Posts Tagged ‘life’
ta-da! we made if to friday! how is everyone? did you all keep your arms inside of the vehicle at all times, and remember that objects in the overhead cabins may have shifted during the flight? good. well, this has been the most fun and happy whirlwind of a week in some time so let’s review:
lets start with something pretty, some pom pom flowers! i walked past these chrysanthemum and couldn’t resist them. i love how fresh the white and green centre is. they’re sitting here next to me as i type and i want to scruff their raggedy heads.
i made another banana cake, because we always seem to have bananas around and i can’t stand to waste them (and yet also forget to eat them). i think i’m obsessed with not wasting them after i remembered a romanian girl at school telling me that one year, before they emigrated to australia, she wished for and got a single banana for christmas. as long as there are children wishing for bananas for christmas: i will be making banana cake from soggy bananas rather than throw them away. now if only i could apply this thriftiness to everything..
the other baking jaunt last weekend was making a batch of ANZAC cookies. they’re made from the same simple recipe the wives and mothers of world war 1 soldier’s used. al the ingredients are things that would have been staple items in any early 20th century australian kitchen, and they’re basically oat muesli cookies. i add sultanas because i’m a rebel who bakes banana loaves in bundt tins. damn the cookbook man!
and the best time of the day to enjoy a cookie (aside from post-breakfast, pre-lunch or post-dinner) would be afternoon tea, that most civilized of hours. i’m really enjoying the cool days and stopping for a moment in the afternoons to have a cup of tea from my favourite mug. it sounds so cliche but small things like this really elevate my mood and make me appreciate things.
get a load of this castle my son and i built! its kind of the template for our next house, but i’m thinking it might need a roof. i’m all for high ceilings, but i really think he’s pushing the boundaries of what’s functional. i told him to get back to the drawing board and not over conceptualize. he’s a good kid, but you know what they’re like, always form over function! and the minimalist furniture was a little too “blocky” for my taste. thats what you get for explaining who mies van der rohe is!
doodle-doooo! this is what it looks like when i pick up a pencil. yes, it happens occasionally. mostly during power outages and phone calls.
ooh c’est moi! i had to send a picture of ‘me at work’ to my son’s kindergarten so they can all talk about what everyone’s parents do all day. i was tempted to stage a sort of photo play about me lying around smoking opium and gambling but i couldn’t find my special opium smoking kimono. so here i am at my desk. generally i face the computer and do work, but that wouldn’t have made such a great photo because i tend to make embarrassing thinking faces. you may notice my hair is a different color now, i had it done last week after getting sick of not being able to wear pink or red without clashing with my hair. its a nice change and i tend to mix it up quarterly, so if you liked the red or hate the blondey bits, don’t worry.. it will change soon haha
as a side note, isn’t it interesting seeing a 27 year old designer now (me, above) and in 1978 (my mum at 27, working).
have a lovely weekend, wherever you are, and come back monday to see what vintage treasures i have to brighten your working week!
hi, how are you? how was your weekend? i had a great weekend. it was a holiday long weekend here commemorating the ANZACs (australian and new zealand army corps) the soldiers who fought in the first world war. if you’d like to read more about ANZAC day click here.
it was an especially exciting start to the weekend for me because our house tour was up on apartment therapy! did you see? when jenny emailed me to ask if i was interested i leapt into action (right after recovering from the excitement induced heart attack), tidying and photographing. that might not seem very impressive, but when there is a three-year-old involved, its a bit of a nightmare. as one mess is conquered, another is created! so its been a full-on week, but ultimately one of the best in recent memory.
i’m so proud of my house, and so excited that the place i’ve selfishly created as my ideal haven is of interest, and liked by other people! i (very briefly) studied interior decoration and design, and it was a pretty harrowing experience for me – i was the black sheep of the course. the students thought i was a weirdo, the teachers thought i was a trouble maker (are you kidding me!? i was the biggest square ever, i just had a funny haircut and wore thrifted clothes) and everyone else worshipped at the alter of beige. so life took over and i put away my hopes of being an interior decorator and decided just to make my own house happy. by the way, this isn’t meant to be an ‘i showed them all’ kinda thing, more just a musing on how different views can be, and how inspired i am to find (not just by the apartment therapy feedback but the internet in general) like minds and kindred spirits. so to everyone reading, and commenting here: thank you so much. interacting with you and hearing what you think about the things i love is just amazing. its invigorating and needs to be bottled and sold as a cure for all that ails you!
and as you might have seen: i opened my etsy store at long last! seriously, i thought it would never get sorted out – its taken almost a year. but last year was so fraught with er.. turbulence and general awfulness it just never felt like the right time. but life is calm now, and i’m prepared and with the encouragement and support of some very patient friends and family members, the right time arrived.
and finally – please, indulge me just this once – you’ve seen my house, you’ve seen my work, now you can see my kiddo! poor donovan, he doesn’t get any attention here because, well, i spend all day with him so this i the space i get to be myself. but don’t let his absence on this blog fool you, i’m so proud of my little guy! he’s the cleverest sausage i’ve ever met and he’s great company to work from home with. not your typical co-worker but we get our coloring done! i was very honored to share some of his grooviest threads when he was featured as modern kiddo’s weekly kiddo!
phew! so, quite the tour-de-self promotion there, but hey it doesn’t happen too often around here so we’re cool right? haha see you back here tomorrow for a non-me related post! oh wait.. it will be ‘me’ related, tomorrow i’ll be sharing my ‘love list’ post of wishlisty goodness. see you then?
TGIF? or maybe its just TGIThursday where you are. either way kick back and take a peek at my week. it was a week spent moving piles of stuff from one room to another. you know when you decided to shift a few things around and then all of a sudden every surface in the house is covered in stuff? thats what my week has been like. and to be honest, its still not all put back. its like a big game of chess, with three rooms getting reorganized at once. i’ve enjoyed unearthing a few forgotten treasures, and in breaks from shifting and sifting i’ve done some baking, and some hardcore ‘sitting down’ too.
i’m really enjoying this month’s page of my charley harper calendar. the colors are so crisp and mid-century! that turquoise and olive green might just be my new favorite color combination and i’ll be sad to turn the page in a couple of weeks. maybe it can go in a frame on may 1st.
speaking of good design, my current read, ‘design as art’ by bruno munari
is really interesting and i highly recommend any designers reading pick up a copy. its thought provoking and inspiring without being overly dry and academic.
is really interesting and i highly recommend any designers reading pick up a copy. its thought provoking and inspiring without being overly dry and academic. 
in amongst the tidying i found these scented pens. i bought them from the sanrio store in melbourne mainly for their packaging, but as soon as i sniffed them i remembered being so excited about ‘smelly pens” in grade 1. smelly pens and stickers were like the currency of the classroom back then! oh and little bitty bins… anyone else remember the small plastic trash-bin-shaped containers? i remember being crushed with disappointment when my dad picked me up from school and told me he had a surprise for me. i was convinced i was getting a bitty bin and immediately worked myself into a frenzy of excitement, but it turned out he’d bought a new car. i was unimpressed! sure it was a surprise, but it was the bad kind (the kind thats not a bitty bin!) man, was i ever a spoiled brat!
another bit of cute i found were these hysterical meat-cut stickers. they’re by ‘mindwave’ a japanese kawaii brand. i don’t know if its a cultural thing, but are kids into meat cuts?! i must be getting old. anyway i thought they were so fabulously bizarre i had to have them, hidden away in a drawer, only to be discovered and amuse me aaaaall over again!
so as i mentioned the cleaning frenzy has been interspersed with some domestic activities such as baking. saturday was just me and the kid home so i thought we’d kill time and some over ripe bananas. this cake turned out sooo good. sometimes banana cake is heavy and stodgy but this one turned out really fluffy. i credit any success to the kitchenaid mixer!!
and while the oven was going we got to work preparing some roasted tomato soup. these babies got quartered, then bathed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and studded with garlic cloves and left to slow roast. mmm! they made the house smell so good. i pureed them and mixed in some fried onion, herbs, bacon and stock and have enjoyed soup all week. i forget how rewarding a little bit of effort can be. remind me of that next time i’m skipping proper lunch in favor of a creme egg…
finally, check out this awesome cubist dog picture by my son. i love a dog with angles! its definitely a dog though i’m not sure what breed, i was informed by the artist himself (he’s 3 and a half) that it has an ear, an eye and a nose, so bidding starts at $500. can someone get me the phone number for MOMA?
i hope you have a great weekend wherever you are! anyone got any grand adventures planned? take care and i hope you’ll swing by on monday to check out next week’s vintage etsy finds!
eep! this is going up a bit late, but the last few days have been pretty busy and spent just dithering around the house. here’s what’s been going on:
have you seen my house? actually its not mine. but its near mine, and on easter sunday we went and had a picnic in the grounds of ripponlea estate. it was very idyllic.. except for the 200 other families doing the same thing!
this is the boating lake in ripponlea’s grounds. isn’t it pretty? imagine having a boating lake in your yard! sounds like too much work.. i’d have to feel guilty about not going boating. just as well i’ll never need to worry about boating-lake-guilt in this lifetime!
and across a section of the boating lake is this pretty bridge. its all too much really. we crossed it and birds came and landed on us and we sang a song and then deers and other woodland creatures gamboled about with us, but when we got back to our picnic we found seven dwarves had eaten it. i guess thats the downside of having a fairy tale bridge in your garden.
extreme daisy close up!! it was such a sunny day a lot of the eggs hidden for the easter egg hunt had melted by the time the kids found them.
and the last precious stash of my favorite eggs. these used to be called ‘noggi eggs’ and were available in bags when i was a kid, but now they only come in a little kinder assortment box at easter. so when i get some they are very treasured. mmmm praline filled!
i can’t remember if i’ve mentioned the kids room re-do i’ve been working on for far too long, but this rug is part of that. it arrived from urban outfitters a totally different color (grrr!) but after two rounds of fabric lightening and one nerve wracking die job its exaaaactly the color i wanted. satisfying!
hmmm what’s going on here? you’ll have to wait until next week to find out. can you stand the antici…………….pation?
for an explanation of the ever so witty image above, click here
this is a bit of a cheeky 7by7, i know its my ‘week in pictures’ but the truth is… there are no pictures this week! naughty. this week has gone so fast i’ve barely caught my breath and when i was out and about i’d forgotten to take my camera. epic 7by7 fail. but, rules were made to be broken (especially the rules i make) so rather than my pictures painting you a thousand words… let my thousand words paint you a thousand pictures. wait, that can’t be right. ah well, maths isn’t my strong suit.
last friday started with a bang when my son’s bookcase collapsed. no one was injured (unless snow globes count) and only the bookcase itself was badly damaged. being the opportunist that i am, i took this to be divine intervention that it was time to update the babyish nursery into an adventuresome little boy’s room. so far so good. we did the ikea thing to get new shelves, the thrifted bed frame is getting stripped and repainted, and a mood board is keeping me from going bananas and painting everything a different shade of yellow. stay tuned for the final result, if i’m not crushed by any new wayward bookshelves before i finish.
wednesday was 100% lovely. i got to have a boy date and a lady date! my boy date involved lunch at one of our favourite cafes and a peaceful afternoon nap! this is what parents do when they have time alone away from their child: eat in peace, and sleep. pretty rock’n'roll, eh?
lady date on wednesday night involved more delicious food, and more delicious company. i had amazing sorbet and then we saw a single man at the fancypants cinema (that’s the one with crushed velvet and brocade and popcorn cooked in olive oil) and it was really beautiful. a beautiful story, beautifully executed. i hope tom ford makes more movies, but i felt like a single man was so perfectly him i can’t imagine how he could better himself. but if anyone can, tom ford can.
the rest of the week has been work, child, make, plan, and ouch (i’ve messed up my foot wearing terrible shoes and have to wait another week to see a podiatrist. blurg!) so i’ll spare you the mundane details and leave you with the promise that next week on draw! pilgrim is going to be knock-your-socks-off-balls-to-the-wall-amazingtastic-a-go-go to the power of seven! so, there’s that to look forward to!
have a great weekend, any exciting plans? tell me! let me live vicariously through your adventures while i pathetically lounge around with my foot up, in a nurofen daze!
happy weekend eve! its friday, and therefore 7by7 day here on draw! pilgrim. how was your week? thanks for stopping by, and if you commented, thank so much for taking the time, it really means a lot to me that you take the time to share your thoughts and opinions with me. warm fuzzies!! so shall we take a look at my week, in pictures?
here i am, waitin‘ for the man train, into the city last saturday night. we went to see john water’s ‘this filthy world’ show at the art’s centre (if you don’t know melbourne, check out our arts centre: pointy). the show was excellent, it was such a thrill to see john waters speak, in person, and hear some of his crazy and filthy anecdotes. before the show we went to dinner and i had THE most delicious blackthorn cocktail (sweet vermouth, sloe gin, lemon peel) and yay! look, i got to show off my peta pledger heart bag. go snap one up right now! they’re vintage fabric so you don’t wanna miss out.
how fabulous is this chrome lettering on my friend’s car?! and even better is that fact that this car’s driver is a minx. and a vixen. and a doll. she’s from beyond the valley of the minxy vixen dolls.
my boyfriend and i had a special anniversary this week, and look what i got: jonathan adler salt & pepper whales! aww i’m so lucky. and even better, the card accompanying this gift didn’t have a single whale pun in it, what restraint! i love jonathan adler!
mm-mmmm! is there anything as inspiring as a fresh set of paints? my son and i did some painting on the weekend and we’ll be doing some more this weekend. he made a plaster volcano that i know he is dying to paint so stay tuned for the undoubtedly colorful results!
we’ve been having such gorgeous weather lately. this summer has been vary mild and not nearly as burny as australian summers can get, which is excellent news to english roses like me! also good news for pretty flowers flourishing in my neighbour’s garden. isn’t this hibiscus luscious?
one of my favorite summer treats is wandering around the corner to the milk bar (that’s a deli, or corner shop) to buy an after dinner ice cream. its so dreamy to be out when its starting to cool, and so refreshing to calmly stroll there and back. its hard to explain, but spontaneous summer evening fun is one of my summer bliss-outs. and now that its late summer its even sweeter to savour these more mellow evenings.
and last of all, how cool is this old brick ad painted on the side of an auto repair place on carlisle street?! i love these ads. there were a lot of varieties around the area i grew up in, and i think they established a fondness for that ‘nostalgia of a time you never experienced’. is there a word for that?
well, i hope you have a lovely weekend. i recommend a picnic, or maybe if that’s too cold have one on the lounge room floor. a picnic knows no meteorological restrictions! have fun whatever you do.
are you getting the hang of this 7by7 routine yet? 7by7 is seven days, seven photos. its an overview of what i’ve been up to this week. so what have i been busy with this week? the usual, espionage, seduction, mystery, adventure. and also these things:
now that its finally not so darned hot all the time i’ve had that urge to get back to my roots, as a hooker: crochet, dears, crochet! i’m continuing work on a mega afghan for our bed. i’ve given up the squares for now and i’m working on circles from ‘beyond the square crochet motifs’ by edie eckman
i went to visit my friend at her shop and she showed me this pocket shrine she’s had for years. i’d never seen one before, but its so tiny and fascinating! i’m pretty sure it would’ve blown my mind completely had i seen it when i was eight years old, oh how i loved making miniatures! the photo is pretty much actual size.
hey kids! try delicious and nutritious SPACE BURRITOS! actually it was just my delicious falafel wrap i had for lunch at a really great organic cafe in daylesford. the only interstellar thing being my garlic breath after lunch. totally. worth. it. yum!
also spotted in daylesford at ‘lost in the 50′s’, were these old fashioned soda bottles. here we see fanta with a groovy ridged bottle and ‘cottee’s passiona’. cottee’s is a staple of every australian childhood, they make cordial that’s powered many a sugar high, for generations. the upstairs level of this shop was an amazing trove of magazines from the 30s-70s.
isn’t it just divine when your snack of choice matches up with your current reading? i’m sure my family is grateful i’m not reading ‘the electric koolaid acid test’ next week.
wedged in between my welcoming little ‘friends with you’ figures is a mysterious new wooden stranger! she’s a DIY kokeshi doll, and i’m looking forward to customizing her as soon as i can pry those colorful two away from her. maybe they’re having a friendship convention?
and get a load of this! another one of my ‘friends with you’ figures tried to get involved with my lark purchases photoshoot! i think he was starting to feel threatened by all those colors and just needed to make his presence felt. what a cutie though! i love ‘friends with you’
well that was my week, chickens! how was yours? did you eat space burritos? did toys infiltrate your photos?
i hope you have a great weekend and see you back here on monday!
