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Monday, March 3rd, 2008
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10:16p - it's one! birthdays and present karma - left at the new cupcake bakery, the ivy, george st
Each week, a decorated matchbox with a tiny present hidden inside is left by a girl (and sometimes willing friends) somewhere in her travels. It's a random act of semi-artistic kindness aimed at disrupting someone's day in a tiny but positive way. That's if they dare to pick it up...
March marks the first birthday of the matchbox project, which is pretty unbelievable for me, considering it started off as a wouldn't-it-be-funny-if? thought and has clearly morphed into something else. So over the past year (oh wow, I'm getting nostalgic and it's only been a year.. cue the violin music already) the Matchbox project has brought me an unexpected amount of joy which is hilarious cos I'm the one giving presents away, the last thing I expected was to get anything back.
Planning, decorating and photographing my matchboxes helps me escape dull moments at work or on the bus and leaving a box in a new location each week always makes me feel a bit sneaky and playful at the same time. Ironically it really hasn't been about the literal finder of the box, but the fun to be had in making them and for lovely readers following along and commenting on them. I met Michelle incidentally through matchboxing - I bought some stickers at a zine fair from her and thought it was only right to mention what I would be doing with them - and we're now great buddies who egg each other on in creative pursuits and plan urban adventures on our weekends.
I'd been looking for lego men for ages for a matchbox - inspired by an oldschool toy shelf that I spied at a friend's house - but to no avail. They only sell that ridiculous Star-Wars themed stuff these days and looking for lego men at op shops is no where near as fun as it sounds. So it was present karma when Tony pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket and pushed it across the table over lunch last week. Inside were legomen from his childhood - some missing hair and others heads, some with dog bites down their legs but most fairly intact. I positively squealed before picking out the best two - the one that is being left this week and another super cool white spaceman with a green visor (which I'm told is particularly rare...) which I decided to keep. So you can understand why after this and the baby harmonica incident, I'm very into this idea of presents from the universe - and thought I might just put it out there that I'm still looking for a baby babushka doll :)
And so starts a month of guest-boxes made by most favourite creative people! It should be interesting - and kind of like a holiday for me at the very least. The brief is simple - whatever they want and feel like making/giving/designing so long as it fits in the box. I received my first box back over the weekend and it is just beautiful. Can't wait to post it next week!
Happy birthday blog! And thank you so much for reading along, you're awesome.
x
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