Finding the muse

I'd like you to meet Dave the Golden Retriever. In his spare time, Dave likes to read, drink only the finest scotch whisky and smoke cigars...
Dave is 5 and a half years old on paper, spends most of his time acting like a 2 year old and a little of his time in a 90 year old man's clothes - this is one such occasion. We try to love him most of the time...

Looking from Dromana pier back towards Mornington

Dromana pier looking towards Sorrento

Today as I sat in the shop, I watched people being hammered by hail, then the sun would shine. The light would change dramatically and the rain would come down, horizontally and I would chuckle as people were blown down the street with all the signs from surrounding shops. I shouldn't have laughed, but I was warm and dry!

It snowed in the Dandenongs and I heard on the radio that somewhere, the wind chill factor dropped to -7 degrees celcius.

Isn't Melbourne weather a treat?!

this kept me awake for ages the other night... at 3.15 am these words were rattling around in my head, nicely coupled with images to match and I couldn't go back to sleep until I wrote them down on the inside cover of the paperback i'm currently reading, under the light of my mobile phone.

"weave us a road", he said and we did. she and i were entranced by each others maps and drawings as we felt our way along. "play a trombone for me", he said so I did. as i sat, all tangled in the 'bone and its arms and legs, he said, "you must swing from great height, it is only then that you will achieve the note of beauty that you desire."

I can picture the images as well but they are hard to describe - let me try... for the bit about the woven road, there was a page of woven paper, like a road, leading gently off the page. the maps and drawings were a part of us, a girlfriend and me. the trombone was actually a seat that I was sitting in, a bit like a chairlift seat hanging in the sky but a trombone. and the arms and legs of the instrument were the part of the trombone that you move to get the different notes. it was what held me safely inside the chair.

the more i read the words the more i like them. i reread them when i woke up in the morning and was quite surprised at how poetic they were! weird, but poetic!
xo

Fashions on the Field beauties.

Fashions on the field was judged by the Tutti a Tavola ladies who are visiting the peninsula to run a series of cooking classes at Max's restaurant.

Here is the box - finished now! Lizzie loved it.

Thanks Glen!!

I'm so bad at putting photos in my blog!!!

I wanted to post some pictures of the results of my box making workshop with Glen Skein. This box is for my cousin Lizzie who is a fashion designer currently working as a visual merchandiser for Cue and Veronika Maine. She's a pretty talented young lady I reckon!

I love the idea of a box full of bits. There's always an element of surprise when you open a box to find the contents and when there are little hidden shelves and boxes within the box it makes the adventure even more alluring!

Anyway, this is a box that contains 21 thimbles from my late mum's collection and was intended as a 21st birthday present for Liz (who turned 21 in May 2005 - oops!!!). The box is about 13x13x7cm and will (by Sunday!!) be chocked full of thimbles, art books and little bits of sewing ephemera. The art books (at the time of taking the photo, the only one is the red one in top right corner of the 2nd photo) are all hand bound and the pages are made from vintage pattern tissue paper. There is a fairly diverse range of thimbles, sterling silver, brass, plastic and ceramic.

I've had a great time making it so I hope she loves it!