Last night I saw Wellington band Can We Talk play; they had won a competition to support The Mint Chicks with their cover of ‘Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!‘. While the Mint Chicks’ performance went somewhat astray, Can We Talk were really good. Like, super good. At the end of their set they kindly handed out copies of their EP to people in the crowd. This morning, faced with a 1.5 hour drive into the countryside, I popped it on in the car and listened to it.

Their sound is soothing folk-pop; made with keys, guitar, drums and a mandolin. I really like the girl-boy vocal play – especially on the song ‘New Season‘. It reminds me a little of early Los Campesinos! and Architecture in Helsinki. All in all, a fun, uplifting, toe-tappy sound that’s worth checking out. I’m looking forward to hearing more from Can We Talk.

Can We Talk playing at Bacco (picture swiped off their myspace).

• I have been reading experimental writer Kathy Acker’s work of late (for a travel writing class) – and the story of the punk woman behind the words is fascinating. Coilhouse has a published a great introduction to her work and attitude.

• Types Of Bitches. Oh man, I don’t recommend laughing really loudly at this at 1.27AM when all your housemates are asleep…

• Hysterics? See also The Museum Of Modern Tweets – illustrated celebrity nonsense.

• Cool kids wear lids – make it cute with one of these Nutcase Bike Helmets. I want a watermelon one! [via swissmiss]

• Caged Birds of Bethnal Green – Lillian is putting together a map project which documents E2 from people’s memories. It’s a super interesting idea; so if you know the area and have something share, you should participate!

• The world’s largest tree house – 10 storeys tall!

• Disco Fiction – in search of the definitive nightclub book.

• McNally Jackson is a bookstore/cafe in New York. I love their suitably bookish interior design:

• The making of a book cover. The design of ‘Blameless’ by Gail Carriger is condensed into 2 minutes. Not the best design work ever, but illustrative of the process that goes into making something ‘as simple’ as a cover:

At the recent First Thursday I came across Ferrit’s pretty and precious handmade pieces. I did not buy anything at the time (mini dilemma – spend my pennies on cute or on cider?) but I picked up a business card. I’m so happy I did… look at how awesome her creations are!

From the cardboard frame brooches:

To the bouquets of flowers:

To Be Fri and St Ends declarations of love:

Everything is just really lovely:

“Once upon a time in a beautiful island called New Zealand lived a Ferrit. She loved to scavenge, search and fossick for interesting old things like fabrics, ornaments, books and clothing from around this island. Miss Ferrit loved collecting so much that her small home was filled with many piles of things she had collected over her years of fossicking. She had always dreamed of one day becoming a real crafty Ferrit and using all the interesting things she had gathered to create new things to share with others from around the island.”

You can often see the Ferrit scurrying around at Auckland’s regular craft markets; or for those of you a bit further away, perhaps you could get your paws on something directly from her.

Aimee Carruthers is a New Zealand designer, illustrator and all round creative type. I first met her through her involvement with Cross Street Studios, an art collective in Auckland; but it turns out I was already a fan of her work, with a postcard of Waaanda pinned to my noticeboard. Papercut Design is the banner under which she produces her simultaneously polished and quirky work. She kindly agreed to answer a few questions on inspiration, process and bears…

What do you enjoy the most about what you do? Working with other creative people. Collaboration seems to be what I get my kicks out of the most, especially at the ideas stage of a project. I always find when you work together, the result is greater and more original than what you could achieve separately.

What are your essential daily rituals? I feel like my whole day is out of whack if I haven’t scoured ffffound.com and the 20 or so blogs I’ve subscribed to on RSS. It’s about 30 minutes of my day and I consider it my morning creative warm up.

What dream do you still want to fulfill? I’d like to write a script for a short film and produce it.

What do you do if you’re not inspired? How do you shake a creative block off? I’ve had a few blocks in my time. For the big oh-my-god-I’m-not-an-artist-anymore kind of blocks I change mediums. I started out as a painter, then became a photographer, graphic designer, screen printer, illustrator and for my latest block, back to photography. Changing mediums breaks you out of the rut of trying the same thing over and over again and expecting the same result. If it’s a block on a particular project, I chew my writer-flatmate’s ear off about the problem and we usually find a solution together. It’s good to hear how someone in another creative field might tackle the problem.

How is your 99 Strangers photography project going? I love this project and I think it has done some marvellous things for me personally, it’s an amazing feeling to get over your fears and approach people you don’t know. BUT, I’ve let it slip these last 2 months. It was easy to do when I was on holiday and feeling relaxed, the people around town seemed relaxed too, but know stress has caught up with me! Despite my recent slackness I found that people are a lot more open than I imagined and everyone has a story. I’ve been reading a little about developing narrative in artistic works and want to start concentrating on bringing out the stories in the photographs.

What’s the best lesson you’ve learnt (professional or personal)? Good friends are everything. I have a whole bunch of talented, creative friends. We collaborate and share projects and I can’t help but think that all the successful people I admire seem to be friends – Miranda July, Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers – maybe we’ll turn out like them.

You do a lot of design for band/musicians – can you describe your dream music-related project? I’d die happy if I could do a gig poster for Grizzly Bear. Within 10 minutes of meeting an Auckland music promoter I offered to make the poster for free if he brought them down.

Favourite animal to draw? I seem to have developed a bear obsession: pandas, grizzlys… I’m worried about my work being too cute so bears seem a good way to balance that.

Current inspirations or obsessions? I’m a late adopter when it comes to being a fan of Stefan Sagmeister, but I am at the point where I am tired just doing things because they look nice and want to concentrate on communicating a message. I think Sagmeister is the champion of that. Watching him talk on the TED website was my most inspiring moment to date.

What are you reading? I’m geeking out and have books on writing, copywriting, art direction and design philosophy next to my bed. For a break, I’m flicking through Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected.

Thanks Aimee!

Things I love: watching my little crystal garden grow day by day, revisiting archived notebooks, when my friends exhibit and show off their hard work, super-energetic smiling people, feijoa cider at my favourite bar, making blackberry jelly (jellies are clear, jams have pips) and taking photographs that look black and white.

Hello friends! I have just finished watching the Adventures of Milo and Otis and am high on cute.

It’s the tale of a pug, a kitten and the adventures they have. It starts on the farm… but Milo never listens to his mother. Here’s two of my favourite scenes:

Crab Attack

Otis Meets The Fox

Did you know that Milo and Otis is a Japanese made film and was released in English 4 years after the original release? Me neither! Did you know Dudley Moore was the vivacious and hilarious narrator? Not I!

While there has been some controversy over the use of animal actors in the movie, I still love this romp (and have done since I was 5). It’s a good film to watch from bed while hanging out in your pyjamas. Nostalgia rules.

Spotted last night on K Road:

Para-die-sh? ParaDISH! Para-deesh? It’s the name of a new Chinese restaurant… It all sounds delicious to me.

• Sasha Pivovarova photographed by Craig McDean for Interview February 2010. I loved this shoot – especially the scribbly stockings. More here.

• BleachBlack – duelling fashion blog.

• Pret-A-Voyager – an engaging and well designed travel blog, written by a nice lady living in Paris. I love the Boarding Pass feature – where designers and others divulge their travel habits.

• Pink Tentacle – an excellent Japanese art/culture blog of sorts.

• Overcoming Creative Block.

• A new-ish giant animation by Blu and David Ellis. You need to watch it:

• DigitalNZ has created guidelines for preserving digital content. Something to be aware of!

• How real men should dress: Put This On.

• Men, please see also – “I have to look a little bit nice because If I don’t look good, people will say, ‘Oh, what the heck is this guy?’”  A sleek video lookbook on NYMag.

• The Quarter Mile Groove - and quarter mile piece of vinyl floss.

• A Journey Round My Skull.

• 50 High-Quality Free Fonts for Professional Design – there are some sweet typographical treats there.

‘Box Of Birds’ is the name of Seed Gallery’s latest exhibition. They’re releasing a new range of greeting cards featuring prints by some of their favourite artists and to celebrate they’re dedicating the gallery to both the cards and the originals.

The gorgeous work below is by artists John Pusateri (I have some of his birdy etchings hanging in my home), Annie Sandano and Aroha Lewin.

The gallery show is on till March 28, 2010, but the cards will be available to snap up beyond that. I can’t wait to go buy some… one can never have too many beautiful blank cards.

My pick of the lot? Annie Sandano’s Wise Owl. Naturally.

Seed Gallery, 23A Crowhurst Street, Newmarket, Auckland.

This weekend: Brunch with pocky, seaside walks, a party celebrating the engagement of two very dear friends, crystal growing, money saving (how cute is my Kashin the elephant coin bank?), coffee on a Shakey Isle, Songs, the Lantern festival, summer summer summer.