forget the animals

right. enough blog design madness. i hope that this text looks ok on your screen. i haven't totally given up on the typewriter style font, but i have for now. time to move on. so, off to the zoo we went and forget the animals, how great is the little entry building and the gardens? i especially love the zigzag foliage in the bottom right photo.. and you know how i love a bit of zigzag.

who put my blog in a time machine back to 1986?

how's it lookin' now? any better? thankyou so much to peops who commented. i've scrapped my beloved typewriter style courier font for good old, never let you down, arial.

ahh.. husband just sent me a screen snapshot of what the arial font looks like.. the size looks better, but in my efforts to fix it, the text looks like a print out from a commodore 64 dot matrix printer! no good. why such awful pixellation i ask. cranky.

update: you may notice my font changing between arial and courier while i try and work out which one looks best across mac & pesky non-mac screens.

i'm no web designer

hmm. it seems my html skills are not so hot. methinks my blog was lookin' quite good on my computer screen.. good resolution, smallish typewriter style text. but... just found out it looks awful on other computers.. looks all low res.. text looks haggard and is the size for a legally blind person to read! i really gotta get myself some graphic design help. how does it look on your screen? i'd love to read your comments. does the text look crazy big and pixellated to you? embarrassed.

mark demsteader

these beautiful works are by english artist mark demsteader. i first discovered his work after spying one in the background of a featured interior in inside out mag.. i think it was from the christmas edition last year and i have coveted one ever since.  the husband and i like to buy an artwork every year for our wedding anniversary, but one by mr demsteader might have to wait a few more years. oh to win lotto and buy all the art i love!

you're the best

this + this + this equals the package i sent off to my good friend jacq. the husband thought i had lost it when he saw the timber postcards and big librarian stamper arrive in the post from various late night etsy purchases, (second only to the fabric tree stump apparently), but just look at the happy little package that they created. funnily enough, i think he was a little jealous that i was giving a bowl that says 'you're the best' to anyone but him. men.

happy, happy day

what an amazing day.. it started with yum cha in footscray with friends, when someone just happened to mention that mirka mora was being interviewed this afternoon at the north fitzroy star... what, what, what??!! how exciting.. a chance encounter to introduce our little mirka to her namesake, the wonderful mirka mora. the afternoon did not disappoint. apart from the big mirka giving us all the tip that when you can no longer wear high heels to walk in, you can always wear them in bed.. oh yeah and flashing us her knickers and more (!) the big and little mirkas met and genuinely seemed to like one another :) the big mirka was so lovely and said she was touched that we had named our little girl after her. of course, we were so happy to meet the fabulously cheeky big mirka that we forgot to take a photo of the occasion. fingers crossed, we will meet up again soon to remedy that.

the photograph is by the talented kingsley and taken from the stunning wall mural in the main dining room at tolarno.. one of the most beautiful spaces in melbourne.


update: the lovely shelley from femme de montmartre has also written about this here.

mailbox surprise

what a nice surprise! waiting for me inside our po box was this sweet necklace for my birthday. thankyou jacq, i love it! i think i will wear it today and try my best to keep mirka's little fingers away. happy.


reminds me i really need to go to the post office in daylight hours to post a belated present to someone i know. wink.


update: a little birdie tells me the necklace is by elk & you can check them out here.

hello, i'm doing my best

i know, i know... not another design market post! how many photos of the same event can i post? ..but i do like to gradually get through my photos that i think are worth it... the market was in an awesome, cavernous, abandoned warehouse with some serious, industrial steel features. the fun badges are by kearnsie and could have so many great applications. greetings. 

(it looked a lot like a) design market (to me)

ok. i've only just finished posting my photos from design made trade on saturday and now i have some fun photos from this is not a design market on sunday. i love a bit of fluro orange pink and how fun is this water fountain? there was a little handwritten sign on it saying it was available for hire and i thought about it for mirka's first birthday party, but then i thought that might be a little over the top. i'm thinking of having a pink, orange + red theme, but not sure how that will manifest itself yet.. maybe a bit like this. anyways, i still have more than a month to get that organised and of course, decide on what to bake for the all important first birthday cake. pink.

cupcakes in a box

the lovely mili sent me a donna hay cupcake kit for my birthday and i only just got around to baking them on the weekend... what else can i say except delicious? little mudcake treats. gone.

reminds me that i need to get along to the architectural cake bake as part of the festival before it closes.

white light

back to basics. while i've been posting about lots of happy colour, the truth of it is i love, love, white... and this little number by keith melbourne would be right at home on my desk. now, is that really keith's last name? i like it. the husband and i have often thought about changing our names and 'melbourne' has come up for consideration more than once. somehow i just don't think our friends and family would let us get away with it.

more colour

more colour love from design made trade.. how great is the belkiz flat-pack highchair? a great design that folds flat, making it perfect for taking with you on the go and at a proposed rrp of $39, probably one of the most budget friendly products there. i loved the way this wallpaper was displayed, house-of-cards eames style and i absolutely loved the bright green picnic table by extremis from corporate culture, but with a $6K price tag, ouch. yee-ouch!

design made trade colour

ok, where to start? we went along to design made trade on saturday and i was surprised at how much i enjoyed it. don't get me wrong, there's always at least one or two things that pique my interest at these trade events, but after a few you start to feel like you're just seeing the same thing over & over. i think they could have called it (not another) design made trade exhibition because i genuinely felt like there were lots of fresh ideas. oh yeah and it was soo hard not to buy anything! i'm still on a self imposed saving frenzy and let me tell you.. it was hard, real hard, to walk away from these cheery yellow socks with the big toe sewn in from boniko. colour.


p.s. sorry about the photos - not the best quality from my iphone camera and my flickr account is being very naughty.. will hopefully fix it soon.

benji button

while in n'arlins and innocently walking back to vivi's house in the french quarter one evening, we noticed people in overalls removing modern mail boxes and replacing them with olde-worlde ones.. same with the street signs, street lamps and cars, so we hung around to sticky nose.. then low & behold mr benji button brad pitt himself arrived in a big coach. it was funny how low key it was and how the locals would never be seen dead falling over themselves for a hollywood star. we sure got a good giggle out of it though.. and how beautiful does the quarter look at night with the huge movie set lights on the buildings? charmed.

n'arlins grid

the photo from my last post reminded me of a photo i had taken when i was in new orleans.. and if you've ever been to new orleans, you'll know that the locals soon like to correct your pronunciation to be "nnnaww-lins" and gawd help all y'all if you pronounce it "new-or-leans" like some white honky from melbourne. oh i have some funny stories from n'arlins, but for now i'll keep it purely architectural. squares.

melbourne.. so little time

there are so many things going on right now for the state of design festival.. not least of which is the architectural cake bake. i haven't seen one of these since uni days, despite varying efforts over the years to get friends in on one. me thinks i'll go along to the talk "is there any value in what designers do" at corporate culture next week and of course i won't be able to stay away from the (this is not a) design market on sunday. melbourne.

say hello to my little friend

well.. patch. say hello to my little patch.. because sometimes i am too dorky and shy. i'm off to another creative women's circle talk tomorrow morning, which i know will be awesome, but like i said, sometimes i'm too dorky and shy to just walk up to someone and say what this happy little patch says. it's from little paper planes. yellow.

soft glow

i've been eyeing off these candela portable lights for a while now. they have a lovely soft glow like tea light candles in a frosted glass votive, but are much safer. i would love to get some in anticipation for summer nights spent outside, even if we are in the middle of a cold winter snap here. i received a 30% off newsletter in my inbox from vessel, but i'm not sure about the american power cord or if i can be bothered using a travel power adapter to charge them. tempting though.

wear it

this is one stunning necklace. it's by erica weiner and available from etsy. i absolutely love typography and letterpress items. i think this will make the perfect present for kingsley.. now i just have to order it in k & z. happy birthday. surprise!

melbourne street art

these photos are by the talented kingsley.. from lanes in the city and around fitzroy.. sometimes with me in tow. who else would strike up a friendship with a local artist while loitering around dark laneways? kingsley would. one of the best things about creative friendships is being exposed to different worlds. through kingsley's passion for photography and street art, i've learned to open my eyes to the awesome works about town and how prolific local artists are. favourites are same same and ghost patrol.

maxwell is out of frame

and apparently that's where mirka likes him. all of the photos i took either have mirka wriggling, throwing maxwell overboard or looking over the edge to see her handiwork. none of which, are any good for the official 10 month old photo on the eames rocker.. but i guess this is a true snapshot of where she's at now. funny.

mini skittles

long time, no blog. bad captain. so what was the good news? one of mirka's birthday presents arrived in the post. man, i am so organised.. her birthday is still 2 months away. i'm "so on to it" as kingsley would say. i bought these gorgeous mini 1950's skittles from etsy. vintage darling. (read pre-bashed around, but such a lovely patina yes?) i'm looking forward to seeing mirka's face light up when she sees them all take a tumble for the first time. joy.

good news, bad news

the husband always asks if i want the good news or the bad news and i always reply "the good." last night i had a little news of my own to share, so presented it like this. what was the bad news?? even my mum has an iphone now and that's saying something. 5t really is the last person in the world to not have one, which kills him.. especially as he was the first person in the world, outside of apple, to know about them. early adopter.. not this time.