Good Things Autumn 2012

Our garden is mostly a winter garden, due to all the camellia trees, and they are just coming into flower now:

It is only when I attempted to paint a camellia that I realised a flower like this was not just pink, but also purple and grey and white and blue and even orange.  If you like camellias I have a board devoted to them on Pinterest. 


I have been on a cleaning and sorting frenzy recently, mostly because nothing has been done in that department for at least a year.  I have now done the linen press, the wine \ storage room, the Cupboard of Doom, the hallway bureau.  Plenty still more to do like garden shed, garage roof storage, chests, etc.   Anyway, I came across some old children's jumpers.  All coincidentally in pink and green, my favourite combination.   Like so:

(via Style Files)

(via Decorpad)

I can't bring myself to sell second hand clothes.  I either keep them because they are tiny or sentimental, re-use them for something, or give to the Salvos. 

I think I will make another patchwork blanket from them, like this one I did for my son:

It is a bit worse for the wear but he does love it.   These blankets take a long time to put together, I think it  is something to do with the stretchiness of the knits.  Maybe I need an overlocker?  Anyway, I expect it will be draping our dining room table for the next 6 months.


Autumn has been very late this year, too much chlorophyll in the leaves or something but finally the maples are beginning to turn orange.

I have been also doing a huge amount of new cooking.  With ingredients I have not used much before, like farro, and freekah, and lentils, and millet flour, and red and black rice, and steel cut oats, and amaranth flour, and coconut oil and cacao nibs and spirulina and activated nuts and bee pollen and more - the list is endless.   I have been completely inspired by these cookbooks:

Brilliant tip - you mix the kale and coconut and roast it for a bit and then add to your carbohydratey item like rice or couscous or farro.   Divine.

MaAny of you will know that Supernatural is by Heidi Swanson, she of 101 Cookbooks blog, and the one above left by Beatrice Peltre of La Tartine Gourmande (see my side bar).   I have a bit of a prejudice against cookbooks by bloggers don't ask me why I know it is irrational, but anyway these are both brilliant and highly recommended.   It all started for me when I stopped eating sugar, which is about 12 months ago.  Because when you stop eating something you have to fill the gap with other food products, like eggs and bacon and also some healthy things.  I think I will do a little post on this at some point.  I sound terribly pious and boring not eating sugar, but really truly, it has been No Problem At All.  And has sorted out some real health issues for me.  And given me very clear skin. 


There was an article in the Age late last week about a deal a fashion distributor has done with some denim designers including Paige and AG Adriano Goldshmied.  From now on, sites like Revolve will not be able to ship these jeans to Australia and we will have to pay double or triple the price from shops here.  These are my two favourite jeans makers.  This story got more than 900 comments, and I can assure you they were not in support of this move.  I don't mind paying a bit more to buy in a shop around the corner, but double? Triple?


Just as well I bought these jeans a few months ago. They are a dark teal colour and I love them, Very comfortable and soft and strangely flattering, which is not something one can often say about 'cigarette' jeans.  These are by Adriano Goldshmied.

I can't do bright pink jeans though.  I just can't.   I remember them last time round, in 1983.

Tweet

Delft Blue from the Past

Over the weekend we made our annual pilgrimage to Handworks to buy cardboard and envelopes for my daughter's 8th birthday party invitations.   Theme as yet undecided.   Date decided but timing as yet undecided, but it will be in the early evening.   Anyway my daughter graciously said I could choose the colour for the invitations if I would let her buy 6 sheets of  origami paper which she tends to keep in secretive piles and never uses.

And this Delft blue colour is what I gravitated towards.   How I love this shade.

Half finished invitations, flowers hand cut and glued by me

Why do I love this colour so?  For me, it begins, as does so much for us, with my childhood.

(by Janeych on Flickr)

When my parents separated and we moved out of the pink house into a considerably smaller white house and my mother went out into the workforce for the first time ever, she promised me that I could decorate my bedroom in colours of my choosing.  In Laura Ashley.  Of course. I say of course because in those days Laura Ashley was THE fabric of choice.  And indeed clothing of choice.  I can remember being pretty thrilled with my Laura Ashley pinafore as a little girl, which looked rather like this:

The fabric I chose for my bedroom was Campion (third along, second row down) for the curtains, and Wood Violet (third along, fourth row down) for the wallpaper.

For me, getting that room decorated my way symbolised some kind of completion of a very horrible stage in our lives.  And a transformation into a more grown up girl.

Go here to see some wonderful Flickr photos of vintage 1980s Laura Ashley prints by Janeych. I do not understand why these old prints are not re-issued.   They still look great.  It's not my taste anymore, but I think they still look wonderful in a little girl's room, or in a guest room.

I still love Delft blue, but now like it like this:

(J Crew from a season or so ago)

(Cocco Lave bag by Bottega Veneta)

Or this:

(Wrottingham Castle)

(via Design Crisis)

(House to Home)

A blue dining room. I think I could live with that. 

Tweet

Snakeskin and Rainbow Knits

Several  weeks after I said I would do it, I spent four hours spring cleaning my wardrobe on the weekend.   I do this 4 times a year, partly because I have limited space so I need to remove all woollens and retrieve the summer dresses shoved into unmentionable crooks and crannies.

But the main reason for the clean out is is because a supposedly dried up creek runs under that part of the house (potential purchasers of our house, stop reading now) and my clothes tend to get damp, which annoys me no end. I have to keep moving things around so that things don't get ruined. 

Like everyone else, I could easily do with more closet space.  I could also do with better light in my wardrobe area.    So much so that whenever I clean it out I always find things I forgot I had or which I in fact couldn't see. I am still looking for my favourite black cardigan. ....As I keep saying, if I had more closet space, I would buy fewer clothes, because I would be able to clearly see what I own.  

If there is one type of story I loathe reading, it those ones about celebrity closets.   True, I am a little envious.  But there is something almost obscene, and at the every least, vulgar, about these women sitting in front of their 1000s of pairs of shoes, Louis Vuitton bags in every colour and pairs of jeans for every day of the year.  They may as well have 'I make a ludicrous amount of money' or 'I get given lots of free stuff' tattooed on their forehead.   I have some forgiveness for those who work in fashion, as that is obviously a perk of the job.  But for the likes of Ms Hilton, Carey and Alba, to quote my daughter 'stop it I do not like it'. 

(a wardrobe by NY designer Robert Couturier)

(Kimora Lee Simmons' closet)

(Roomdrobe of Jenna Lyons from J Crew)

Anyway, taking a tip from the ever tasteful Kimora Lee Simmons (see above), I put all the coloured knits I discovered buried in the deep recesses in a nice little pile.  And to prove the point it is evident to me that I tend to just buy the same pinky coloured knits over and over. 

(bright Jane)

(everyday Jane)

And then I found these Bruno Magli snakeskin pumps I bought in London in 2001 when we went to a friend's wedding. Those were carefree happy days.  These are a bit banged up but still look pretty nice I think.  

And then much more excitingly, I found this croc or snake skin bag which belonged to my long dead grandmother, Olive.  It still has a cinema ticket from 1978 in the side pocket. I can imagine her, fully hatted and becardiganned, off to the city to see something appropriate for an older lady, maybe the film of the Agatha Christie book 'Death on the Nile'.  

That reminds me of the time my aunt took me to see the Bo Derek film '10' when it came out in Australia in 1979.  I should mention that I was barely 11 years old.   I could feel her stiffen beside me when the naughty bits came on. She probably should have checked the reviews beforehand.  But in those days it was much harder!   I think she may have even said to me afterwards 'It might be best if we don't mention this film to your mother, okay?'

So anyway, now my spring clothes are out and proud, and waiting, waiting for some spring weather in rainy, cold Melbourne.

(Images: (1) Robert Couturier (2) Elle Decor (3) Instyle.com (4) via Habitually Chic)



Tweet

Year of No Rubbish Purchases - Month 1

I have been sorely tempted this month, by a pouty Angelina Jolie on the cover of Vanity Fair, by a super soft caramel wrap scarf thing at Husk, by the abundance of ballet flats for spring which are on sale in every shoe store and by my desperate need for more storage baskets.

But I have refrained and remain reasonably true to my aim.

This month I have invested in:

This APC t-shirt.  I am very particular about my stripes and when I find stripes in the right width and spacing I find it hard to be disciplined.  And a stripey top is a long term classic, and therefore fits my criteria.

To demonstrate.  These stripes are wrong: 

(Sienna Miller)

These are unflattering:

(Claudia Schiffer)

But these are perfect.  Funny isn't it?

(Olivia Palermo)

Secondly I bought this plastic container which is for storing cut up onion in the fridge. It stops the onion infusing everything else with an oniony smell. I have wanted one of these for years and came across it in a shop. Of course I could always use any old plastic container but there is something so very satisfying about putting an item into a facsimile of itself.

There is an important carve out to this exercise: children's clothes.   I had to buy some of these otherwise my son would be running around with a bare tummy and ankles showing.

Hence, the purchase of these (sorry for small image) from here.   If you can't wear peacock blue skinny cords when you are 7 years old then when can you?  She has barely taken them off since she got them. 

Epilogue:  I had an incident which required the purchase of a Vanity Fair, which I regret. What happened was this: I had an early morning client meeting in the eastern end of the city and I dropped my son off at creche with half an hour to get there. I rang my husband for his view about the best way to get to my destination from Chapel Street.  We agreed Punt Road.  Bad idea. Punt Road was a car park. I inched forward, minute by minute, the appointed time for my meeting getting closer and closer. I emailed my client to let them know I would be a little late.  I patiently sat in the gridlock. I could feel myself getting slightly panicky.  I finally got into the city and instead of driving around looking for a good value car park as planned I parked at the $70 a day one.  I parked the car and grabbed my briefcase only to realise it was completely empty.  I had left all my documents at home on the kitchen bench. Not only that, but I had no paper to write on and no pen to write with.   In all my working life that has never happened to me.   I ran to the nearest newsagent, grabbed a pad and a pen, opened my wallet to pay the $5.50 and realised I had no money. At all.  No coins, no notes.  I then remembered I had let my daughter take her pocket money from my wallet that morning. I gave the purse lipped lady my card to pay by EFTPOS and she said 'sorry $10 minimum'. I said (pleadingly) 'I am having a really bad morning' and she said (unflinchingly) '$10 minimum'. So I grabbed the thing which was closest to me, which happened to be a Vanity Fair (the one with the Twilight girls on the cover).  I then went to my meeting, puffed, hot and a little bit peeved. 

Tweet

Megan Park cushions are now just a short walk away.....

I love making my own cushions.  I truly do.   

But to be homest, what I like even more is ogling and then buying other beautiful cushions.  And the very best are coming to my local shopping strip, thanks to Megan Park, Melbourne based textile and fashion designer, whose work takes inspiration from embroidery in Delhi, antique markets in France and the London design scene. 

Her new shop in High Street, Armadale, designed by Suzie Stanford, another excellent and talented Melbourne person about whom I wrote here, opens this week.

There will be cushions galore, delicately embroidered, one of a kind, little stuffed pieces of beauty. 

These cushions are just the thing for this kind of interior:

And I expect that there will also be beautiful clothes for me to gaze upon longingly:

This dress seems to me to be directly descended from this Turkish crewelwork wrap Megan created in 2003:

This is from Vogue Australian January 2010: 

And here is a glimpse of her Melbourne home as featured in Home Beautiful last year:

Target this is most definitely not.  But these are pieces to save up for, treasure and love.  I have many times made the mistake of buying cheap cushions. I know people say that is okay because then you can change the look of a room but I don't agree.  

Whilst I have nothing against a perfect tea towel cushion,  I think cushions shouldn't be throwaway and poor quality.    They age and date badly, go lumpy in no time and look like rubbish within 6 months.  Now, I am coming around to the thought that they should last and last and be treated like an investment.    What do you think?  I know this is hardly world hunger on the importance scale, but it is very interesting how people choose to spend their hard earned money. 

So now I get to the important part. 


My plan for the next year is to only spend money on things which are high quality and reasonably timeless and which I will use or return to again and again.  No Ikea.   No Target.  No Sportsgirl.  No nylon-y underwear.  No cheap knitted tops from Witchery.  No Howard's Storage World.  No cheap chardonnay.   No OK or Hello or Grazia.   No braindead chick flicks.   No cheap plastic play cars for the children.  No Party Animals (if you don't know what these are consider yourself blessed).   (Actually I may make an exception for storage because I keep needing so much of it).    This will be my year of no rubbish purchases.    Depending on how my discipline holds up it will stretch out for a lifetime, or compress into 6 months.    Only time will tell. 




(Images (1) to (4) from Megan Park (5) Not sure sorry (6) EmbroiderersGuild (7) Vogue Australia (8) Home Beautiful)

Tweet

A bit of pattern on the floor

I have often wondered whether our home could pull off a patterned rug.  Not just a Persian. But something modern.  One option is a small print which is pretty uncontroversial really.  

At the moment in our conversation pit we have a red shag pile rug.   Which I love.  It holds the crumbs really well, and it can look messy and squashed without it mattering.  

But I sometimes wonder whether I could live with something with a pattern which dominates the whole room?  Like this:

(Greg Natale for Designer Rugs)

Or this:

 (Marni for the Rug Company)

Or this:

(Greg Natale)

Or this:

Perhaps you need a bold rug for a bold room?

This is by Vixen, who did my light shades:

In the UK, The Rug Company makes divine rugs by Paul Smith and Vivienne Westwood but the ones I love the most are by Marni:

and this was by Kim Parker (no longer available):

In Australia, Designer Rugs have just launched a new range by designer Claudia Chan Shaw.   These are not really my style but they are certainly brave. DR has also done a collaboration with Wedgewood. 

Designer Rugs also use a number of Australian designers to create rugs, including Alex Perry, Akira Isogawa, Easton Pearson and Vixen.

These two are by Akira: 

And this is by Dinosaur Designs who make wonderful jewelry, and household items, often from resin:

How beautiful is this blobby one: 

You can see the consistency of the Dinosaur Designs vision when you look at  these earrings which I bought from Dinosaur Designs in 1992 to wear to a wedding.  

I am still waiting for them to come back into fashion.

On balance I think I prefer a big flower to big blobs, Anthropologie has also done lots of flowery rugs, like this:

Or would such a rug be like a striking print dress, which one tires of too quickly?

(Images: (1) House to Home (2) Jonathan Adler at Elle Decor (3) Madeline Weinrib  (8) Elle Decor (5)(7)(9)(12)(13)(14)(15)  Designer Rugs (6) (10) (11) The Rug Company (12) Anthropologie)

Tweet