SPRING SALE

Wet and Wendy are having a huge SALE! Making way for a new collection
70% OFF ALL rainwear, just enter SPRINGSALE upon checkout.

I WANT TO MAKE A RAIN MACHINE

Let me know if you would like to help.

I am sitting here today in the most glorious sunshine. It's casting warm shadows on the desk, making me feel all warm and Summery.
I've been thinking lately about sprinklers, about the days when the kids from around the neighbourhood used to play under the round orange sprinkler in my mum & dad's front yard, pretending it was raining and I'm thinking this could be a good start to my Wet & Wendy AW12 Rain Machine.

Need:
1. Hose
2. A big knife or some sort of sharp round leather tool
3. Two ladders (the A-frame type)
4. A tap

How hard can it be?

Maybe illustrator  JOAO BENTO SOARES will help me draw up my rain machine plans?
(more drawings HERE)

In 1969, Andy Warhol began work on a project with a visual imagery company specialising in 3d imagery, he was looking to collaborate on a technology piece. Through testing and mockups the design moved from it's original concept of a snowstorm, using a wind machine and rain machine, to a calmer piece using 3d imagery of a repetitive daisy print with a rainy foreground. Where the technical company he was collaborating with wanted the rain machine to be enclosed and sophisticated in it's mechanics, Andy requested that the rain machine be exposed and crude. Unfortunately after its exhibits in Los Angeles and Osaka, the piece was so water damaged and therefore destroyed.

'In due course the Andy Warhol Rain Machine in the permanent collection of the Warhol Museum was to be covered in plexiglass. The 70 panels that comprise the Rain Machine on view here were enframed for the exhibitions at Cologne and New York in 2002. For these presentations the rain machine was fabricated according to the earlier plans and wishes of Andy Warhol as they are manifest in the installation at the Andy Warhol Museum.' (text: via: Rabih Hage Gallery read more here)

PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL'S WINTER PREDICTION 2012

Groundhog Club handler John Griffiths holds Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, during the 126th celebration of Groundhog Day on Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012. Phil saw his shadow, forecasting six more weeks of winter weather. 
(Associated Press -- Gene J. Puskar)

Read More about Phil here.


It's a given that my mind ticks over with the possibilities of Australian equivalents...a platypus named Johnno is a likely contender. I'll get back to you.

FRIDAY

see here

GET CIRRUS

Even the idea of a cloud lamp gives me a sense of calm. If i design one in my head it has a softness about the light that makes me want to curl up and close my eyes, maybe with a white shaggy dog by my side and some meringue's.

Here are some lovely cloud lamps that don't involve shaggy dogs.

The Luminaire Store

Chinese designer; Zhao Leping

The Cloud Appreciation Society

Stockhausen Design

Stine Diness

WET & WENDY'S TOP 10 CHRISTMAS MOVIES

One Christmas in London, then one Christmas in Melbourne, one Christmas in London...well you get my drift. Last year was spend in the "Blizzard of 2010" in London and it was WONDERFUL. The boy and I bought a sled and carried the groceries home from the shops. We made snow angels and watched kids push a giant snowball across the street the size of a small car. The Christmas Spirit was infectious.

This year its a Sunny/ blustery/ rainy/ hot/ cold one in Melbs and we are enjoying the thought of the BBQ being lit. No matter where we are in the world, whether its minus 5 degrees or 35 degrees, one thing does not change and that is the need to bunker down and treat yourself to a Christmas movie marathon.

So here they are, our top 10 movies to watch this festive season, we have been trying to rent groundhog day at our local and it's been out for two weeks! get in quick!

It's a wonderful life: 1946- read here
Reason: The classic factor

Elf: 2003-  read here
Reason: The LOL factor 

Groundhog Day: 2003 - read here
Reason: The never get's tired factor

Home Alone: 1990 - read here
Reason: The childhood memory factor 

Edward Scissorhands: 1990 - read here
Reason: The wintery wonderland factor 

 White Christmas:1954 - read here
Reason: The original and the best factor 

The Muppet Christmas Carol: 1992 - read here
Reason: The cute factor 

 The Holiday: 2006 - read here
Reason: The cheese ball factor

Bad Santa: 2003 - read here
Reason: The genius factor 

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation: 1989 - read here
Reason: The funniest man of all time factor


WET & WENDY LOVES THE FESTIVE SEASON

IT WAS A DARK & STORMY NIGHT...

Weather scenes in fiction is a beautiful thing. It is entirely up to you, the reader as to the magical vision in your mind. You are given the words, the description- and the weather unfolds the way only you interpret it.

IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT...

The original book which starts with this phrase, the utmost favourite here at Wet & Wendy was written by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton at the beginning of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford.

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

A few other beautiful weather scenes from some of the classics...

EMMA- Jane Austin- 1815

The evening of this day was very long and melancholy...the weather added what it could of gloom. A cold, stormy rain set in, and nothing of July appeared but in the trees and shrubs, which the wind was despoiling, and the length of the day, which only made such cruel sights the longer visible.

TALES OF THE JAZZ AGE - F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1922

The street was hot at three and hotter still at four, the April dust seeming to enmesh the sun and give it forth again as a world-old joke forever played on an eternity of afternoons. But at half past four a first layer of quiet fell and the shades lengthened under the awnings and heavy foliaged trees. In this heat nothing mattered. All life was weather, a waiting through the hot where events had no significance for the cool that was soft and caressing like a woman's hand on a tired forehead.

 STORM- George Rippey Stewart- 1941

This novel, featuring a Pacific storm called "Maria". prompted the National Weather Service to use personal names to designate storms. This is still the case today.

As a man is conceived in the fierce onset of opposing natures, so also a storm begins in the clash of dry cold air from the north and the mild moist air of the south. Like a person, a storm is a focus of activities, continuing and varying through a longer or shorter period of time, having a birth, youth, maturity, old age and death. It moves, in a sense, it reproduces its kind, and even takes in food, exhausts it of energy and casts out the waste.

SO..LIKE..TOTALLY.. ECLIPSED

Tomorrow, Friday November 25th 2011 sees a partial eclipse of the sun in the southern most parts of this wonderous planet. If you are fortunate enough to be in TASMANIA or the SOUTHERN ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND tomorrow, you will see the phenomonen just before dusk. In Tasmania, a partial solar eclipse will be observable using safe solar viewing techniques between approximately 6.32pm and 7.06pm Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time, Maximum eclipse is at 6.49 pm.
The best places to view will be Antarctica & The southern Tip of South America.

If you see it please let us know what it was like!

Solar eclipses occur when the Moon briefly passes directly between the Earth and the Sun. If you happen to be on the right part of the Earth’s surface, (with safe viewing techniques) you will be able to see part or all of the Sun blocked from view. You can either have total solar eclipses (where all of the Sun is blocked from view) or a partial solar eclipse (where only part of the Sun is blocked from view). The ideal place to view Friday’s partial solar eclipse would be Antarctica where almost all of the Sun will be blocked from view. Further information about the eclipse can be found on NASA’s Eclipse Website.
As an aside, there will be a total lunar eclipse visible on the night of 10/11 December 2011 across Australia. See Nightsky for further info

You may also like our previous post TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART

pinterest

 

 

 

PARAPLU

Thanks to places like the Dutch National Archives, we can see incredible imagery like these...it's truely endless..see more here

SUN IS A LOVELY WORD

SUMMER FESTIVALS BEGIN!

1. W&W Mini Cape $49.95
2. W&W Boater Hat $$29.95
3. W&W Duffle Bag $49.95
4. W&W Pinstripe Sunbrella $39.95
5. W&W Pac-a-Mac Raincoat (avail in Mens & womens) $99.95

See the WEBSTORE TO PURCHASE!

TOMORROW marks the first day of the festival season for us here at Wet & Wendy!
We will be peddling our wares with the Wonderful Weather Wagon at the HARVEST PRESENTS festival at Werribee Mansion.

We would love to see you there, even if just to talk about the weather!

RAIN LOVER

The Melbourne Cup, as the locals know races on in rain, hail or shine and punters don't seem to mind what the weather is. Wet & Wendy's favourite story of the Cup and it's past is the beautiful horse of the 1960's; Rain Lover. A horse who inspired the limited edition 'Love The Race' brellas this year which sold out here at W&W faster than you could say "and they're off...!"

Rain Lover was one of the very few horses to win the Melbourne Cup more than once winning in 1968 & 1969.
In his first Melbourne Cup triumph, under jockey Jim Johnson, Rain Lover won by a record eight-length margin and in a record time of 3:19.1. Jim was also noted for his unusual riding style of virtually standing up and was one of the few great jockeys to win the Melbourne cup three times.

Controversy surrounded his second win as the hot favourite and heavily backed Big Philou trained by Bart Cummings was the victim of a doping scandal and was withdrawn from the race 39 minutes before the start. Burdened with 9 st. 7 lbs. Rain Lover still went on the win the race from Alsop and created history as the first back-to-back winner since Archer in 1861 and 1862.
Info & stats provided by RaceRate.

Wet & Wendy 'Love The Race' Umbrella- now sold out but plain stripes (without horses) available from Thursday at the ONLINE STORE as well as visit our local stockists.

ENDLESS RAIN INTO A PAPER CUP

I'm not sure any band loved brellas as much as The Beatles.

My favourite Beatles lyric is from Across The Universe......
"words are flying out like endless rain into a paper cup"

In the Beatles song Rain, the backwards vocal at the end fade out is actually the songs first line:
"When the rain comes they run and hide their heads".  

Rain was said to have been written by John after observing the hurried way pedestrians move out of the way of raindrops.  

SPRING RAINING CARNIVAL

This Years 2011 Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival has been forecast with alot of rain. Like last year in particular, this year's carnival is set to be awash with drowning stilleto's and tipsy punters cowering from the downpour with a plastic bag over their heads, or better still a full body clear kagool. 
If you need refreshing on this...

The new Wet & Wendy collection launches next week and wouldn't the racing carnival be different if everyone was decked out in their W&W goods looking super stylish in the rain?  C'mon Melbourne!

WET & WENDY LOVES THE RACE