It's my party and i'll cry if i want to

I feel like a contestant in a Japanese Baby crying contest.

Slightly rotundate from too much cheesecake and red wine (Happy birthday twins!)

But i'm also mid-tantrum and wailing like a baby because i've lost my (edit: my sister's) USB - with a work presentation on it. Rats.

...Is it wrong to think these are extremely cute images?

Weekend weather report

Bed time.

8pm on a Sunday evening.

The weekend has proved much too fruitful and now i'm zonked. I really should stop trying to pack a whole week into two days.

Friday night was dinner at a dumpling house, before a quick and somewhat ironic dash through the rain to see Cloud Control at The Metro.

While the weather raged unrestrained outside, the Blue Mountain natives were flawless. Though they presented a tight gig, the music was mesmerisingly fresh & whimsical, and devoid of mechanical polish.

It wasn't till after a short spell of karaoke at Kelly's did i stumble into slumber, only to force myself out of bed a few short hours later.

It was almost as if i had fallen through the Wardrobe and awoke in Narnia mid winter - as it was beyond freezing.

With a gale whipping around us, we fought like lemmings through the 12km's to be rewarded with a feast of eggs and coffee.

The cold snap failed to thaw and proved to be perfect weather for the Twin's Indian Feast.

My siblings have always been strong advocates for equal (birthday) rights. The main jist of their adgenda is that they have separate cakes for their birthday. Who am i to stand in the path of justice?

My brother's girlfriend in all her loveliness baked these yummy delights

It's only fair that the equal rights of twins extends to savoury dishes, so i did what any selfless sibling of twins would do - i ate twice the normal amount of food at the Indian Feast. Oh be still my heart - delicately tender butter chicken, doughy soft nann, sweet eggplant, lashings of yogurt, fluffy egg rotti, spoonfuls of dahl mmmm

I then had to haul myself around Canada Bay this morning. I don't think the 7km will make a dent in the previous night's effort, but i didn't let that stop me from munching my way through Yum Cha for lunch. Ten Pin Bowling is equivilant to a weights workout right?

Framed

I'm on the hunt for picture frames, specifically something ornate and obnoxiously luxurious in style. Similar to these beauties -

I've got some sazzy japanese fabric from my lovely sister that is much too pretty to be destroyed with my feeble (insert: aggressive) attempts to fashion it into clothing.

I've also been saving this image by Catherine Campbell which featured in "The Big Issue" a couple of months back

However i don't want to fork out a packet, i rather find the frames dusty and deserted, so i can pretty them up with a lick of paint.

Because i won't be diving into dumpsters anytime soon, i started my picture frame search on Etsy. Inevitably i quickly became sidetracked and found more gorgeous prints to frame.

Printed on a vintage German English dictionary

Printed on vintage (1936) French book on art and philosophy

If all else fails with my treasure hunt, i can always frame the fabric in an embriodery hoop as shown on Purl Bee.

Show some Skin

It's HSC time again. Daily updates feature in the newspaper and tearoom small talk moves from the weather (snow in Hobart?! Oh My!) to high school.

As a somewhat neurotic student, High School was just study and stress. So i relish in watching Skins - (supposedly) drenched in reality, the British teens go mushrooming, rave in abandoned houses, piss off Soviet troops on field excursions, have stalkers and affairs with teachers, all whilst managing to scrape through exams without study.

The first generation were an affectionate motley crew of outcasts who genuinely liked one another.

Then there was the second generation, sure i enjoyed watching it, but they pissed me off in equal measure. Snuffy nosed, pretentious twats with no real problems but every issue against the world.

Now there's generation three. They look appear likeable enough. I don't think i could handle another cast like generation two.

The granny inside me stresses over the excessive drug use which will addle their budding brains. I guess people don't change after high school after all.

MTV announced that they'll be making an American version set in Baltimore, Maryland. Home town of The Wire, i hope it's just as socioeconomically diverse.

Doe eyed Birch

I made a mistake when i listened to Diane Birch before work on Wednesday.

It made the day drag along so wearily.

Note to self: listening to joyous harmonies sung with sugary sweet, jazzy whimsy to parlour piano accompaniment, will ensure a rapid descent into apathy if followed by the tranny of work.

The recommended dosage is one rotation of "Bible Belt" accompanied by frolicking in a field wearing daisy chains.

TGI friday, indeed.

"unputdownable"

This wrinkles my brain - it's all together too wonderful not to be shared.

“Hound of the Baskervilles” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“The Railway Children” by Edith Nesbit

The ad's are for Penguin Books in Malaysia

Munching on bookish thoughts

Finally book club has been resurrected! Some five months after the book was selected, we settled ourselves on a grassy noll, armed with an impromptu picnic and picked apart the “Brideshead Revisted”.

The discussion was somewhat short (blamed by foggy memories of what actually happened in the book) and soon left by the wayside by thoughts of travel, with a wonderfully dreamy suggestion of cycling to Byron Bay.

Given that Waugh’s world of Brideshead is one of obscene luxury, it’s only apt that such an expedition should be done in style – these cycling accessories would be perfect.

Note that her "hat" is actually a helmet. Say goodbye to the nerdy helmet look, but i wonder if it also stops the dreaded helmet hair?

ps. Heels are optional

Another innovative bunny has come up with a way of combining books and bikes - with the bike shelf.

All i can say is gimme, gimme, gimme!

And sound the drum roll, as the next book club book is dadadadadda: Revolutionary Road!

Which gives me just another excuse to watch Mad Men for "research" purposes.