Story 2: Australia

Over the month of March, I'll be jotting down a family story everyday as part of #b03

What my Opa told me:

I had five daughters when the soldiers started storing their guns in our home. My sons were all studying overseas at the time but the girls were at home and the soldiers were always around. It wasn’t safe. Your Oma and I met Opas and his wife Stella on a cruise ship in Hong Kong back in the 1950s. He was from Australia and had lost a brother in the war. We had a lot to talk about and kept up a correspondence for years after the cruise. There was always trouble but as Soeharto came to power, I told him what was happening to the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. He was a Jew and told me about what happened to his people, he told me that he would help.

Opas:

I'd seen what happened to my people in Europe, to those who didn't leave. There were all the same signs; "A Solution." I told your grandfather that I would help. We made plans, then all of a sudden the correspondence stopped. For months and months, I waited. Then one day I was in the courts when the clerk called me to tell me that there were two Chinese-Indonesian sisters crying and asking for me in the forecourt.

My aunties:

All your Opa told us was to ask for Mr Phillip. I can’t remember how but somehow we made it from the airport to the courts. We couldn’t speak much English, we were very confused. We asked for Mr Phillip. We were told that there might be many Mr Phillips. We cried and they started bringing out these men who each went by the common name of "Mr Phillip". Each one would come out and we'd stop crying, look up and NO! That man doesn't look like how Opa described Mr Phillip! This went on and on, man after man, we crid and cried; where would we go if we couldn’t find Mr Phillip? Then finally a man came out and he knew why we were there and he took us home to his wife, Stella. She was so good to us.

Story 1: The Well

My family, like many, has an interesting story. Or that interests me, at least. I've always wanted to get the stories down do I'm going to have a shot as part of #b03 to jot one down here every day for the month of March.

A story that my mother told me:

Your great-grandmother had 5 children when her husband died. She lived with her family-in-law as people did in those days. The family never liked her and while her husband was alive, he protected her; with him gone, she knew that she wasn’t welcome. She took her oldest daughter to the village well and looked down. They were going to jump. She looked down into the well. She said it was very dark and deep. They were crying. She decided that things weren’t so bad that it had to end there. So they didn’t jump and they went home.

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!