On Tuesday my husband and I hit the thriving metropolis (cough) to see this exhibition at the Art gallery of W.A. Unfortunately I forgot that our art gallery is closed on Tuesdays (yep, I said it's CLOSED on Tuesdays!) Can you believe that?

Art Gallery of Western Australia

(sorry, closed Tuesdays)

 Expletives were uttered. Words like drat, gosh, darn, if I remember correctly...but although we didn't see any European Masterpieces we came across some lovely iconic Australian ones, so lovely in fact I had to share...

These gorgeous friezes decorate the foyer of the Gledden Building, an Art Deco beauty built in 1938 and although I've seen them many times before I've never given them the attention they deserve. We looked at them for ages and I played snap-happy tourist - although as you can see, I'm no photographer!

In the basement of The Gledden are the remains of the most beautiful Art Deco restaurant, sadly it is currently used for storage and closed to the public, however I have seen its loveliness for myself over a cocktail or two when it was still in use.

Image from, and more info here

For more Australian Art Deco and Modernist buildings, do yourself a favour and check out Thomas Ryan's blog (his photography is wonderful)

In other news, I am returning to work next week. After a lovely year long hiatus. Nothing dramatic, only two days a week. I knew it was the job for me when I discovered there is not one, not two, but THREE op-shops(!) all a short stroll away .  They are good ones too, it is going to be v-e-r-y tricky to resist them. My resolve not to op WILL be tested.

No prizes for guessing what I'll be doing during my lunch break...

I found this gorgeous old quilt in the bottom of a box of dog blankets at a local oppy. In my experience it's always worth a quick rummage through the dog blanket box as you never know what treasures you'll find inside...I have found quite a few lovely old woollen blankets tossed by oppy workers in "the dog box" most of them in pretty good nick. Some of them, very nearly perfect.

The colours and wild retro pattern on this one caught my eye immediately. It was filthy and had the word D-O-G emblazoned across it in permanent marker, despite this I picked it up (tentatively...by the corners, trying my hardest not to inhale) threw it in the boot of the car and brought it home.

A good soak and hand wash, a dab of Metho (to remove the permanent marker), lots of fresh air, and apart from a little tear, it was almost as good as new.

I asked my partner-in-crime at the op-shop where I volunteer (a marvelous make do and mender) if she could mend it for me, and she has, most beautifully. Look...

a little hat patch and almost invisible in the flesh.

And now, dog blanket?

No way!



cute...

sweet old-school sewing project

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such gorgeous colours and they were made in Australia.

atop Marcia Bedspread (think: "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!") available to buy soon.

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"Lazy Addie will you get up?"

my big girl and our (equally lazy) loyal hound

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Adelaide (again) and a trio of Mary's

I wonder if the water in the Lourdes bottle really is holy? It could be ordinary old tap water for all I know...hmmmm...if someone was tricking surely they would fill it to the top...or would that be too obvious?

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not so cute...

have you ever seen anything like this before?

it's a Tasmanian Early Settler Apple Doll

(yes. that's Lucy Violet in the background)

A face only a mother could love!

"there is none other quite like it"...is that a good, or a bad thing?

Here's a pic of her sister

She's the pretty one in the family! B****! That's why she's famous and lives in the Victorian Museum...pic from and more info here

Honestly, these are scary dolls...the stuff of nightmares!

Not what I'd choose as a memento of a lovely holiday in Tassie, that's for sure...give me a tea towel any day...

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Have a lovely weekend x



A quick note on...

tea towels...

you've probably noticed that they've been M.I.A. for quite a while...and just in case you've missed their cheerful kitschy prescence and wondered where they'd got to...I thought I'd write a quick post to explain...

In a nutshell, I have run out of photos, and at the moment, I can't seem to motivate myself to take new ones. It's not a monumental task (by any stretch of the imagination!) but right now that's what it feels like to me...I love my tea towels, don't get me wrong...and I will get snap happy again soon(ish) Please bear with me until then, because the tea towel will be back...and that's a promise.

p.s. thank you:
Scarlett, Max, Lakota, Kel, Tammi, Micaela and Claire. I love the tea towels you've sent me and I really appreciate your kindness x

p.p.s. and HOW could I forget this???
It's my lovely, funny, sweet and sometimes daggy husband's birthday today...Happy Birthday Anth, love ya x

     

pretty pillowcases to ponder...

for sale, as soon as I get my act together...

Thanks for your bathroom comments too btw...

you loved em,

hated em,

and everything in-between (even thirty year old muck got a mention...ewwwww! thanks Michelle)

Speaking of bathrooms, what do you think of this beauty?

 

it belongs to illustrator Neryl Walker, I pinched the pics from Neryl's house tour on The Design Files...both blogs definetely worth checking out if you haven't already.

I also really like Luke Mortimer's bathroom which is featured on The Design Files today: he has used vintage baths and basins in simple contemporary bathrooms and they look fantastic. Check them here. My kind of bathrooms. I'm starting to dream about bathrooms...I need to get a life!  

Does anyone else like bathrooms like these?

I love those black spots in the terrazzo. very much.

I am also smitten with little bathroom cabinets like this one.

not a big fan of the updated floor

love the round mirrored cupboards...and how they "matchey-match" the doors underneath

(n.b. matchey-match/ey: one of my husband's favourite phrases. In his opinion matchey-matchey = boring...)

a modern take on an old favourite

(image Belle magazine)

another one of those sweet laminate cupboards...

floor love

(all pics from real estate listings of properties currently for sale in the Perth metro area)

What do you think? Like em or rip em out? We had two bathrooms very similar to these in our last house, one fancier than the other. As much as we loved the tiles, mirrors, light fittings etc the condition of one of the bathroom's probably meant sooner or later we would have had to gut it and start again. I would've felt quite sad about this when the time came, and I often wonder (when I allow myself to think about it...) if the new owners have replaced it.

I try not to think about this too often, because the modernist features we loved most about our house were the very things the new owners were most eager to change...but that's another story... 

btw I'm thinking about bathrooms at the moment because I am planning our new one...think bad 80's country cottage style, federation green, timber fronted cupboards, mould (that no amount of oil of cloves will shift!) etc. and you've got our bathroom. Actually, some of you will probably dislike the bathrooms in my post today as much as I hate our current one...

I can't tell you how much I am going to enjoy smashing it to smithereens...I'll be smiling like a crazy person when that day finally  comes (think Jack Nicholson's character in The Shining...)

Bathroom inspirations in a day or two...

Well, I successfully managed to resist my urge to op-shop last week. Almost. And I don't think this counts anyway because I wasn't on the hunt at the time...I found it while I was dusting and schjoozing the shelves at the op-shop where I volunteer yesterday, and because I rarely come across anything I like enough to buy while I'm there, I decided to reward myself for getting up early on a Sunday, helping my fellow man, etc. etc. and buy it.

Here it is

and how can I regret my decision now that I've got it home? It sits so nicely with this little display of German pottery...despite its Italian heritage. (I think it might be a piece of Bitossi: although it's unmarked, its base is typical, identical in fact, to a Rimini vase we have which I know is Bitossi) For more info on Bitossi click here.

I stand to be corrected  btw and still like it whether it's Bitossi or not...

Arrivederci e grazie per la lettura dei lettori bella x

Linking to Sophies 

Friday. Already. And only one post from me...two when I finish this one. I seem to have lost my blogging mojo, don't know where it's got to, but I'm sure I'll find it again. Sooner or later...

This is just a quick one to wish you all a lovely lovely weekend and to show you the goodies I received from Clare (you might be more familiar with her alias: Zigsma) as part of Lakota's Faith, Hope and Charity Swap 

Clare not only indulged my love of vintage tea towels she also sent me lots of other noice (that's how Clare would spell it) stuff as well. Look

a teeny-tiny German vase (I've never seen one that small before Clare. love it), four gorgeous t.towels (my fave coming up), cool mid-century candle stick holder (orange candles in situ) AND, if that wasn't enough...

 this sweet little china sugar/butter dish combo

and

look what I found tucked inside

awwwww, an original little Christmas card!

too sweet.

I am totally sucked-in by things like this. Every time I come across them. Now I can't stop thinking about John and the mysterious Mrs Lewis, who either thought her pressie was too special to use, or (and I doubt this) didn't like it...

I like it though. Alot. Thank you Clare x 

(btw Clare has come over all arty-farty on her blog today...you can check it out here)

Now here's that t.towel

hil-bloody-arious, no?

I am going to frame this one and hang it in the...(no prizes for guessing where!)