufficient for our day,
And point out knowledge on its way,
O da quod jubes, Domine.

ps And on another subject altogether, there's a giveaway happening over at Brisstyle and another here.

Good grief it's been a year...

Yes it's been a year since I started this blog! A year! It's gone quickly but I also feel as if I've been 'blogging' for much longer. I suppose I was a 'lurker' for a couple of years, visiting favorite blogs but not 'following' or commenting. I started blogging tentatively, thinking that I'd set it all up and if I didn't enjoy it I'd just delete it. It's been fun researching stuff, putting it all together. I've learned so much. I didn't expect to have many followers. I didn't expect many 'strangers' to comment. I didn't expect to find such kindness, such caring, such love. I certainly didn't expect to feel so connected to other bloggers. But I do. To you. It's been a lovely blogging year.

Birthday Giveaway - Worldwide - Just leave a comment to be in the draw for this pack of 20 humorous napkins above - for mopping up any spills. I'll do a random number generation (sounds quite technical doesn't it) on 20 December.

Photo from Ludwig Interior Design via A Gift Wrapped Life, a blog with classy gift wrapping ideas.

Congrats to Cloravik! I'll be in touch!

Josefin Searches For The Giver of Truth

'Waiting' and 'House by the Sea' by Melbourne artist Catherine Campbell via My Folk Lover

`Josefin the Writer' by duo Olney Clark from their self-titled LP to be released in February, 2010 on the Friendly Police UK Label. Video directed by Hanae Seida.

I was listening to an abc radio national program this week where a learned person was talking about memory. He maintained that humans have been designed to forget – in order to maintain relationships and to cope with painful life events. A good memory, he said, puts a person at a disadvantage. It’s hard for them to move on, to forgive, to function, when the past is so crystal clear. But if nobody had one of these ‘disabled’ brains, who would be the keepers of truth?

I couldn't find the Josefin lyrics anywhere - bit early I suppose - so have written down the words that I sing in my head. Some of them will be wrong! I'm away for the next couple of weeks with limited internet access but promise to catch up with all comments when I come home.

Josefin the writer
has books locked in her head.
She must release them
onto paper.
She has
she has me worried
of how her thoughts do go
but it’s not to name it
but left to mind
to turn like you’ve gone away.

Why do,
why do our bodies
tire so much faster than our minds do?
Where does thought go
when it swims away?

She is the place
I send my mind
when I need to see things
not as they are
but as I long for them to be.
Josefin.

Josefin the writer
is collecting information
on the mechanics of a memory.
Where will,
where will she find love?
Will it stay with you
or another
or where will she find
a reader like me?

She is the place
I send my mind
when I need to see things
not as they are
but as I long for them to be.
Josefin.

You are the place
I send my mind
when I need to see things
not as they are
but as I long for them to be.
Josefin.

Supposedly 'big hair' is back!

Photographs by Saima Altunkaya

And of course, books never go out of fashion.

by Jolis Paon

Hunting with the talented Sarah Blasko

The fox is a group of 27 discreet species that are distantly related to wolves, coyotes and dogs — all from the canid family or Family Canidae. The fox, however, is not a dog, and cannot breed with a dog. It also cannot be tamed, and though these animals are quite attractive, they are not considered to be good pets, making both the owner and the pet miserable. via wise geek

Upcycled Brooches/Pins from ReRead. [If you're in Brisbane this Sunday, check out these pins, plus plenty more handmade goodness from Etsy Brisstyle members, at the Brisstyle Indie Designers Market. Full details here.]

Paying Attention

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention,
how to fall down into the grass,
how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed,
how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

[The Summer Day by Mary Oliver]

Post inspired by three beautiful little girls who make sure I keep paying attention to the important things. Breathtaking photographs by Jacqueline Roberts in JPG Magazine.

Cushion/Pillow Covers from all corners of the globe. Small parcels = little postage. 1. Revision Design Australia 2. Bambina 3. Gabriel Pardo 4. Heidi Devlin Home

Better Gnomes and Gardens

Gorgeous website alert! Have a look at Alannah Hill. For more garden eye candy visit Erin's Art and Gardens.

left to right 1. Terrarium from Memories Under Glass 2. Purse from The Dainty Squid 3. Clock from Blue Forest Chalet 4. The Gnomes Book of Christmas Craft from Red Hen Studios 5. Apron from Boojiboo 6. Pocket Gnomes from Lillipilli 7. Stitch Markers from Sunneshine 8. Pendant from The Pendant Factory 9. Vintage Teatowel from Modern Card

Vogue Feature 'Garden of Delights' featuring work from 1. Stephen Jones 2. Zac Posen 3. Oscar de la Renta 4. Marc Jacobs 5. Vera Wang 6. Philip Treacy Couture 7. John Galliano for Christian Dior Couture 8. Thakoon 9. Stefano Pilati 10. Nicolas Ghesquière 11. Manolo Blahnik 12. Christian Lacroix