Posts Tagged ‘things i like’

currently obsessed with:

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

sozi

sozi: a new project from one of my favourite illustrators rilla alexander. sozi even has her own blog, and shop (cant wait for my very own sozi doll!)

radish

radishes: thanks to my step-father’s influence we used to snack on them all the time as kids. in the past few years they haven’t made it onto my shopping list – i had forgotten how delicious they are. particularly in the above salad from the wednesday chef. recipe here

dots

watercolour and paper dots (still!)

dogs-resize

come over sunday: my new favourite house blog, in particular the post on an 84 yr olds house in mackay - so beautiful! speaking of beautiful houses, this is my new dream house.

blossoms

blossom-spotting: although its been pretty easy of late – they seem to be blooming everywhere. in between the torrential rain and  gale-force winds we have actually had some blue skies, and even some 18 degree days. i read that spring “comes in like a lion and leaves like lamb”- so looking forward to some warm days and for the BBQ-ing season to commence!

studio update coming soon xx

no normality just yet

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

on raph’s return home, i had counted on things returning to normal. by normal, i mean shared pick-up of children and dinner/shopping/domestic duties which then allows for a proper working day. with the studio starting to get busy again, and loads of inspiration and plenty of new ideas i want to try, i have been positively itching to get some solid studio time in, and had thought now some real work could get done. 

but, i was mistaken. first of all, both the girls who help us out with ari could not work this week. then, on his daycare days, ari got sick and stayed home instead. generally, i would compensate this type of situation with late working nights, but of course, after a long dry spell in my social life, this was the week when i had something on every night. then, our washing machine died, which spells d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r in our house. and its been freeeeeeeeezing in melbourne town – hail storms and snow on nearby hills – it feels like winter will never ever end. plus my computer is misbehaving and i fear also on the verge of death. (might be getting off track at this point, but if you’re going to whine, might as well do it properly)

and just to add the icing on my annoyance cake, i dragged a crying, coughing, spluttering, snotty ari (who also now has a very black eye), to the supermarket and was confronted with more than a few suspicious looks. the only thing stopping me from screaming ”it was a playground accident – OK?!”, was that i would then possibly look like a psycho who did hit their children. 

i guess to put it all in perspective, things definitely could be way more awful – all family is in check (no deaths or life-threatening situations) and on the whole relations are good. but regardless, the past few days have been filled with nothing but cold, frustration, nights of coughing and trips to laundromat. joy.

anyway, here are some things which have been fueling my desire to do what i do (despite my current circumstances):

office ttable stationary – my lovely sister came to vist this week bringing with her lots of these lovely things for myself (thanks em!). so beautiful it makes my heart ache

office_ttable

jason rosenburg’s studio tour on sight unseen – his use of colour is amazing (in his work and his studio). plus he is a self-admitted hoarder, likes to collect things off the ground and is “way into mushroom subculture”. he also says “it’s always nice to find an eames chair, but I’m much happier if I find, like, a pile of notebooks from 1975″. a person after my own heart

jr_3jr_4

jr_!jr_2

 

(pics: sight unseen and mr.rosenburg’s website)

for the birds by luke bartels and jeff canham - an exhibition of collaborative pieces at the curiosity shoppe in SF. i am doing whatever i can to try and own one of these – so clever! 

birdhouse_1birdhouse_2birdhouse_3

hello sandwich’s tokyo apartment -  our folk face cushion has never looked so lovely! how can one girl have so many great colour combinations in such a little space?  

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i am rushing off to get some fluoro orange polka dot pillow cases right now, surely that will make everything better? 

hope you are having a good, frustration-free week x

travel sketchbooks

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

aside from excitement of the inside out article coming out, things have continued to be pretty quiet in our studio. running our own business, after a few slow weeks i usually start to lose my mind a little and a small amount of panic sets in. but as the beatbox kitchen was very successful at splendour (thanks to those who supported and ate the goodness!), i can slightly relax as i know there will be food in the cupboards and money in the mortgage account for the next month or so. 

in the meantime, we are still making the most of the mellow-ness and indulging in things such as a day-long field trip to the tim burton exhibition (drawings alone so amazing), updating our website (coming soon), spending 2 whole days just in my sketchbook, planning my new beci orpin range (out november!) and work for upcoming exhibitions, and a bit of pre-spring studio cleaning.

during this cleaning i have been going through some of my old sketchbooks. keeping sketchbooks is something which is really really important to me. apart from providing a cavalcade of un-used ideas, they can also tell pretty good stories about what happening in my life at the time.

i  generally have a couple sketchbooks on the go – a big one on my desk, and a bag-size one to take with me when i go out. the bag-sized one used to get a lot of use, mostly writing down ideas during tram trips, but these days with a chauffeur husband and my studio at home, catching public transport is somewhat of a rarity for me (in fact, sitting down for more than 30 minutes by myself and doing nothing is somewhat of a rarity for me), so that one is now a little neglected, and often replaced by a gigantic mental list instead (not anywhere as near effective).

when i travel overseas, i take a sketchbook too. although i don’t usually use it to “sketch” in as such, its more scrap book for stuff i find – flyers, bus tickets, a cicada wing from the park (don’t tell australian customs!), lolly wrappers etc. looking back, these ones hold some of the best memories. here are some pages from my travel sketchbooks from the past 12 years

sb9sb5sb7SB3sb_2sb13sb8sb6sb12sb17sb_1sb14sb11sb16sb15

ps thanks for all the great comments recently! so much appreciated!

happiness via mail

Friday, 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

perfect saturday night

Sunday, 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

lift-me-ups

Monday, May 24th, 2010

things have been good, busy and the usual, but i have been experiencing a little post-exhibition flatness. it came as no surprise to me – this seems to happen every time i have an exhibition and its nothing major, just makes my relatively easy life that little bit less easy.

here are some things that have been making me get over it pretty fast -

ari_rockinggeo_shapesautumnsoup_maugschair_tartsailor_bag

* hanging out with my kids

* surprise wooden shape arrangements on my desk (thanks tyke and ari)

* melbourne autumn

* winning the best soup mugs in the world (thanks ebay)

* new chairs (ebay again – $40 for 4!) and a successful apple & mascarpone tart

* sailor bag from gorman

last week we also finished the new justine clarke DVD, which will be released in july. its a major achievement for us and really exciting to see it come together. will post a sneak peek tomorrow.

hope you had a nice weekend x

finally…

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

…i think i get to have a break! not anything crazy like a holiday (although there are family whispers of that soon), but an actual whole day off. i plan to spend it with ari. i used to spend one day a week hanging out with just him but the past few months i have been so busy that that fun duty has been passed on to papa, which has made me a little miserable at times.

oh my god i am so sick of talking about work. so i wont too much – but needless to say there has been no reprieve and it has been another manic week full of late working nights and stressful deadlines. keeping me busy this week has been: cute new project for frankie (more on that in the near future), an illustration for US magazine popular mechanics (thanks JW – who also have a new site!), seven seeds new website (coming soon!)/business cards/tee-shirts/coffee packaging/anything else they can get me to do, textile prints for jethro and jackson plus other on-going projects. dude – i am exhausted.

anyway, like i said, no more work talk. so here instead are my current 5 favourite things:

1. “sequential” top from pam

sequintial

i got this a few weeks ago and i have been wearing this flat out. it has become one of those pieces of clothing that i am sad to wash because it means i wont be able to wear it for a whole 2 days.

2. bow headband from south for the summer

ss_bow

how good is it?!  i also have an inez feather headband on order. bow will hopefully make me feel like hello kitty, and also match perfectly with sequential tee. i am all about a bit of colour co-oridnation. (creator jen also has a blog)

3. “the language of graphics” book

 book_coverbook_1book_2book_3 

i brought this after a quick glance from my favourite junk shop. i had no idea of the awesomeness that lay inside. once i got home and opened it i was blown away – every single one of the 320 pages is an absolute joy and inspiration.

4. ‘after’ shop

after_1after_@after_3after_4

i discovered ‘after’ about a year ago and now every time i visit it has something original and cute to offer. their eclectic selection (from recycled paper bowls to african woven bags, pretty porcelain pieces to vintage medical containers) is too good to resist. it’s also conveniently opposite queen vic’s deli section, so you can stock up on delicious pantry treats while you are at it. 78 therry st, melbourne, 300o. hours:10 – 4 tues, thurs, fri, sat & sun

5. tsumori chisato s/s 10 collection -

tsumori_1tsumori_2

pure mind-blowing genius. via bird & banner and lena corwin. more here

hope you are having a nice crisp-morning, leaf-falling, soup-making, cake-baking, autumn-type weekend. x

ari_walk

webstore is open!!! and something else momentous too

Monday, March 15th, 2010

yes! finally! after what feels like an eternity our webstore is up and open and tested and functioning and ready to service all your shopping needs! currently it features all of the beci orpin products, but will soon also have a tiny mammoth and prints section too. have a look (or perhaps even a shop!) at www.beciorpin.com/shoppe/

 

webstore

thanks (once again) to rex at blisterfinger for helping us get it all together. i am fairly sure sticking pins in his eyeballs would have been a far more pleasant experience. you truly are a great and patient person. 

and my other momentous news – my blog is now one year old! whilst i know one year is a relatively small achievement in terms of blogging capacity (especially when compared to some others impressive catalogue of years),but  its personally a great milestone for myself.

when we hap-hazardly added a blog section when updating my site last year, i had no idea i would love writing and posting as much as i have. i would go so far as to say its a weird kind of therapy for me, and perhaps even made me a nicer person. thanks so much to anyone who has read/commented/even just paid the slightest bit of attention to my blog. i am so very flattered that you would be interested in looking at my work, reading my often strange family stories and enduring my often annoying whinges.

raise your virtual glasses for toast – here’s to another year!

under the pillow

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

thanks so much for the nice comments and emails i received after my last miserable post. and actually, things didn’t get much better after that. ari was sick for the second time in three weeks, which meant he was sleepless and grumpy.  subsequently i had a lot of work i couldn’t get to, which also made me sleepless and grumpy. raph was stressed about no time/sleep and having to run a bizillion business’s whilst beatbox is in full effect (he generally works 18 hrs days in the beatbox). tyke was grumpy because everyone else was no fun. and then… our internet got cut off!!! and still is. which has once again left me wondering how the hell did i run a business/survive/do anything without email and the world wide web? its driving me crazy.

on a brighter note, family life has now calmed down. everyone is healthy (knock on wood) and being much nicer to each other. i have been making lots of new work which i am very happy with (including some tee-prints for japanese company GAS!). i also had a nice picture come out in frankie. unfortunately as i still have no internet and am currently typing this from a friends house down the road (thanks lou! champ!) i cant show as yet.

but i did want to do a quick post to mention this exhibition by yoko georgiou which opens tonight -

YOKO_EXHIBITIONweb

under the pillow! so cute!! i talked about yokos work previously here. her partner olie sent me this sneak preview. check out her amazing use of colour!!

DSC02266

if are in prahran area you should really check it out. so nice!!!

there are actually a ton of other shows to check out at the moment too. will post about when i am back in the land of the functioning-internet. I CAN NOT WAIT!!!

scratch it

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

nothing

scratch and sniff sticker collection via nothing is new (hands down my fav RSS feed in my inbox). more sticker collections here. have a had quick look but cant wait to explore in detail… i have a feeling its going to be a loooooooong night.