My collection of Religionalia seems to be growing lately... I'm not sure why I like it so much because I'm not very religious (despite attending Catholic schools for almost twelve years!) Perhaps its kitschiness appeals to me, that and the feelings of nostalgia they seem to evoke when I look at them...
I've scattered examples throughout my blog but today I thought I'd show you some more of them. I think you either like this stuff or hate it (like my husband!) Have a look and see what you think...

 I bought these from a local swap meet but I think they originally come from an old Sunday School. My plan was to hang one above each of my daughters beds but they refused to let me, so now they sit covered in dust in our shed! A great shame I think.

Here are a few pictures that I haven't shown you yet...I seem to have lots of these and I remember having similar ones in my bedroom when I was a child.

Look at Mary's beautifully serene face.

 Apologies for the glare - they are all covered in some kind of plastic which doesn't photograph too well (or at least not with my camera!)

These next two are my pride and joy...they are kitschy with a capital K and extremely OTT! I love them and even my husband thinks these are o.k. because they are just so wrong they are almost right!

And look at the back...

 This hung above Dora and Pasquale's bed for sixty four years. Real treasure. It also says Ricordo di Egiolio -please tell me if you know what it means.

This is from Dora and Pasquale's home too

Another beautiful Mary AND she lights up...

See.

I nearly bought some more of these on the weekend...Oh how I wish I had...

All of this religion has reminded me of when I was seven. My brother and sisters and I went to a fancy dress party... my brother went dressed-up as a policeman, one sister a ballerina, the other a Hawaiian girl and I went as the SINGING NUN! What was I thinking? Apparently it was all MY idea too, but I'm not sure if I believe my Mum about that! The Flying Nun would have been way cooler! I'm going to see if I can find a pic to show you. Hilarious!

Well that's enough religion for one day. God bless and here's the tea towel

Greetings from Darwin.

Isn't it wonderful! They must have a lot of b.b.q's there!



Hooray! Finally my Tretchikoff has a home! Have a look, doesn't she look lovely!

Chinese Girl Yellow Jacket. Tretchikoff. 1950.

 I received her for my birthday four years ago and she hasn't had a proper home till now. It's not a great pic because the sun really streams through that window but I am thrilled with how wonderful she looks against the Harlequin wallpaper. What do you think?

While I am at it here's another view of our t.v. room... 

A closer look at the print above the buffet

Martiques.

This print hung on the wall in my husband's Grandparents home for as long as he can remember. When Lucy Violet (his Nan) died (she was ninety eight!) it came to us.

We know it's a bit like the Tretchikoff and probably hung in hundreds of lounge rooms around the world but we can't read the artist's name and would love to know who he was. Please drop me a line if you can help.

Our t.v. room was like the "black hole of Calcutta" when we bought this house...rising damp, a huge hole in the floor where previous owners had ripped out the fireplace, it really was horrible! It's a big achievement for us to see it like this, nearly finished-only the curtains to go now (I've chosen the fabric-just need to get them made up)

Before I show you the rest of my weekend treasures I'm going to make you hugely jealous! I just can't resist telling you that I found the cow-hide you see in the pics on THE SIDE OF THE ROAD!  Can you believe that someone would put that out on the verge for council clean-up? You should have seen me slam on the brakes when I drove past and saw it sitting there!!!

The buffet is also a freebie - my husband came home one night with it tied to the roof of our car! I am always amazed at the things people throw out, aren't you?

Here are the other things I found on the weekend...

Paint by Numbers. I would never have the patience for this!

Another (very scary) religious picture...Hansel and Gretel meet??? This would've given me nightmares as a child. But then thankfully I found this and I felt better...

1970's Prayer book.

  

We also found this sketch in an op-shop, my husband really liked it and it was only two dollars



 I can't read the artist's name, but on the back it says framed in Tokoroa which is in central New Zealand on the North Island (not far from Rotarua) if anyone from N.Z. can explain its significance I would appreciate it.

Now something sweet and pretty...

And a pretty tea towel to end too

Pink, grey and yellow, how lovely. Look at that vase and those flowers! Gorgeous!  

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?



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!

I popped into a couple of op-shops this morning while I was was out and about and this is what I bought...

The colours in the stripey crochet blanket are much prettier and brighter in real life. Crochet is the "in" crafty thing at the moment so I find it slightly bemusing that all of the op-shops I go to have heaps of these (some I think, quite sweetly less perfect than others but all involving lots of work by their makers)  and they are always dirt cheap.  This one cost two dollars and it covers the top of our queen sized bed! Admittedly the Salvo's were having a half priced sale on linen, but come on...Anyway for me this is a good thing as I've tried to crochet and I suck at it!

Sometimes the labels on things you buy are more interesting than the thing itself...

Isn't this one great. I love the artist's easel and the font and I also love the phrase "pictures of distinction" It also tells me that the print of the little girl and kitten is called Innocence by an artist called Moter. I'm sure I've seen the same print but in blues instead of pinks have you?

I haven't been able to find any info on Moter, if you have any please let me know.

During my attempted research on Moter I came across two fantastic web sites on Big Eye Art. Prints I've never seen before. I know alot of you love Big Eye pics so here you are:   

http://bigeyedmasters.tripod.com/BIGEYEDMASTERS.html

http://besmirched.tripod.com/eyes.html

I also bought this for my daughter who likes Chinese Checkers. One dollar. No missing pieces. And in a neat little wooden box too.

And here's a close-up of the little shoe lasts. You can't really see them in the top pic. Purely decorative but too pretty to leave and they were only ninety nine cents!

Alot of words today. I hope you don't mind...

Here is today's tea towel

Speaking of tea towels, my husband is in Melbourne at the moment,today he went to Chappel Street Bazaar and saw vintage linen tea towels for sale for sixty dollars!!! Wow! I may never have to work again!

And now I'll end with one more pic of our front garden which I took this morning...