Status Anxiety

I am now officially stocking both the Mornington Page 8 and the Hampton one. Rosie and Johnnie own these beautiful shops. They have exquisite taste in books and gifts and seem like such nice people.

I took a drive down to the Hampton shop on Monday to deliver some stock. There I had such a lovely chat with Rosie and bought myself a new wallet by a bunch called Status Anxiety. We talked about the great Alain De Botton book by the same name. In the book De Botton deconstructs notions of Status Anxiety - his insights are interesting and really make the reader examine this concept. Darren and I have been doing it a lot lately, mostly due to necessity, but also because the more we deconstruct it and the more honest we are with ourselves about what REALLY makes us happy, the more we realize what a crock of shite it is.

I love that the wallet has the words Status Anxiety embossed into it. Every time I spend money it will remind me that stuff is just stuff and can become clutter.

SAY IT!

I think we don't say it enough! So here goes: the things I love about my boys this week.

Kooky Kian for the things he says out of the blue like:

1. Kian: "Shew mummy I am glad there is not a real live elephant in the car with us or we would be in big trouble" 
2. Kian: "I had a bad dream. It came out of my eye in two drops of water. It was about a bad man and a good man and the bad man cut the good man." Me: "Oh dear darling. What happened in the end? Was the good man OK?" Kian: "Sometimes there are no endings mummy."
3. Kian (leopard crawling around the house shout / singing): "macaroni cheese, macaroni cheese, MACARONI CHEESE"

Lovely Leith for the beautiful patterns he finds everywhere around him - in numbers, letters, words and colours. And generally for his brilliant mind. Also for saying he will always want a cuddle from me even when he is a teenager (even though I know he wont).

Darling Darren for being a constant and delightful surprise. Yesterday I drove down the coast with the sun-she-shine on my face and Darren's mix tape (for his morning school runs) playing and was thrilled by his nostalgia, his unconventionality and his sheer joy in song choice. 

And now for some delightful image / words I have found on Pinterest. 

SOUTHSide!

So I did my first Southside Handmade & Vintage Market on Saturday and it was great. This market has such a nice vibe and lovely people. It was their second year birthday celebration. Here are some pics of the action.

Congratulations Anne and Fin on your second year.

The market is held in the St Kilda RSL hall, which has a bar that opens at 12.00pm - a teeny tiny tequila helps with the afternoon lull! 

The ONCE Stall at the market

This is the lovely Mikayla from Little Lost Wonders - a great wee shop that stocks vintage children's wear. What exquisite little pieces she has on offer.  

The market boasts some amazing vintage wears. The shots above are from the Deerfield Vintage Collection and Rose's Retro Gear

Thanks Anne and Fin. See you next month

The Winter Of My Discontent

It's been bloody cold here. It's cold inside, it's cold outside, it's very cold in my studio. I am trying to keep up the painting pace as my show is only a month away, but to tell the truth, I am waning. I stuck up a lovely Skinny Laminx decal in my studio today, to brighten my outlook. I hope the watery sunlight will make it cast a shadow.
There are things to look forward to - this Saturday I do my first Southside Market - cant wait, and on Tuesday we go to the Laura Marling concert, so really I should not be feeling this dull.

Lego

Lego is big in our family. Mostly driven by Leith but also by Darren, Lego is the fifth member of our household. I even have a Lego board on pinterest, which is where I found these great abandoned Victorian houses made from Lego by Mike Doyle. Aren't they stunning?

Trixiedelicious

I spotted this piece by Trixiedelicious first and then went to visit their shop - WOW so cool! They describe their goodies as "Vandalized Vintage".

Succulent Love

In SA I used to have a big succulent and cactus garden, both in beds and in pots. I am slowly creating teeny tiny new succulent pots. They are such rewarding plants because the only way you can kill them is to have insufficient drainage and over water them. So stones in the bottom of the pots, sandy soil and forgetting to water them makes them thrive! Also thrift shopping for interesting containers is the best part. It is better to buy plastic or tin containers so you can drill holes into them for drainage. However if you find a ceramic piece like the jubilee cup below, which you cannot not drill into, just put extra stones in the bottom and find a place for the pot that the rain does not reach.

We Are All Connected

My new show "We Are All Connected" opens at The Bird's Gallery, Kew on Saturday 31st of August 2013.

"Great Heights" (Melbourne City)

Perfect!

I am currently re-reading Kurt Vonnegut's book "Slaughterhouse 5". It is such a delight. I think it is the happiest existentialist novel ever written.
So in the story Billy Pilgrim moves backwards and forwards through his life and at one point he was abducted by an alien race called the Tralfamadorians. This little excerpt takes place when the Tralfamadorians try to explain their literature to Billy.

"Billy couldn't read Tralfamadorian, of course, but he could at least see how the books were laid out-in brief clumps of symbols separated by stars. Billy commented that the clumps might be telegrams.
 'Exactly,' said the voice.
 'They are telegrams?'
 'There are no telegrams on Tralfamadore. But you're right: each clump of-symbols is a brief, urgent message describing a situation, a scene, We Tralfamadorians read them all at once, not one after the other. There isn't any particular relationship between all the messages, except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.'"

OMG - I would so love it if I can ever get close to this with my painting.

How Time Flies

Well I cant believe that it has been a whole month since my last market, but it has. This little set of swallows will be at my table on Sunday. What do you think of the nice new colour?

Tea and Bikkies

Here are my new Australian selection of biscuits. They come as magnets and as brooches and are $15 each. They are molded from the real thing, then cast in an eco-friendly material called Jesmonite and hand painted. Please come along to the Abbotford Convent on Sunday and say hi. There are many great stalls and delicious food and coffee to be had in the most tranquil of environments.

Animal Crackers

I have a market at the Abbotsford Convent on Sunday so have been making goodies. This month I have the new little embroidery hoop, room decorations and I have also made a new batch of biscuit brooches and magnets. I have cast a few Australian favourites (see tomorrow) and I found these traditional American Animal Crackers, which I have made as brooches. As with quite a few childhood biscuits that have animal shapes, sometimes it is hard to tell what they are. I chose the kangaroo, the tiger, the hippo and Mr seal (this is the hard to identify one).

I just love the packaging of these little snacks. 

How To CureThe Ills Of Life

Cigarettes and Absinthe! 

Red & Green

I love the shadow of my little rain cloud. It reminds me to enjoy the sun.

The garden thinks it is spring. The great thing about living in a new house is that there are surprises around each corner - like these bulbs pushing through. Cant wait to see what they are. 

Another little hoop I made.

School Holidays!

I find it really difficult to keep up with everything in the school holidays, so there has been a little gap in posts. My up-coming exhibition is galloping towards me at a furious rate and the little ones have been ever so around with the holidays, but today they are back at school - exhale. We did do some fun things and got out and about as much as we could. Our first little trip was to Portsea, which is on one end of our peninsula. We visited this amazing quarantine station (which I think would make a great get-away / pony hospital for fatigued mothers). It was the first quarantine stop for arriving sailors and then became an army station of sorts.

What a beautiful coastline this is.
Our next outing was to Flinders where the crazy boys decided to swim in the sub-zero sea.

Darren, just loving the family trips out!

The holiday was punctuated with great play-dates with friends and cousins.

This weekend we were house sitting for my cousin while she was in Tasmania. Her home is west of Melbourne, so we thought we would explore that side of the territory. We took a trip up to Dalesford and Ballarat, both so beautiful and full of interesting shops and antique markets (the Mill Markets in particular were gob-smacking).

Dalesford town center

Lark - my favourite shop ever!

Ballarat

We stumbled across two Mill Markets, but there may be more. One was just outside of Dalesford and the other just outside of Ballarat. They are huge warehouses filled with vintage treasures. 

On the way to these amazing towns we stopped to check out the place Darren is going for alternative photography courses. It was so beautiful in the mist.

All in all quite a remarkable rambling holiday was had by all.