Colour United

So last week was the biggest day on anyone's AFL footy calendar. Especially if your team dominated the season enough to get through the finals and get their shot at premiership glory. This year the Hawks were pitted agains Fremantle. Hawthorn against Perth. Brown and yellow against the purple army that flooded into the most liveable city in the world. 

Being a Richmond supporter at the root of it all I was shattered when Carlton wiped us off the board back in the qualifying finals. You might not think I would be too fussed on the outcome of the grand final.

But as I sat in fed square watching on the big screen I was definitely a little more than vaguely invested in the birds taking out the title. The week before when they scraped through a close struggle with Geelong you may have enjoyed seeing me jump around and do a little dance when the final siren confirmed the hawks chance of contention the following week.

But with Hawthorn as a very close second team (and as I say this I hold up my thumb and index finger to show you just how close a second they are) I swapped my black for brown and donned a hawthorn jersey and scarf borrowed from my cousin to support the boys. And it makes me think how connected we are by the design of this. Whether its an official jersey or you've knitted your own scarf of your teams colours, we paint ourselves with this coding system that defines your interest. Instantly as you pass a total stranger the fact they are wearing the same colours almost invites a friendship, even if only momentarily. Side by side you cheer on your team, united in supporting your favourite side to a victory and when they do fall, commiseration together commences. And it's just such fun. To be united as strangers by a few stripes of colour.

Anyway, it was certainly an exciting occasion and an experience to be had in amongst the excitement of it all. Fed square was full of committed and passing by onlookers. i even manage to make friends with a cute little family that generously shared their umbrellas when it got a little drizzly. We were all very excited and relieved when the siren finally went with the hawks on top abd we rushed down to the MCG to go into the ground and soak up some of the atmosphere  passing a flood of purple people as we made our way. The atmosphere was amazing!

This year is the closest I've ever followed the AFL and I'm already missing the fact that there was no footy to watch this weekend! It's going to be a long off season!

Go Hawks!

I hope not sporadically

It's been quite a while. All my blogs seem to start like that these days.

Insert usual rant about time going by way to fast. I'm sure it should only be March....

So anyways I just came across this video over on my favourite blog, swissmiss...

I'm definitely guilty of being a #hashtag-a-holic. I thought it was quite funny though.

And to keep this on the random side of things these coffee lid coasters are pretty cool!

But yes. Life is hectic. And the business end of the year is about to fall on top of me.... and I'm not sure that I'm quite ready for that...

Scary Exciting

It's been a while since I've really sat down and actually written a blog. It's something I literally think about every single day. What I'm going to write about. New themes I could have. New structures. More of a plan. Lots of ideas. So many things I want to share!

It's the final trimester of the year. About to begin the second week and it's a little scary. Scary but exciting. Nerve wracking but inspiring. Not only is it the last trimester of 2013 but it's also the final trimester of this studying adventure I embarked on just almost three short years ago. When I think back to the things that have changed, not only in my own life but in all the people around me, from my family and closest friends to the celebrities and the world environment in general. Not only was I three years younger and coming to live down in Melbourne, just a small town girl living in a lonely world but people like Miley Cyrus was certainly a far more innocent Hannah Montana and no one had even heard of One Direction yet! My four year old baby brother was much more of a baby and my ten year old little sister didn't know all the words to the Nicki Minaj rap and my other now 12 year old little brother didn't know how funny How I Met Your Mother is. But I'll leave the little flash back at that for now.

It's scary but exciting because the end of the course is near, I nearly have an advanced diploma, yet it's the end that brings many new beginnings(the exciting part). Many decisions to be made(the scary part).

Anyway. I shall leave you with a few little totally random things I'd like to share.

Firstly this gorgeous Leica camera that I've seen is priced at $50,000! But it's so beautiful!

This totally awesome wallpaper by IEVA over on Etsy. Coolest pattern!

Also on Etsy McKeon Studio has some gloriously gorgeous scarves! Especially this map of Melbourne one!

Keeps your eyes peeled! Many ideas that I'm hoping to action soon!

Hope you had a lovely fathers day with your dad too!

Constructively Alone

“Every kind of creative work demands solitude, and being alone, constructively alone, is a prerequisite for every phase of the creative process.”
- Barbara Powell

Here I sit. It’s a Friday night and you know what, I’m doing one of my favourite things! I’m not heading out. Too much of a nana at the moment for that. Going out is of course one of my favourite things though. But not tonight. It’s the end of a typicaly busy week for me and one of my favourite ways to spend my Friday night is at home pretty much by myself just flitting around doing whatever I want and relaxed by the fact that I don’t have to get up to an alarm tomorrow morning. Not only do I not have to get up to an alarm but I don’t have to walk out the door before lunchtime if I so desire. Not sure that this particular alone time becomes very constructive but then again I do think that as long as you're doing something you haven't done before even as simple as reading an article that you haven't already read then all time become constructive to an extent.

Friday night is always good.

Craving crazy!

As I was working away on placement yesterday as it hit early afternoon I had the most bizarre food craving. Not because it was a crazy food combo like peanut butter and celery or even corn and Nutella sandwiches which was one I heard on Triple J yesterday. Not was this craving something wickedly sweet and rich like a Lindt chocolate ball or a tasty baked New York cheesecake like I would typically long for at any given moment. Hungry yet? If you are this may just put you off! I was in fact craving a piece of homemade bread (normal right?) all soggy in home made vegetable soup! No idea where that came from except that it reminds me of how much I miss home with the family. Must miss it a lot since ten years ago I definitely turned up my nose at both aforementioned foods and my eleven-year-old heart would have sunk when it was announced that this was in fact on the menu for dinner. It would have been a painful twenty minutes for Mum as after we had gobbled down the bread dipped in the soup she would have to persistently stand her ground and make sure my siblings and myself consumed our ten mouthfuls of soup before we could

Have anything else for dinner! Screwed up faces would mumble 'what's in this?' As other sour faces were made as the ridiculous effort went into swallowing this disliked bowl of nutritious (and I will tell you now also absolutely delicious) soup. 'Well I made it with lots of love' Mum would respond.

Oh how times have changed. Kids are so funny! Sorry Mum!

20 years of Triple J's Hottest 100

So the other night as I was putting together the LINKspired post I began to ramble a bit when I mentioned Triple J's Hottest 100 from the past 20 years. So to avoid the ramble in that post I have given it a post all of it's own! Look out, here I go getting all nostalgic about music and being a teenager.

20 years of Triple J's Hottest 100! Wowee! Gosh it's almost as old as me! Established only two years after I was, this annual countdown began in 1993 when to place your vote you actually had to make a phone call! The voting system has certainly evolved since back in those days! Personally I feel the annual 'indie' countdown has become a strong staple in the Australian music scene. Amazing to think of all the fantastic music that has been produced in this time. All those songs that just from hearing the start of the tune play through your speaker you know what is coming for the next three and a half minutes. That is unless you choose to hit that switch and change the channel or jab at that skip button on your iPod.

I'm left feeling like quite the newb as I only really got into Triple J's selection of music five years ago when my brother (who had long been a listener) bought the Hottest 100 Compilation CD that year. My music taste before this time had been limited and innocent in many ways as I would have far from strayed from the typical top 40 tracks that are forever hashed out on the radio. The first album I ever purchased with my own pocket money was Britney Spears Oops... I Did It Again. And I'm still more than into all that mainstream music. I still buy Britney Spears CDs as I label my music taste as un-selective and very broad. Just don't expect me to listen to heavy rock or death metal and I'll be happy.

So at the age of sixteen I was exposed to Volume 15 of the hottest 100 and I recall having it on repeat as I fell in love with the difference in selection to my common listening habits. It was 2009, the year that Mumford and Sons claimed it was not your fault while Bluejuice were walking around on a broken leg, and Lisa Mitchell was sitting in a Coin Laundry. Vampire Weekend were singing about Cousins and Lily Allen was complaining that it's not fair. That whole album was the soundtrack to that year and I still listen to any of the songs featured on it and like a time machine it takes me back to those innocent days of being sweet sixteen.

And here we are five years later and it is definitely one of the most exciting parts of the year compiling that short list and indecisively trawling through all the tracks you fell in love with that year and chopping down that list to vote for your ten favourite songs while there are about 30 others that you had to cut off. With this count, hottest 100 from the past twenty years they were a bit generous and let us put in twenty of our favourites but then again the list of possibilities increased tenfold! It was so challenging to vote as I'm sure you found if you did. My list was heavily based on the last five years of music... or even three maybe.... my afterthoughts were filled with regret as I realised all the music I hadn't even considered! Go check out the final list. And they've even compiled it as a YouTube Playlist for us!

Now the count is all over and I've just spent the entire afternoon enjoying the fantastic selection it became as song after song popped up that I repeatedly wondered how I hadn't come to consider it in my own list!

All I can say is thank you Triple J! Thank you for playing the music you do and being the radio station that you are and making the Hottest 100 list that I'm sure will age beautifully far beyond another 20 amazing years of music!

Talking about it over on The Project

LINKspired #012

Just read this article about designer Dieter Rams,  and his philosophy in his design work where Good Design is as Little Design as Possible and was rather inspired by it. I'm now actually making a poster based on his ten principles to "good design" featured in the article.

Made Chocolate chip Cookie in a cup a few weeks ago and I'm so addicted to this one! Totally delish!

Pretty excited to find out tomorrow what has been voted as the Triple J Hottest 100 of 20 years! Go and check out the history of it all! It's so cool you can go and check out the entire archive and check out what was going on in the music scene since 1993.

Scrolling through Lovely Stationary and came across these delightful designs. The James Hotel. Love the patterns in the variations of the backs of the cards. Heart Affair. Love the retro feel to this identity. Science. There is just something about rounded corners that does it for me! And the blue is just gorgeous!

Totally keen to see The Great Gatsby! The Art Deco style identity of the typography they have used is gorgeous! Read about it over at desktop. Aaaand over at Like Minded Studios on Behance. So Striking and pretty!