enfants terribles

thinking i might buy this removable sticker (wall decal, darling) from gallop lifestyle for the door to the room of our own enfants terribles. i don't know about you, but i find it a huge struggle not to burst out laughing at toddler antics. or at least struggle not to let mirka see me burst out laughing at her antics, the phrases she comes out with and especially. especially. her facial expressions. the husband has them down & we have a good laugh at mimicking our first born enfant terrible. when she can't see us of course. madness.

update: done. 

senkki furniture

some kind of awesome magical, 'musical' doors huh? not literally musical, but you know, interchangeable. retromodern, who i first discovered at design made trade here, have just launched senkki furniture as a new alternative to having to source original mid century furniture & giving that a new lease on life. i love how they've taken obvious inspiration from the retro furniture they know and love, but still managed to design these new pieces with their own signature modern style. 

"Senkki was born from the desire to design furniture that would offer an alternative to the Mid Century Danish classics. It has become very difficult and expensive to find these collectible pieces and for those who are keen to have something 'new' with a contemporary twist then this is where we fit in." (quote from here)

i think the reversible 2-way sliding doors on their s180 cabinet are genius. a simple switch around & you have an entirely new look. if i'm right, you effectively get to choose 8 different colours/finishes to cover the reversible 4 doors. in that case, i'd like one customised with 2 oak, 2 white, maybe 1 black and wait for it.. 1 pale baby blue, 1 turquoise & one a deeper washed out grey/blue.. something like this, this or this & this.. similar to the door colours in this post by the talented architect peeps over at chezerbey blog. yes, i too love the great use of colour on the sets of 'madmen', but let it be known i've always loved a little shot of aqua/turquoise. tell me, is aqua just the daggy name for the trendier turquoise? am i showing my age by even knowing the word 'aqua'?? is aqua a dirty word? not in my book. maybe i can bring it back!

gotta get myself a pear tree

these photos were taken back in february when we went to see the recent mirka mora exhibition at heide.  the painted windows look amazing in person and especially in the sunshine. so much colour, generosity & life. if you love the fabulous mirka mora, then you can watch the video of her painting the sunroom windows of heide I here. i naughtily snapped a photo of the small square window in the shower in the original house of john & sunday reed, now known as heide I. imagine how many great australian artists have showered there and looked out of that window. i decided then and there, that if a window looking out on a pear tree was good enough for them, then it's good enough for me. now i just have to get around to buying a monster concrete pot and planting a pear tree outside my bathroom window. 

p.s. the last photo is of the forecourt to heide III. by o'connor & houle architects, i love the black zinc cladding & how heide III seems to be what brings the various spaces & garden together. heide I is the sort of welcoming 'farmhouse' that everyone wants as their country house, heide II is the sort of house that any self-respecting, modernist-loving architect, is totally and utterly in love with & heide III is a modern gallery space that makes you focus on the artworks at the same time as being knocked out by the framed views of the surrounding gardens as you move through the gallery & stop at various relief spaces. it's got that internal/external balance thing down. hmm, that was a long postscript.

fleeting

i took my mama's day flowers out of the vase to change the water & get rid of the ones that weren't lookin so good any more & thought they looked just as gorgeous plonked flat on the bench. especially those soft, soft pink tulips. rest assured, i plonked them back in the vase to last a few days longer. fleeting. 

p.s. flowers by birchbox flowers in yarraville.

my mother's day

my mother's day. 2011. the first of many where i'm a mama of two. i thought it only fair to share my love, so i placed the stunning posy of flowers (from birchbox flowers in yarraville) in mirka's vase & next to charlie's sign. i don't want to bore you, but yes, i had a lovely day. pancakes at home with nutella & icecream for breakfast. nutella people! so good. then we drove up to kyneton for lunch & now i'm set on buying a holiday house up there. one day. so perfect for a winter weekend.. fallen leaves,  winter sun, wood fires, lots of tea drinking, book reading, toasted sandwiches & chocolate brownies. one day.

vivi's new robe

happy mother's day to my mum.. the one & only vivi. i had a winter robe made up for vivi last year the same as mine, (remember this?), but instead of white writing on charcoal, vivi's was light blue writing on white. anyways, i'm forever receiving text messages about how much she loves it, so with summer fast approaching in new orleans, kingsley & i thought another customised robe was the way to go for mother's day. i ordered this gorgeous, luxuriously long, dusty blue one in super soft, light-weight cotton from gth & had it embroidered at my local, don't-ask-for-anything-too-difficult-or-else-brace-yourself-for-the-stare-of-death, embroiderer. i have the same robe in navy and i have worn and worn it & it still feels soft.  i think vivi's turned out pretty swish, even if, just like the previous ones, it's embroidered with gawd awful script as the husband calls it. i tell you, everyone should have a robe with their nickname on it. it's the little things, you know? love you mum. 

nyc as styled by mirka

life with our mirka means never knowing what you'll find around the house. things rearranged, hidden, drawn on(!), lined up, etcetera. my mini timber nyc set is the latest to be styled by mirka. what can i say, the girl's got talent because she's lined up the three big hitters; the guggenheim, chrysler building & statue of liberty, together. i'm not so sure about the cars on top of the buildings though??

another magazine

as posted on my facebook page (follow me here), i am enamoured with this artwork by victoria reichelt, titled 'another magazine III'. it's up for auction via the insideout charity auction. i have many, many, magazines piled around the house and in the studio & one of my greatest pleasures is cracking open a new one to find out what inspiration awaits me via their seductive photography. if you are feeling super generous, then please go & bid here on my behalf. it's for a good cause & you know it would go to a good home. smile.

introducing jacques

introducing jacques.. to say that our little mirka is obsessed with cinderella at the moment, would be understating it. she disappears & then reappears in her "pretty dress". mirka likes to dance around with coco "the prince" while singing "so this is love, la-la-la-la." pretty cute. if you know the movie, then you know that cinderella's besties are mice, so the latest is mirka playing with jacques the mouse. when i looked over and saw him propped up next to the fallen pink camellia that mirka picked this morning, i thought it made a pretty picture.