Wednesday, August 25, 2010

One for the Birds


Not only are there birds in my garden, but there also seems to be a bit of a bird theme going on in the house as well. Usually I am quite purposeful in my collecting but this one seems to have happened by stealth.



I often wonder how long it takes a bird to make such an intricate nest. These are all abandoned nests which we have found in our garden.




I have made a series of pictures like this one, using vintage bird prints and superimposing them on vintage paper to make them more interesting. I will have some for sale at the next Unwrapped markets at the Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre, on 12 September 2010.



This little fellow came from the Chapel Street Bazaar in Melbourne - one of my favourite places to go fossicking.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Winter Colours

Why is it that winter fashion rarely includes any colour when in fact it is when we most need it?

That is why I try to make sure that I have colour in my garden at this time of year - all you need are some colourful things in pots like these primulas....



or these cute litte pansies...



or even a citrus tree or two!


The one thing that strikes me as odd about lemonade lemon trees is that they fruit profusely in winter which is not really when we most feel the need for a glass of home-made lemonade!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Letters and Numbers


There are lots of interesting things you can do with old numbers and letters.





I especially love old letterpress letters which you can use just to make up words or phrases or which you can use to print things on fabric or cards.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Fremantle on Sunday


I went to see an amazing photography exhibition today in the Fremantle Prison. It was a collection of blown up photographs of long term prisoners in US jails and most of the photos were accompanied by a short bio explaining in the prisoners' own words why they were in jail.

On the way back from the Prison we stopped at the Fremantle Arts Centre and I liked the shadows cast by this tree in the front courtyard.


The next three photos were taken in the grounds of Fremantle Prison - the middle one being a poster for the exhibition which gives you an idea of how fantastic the photographs are.





Fremantle would have to be one of my favourite places in Perth - there is so much history there, and luckily a lot of the beautiful old buildings have been preserved.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Surprise Visitor


A few months ago we had a surprise visitor one Sunday afternoon. I was in the house but I had all the windows open because it was a lovely sunny day. I heard a noise coming from outside which sounded like a man talking and I thought perhaps someone was at our gate so I poked my head out the front door. There was no-one at the gate, but to my enormous surprise there was a magnificent sulphur crested cockatoo sitting in the front porch chatting away to himself.


He was very tame and had quite a good vocabulary but there was no sign of an owner anywhere so we kept him overnight and brought him to our local vet the next morning. Within minutes the owner had turned up and Salty was reunited with him. It seems that a noisy lawnmower had startled him and he just took off! He really was a magnificent bird, obviously very well cared for, and we felt privileged to have spent some time in his company.

Collecting things

Collecting things is something of an addiction, and one from which I get immense enjoyment.

I tend to collect groups of objects which I either just display one their own, or which I use for one of my projects. I have collected quite a few parts of old fob watches and clocks some of which I have used in pictures but others I have put in groups, like the ones below.


One of my daughters asked me to make her a miniature Cabinet of Curiosity, which I did, but now she is moving to Melbourne so maybe I will get to keep it for a while. You can see I used some tiny watch parts in it, as well as a lucky elephant.