Stuff what I love right now (October 2016)

My tiny garden from Morning Flowers at Melbourne Central

Here is a bunch of stuff that I am loving right now (mostly discovered on Instagram and Pinterest). 

The glorious floral paintings of Canadian artist Bobbie Burgers. I love her bright, colourful works, but I adore the darker ones like this. 

'Take this longing'

The dark and haunting work of Dutch artist and photographer Nola Limmen.  I also love this photo of the view from her desk. 

Speaking of desks, I've been pinning a lot of pictures of people's workspaces on Pinterest lately. They even have their own board. I'm not sure why I like looking at pictures of people's desks and studios, but I do.  This one (the desk of UK-based interior designer Kate Young) is one of my faves.  I love the rustic desk and black and white photo combination. I'm feeling inspired to tizzy up my desk at work a little (it currently has barely any personal touches at all). 

I have also developed a Pinterest obsession with pictures of collections of things. All sorts of things, stuff that I'm not interested in collecting myself, like Blythe dolls, vintage cameos and pocket watches, mannequin heads and glass eyes. It's more about the photos of the things, than the things themselves.  

 I think this photo is by Glenn Matsumura, 

though I can't see it on his site

Today I discovered knolling, which is the arrangement/organisation of like objects into a neat square or rectangle. I'm not entirely sure why you would do this, but I like looking at photos of it. Here are 50 photos of knolling (knolls?):

I also like this Tumblr called Things Organized Neatly.  (I wonder if I might have a streak of obsessive compulsive in me?)  Things organised neatly in rainbow colour are even better. 

I might have banned myself from shopping for shoes, clothes and accessories, but I'm still allowed to look. I love Zana Bayne's leather gear (fortunately I couldn't afford her  stuff even if I were allowed to shop).

Oversized buckle belt

Designers Guild's gorgeous fabric, wallpaper and homewares. I've just discovered they do free samples (although they don't ship to Australia, but there are ways around that). 

Pip Studio wallpaper and homewares. So pretty and colourful.  

November: day 20

Nail art of the day

I showed my latest nail picture to Luke and he's completely grossed out that I kept the 'nail', as if it's actually my real nail. He's a strange boy, but I like him.  Then I told him I bought the 'nail' home with me... I have a creative vision, dammit! 

I fell over crossing the road today and several lovely people stopped to ask if I was OK (I was). I've fallen over four times this year and have only suffered a few bruises and scrapes. Lucky...especially as two of the tumbles were at waterfalls. Stupid slippery rocks.  

Hunky Dory, the fish n chip place, is our new Friday night dinner haunt. I'm in love with their lamb skewers. They're so juicy and tender and flavoursome. We're often served by the same young woman and she knows what my 'usual' is now. 

November: day 19

Glitter bug

I'm giving new meaning to the term 'nail art'. The silver glitter SNS polish on my left index finger came off in one piece like a shell and my friend said it looked like a beetle. 

***

I was forced to buy new earphones because the ones I had just randomly stopped working and the Apple ones I had in my desk drawer at home are too big for my ears holes. They just keep falling out, making me cast envious glances at all the people with ear holes big enough to accommodate them securely. You people with big ear holes; you don't know how fortunate you are. 

Anyway, I was too lazy to venture up the other end of town to buy some good quality earphones so I went to Smiggle and  got some cheap ones for $13 AND THEY ARE ACE. So much better than the gigantic Apple ones. So snug! They almost sound like little corks popping when I take them our of my ears. 

***

I ran for eight minutes at the gym tonight (in intervals) and I ate a very tasty protein ball afterwards. 

November: day 7

Got my hair did today. I went bright purple all over about two months ago, but today I went back to black on the sides and a darker purple on top.  I like it. (Those are shadows under my eyes not massive dark circles, although I do look how I feel...)

Just after I took this photo a woman came up to me gushing about how "awesome" my hair is and told her 20-something daughter she should get something like it instead of her straight, natural brown hair. Hahaha. (Poor daughter though.) Having random people on the street comment on your hair happens when you go with a bright colour. 

I got my hair done at Razor Dolls on Chapel Street in Windsor, which is not your usual hair salon. All the hairdressers are pretty out there - lots of tattoos (including one facial tatt), ear gauges, piercings, and crazy hair dos. My hairdresser has bright pink, platinum blonde and yellow dreadlocks. I just want to sit and stare at all of them. 

Mirror, mirror

I took a photo of our new mirror today before I sat down on the couch and couldn't get up again (actually, when I got home today I went straight to bed for a nap for a few hours). 

We liked the really ornate mirrors, but we ended up buying a contemporary style since the rest of our decor is modern.  You can't really see it, but it has a nice bevelled edge on the glass.  

I need to rethink the mantelpiece decoration so the bottom of the frame is visible. If the mirror were hung higher we wouldn't be able to see much in it besides the ceiling (and the bare lightbulb, which needs a new light fitting). 

Our Ends are our Beginnings

The other picture the handyman hung for me was this print I bought from the site Section6. It's called Our Ends are our Beginnings by Paradisiac Picture. I love it - the dramatic golden sky, the deep blue ocean and the Parisian-looking city on the sea floor, but also the possibility of feeling as if you're sinking to the bottom, but something new 

This is a bit strange, but sometimes when I'm near the sea or watching a documentary about it, I think how terrifying it would be to fall into the deepest depths of the ocean, and I get a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach like mild panic or claustrophobia, and that's what I initially feel when I look at this. She's falling to the bottom of the sea! But she will be saved! 

(Sorry about the formatting, it's misbehaving and I'm too tired to fix it.)

Monet's garden, mint, here to help

After we finished doing all the boring stuff we had to do yesterday, Luke and I walked up to the National Gallery of Victoria to see the Monet's Garden exhibition. The air was brisk, but the sun was warm. The path was lined with autumn leaves. The trees have been really holding onto their leaves, but it's finally looking more like autumn now. 

There was a quite mesmerising art installation in the foyer of the NGV consisting of a pool of gently moving water and a flotilla of shallow ceramic bowls of all sizes. The bowls tinkled and chimed as they drifted into each other. So simple, but quite captivating. I made a short video of it so you can hear it.  

I enjoyed the Monet exhibition. Like many people, I was most familiar with his water lily paintings, but didn't know much of his other works, or of his life. We were amused by his description of his labours in a letter to his first wife Alice in 1894:

Think of me getting up before 6; I’m at work by 7 and I continue until 6.30 in the evening standing up all the time, nine canvases. It’s murderous and to think I drop everything, you, my garden, all for this …

I suspect there would have been many late 19th century workers who would have been delighted to swap places. 

Apart from the water lily paintings, Vetheuil in the Fog, was my favourite, which is probably not surprising since I'm very partial to a foggy landscape photo.

My Impressionist-style photo of a deer made of 

glass orbs (taken through the NGV's water wall) 

On our way home we ventured into the Queen Victoria Gardens and King's Domain.

Raindrops

Unexpected duck discovery (ducks on right)

This pond is near the Sidney Myer music bowl

The city, also from near the music bowl

The Tan track in the foreground

It was very chilly by this stage. I was very happy to get home to our warm flat (the heat is back on).

Baby mint

A few weeks ago I cut a long shoot off our mint plant and put it in a glass of water on the kitchen window sill. It's grown roots. I'd better plant it. 

Here to help

When I was buying my lunch today I overhead a man ask the sandwich shop people if they had gluten-free bread. They didn't, but before I could tell him that the shop next door did, he was off. While I was waiting for my toastie to toast, he walked past again, still sans lunch, so I walked over and told him where to get the gluten-free bread. I threw in a bonus tip on where to get a gluten-free muffin nearby.

Winter fare, signs, stuffed animals

Luke and I had lunch at Borsch, Vodka and Tears on Chapel Street today. I had the Hungarian Lamb Stew, which was perfect fare for a chilly winter day, and Luke had the pierogi (Polish dumplings).Yum. We sat outside under the gas heater and it was very toasty.

While on Chapel Street, we poked about in the new Salvos op-shop. I love the way the Salvation Army is turning its stores into visually pleasing, cool places to shop, no doubt driven by the popularity of retro and vintage gear. We bought three classic Australian novels - The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, Such is Life and Robbery Under Arms, all for total of $1.50.  This imprint of Such is Life dates back to 1943 and it has what looks like the original price written in pencil inside the cover - 30 cents!

We also dropped into Tarlo & Graham, a shop crammed full of an eclectic array of industrial, religious and science stuff. It's a bit like Wunderkammer, particularly the  eye-popping (and slightly disturbing) taxidermy. (I doubt taxidermy can ever not be disturbing.)

Please, sir, can I have some more? 

This is/was an eland. It's hard to tell in this picture, but it is HUGE. According to Wikipedia, they can grow up to 2.9 metres long and 1.75 metres high at the shoulder, and weigh up to 900 kilograms. Crikey!

   

Aw, poor ducklings

What say you, Mr Zebra?

Halleluja! 

They had an old sign in the window. 

I also spotted this sign on Chapel Street, which I must have walked by many times before. 

Anyone for billiards?

After that we drove to Armadale to visit the Silver K Gallery, which specialises in animation art and rock n roll photography. Some cool stuff, but way out of our price range. And yes, for any Melburnians reading, the old dude with the long silver hair who does the Silver K Gallery TV ads was there. 

I spotted a couple of great old signs on High Street. 

One side...

 The other side (stupid power pole)

This rather lovely old building is now home to a bookshop called Berkelouw Books, which we had to enter because bookshop and it had a display of Dr Seuss in the window. The Dr Seuss collection was disappointingly small, but I did buy a book called The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language by Mark Forsyth, whose bio in the front of the books described him thusly: 

Mark Forsyth is a writer, journalist, proofreader, ghostwriter and pedant. 

Ha! He sounds like my people. I love reading about the origin of words, and I'm also partial to a book bound in a pleasingly old-fashioned style, such as this one. 

The shop has an open fireplace down the back with a couple of leather couches to sit on, but the fire wasn't burning today. What a pity. It was a perfect day for an open fire. That would have been ace (but maybe not so good for the books).


PS Blogger is very cantankerous tonight, and I've had enough of wrestling with the formatting, so this is as good as it gets.

Northern adventure

I thought it was Monday when I woke up this morning. What a drag...oh, wait! It's not Monday. It's Sunday! Yay! 

I caught the bus over to the inner north today. Since I last wandered Smith Street in Collingwood - not that long ago - there has been an explosion in the number of vintage, collectibles and second hand stores. Several were selling old advertising signs (at prices far out of my reach, unfortunately). 

I love these old ice cream 'signs'. And yes, ice cream 

is health food

Another ice cream. These used to sit above the 

doors of old-style milk bars (in the days before 

every convenience store was a 7 Eleven)

An ice cream in situ, just a few doors up

from the shop in the photo above. 

It's seen better days

The shop that the second photo was taken in is absolutely crammed with cool stuff, including a couple of sideshow clowns. 

This one is modelling an Essendon FC beanie

I dropped into a vintage clothing store and as I was browsing the racks, a shop cat revealed itself and accepted a pat. I love shop cats (and cinema cats such as the Astor cat in St Kilda, which once sat on a friend's lap during a movie a few years ago). As I was heading for the door, the cat was waiting there, looking out at passers-by. 

The little poser

I alerted the shop owner that his moggie appeared to be readying itself for an escape, and he shoo'ed it away from the door. 

I had a yummy toasted sesame seed bagel with cream cheese at Bean & Bagel on Johnston Street. 

I saw a lot of powerline shoes...

And some lovely autumn colour...

And some fantastic old doors... 

I also spotted what looked like an old outdoor dunny in someone's back yard. 

I bought this cute two-in-one brooch. 

And a set of placemats with hot air balloon art by Australian artist Sharon Peterkin. 

 There are six place mats, all with a different design

As usual with my sojourns over that side of town, I saw plenty of old signs, including this one on Johnston Street. I hope the new tenants keep the old signage. I'll post photos of the other signs later. I need to go to bed now because tomorrow is Monday.

Grateful, crafty, fantastical

Today is a public holiday in Australia for Anzac Day. I had toyed with the idea of going to the dawn service since I live so close to the Shrine of Remembrance, but I couldn't face such an early start on a cold and wet day. Yes, I know that's sooky, especially when you think about the sacrifices made by those who have served their country in appalling conditions. I had a nice sleep in instead, but I did take time to be grateful for living in a safe, peaceful country with a roof over my head and a warm bed.

I made myself bacon and eggs for brunch (yum) and then spent most of the rest of the day on the couch reading blogs, indulging my Pinterest addiction and listening to music. I didn't set foot outside into the cold drizzly day at all.

I also made a light shade for the light in my loungeroom. The original light shade (the same as the one below) fell to the floor and smashed (eeep!) before I moved in and it's been a naked bulb ever since, which is a bit ugly.

But today I had a brainwave and decided to make a shade myself. Ta-dah!

Naked no more

It's one of those Christmas paper lanterns kids used to make at school (still might, I don't know). It took all of 15 minutes to make and put up. I love the patterns the light makes on the ceiling. 

I forgot to show you the paper hearts I made during my three-week staycation.

There's five of these ones and four smaller ones hanging in a row from the pelmet box over my loungeroom window. Simple, quick, inexpensive, colourful and fun (they co-ordinate nicely with one of my My Little Ponies). I also took some cool photos of them before I hung them up.

 

And I forgot to post a photo of the big feather I found at the Abbotsford Convent a couple of weekends ago. Here tis:

While moodling about on the internet last night I came upon the fantastical art of Catrin Welz-Stein. I love it, especially this piece. And this. And this one.

Speaking of fantastical stuff, have a look at the video clip for The Shins' song The Rifle's Spiral.  Thanks to my loyal reader and interwebs friend Margaret for sending me the link. 

I also found this: 

It's similar to one of my favourite quotes by Robertson Davies: "Every man makes his own summer".