Flora and Fauna

If there's one thing I'm looking forward to when I've moved to London, spent a few months sleeping on various couches/floors/in cupboards, temped, spent all the little savings I have on weekends in Europe, finally found a big girls job and nabbed an apartment ... it's reviving my pot plant collection and herb garden.

Even as an inquisitive toddler of merely 2, I loved gardens. Ok, so my main interest at that stage was trying to eat the gardens but once I got a little older and discovered that ferns and pansies don't equate to a delicious snack, I proceeded to rip up moss and weeds and try to cultivate my own little garden oasis in an old hokey pokey ice cream container in my bedroom.
Needless to say these endeavors only ended in rotting foliage and tears.

But now I'm older and wisened to the fact that flora and fauna require sunlight and drainage, and after a little research have discovered these nifty ideas for creating a little bit of gardening heaven in your little bit of city space.

The art of the goodie bag

I sent Natasha a goodie bag in the post a few weeks back and it finally arrived! I nervously waited for its arrival conjuring corrupt posties and foreign incorrect addresses in my mind. Would they be able to read my scribble? Why did I not print my words? Ahh the anxiety...

There is definitely an art to the goodie bag, and a deluxe edition must include the following things. I have never nailed the ultimate goodie bag and this is my goal.

-a photograph
-chocolate and candy
-miscellanious items - matches, a postcard, a picture of a cat, a key ring, a fridge magnet etc...
-a handwritten letter (collaging within the letter is most encouraged)
-magazines - especially those not available or most coveted by the recepient
-a mix tape
-a beautiful quote that you just cannot get out of your mind
-stickers
-a confession that noone knows
-pretty pictures for the recpients wall
-an opshop find
- a scratchie or lotto ticket
-and lastly spritz of perfume!

Childish things

Something I've never lost the knack of as the birthdays pass every year, is my ability to be easily amused. I take pride in my sometimes child like choices of activities and girly giggling, you have to learn to laugh at yourself sometimes otherwise life's going to seem a whole lot longer (Natalie Portman, Garden State, one of my all time favourites). This weekend I intend on creating and indulging in some of my favourite childhood passtimes of old ...

shadow puppets . tents from sheets and chairs . fairy bread . colouring in books . paint by numbers . recreating jewellery from scraps . drawing pictures . watch all three original starwars films

Blind letter

When I was very young, perhaps 6, someone posted a blind letter in the mail to my family. What I can vaguely gather from my mother reading it, was that it was a teenage girl. She harped on to us, her blind anonymous audience, and delved into the issues like boys, the new wallpaper in her bedroom and the  problems she had with her parents. I loved her. My new anonymous friend. My mother dismissed it as nonsense and threw the letter in the rubbish bin. I thought it was beyond fascinating and penned my first blind letter (rather unimaginatively) to my next door neighbour. It said 'To Mrs Shas (her name was Mrs Shaw) What does it feel like to be old? Herrrre is a picture for you. (insert confused 6 year old rendition of shopping trolley). That was the beginning of one of the most fufilling and life changing relationships I have experienced. Today I am going to pen a new blind letter to a chosen unsuspecting victim!

blind dating is exciting

Who

If your art teacher told you that collaging could never be fine art they were wrong. Donna K shows us it is AOK and art doesn't always mean picking up the paint brush. Creating beautiful images through mish mashing of miscellaneous here pieces are balanced, beautiful and bizarre. She also has a knack for naming her works with titles such a 'blind dating is exciting' and 'don't get a tinkerbell tattoo'. In a world of cut and paste, it's nice to see something once considered appropriate for children on rainy afternoons with a pottle of glue and scissors, has taken on such exquisite form.

Nail biter

Furry fun?

Once upon a time parading around in a furry animal costume was a fun, novel idea reserved for mates themed dress up shin digs and childrens birthday parties ... now it's terrifying! People dressed up in animal costumes instantly conjure up nightmares of being charged after by fetishists into furry sex or small children ... beware.

Tashmen

I love me a man who can cultivate some facial growth, and this my friends is how you don a tash. London based photographer Alan Powdrill shot this series 'Tashmen' in order to explore “the huge growth in the numbers of men now adorning facial decor once considered nowhere near cool”.

Type envy II

Mike Perry is a man after my own heart with his playful typography, psychedelic palette and are those felt tip coloured slices of cake? Swoon

I wish I was ...

... Stevie Nicks' top hat. If that hat could talk ...

Hedi

How I would love to enter the mind of Hedi Slimane, no doubt it is a creative wonderland. Designer for fashion, furniture and fragrance as well as photography he is the kind of person that has no boundaries creatively. You can view more of his photography from his photo diary here.

Ooh yeah