our oxfamily...

Last week in Sydney, from the 8th to the 11th, I was privileged enough to spend time with other young uni students doing **AMAZING** work for Oxfam via their Oxfam uni groups, and some fantastic people who are in the process of setting up their own Oxfam uni groups for their campus (yay!!!).

I met with students from the University of Queensland, Uni of Sydney, Uni of NSW, Monash, Uni of Melbourne, Uni of Newcastle (forgive me if I have left anyone out) and over three and a half days, we brainstormed, shared ideas, ate some heaps of awesome food and had a blast. We got the opportunity to speak to around 17 amazing Oxfam staff, from Campaigns Coordinators to Youth Program Coordinators, Advocacy writers, Marketing and Media people, etc.

We formed a National Oxfam Uni Groups Network - Oxfam Unite - which is going to be a fabulous medium for us to share ideas, troubleshoot our problems, support one another and keep in touch :) We have a website, which is going online soon ^_^ so exciting!

I had a remarkable three days, and I think that the others did too :) It's always refreshing to find a group of people that are passionate about the same things that you are, and to connect with them so easily.

Maybe if you have some spare time, you could donate it to Oxfam :) We are always looking for new people, new ideas and inspiration.

Go on... You know you want to :)

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valentine, be mine...

Hi all! Happy Valentines Day! I hope you had as wonderful a day as I had - I got to spend it in Sydney with my boy :)

I have been in an uber paper craft mood for the past two weeks, so I decided to go with it, and based my Valentines day presents for friends and family around paper hearts. I used pages from old books (which I had decimated in the process of making book safes) and cut them into heart shapes, then used red thread to sew them together in a heart garlands :) I hope you like them.

I have also been experimenting with origami for a few weeks, and I made about 30 red flying hearts described in Sok Songs origami book, Crease + Fold. They turned out rather good, once I got the hang of it, and the red-white contrast looked pretty amazing.

On Valentines Day itself, my boy surprised me with six long stem roses, which were simply beautiful. This was quite a feat, as I usually suspect things like this coming, but I didn't realize until Philip was handing me a very large rectangular box :)

We spent the afternoon walking around Sydney. First, we went into and up one of the sandstone pillars that frame the bridge, and had an amazing view from the top:

We walked across the bridge, and across to Luna Park, which unfortunately, was shut :(

After catching a ferry back across the Harbor to Circular Quay, we walked past the Opera House, and through the Sydney Botanical Gardens, spending a fair bit of time in the stunning rose gardens.

Instead of the typical Valentines romantic restaurant dinner, we decided to relax back at the hotel with red wine from Lucy's Run in the Hunter Valley, cheese from the Smelly Cheese Factory, Lindt chocolate and The IT Crowd. Simply divine :)

What did you do this Valentines Day?

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after about four attempts...

This is, sadly enough, my fourth time at writing this blog. Don't get me wrong, it's not because I have writers block, or that it is an incredibly noteworthy or intellectual blog that requires high quantities of brain power. I just keep forgetting, turning my computer off and losing my half completed not yet posted blogs (so I look a little like this... >_< ). Sigh....

So, it's about bedtime, and I thought that if I don't get this blog down now, the thought of its uncompletedness will fester away in some area of my brain til it drives me spare!!! (then i'll try and blog from work on my iPhone, which is just plain tedious!!). So, after all of that!! :

It was Philip's birthday on Australia Day, and I wasn't really sure what to get him. After some thought, seeing how taken he was to Perth's Yum-Cha delights, I decided to make him plushie Yum-Cha, so he can enjoy it all year around :)

Investing in the help of my partner in craft crime, Lisa, we conjured some pretty good plushies in the likeness of sushi (with avocado, as Philip doesn't like the fishy ones), dumplings and prawns. I think they are simply adorable, and I think Philip did too, listening to his reaction as he opened them over the phone ^_^

I don't know about the rest of you, but I thought the bamboo steamer was such a cute touch (and as it turns out, a pretty good way to transport said gifts!).

I'd love to see what delicacies you are crafting up :)

Happy crafting!

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crocheting for a cause....

This week, I found an amazing cause which is aiming to help victims of the horrendous Queensland floods. As I was in Queensland at the time, I was very thankful that the areas in which I was staying - Townsville and Mackay - were spared the torrential downpour. Many other places, however, were not so lucky.

So I have decided to chip in and contribute towards this fabulous idea, the brainchild of Sarah London - Crochet a Rainbow.

The idea behind Crochet a Rainbow is to get lots of people to crochet a few granny sqaures each (or however many they wish!) and to send to Sarah, who will make them into throw rugs for the victims.

I'm sure many of us remember having beautiful crocheted rugs when we were younger (my mum still has mine ^_^ ) and I hope that these gorgeous homemade blankets will provide a bit of comfort to those displaced from their homes.

Please, if you can crochet, pick up your hook and get to it!!! Sign up at http://sarahlondon.wordpress.com/crochet-a-rainbow/ now! And if you don't know how to crochet, now is the perfect time to learn!!!

All the best, and happy crocheting!

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clutching a whole new fiction...

I first saw these book clutches by French designer Olympia Le-Tan heralded down the glamorous red carpet by no other than Natalie Portman, and quite simply, it was love at first sight!

Le-Tan has released a range of these purses, hand-stitched versions of 20th century classic fiction book covers, such as the following:

The new collection "You can't judge a book by it's cover" and other "stuff" can be found at http://www.olympialetan.com/ .

Since I am becoming perhaps maybe half a wizz at book safes, I thought I'd give one of these a try (but don't hold me to the whole hand-stitched perfect French clutch thing... It may well end up being held together by duct tape >_< ). I think Lisa has even set up a Crafternoon in order to have a stab at these babies ^_^ !

On the topic of books, etc, I just finished reading The Desert Spear, the second installment of Peter V. Brett's Demon Cycle (I think that is what is called...) series. Anyway, awesome stuff if you're like me, and the classical literature gets a bit heavy and boring, and you like to grab for the nearest fantasy book.... Or let it be recommended to you by a close friend... *cough* Lisa. If you're bored this holidays, or stuck with nothing much to do at work, grab the first book, The Painted Man, and start tearing through it - it's some good stuff! At the least, check out the author's website. Anyway, how cool are these photos I found on there? People who have created stuff with wards (like magical symbols) depicted in the book? I was pretty impressed :)

Lanterns with wards painted on 

Warded charm bracelet  

Warded ring

So cool (and nerdy) I'm tempted to try and recreate ^_^

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...back to originals ... origami ^_^

Back when I still lived at home with the family in Brunswick (nb: near Bunbury aka: Funbury), I went through a bit of an origami phase and had paper cranes all throughout my room. I went out to Thai tonight (and again, ate WAAAAAAAAAY too much.... But it was so good ^_^ ) and the paper napkins were folded like lotus flowers and looked sensational! Anyway, this reminded me of all the paper cranes and how I used to love origami.

This in turn reminded me of when we read the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in primary school, which is such a sad, sad story of Sadako, a 12 year old Japanese girl from Hiroshima who died of Leukemia due to radiation from the Hiroshima atomic bomb, and is one of the best deterrents against nuclear war - the radiation poisoning of children.

It has inspired me to start origami-ing again, and I only hope I can create something such as this:

I have found this awesome book on the bookdepository.co.au called Crease+Fold which I have on order so I shall be able to get my origami on as soon as I arrive back in the West of Australia.

Here is a simple guide to starting your own collection of paper cranes - make them all different colours and sizes.

"This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth." - Hiroshima Peace Memorial

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and so it begins (?) with craftspiration

So as I sit here besides my computer-game-playing boyfriend, I am sucked into a frenzy of looking at the Etsy favourites of loulouandoscar. I initially intended to look at potential stationary for the year ahead (who doesn't?), and somehow got drawn away from the kikki k website and onto Etsy.... Sigh. Some habits never die. However, how cute is my new diary for 2011? I was so excited that I started writing anything perceivable into it, including the birthdays of distant relatives, who I never see except at someones funeral and/or baptism.

The diary! And I'd love to accompany it with these uber cute study notes and coat hanger clips ^_^ all from kikki k (lucky there is a store near my house!).

 So, here are some tid bits and bobs for craftspiration contemplation ^_^ I had to limit myself to six pictures, or I could go on and on and on forever!!!

Apple Cosy - So those apples never get smooshed in your bag again! 

Mustache tea cups   

Bunting/strands of old book pages and butterfly cut outs

Bunting ^_^ Self explanatory

Crocheted tree and acorn necklace 

Whale clutch ^_^

All of these things can be found at loulouandoscar on Etsy. 

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