Take a picture, it'll last longer

I’m a really crappy photographer, but in this modern world I can totally get away with it!

I’ll instagram anything, I kid you not. My sandwich? Sure – add Earlybird filter and voila.

Picture of a boring road. Polarize it. Ooh so arty.

See I’m a regular Annie Lebovitz. JOKING, I’M SO JOKING.
But seriously it is kind of nice that you can take the mundane and ordinary and make it seem a little special.

And if you’re like me, there is a whole lot of mundane and ordinary in your phone.

I love these cute, vintagey, hipster photos but what the heck do you do with them? Especially when you live in the “arse-end” of the world (excuse my French) and no one will ship things to you?

Google, my friend, is your friend.

I found quite a few companies offering to print your instagrams and iphone photos, but as mentioned above – a lot of them wouldn’t ship to Australia. And the rest were kind of vague with size and price, which is always comforting on the internet...

But eventually I narrowed my sights on two different products. ImageBlocks and Printsagram.

Imageblocks is based in Melbourne (hooray local!) and they turn your iphone photos into wooden blocks.

At $35 a piece they would make a fantastic birthday pressie and man are they fun!

Since it’s been a year without our sweet old pup Jem, I decided to get a cute block made up of my favourite photo of her to give to my parents.

Next up is Printstagram. I’ve seen a few people in the blogging world order stickers from here, but as much as I love those adhesive-backed-beauties, I have little to no use for them. Stickers tend to end up on the bottom of my shoe or on my elbows *damn apple stickers) and aren’t treated with the love and respect they deserve.

So instead I turned all my weird and wonderful iPhone photos from Japan into a little book! And shy of a month later they have just turned up on my desk.

You get two mini books, each with 50 photos and all for $12. Nice huh! Admittedly it ends up being a little more like $24 when you factor in the shipping, but to have a cute reminder of my holiday with little to no effort on my behalf? Worth it! I was a little lazy and ordered two of the same book – one for me and one for Oh.

I love it!! It’s great that I can flick through a little book and remember all the silly bits of our holiday. Namely the thousands of Choco Cro we ate, or the many times Owen's eyes rolled in my general direction.

You can also order little prints from them too. One set of 48, again for $12. I think I’ll order these next time – they would look really cute strung up like a little garland I think!

I definitely recommend them – although keep in mind the shipping takes a while. And I naively thought they’d be coming from the US of A, when in fact they were shipped from Taiwan. No biggie, just the old adage about a assuming making a something out of something.

But in short, get printing! There are pictures of sandwiches, shoes or beloved pets pulling silly faces just sitting on your phone with their fancy filters, itching to be shared with the world!

Seems you've created your own illusion

It’s safe to say I’ve had an acute case of the post-holiday blues these last three weeks. I almost cried on three separate occassions at work in my first week back, for no other reason than the simple fact that I was no longer in Japan. So want to know how I got around this? Total denial. I’m still in Japan and don’t even try to convince me otherwise.

This has been achieved in a couple of ways…

1.     Visiting every Japanese convenience store in the CBD and never leaving empty handed. Often I just stand and stare and try to pretend I know what food groups I'm looking at. Also it has resulted in so.much.calpis.drinking.

2.     Listening to songs on repeat that remind me of my holiday. This song was playing in every single corner of Shibuya all day every day and I’m not even remotely prone to exaggeration on this one. Also I don’t care that I can’t understand the lyrics or the Vietnamese subtitles in this particular video. I love it all the same, or perhaps more because of it.

3.     Eating onigiri for lunch and mochi for dessert even though I didn’t eat either of those foods while actually in Japan.

4.     Getting the lovely man-friend to make me okonomiyaki and me then adding unhealthy amounts of mayo

5.     Eating bowlfuls of frozen edamame. Actually I didn't read the instructions where it tells you to let them thaw for an hour... so I microwaved them and lived to tell the tale. Delicious and only $2.85 which sure beats the $6 you pay for a bowl half the size in most restaurants. But I think their claim to "slightly salted" actually means "no salt has touched these beans so you should add a shaker-full" cos that's what I did.

6.     Buying all the things I should have bought on holidays, but didn’t, on eBay after the fact. The fact that this cover actually hinders some functions of my iPhone is of little significance to me because this thing is freaking CUTE. Plus you can even download an app with her face on it. YUP.

7.     Kit Kats. I don't even eat them... more often than not I just pull them out and stare at them lovingly.

8.     Listening to the happy sounds and alerts of the JR Yamanote train line found here courtesy of one of my new favourite blogs melon soda. Only Japan could make you miss catching public transport. I can't tell you how weirdly soothing this is.

So based on the evidence of the above eight steps, I am still in Tokyo and its unseasonably warm for winter! And suddenly all my friends have also relocated here too, which was a pleasant surprise. What is it they say... fake it til you make it? Oh man am I faking it.


But in other less delusional news - hey, emmaline! is back open for business in 2012. So if you have an engagement party of a wedding coming up, or just know someone who really likes their tea then check it out here! The shop is looking a little bare at the moment because I've had quite a few orders, but it'll be updated all the time. And check out the new postcards I designed and ordered last week. I love 'em... even if I did get the link to my shop wrong on them. HA... I only wish I was kidding.

PS I will post more holiday goodness once I’ve come crashing down to earth and finally accept I’m no longer in Japan… so that could be days or it could be weeks. Only time will tell!

Love shack.

Hidden in the heart of the national park on the very edge of the water sits a little fibro shack, with an outdoor loo, enough beds to sleep twelve and a dinner table that doubles as a pool table (no joke!). Back as far as WWII, my granddad and my great grandparents had enough foresight to build this little home for my family to come and unwind. And even though the outdoor loo scares the bejebus out of me in the middle of the night (I stop all fluids at 7pm to avoid it), this teeny tiny shack is probably my favourite place in the whole wide world. Come inside and I'll show you why...

 We have two ovens and two fridges, but no warm water in the sink. You have to boil the kettle every time you want to wash dishes. Charmingly rustic, or just plain annoying? I'm going with the latter.

I don't think this oven has been used since I've been born, but no one wants to move it - probably because it's damn heavy, but I like that it makes me think of my grandma cooking dinner on it fifty years ago while my mum crawled around on all fours as a babe.

The plates all sit neatly in a row and always have... and are ridiculously hard to get out sometimes.

And there is always a hat to borrow for the day, even if you're a teenager (or 25 year old) who wouldn't be caught dead in a straw hat.

Oh and the boogie boards, freshly minted... in the 1980s. But seriously there is no better way to get across the seaweed (aghhh!) than belly flat on top of these with your dadda pulling you along. And for the record, you're never too old for that to be acceptable okay?

And if the weather is truly miserable you can always play Yahztee, complete with old scorecards from when my mum was my age and was really good at Yahtzee. She's still really good, suffice to say I don't enjoy playing with her because I'm a bad sport. She also cheats at Scrabble... I'm just sayin'.

Here is where I used to sleep when I was little - on the one closest to the wall because the windows scared me (yes... scared...). I distinctly remember being 10 years old and struggling to sleep because bush fires were literally a street away from where I was lying. We left early the next day and we drove through endless roads of charred trees.

Now that I'm older I'm more likely to take the window bed... and take in the ridiculous view I'm afforded from this little fibro shack. Unless it's a bit windy and the branches are scratching at the windows... then I'm back by the wall (or sleeping in between mum and dad).

And here is where my mum and dad sleep (I've been told I have to tell you that mum normally makes the bed... I apparently caught her on an off day). I know I'm big on the boring nostalgia (it's not boring for me but I can imagine it is for you... but that's not going to stop me, sorry) but I remember being so scared that dad would die because he simply couldn't stop laughing. Hours passed with him in hysterics and I was so convinced he would never stop and he'd just laugh forever and ever amen. All Carry On movies have since been banned...

When the sun goes down you can walk through the lagoon, over to Bundeena and clamber across the rockpools - poking anemones and running away screaming from the crabs you just pissed off.

Sure there is no internet, and the TV reception is sketchy at best but the worst bit of if all is being presented with this view - the haphazard steps home. They are no doubt an insurer's worst nightmare (we all have a couple of scars to prove it) but it also signifies the the end of another little trip to the shack. It's so simple and basic and maybe without charm to anyone but me. But these fibro walls and this outdoor loo are full to the brim (of that silly straw hat) of memories I relive every time I walk through that door. It was made with love some sixty years ago and I think I can speak for all of us when I say we're eternally grateful. Because really all you need in life is four walls and to look around and see the faces you love... beating you at Yahtzee. Jerks.
Oh and Kylie Minogue fridge stickers. Happy Valentines! x