Peonies for you.....

*** The Giveaway is now closed***

Peonies and Polaroids: The Shop goes live today, one year exactly after Peonies and Polaroids: The Blog hit the airwaves (cyberwaves? News stands? Blogosphere? My sanity? Delete as appropriate) The Shop will sell prints of my photography, maybe postcards in the future and calenders come calender time. Bog stanadard photographer-fare in other words. For finally, two years after fleeing art school, I might just be feeling ready to call myself a photographer again.


There will be no crafty crap. Being engaged warped my brain. Married Me (much like pre-engaged me) sees hand sewing tiny little silk birds, designing fabric bunnies or hand pouring soya candles as something fun in theory but Just Not Worth It. 'It' being The Insanity. So you can stop emailing me and asking for custom made cake toppers. It's not going to happen.


However! As a birthday present from me to you and to start Peonies and Polaroids: The Shop with the sort of altruistic, hippy happy karma that one should launch into these ventures (and to say thank you for encouraging me to do this) I'm giving away a print of your choice.


Just leave a comment on this post, any comment. I'm not asking for something witty or clever or appreciative. 'Oi, gimme the print' will do. Although witty, clever and appreciative are always appreciated and while I might say I'm picking a comment at random... well, just sayin'.

I still don't share food.

Peonies and Polaroids turns one today!

happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me.
Happy birthday dear Meeeeeeeeee
Happy birthday to me.




(back the hell away from my wotsits bitch)



Come back later for a little party competition. I mean game. No, I mean competition.
(I was just as charitable about party 'games' as I was with party food)



Photo from my Gran's collection, circa 1989

A Preview...

Peonies and Polaroids : The Shop

A Preview

All images by me.

And speaking of etsy...

And speaking of rabbits....

Did I ever mention that it was my birthday but a couple of weeks ago? And that I like rabbits? And that I'm broke? And have you ever thought 'what could I get Peonies to show her how much I appreciate her?' Have you? Because I really really love this, so much it's making me ache. Just look at her with her little wired ears and recycled felt body and fuzzy fuzzy tail...

And the whiskers, what about the whiskers?

And the baby one, the baby one's cute right?

And the tail! This rabbit has the exact same tail as my rabbit. My clean rabbit that is. My smelly rabbit had his tail trimmed yesteday because he kept peeing on it. His looks like this, but black.

Want one please. Thank you.



And a toadstool for her to sit by.

Oh for the love of stuff.


All images courtesy of Little Love Blue.

You and I both....

I really must have this. Really.




It's a little Keep Calm and Carry On (piss off, I like the Keep Calm and Carry On poster) but it's pink. And there are bunnies.



Image courtesy of Dallas Shaw.

Paper magic....

Paper cuts hurt my brain. So intricate, so detailed, so utterly incomprehensible to a girl who struggles with cutting straight lines.

These paper cuts by Hina Aoyama are just unbelievable. Literally. I look at my hands and I find it completely impossible to believe that someone made these things of beauty with nothing but a bit of paper, their hands and a tiny little pair of scissors. Me and my big ole sausage fingers are going off to cry in a corner, embarassed by our lack of grace and skill....

All images courtesy of Hina Aoyama and found via D Sharp Journal.

bunny farts....

I nearly ordered this card from The Beautiful Project for The Boy. I couldn't bring myself to do it though. Not because it's not brilliant but because it would be a nasty lie. The Boy's farts are not cute, they're plain mean.

And saying sweet things just because they're cute and not because you mean them is just damn silly.

Besides, I think he'd prefer the sentiment behind this one. And I might be having to buy this one after he reads the above.


Image courtesy of The Beautiful Project and via Moments of Pleasure.

February 14th (b)

Valentine
by Carol Ann Duffy

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.

Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.

Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.

Image courtesy of Anyonebutjulian

February 14th

I wouldn't thank you for a Valentine
By Liz Lochhead

I wouldn’t thank you for a Valentine.
I won't wake up early wondering if the postman’s been.
Should 10 red-padded satin hearts arrive with sticky
sickly saccharine
Sentiments in very vulgar verses I wouldn’t wonder if
you meant them.
Two dozen anonymous Interflora red roses?
I’d not bother to swither over who sent them!
I wouldn’t thank you for a Valentine.

Scrawl SWALK across the envelope
I’d just say ‘ Same Auld story
I canny be bothered deciphering it –
I’m up to hear with Amore!
The whole Valentine’s Day Thing is trivial and
commercial,
A cue for unleashing clichés and candyheart motifs to
which I personally am not partial.’
Take more than singing Telegrams, or pints of
Chanel Five, or sweets,
To get me ordering oysters or ironing my black satin sheets.
I wouldn’t thank you for a Valentine.

If you sent me a solitaire and promises solemn,
Took out an ad in the Guardian Personal Column
Saying something very soppy such as ‘Who Loves Ya,
Poo?
I’ll tell you, I do, Fozzy bear, that’s who!’
You’d entirely fail to charm me, in fact I’d detest it
I wouldn’t be eighteen again for anything, I’m glad I’m
past it.
I wouldn’t thank you for a Valentine.

If you sent me a single orchid, or a pair of Janet Reger’s
in a heart-shaped box and declared your Love Eternal
I’d say I’d rather not be caught dead in them they were
politically suspect and I’d rather something thermal.
If you hired a plane and blazed our love in a banner
across the skies;
If you bought me something flimsy in a flatteringly
wrong size;
If you sent me a postcard with three Xs and told me
how you felt
I wouldn’t thank you, I’d melt.



Image courtesy of Sign Language

Your head when you wed....

Check out A Practical Wedding today to see me go all encyclopaedic when it comes to wedding head wear. Hats, feathers, tulle, froth, sparkle, plastic.... there's a little of everything. Except porcupine quills, I don't know how I missed those.

Picture by Jessica Claire, of a couple with the most gorgeous wedding headwear I've ever seen.

a year in pictures, iii

a year in pictures i
a year in pictures ii
a year in pictures ii (b)

i) september











a trip home, days at the beach with the dearest of friends, a plastic deer that can't fail to amuse every time I pass it by. dreams dreamt, dreams of an island one day, perhaps, being home once more....


j. october






a quiet month, barely a photo taken. a day at the park, a horse with a bald tail and breath that tickles my neck. pink truffles that look better than they taste...


k. november










winter sun, wildlife by the kitchen window, a wild and foul tempered beast given his annual hug. delicious things baked, for the first time in months...



l. december











new family, a cabin in the woods, frost and rain and a car that refuses to start. christmas, married, the first of many. presents given, brownies made. then eaten for breakfast. a year of such treats, such moments to be treasured....