Get Shaky

DREAMANDAWAKE.com, originally uploaded by Roberto Rubalcava.

About twenty minutes ago my house completely shook. From what I can tell an earth tremor lasting a couple of seconds went through Metropolitan Melbourne. It was so surreal. I've never felt the earth move before. And in Melbourne. I thought I was imagining it.

From what I've heard I don't think there has been any damage. But its only been about half an hour and to tell you the truth I haven't heard very much. I just thought I should let you know. :)

In other news, I just finished my first week of uni and I'm completely exhausted! I've also decided to force myself to write a short story or creative writing task a week to keep me motivated. I finished my first just before the tremor.

Anyone else in Melbourne feel it?

xS

EDIT: According to this US survey, the tremor measured 4.7 on the Richter scale.

Marie, Marie

Found here

I just finished Annie Leibovitz: At Work today, and I just had to share this photo I hadn't seen before. It was part of Kirsten Dunst's Marie Antoinette shoot, but the dress absolutely takes my breath away. Isn't it amazing? You may need to view a larger size to get the full effect. I also had to crop it a tad. I hate cropping photos, but it was so wide shrinking it anymore lost a lot of the lovely detail. View it from its source. And view it large.

Today I was forced to leave work early due to the storm warning. The weather doesn't seem too bad, though there is something menacing about the light. Kirsten Dunst's dress reminds me of it.

xS

Topsy Turvy - continued...

Just thought I should share with you one of my favourite purchases of yesterday. They were so lovely and only ten dollars! (You may need to click to get a better look, on my computer this view seems very pixelated)

And yes, my grass is very very brown. Its the fault of the heatwave. And Melbourne's water restrictions. Except we never look after the lawn anyway, so they didnt really make any difference.

I've also been working super super hard these holidays at making all kinds of beautiful things for my first collection, She said she'd drain my heart. Today I decided to share some of them with the world. Each piece is made of upcycled bits and pieces designed to breathe life into forgotten objects in a new context. Each also has a little (often dark) story behind it. So, soon they should be available on etsy! Here's a little peek at some of them (sorry about the poor photo quality). I hope you like! Promise you wont tell?

Topsy Turvy

Originally from here

I had the loveliest day today, filled with so much magical shopping wonderful-ness I thought I should share it with all of your before hopping off to bed.

Even though there were things to taint it (ie, my friend completely cancelling on me in favour of sleep, and the incredibly annoying couple on the train who kept giggling and pinching each others faces (I dont get it either...)) today was on the whole filled with so much good luck I simply had to spend all my savings to keep it.

In need of some retail therapy today, my friend and I found a hidden garage sale tucked into a laneway, which was a veritable treasure trove of vintage and retro clothes. And all so cheap it was a steal! Everything there was under ten dollars, those people must have been crazy. I bought so much my shopping bags broke on the way home!

We hit another sale before that too, so all up I bought two pairs of jeans, a lovely black jacket, a top, a dress and a fantastic pair of shoes for $120 all up!

Plus, I finished my Frankie and hoarded the latest issues of Attitude and Vice, which I had not seen such a long time.

Crazy!

I may even need some photos to show you the awesomeness. But for now, I'm going to bed. Maybe tomorrow...

I hope you all had as lovely a day as I did.

xS

Here we go again

, originally uploaded by crunchylashes.

Burnt silver brushed lavender offspring
Sprung from me when first we kissed
You held me quietly a rush purged me of my past
Opened a desert of diamonds vast
Glinting and a tiny chorus of swallows
Swing open the door freed the caged bees and wallows
Swarm geometric patterns on the sun
Eclipse new moon
And tell my werewolf not to run
I tell my werewolf not to run
- Cocorosie, Promise

I start uni next week (like a lot of you Aussies) and I'm absolutely dreading getting back into routine after three months of socialising, reading, crafting and continuous midday coffee catch-ups. I'm so behind, I haven't even bought the absolute truckload of books on my booklist this year.

I think a 7am wake-up might just kill me.

In other news, I am absolutely taken by this lovely sparrow necklace by etsy seller MDsparks. What a beautiful idea!

I want one for my own so terribly!

xS

Heloise and Abelard; the power of letters

“…we are much fonder of the pictures of those we love when they are at a great distance than when they are near us. It seems to me as if the farther they are removed their pictures grow the more finished, and acquire a greater resemblance; or least our imagination, which perpetually figures them to us by the desire we have of seeing them again, makes us think so.


… If a picture, which is but a mute representation of an object, can give such pleasure, what cannot letters inspire?

They have souls;


They can speak


they have in them all that force which expresses the transports of the heart;

they have all the fire of our passions, they can raise them as much as if the person themselves were present;

they have all the tenderness and the delicacy of speech,

and sometimes even a boldness of expression beyond it."

As promised.

Photos are from here, here, here and here. I am so enamoured with all of these photographers. My flickr favourites are filled with them.

I love the art of letter writing with a passion, and I miss it the romance and artistry of constructing something so beautiful out of the written word. This weekend my best friend and I explored a beautiful forgotten little stationary shop in a laneway in the city, and I almost blew my weeks pay buying supplies. There is something so fullfilling in writing a letter; in paper and ink and envelopes stuffed with secrets.

You can read more of H&A's love letters here.

xS

firefly

firefly, originally uploaded by mariehochhaus.

'My tears, which I could not refrain, have blotted half your letter; I wish they had effaced the whole, and that I had returned it to you in that condition; I should then have been satisfied with the little time I kept it; but it was demanded of me too soon.'
- Heloise

My best friend is angry at me and I don't know why. We haven't spoken in three days, which may not seem like an incredible amount of time, but for us it is.

I don't fight with people. So I don't know what to do. I can never manage to be angry at anyone for very long. Grudges are beyond me.

Everytime I think about it I feel like taking some kind of action to end the rift, but as I've done nothing I don't know how I can. I can only wait until he perceives his own absurdity.

The quote is from one of the letters between the famous lovers, Heloise and Abelard, whose tragic romance has always inspired me. Their story has a place in the hearts of many others, including, I beleive, Charlie Kaufman, who has included references to the pair in his screenplays to both 'Being John Malkovich' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (the name itself taken from the Alexander Pope poem 'Eloisa to Abelard', about the tragedy of their seperation).

Heloise's letters are beautiful, and I think that, to keep me busy, my next post will be inspired by them.

xS