Saffron Burrows in a scene from Ramona's festival pick: Hal Hartley's Fay Grim
Unless you've been living under the proverbial rock you would be aware that the Melbourne Film Festival is on again. which of course means that we are doing nothing but fillum watching for the next two weeks. Well except for the 5,000 badges Ramona has produced, the CCP photography course Beck is undertaking, the normal time at work, and family meal preparing, etc etc etc. But we wont complain, despite all of the chores attempting to intervene we really are having an excellent festivus.
Regular readers would know that this is our annual mid-year break, and so far we've travelled to France, Italy, Jamaica, and the deep deep South, we're very much looking forward to our next jaunts into Tunisia, Japan, South Africa, North America, the UK, Sweden, Nigeria and Greenland - armchair travel with a bucketload of popcorn... happy trails indeed. Interestingly we've unintentionally bookended the festival with two hugely influential bespectacled gentlemen of no small sartorial excellence: we kicked off with the Karl Lagerfeld documentary Lagerfeld Confidential, and we're bringing it home with Scott Walker - 30th Century Man.
So if hml is a little thin on the ground for the next week or so, you'll know why, and where to find us. Our very own 'happy place' - in the dark, with square eyes and greasy fingers.
This is it folks, the one we've been waiting for: The Fold an exhibition of new work by HML favourite 
AND If you feel like making a comparative analysis of the paper scene you have one week to see things from a distincly NYC perspective in PAPER SWORDS at 
Finally it's finished.. and well before the end of winter no less. 
If you are anything like us you'll harbour a reverance for all things stationary related that borders on obsessional. We love it. No we mean we really love it. Meals have been skipped in order to buy magazine holders, rent cheques have 'dissappeared' in lieu of matching pencils and notepaper, and we wont even identify the body parts that have been sold off to cover the cost of self inking stamp sets. So we were delighted to find this beautiful letter carrier hand crafted from the pages of vintage childrens books that didn't cost a bomb. Even nicer to find inside a short typed note from the maker who may not have identified themselves but did identify the age-old "conflict between sacrilige and good intention" involved in destroying the old to make the new. Sadly it appears that these puppies are no longer available on the retail market, but thankfully this one provided us with a workable template to make our own customised envelopes for our pen pals, should the mood or the children's book strike us.
This intriguing invite turned up in the hml mailbox today and given its heady combo of faux wood grain veneer and mash-up allusions we got pretty excited. We know nothing about it other than its tag line - 25 artists, 40 pieces 1 big exhibition. But we trust wood panelling and we're giving it a big thumbs up and recommending it as a show of the week. For all you young folk there's also a big opening party this Thursday night ,with dj's and the like, and all proceeds from the paltry $5 entry fee are going to the Wilderness Society's Forest Campaign, so you can feel righteous as you write your self off.
It's not that we don't love design, or even the festival, it's just that it's cold and damp and we have just recovered from the Scarf Festival and are about to launch into the Film Festival. 
Above we have her brother Matt somewhat reluctantly sporting one of her most recent 'creations'. Meanwhile Ramona's normally bleak and empty landscapes seem to be sprouting odd looking trees. Actually it's still pretty bleak but at least there is shelter now! Maybe Spring is on its way (is it just us or is this winter dragging on forever?)
and these are Ramona's...
Dell Stewart and Adam Cruickshank are really brilliant and super cool Melbourne arteests who sometimes work collaboratively under the moniker Sleep Club. For the next few weeks you can enjoy their open-ended exploration into slumber at their exhibition in the aptly titled gallery de jour Utopian Slumps. Taking the form of an imaginary club house for invisible somnambulists, the entire gallery space has been transformed into a pillow-laden dreamland, complete with double bed, flickering animations and bedazzled pillowcases. You'll be happy to know that they also come highly rated by the reigning queen of textile craft Miss Penelope Durston, a recommendation hard to ignore. It sounds and looks most excellent and these two really do produce great, witty, work. We're so excited in fact that we're actually clearing a bit of space in the schedule to head on down to Easey street, Horlicks filled thermos in hand to take a nap amongst the artworks.