Made me smile...

I've stumbled upon a bizarre little blog called Paris Daily Photo – no prizes for guessing its content but it also has a little story attached to each scene which are actually incredibly delightful and fun. My favourite post is above – go to the blog to read its accompanying post, it's hilarious. The indignation that it's not Paris (hearts) me!  ;)

Sunday Stash: Lace

It's Sunday Stash time again – this week my lace collection. I love lace but, as I hardly ever have the opportunity to use it, my collection has become more of an archive than a resource! Still, unlike a lot of archives, this one is admired (at least by me) frequently :) Have a lovely Sunday.

If you'd like to play along with Sunday Stash, find out more here.

Re-pair-ations?

Another incredible find from the ever-fabulous accidental mysteries! This one is all about Berlin-local, Jan Vormann – a 26 year-old urban artist who goes around repairing WW2 bullet holes with lego. He calls it "Dispatchwork". See some of the original photos here.

Friday Find

I've just been leafing through the WFM and came across a show from the New York Fashion Week this year which I haven't seen before. These incredible prints and the clean-lined tailoring just screamed out at me from the page, particularly the collaborations of Heather Howard + Cat Janky (pics above). A whole page of the mag was devoted to the fantastic graduate show of the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and apparently, they are the only School of Fashion represented at Fashion Week in NY... Can't you just see why? There were some amazing knits too – see examples from the show here or a video here.

My Creative Space

I almost forgot my Creative Space post in all the excitement of the giveaway! So, here it is. My youngest daughter is getting confirmed at Mass this Sunday and I suddenly realised that this child does not possess a dress anywhere near the colour white. So, I found a scrap of white linen and a funny old damask tablecloth that was unused and still brilliantly white (who knows where it came from!) In any case, above is the trusty sewing machine and accumulated whites which came together for the final product. (Yep, I know it's a bit lopsided but I figured this child almost never sits still long enough for anyone to notice!)

For more creative spaces or to join in the fun, visit Kirsty's site here.

Wow!

This is my first time participating in a giveaway and I'm totally blown away by all of your lovely comments! Thank you so much. Don't forget you can leave a comment up to Sunday 31 May. I'll do the random selection on 1 June and send the shirt and brooch before 3 June. I'm loving reading your comments – all power to the post-natal peeps! I actually started sewing because I couldn't find comfortable shirts to hide my bumps :) This is so much fun, I think I'll do giveaways more often!

Oops, almost forgot the time differences – I'll do the random selection at about 10am Monday 1 June (Australian time), which is roughly 8pm (Eastern) 31 May in the US and 2am in the UK... give or take an hour or so!

It's Giveaway Day!!

Finally, it's May Giveaway Day!! And, here it is – the shirt! This is a funky little number – looks fabulous with jeans or a skirt and boots. There's even a brooch to match (see detail below)! It's about a size 12 (Aust) but because of its easy-to-wear structure would look gorgeous on a size 10 or a 14. The fabrics used are cotton, jersey, and wool panels. Machine washable (cold setting). 

For anyone who hasn't heard about this yet, today is the day that hundreds of giveaways are posted by bloggers and you get to choose which ones you'd like to win. There are heaps of Australians taking part too, including Thea + Sami, Edward + Lilly, Emmstar, and Handmade Bits and Pieces. For the complete listing of all giveaways, check out Sew Mama Sew.

So, if you like this one, just add your comment below. The winner will be randomly selected, and yes, international shipping is fine! The Giveaway is open until 31st May.

Sneak Preview

Watch this space... May Giveaway is tomorrow, Wednesday 27th May. Here's a taster of what you could win at 3 sheets.

Want to know more? Visit here.

Dream Home

I've found my dream home. An amazing combination of minimalism and warmth... concrete walls (tick) black floor tiles (tick) wooden cabinets and furniture (tick, tick) birch forest in back yard (tick) loads of balloons and colour (tick, tick). This is the David Chipperfield-designed home of photographer Nick Knight – a 1950s Surrey house that was reworked in 1990 and further expanded in 1998. I came across it in Issue 2 of Adam & Eve Magazine. Apparently, Chipperfield is currently working on a new house for Nick Knight... Wonder which lucky person will end up living in this dream...

Birdy + Burke

Absolutely loving this gorgeous Cream Magazine editorial – a collaboration between Australians Kelly Smith (illustrator) and Macushla Burke (photographer). Found via the ever-inspiring Poppytalk.

Building Facades

London

Rome

Paris

I was going through my photos and remembered my obsession last year with how buildings are being clothed these days. I haven't seen it so much in Australia but the top two photos of St Paul's in London and a building in Rome, both show this fab trend to cover scaffolding with images of the building, and sometimes (unfortunately) ads too, while it's undergoing renovation. Then there's the trend to give buildings a permanent outer adornment, like the above building in Paris. I just love it – isn't it fabulous?

Sunday Stash: Buttons

Some favourite buttons found on my travels.

Web Find: Random Vandal

Fabulous web find - Random Vandal - found here.

via here.

No netball today

Brisbane floods

I didn't realise when I posted my blog about the rain storms we've been having, the effect they were having in other parts of Brisbane. This is a photo of my friend's back yard. There's fencing and playground equipment under that water. We seem to have a revolving door cycle of drought to flood here.

Juxtaposed: Religion

5,084,000,000 people 5,360 pages 3,700 years 243 countries 7 books 1 shelf. All the world's major religious texts brought together in snuggly co-existence! Made by Mike + Maaike. Found here.

Creative Space

I received an email last night telling me I've gone over my internet access allocation and that charges are now being added (this blogging-thing is seriously addictive!). So, I decided not to sit at the computer getting lost in blog-land yet again and, instead, made some brooches. This is what I came up with.

Wet Wet Wet

The cloud's winning today. It's so furiously winning I'm drenched to the skin from a small trip outside! I love our wild rain storms... but these are the times when I wish I could drive a car! My garden looks SO happy. Find pic here.

Cloth Kits

One of my favourite buildings in London is the Trellick Tower by Erno Goldfinger. I am an absolute sucker for anything imprinted with its image... I've been longing for the gorgeous People Will Always Need Plates Trellick plates for an age. So, you can imagine my excitement when I found this very cute skirt. The company is Cloth Kits. Apparently, they started 40 years ago and after a hiatus are back again with a wide range of kits for clothes, toys etc. Rob Ryan has designed a skirt pattern for them and... People Will Always Need Plates have allowed their Trellick design to be used!

Above, the skirt image from their website (I haven't got around to making mine yet)

and below, detail of my skirt kit.

Anyway, speaking of cloth kits, I remembered that my friend Bec's mum used to make kit dolls a few years ago and that I have a very lovely one in my work room that Bec gave one of my daughters when she was born. Here she is (below), minus only her gorgeous little apron which must have been lost over the years (sorry Bec!)

Louise still makes her cloth kits of soft dolls and animals and has her own website called Louise Elliott Design. You should see these amazing toys - the colours are so vibrant. These are my favourites, below. 

More Maurice!

Sorry, but I suddenly just had to show more of Maurice Sheltens amazing photos. This series, another magazine shoot for mens knitwear in 2007. As before, you can find his photos here. Also, forgot to thank 2 or 3 things for leading me here.