Everybody Wants to Rule the World

The lyrics as I heard them by Andy Bull for Like a Version

Welcome to your life

There's no turning back

Even while you sleep

We will find you

Acting on your best behaviour

turn your back on Mother Nature

Everybody wants to rule the world

It's my own advice*

it's my only voice*

Help me to decide

how to make the most

of freedom and of pleasure

I know that nothing ever lasts for ever

and everyone wants to rule the world

There's a room where the light won't find you

Or no hands when the walls come tumbling down*

when they do, I'll be right beside you

So glad we almost made it

so sad they had to fade it

everybody wants to rule the world.

I can't stand this indecision

or is it the lack of vision

everybody wants to rule the world

Say that you'll never never ever ever need it

one headline why believe it

when everybody wants to rule the world

wants to rule the world

*not quite right

Thank you Tears for Fears for these lyrics that resonate in the way that only a good 80s track can - easy to sing along to and profound in the cheesiest but most satisfying of ways. Mmm cheese :)

A stream of consciousness from my desk

Written at 11:14AM this Sunday morning.

Sitting, waiting for washing, typing. I'm at my kitchen table, blinds drawn to keep out the sun. The irony of wishing to be in the airconditioned office on a Sunday. Free day. Free. dream, delight, inspire. Must comment on Kimberley's blog.

I digress. Plan for the day is writing, blogging, getting finances in order. freelance. what's happening and what can we make happen more. spinster, the article i read about rosalind whom i first heard about in year 7 from that actress who toured schools and performed to show girls that they could have a role in science. how did i end up in fashion? biology was my first love.

excitement. memories. microscopes. the crazy canadian teacher who taught biology to me in south korea. shook my hand for way too long when we were first introduced. crazy guy but so much knowledge and giving.

crazy. do we have to be to reach our full potential. what gives to make awesome happen? bill cunningham. respect for his work but can i have it all. love. why has no-one else talked about his religion. religion. what is it. his guilt. finding love in his work. could i be sustained by that. spinsterhood. why would it be bad. melodramatic perhaps but hasn't it been stunning thusfar? despite the disappointments. MEN! but the friendships, the freedom. i want nothing more. best men are already in my life. Dad makes me cry. must call Mick. blessed.

Play Make Do

~ What did you do for fun from ages 5-14 (before the Internet :)

I read Enid Blyton books, climbed trees and built cubby houses  wherever I could.

~ How do you Play now? 

Freely, wildly with everything. I'm currently going through a phase with pipe cleaners. 

~ If you invited someone over to Play tomorrow what would you do? 

Play internets. 

~ If you were to teach others at Play Make Do something, what would it Be?

How to spot the saucepan in the night sky :-)

Very excited, here are some of things I've packed for the trip:

Play Make Do by busichic on polyvore.com

Country Road - Womens Accessories - Step Geo Tote
60 AUD - countryroad.com.au

Craft Pipe Cleaners for Education and Gifts products, buy Craft Pipe...

$0.06 - alibaba.com

KARL by Karl Lagerfeld adds a collar to his LBD

KARL by Karl Lagerfeld adds a collar to his LBD by busichic featuring a deep v neck dress

Deep v neck dress
$270 - net-a-porter.com

Deep v neck dress
$270 - net-a-porter.com

Karl Printed cotton-poplin cameo collar
$95 - net-a-porter.com

Bangin' decor

Today's post is inspired by the Gorman x Castle collaboration and the artwork of the talented Castle.

After purchasing a Castle pillowcase from The Design Files Open House as blogged in this post, I became smitten with Rachel Castle's work, her latest being a collaboration with Lisa Gorman that has resulted in this super ace pillow case below: 

Gorman x Castle pillow: WANT!

However, truth be told that I am trying to stick to buying things I need. And while I'd love to see if I can get Castle to customise a U-shape pillowcase in that fabulous print, I don't need another regular-shape pillowcase at this stage :(

Something that I did need was an artwork to fill in the empty space over my bed. So imagine my delight when I came across Castle's range of artworks :)

Castle artwork - fun, fabulous and made out of felt!

I scrolled through Castle's site for some time trying to find the artwork that was 'me'...

Then I remembered my 'funeral song'. It's the fun song I'd like played at my funeral, assuming that I die an old 80+ year old lady, warm in my bed....

So I realise that this hasn't been highlighted enough here just yet, but I have a thing for pipe cleaners. I thought it'd be real me to put the chorus of my funeral song in pipe cleaners, check out the first draft:

The first draft: the chorus of my funeral song in pipe cleaner. Can you recognise the song?

 The trouble with my large scale piece was that I made it late one night after work... and then I knocked it over :(

Alphabet soup of pipe cleaner letters on my floor :(

Pain-stakingly I put the piece together again, although I'd forgotten that I'd taken the photo above so I spent a while trying to get the colour scheme right again! That said, it also gave me time to move the piece onto canvas instead of a kikki.k vision board (which I hope to use next as a proper vision board) AND to discuss the wording with friends. My friends agreed that I should get rid of the last line of the chorus as it seemed inappropriate; there's only ever been one 'she' in my bed ;)

Random shit, Chez! The final piece in place!

The moral of this story is that I'd like to get my business plan in order so that I can support the work of wonderful artists like Rachel Castle and showcase them to busy professionals. In the meantime however, it's a whole lotta DIY and trying to think outside the box to make this happen...

Happy New Year! Here's to each of us making our plans and dreams for 2012 come true!

Bee Love

 I've had my eye on Melbourne City Rooftop Honey ever since I heard them speak at The Hive earlier this year. Local beekeepers, they are committed to save the honey bee because:

If The Honey Bees Are In Trouble, We Are In Trouble As Well!

Read here for more.

One of the many things I love about Rooftop Honey is that Vanessa and Mat would like to have hives in different Melbourne suburbs so that we can each be proud of the honey our suburb produces and perhaps get competitive about; similar to the way we get competitive about our football teams!

So that's something I've had back of mind throughout the year, even going so far as to referring to Rooftop Honey about what plants I should have in my garden to help bees; gardening being a new hobby I'm fostering...

Then on the weekend just past, I experienced a dessert made with Rooftop Honey at O'Connells in South Melbourne when I was out for lunch with some tweetettes. Chef Paul Cooper has made this lovely iced nougat dessert that quite simply made me happy:

The iced nougat by Paul Cooper at O'Connells Image: Lou Pardi

The next morning I happened to notice that the lavender bush in my garden was full of bees that were merrily doing their thing! It was a lovely morning and I was fascinated such that I ended up standing for sometime in my PJs watching and photographing the bees at work whilst thinking about whether this meant that the honey for my suburb would have notes of lavender...

Coincidentally later on in the day I visited Moral Fairground at Federation Square when I came across Mat and Vanessa of Rooftop Honey giving a cooking demonstration and talking about their work! Interestingly, I heard Mat share that a bee will only make about a teaspoon of honey in their whole life which leads me to suppose that the chances of Richmond honey tasting of lavender are actually quite slim...

Mat and Vanessa of Rooftop Honey at Moral Fairground

Nonetheless I've been happy to observe that there have been more and more happy bees in my lavender each morning that I inspect it! Today I got to see one of my dear partners in crime Lara McPherson where I confessed to her my new found obsession for bees. Imagine my surprise when Lara promptly showed me this blogpost she had put together over the weekend featuring the following images:

Bees taking in the lavender at Dederang

A bee taking in the lavender at Dederang

SO the moral of this random shit is that bees are integral to the survival of human beings who eat, which is most of us and I think that more of us need to learn about bees - although we don't all have to get as fixated as I have...

I next hope to plant some strawberry plants which are on the list of what plants bees like. And I'm trying to think of ways that I can help support the Rooftop Honey cause - like would anyone be interested in buying greeting cards bearing my photos of bees in the lavender?

If the answer is no, check out the more useful things you can buy to aid the bees, here.

Random Homewares (aka how to bring Dolly Parton into your bedroom)!

So like as a fashion blogger, something I read about a lot and do myself a lot is do the high-low. This means to mix high-end labels with low-end labels, like wear your Chanel with your weekend denim in order to create an awesome new outfit that is copied by high-street stores the world over!

So I thought that I'd apply this concept to my own home... my own bedroom in fact! So here, take a gander at the latest editions to my boudoir ;)

low: This week I went to the Dolly Parton concert which was AWESOME where I bought this "I Will Always Love You" pillow case - I LOVE YOU DOLLY!

high: This weekend I visited The Design Files (TDF) Open House - it was AWESOME!  The volunteers working the house were wearing very cute tshirts with yellow polka dots - so I bought a CASTLE pillow case which has... yellow polka dots!

Random shit, Chez!

The moral of this random shit is that as Miranda in Sex & the City once said, "if I make my bed a place that I want to be in, then others will want to be in it too."

What do you think? Is this a bedroom look that will be copied the world over... or  quite simply scare off potential suitors??? :P