collection d’éphémère.

collection of fleeting.

fleeting moments. fleeting records of those fleeting moments.

when we are on the road, i swing like a pendulum between wanting to capture moments on camera to keep hold of; and then leaving the camera in my bag to experience those moments wholly to keep in memory only. on this last big trip though, we wanted by the end of the 4 months to have a good little collection of tangible moments of the journey. though we still sometimes forgot to pull out the fujifilm instax, we managed a good bundle of pics. because of the uncertain nature of instant film (there isn’t really any known lifespan of an instant photo), we wanted to keep them safe, but close to hand to revive fond memories of the trip.

inspired by accordion photo albums, i made this little pocket-sized number. going with a natural, minimal theme, i used brown kraft board, veg tan leather and balsa wood for the cover. since the balsa was so soft, i managed to sew the leather strip to the back cover to keep it in place. a collar stud and hole in the leather strip to keep the accordion folds closed… et voila… a super-easy mini-album.

panini.

turns out, it’s not just a sandwich.

what seems like an eternity ago, back in May, our friend Matthieu and T organised a mini world cup soccer/football comp here in Sydney.

we had something like 150 players, donning replica vintage jerseys from world cups passed. we talked about souvenir photographs and framing them to look like “paninis”. “sandwiches?”, you say? that’s what i said. if you’re an avid soccer/football fan (which sorry to say, i am not), you would know that paninis are the collectable sticker cards of all the teams and their players – with their portrait, name, stats and so on.

i was all over it.

with printing being the issue, instant photography was clearly the answer. this was a good enough reason, along with our upcoming travels, for me to buy the fujifilm instax mini 8. the minis were the perfect business card size to convert into our very own Vintage World Cup paninis.

i got onto illustrator and created a frame, somewhat inspired by the cards we had received school class photos presented in. because we had the list of players, we typed up name by name so every player really did have their own panini. we printed them on a medium weight card, spent a few nights trimming excess, cutting windows and scoring folds for easy-on-the-spot prep.

on the day, i was a walking, talking panini machine. many of the guys looked at me blankly when i asked to take their portrait. SO uninterested. it wasn’t until they saw what was being made with their portrait, that they showed kid-like excitement and appreciation. before long, they were lining up.

de la confiserie.

from the candy store.

i wish i just visited the candy store.

they make me think of willy wonka’s everlasting gobstoppers from charlie and the chocolate factory. i wondered if there was any translation in the french version… but didn’t manage to find any… ??

to welcome a mini-person to the world, i jumped at the opp to start another origami project. i don’t really get to do as much as i used to. well.. actually, i don’t allow myself to do as much as i used to. already there are more than a handful of origami pieces scattered around our small (and crammed) home. i just take advantage of any excuse to fold people with or for other people.

each of these balls are made with 12 square sheets of paper, folded into 1 module each – all the same sequence of folds. that means there are 60 folded sheets right there. yes, it’s repetitive, but it’s totally therapeutic and rewarding, once you finish enough modules to complete a ball… and then again when you finish slotting them all together. even T got involved (with my gentle nudge of encouragement).

to save the nightmare of threading them on, i actually constructed the modules directly onto the cotton twine. then they were tied to a super simple x-frame from a square rod length of balsa wood, cut in half with jewellery headpins for the centre pivot and string loops. easy peasy.

i’m working on a step-by-step to fold a module – to be posted soon!

un bouquet.

not a bunch of flowers, but rather a bunch of yarn!

another tassel-making expedition for a birthday-gift necklace. i threaded the tassel heads through some metal bugle beads and i added some mini-crocheted baubles which came on a trim i had in the bag of tricks.

tip – especially if you’re making them with embroidery yarn, use a pin to separate the ends and then hold it over steam from a kettle to detangle, straighten and fluff-up. but avoid burning your fingers!

chez nous.

our home.

distractions (a.k.a projects) keeping me occupied over the last few months.

light at my desk!
such a simply necessary thing, but took a good while to sort out. i did have a lamp but i wanted to add an in-line switch. during the attempt, the lamp blew up in T’s hand, but thankfully he was okay aside from some blackening on his fingertips. watch out for cross-wire action people! anyway, fixed the issue, ordered a cage pendant from Mulbury and spray painted it yellow to finish. spray painting is so satisfying. after this was done, i started to look around at other things around the house to spray!

which lead to this…

ikea hack.
victim: BEKVÄM step stool.
attack: few coats of tea stain to make it look less stark, a taping of the feet and a few coats of vivid orange spray paint (again, such satisfaction!)
new life: home for my ghanaian elephant grass basket.

geo patterned serving tray.
somehow, i became obsessed with wanting to have a serving tray. anyone who’s been over to our place knows that our home is no where near big enough to require a tray to take things from the kitchen to some sort of entertaining area (it’s basically the same space!), but anyway, i really wanted a fun one. i found a plain bamboo one, bought a couple of posca pens and got colouring.

crochet-thingy-holders.
i know, i know. crochet is so 3 years ago. i’m soooo behind the trend… but having said that, i’m probably slightly in advance of it’s next revival! i found a great reference for learning crochet in a variety of stitches at New Stitch A Day . i was a crocheting machine. for 2 days. then i got over it. ha.

new geo picnic mat.
new project – freshly cut and awaiting assembly. soon!
(and yes, more triangles!)

la moche belle chaise.

literal translation: the ugly pretty chair.

what i wanted to say was the ugly step chair. like the ugly step sister in cinderella. but then i found out that step-sister actually translates to belle soeur which could also be interpreted as pretty sister. interesting translation fail.

anyway.

it may have been finished months and months ago, but i am still happy about our DIY re-upholstering efforts on our one of our living room chairs. the other chair wasn’t so ug.

after seeing enough of the 70s eyesore fabric, removing a countless number of staples (with some help from T… the previous upholsterer was apparently staple happy) and unintentionally inhaling a decent amount of disintegrated foam, we finally got to the frame and could work on rebuilding. a visit to The Foam Booth and Bev’s Remnant House, a few hours on the sewing machine, our own moment of staple indulgence and we were done. (over the course of 2 weeks, though)