oi... pay it forward.

We are going to try something we have never done before... As seen on a few other blogs including Perpetual One and objects of whimsy there is a crafty pay it forward going on, and we are getting involved.

We are going to get busy over the next few weeks, and make 5 things for the winners...

This is how it works:
I promise something (quality) handmade to the FIRST 5 people who leave a comment here. However, to be eligible, you must by offering something handmade to 5 other people, repost this post on your own blog. What you gift must be handmade by you, and it must be sent to your 5 giftees sometime in 2011.

The steps to follow:
Step 1
Copy "pay it forward" logo from here

Step 2
Create post offering 5 readers same opportunity as I have done here (you can use the words I have used if you want)

Step 3
Once you have published the post on your blog come back to me and paste the link of your post in my post comments.

So on your Marks......... Ready, set, GO!

top TEN from two thousand and TEN

So, for all those readers of our blog from overseas (I'm looking at you readers in Brazil, Japan, Germany, America, the UK and many more locations) last Wednesday was Australia Day.

The tradition for a lot of us on Australia, other than going to the beach and having a BBQ, is to listen to Triple J's Hottest 100. How it works is everyone is invited to vote for their top 10 songs for the year just gone, then on Australia Day they take the whole day and count down what got the votes for the top 100 songs voted by the nation.

To commemorate this great event we have put together our songs we voted to win, for you to enjoy yourself.

So here is our top TEN from two thousand and TEN
1. Billie Holiday by Warpaint from the album Exquisite Corpse
2. Zorbing by Stornoway from the album Beachcombers Windowsill
3. Blood to Gold by Boy & Bear from the album With Emperor Antarctica
4. King of Spain by The Tallest Man On Earth from the album The Wild Hunt
5. Not Stuck Here by The Vasco Era from the album Lucille
6. Rococo by The Arcade Fire from the album The Suburbs
7. World News by Local Natives from the album Gorilla Manor
8. The One You Love - Feat. Kate Miller-Heidke by Passenger from the album Flight Of The Crow
9. The Owl And The Tanager by Sufjan Stevens from the album All Delighted People EP
10. Generator First Floor by Freelance Whales from the Daytrotter Session - 4/21/2010

CLICK HERE to download and enjoy...

Listener - Wooden Heart

oh dear. they have stolen our hearts.

The other day a new friend of ours shared this video with us, which resulted in the purchase of an album from Listener straight away. We hope you can take the time to give this a listen and let it impact you.
If your into this, even a little, please check out some other bands we like which are similar... mewithoutYou, Kevin Devine, and The Homeless Gospel Choir.

Also, we have just discovered the website Bandcamp a great initiate in music purchasing for both artists and fans. Many artists have also chosen a 'name your own price' purchase, and this website offers 90% of the sale going directly to the artists. There a heaps of artists to choose from, so go take a look, and purchase some new music.

ps. happy australia day.

markets round two.

-morgan

meet my scooter.

So... this is my scooter. About 7 months ago I sold in my car and upgraded to a scooter, a Honda Today 50. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. So here is 'Living with a Scooter' review..

Having a scooter has been so fun. I had never ridden one before but it was so easy to learn and is such a lovely way to get around. Its so beautiful to be out in the open, you can hear, feel, smell and see so much more than in a car. Its so liberating, and forces you to slow down (as mine doesn't go faster than 60km/hr). Some people say it's super dangerous on a scooter, but I never feel unsafe riding around and I think you just need to be alert and careful when your riding around.

What's even better is I go through hardly any fuel at all. I use about 5 Liters of fuel in 2-3 weeks, which is super cheap and means i'm not consuming heaps of resources just to get around. It is good though to still have a car available to use, and probably would be hard if we didn't have that. Helps for going grocery shops, or when you need to travel further than down the road, or faster than 60km/hr. A few years ago morgan owned a scooter and go by without access to a car. He used to carry all his groceries on the back, so it is definitely possible.

I'd love to know your thoughts, comment away.

-kim

The Ethical Shopping Guide

For the last 2 years kim and I have both used the Australian Ethical Consumer Guide. It's small book or web print out you can buy and carry with you when doing your groceries. It informs shoppers what products are ethically sound, which products have had good and bad conduct and reputations with Ethical Guidelines and who is fair trade and organic. It is a pretty accurate documentation of business exploits and achievements globally and makes you feel good after filling a trolley full of ethically sound products. However it can be hard to buy completely ethically sound (who would have thought Tim Tams killed orang-utans due to palm oil plantations) but every time we go shopping, we try a little harder to get one step closer to a sustainable and fair life.
With the recent addition to our family, the iPhone, we are pretty happy that you can purchase a Ethical Shopping Guide from the app store, so all iPhoneys, we encourage you to do your bit and download this sweet app, it will change your life, and hopefully someone else's.
-morgan

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The latest Peppermint Magazine had this great illustration by Fee Harding aka Burnt Feather titled "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" which outlines what things can be recycled and what can't. This is also available for a download for free, so if your interested to have some stylish help with your recycling check it out here. We laminated ours and have it handy on the kitchen wall.

Also in this edition of Peppermint there was a story about a lovely lady who has a beautiful caravan out of which she sells vintage wares under the name Perpetual One. Its so great, she lives in our part of the world, so Morgan and I went out to visit her at the Peregian Markets at the start of December. Unfortunately for us it was raining pretty bad and most people were packing up. Sarah from Box Brownies however had a much nicer trip out to visit her and you can read more from her here.

Peppermint is a pretty sweet magazine, and if you haven't seen it, take a peek. You will enjoy.
-kim

photographs

Here are a few shots I recently had printed from a few different cameras, hope to put a few more up more regularly but for now, enjoy.

You can check out a few cameras I use here.

-morgan

rain, rain, go away..

the rains have finally stopped... Its been crazy here in our part of the world. It has been raining constantly for about 3 weeks, but it finally stopped this week. There has been terrible flooding up north of Queensland, but we are happy the rain has stopped here. The other day we went for a walk in the rainforest to embrace the constant rain. Here is our adventure...

happy new year!

Did you have a good New Years Eve? We had a great time at the NO YEARS party at the Brisbane Powerhouse.

This was a sweet night of music, dancing and lots of fun to see the new year in. There were a ton of new bands we got to see and here are a few of the highlights we rekon you should check out...

- Jonathan Boulet
- The Honey Month
- Lion Island

The headline act was Swedish champions "Shout Out Louds" who made the evening perfect. We hope you had a great night, whatever you got up to.