Paulie, Papier-Mâché & Me

Amazing shots by fashion wildchild Ann HE. 

IDIOM Boutique is a lovely little store in Tauranga, NZ. Treasurehunterw will find exquisite vintage clothing, homeware with a knack & lots of other funky designer items, all pushing creative boundaries. If you can’t make it to NZ, check out their online store  - the site is soooo LOVELY & worth a 1,000,000,000 clicks!

Check out 5 STONES VINTAGE for some GLEE & girly goodness. That little vintage treasure hole will make you SMILE & comes with an online shopping satisfaction guarantee.

When you’re feeling a little mellow, nothing beats Coldplay’s YELLOW. (Absolutely ♥ the Sydney edition!)

Here’s a challenge to all standard magazines: Workwerk uses all but ordinary pages – think fabric pages with a textural twist. Once you take one of these babies home your biggest dilemma will be how to squeeze it onto your ‘ordinary’ bookshelf …

GINGER LILLY Tea’s photographs make me want to ride “my horse to banbury cross.”

Detachable collars. I really love how versatile they are – you can update your favourite dress & there’s no sewing required! Check the lovely LOLA COLLAR made by Loulou Love You. Pair them with dresses, sweaters and plain tees…

Hayley McNugh is a crafter, sewer, knitter & lover of all things fabric. Her stuff is to be found here: Twoboosstuff.

You Mean NOTHING To Me Anymore by Anna Ternheim.

Gracia & Louise “explore, through inventive narrative, a heady combination of new and existing worlds; worlds where wild thoughts take physical form and imagination is given free rein.” Et voila – these lovely artists’ books, prints, zines, postcard collages & other small projects are the result.

It’s some kind of Murphy’s Law that links FAUX PAS and family together. Like an unstoppable force of nature family gatherings offer plenty of opportunities to fail and fall down, including wardrobe malfunctions, slip-outs and far too many face-to-face showdowns.

No matter what occasion the visit falls, home time almost always comes with the mysterious transformation into the home-comer’s hideous teenage self, the trapped victim of Mom’s monologues and Dad’s deadly stares. On the parental side, junior’s trip home evokes the ‘tribal thingy’ possessing most parents with side-effects such as elders telling tales and passing on their wisdom, even though there is no need for an ‘expert’ opinion at all.

Every year hopes are high that THIS ONE time it will be different from the last, only to find out it won’t happen, at least not here and now. No wonder it’s a common dilemma to tire of family ties after just a few days, and, in the worst case, just a few minutes are to run screaming for the hills.

Braving home, there are several ways of survival when facing the folks or at least methods to lessen the pain, ranging from being superficially delusional or pragmatically optimistic. Some smart people even suggest to simply stop listening to all these “Why don’t you…?,” “When I was your age,…” and ”If I would be YOU... .” Easy. They think or secretly hope - but it’s actually not. For some reason in particular mothers have this hidden talent to pin-point a finger right into that spot that hurts the most, letting junior leap out of his/her comfort zone. And then again, while barking back in return - that’s exactly the moment when you realize there’s no some such place like home sweet home.

PHOTO: Jim & Amy by Patrick (My Parents Were Awesome)