dinner suggestions?

July 28th, 2010

dinner-

as always after a holiday, i am finding it a bit tricky to adjust back into work mode. the studio is operating at a mellow pace right now, lots of nice smaller jobs but none of them very pressing, which meant last week i got to spend a few days re-organising the studio and re-planting and de-caterpillaring my much neglected vegie patch. i have also been spending my nights reading my book instead of in front of my computer – almost feels like i am still on holidays! although its been relaxing, i am such a sucker for punishment i would have preferred to have hit the ground running, and come straight back into a huge job and a some urgent deadlines. i like the perpetuation of that type of working. 

one good thing about the return to work after a holiday – i have plenty of inspiration (blog post on that soon) and a stack of new ideas. now i just need to stop procrastinating (and finish my book) and put them into action.

i do have a different type of work keeping me busy – single parenting. raph has driven the beatbox kitchen up to QLD for the epic splendour in the grass festival. to say i am jealous is an under-statement, but its equally as good to have some solo time with the kids. its also strangely liberating (for the first few days anyway. sure it will wear off soon). and what i am lacking in studio busy-ness i am making up for with house-work – i have been baking like my life depended on it and our washing situation has never been so organised (tyke actually has 4 pairs of folded matching socks in his top drawer at the moment – wonders never cease!).

when it comes to dinner though i am often stumped. unfortunately i am just not a baked-beans-on-toast kind of girl – i like to have a proper dinner every night. and working from home usually this is achieved. what-to-have-for-dinner discussions start early in the day and cooking commences soon after. raph and i share the cooking – he is a really really good cook and tends make more asian and meaty-type dishes. my cooking is more in the mediterranean/modern australian/comfort foods department. but when the pressure is solely on me, my cooking imagination suddenly disappears and we end up eating a pasta every second night.

so… i am looking for suggestions! we have one dietary requirement and that is we don’t eat pork. but other than we eat pretty much anything. well, ari can be still be a bit fussy, but he does well for an almost 3 yr old. if you have any child-friendly favourite recipe links i would love to see them.

also on a completely different note – i have a special giveaway planned in the next few days! stay tuned!

tokyo!

July 20th, 2010

1.buskichijojiguineapigs_1boatsice-creamghibli_2fish_turtlesari_hanabibeetle_2patterncup_ride2cat_puzzlehara_donutsice-cream_parktatamifete_rubbishmacaroonsasakskacat_rollerrainpierre_hermeari_teppeityke_bikeduckpatternspark_1swan_boatspark

highlights included:

* beautiful green-ness and serenity of kichjoji (my new favourite place in tokyo)

* studio ghibli museum

* riding bikes around our neighborhood (see masami’s awesome BMX with childseat above. so cool)

* hanabi at teppei’s daycare summer fete

* eating cold soba noodles accompanied by a kirin or sapporo almost everyday

* drinking late night champagne with masami

* eating an ispahan macaroon at pierre herme with shauna (possibly one of the best things i have ever eaten)

* paddling in a swan boat in inokashira park

* kitchen shopping in kappabashi

* catching fish and turtles at an asakusa festival 

* watching tyke and ari loose there minds at kiddyland

* discovering cute stores around nakamichi street 

* hara donuts and ice-cream

* spending a ridiculous amount of money on stationary and stickers at loft 

* sipping iced lattes with ebony at this cafe

* being constantly surrounded by awesome graphics 

this trip showed me a different tokyo to my previous visits, but i still loved it just as much, maybe even more. i cant wait to go back!

i’m back…

July 17th, 2010

and still coming back down to earth and feeling slightly surreal after our tokyo rendezvous. as expected it was amazing, inspiring, delicious and super-fun, and also at times sweaty, exhausting and exasperating (mostly due to travelling with small children in a huge and humid megalopolis with A LOT of stairs). i am still sorting through my photos but will be posting about all my favourite parts and discoveries soon.

in the meantime here is one of  my favourite discoveries – textile company tafca.  i happened across a display they had put together in parco books (pictured below), where i couldn’t resist buying a scarf in the “dancing” print (also shown below). most of their site is in japanese, but there is an english description in the “concept” section which is so sweet – have a read here

IMGP0023Picture 1

more tokyo soon! 

p.s this is my 100th post!! who would have thought? not me! as i have said many times before i am loving the blog-life – apart from providing a way to show new work its also been a great form of therapy and support for me. thanks to anyone out there for who takes the time to read my excessively wordy babble xoxo

rounding off nicely

July 3rd, 2010

i am major countdown mode for our holiday – in a few days i will be exploring new toyko neighbourhoods, eating onigiri from 7-11 and buying ridiculously cute homewares. its been perfect timing with work in the studio too, as today we were able to sign off on lots of recent jobs: a project with japanese company GAS (designing credit cards! more soon!!), textile print for local store grace, an illustration for monthly column in readers digest and the justine clarke tour posters and advertising. and the absolute icing on the cake was a final approval for a very long and equally as frustrating job i have been working for a few months now (have mentioned it before) – cant tell you the relief it gave me to see that leave my inbox forever. 

leah, noe and miso will be holding the fort while we are away, and there is still lots to keep them busy too (well maybe not miso – he will just be getting spoilt rotten by our house-sitters).

one thing i will be sad to miss out on while we are away is MARKit at fed square – a market focusing on illustrative design. not only do i love a good market, but it’s our first ever time taking part in one! we will have all our products at special market prices, plus some other goodies too. and there are lots of other great stall holders as well including zaishu, third drawer down and the lovely victoria mason jewelery. its on sunday 12th of july, 9am -5pm. 

markit_logo

speaking of our products, the love tree was featured in july/august issue of inside out. thanks to styling genius vanessa colyer tay  and photography genius  sharyn cairns – its never looked so nice! 

inside_out

and one more thing to check out… irene grishin-selzer (aka iggy and lou-lou) has a solo show of new ceramic works at outre gallery titled “i threw a kiss in the ocean“. the show opened tonight (was planning to go but unfortunately 2 grumpy kids, rain and a ton of washing made it tricky) and is on until 18th july. i really love irene’s work and have no doubt her new things will be beautiful.

igs

well, thats about it for me for now. i may have neatly finished off my work, but now the family pre-holiday organisation frenzy begins – pack everything for everyone, clean the house, write instructions for house sitter, set auto-respond on my email, give miso some extra pats, and oh, dont forget to buy cat food. and plane snacks. and something to sedate the children (JOKING). and remember to get to sleep in time for a 4.00 am wake-up to catch the flight. geez, my mental lists are already getting the better of me.

i am fairly sure i will be blogging while i am away (although our laptop literally just died on raph as i was writing this post!), but if not, i have a good excuse and rest assured there will be plenty of japan adventure stories & pics on my return.

oyasuminasai xxo

tiny mammoth web sale!

June 26th, 2010

we are having our first ever web shop sale! all our current tiny mammoth clothing and accessories are 40% off! check it out here or www.beciorpin.com/shoppe

tmsale_1tmsale_3tmsale_2tmsale_4

happiness via mail

June 25th, 2010

this week has been all over the place – full of loose ends,unanswered questions and very lacking in work satisfaction. the shining light that is our holiday is currently blocked by a mountain of work (most frustrating freelance job ever), a pile of sickness (a cold that is ping-ponging around our family for 6 weeks) and a barrage of shouting and terribly-behaved children (they have both been down-right miniature psychopaths). if i had any energy left, i would be at my wits end. 

also thanks to the recent wintry weather and the afore-mentioned mountain of work i have barely been leaving my studio. aside from feeling like i am crawling up the walls, i have also been in need of some good visual stimulation of non internet variety. so a little ray of happiness appeared yesterday when some of my recent internet shopping was dropped my doorstep - hurrah for nobrow!

nobrow is a collective of london-based illustrators who have a gallery and also make beautiful printed products featuring themselves and other illustrators from around the world. i purchased nobrow magazine #2 and #3 :

NB_coversNB2_1NB2_2NB3_1NB3_2

from top - eda akaltun (how amazing is that picture?), mark boutavant (cant keep away from his work), stevie gee (cute blog), karine bernadou (french goodness). (all photos from nobrow)

viewing these wonderous publications was like visiting a really really good exhibition in the comfort of my own house. oh and i get to own all the artworks too, and look at them whenever i please. and its even editioned. plus – they smell awesome. check out the nobrow store here and blog here

another package that arrived and brought me almost equal joy – keep shoes for myself and ari

keep

there is nothing wrong with mother/son matching outfits right?

i’m off to layer a few hundred illustrations. woot. hope you are staying dry out there xx

monsters

June 22nd, 2010

mmmmonsters

 by me and by tyke.

perfect saturday night

June 20th, 2010

in my eyes, its a perfect saturday night at the orpin-rashid’s tonight. i have a banana-coconut cake in the oven, a glass of tempranillo in hand, just finished watching a DVD and the house warm and full of food from today’s market shopping and also surprisingly (sort of ) clean.

if i would had read this of myself (or anyone else for that matter) 10 years ago i would have scoffed and thought “how utterly tragic”. 10 years ago a perfect saturday night didn’t start until at least 1am, involved much more than a glass of tempranillo and definitely didn’t involve baking. on occasion i miss the sense of anticipation and possibility that i used to have before a night out, and of course the general spontaneity of my pre-parenthood life, but on the whole i would say i am pretty happy with this domestic state i am now in. 

5 other things that have been making me happy: 

1. supermarket sarah

supermarket_sarah

i am sure this is one of those things everyone in the world knows about this except me. online shopping on whole new level. founder annette’s selection is amazing. she does live just around the corner from portobello market, but still, you need a good eye to seek out such awesome-ness. made even better by her hand-drawn”your deserve it” and “buy now” signs. too good. this week supermarket sarah featured the talents of another design gem donna wilson. but my absoltue fav thus far was her col-ab with uber-fantastic patternity.  no wonder just about everything sold on their page. 

2. karen walker’s runaway A/W collection

KW_AW

its like ms walker has been in my head and designing exactly what i would like to wear right now (with these two outfits in a particular - even down to those cute yellow boat shoes). now on the hunt for both of these outfits.

3. choo choo’s at the toff

choo-choo

on the nights i do manage to go out – the toff  is one of the places i like to go. having worked for owner camillo for a long time, and knowing a few folk who work there, it has a family vibe for me. this week the toff re-launched their restaurant, re-naming it choo-choo’s and changing the cuisine from 70’s inspired gourmet snacks to contemporary thai food designed to share. 

technically, i am not sure if choo-choo’s is actually making me happy, as i am yet to try the food. but… i did design the new logo and menu (which i have read in depth, and subsequently my drool caused my already mal-functioning keyboard to become even more broken), and have eaten karen batson’s outstanding thai food many times downstairs at cookie (in fact, we love it so much we had our wedding there!), so deliciousness (and happiness) is almost guaranteed. and rumour has it, its been packed every night since the re-launch! i’d book ahead if your thinking of trying it. 

4. my sisters blog

elfi

this is purely selfish reasons really – em lives in seoul, and now with her blogging i can easily keep track of what her and her cute puppies elfi (above) and ferdi are up to on the other side of the ocean. but aside from that, she is a great writer and is sure to cover all things good, crafty and otherwise. take a peek!

5. holidays!

800px-Cherry_Blossom_Inokashira

after weeks of frustrating location, date and budget discussions (ending in a day of tantrums from myself) we have  booked a family holiday and will soon be departing for 2 weeks in tokyo! i have been lucky enough to travel to japan many times before, but its been over 3 years since my last visit. have so many things on my “to do ” list – one of the first is to hire a cute duck boat and paddle around inokashira park enjoying the tokyo summer humidity. i also cant wait to make good use hello sandwich’s tokyo guide (fingers crossed might even get a personal tour from the almost tokyo-resident miss sandwich herself!) 

oh! my cake is just about baked. hope you are having a perfect saturday night too xx

leah’s exhibition

June 14th, 2010

my studio right-hand-lady leah bartholomew is having an exhibition which opens this thursday 17th june at gorker gallery in fitzroy. it’s titled “these are the days” and will feature prints, collages and paper sculptures. the blurb on leah’s show (written by the amazing amanda maxwell) describes the work  as “nostalgic, personal, ethereal and precious”. i’ve had a little sneak preview of it and what i have seen looks just that. her colours and special techniques look pretty lovely too –  

BARTHOLOMEW_FLYER_FRONTleah_dancing_A4

after sitting next to a very over-tired leah for the past few weeks and i know how hard she has worked and it’s sure to look beautiful. (cant wait to see the paper sculptures leah!). 

“these are the days” opens thursday june 17th 6.30-8.30pm, and runs until 27th june, at gorker gallery – 395 gore st fitzroy (crn kerr st). gallery hours 3-7 wed-fri, 11-7 sat-sun.

hello again

June 8th, 2010

i’m back. well actually, i didnt go anywhere, i just haven’t felt compelled to blog. possibly something to do with melbourne winter taking hold. in the space of a week a huge cloud of cold has descended on us and now i can no longer ride my bike without gloves and a scarf and all i want to do is eat and read my book in bed (not at the same time. maybe sometimes). and some nights i have even been able to do just that, as the studio has been maintaining a comparatively leisurely pace of late. that was until i wrote a new “to do” list today and discovered i am soon to be back in the land of the manic deadline and late night working.  

despite the calm, there has still been plenty going on, in the studio and otherwise.

most importantly – tyke turned 7. it seems ridiculously old to me, and i still trying to work out how this all happened. but it does suits him. one of his presents was a kite. a proper kite, not one that falls apart after one session of flying. he has been loving it. 

kitetyke_kite

i have also been on a book buying frenzy. everytime i step into metropolis books molly always shows me the absolute best things which i can not resist. i have been re-visiting some of my old favourite second hand book haunts too. plus there was the books at manic sale, where i picked up an enzo mari “il posto dei giochi” (the place of games) for a quarter of the normal price! i cant tell you how long i have lusted over one of these. and even better now i have kids who love it too – for them its like the awesome-ness of a cardboard box on a whole new level.

Picture 1

books

also included in my book booty (which is not at all shown justice by this exceptionally crappy photo) is latest book illustrated by marc boutavant (my current illustration hero), a book about contemporary japanese paper (heaven) and also one on the book covers by celestino piatti - a swiss illustrator heralded as the most productive book designer of all times. score!

the beatbox kitchen has also been going great guns lately. raph and the beatbox have been catering for the likes of wilco, plus many other bands and special events. the friday night jams have been going strong, and he has now added saturday morning breakfast in the same spot. the breakfast menu includes potato tacos with salsa verde and creme fraiche (everything made from scratch including the tacos), minute steak and egg roll, and pour over coffee made from very special coffee beans from seven seeds. if you are northside in melbourne (crn park and rathdowne st  nth carlton to be precise) on the weekend GO! for details check beatbox site

beatbox_breakfast

and as far as work, well of course there has been plenty of that going on too. we have just finished up a very cute job for gorman, some new decor for cookie and are midway through some new prints and embroidery designs for irony. i am also in the middle of an illustration job which came through jacky winter. its quite big, and will go across print and TV, but not in this country! will post about that when i can.

speaking of jacky winter, i recently recieved some pics of the new field guide which will be out in a few weeks. it looks amazing – hard cover, cloth bound, gold foil text, printed end papers and comes in its own printed cardboard box too. lucky me was asked by JW to illustrate the afore mentioned end papers. was one of my favourite jobs to date, made even better when i saw it had been printed in flouro pink!

JW_FG1jw_fg_2jw_fg_3

and last but not least i also designed a little avatar for my sister emily’s etsy store, where she sells very very cute handmade owls (called jorpins) and other things too. i am also (not so) patiently waiting for her to start a blog – she is much better at writing than me and its sure to be a good one. 

jorpins_bannerjorpins_1

thats about it for now. surely that makes up for my little venture into hibernation? hope you are staying warm x