"eggciting"

Guys this last long weekend was so great! I thought I would use it to party hard, and I did a little, but truth be told I mainly spent it getting "into the spirit" of Easter!

My favourite event of easter is almost always the EASTER SATURDAY BASKET BUILDING MARATHON. And I feel compelled to share a little about that with you now. For, despite all my spirtual anxieties, this is one (albeit loosely) Church-based tradition that I truly cannot get enough of.

First you lovingly decorate your basket, with freshly plucked flower and herbs, and ribbons and toy chickens and sometimes with glitter. Next, you select one piece of every food you intend to eat on Easter Sunday, and perhaps you also eat some of it. Then you take your basket, now filled with chocolate, sausage and cupcakes (the only important foods), down to the Polish church for a quick blessing. There is no mass! It only takes five minutes! You can go out for lunch afterwards! Amazing!

Look at us just going for it:


WACKY FACT: this year two baskets actually went missing! A jealous basket maker destroys their competition? A crazed Pole gets lost in amongst all the sausages and mistakenly takes someone else's? Or a lonely Australian watches with envy as these ethnics celebrate, and feels compelled to get in on the action by way of some "accidental thievery"? Who will ever know?

And here am I, the proud owner of the best-looking basket in towne:



Love to all,
x magda

summer farewell

I haven't posted in a while, and that this is not for lack of inspiration so much as the exact opposite - too much inspiration, too much happening, argh argh argh! I don't really even have the time to craft an eloquent post today but for the sake of positing something, ANYTHING, i thought i would just upload some images (lomo, again). These were all taken agggges ago, not during the summer, but right before it, around the fringes of warmth. You can see that in the grey skies and empty beaches. It's the kinda weather that is right around the corner for us now.

As usual, I am sad to see summer go, because I love her warm embrace and her bright yellow light. But, on the other hand, I'm getting quietly excited about boots and umbrellas and gloves and scarves. And, in many ways, I farewelled summer the moment I stepped back into study. Study always feels to me like the antithesis of summer, for in my mind it is necessarily accompanied by wet-edged library books and lots and lots of tea. Besides, there is nothing sweeter than to look out of a window and see a university under rain clouds. It works, somehow.






Happy Autumn everyone!
x magda

our national day

I'm not really a fan of Invasion Day, flag capes and crowded foreshores, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a fan of our personal Australia Day tradition: disgusting sausages, the last 10 songs in the Hottest 100, and casual pool times feat. the occasional "inflated dolphin race." This year I decided to take polaroid snaps because a) i do not use my polaroid camera enough to warrant my possesion of it (it is pretty special) and b) it is difficult to photograph an annual tradition without inane repetition year in, year out.

As you can see above, I prob need to acquire some sort of better pen for scanning purposes (and also a better scanner, now that I mention it...).

x magda

back on land

So this blog has been a little quiet recently and, as is often the case, my excuse can be presented in three parts: 1) a little blog-related insecurity, which i shall now proceed to push through with a vengeance, 2) a hell of a lot of worky work AND 3) a magical two weeks spent "on the road."



My last five years have all commenced like this, with a journey down south in search of adventure and fun times. Every year about 15 of us squeeze into cars and then into tents and then into bedrooms and we spend almost two weeks basking in one another's company. Inevitably, there are parties (spontaneous AND planned), creative projects (failed AND successful) and beautiful new discoveries (is that actually SASHAAA out there?!). And then at the end I come home feeling refreshed and inspired and happy, ready (if reluctant) to take on the rest of the year.

Here are my TOP FIVE favourite buss09 moments. I would like to be reminded of these if life gets a little hard this year:

1. That morning when Caroline led me over stinger armies and dark seaweeded depths until we reached a mysterious floating trampoline and climbing wall with slide! Lying on my back next to Hannah as Damien bounced beside us, I was struck by surrealness of it all; to be lolling/lol-ing on a trampoline with friends, about fifteen minutes away from the freaking shore.

2. When, feeling tired and hazy one morning, I opened up the refridgerator in search of sustenance, only to find a cold, plastic snake lodged between some cheese and a bowl of leftover pasta.

3. Blasting "Affirmation" at top volume as we rolled down Bussell Hwy, singing along with Jenny, Ro & Caro, and thinking, "I wonder what they're doing in the boy car right now?"

4. Lying on the floor beside my bed after the mess that was the "Under the Sexy Sea" party, with Moriarty (or maybe Sasha?) next to me, and about six other lovable characters in around and on the bed itself, thinking, "Yessss, I may almost be unconscious but at least I am still in amongst PARTY."

5. Arriving back at SouthBound after a quick trip to the beach, and bouncing straight into Architecture in Helsinki, still in bathers and thongs . I cannot even remember what songs AIH played or whether they were actually any good, all I remember is jumping up and down in a spot of space right near the back, and really truly loving life/youth.

x magda

PS i have changed my layout a little! do you like it, or do you hate it?!
damn, html is a bitch!

a very wacky christmas

Well there's no doubt about it, this season truly has been a silly one, in the woz-woz house and beyond. Here are some images that to me represent the most memorable moments of christmas08:

TOP LEFT: work christmas party, tom & anna. i love this image because i think it captures the Anna/Tom dynamic so perfectly; Anna is hysterical, and Tom is quietly bemused.
TOP CENTRE: magda's desk, being crafty. this yr i decided to make some of my own Christmas cards. Most of them were awful, but the best thing about the whole experience was just that feeling of being absolutely saturated in cliched christmas 'elements.' I'd be at that desk for hours, and then emerge with glasses covered in glitter and hands covered in tiny little snowflake cut-outs.
TOP RIGHT: family wigilia, my sister kokulka. Being classically Polish, my family celebrates Christmas on the eve before the day, and we open the presents as soon as the first star becomes visible in the sky (Venus does not count).
MIDDLE LEFT: secret santa potluck, ro's shitty santa gift. My "friendship group" (as they have been dubbed by anna) celebrated Christmas with a delicious potluck dinner and two sets of gifts. There was the traditional secret santa, plus the additional "shitty santa." The requirements of the latter were three-fold: 1) that it not cost more than $2, 2) that it be humorous, and 3) that it be shit. The pictured gift went from Abby to Ro.
MIDDLE CENTRE: santa @ myer, tom, louisa, jono & magda. Our work Chirstmas lunch carried on into the night, with a crazy trip through King's Park in Arnold's rather crowded car, a stopover at the oak & ivy, and a skip through the late night shopping crowds of Perth's CBD.
MIDDLE RIGHT: gingerbread house failure, by magda & koko. Our dad thought it might be a cute idea to buy as this gingerbread house from IKEA - but of course, classic ikea, you had to build it yourself. The whole thing was a disaster from the start: i burned my finger on boiling sugar syrup, the icing was a drippy mess, our mother's decorative suggestions were not desirable (marshmellows as "snow") and by christmas morning the whole structure had collapsed anyway.
BOTTOM LEFT: secret santa potluck, vintage jenny. Here a very cute Jenny is holding part of Moriarty's contribution to the potluck. I brought a Greek salad, while Jenny brought a tiramisu which i ridiculed but really enjoyed in the end. Other highlights included: a delicious frittata from Sasha, and scrumptious chickpea soup-thing from Caro.
BOTTOM CENTRE: christmas lunch, desserts by magda. This year I was in charge of the desserts, yay! I delivered: berry choc cupcakes with alternating decorations (fondant christmas cut-outs for aesthetics vs. classic chocolate icing for taste), a baked lemon cheescake AND rasberry macademia 'blondies.'
BOTTOM RIGHT: family wigilia, kaku + hat. This is my grandfather, just chillaxin during the gift-giving proceedings. It was my mum's idea that every family member be forced to wear a hat. I think he pretty much enjoyed it.

FINALLY
I would like to share a postcard that we received from the boys down the road. The tiny cynical part of me thinks that maybe this was just drunken humour, but the greater part of me believes this was beautiful neighbourly christmas spirit. Boys, I may never actually meet you, but I appreciate the thought (and the photo, hoody hoo!).

(So I just told my mum I was posting this and she agreed, "it is the highlight of the year." I think maybe she meant "christmas," and not "year," but it's pretty hard to tell.)

the silly season is upon us once more

For my 22nd birthday, the beautiful Sasha gave me a gift voucher to Lotus in Mt Hawthorn, and as a result I am now the proud owner of a new cylindrical lamp covered in patterns of reindeers, dragonflies and red circles. It was not until I got the purchase home that I finally questioned: "WOAH, have i basically just purchased a christmas lamp that is not intended for general use?! how very awkward!!"

I concluded that this is not actually the case (PHEW), but still this thought has caused me to note how many of my 'general interests' tie in with the 'silly season'* - perhaps thus explaining why I extract so much pure enjoyment from this time of yr.

* - thank you, caro! now i cannot stop using this obnoxious/lovable phrase!

Here is a list of things that I love, in life as in christmas:

* fairy lights, candles and all sorts of dim lighting
* the colour RED, especially when accented with GOLD
* SUMMER
* gift buying/giving/receiving, awww
* mulled wine
* deers and polar bears
* any excuse to plausibly hang wacky (read: fluffy) decorations in a public place
* GLITTER and SPARKLES in general
* dessert in excessive quantities
* bells that jingle
* the movie love actually, and especially the song "christmas is all around me" (& especially that bit "you gave your presents to me/and i gave mine to you")
* stars and snowflakes when used as decorative elements
* the idea of TALKING ANIMALS
* the songs, "silent night" and "away in a manger"
* peppermint flavouring!
* 'slippery santa'
* taking pictures of my cat (the lovely kita) in costume
* the 'christmas carol' story, but especially the muppets version
* snoozing in and rolling out
* the smell of pine trees
* gingerbread
* HOLIDAYS (i am pretty sure i am alone here)

basically, when i dress "festive" i wear my favourite dresses but feel free to accesorise with sickeningly cutesy elements such as jingly bracelets or tinsel headbands, which pretty much still suit me perfectly (in being: red, often glittered, always tacky).

so, QUESTION: do i love these things because i love christmas, or vice versa?! OR is it all just a rich tapestry, as a wise man once suggested? oh, it truly is a beautiful time. i hope all you readers out there (yes, all 3 of you) enjoy it!

x magda