green, yellow and blue

I gave my mom some daisies for mother's day, about a month ago. They've died. So I figured, WHY NOT MAKE SOME POT POURRI? I guess I don't really know what that means, so I just tied a bunch of branches together with a cute ribbon. Is this pot pourri?




Anyway, I hung the bouquet in my bathroom, in the hopes it might smell less bad after I poo. Not that my poop smells that bad, it smells like regular poop I guess, but it's always nice having some perfumed dead flowers in the area. Also, I missed the World Cup's opening while doing this. I was so sure it started at 4pm!!! Oh well.

Z and her adventures

Recently, my good bud Z left Melbourne for bigger and better things (of course). She won't be back until 2016, unless she is able to find a way to renew her visa or finds out that London sucks and wants to come back. She's currently travelling at the moment, seeing, eating, drinking, absorbing and experiencing all these amazing things in Europe but will eventually settle down in the land of bangers and mash.

As a goodbye present, S (the third installment of the trio) and I got us Rocky Horror tickets and made her a journal/adventure book. We named it The Extraodinary European Expedition (vol.1) and filled the pages with activities and prompts to help her write. We came up with things like "how many drinks did you have today?"; "draw your dinner here"; "what are you thinking at the moment?"; "continue: Dear N.,"; "what's your plan for today?". We even got educational: "what is the number for the police in the country you're in at the moment?" And musical: we had Amsterdam - Coldplay; Norway - Beach House; Ni**as in Paris - Kanye; Polish Girl - Neon Indian; Postcards from Italy - Beirut; Another Brick in the Wall - Pink Floyd on our playlist.

We even stuck the Oyster travel card on the front of the book, covering the BY:__________ part. We thought it'd be a cute surprise to give her a chance to make it hers.

We had fun. Probably not as much fun as Z will have filling the book out, but I'm looking forward to the day I see this soon-to-be tattered, weathered and ripped book make its way back home.

N.

Tassel Garland DIY

Somehow, having a tassel garland stayed in the back of my mind after I saw this hello sandwich post from 2011 (!) of her lovely flat in Tokyo. I don't know if you know her, but Ebony is a crafty Australian girl (like N.!) who lives in Tokyo scrapbooking and being some type of Martha Stewart of the kawaii Asian arts. 

I couldn't even understand what materials were needed, so thank god N. pointed me to a proper tutorial and it was so easy even I could make one!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED
* tissue paper of the desired colors
* matallic ribbons (the thing we use to make carnaval wigs here in Brazil, known as metalloid ribbon)
* adhesive tape (preferably cute)
* string
* patience

HOW TO
1) cut the paper in rectangles (mine were about 25cmX40cm), fold it in half. shred it as if it were a Hawaiian skirt. go at it like crazy, once you twist the paper around itself no one will be able to see if the tails are the same size
2) careful not to ruin the tissue paper, because it's pretty thin (main difficulty of the project)

3) twist it around itself (see fig.3) to make little holes the string can be pulled through

They looked so cute next to my Kanken!

4) cut the ribbons into approx. 30cm smaller ribbons and wrap them around the string

SO SHINY

5) arrange different colors according to how you like them best on the string
6) tape the string it to your wall
7) ta-dah! I hope this won't be on the floor when I wake up tomorrow (it is now 11pm. Have I done my econometrics list? Nah. But I have pretty tassels <3)

Featuring my deer slingshot from Athens, my witch puppet from Prague and my

angry cat illustration by T. Ungerer, which I bought at the Museum of Illustration of Strasbourg <3

DO THIS IF
-> you feel like doing some ~artsy~ stuff but, like me, have no skillz at all
-> you like cutting paper
-> you enjoy the ruffling sound of paper
-> you're attracted to shiny objects

DON'T DO THIS IF
-> you have just painted your nails white, like I had. Scissors do not go well with recently painted nails.


BONUS: wear this as an actual hawaiian skirt next time you're invited last-minute to a costume party.

A pleasant day to you,

V.