Peeves and petulances

An interesting post from apartment therapy recently, design pet peeves   about the karate chop cushion, elicited an avalanche of gripes from readers covering everything from colour-coded book display to matchy-matchy furniture.

(Image: Bliss Studio)

Do you have pet design peeves?

I have loathed the keep-calm-and-carry-on trend since it first raised its dull and repetitious head several years ago...ok, I guess, if you are English AND living in England AND preferably lived through a war, but in Australia it just smacks (to me) of a total absence of original thought married to a lurking cultural cringe-i-ness.


Ditto union jack cushions and all things bull dog. Love that those folk on that island over there have a lot of fun with their own love of country - good for them, and they do it with a lovely touch of humour - but it's not something we can pick up and run with and why on earth would we want to?

In most respects though, on self-examination, I find I'm otherwise surprisingly non-judgmental and tolerant about interior design. Like anything in life, so long as it's not too contrived, it's legit in my book. Home is - it really is - where the heart is, and if there's affection afoot that's as design excellence as you can get.

When I was growing up, my Dad revealed a fetish for light fittings which he indulged via ceramic chandeliers (complete with little gilded cherubim) and ornate metal flower-and-leaf illuminations. As young teens we died of embarrassment over these non-early-seventies baroque-esque style statements that couldn't help but dominate otherwise ordinary family room and bed-rooms. Yet my sister and I have admitted to each other in recent years how strangely drawn we are to excessive light fittings ourselves now...


So people in glass houses, or houses resplendent with coloured glass lanterns and faux art deco frosted wall sconces, obviously have no right to throw stones of any hue.

Go the personal predilection  - if you can't feel free to have fun at home, where else could you possibly let your hair down and be self indulgent?

Just don't, please, k. c. & c. o.


If in doubt, remember: Australian = laconic...something worth celebrating.

Have a giggle!

Retro campers and kitschy kitchenesque

The little red caravan that could!

BrisStyle's craft caravan took the damp Brissy CBD by storm last Friday, with yarn-bombing, make-and-take, a Brown Owls meet-up, talks and demos all day, and BrisStylettes of all ages and shapes selling their hand-made goodness from cosy and colourful stalls. 


The caravan is a marvel - Helen, BrisStyle eventista extraordinaire, and beautiful Bel have done magic with their collection of retro lounges, beach brollies, and charming flamingoes!

I was also really tickled to see my own UFO's put to such good use at last by the Owls in their craftactive activities!

And I had a great time sharing a tent with the talented Anita from Mum's Cupboard (as in, what's in Mum's cupboard) for wimcee's first market outing for 2012.

Anita's Dr Mid-nite and Charlie the Owl glass stud earrings from her etsy shop
at http://www.etsy.com/listing/99280858/doctor-mid-nite-and-charlie-glass-stud

I've gone kitchenesque for the time being, which has been fun, in an effort to build up my stocks again after the hiatus. Had such a lovely time making five new aprons to take to market only to sell four of them before opening time...very happy for them to find good homes so quickly, but it threw my theme for the day just a little.

some new retro style aprons available from: http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=554834

All we need now is some old-fasioned Brisbane winter sunshine to smile on the market season in full swing. Here's to blue skies, with no early Westerlies!

great snap of the yarn-bombed BrisStyle flamingo from Little Chrissy at
 http://little-chrissy.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/brisstyles-soggy-but-awesome-craft.html

Caravan-a-go-go!

We have lift-off!

The BrisStyle Craft Caravan has hit the road!

With support from the Brisbane City Council, BrisStyle - our collective of crafters, artists and artisans - has this year been tasked with spreading itself about a little more liberally. The brief is to share skills and experience with the wider community, and, more importantly bring creative heads together to support each other.

OK, so we've had a bit of fun too, fitting out the vehicular manifestation of this initiative.

The call went out: daggy old banana lounges, girls! Bright beach umbrellas!

This is vintage kitsch, banana-bender style...kitsch as nobody else can quite do it (or might wish to), from the land of the choko vine and saos with cheese and tomato.

   




             






On Friday 1st of June, the Caravan will park itself in King George Square, in central Brisbane, for a day-long event featuring craft demonstrations, craftstalls, and a crafters' drop-in-zone. This has been augmented with various info sessions and get-togethers in the suburbs already, and will kick-off a week-end of similar activities at Zillmere Festival on Saturday, and at Hamilton on Sunday, where the Craft Caravan will be part of the fabulous, annual Racecourse Road Carnival.





Speaking as a marketeer of a number of years' standing, winter has to be the magic season for Brisbane markets and festivals! Even if it's cool, the sun is usually shining and the sky is almost always cloudless and blue. So, no better way to kick off the winter markets season than a craft festival in the CBD for the first day of June! Check it out!

Have great weeks!

Hey Green Tamborine...

So what do garter-belts, wooden clogs, caravan-shaped tea-pots and sub-tropical rhubarb have in common?


Terrific Trev fancied some R&R over the Labour Day long week-end, so off we went to the fabulous Escarpment Retreat, which is next but one to St Bernard's Hotel on "Mount" Tamborine.

"Mount" because it's not really a mountain in the strictest sense, more of a small plateau-hillside settlement. But the vistas are extraordinary due to the plummeting cliffs of the Scenic Rim, and the flora is pure Gondwanise:- massive figs, thick tarzanesque strangler vines, ancient cycads, dappled sunlight, leaf canopy and all...beautiful! About 90 minutes from Brisbane, it's the perfect week-end get-away.

St Bernard's is a scene-stealer itself. This grand old hotel has been a local land-mark since 1898. In it's accommodation-based hay-day in the 20's it boasted a tennis court, a large swimming pool fed by a creek, walks to visit the five local waterfalls, and extensive gardens on the edge of the escarpment - all perched right on the cliffs with a view north-east to the Gold Coast and islands of Moreton Bay.

I remember family day trips up to Tamborine when I was a child, with St Bernard's the destination for lunch: a choice of roasts, with vanilla ice-cream and caramel sauce to follow... such were the heights of culinary sophistication in Queensland in the early 60's. But served up by maids in uniform on fine china, silver cutlery and starched white tablecloths.

The Gallery Walk on the Long Road is an eclectic mix of dress shops, galleries, craft and nick-nacks, with a variety of eateries, brewery, wine cellar, a cheese factory, and a couple of hum-dinger ethnicentric pit-stops including the (German) Cuckoo Clock Nest and the Dutch Bite Cafe and Clog Place. I love a genuine Black Forrest cuckoo clock and a bit deft china along with the best of them...Tamborine is a bit like that; all oblique if not downright obvious references to a vague Continental heritage. The Tamborine Mountain Teapot Shop features some pretty wild creations imported from England; the Polish Place serves up food, drink and objects d'art in the Polish tradition. When I was a student we used to drive up to savour coffee in a brass kettle and a potato and bacon hash at the long-gone Swedish Cafe, with it's blue and yellow flag painted roof, when IKEA was just a twinkle in someone's flat-packing eye.

We also shared out retreat in a general rather than specific sense with this year's garter-belt and gasoline convention - a colossal coming together of hot-rods through the ages, most in pristine nick, with rockabillia excelsis thrown in for good measure! Bands, balls, a massive show-ground festival - ladies of all ages done up from top-to-toe in 40's/50's fashions, and greased-back locks and sharp shoes for the blokes. Spectacular! Time for a quick visit to The Shop Time Forgot and Kitty's Vintage Kitsch, the mountain's retro mega mecca.


We wined, dined and did some gentle trekking to make up for it all - the non-leech-infested Sky Walk for one (someone mentioned the 'L' word to TT), and the Curtis Falls track for another, the latter setting off from one of the prettiest picnic grounds in s-e  Queensland.

All in all, a fabulous retreat...and just slightly la-la land enough to be great fun!

Have great weeks!

Inspired...

If I need a push-along with a project, inspiration is so easily accessed...there are wonderful books, magazines and a whole universe of on-line material in which to immerse oneself. It's immersion therapy - one wallows in a collection of colours and patterns and images, in the ways that others have collected and remixed, and after basking in this extraordinary collage, I find I can't wait to get back to my own work and let my own creative energy go crazy on whatever it is I'm doing.

Pinterest is full of visual feats - I can revisit my own pin boards or have a look at others or get a bit of pinning action...

• felticious

  28 pins

  
  

   

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• illustrious

  33 pins

  
  

  

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• fibrication

  33 pins

  
  

  

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• apron love

  27 pins

  
  

  

  

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And there are all the fabulous blogs out there to be read as well: like blissful Pink Friday; the chic carnets parisiens and the quirky All the luck in the world just for starters.

The library of crafting books out there is growing daily. State of Craft by Victoria Woodcock is a recent favourite...in fact anything that is a like a visual/literary craft compilation I find to be fascinating: Craft Activism by Joan Tapper and Gayl Zucker; and Handmade Nation by Faythe Devine and Courtney Heimerl.

And there are some lovely mags for sale as well...I really find the new-ish  Mollie Makes from England super-inspirational, the ads as much as the stories  at times, and it reflects the sans-frontiers cachet that stalks craft. Sunday is the perfect day for a bit of craft-immersion!  Enjoy your days, and weeks ahead!

Exhibitionist!

Gallery Frit, Imbil.

I have a mini-exhibition at Gallery Frit, Imbil, running through April. The curator and owner, Christina, has established Frit in Yabba Road, which makes me think Flintstones, but the local waterway is the Yabba, and this is main street Imbil, with the gallery housed in an elegant old Queenslander. My work is cheek by jowl with some other lovely and eclectic pieces and it's an absolute buzz to give my work this new home for the next few weeks. This is pop-up wimcee - because I am not attending markets at the moment I've basically provided my market stall for the show - everything from paintings to cushions, feather head-dresses to children's quilted jackets, and one monkey soft sculpture...

Imbil is simple to get to - head north from Brisbane, turn left at Eumundi, turn right at Kenilworth, and then take the turn-off left to Imbil and the Borumba Dam from the Kenilworth-Gympie road. Easy-peasy.

 

Not for me though. I decided to be clever and follow my nose, and the nose chose a round-about trip via the Mooloolah Valley, up the Razorback to Montville, back-track to Maleny, and finally down the steep descents to Kenilworth and the Mary Valley. It was a beautiful morning and I loved every minute of the lush hinterland countryside en route, but I was about an hour and a half late for my appointment with Christina as a result and unable to really enjoy the surroundings as much as they deserved.




With mention though of the Blackall range, of Maleny and Montville and Mapleton, of Kenilworth and Kilcoy and Cooroy, you'll appreciate that this is all utterly picturesque country, from lofty views to towering rainforest to lush pasture. Parts have suffered from flood in recent times so are also looking for support and to grow their tourist industry. If you're up for a country ramble in this glorious autumn weather we've been gifted lately do take a drive, and if you have the opportunity stop in at Gallery Frit too. It's open 9-3, Wednesday-Sunday. You can't miss it - right next to the only petrol bowsers in town!

Have happy weeks!

En famille...

My mother's 80th birthday earlier this week was the raison être for a reunion of the clan.

And of the tribe, as we had about 100 or so of her friends to a champagne afternoon tea to celebrate, together with a smattering of their young who we were friends with as children.

This was indeed a challenge, and Dad did promise us fine weather, and obliged, fortunately, as otherwise we would have really run out of room under cover. But an absolute pleasure as well:- equipped with pacemakers and walkers and sticks the tribe came ready to party, so it always was going to be a huge success. They quaffed champagne (the tea things went unnoticed, but the blue themed cup cakes all vanished, as did the oysters, and most of the prawns and sangers) and because they rarely get together now except for funerals relished with gusto the opportunity to catch up with old friends. I'd told Terrific Trev not to worry about music as it would never be heard above the cacophony, so we had a few chords or very pretty opera right at the start and then he gave up. He hadn't time anyway - he was seen with glasses and bottles in all corners, stopping only to find old girls a chair and a drink when necessary. They came at 3 on the dot, and all went home at about 5.30 with their designated drivers, and we fell in a heap for about 48 hours. But SO, SO worth it. Never was there a more appreciative bunch of revellers, and the little mountain of thank-you letters, beautifully written on letterhead, is what it's all about in their view... you enjoy, and you express that properly.

So the tribe came and went (not far; they mainly live within a radius of perhaps 2 miles) and the clan has stayed on. My baby sister from London and her growing brood and handsome hubby, here for several weeks...my little brother, his wife and child, mixing in too. Mum and Dad as happy as pigs in mud. En famille...

I have no photos yet, but will throw in a few from long ago for now.

Have happy weeks!