Paper Christmas Wreath

You need 100 leaves cut out of paper, a circle cut out of card, an hour of your time and lots of patience if you want to end up with one of these:

This one was my prototype.  I have now started combining the sheet music leaves with coloured pages for a different effect.

Look out for them at the Fremantle Bazaar in early December.

Little houses in litte boxes

This December I will be back at the Fremantle Bazaar.  As it is a 3 day market I will need a lot of goodies to sell so I have started experimenting with some new ideas.

One of them is little paper houses in boxes like the ones below.

 

 

Bread in Common

Gordon Street Garage has a rival - the newly opened Bread in Common on Pakenham Street in Fremantle.

It is along similar lines - a converted warehouse, carefully fashioned to maintain the industrial feel and with its own wood fired bakery overseen by none other than the amazing german baker from Yallingup Wood Fired Bakery.

 

It's very Melbourne - and the coffee is great.

A New Look for Spring!

With Spring in the air we have been doing some re-decorating.

We wallpapered one of the walls in our hallway and are absolutely in love with the result.

We got the paper from Scandinavian Wallpaper & Decor on Oxford Street in Mt Hawthorn, who have an amazing range of papers and murals which they import directly from Sweden.

Soaking up the Atmosphere

Sometimes it can be interesting just to stop and look around you when you are overseas.

A lady with her basket of sardines in Porto

An elderly gentleman taking stock in the busy centre of Istanbul

The pigeon feeding lady in central Istanbul

Time for Another Market

Winter markets can be a bit of a challenge.  It's not close to Easter or Christmas and it's often cold and wet, so shoppers have to be tempted by something special.

This time I'm hitting the Made on the Left market with a pop of yellow!

What's not to like about a splash of yellow on a chilly winter's day?

The market is on Sunday 28 July at the State Theatre in the City.  Put it in your diary now.

If you feel hungry in Istanbul......

Either head to a local street market where they sell wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables,

or head to a patisserie for a hit of sugar in the form of turkish delight or baklava drenched in local honey

Window Shopping

Whenever I visit a new place I love to just stroll around looking in shop windows and soaking up the atmosphere.

Lisbon is full of little gems, from the ultra modern to original 1930's

Portugal Part 1

I took so many photos on this trip that I can't possibly show you all of them, but rather an edited collection which I know will still make you want to visit Portugal.

These are some photos I took in Lisbon, where we spent the first three days of our trip.

Lisbon is built on a hill so it has lots of steep steps,

also lots of little alleyways and arches...

and roads barely wide enough for the tram.

The wider avenues have very intricate patterns in the cobblestones,

and the older houses are often decorated with beautiful tiles.

You can't visit Lisbon without checking out this sardine shop - all it sells are tins of beautifully packaged sardines!

Holiday Time!

I'm off on a trip to Portugal, Ireland and Istanbul so I will have lots of photos to share when I get back.

An Easter full of Curiosities

Maybe it was the full moon, or maybe it was just because, but we had an Easter weekend full of curious sightings.

We set off at 5am to try and miss the traffic.  The early morning mist gave the rising sun an eerie glow.

The Sculptures by the Harbour exhibition  was well worth a visit.  The name is a little misleading as the sculptures are actually in the harbour just in front of the Albany Exhibition Centre.

On the Saturday night we ate outside using a cooking technique that a family friend had seen on a recent trip to China.  You cut sections of green bamboo and fill the hollow centres with a combination of finely chopped meat, rice, vegetable and spices, you then plug the hole (we used carrots) and put the bamboos into an open fire, turning them over at regular intervals.  When they start to sizzle and/or the carrot shoots out you know they are ready.  Then comes the tricky bit - you have to split the bamboo open without losing the contents.  This is where a very very sharp knife (or machete) comes in handy.

We were observed closely by the resident frog and skink.

Then just when we were having a quiet coffee by the beach the next morning, and things seemed quite normal .....

along comes a local with his friend to get a takeaway coffee!

Happy Easter

Have a great Easter weekend everyone.

Things to do with old paper

Old maps and old sheet music are great for making things.  The paper folds well and is always interesting to look at.

Here are some things I have been making:

Portable Herb Gardens

Just like you would occasionally move cushions or pictures around in your house to change the look of things, it's nice to be able to change the look of your garden without having to involve shovels, wheelbarrows and lots of heavy lifting.

This summer I made some portable herb gardens.  One is in a large terracotta pot, the next is in an old wooden box and the newest one is in an old motor oil stand that has seen better days.

You can move them around your garden easily, and they make a great gift.