my cards.. Yay!!!

I have recently started making beautiful hand made cards.
I use high quality 250 GSM card stock and envelopes that 'peel and seal'.
Matte photos of images that I have taken, are then mounted onto the card stock.
All who have purchased the cards, speak of their 'high quality'.
A few people have even brought some cards to frame! (silly people, I sell framed 4 x 6 and  A4 sized images as well!!!!, but more of that another time)


The cards (name of the design is written under the image):

Spacemen in Fitzroy, Riding down the lane, Eiffel tower and Lane in Como, Italy:

Thanks, Raining colour in Fitzroy (not available), London Tube & Venus Bay, Gippsland:

Thank You, The view from Gerard's window, Paris, Lunch in Versailles & watching over us:

Love is possible, Chrysler Building, New York, Saucer and Spoon & Latte:

Santa, As night falls & Love is all you need & an i-phone:

Alexanderplatz, Berlin, Keller & Kalmbach, Munich & Flower detail, Battery Point, Tas

Smoking in the Lane, Berlin Lane & Peek a Boo

Aside from these cards being a beautiful and original gift in themselves,
as we get closer to christmas, these cards are absolutely perfect to place a gift voucher within!


If you would like to order any cards (and while the website is on its way), please email me at:


matthew@matthewschiavello.com                      

-Let me know which designs you would like and how many of each design (please note that a couple of the cards come in different coloured card stock, i.e. the 'santa' card has a red or white card stock).

- Please also provide me with your name and address details to send the cards to.
I will then get back to you with postage costs. Once payment is made, cards are then mailed off.



Support local starving artists!! (ie me!)

The cards are approx 115mm X 165mm


Cost:
$5 each plus postage.

As you can imagine, some of the designs are currently available in a couple of stores locally at a much higher retail price! So this is the perfect opportunity to obtain these cards at an unbelievably great price!


I am so confidant of how great these cards are, that I will gladly refund you the cost of any of the cards you are not happy with!


Payment is preferred via pay-pal.  Easy to set up, safe and secure to use !
Any questions please email me - matthew@matthewschiavello.com

Here is a picture of the back of envelope showing 'peel and seal' flap.

* please note that the colours may vary slightly than in the above images. Some of the above photos might also have some glare 'effect' from lighting, at the time the photo was taken. Having put these mandatory disclaimers in, let me say that when you do receive your cards,
you will not be disappointed!!!

Yours,
matthew laurence schiavello.
matthew@matthewschiavello.com

The good, the bad and the ugly - October 2011

The Good: Harvesting from the veggie garden!!!

I thought I would try growing beetroot this year, so I popped some in my front yard...Here are some of the beetroot ready to be cooked and eaten!:

And here are some Silverbeet and Rocket I have been harvesting. I love harvest/cut as you need type veggies!!! I had just taken out some snow peas and am thinking of popping in some yellow beans or tomatoes... Hell, I think I'll be a daredevil and plant both!!!

The Bad:  Porn covers
 I helped out at that shop again recently and stumbled across these pornographic parodies. I can't help looking at them and feeling really confused. I liked and have nice memories of the films, but these are not the films I recall. I would ask why?, I mean Psycho?? come on!!!! But I do wonder if we would really want to know the answer...

The Ugly:  'Friends' and John Kellogg Hodgman.

Here I have to nominate my 'friends' as being 'ugly' for bagging my future husband. How can anyone think this man is nothing but handsome??? I am worried that all of my friends think him unattractive and that I, apparently, have no taste in men. Obviously the truth is that I have poor taste in friends. If they reality checked me about the fact that a) he is married to a woman and b) he lives in the U.S.of A. that would be an acceptable friend type gesture, but to putdown my future husband, well.....No invites to slide show night! Anyway, on a serious note, here are some photos of the future Mr Schiavello, umm I mean of John Kellogg Hodgman (also known for playing 'PC' in the PC /Mac ads).

Ummm, If I had a friend photoshop me into this picture, so that John's arm is around me, would that be weird and creepy??

 After looking this cute face, how can anyone say no? Those eyes say it all, intelligence, humour, quirkiness, depth...and errr what ever else you or I want to read into them!

John a couple of years back as the 'PC guy' (on the left) with the Mac guy on the right. Are Mac users too cool to tuck their tops in?:

Oh, thanks to Ric, for 'finding' this pic of hubby and I at my graduation!

 (I can't stop laughing, hehehe too funny!!!!).

Life a new

It has been a while since I have been inspired to write anything 'humorous'. Through a series of events, to which there is no blame to attribute, I am now unemployed and living below the poverty line. This is not a cry for help, sympathy or alms, merely a statement.

In order to obtain financial assistance from the government, I have engaged with services and had all dignity stripped away by the people who were there to help me. I have to participate in 'job club' on  a weekly basis. 'What is job club?' I hear you ask, it is where a large group of us unemployed sit in a room looking for and applying for jobs, all under the close watch of case workers. Apparently they need to make sure that we 'do the right thing' and as such we can't be trusted to look for work from outside their offices (a case worker told me this). I can't help but wonder what type of a society treats it's less fortunate and unemployed like criminals.

My case worker treated me contemptuously from the moment we met...well, all up until the moment she realised I had supervised her in a previous role. Then she was sympathetic to my situation. This disappointed me greatly. All who walk through their doors should be treated with dignity and respect. 

This isn't a rant, I am simply sharing my experience. I am over feeling angry at how I have been treated. I am ready instead to live life a new. I am ready once more to live in hope.  Strangely, my creative side has blossomed since my circumstances have changed and I am making hand made photo-cards. I have some photos hanging in a gallery and I am playing and writing music again. Due to these experiences I have discovered a depth to my inner strength and resolve which I did not know existed. In an odd way, I am more confidant in myself. I am also getting better at putting my fear and anxiety to the side. Though my income barely covers my mortgage repayments, I am more accepting of where I am at, as I also accept that I am where I need to be, for what ever reason.  As I apply for work and live life a new, I am finding my happiness again. Everyday I am finding something to smile about.


Speaking of smiling, here is something beautiful and life affirming.....
It is a new track from  Bjork called 'moon'. It is off her new LP 'Biophilia', which has specially built apps for Apple's 'i' products (i-pads etc). According to Wikipedia there will be "around ten separate apps, all housed within one "mother" app. Each of the smaller apps will relate to a different track from the album, allowing people to explore and interact with the song's themes or even make a completely new version of them. It will also be an evolving entity that will grow as and when the album's release schedule dictates, with new elements added. Every app includes a game related to the song, the score of the song created by Björk and Jónas Sen, animations and a musical essay written by Nikki Dibben".
How exciting and how very Bjork!!! When I do start a new job, buying this album will be high on my 'to do list'!

Bjork- 'moon'.

City of Rubens' pt 1

I love street art and graffiti. Some people don't like it, some do and most of us prefer our own homes to remain untouched by tags etc. Anyway, here are some pics from Fitzroy and surrounding areas.

Sometimes the whole side of houses are done (with permission, or by commission I suspect)

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue - October 2011

Something Old:
God I love this tune!  I can't stop singing along everytime I hear it...I recently came across a clip of Ray Davies performing it live at Glastonbury in 2010. It was a big singalong, as were the other great Kinks tunes he played that day! Anyway, I am attaching the original Kinks version from way back when. The very last bit of the song is cut off, but the brilliant picture quality makes up for it!

The Kinks- 'Waterloo Sunset'




Something New:

Tomboybill has a new site and is selling his/her art! So support local talent, and I do mean TALENT and check it out and pass the info on! (oh, and did I say that its new!) http://tomboybill.com/

Ok, now onto music...

This tune has been on the radio and just gets me bopping along to it! From the Blue Mountains in NSW, bless them! No clip, as such, just tune!

Hermitude- 'Speak of the devil'


Something Borrowed:
I don't know if you are one of the 22 million people to have seen this yet, if not you're now about to join us... JOIN US.... sorry I went into Zombie mode then. Anyway this clip is great!

The Muppets- "Bohemian Rhapsody'
 

and something else that is borrowed-
Gorillaz, or now that they play live as real people and not as holographic cartoon images, should we just say Damon Albarn and friends?

Gorillaz, doing a live cover of The xx's tune - 'Crystalised'.



Something Blue:

Rocking  in a completely 20th century way is Gershwin!


From Fantasia 2000- 'Rhapsody in Blue'