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Just a quick post to say "hi" and show you something rather lovely! This amazing little scene cut into a leaf (!) is by the artist Lorenzo Duran. There are heaps more to see at his website here.
I hope everyone is well and having a super week so far!
This is Veronica in Paris taking photos of the Eiffel Tower with her snazzy retro camera. Meanwhile, French pigeons puff and coo at her feet. Ah Paris! *wistful sigh*!
OK maybe it's not that obvious what this post is about as such. Well, if you've googled today you might have seen a very attractive google doodle image next to the Google icon - it was a Calder mobile. Bless Google's cotton socks for including that today as it's officially Alexander Calder's birthday - the 22nd July 2011.
I remember the very first time I was consciously aware of Calder and that was at the magnificent I.M Pei National Gallery of Art in Washington. It felt like the museum was built to accommodate Calder's magnificent red mobile! As a very small girl, I was completely blown away by the sight and I will never forget walking along the bridge watching the enormous Calder gently and slowly move in some invisible breeze. I have been a total fan of his since. And although I have been lucky enough to have seen many Calder's since then I will never forget that first magnificent mobile I saw all those years ago. I believe his work, like many others, to be one of the most important and influential of the 20th Century. Happy birthday dear Alexander Calder! You made the world a more beautiful place!
Happy Friday too by the way!
Images from here.
Sydney city seems to have lost a lot of its bookstores lately. Fortunately, the two best ones (in my opinion anyway) Kinokuniya and Abbey's are still going strong but the others have either gone or have been reduced to pale shadows of their former selves and are full of books by television chefs.
In Holland, however, there is a bookstore to make you swoon called Selexyz Dominicanen. The space was originally a 13th-century Dominican church which was then used as an ‘indoor bike pound’ by the locals up until 2007. It was then restored to its former glory and turned into a bookstore. I can't imagine anything more lovely than to browse in there!
There is a very nice piece written about this bookstore here on the Guardian website, too.
I hope everyone is well and having a splendid week!
Images from here.
I read a terrific quote about Catherine Deneuve by her former husbnd, swinging 60s photographer David Bailey (above), the other day. When asked about his marriage to Deneuve he said it was 'like trying to manage a Maserati when you're used to a Ford'.
Gérard Depardieu also famously said: 'Catherine Deneuve is the man I'd like to be'. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I think it's a compliment!
She is one of my favourite Gallic beauties and I will always associate her with Paris and France and all things sophisticated and lovely.
I hope everyone's week is going swimmingly! Here in Sydney that is possiby more literally the truth as it is absolutely pouring with rain here today!
Images from here, here and here.
This is The New York Listener, Zoey, sampling new tunes in an indie record store tucked away in a side lane. I'm not sure what she's listening to but I think it's something hot off the presses.
There is a pretty cool music store up the road from where I live. Sometimes I go in there and surf through the new releases. Mostly though, if I hear about a new band or singer that sounds interesting, I go to You Tube and check out new music that way. Recently, I have been listening to an awesome XX remix of Florence and The Machine's "You've Got the Love". The clip isn't much to write home about, but boy is it a lovely thing to listen to!
I hope everyone has a terrific week!
"This former pub, a light house and the old lightkeeper’s house (now a council-owned wedding venue) are the only buildings on St Mary’s Island off the North Tyneside town of Whitley Bay and it’s up for sale for the first time in a century".
For a modest £425,000 ($644,064) you also get a rowing boat and a sweeping brush to move the basking seals along should they get in your way down at the beach.
I went for a walk yesterday and saw plenty of properties open for inspection but none of them were as romantic and wild as this beauty. I'm not in the market myself but...what do you think? It's rather lovely , isn't it?
Images and quote from here.
How lovely are these paper sculptures by Sydney based artist Anna-Wili Highfield? They are made out of archival cotton paper which she paints and then sews together over copper pipe. She has a super website here where you can see more of her work.
Meanwhile, Sydney is intermittently sunny/ rainy but not quite as cool as it has been. I am very much enjoying this winter actually, it's been a roller coaster ride of temperatures and weather conditions!
Hope everyone is well! Here's to the weekend! P.S. And thank you for the mirror love! XO
It seems like forever since I last blogged! The reason it's been a while is that I was struck down with the most outrageously apocalyptic cold I have had in many a moon and I was confined to my bed for three whole days! Boy! It was really something! Anyway, that rest has helped considerably and I am feeling (almost) like my old self again now. Phew!
Meanwhile, I have been dying to show off my fancy new pocket mirrors!
I am absolutely chuffed to bits about them! They are a handsome 7.6cm/ 3 inches across so they are super portable but also just the right size to properly check hair, eye-brows, teeth etc! (If you click on the image it will take you through to the listing). I have a new section in my shop devoted to the pocket mirrors and I will be adding more designs from my drawings in the coming weeks.
Here's to a happy and healthy Friday and a fab weekend!
This is Adam. After supper in the evenings he likes to go and catch up with friends.
Cats and mouse holes are sort of iconic, aren't they? I've never had the pleasure of seeing a cat in front of a classic mouse hole like this. The closest I've come to cat + mouse hole is Harry sitting patiently in front of a small hole under the back yard fence. At first we thought it was a mouse "run" i.e. a passageway which a mouse used as a tunnel to scamper from property to property. As we never saw any mice we later thought it might be a lizard run. There was a very splendid lizard that would lounge around in the afternoon sun under the umbrella tree. Perhaps it was the lizard's through road that had Harry so fascinated? I guess we'll never know.
Meanwhile, on Friday last week I took delivery of a super duper exciting something that is, as I type, being used to make things for my shop! All will be revealed later this week!!!
I hope everyone is having/ has had a lovely weekend! Thank you for all the lovely comments too - they are always very much appreciated! XO
