Paris - Beatnik - Audrey Hepburn - Dancing

How can you resist a title like that? I have been drawing dancing beatniks today, inspired almost completely by this scene from Funny Face. A bookish, shy girl goes to paris and expresses herself through interpretative dance. We've all been there. Right? (In our dreams).

Ukulele is a pretty easy way to change your world

The chords for this sweet tune are here -- and hopefully if you can master that you'll get luckier than Steve Martin.

Personally I am terrible. Terrible-terrible, but I try to play a little every day. I have never really played a musical instrument before and, as a big music fan, it seems miraculous and wonderful to me that I can produce any actual music no matter how bad it is.

A friend of mine told me lately that she was chatting to a incredibly talented violinist about learning to play. She said to him that she wished it was easier but when she tries it feels like she has 6 thumbs on each hand. He said to her "for the first two years of playing, your instrument is the master. After that, if you are practising every day, you start to become the master." I'm sure this applies equally to the ukulele and when it's really sucking I try to remind myself that I am doing the necessary legwork. I like that you can get good at something just by doing it every day, even if it is incredibly, incredibly slow.

My top five favourite Ukulele links:

1. A very useful ukulele chord chart.

2. All the chords you need to "entertain" your family and those extra special friends for hours and hours (and here they are grouped by difficulty). This whole site in general is a gold mine for ukulele players, beginners and fanatics alike.

3. Ukulele Underground

4. and for a little inspriation: Stop motion crochet critters singing along with ukuleles.

5. And one of my very favourite youtube clips: Ra Ra Rasputin performed by the West Cork Ukulele Orchestra - love it.

Also! Added bonus - I just discovered this extra one today. It looks like it has the ability to drive everyone else in the house crazy, but it does indeed look pretty fun: Ukulele Beatles Fun

Nathalie Lété painting a shop window in Tokyo

Nathalie Lété is one of my favourite artists and here she is painting a beautiful shop window in Harajuku, Tokyo. I am feeling inspired to paint some white on one of my windows in the studio - once I finish tidying and I can actually get to the window.

(via wishthimble - so good Fran!)

PS. Thank you for all the lovely, kind words yesterday. I got a wee bit teary!

Painstaking Coraline

I was doing some searches on "doll hair" (because I am making a new doll for the Softies for Mirabel project, are you?) and I found an interview with Suzanne Moulten, head of the hair department on the movie Coraline. It's pretty cool to think that you might spend you whole working life carefully making beautiful stop-motion hair.

I went on to find another crafty Coraline video - Althea Crome's tiny knitting. It really is incredible to see such beautiful, tiny knitted pieces.

I spent so much of my childhood making tiny things to fit out my doll's house. There were hours spent tinkering away at little tissue boxes and christmas puddings with my friend Pia. Pia had the patience and the inspiration (and the endless supply of Liberty scraps) to make the most breathtaking little bits. I just did a web search to see if I could find Pia and HEY there she is! She's got her own crafty label. Hello Pia - if you ever google yourself and eventually come across this post. Glad to see you are still making.

"When one shrinks a craft or a skill into something so tiny it asks the viewer to imagine how it was done"

Now I am off to make some really tiny jars of cumquat marmalade.

Ponyo

ponyo A quick update tonight - as I can barely string a sentence together after a long night up with a kid with the voms. But we all went to see Ponyo this afternoon, and it was utterly charming. I kept thinking it was like an animation from my own childhood - no tacky glitz or bad songs sung by novelty characters. Charming, as I said.  If you can bear that horrible movie-trailer-voice-over guy, have a look at the preview because it was as fun as all that.

1 year, 4646km through China and a beard

I hope you don't mind me posting another video. I have had a stomach thing and have been sleeping and mooching for most of this week. Mooching includes watching too many videos on the internet. But I do like this one. I have posted this for my brother and for my parents who are adventurers at heart.

SOUR '日々の音色 (Hibi no neiro)'

Sour's video for Hibi no Neiro. - A little like a fabulous human/web cam kaleidoscope - watch to the end, it will make you smile.

"The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam."

Director: Masashi Kawamura + Hal Kirkland + Magico Nakamura + Masayoshi Nakamura

(via Spike Jonze at We Love You So)

Black Cab Sessions

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I spent a long time browsing through the short films of the Black Cab Sessions last night, and it made me so happy that I thought I would share them with you too. You've probably already seen them, but I live under a rock - it's cosy under here but I do miss a lot of good stuff. 

The Black Cab Sessions is a simple concept. Put a band and a small film crew in the back seat of a London cab and film a totally unplugged version of one of their songs as they spin around the streets of London (or New York, or the Welsh countryside etc). They're all so full of atmosphere. I love it love it love it. So far I love Badly Drawn Boy, Lykke Li (oh so good), Dawn Landes (with a fabulously bearded Ray playing percussion on a notebook), Fleet Foxes and Martha Wainwright ... so far. I have many more to see.

And omg... it's the Brian Wilson, and his four band members (and the film crew) in the back of the cab. That's a full cab. and guaranteed to make you smile.

Let me know if you find a stand-out one.

** photos from The Black Cab Sessions blog **