Designalogue

Whoops.  Its again been a while! ….. I’m sick of apologising for delayed absences and it makes  a very boring blog – so, lets just move on shall we?

I do promise that my next post wont be all about me! (also makes for a boring blog!)  But for now, please indulge me as I just had to sneak this picture (yes, blurry picture!) in of a project I have in the works:

I am really pleased with how its coming together and even more pleased that its now out of the confines of  my head and in the real world!

The turquoise velvet chair really had my heart a flutter as do the blinds that look so beautiful (um…if I do say so myself!) Still to come is a cabinet that I have designed, made from reclaimed timber in an ebonised finish using all natural finishes including bees wax.

My client and I are also investigating different heating options, and looking at using this groovy number which burns ethanol, a clean heating alternative which doesnt require a bulky flue and doesnt dry the air out. Very cool, but requires some further investigating…

As I am self imposing a ban on my self promotion here for a while…. I will just sneak this link in…… the lovely and clever Tess McCabe of Creative Women’s circle has included me in a profile series she is doing for the CWC blog.   here if you want to read a wee bit more about me!

And for the creative women of Melbourne out there (little red… I’m talking to you!) you might be interested in checking out the next CWC meeting, its always inspiring to here the triumphs and the woes of other creative women face in their own businesses.

Just saying!

I just spied this over at HD Inspirations Blog and felt the need to on share the cleverness:  Real crystal decanters used  as pendant lighting at the Conquine Bar in London.

Just goes to show pretty much anything can be made into an awesome light fitting!

Aw, poor Designalogue Blog. You are so neglected by your maker. 3 months since my last post. Oops.

I wouldn’t say you have been forgotten about you dear blog…just kinda pushed you to the back of my mind while I got on with other things.  But blog guilt has  finally got to me, and so here I am giving you a bit of the attention that you desire. (Take what you can get!)

So to news of late…

I recently flew up to  Darwin for a few days to work on a project. For those not familiar with Australia’s geography, Darwin is the city up the top & in the middle of Australia where its hot, really hot all the time and they have  a lot of  big bitey things in the water. (of which I saw none – kinda sadly!) My only brush with the interesting nature of the area was accidentally peeing on a sweet little green tree frog. I didn’t realise the little guy was there until it was too late…… but saved in time before the flush! Lesson learned – when in the tropics, check where you are sitting! Even where you are sitting is in a bathroom on the second floor – wee critters like climbing pipes it seems!

Sadly and well, very inconveniently my camera died. As it turns out little snappy cameras cant handle being dropped on the floor after about 110 times. Up till that last drop, I swear it was totally fine. Life without a camera on hand to snap away is a bit sad. The camera in my Iphone  just doesnt cut it. So until a new camera comes  my way…will my vague descriptions of things work on a design based blog?

Im thinking not.

So no pictures to share of interesting things in Darwin. But hopefully  I will have got around to getting myself a new camera by my next trip up in a few months time. Maybe  then we can have a slide night?

As this is a design based blog, I cant leave this post without a picture or two – so thought I would share some chairs that I recently had re upholstered for a client:

Before – needing a bit of zhoosh!

Before....

& after….

They are part of a project that is coming along so beautifully & I cant wait to share it… but all in good time!

In an effort to be more communicative dear blog, I thought I would share some random pictures of some project goodies that have been keeping me busy and away from the attentions that you dear blog, so deserve.

Now this picture may just look like some bits of fabric to you. But really its 2 sofas, 2 louis chairs & some fabulous scatter cushions.

See it now?

How about this picture?

Well obviously its a nail trimmed bed head and feature wallpaper. But you knew that right?!

What about this lot?

Easy – two  sofas, two chairs and scatter cushions.

And then this picture….do you see a kitchen?

And so with all those happenings in the works,  I’m jumping on a plane and heading out of town for the next week to chill out in Byron Bay.  Where after attending a friends wedding, I totally intend to stare for hours out at the ocean, walk aimlessly along the beach and go in search of  mountain goats around the lighthouse.

I also intend on recreating this photo of myself from the last time I was up yonder.

Ahh, serenity now!

So I missed Australia Day by a week – oops!

But I am feeling a little patriotic to my home land at the moment, so I will share the love with these fabulous clips that are very uniquely Australian. Or as an Aussie would say – Aussie Az!

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

via Sharing the caring & more of Keith Loutits’ fabulousness here

Sir David Attenborough visits Sherbrooke forest (very near where I grew up – just so you know!) to check out a very unique Australian native:

Ah Aus, I do love you so and I always will, but sometimes I will just need to flirt a little with other far away lands. Ok?

So Happy new year to all! 2010 -sounds so futurey doesn’t it!

I’m just popping by very briefly to say Hello & ask the questions that usually follow on from greetings (feel free to respond in the comments!)

I plan on returning with more semi regular posts kinda soon – I’m just waiting for the blog mojo to return!

In the mean time – a shot of eye candy via An Indian Summer:

Via An Indian Summer

Psst – I especially love this above picture as just recently I picked up an exact little basket table at the local charity shop for $5 – bargain!

Now just to find a home for it.

I do love a good apple and in our house we eat quite a lot of them. Personally I favor the Pink Lady but wont turn away a good Fuji. Each to their own, right?

So I assume its a world wide thing, but in case its not… here in the land down under our apples all have annoying stickers on them signifying what I thought was their batch or grower or something, but have just found out they are simply Price look up codes  for the markets to indicate fruit sizes etc. My version was more interesting, but what ever!

A while back, Fella read an article that he couldn’t seem to forget about how someone is employed at the sewage plant to scuba dive into the sewers and remove all the apple stickers that get eaten, and them um, come out again and collect in the pipes and wot not clogging up the sewerage system (oh I do hope that gig pays out sweet moolah)

Being the caring and sharing people that we are, we thought about this situation and thought about what we two could do to help ease the burden of these ‘shit divers’ and this is our solution: The apple sticker board!

I love it!

And credit where credit is due – this is all the handy work of the clever fella! He did it all from the design to getting all handy man and cutting, sanding and painting (my colour choice – naturally!)

I will pubicly admit that I have been quite bossy about the placement of the stickers, and have even ever so eloquently spouted the words “I am a designerrrrrrrr – do it MY way”  demanding that the stickers be placed neatly upon rather than randomly and messily all over and I think its fair to say again publicly – I was totally right – it rocks!

Ah, the 4130′s, what a tasty code that be!

So thats about as crazy as we get in this joint! Party on & seasons greetings people!!

While the worlds powers that be twiddle their thumbs and play the blame game in at the the United Nations Climate Change Conference currently happening in Copenhagen,  the bear is melting.

Over the corse of a week, the Ice bear in Copenhagen’s Nytorv square will melt leaving a bronzed skeleton and a pool of water.

The Ice bear is the work of sculptor Mark Coreth stands at 1.8 metres tall – the same size as the average thickness of the floating sea ice in the Arctic ocean.

Quite a genius way to get the message across I think!

In other news – this Saturday here in Melbourne town is the Walk against Warming.

If you are in Melbourne town, come join me, the fella & tens of thousands of others at 12pm to wander from the Stare Library down Swanston Street to the Princess Bridge where we will make a human sign and send our message to the polies that we want action on Climate Change.

That is all!

I’m looking forward to checking out this exhibition of Melbourne artist Miso this evening at the Gorker Gallery in Fitzroy and then a super yummy dinner here.

Just saying. That’s all.

Images via The Design Files

This week a kitchen project I have been working on for a while was almost nearly finished.  Finished enough to exhale and do a round of back patting and hi-fives, but not quite enough to do the celebratory dance that goes with the end of a project or share the happy snaps.  Still to come is a bit of ‘frosting’!

But I am completely in love with these beautiful bamboo shelves and the Egyptian ball pendants, and in the mood for sharing!  so share I am:

Stay tuned for more on this soon!