Skipping in the daisies

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Image via the wonderful Dinosaurs and Robots

Saturday afternoon and we’re wagging swimming lessons. Just another thing to not tick off the list this week.

So what have you been up to?

I’ve been in stalling mode. House needs cleaning, hair needs cutting, writing needs writing, softies need sewing (I need a little banana slug in my studio to get that done), books need reading, dinners need cooking, plans need planning, weeds need weeding. 

Things I have managed to get done lately (brace yourself, it’s been a killer week);

I gave myself a recession-era fringe cut which may have been a mistake.

I made Mum’s You’ve got Friends Chocolate Cake and it worked! I did the 1.5 size recipe and used a big bundt tin and it was a great success.

I twittered about a library book full of cat hair and a fish bone stuck in my throat.

I watched loads of telly… Season 3 of the Mighty Boosh (loved it), Starter for 10 (great), Oscar & Lucinda (lovely), Survivor (oh yes), Lost (to keep Phil company these days),  Flight of the Conchords (and bought Carol Brown so I can listen to it all the time), The Jane Austen Book Club (meh), and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (still watchable). 

I heard myself tell someone that we don’t watch a lot of television. At that moment I actually believed it.

I had lots of coffees, at Bliss, at Snow Pony, at Laurent, at home from a packet of Jasper’s and then heard myself tell someone that we are not spending any money on unnecessary items in 2009.

I downloaded M Ward’s new album, Clementine by Melbourne’s (not Norway’s) Washington, The Lark Ascending (which reminds me so much of that wonderful movie ‘The Year my Voice Broke’) and listened to the Dodo’s a lot while I was pretending to write. 

I looked at loads of Oscars frocks and then looked at the NME awards photos and felt a bit relieved that the Brits are still so grungy. Clearly not a stylist in the house.

And in case you missed it, I listed a softie on Ebay for the Bushfire Appeal and it ends Monday!

Marshmallow Bunny for Bushfire Appeal

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I have finished my little wonky rabbit and she is now on ebay, with the full proceeds of the auction being donated to the Australian Red Cross Bushfire Appeal. Just think, not only will you be helping some Victorian people who are truly in need but you will be gaining a new little soft friend.

Please note that this auction will be in Australian Dollars (making it all the cheaper for some of you international folk) and that I am going to be donating 100% of the proceeds to the Red Cross.

She isn’t really toddler/baby friendly as she has buttons but if you are so inclined, you could snip the buttons off without too much trouble. That being said, she isn’t really built to withstand lots of rough play, but my kids have loved their versions of these toys for several years now and they seem to be holding up ok.

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I hope you like her! See handmade help for lots more ideas for helping out those in need.

Thanks for looking! And bidding ;)

My creative space

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Wow, that was a bit of an unscheduled break, but I’m back! Back in time for My Creative Space. This week I am making a couple of rabbits – one I am going to put up for auction with all proceeds going to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal, the other is for a trade I *still* owe for some of those fab vintage wall plaques. I have also been doing a little bit of writing, and still calling it a “learning experience”.  56,000 words is quite the learning experience.

Links I have been loving this week with regards to creativity:

* Elizabeth Gilbert talks about genius at the TED talks. LOVE this. Take the 20 minutes to enjoy it. (thanks Chelsea!)

* Writing and music, thoughts on writing by Haruki Murakami

* Daily Routines, “How writers, artists and other interesting people orgaize their days”  (via don’t question me)

ALSO check out the latest issue of Frankie magazine for my contribution to the Meet Me At Mikes book – and get ready to buy your copy very soon for more such goodness (and much better resolution photos).

ALSO – I’m still loving Twitter. Please come and play along!

Stay tuned for bunny auction details. I hope to list her early next week.

My creative space…

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I’m playing along with kootoyoo again this week with a photograph of my creative space. When you combine the heat with the end of the school holidays, the first week back of school and the fact that Phil has been in California for 7 days, you can imagine my creative life has been a little stymied this week. I did manage to make some muffins from a new recipe. That was quite creative. And I have started writing again after a 10 day slump, thanks to rediscovering Anne Lamott’s wonderful book Bird by Bird. That’s it on the floor beside my bed. Her chapter titled “Shitty first drafts” has definitely been a kick-starter for me this week. I am pushing through chapter ten at the moment and all the time I am writing I am thinking “This seriously stinks! How is it that it seemed so easy two weeks ago and now it just seems like I can’t write a word that doesn’t sound tired and cliched and … stinky?” But that’s all part of it, apparently, so I keep writing stinky prose and terrible dialogue. I am waiting for my characters to revolt and start doing amusing and alarming things again. At the moment they are slouching around at an exhibition opening sipping glasses of wine. Yuck. But I’m doing at least 20 minutes a day, regardless, and in this way I will get through this shitty first draft.

The other things you can see in my creative space are my notebook which contains some gems (gems I tells ya!) which will or won’t make it into this shitty first draft. There’s also a pile of books which a friend lent me so that I can research funny sex scenes, because I am having trouble with sex scenes (that’s in my book, thanks) and am “fading to black” rather than facing it. I can’t even read this research material let alone contemplate writing it. Call me a prude. And you can also see some Japanese craft books. I have got out all my Francophile Paumes titles because I have watched “Priceless” twice in the last week and now want to be French.