Spring passtimes

Today I enjoyed total design-deliciousness overload, visiting the Melbourne Design Market at Fed Square (after a quick spin around the Bizarre Bazaar at the Famous Spiegeltent). It can be overwhelming to be surrounded by hundreds of amazing design products, but very inspiring too.

It also occurred to me that today is the last day of Spring, and we haven't even done any dastardly things to local birds this year...



(... in commemoration of which, I would set up a collection of these little pigeon lights:)



Pretty, no?

Finnair fabulous

Found on Retrothing:

"Finnair is going retro. The 'Silver Bird' Airbus A319 will make its maiden flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen on July 30, 2008. To commemorate the airline's 85th anniversary, it's painted in the livery of the company's 1950s Convair fleet and the crew will be stylishly appointed in 1950s uniforms. A total of 60 retro flights are scheduled throughout the remainder of the year, although the aircraft will retain its historic color scheme for years to come.

Unlike the first time around, it's doubtful you'll be allowed to chain smoke a pack of unfiltered cigarettes while enjoying a scotch or two as you sail through the skies. The original Convair cabins had leather armchairs in two rows, tasty meals were eaten at tables for the first time and the airline even offered passengers the use of an electric Philishave razor."


Nice.

True romance

In four happy years, we've gone from this:


to this:



Happy anniversary my love!

Melbourne monsoon

Today was hot and muggy. Storm clouds gathered at around 4pm and suddenly huge fat drops rained down, eventually turning into large hailstones. Within a few minutes the edges of the roads were flooded, the stormwater drains overflowing, and then, just as suddenly as it started, everything stopped.

I went outside and was surprised to find the weather still stiflingly hot as the dark, glowering storm clouds moved off to the east. It felt a little like Asian monsoon weather.




Moody.


P.S.: Check out Hoppo Bumpo's great pic of the clouds here.

Stamp stamp stamp!

Despite the pitiful results of my first lino-cut printing efforts, I now enjoy stamp-making. Today I made lots of stamps and started printing out some cards - it's all very amateurish at the moment but a fun place to start.





I'll never be in the same league as these lovely local ladies, but I hope to try some basic fabric printing soon.

Meanwhile, I've also been chuckling at the very funny posts on this site, found via Hoppo Bumpo. It's right up there with good ol' Cakewrecks. *... wipes away tears ...*

Goosebumps

Last night my husband took me to the most extraordinary musical performance. He bought the tickets to Hesperion XXI almost a year ago; I must admit that I wasn't really sure what it was going to be like. From the photos I'd seen, the group appeared to be very conservative, intense classical nerdy types. But we don't go to concerts to look at photos do we?

After a delicious meal at Hako in Flinders Lane, we headed off to the Concert Hall, where the group presented a haunting, exquisite collection of songs and music from a range of cultures, from Spain's Basque region, through France, Morocco, Ethiopia, Greece, Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan and more. I was transported, enraptured by the musicianship, the resonant instruments, the powerful voices, the complexity of ancient melodies.....




Thank you my love.

Helle Jorgensen

If you like beautiful things, you might like to visit Helle Jorgensen's site, Gooseflesh (discovered today via puhti). Helle creates marvellous works in various media - organic, sensitive pieces. And what that woman can do with old plastic bags ..... !





Creativity and talent all rolled up together - so lovely!


(all images from Gooseflesh)

Home again

We just returned from a little holiday in Tasmania. This was the first time I've been back to Tassie since I was about 8 years old; a perfect week away. I took way too many photos (mainly of lush landscapes, convict-era buildings, birds and plants), which I'll post on Flickr 'cause I can't fit them all on my little blog. Feel free to visit my Flickr pics any time.











Godfrey is sporting more facial hair for Movember again this year ... our holiday pics reveal the transformation from Wolverine-style whiskers to perhaps an even dodgier, trimmed mo that tends to scare small children.


Hmmm .... Only 6 days to go now.


We visited several antique shops in Tassie - they tempted us with all sorts of wonderful wares. I bought a few vintage children's books and vowed to return again with our own car, so that we might be able to bring back a few larger items.







I loved exploring Tasmania's architecture, landscapes, wildlife and intriguing history. We definitely plan to return and discover more soon.

Hot Spring (weather, not water)

This week I went to visit my mum and help her in the garden. The temperature rose to 35 degrees on Wednesday (95 degrees Fahrenheit .... and summer hasn't started yet!) and it was 33 degrees yesterday - awful conditions for working out on the open hillside. I tried to take some good photos but I fear the sunlight may have been too bright - they're rather washed out.

Poor mum is expecting a large group of visitors from this weekend's rose conference and she's absolutely exhausted (I felt wrecked after 1.5 days; she's out there every day. Phee-eew!).
















The garden is in full bloom at the moment though, and deliciously fragrant - I wish I could offer you these pictures in smell-o-vision! Gus had a ball chasing rabbits and jumping in tubs of water, making sure he got as muddy as possible.