For the Juniors

It's bright, it's early, it's Monday, it's time for our first theme! With our new approach in its infancy, it seemed only appropriate to start off with "Picture Books and Illustrations" (enjoyable for children of ages 1 - 100).

I have been looking forward to sharing my love of Shaun Tan's work for some time now, and finally the day has arrived. An illustrator from Melbourne, Tan's work covers illustration and painting across a diverse range of projects including books, animations, murals and theatre. At present I particularly love the softness and gentle intensity of the drawings in his book 'The Arrival'

('The Flock' from The Arrival, from www.shauntan.net/books)

There are also some essays Tan has written on his ideas about the creative process - these were a new discovery so I'm off to have a cup of tea and read this one on originality and creativity first.

I hope you will love and be as inspired by his work as I am - here are a few more images to entice you further (all from www.shauntan.net).

"'He was saying the same sentence over and over, ending with "tasoo-ke-te, tasoo ke-te" from tales of Outer Suburbia

"A parrafin-oil powered koala" from The Bird King and other sketches

'Footpath, Fifth Avenue' 2004, oil on canvas

In Good Company...

...is a great exhibition currently running at Object Gallery until the 3rd of April. There is some lovely work on display, including pieces by Beth Deguara, Naomi Taplin, Mud, and Vert Design to name but a few (interestingly I was out at the delicions & delightful Black Star pastries the morning after the exhibition opened, and Vert's Green Rice cups (on display in the show) were the vessels of choice.. really beautiful pieces (and on a further side note, the quiche at Black Star was amazing!!).



Back to Object, the premise of the exhibition was to provide behind the scenes insights into the processes and inspiration that go into the work of some of our great local designers - a great idea by &company director Annalise de Lorenzo. Thoroughly worth a visit!

'Social Stools' image by Beth Deguara - see www.bethdeguara.com

In the spirit of looking behind the scenes, it should also be mentioned that as of tomorrow things will be a little different around here - Elian and I are instigating a weekly theme! Every Monday we'll be taking it in turns to choose a different subject, which we will then explore for the remainder of the week (personally I am a bit overexcited & have already drawn up a long list of potential topics. If any of our readers would like to make a suggestion we'd love to hear from you too). The new era starts in about half an hour - be ready!!!

ye olde

These and so many more fantastic images of America in the early 1900s were found here

after i've done the laundry

another one of those morning where time flies by that little bit too quickly, while i entertain myself travelling from website to website instead of accomplishing anything of significance... delightful but fairly guilt inducing when there are about seven thousand things on today's to-do list! so, for others to enjoy, and for me to visit later after i've done the laundry...

howkapow
this cute knitting project
this cute knitting project
little paper dog
creature comforts


enjoy!

walls

I've always wanted to have a gallery wall in my house but as landlords don't look favourably onto you drilling tens of tiny holes into their walls i've had to content myself with a mini-gallery using nothing more permanent than blutak (classy, i know!).

One day my walls might look more like these (various homes from Design*Sponge)

 

city maps

These maps are absolutely fantastic, I want one on my wall. More colourful ones here.

neest

a beautiful collection of interiors, pussycat photographs and homewares from a lovely colective in paris. their blog is certainly worth a visit, but here are a couple of little previews...

whilst we're in the kitchen...

i love those saucy little teapots from elian's previous post, so while we're onto a good thing with kitchen-themed animations, here's an offering that's a little more chaste but still pretty darn cute! not sure if it made me more dizzy or hungry, but either way i can't help but wonder who ate all that toast once they were done?!

racy teapots

This is a stop animation by my friend, it's only slightly suggestive...

copy-cat chair upholstery

Inspired by Holly's post, I undertook a little re-upholstery of my own. I 'borrowed' these chairs from my mother when I first moved out of home and they never made it back to her...now that they have been re-covered maybe she won't even recognise them and I will be able to keep them all forever!

Before:

After:

babushka

 

Babushka was hung on the christmas tree to keep Hortensia company (inspired by a pattern from the same book).

salt & feathers

a post a long time coming, but hopefully worth the wait... rooster salt & pepper shakers! hard to say what is best about them really - the cheerful red of their combs, their plucky attitudes, or the artful placement of the salt & pepper holes!