One of my bloggy intentions this year was to return to Lucy Violet's roots and resume showing you my collection of vintage tea towels. They've been squashed into the "third drawer down" for too long. Poor things. I think it's about time for some more tea towel lovin round these parts, don't you?

Today's is a beauty.

It ticks all the boxes. It's got everything you'd ever want in a vintage tea towel and more. See...

told ya!

The really cool thing about this t.towel (apart from the obvious and the fact it cost a mere twenty cents!) is that we found it in an op-shop on our way to an art installation featuring more than 300 of them!

Call me a dag, but I think that's pretty awesome.

The installation (or exhibition really) examines the production and use of souvenir tea towels. It reminds us to look beyond their intended use and appreciate them as cultural mementos. 

That's what I think anyway, you can read a fancier description here.

If you've read Lucy Vi for a while you'll know how much I love a colourful, kitschy tea towel, and you'll also understand how excited I was to have a look at 300 of the little darlings crammed together in one room.

It was quite an interesting exhibition...most of the t.towels had been embellished in some way (embroidery, screen printed etc) not quite what a tea towel purist like me (ha!) was expecting. I know, I make a sucky critic!

I like this quote taken from the Spin Cycle blurb:

 click to make it bigger

(unless you've got fancy-schmancy new specs like me!)

Pile, Naomie Hatherley, 2008

Spin Cycle is open until the 26 February.

And btw, you can see more vintage tea towels here on Lucy Violet, in the weeks and months to come.

Kangaroo Paws

More on '62 Games here

x

Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free...

This map was drawn by Lucy Violet when she was thirteen for the Jubilee Exhibition of 1922 (an exhibition held to celebrate 50 years of State education in Victoria)
I thought today, Australia Day, would be as good a day as any to share it with you.

We found it, carefully folded, among the pages of an old book, when we were packing up her little house in the Dandenongs when she died...a little piece of Australiana we will treasure forever. 

Alot of interesting things happened in Australia in 1922:

The Industrial Court of Appeal rejected the concept of equal pay for women.

Henry Lawson died.

The very first Archibald Prize was won by William Mc Inness for this portrait of the architect H. Desbrowe Annear.

Image source

and

Colin Campbell Ross was hanged for the murder of twelve year old Alma Tritschke. I mention this because I think it would've had quite an impact on Lucy at the time...she was an innocent and in her own words "rather immature" teenager who told me herself that she believed in fairies until she was fourteen or fifteen. Even her twenty-first birthday present from her big sister Ruby was a novel about fairies. I'll show it to you one day...

You can read more about Alma Tritschke and Colin Campbell Ross, who died an innocent man, here if you're interested. It's a sad story and I think Lucy would've been very frightened by it.

Ross was posthumously pardoned for Alma's murder by the Victorian Government in 2008. More here

I didn't intend for this post to take the direction it has...my intentions were to show you the map and wish you a happy Australia Day, but here you are, one thing has led to another and I've ended up writing about a murder for God's Sake!

I hope it's been at least a little bit interesting for you to read because I've really enjoyed writing it. And btw Happy Australia Day. Fourty one degrees (celcius) here in Perth today and floods in Queensland! Crazy!

image source

  

Just a quick one, but please have a look-see...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how much I love Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. You can read it here if you want to...

For those of you who share my affection, here's a peak at his new flick, Moonrise Kingdom, due for release in the U.S. on the 25th of May (I can't find an Australian date (sniff) but I will definetely give you the heads-up when I do)

It looks wonderful, sweet and quirky. Aside from all the usual stuff people judge movies by (e.g. fabulous cast, lot's of Anderson regulars) it's set in 1965. So, for those of you crazy about the 60's, there's also alot to look at (and btw, 1965 is also the year I was born! Scary! Now you know how old I am! No wonder I need those specs eh!)    

I think it's going to be worthy of its own love letter and I can't wait to see it.

p.s. that gorgeous voice you hear at the end of the clip (coming from that totally cool portable turntable on the beach) belongs to Francoise Hardy. She is singing Le Temps de L'Amour. Such a groovy song, want to hear it again?  

I do...
it makes me feel like grabbing my vintage bikini and hitting the beach (the song, and the fact that it's 36 degrees celcius here today!) or I might just stay at home, blast the air-con and watch Gidget instead... 

   x

Love Letters

things I've fallen in love with this week...

Cactus flowers

what bee wouldn't want to wipe his feet on this front door mat?

    

they remind me of water lillies which is quite ironic really...

Giant Cactus, pic from The Wonder of Nature 1974

(my absolute favourite book at the moment)

Beauty's of a fading nature-

Has a season and is gone!

Robert Burns 1764

In the case of the beautiful cactus flower, never a truer word has been spoken... 
one day blooming beautifully, the next, well, it's... cactus.

Note: cactus is Australian slang for dead, not working.

The most gorgeous orange coffee mugs

you ever did see!

look at that glaze!

and

perfect spoons for stirring too

vintage enamel-dipped teaspoons, made in Germany

wouldn't you agree...

This photo of a family holiday in Albany, circa 1970 something. I found it at my Mum's on Christmas day.

Dog Rock, Albany Western Australia

It brings back so many memories of holidays-gone-by. Long past and more recent ones. 

The story of Dog Rock reads like a romantic 18th century novel. Well worth a read if you're interested. And Albany is definetely worth visiting if you're ever in the West. 

I've also had a bit of a crush on subversive stitching. Basically swear words and surly comments...all those nasty little things (even the nicest amongst us) sometimes think but are too polite to say, in cross-stitch.

Here's my first attempt, done on a piece of gingham because I can't see the little squares on the proper Aida cloth!

(Newsflash: I get my first pair of glasses. Eeek! on Monday)

(it might not say what you think it does!)

 And lastly...

there is lurve and then there is love.

This is love

it's a hand-made children's toy shop counter

(at least I think that's what it is...suggestions welcome)

I fell head-over-heels when I found it in a little junk shop yesterday...I keep thinking about the lovely Dad or Grandad who made this for his little girl to play with, probably for her birthday or Christmas, and how thrilled she was to receive it.

Have you ever seen a sweeter little hand-made toy? The hands on the clock even move around for goodness sake!

It's probably one of my most treasured possessions, the thing I'd grab if the house was on fire etc etc and I've only had it for one day! But that's love, isn't it...

Have a lovely weekend, I hope you find some new things to love too x

p.s. I haven't linked to Sophies for ages, but after reading she'd love to reach one hundred thrifters this week I thought I'd join in.

  

Love Letters...

things I've found, been given and loved this week...

(a record for me, to share with you)

This bedroom

"If only I had lots of money, enough to furnish my bedroom just the way I'd like it! I wouldn't want a very big room as long as it was warm and cosy and filled with bright things"

June Book 1963

x

A bumper crop of toms

and counting!

x

This Stanley Chow print

Margot Tenenbaum

Love the movie,

Love the tee-shirt

Love that quote!

Currently on sale, click here for details.

The Royal Tenenbaums...one of the few films loved equally by me, the girls and Anth.

(forward to 5.40 if you're in a hurry) 

p.s. I wish I could pull off all that black eyeliner like Gwyneth does as Margot.

x

Old-school, oysters

Kilpatrick.

Uncool, but delicious!

x

A present from Em

beautifully wrapped,

and

inside

three gorgeous vintage tea towels

and

Em's Nan's famous pumpkin scone recipe. How sweet. I love little touches like this...it was even laminated. Awwww.

I wonder how they compare with Flo's? Remember this post?

x

I'm going to try to write a love letters post each week, but right now...well, I'm off to buy some pumpkin of course!

Have a lovely weekend x

It's 2012

and my wish for you...

apart from all the usual stuff - health, happiness etc

(and these things ARE very important)

is

a year of adventure.

This is my wish for me too.

I won't bore you with details toight, BUT there are big changes afoot for my little family and for the funny little house we live in. So, I do know it's going to be an interesting year, it's up to me to make it an adventurous one. Honestly, I've had enough of being Chairman of the Bored! It's boring!   

Fingers crossed I pull it off, fingers crossed that you do too x

"and bless each door that opens wide

to stranger as to kin"

(a bit how I feel about this blog actually...)

My newest piece of Religionalia - Vinnies seem to be giving this stuff away lately, which is great for me because I can't get enough of it. And I'm not religious either, despite this. I just love it.

Now to my Frankie journal give-away...

I scribbled a number from first to last comment in the order I received them (excluding Sophie, Tammi and Vic who wrote lovely comments but didn't want to be entered in the give-away) then I used Random.Org to select a number.

The winner was number 19, which just so happened to be the number next to the one and only Lakota's name. Yay! Congrat's Lakota and thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment. It's always lovely to hear from you x

Just a quick message to someone special to end...

Anthony...the only person allowed to call me Kyle's (ugh!)

Thanks for indulging me.

I'm crap at embroidery (I can only "do" one stitch and that not very well...) but I've got to say that I cannot believe how ridiculously satisfying it was to hear the pop of the needle each time I pulled it through that taut fabric. Do you crafty people love that too?

x