Happy hearting

Happy Valentine's Day!






Found these lovelies here.

Cloud watching

I'm back from the mountains. It was deliciously cool – a haven from the 
descending summer heat of the city. 





I must have had half a brain when packing... I forgot to take the right sized 
crochet hook and other bits and pieces that should have kept me busy. 





Instead, I just cloud watched :) 





Hope you've had a relaxing week too.

:)

Making me smile today... a little scene I snapped in my home. 


The Mr has recently become obsessed with playing the banjo
and I'm surprised at how much I love it.


These flowers are from a vine - I have no idea what they're called.

They're actually the neighbour's and I pinched them from our 
shared fence for a dinner party on Friday night.


What's making you smile today?

Crochet Love

                             

A happy mix of crochet love today... 

These fabulous wheel covers really made me smile when 

I saw them at Lynn's.

They reminded me of this fabulous piece of artistry when Kate 

yarn bombed the spare tyre on their caravan...

Then I found this yarn bombed car... 

and I found myself imagining Kate's caravan covered in yarn :)

I'm not doing my creative space today... I don't really have anything to show just yet as I'm 

embracing Alisa's idea of having an MOF (month of finishing). There are a couple of projects on 

the roll here that have been far too long in the finishing. When I do eventually post on them, 

no doubt you'll be stretching your memory for when you saw them last ;)

Anyway, on with my jobs. Hope you're having a great day.

Noticing...

Winter in Brisbane is so beautiful - the harsh sunlight of summer is replaced with a softer haze that has me daydreaming and noticing everyday beauty.

I think this was an orchid. I rescued it from the garden where it had been broken off from it's roots. It lived happily in the vase for ages and then the flowers died. It took me ages to notice though because a spider had so beautifully spun its web around each blossom...

... even when they fell from the stem, they couldn't go far. I watched Spiderwick with my Little One yesterday and now I'm thinking the hanging blooms are like the petal fairies :)

Hope you had a lovely weekend too :)

Collections: Queens of France

More photo collections :) This time, the Queen statues of Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. I took these photos a couple of years ago now but I still find myself looking at them frequently. It's the hands that fascinate me - it makes the women come alive for me. I love their strength - inspiring female role models in stature... I really should research their history. My favourite is Valentine de Milan (the first two photos).

Collections: Wood in the cathedral

More photo collections... this time my attention was arrested by all of the amazing wood carvings you see in cathedrals. The time and energy and detail of these pieces (which I presume largely go unnoticed) is just breathtaking for me. I'm becoming the mad lady taking macro shots of wood while everyone else is pointing their lens at the stars. He he :)

Postcard from Paris

Our four days in Paris were mostly work but it was still so lovely just being there. Note we look really pale and exhausted by this stage ;) Of course, there is the favourite window display photo...

There were a lot of 'work' functions like this cruise on the Seine...

...and mostly, of course, our trip to Paris was the inside of the trade fair buildings choosing frames for our shop with the Australian rep (Hi Patrice!)

Hope this hasn't been too boring. We had a wonderful trip and it's been lovely relaxing at home again and hanging out with our girls. Back to crafting very soon :)

Postcard from London

We had a couple of days in London and this was pure pleasure – no work, just seeing friends and taking in my favourite place in the world. We caught up with friends and my hand-printed t-shirt gifts thankfully went down a treat :)

Saw some fabulous window displays and had an amazing experience on our last night there... We were fortunate to be invited to the Oswald Boateng fashion show in London Fashion Week. Wow - what a hoot :) I don't think I'd ever appreciated before the fashion machine and being a direct witness to the spectacle was just incredible.

Last postcard tomorrow... Paris :)

Postcard from Brugge

Another one-day visit... this time it was in Brugge visiting our friend Patrick who is an eyewear designer. There's nothing quite like having a local show you around – it was such a magical place. I was totally in love with the lace shops... look at these lovelies :)

London tomorrow :)

Postcard from Antwerp

We were only in Antwerp for a day and it was mostly work but this is definitely a favourite place for more visits in the future. A new find, suggested by Mady at Abundance, was the new concept store Ra. A couple of pics from here are below. It was an amazing space with installation spaces for fashion, books and music...

The highlight of Antwerp for me though was meeting up with Renilde from At-Swim-Two-Birds. Thanks Renilde! :)

Home again: Postcard from Amsterdam

Back from my travels to a Brisbane flush with rain... everything is so green :) The last two weeks have rushed by in a blur but we've had a wonderful time.

Firstly, a postcard from Amsterdam.... What a fabulous place! Favourite find: The Otherist. Part curio shop, gift shop and stationers, you can have a peek at their website and blog. Somehow I failed to take a photo :(

I did, however, snap a couple of very cute window displays... This one showcased a collection of french knitting spools (from memory, I think it was someone's home, not even a shop!)

And this window display – a shop that sells only tin boxes... can you imagine such a treat? :)

We were also totally intrigued to see stickers like this one (below) all over Amsterdam... BNE is the anagram for Brisbane, so that was pretty spooky ;) Not wanting to arrogantly assume that this is what they stand for, I was wondering if anyone knows for certain what they mean?

Hope you've had a great fortnight. I'll be around visiting soon, but I think I'll be collapsing into bed for now... these 24 hour flights are killers ;)

More 'postcards' to follow this week. Tomorrow, it's Antwerp :)

Heavenly details

At the Barcelona Port there's a wide expanse of concrete tiling where vibrantly green patches of moss hide in holes and tufts of grass peek out of cracks at irregular intervals... such a simple unplanned detail and so breathtakingly beautiful.