matouenpeluche

Viva Shadow Shot Sunday and Happy New Year!

On New Year's Day I went for a walk with my boyfriend and took some shots of things that took my fancy.  This is the spire of St John's in Darlinghurst which is a suburb or two from where I live.

 

Shadow Shot Sunday is an epic meme established by that awesome Brissy gal Tracy of Hey Harriet! Anyone can enter and here are the instructions on how to do so!

Here are some more New Year photos:

Pussy cat Surrey Hills, pretty blue and white and grey tiles Victoria Street Potts Point, a grand old house converted into a glamorous back packer's lodge in Victoria Street, Giza Hair Salon Macleay Street Potts Point, shingle houses St Neots Avenue Potts Point and a canopy of London Plane trees Victoria Street Potts Point.

I hope everyone had a super New Year's Eve. We, as advertised, took it easy and went round to Rushcutter's Bay park to watch the fireworks which gave us a very decent view. The 9 o'clock crackers were actually a bit average and I was thinking maybe I wouldn't bother with the 12 o'clock ones. I was convinced the dastardly credit crunch had had it's wicked way with them! BUT! Thank goodness I did go out for the midnight crackers because they were over the top spectacular and I think the best I've ever seen!! Here's a link to see them in all their wondrous beauty! After they finished we all applauded and hooted!

 

Happy Friday!

My goodness! Friday already! All I can say is: PHEW! Is it just me or does everything speed up around Christmas? May be it's just me!

These drawings here are by one of my favourite cartoonists: B. Kliban. He is best known for his endearing plump cats that get up to all sorts of mischief like sitting in hot tubs whilst playing with a rubber ducky or doing a spot of yoga. However, he was also a fine illustrator and seriously fond of his pussy cats: Norton Nitty, Burton Rustle and another one whose name escapes me.

While I am too big to lie on the telly like this guy above I'll be doing plenty of what he's doing, i.e. relaxing, this weekend!

(All images from "Never eat anything bigger than your head", "The biggest Tongue in Tunisia" etc which you can buy here)

Bonjour le weekend!

(Image from here)

Oh Happy Friday! Here's a classic cat drawing by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen called "Horrible fin d'un poisson rouge". Sometimes I feel like this harassed goldfish (but without the ghastly ending!) during the week at work and sometimes I feel like the cat. Perhaps in reality I'm the bowl - certainly by Friday I feel a little "cracked" and in need of some serious R'n'R!

I have been quite busy this week and haven't visited as many blogs as I would've liked to - so I'm sorry I've been a bit 'absent'. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone in cyber land this weekend! 

Meanwhile, here's some more gorgeous Steinlen Art Nouveau loveliness! 

(Image from here)

(Image from here)

The coming of the great cat god...

Now this is an end of the world scenario I could possibly be OK with...

Happy Friday folks (or Thursday afternoon as the case may be...).

(Cartoon "The Coming of the Great Cat God" by Ronald Searle, 1968 from here)

A (little) Thursday pick me up...

I'm not sure about other countries, but in Australia this kitten is too young to drive...

An afternoon stroll...

It was such a fine day today that I went for a walk this afternoon straight after work. Actually, it is these glorious jacaranda trees that got me out the door. I have been meaning to photograph them for a while now and they seemed to be at their peak, blossom-wise, this afternoon! This one above is a beauty.

After that my boyfriend and I went for a stroll in the pretty afternoon light. I just love daylight saving - the long evenings are the best ever in my opinion! Below are a few of the sights we saw on our walk.

No walk is complete however, without the furry purry ginger tom running out for a tickle and hello just as you get home. I'm sorry these photos of Jaffa don't show his pretty face but every time I get the camera out he goes all shy! At least you get a good idea of his lovely plush ginger coat! You can't hear him purring though - he is spectacularly good at this!

Thank you to everyone for all the lovely comments about my work! It's very encouraging! ...and don't forget the COMPETITION!! It finishes on Sunday evening and on Monday morning I'll be using ye olde Random org thingy to choose who the winner is!

Happy Thursday/ Friday everyone!

This is Max.

Max was the creation of master cartoonist and illustrator Pericle Luigi Giovannetti. Isn't that a wonderful name? Anyway, Giovannetti started drawing for the now defunct Punch magazine after World War One and launched little Max in April 1953.

Max was such a hit with his wordless pomposity and general shenanigans that Giovannetti even wrote several books starring the one and only Max himself.

(Image from: Non-Stick Plans)

Unfortunately, all the Max books are now out of print but I've been surfing Amazon and I think I might have found a second hand copy...

Here's another Max story:

Both cartoons are from the book: Punch, All Creatures Great and Small published by Prion.

Happy Thursday evening everyone - hope your weather is a little tamer than it is here in Sydney! I am currently listening to 100 - 120 kilometre icy gale force winds (blown directly off the glaciers of the Antarctic) rattle my windows! And to think last week was a sweltering 34 degrees!! Go figure!

Warhol's cats, cats, cats!

It's another crazy Spring day here in Sydney. From 30+ during the week to blustery windy and chilly! Ah Spring! I think there's a Chinese expression which says something along the lines of "Spring is like a child's face". I think it means it's pretty changeable!

Meanwhile, I have spied an enormous Andy Warhol book in my favourite bookshop which chronicles practically everything he did throughout his career. I'm particularly drawn to his early magazine and advertising work. I think he had a terrific sense of composition. The book is incredibly expensive so I'm enjoying the more modest picture books that were given to me as a present a few years ago. These drawings here are all from the book "Cats, cats, cats". 

Happy weekend + Art Deco cards.

First of all: three cheers for the weekend and congratulations to everybody who made it!! Sometimes it feels like quite an achievement, doesn't it? I've had the week off however, so I can't say my week was anything other than highly enjoyable!!

At this time of year I have quite a few birthdays to buy for and birthdays mean cards. Cards! So difficult! They are either cloyingly sentimental or too cool for school or just plain boring. Fortunately, I found these stylish beauties whilst rummaging around in my favourite card shop the other day. They are a new set taken from the covers of a New York magazine published in the 1920s and 1930s called "Asia". All the covers were done by Frank McIntosh and they are super Deco. I love this panther above. My boyfriend says he looks like a piece of beautiful machinery.

Unfortunately, I can't really find much info about "Asia" magazine or Frank McIntosh other than it was a magazine that looked at reportage about ASian countries. The cards are published by a company from the Netherlands called Catch Publishing which you can find here.

Speaking of pussy cats, I am totally in love with the snow leopard cover boy for the new Mac operating system of the same name.

Hello sailor!!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

And the winner is...

....Lenorenevermore! Congratulations Lenore and "Cinta" it is! Thank you again to all who entered the competition - there will be another in the coming weeks!

Meanwhile, I give you the wonderful world of Yanina Movchan, an artist I stumbled across on Etsy. Her Etsy shop is called movchanart.

Have a lovely weekend all!

From the top: Bunny, Cat with Cherub and Sleeping Cherub and Cat.