city lights and foggy nights

Yes, that truly was the daggiest post title I could think of. But it is also true! There have been city lights! And foggy nights! You will see why!

 Vertigo from the 37th floor.

This week I trotted down to Melbourne to do some editing work and see the opening of Kent's show at the Sofitel hotel in Collins street (fancy shit! It's on until 30 July, so really there is no excuse to not see it if you're in Melbourne). The gracious folks at the Sofitel put us up for the night in a schmick-o suite (I KNOW) complete with a pillow menu, truffles and a bottle of champagne. WOWSERS. I couldn't believe my good fortune (apart from the sheer luck of being married to the artist and all). The opening was lovely, and Kent sold the last work to a good friend (so we get to visit it - yippee!) which was fantastic.

After swanning around drinking (far too much) champagne, catching up with friends we don't see enough, we crawled our sorry arses into the feathery goodness of bed. Note to self: when that intoxicated, trying to read Harry Potter in an attempt to sober up will not work.

We are now back home, and after a morning of blueberry pancakes and bacon with some friends, have spent the afternoon hanging art in our new home. I have always been far too scared to nail into a rental wall, but we decided to go 'fuck it. Our walls need art!' And oooh they look so fine! I am so stoked to finally have some pieces up, and it has also brought to our attention that we sadly STILL need to get some worked framed (by Amélie Scalercio, Michelle Neal, Tai Snaith and Romani Benjamin). However in the meantime, we have a few pieces of our own up, as well as some gorgeous work by Rachel Rose-Dillon, Tai Snaith, and Carl Scrase. Woo hoo!

Rachel's gorgeous plates that I managed to win in an art swap, for this and this.

They look even better now that they are not wrapped in paper and sitting in a bag. Thanks Rach!

Two works I made while in Berlin, I got framed in order to 'try' and sell them. 

A task I have sort of forgotton about for the time being. Oh well. 

To the left we have a collage by Carl, given to us as a wedding present (thanks Carlos!) centre work is by Tai (procured 

through another swap, you can see a close-up here), and up on the right is my blog banner!

And as you can plainly see, I managed to stay in my studio long enough this afternoon to make a mess, but not actually make any art. My hand got tired! One must be careful you know. Ok, I should probably stop procrastinating and go and finish what I started. Oh yes, and the reference to the foggy nights was regarding the misty evenings we have been having here in the hills. Delicious!

Now, back to the drawing board, so to speak.

x

tis the season to freeze yer ass off

Well there you have it - official evidence to show that yes indeed, it snowed last night. I know all you Northern Hemisphere folk will have a giggle at my expense - go ahead! I don't care! This counts as snow!!! So much so that when I finally dragged my sorry self out of bed this morning (Sooooo cold. Doona ... soooo warm.) I actually scampered outside in my pyjamas to check.

This is the house across the street from us. I feel a little bit bad - I seem to take a lot of photos of this house - it is a bit like Willy Wonka's factory. Nobody ever goes in. Nobody ever goes out. I think ghosts might live in there. But I haven't seen any. Yet.

Yep, Betty the Soob got quite an ice smattering. It's all in good fun though - it would be nice if we got enough to make a snowball or two though. I need to get myself one of those sleeping bag jackets, so that I don't completely freeze in the studio. At the moment it's hot water bottles and blankets.

And don't forget an abundance of hot chocolates too.

xx

getting my gouache on

Here's a little mock-up of an invite I made for a cards smackdown at my new abode. Seems quite appropriate really, seeing as it actually SNOWED today. I was most disturbed. And also very excited. I have never lived anywhere where it snowed before. Unfortunately the snowing experience was not nearly as pretty as my winter wonderland snowflakes. More like soggy petals. There was some exciting sleet and hail to go with it - sleet seems so British, don't you think? I thought it only ever sleeted in Britain. Is sleeted even a word? Anyway, it sleeted all over the shop today.

I have been completely addicted to gouache lately, which is quite nice. Don't you worry though, I have some collage-y goodness well in the works! In the meantime, here is another preview of my baking type paintings. It is rather silly. Can you tell that I don't drink melk, I mean milk (Freudian slip there?) ... hmmm. 

Man, I could go some melk right now. 

xx

cook-up

I thought I'd slip in a sneak-preview of what's coming ... this is one of my most favourite kitchen items EVER, or at least 1 of. It comes from a set of 4 measuring cups of gorgeous-geesey-goodness. These little fellas (or chickies ... what's a man goose look like anyway? And what is he called?) are original 1950s/60s cups, made from that indestructible plastic that just doesn't break (no matter how hard you seem to accidentally fling it onto a the lino.)

I bought these cups years ago from the chapel st bazaar (when it still was reasonably affordable) - before I even moved out of home. I may have a domesticity addiction. I'm not ashamed. 


If you do not own novelty measuring cups, then I strongly suggest you start scouring bazaars, markets and online to secure yourself some. Because what's the fun of baking if you don't have comical yet functional tools?

xx