6. my house is coated with lengths of hair and wood

(a) hair
i cut my hair last night. i just intended to put some more layers into it, but (as with basically every other time i cut my hair) i wound up with a fringe. to be honest i get kind of sick of my inability to cut my hair without doing something impulsive.*

but it is only a little fringe so i guess it doesn't really matter.

(b) wood
at lunch yesterday i drew some pictures (i've started to really enjoy drawing pictures on my lunch break, which is strange since i don't know how to draw at all) and collected a couple of pretty sticks from around the tree under which i was sitting. i am not a strange stick collecting lady but i thought they might be useful. my sister gave me a couple of textiles from morocco/egypt/jordan/i forget where but somewhere exotic and i thought i might use the sticks to mount them. my machine is out of action at the moment though so i will have to sew by hand.

ooh this is all getting a little bit word-heavy. i should post some pictures soon yes? yes.

love love love
lion

*see: degrassi mini-mullet (not actually a mullet thank goodness but a strange little spiky tuft that sat on top of my head), every fringe i've ever had since the age of 12, and the permutations of black dye that patterned each of said fringes

0. projects to try!

i'm generally too lazy to bother with this sort of thing, but isn't this (diy) woodgrain scrapbook pretty?



there are a lot of other exciting things on the red velvet art blog too. far out there are a lot of creative people on the internet!

love love love,
lion

0. fail?

i wasn't very creative on monday. i felt sick and went home early from work, and once i was home i basically just went to bed.

i did doodle some pictures on my lunch break but nothing worth posting.

i wasn't very creative yesterday either & stayed home from work due to illness, although i did spend an hour or two playing guitar. i've almost finished easy. i nailed the words for the chorus, it's pretty fun. i just need to fix up the second verse. i might decide to add a couple more verses to balance it out a bit though.

i had such awesome dreams last night. one was about a charismatic and erotic supervillain, a count who wore a glittery technicolour-dreamcoat type thing and had expensive tastes (we defeated him, kind of, by offering expensive wine and chocolate truffles). god but he was handsome.

and i dreamt about swinging on enormous vines over seaside towns and faces drawn on feet and baby birds and going back to highschool ("i have a fucking degree man, why do i need to do year 12?")

love love love,
lion

4. christmas cards & cookies; 5. circular soccer

P1060742
Originally uploaded by Caro Lion

christmas cards & cookies

i am really excited about christmas this year! i am sort of considering hosting a potluck and / or christmas dinner.

on saturday i made christmas cards! out of scrap paper and pens and mod podge. they took me so long and i only made seven, i am out of practise.



on saturday night it was time to trade SECRET SANTA names so i baked jumbo peanut butter oatmeal cookies from isa chandra moskowitz's vegan with a vengeance. i have baked them a couple of times before but somehow i managed to burn half of them anyway. they still tasted pretty good.



in addition to the usual secret santa trade, we have also initiated the inaugural SHITTY SANTA trade. i am so psyched for this.

circular soccer
on sunday i was busy all day with sunday sports, and then i finally sat down with my guitar and was about to have a strum when mark called; we were going to see a film. i had misjudged the time required.

although... i did invent a game called 'circular soccer.' basically you have one goal manned by one neutral goalie, which can be approached either from north or south depending on what team you are on. ben and moriarty don't think it would work. magda and i think it would be amazing.

so i was thinking about circular soccer and how it might work when i came up with a potentially even better game called 'quad soccer.' you need a few people to play it, though. there are four teams. you set four goal posts up in a square, and each team approaches the goals from a different angle. i doubt you even need an official goalie.

basically it is just a complete clusterfuck, which is how i like sport to be.

so i guess i cheated a bit on sunday.

3. screenplay (8,311 words)

(a) friday fun
just before lunch i emailed 844 words of new screenplay to moriarty. most of it i wrote last week. but i did write some of it today.

it is a top secret mission, so it is not much fun for you. but here is a taster of today's action.

Lionel virtually leaps out of the office, a spring in his step, dragging the camping equipment along with him. Karen and Nina stare at his back.

so far we've written 8,311 words. which is not a bad start!
it is a really silly screenplay.

(b) creedz talks canopus
my friend creedon has informed me that the star i so painstakingly detailed in 1. diagram of a cloud is a star called canopus! how do people know this stuff?! here is some really interesting stuff dr. creedz has to say on the matter:

"You gave the time of night when you said 'it was getting dark', and I used Google StreetView to find out which one of your neighbours had the chimney and antenna so that let me know it was east. Then I used the free observatory software Stellarium to check out what you would have seen at that time and in that direction!

Around sunset looking east there's only really two bright stars and the other one (Rigel) was a bit low on the horizon. Plus Canopus is the second brightest star in the sky so I figured that would have made it noticable enough to draw about. The brightest star doesn't rise til about 10pm."

isn't that awesome? guys, science is really cool! also i am glad i do not need to take exams on it

have a lovely weekend! i will be "away from computer."

love love love
lion

2. easy

2. easy
Originally uploaded by Caro Lion

two blocks away from my house yesterday a pile of rain came out of nowhere and basically fell all over me but i just kept walking. i had already taken my shoes off and i figured i would change my clothes as soon as i got inside anyway.

then tom came over and we hung out until eight and then i made dinner and i was really tired but i wrote a silly little song before i went to bed. it is upbeat like something small kids might sing in a music class at school and it has a chorus but the chorus doesn't have words yet.

i like to think it was inspired by appalachian folksong but let's be honest i wouldn't know appalachian folksong if it bit me on the nose. also i have been listening to bowerbirds a bit lately and this is not entirely un-bowerbirds-y.

he wakes easy, he who wakes
with creaking bones and shins that ache
senses sun and quickly shakes
his eyelids from their yellow cake

[i have another verse here but i hate it so i'm not publishing it until i've written a better one]

he sleeps easy, he who sleeps
with a head split by two fields of sheep
casts his stones and earns his keep
with one small step, one giant leap

milks the cows and pays his dues
finds the maiden's silver shoes
we meanwhile lie here in bed
the sheep escaping from our head

he breaks slowly, he who breaks
from broken bones and organ aches
we break quickly, we who break
from broken hearts and pale mistakes

love love love,
lion

1. diagram of a cloud

1. diagram of a cloud
Originally uploaded by Caro Lion

i have had food poisoning or gastric flu, i'm not quite sure which, and i felt a little woozy walking home in the sun after work, so i didn't go to swing dancing last night. it seemed a bit too energetic.

instead, when it was getting dark and i went to get something out of my car, the clouds were AMAZING! they were smouldering in the middle and GLOWING on the outside. i wanted to take a photograph but i couldn't so i drew a picture instead, only i can't really draw pictures of things so i made a diagram of one of the clouds instead, bear with me people.

you will have to use your imagination i'm afraid!

later i went to the pub and there was hell of lightning! not really much rain or thunder though. it was great. i was kind of scared i was going to be electrocuted on the drive home.

also, i have forgotten how to spell lightning? that looks wrong.

love love love,
lion

0. ideas for rainy days

1. write a song
2. write lyrics to a song
3. write a chord progression for a song
4. write a poem
5. write a nice letter/note/email to someone kind
6. write a review of a book/film/album/person
7. fix something that i don't use so that i can use it again
8. respond to a letter in the newspaper
9. go for a walk and take photographs
10. draw a picture of a photograph i like
11. draw a picture of a person i like
12. paint a picture
13. try handwriting things in different fonts
14. make a comic
15. compile a set of images that inspire me
16. collect together my favourite quotations
17. decorate something in my house
18. plan an event
19. cook something i have never cooked before
20. cook something i have cooked before, but change the recipe
21. come up with ideas for birthday/christmas presents
22. handmake birthday/christmas cards
23. write about something that makes me angry/sad
24. write a section of the screenplay moriarty and i are working on
25. write a section of the novel i am not really working on

love love love,
lion

0. hello!

what is up! my name is lion, caro lion, & i am 22 years old. i'm saving up to travel in south america for six months next year. i'm excited about this but mainly nervous at the moment, largely because i am the worst-organised person in the world. in the meanwhile i'm working an insipid public service job and not doing anything overly useful with myself.

i am sort of fed up with my general state of existence,
and so (inspired by lily and öli) i am going to try to do something creative every day.

just something small is okay. i like writing songs so i guess i will try to do that pretty often. but it also could be cooking something new, or rearranging my living room, or cutting my own hair, or taking a photo or writing a list or a letter.

my creative things for today are

a) making this blog
b) going to swing dancing class (does this count?)
c) writing a list of some creative things i might do (for when i am short on ideas/time)

love love love,
lion.