As I mentioned yesterday, after we finished being arty-farty at Cottesloe we found time to stop at a little op-shop that we'd noticed on our way. It was having a Summer Clearance Sale so we had no choice, we HAD to stop! Have a look at what we found...

I love this old print. It may strike you as being a bit strange that the same girl who loves those flower paintings can love something like this just as much, but I do. Here's some detail

 I love the colours, the texture, everything!

What do you think they are?  Bottles?

Then hiding behind it was

It's a piece of an old (the movie was released in 1940) movie poster! You can still see the signwriters pencil guide marks! I think it's very special even though it's only a sliver of the whole. Love the red letters, and the purple ones for that matter.

We also found...

This one is made of cotton instead of wool.

(I'm sending it to you Galit!)

And this



A breakfast tray cloth. I've got a bit of a thing for Tex-Mex things...anyone for tequila?

And (even though my husband strongly advised me NOT to buy this!!!)

I couldn't leave him behind? There must be hundreds of paintings of this old man floating around...he comes from one of those teach yourself oil painting books so popular in the 60's and 70's. I know because my mother-in-law has her very own version (much better than this one!)

The last treasure we found is alot prettier than the others...

Yes. It's another tablecloth.

And following on from that here's today's tea towel

What were you doing in 1975?



Just back from Cottesloe. It was beautiful at the beach, but I'm not really sure if I enjoyed Sculpture by the Sea as much as I have in previous years. Of course there's no pleasing everyone, art is so subjective. Having said that there was still some interesting work and a few pieces caught my eye. Like...

Level Best. Amy Podmore. USA. The schoolchildren in the background are waiting for their swimming lessons to begin...beats a swimming pool any day!

Sea Enemy. Denise Pepper. WA.

Garbage bags and colanders. Kitschy!

Desert Ships. Neil Jones. WA.

Blue Shift. Darius Kowal. WA.

Dance Me to the Edge of Time. BAM. NSW.

Sand shoes!

Torso. Richie Kuaupt and Geoffrey Drake-Brockman. WA.

Fortis Ovum. Peter Graham and Cindy Blackeslee. WA and USA.

And lastly, my favourite. Probably because it's just so huge (and rusty)

I told you it was big! And yes that's me!

Coast Guard. Greg James. WA

So, what did you think? Like or not? Thanks for looking. S.B.T.S. is on until March 22 if you live in Perth and it's free! It is also held at Bondi beach and at Aarhus in Denmark too.

p.s. we did pop in to a couple of op-shops on the way home. I'll show you what we found tomorrow.

Today we are off to beautiful Cottesloe Beach to have a look at the annual Sculpture By the Sea exhibition. We might even get fish and chips for lunch...You can find out more about the exhibition here http://sculpturebythesea.com/cottesloe/index.html
These photos are from their website. I'll show you mine this afternoon...

Lumphead. Fredrik Raddum.

Breaking Wave. Jean-Marc Rivalland.

The Sky is Falling. Hannah Kidd.

And a beachy tea towel for today

"Do you come from a land down under?

Where women glow and men plunder?"

"I come from a land down under where beer does flow and men chunder"

Land Down Under. Men at Work. 1981.

I've never liked that song and I don't really like this tea towel very much either...

If I gave my posts titles I would probably call this one something daggy like Flower Power or maybe even Everything's Coming Up Roses because today it's all about flowers. I have been collecting flower paintings since I was fourteen (so I've got a few!!!) Yesterday we rescued my pretty pictures from their dusty home for the past year, The Shed (Everything we own is in The Shed!) and decided to "French Hang" them in our bedroom... well I think that's what it's called...ours are probably more of an Australian hang! Although it remains a work in progress here's one corner

and a better look.

And here's the painting that started it all...

Very old. Very beautiful. Painted on tin.

Now have a look at these...

R.M.T. 1907

R.M.T. 1903

And some blurry detail.  Sorry.

There's more...

A present from my husband. No artist's details but the back is stamped Winsor and Newton's No 2 Quality Prepared Canvas, Rathbone Place, London, W.

Vida Gibson.

`Some are more contemporary, but just as lovely...

Pene Beston.

P. Surian.

Texture and such vibrant colours too. This painting is slightly crazy!

Love this one. Signed but sadly illegible.

For the crafty among you, there are some tapestries on the wall too, but I seem to remember saying something like "less is more" yesterday (Ha!) so I'll only show you one, my favourite...

So many pics. Thanks for looking. Which one did you like best? And I know the detail photos are clumsy but I just couldn't leave them out!

And now for something different. I'm going to buck the floral trend with today's tea towel...

A L-o-n-g Drive! I know I've done it!

When I was a little girl prints like these hung on my bedroom walls...

Big Eyes and Big Hair # 1

David Golding

Big Hair and Big Eyes # 2

I'm sure they decorated the walls of many girls bedrooms who grew up in the 70's like me. Forty years later they've become part of my life again. I found these in an op-shop, couldn't resist them, and brought them home to hang in my daughters bedroom. My collection grew which was fine until my daughter decided that "their big eyes freak me out!"

So now they're all mine again and here they are in all their big-eyed glory...

  These are all by British artist Dallas Simpson who I've read sold them for next to nothing-as long as she made enough money to pay for her gin she was happy!

 I love these two. They were painted by T. Maru. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any info about him/her. If you know anything please let me know. They look a bit Japanesey to me...

Betty Raphael.

 Someone was crafty with this one. It's done with Hobbytex and must have taken ages!

Big eyes didn't just stop with art, remember these...

Here Comes the Bride.

I found her in an op-shop still in original box.

And here's her bridesmaid!

I had a doll like this when I was little. She wore an aqua dress and sat on my dressing table. I was never allowed to play with her.  Pretty boring really. I wonder what happened to her? I still have most of my old dolls, but not that one...