Plastic fantastic

I know I'll never wear them but I love Vivienne Westwood's latest shoes:

 

  

  

  

Thank you, Janne, for pointing them out!

Now made to order!

That's right Betty ... let the pattern tell you!

I've stepped up my sewing efforts lately, and although my Quick-Unpick has been getting a rather hefty workout, I'm determined to keep calm and carry on.

Inspiration abounds in vintage blog land.

Abundance

Our small veggie garden has gone into overdrive this summer - last week we still had several zucchinis left over for ourselves every day despite giving away over 23kg (around 40 pounds!) of zucchs. The previous weekend we gave away 18kg's worth, while also stocking our freezer with zucchini soup and making lots of zucchini pasta dishes. It's a zucchini bonanza!

 

 

Fresh tomato pasta and basil pesto were also on the menu this week - so delicious! I don't think you can ever have too much basil in the garden ....

Our neighbours' fruit trees are heavily laden too; each night we're serenaded (?!) by the chattering and squabbling of fruit bats as they feast on figs, quinces and stonefruit. It's funny ... although Gus barks at possums he doesn't make a fuss of the fruit bats in our trees, even though they're much noisier. Maybe they intimidate him - some of them have wingspans of around 70cm (35").

Oh - I just found this pic of a fruit bat (they're known in Australia as flying foxes) - what an odd, yet endearing, little face!

(pic from here)

Happy gardening, folks!

Pretty skinny

Good ol' Skinny Laminx - she knows how to bring a smile to the face of someone who loves colour and pattern!

More little people

It's been a while since I checked the Little People website - I just adore Slinkachu's work!

How wonderful it would be to stumble across one of his tiny installations on a grey and gloomy London day ...

 

  

You can see more over here!

The Book Cover Archive

... is always inspiring.

* Post script - in the comments for this post my sister has provided a link to an interesting site by cover designer David Drummond. It's worth a look!

Embroidery as Art

I found the Embroidery as Art blog via textile artist Fiona Wilson today. One to keep an eye on, methinks!

 

  

  

 

Wayne Pate

Wayne Pate's illustrations are naïve and fun - they make me smile!

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

Knock Off Wood

A while ago I found this wonderful site, put together by Ana, offering great alternatives to buying expensive wooden furniture. Self-taught and interested in carpentry and construction, Ana realised that it's not so difficult to replicate popular furniture at home. The best thing is that she creates clear and accessible plans and instructions and shares them with us for free!

These are some of the items from West Elm and Pottery Barn that we can now replicate at home by following Ana's instructions, for a fraction of the price:

 

  

  

  

  

 

This girl is so fabulous! Can't wait to see how we go on a couple of these projects ...