Melbourne Part 3: Art

It's in the streets. This is the primary difference between Sydney and Melbourne. Creativity is lurking around every corner, seeping into public spaces and getting under your skin. Sadly, Sydney tends to eat art up and spit it out in the form of casinos and commercial real estate. 

I so enjoyed the grafitti and poster art... please sample a selection below:

When walking along Gertrude St we came across a little exhibition of crazy birds and their homes, which made me feel nostalgic for the 3 years I had my Mum to myself and we spent days doing craft and drawing crazy birds.  The artist's name is Neils Oeltjen. These images are actually from when he exhibited the same work in Sydney. I liked it a lot.

The main point of going to Melbourne was to see the Art Deco exhibition before it closes (5th October in case you're wondering). And it seems the rest of Australia was thinking the same thing last weekend! The crowds of people actually made me feel quite good about the state of art in Australia. 

It was a pretty amazing collection... Egyptomania sounded like a fun time, and all the Oriental influences such as the  lacquer techniques were so beautifully utilised, especially by Eileen Grey (my hero).

Other stand outs were the bakelite handbags - black and mint! And a beaded dress that simulated draping. Lord!

Topped off with a trip to the Gallery Shop, and this was a pretty perfect way to spend a Sunday morning.

Melbourne Part 2: Literature

Whenever I travel I chose to purchase the heaviest and most unwieldily mementos.  Such as books. NP will attest to this as he had to lug my books (full of lovely pictures but nothing I could actually read) around Japan for 3 weeks, and I'll be forever grateful.

My first purchase came about when we were trying to find the Hat Shop (more on that latter) near Flinders St Station. We happened upon a dark little shop that sells hand made zines... something that just doesn't seem to flourish in Sydney. I picked up the artist Chay-ya's exhibition catalogue which she has handily uploaded to the net for all to see. It's a secret treasure. And light enough to travel well.

Get your own - Open publication

The next great read was picked up at the NGV gallery shop. Charley Harper is one of my favourite illustrators, recently championed by Todd Oldman (America's Tonia Todman). NP wasn't so excited to see that the letter N was associated with Nest... I think he was expecting something a little more exciting... 

Melbourne Part 1: Eating

We ate ourselves silly over the weekend...

Flew in, checked in and went straight to Pellegrini's Espresso Bar, a place I'd heard so much about, a "Melbourne institution". The problem with not being a local is not knowing which dish is going to be the best option, and when we saw a guy tucking into a plate of meat-balls we knew we'd made an error. The granita and coffee made up for our average, but over-sized Ravioli and Spaghetti Marinara.

Next up was dinner at Comme, recommended by a friend who's food radar is one of the best. We had the meal of a life-time - the food just keeps on coming if you go with the Chef's Selection, the highlight for NP being the fries (okay, my highlight too...).

A late lunch the next day at Little Creatures Dining Hall continued the good eating... beer and Pipsqueak Cider accompanied lamb shanks for me, steak sandwich for NP, and then the most AMAZING donuts with ice cream were scoffed down. A fun place to go with friends with the casual climate and open space (thought nice with someone special too).

Japanese in the evening in the interest of our digestion was had at Hak0 - found wandering the back-lanes (and mistaking Robot Sushi for a food venue, when actually a bar). Great meal - the hot pot was smashing, but let down by a diluted pot of tea. Which matters. A lot. But I guess when this is a low point in a weekend, it's a pretty good one.

NP continued this culinary journey the next day with a trip to the place claiming "the world's best fries"... Lord of the Fries. I think he's trying to figure out how to bring the franchise to Sydney. I have to agree they were pretty good. We've just sent an email begging them to come to Sydney.

So we've had our intake of potato for the year and we're on detox this week trying to recovery from our gluttony, but it was worth every bite. 

Pellegrini's: 66 Bourke St Melbourne.

Comme: 7 Alfred Place, Melbourne.

Little Creatures Dining Hall: 222 Brunswick St, Fitzroy.

Hako: 310 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.

Lord of the Fries:  Flinders St Station, Melbourne.

In the meantime...

NP and I had a super fun trip to Melbourne over the weekend and can't wait to share all the stuff that we saw and ate! That will be coming up this week, but in the meantime, just as summer has emerged in Sydney, here are some nice knits from Keep and Share, an ethical/eco fashion group in the UK.

Knitting

Despite not liking Shetland ponies one little bit (due to an unfortunate experience during childhood), I have embrace the Shetland Museum and Archives whole heartedly. They have some lovely images, especially if you search for "knitting" in the subject line.

I have a feeling this lady is my future self!

Stamps from Nepal...

Stamps all the way from Nepal from my gorgeous friend Olivia. Thank you Livvy! Your card was lovely!

Philip Treacy + Isabella Blow

Lovely Yumi gave me this book of inspiration. I have to say I'd quite like to be an alive version of Isabella Blow. What a gal! I'm now officially a hat person.

For more images of Isabella check out this You Tube post.

I Heart Holly Throsby!

A topsy-turvy weekend with a Sunday night concert throwing me into disarray (not on a school night!) but ended up being well worth it. Yumi had organised tickets for a delightful group of friends to see Holly Throsby at The Basement  (gorgeously intimate space cursed with over priced food).

Toby Martin from Youth Group played a lovely set first up... Holly performed like a kindy-teacher reading stories to a bunch of ramshackle yet enthralled kids. Then her multi-tasking economically efficient 2-piece band came along.  When the glockenspiel and cello were broken out I was joyous - what a gorgeous sound.

So grandma survived a late Sunday night - nothing that a good affogato couldn't fix today!

Quite like these...

IWood glasses...

Image: Chic City Rats

More Roar!

It's been a crazy week in the Studio with Range Launch kicking off.

Thought I'd post a couple of my designs that have just arrived in-store!

Gracie is my favourite, though gave me a little bit of grief during the design process. The coverlet and sham are something I'm going to have put away for future minis. And NP has requested Dino Stomp in a double for us. Ha!

You can find them at all the usual Sheridan stockists and online.

Mix Tape for September...

September requires some music to rock out to!

I'm liking:

Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma is of note.

The Shins - definitely Phantom Limb

The Wombats - Let's Dance to Joy Division

The new You am I album - especially Erasmus

MGMT - Electric Feel and Time to Pretend

Catch some of them above!

Roar!

These little origam guys were made by NP for my birthday. I have a penchant for dinosaurs and even as I write we're spending Sunday morning watching Jurassic Park 1 (which is my personal fav, though NP thinks JP3 is 'comparable').

The Roar! badge comes from Allira Tee - super cute!

Alex Kanevsky

Alex Kanevsky has a collection of beautiful paintings on his site... lots of layering and motion. I liked his answer to his ideal work space...

"A room with white walls and plenty of space between paintings. Moderate light of a neutral colour. I like squeaky wooden floors near my paintings. The rest is unimportant."

(Interview from Vivianite).

Tripey delivers the goods...

I've just spent the afternoon playing at with Wordle, sent to me by our Brit-banished friend Patrick (hello Patrick!! I know I'm too pink and pretty for you, but I thought I'd try get your interest by posting this). 

Wordle brings back memories of Typography Class (though we weren't allowed to use a computer to type set...). Fun!!

Best and yummiest breadkfast EVER!

NP made me the yummiest birthday breakfast ever... pancakes, ice cream, banana and strawberries. Lucky me!

Tea Petal, Bondi

This is one lovely store... fresh flowers, handmade ceramics, and bespoke men's shirts. I'm in love! I coaxed NP into perusing with me and he was very patient while I picked up everything in the shop.

Find it at 110 Curlewis St, Bondi. (02) 93657099.

Image: Lucky Magazine

Takashi Wasaki

This artist has appeared on a couple of my favourite blogs, but didn't catch my eye until I saw an Elle Deco UK spread that he illustrated with his amazing embroideries. They are so randomly and painstakingly beautiful it makes me sigh. 

Images: From Takashi Wasaki's website.

Constantine Nicholas

Another artist who uses randomness in an astounding way, not to mention colour...

Sally Smart

Sally Smart is an Australia artist who has exhibited locally and internationally. Her cutouts, collages and wall assemblages are initially playful, then the social commentary unveils itself...  the female pirate is used to explore ideas of gender, immigration and colonisation.

I also know a 3 year old who'd quite like his room decked out with these seaworthy folk!

Images: Sally Smart Website