An embarrassment of riches

Upon arriving home from another Adelaide sojourn, I discovered a number of postal treats, which are in the above photo amidst my op-shop haul. Lots of Finnish stamps from Ulla, a book about making slippers from Naomi, and I have also been blessed with the guardianship of my friend Arthur's stamp album, which he started when he was about 6! Thanks to all who have sent treats, oh and Jess too!
An embarrassment of riches applies to many things I have encountered lately; the op-shop near my Mum in Adelaide is always full of tea towels, doilies, kids books and craft books, another op-shop in Hawthorn supplied the cane basket.
Adelaide's sporting calendar was also rather spoilt, I spent days racing about the hills getting vantage points from which to see the Tour Down Under riders, lithe hairless men who whizz by with the faint aroma of fresh lycra and deodorant. Finally on my 3rd day I managed to spot Mr Lance Armstrong in the peloton, only by remembering to look for the guy with the black socks. For your information his new training regime seemed to consist of chatting casually as he climbed the hills, I guess he has some catching up to do!
The South African cricket team seems to have an embarrassment of riches, I attended the Australia Day match at the Adelaide Oval (just call me Sporty Spice), and the game was far from competitive. It was damn hot, an elderly lady sitting behind me passed out and had to be taken to an airconditioned recovery area.
As for the weather, I apologise for bringing Soth Australia's heat with me. If it's any consolation they are having 42 degrees today in Adelaide, just one more than us. Am feeling mighty sorry for those tennis players, hope their paychecks covers them for the gallons of sweat they'll be losing.

Another spectrum - paddle boats on the River Torrens on my way to Adelaide Oval.
Listening to: Richard Scarry's Best Learning Songs Ever - Please learn some manners, Bananas!

A Must Have!

Unless you plan to be on a long Vippasana, under a rock, or only checking motorcycle blogs for the next 6ish weeks, you may already know of this book.
Pip the supreme multitasker (she should have a special badge for that) has been cooking up this literary feast for over a year, with DIY projects submitted by 26 Australian craftistas (including moi), and the design and layout done by the Ortolan crew.
It really is a labour of love, and I can't wait to hold it in my hands and drool over the pretty pages. You can pre-order it via Readings, the scheduled release date is March 25th.

Off to visit the folks in Adelaide for a week, see you soon!

Listening to: Thelonious Monk - Off Minor

On my bedside table

Hello my name is Emma and I'm a Star Wars addict from way back.
It all started when Dad took me to see Episode IV in 1977 when I was 3 years old, and now it turns out my 4 year old son is just as keen as I am. In fact all of my Star Wars books, trading cards, movies, trivial pursuit etc, he considers to be his, and when Santa brought him a giant Jedi Gunship for Xmas, I couldn't help but think that the jolly man was thinking of me too.

As a treat to myself I recently acquired this book, 'The art of Star Wars Episode II -Attack of the Clones', and have been thoroughly immersed in each page of stunning artwork.
'For more than twenty-five years, the visual brilliance of the Star Wars films has captivated audiences far and wide. From lush worlds to intricate landscapes, from lavish costumes to amazing creatures, the design artists have pioneered the technological revolution and given dazzling life to Star Wars' unique sense of wonder.'





I'm not going to detail each image selected here, that would be entirely too nerdy, but you get an idea of the imagination of all these talented folks. I love seeing the pencil sketches, pure line becoming more and more fleshed out, resulting in evocative digital paintings. Many backgrounds for the original trilogy were matte paintings done by the brilliant Ralph McQuarrie, and that approach has remained a valuable tool for creating worlds and scenes for each movie since.

In another life I might have been a costume designer, or an industrial designer, with a huge selection of Pantone markers and sharp pencils. Oh wait, now it's all Illustrator and Photoshop, damn, I need to get back in time to suit my luddite/technophobe philosphy.....

Listening to: Leo's R2D2 bleeping

Muchos Gracias!

To all the fabulous anonymous stamp senders, especially from 'someone in Adelaide who came across the blog', many thanks for your generosity! This lot above are from the aforementioned Adelaidean, which by the way is where I grew up, and the selection includes many gorgeous British stamps, they are slightly larger and really well designed. And no soaking required, what a bonus.

Keep 'em coming please! I can never have too many.

Listening to: Augustus Pablo - East of the River Nile live in London

Spectrums

Had me a fine time at Officeworks the other day, while finding items to furnish my letter-writing compendium. I always find it hard to choose when faced with such an array of colour, needless to say I bought a rainbow pad!

Listening to: The damn Mr Men show theme!

Send me your stamps!

I'm serious folks, I constantly need postage stamps, from all over the world please!
They don't need to be soaked from their envelopes, just rip them off and send them to me:
Emma Greenwood
PO Box 473
Clifton Hill
VIC 3068
Australia

Then I can continue to
a) be a nerd
b) make fabulous Postage Belts

Muchos Gracias!

On My Desk

Well on my wall really, various heels, rolls of leather thonging, baby shoes, Leo's foot as a baby, and some serious belt buckles and hardware.


Leo's Robot sandals pattern. I am up to the frustrated growling stage, and am starting to make it up as I go along. Most of it is straight forward but a few details are impossible to make the way I have drawn them, so I'm tailoring the pattern as I go.
There are many different methods of patternmaking, I learned about three methods which I usually combine in an ad-hoc way that (almost) makes sense only to me.


Onto some glue sniffing - every now and then you need to tint your glue. Some shoes have a black or brown edge on the sole, instead of a natural colour, and in these circumstances black glue is much better than yellow, which is how my glue comes in the can.

So off to the stash of old jars, pour some yellow glue in and then a splash of raven oil, be very careful not to spill or even get any drops of this stuff anywhere, it stains rather well. Mix glue and voila - black glue.



Listening to: Electric beaters creaming butter and sugar, we're making chocolate banana cake!

PS. My inaugural survey has now finished, and I conclude that we are indeed sick of bloody gladiator sandals, with a whopping 92 % majority. There you go.