more from the north

I said I was finished with tales of the north - but I forgot to flash the artwork I bought - and I can't have that.

Behold...

where else did we go???

you asked for it! well someone did.

The-one-day-nut-tour-of-Melbourne

Nut is our very good friend and a Melbourne resident. She worked out the places she knew I would love and then, with the pirate, made a plan for the day. see?

We started out at Olive Grove textiles on Sydney Road Brunswick - and while waiting for the magic opening time popped up the road to Sly Baby for some bargains. If you are into retro clothes it is attached to Episode, which was very very good. I picked up the great skull jacket the pirate was wearing in the last post.

So back to Olive Grove - it is a clothing and print space. The shop is mostly taken up by a huge screen printing set up with lots of great handmade clothes, bags, underwear and jewelry around it. We went because they have some kids stuff and the pirates most grooviest pants came from there. Sadly he is a little too old now for much in the way of cute stuff - they seem to stop at size 4.

From here we were back in the car and across to Fitzroy for a visit to Meet me at Mikes and the Art Souvenir Shop - here I picked up a great present for my sister which I can't talk about right now. Around the corner to Arcadia on Gertrude for the best French toast I have had in a long long time. I don't have any shots of the french toast - we were too busy eating it to take a photo. I do have a photo of the pirate's magnificent pizza though.

By now we had enough energy for the Rose Street Artist market. Oh my lordy what a place. I picked up a few bits and pieces from Neil Thomas and his Wooden Postcards.

I am still lusting over a ring I saw - it was a silver teacup and saucer.

By now the pirate was over it.

We headed over to Westgarth to visit the primary school. You might recall that the pirate's school is going to be the first Canberra school to have a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden. You might also recall that I am designing it and am on the garden working group. Westgarth school has a very successful kitchen garden and I wanted to check it out - and how lucky was I to find a working bee in progress and the coordinator there to talk to? very.

I had a great look around, the pirate had a play and then we headed for the Flashback Fabrics. My wonderful friend kept the pirate entertained for a long long time while I looked at everything and came away with this.

By now we were very very tired. I had spent two days scooting around for work and eating great food and generally having a lovely time and then another day doing all this. It was good to retire to nut's house, open the red wine, make a curry and relax.

new ways with wool

It has been dreadfully hot here. In search of some air conditioning we took 5 kids to hang out at the National Museum. There we found treasure.

It was one of those shows that make you squeal with delight and hum inside. Some of the artists I had caught before - so it was such a buzz to stumble on this when I wasn't expecting it.

It is the most sumptuous, tactile and quirky collection of indigenous basket weaving I have seen.

It was all the better to see it with my sister in law who shares my love of this artform and even gave me a basket from Arnhem Land for christmas. serendipity.

look what can be done with wool.

It is on till June.

The work shown here is from the nma website and is by artists:

Fiona Gavino (Perth, WA)

Kantjupayi Benson (Blackstone, WA)

Phyliss Rogers (Jigalong, WA)

my new sunny boy

isn't she cute? - and so wonderfully, wonderfully red. Quilting Mick makes things you just have to love to bits. I have filled it with my odds and sods and already feel like my red sunny boy will be with me for a long time.

and I dropped by The Front cafe at Lyneham shops today while waiting for a script at the chemist (the pirate has a throat infection) and found this magnificent exhibition filling the gallery space. I just love artwork that is lots of bits that make up the whole and this one is made up of tags with portrait sketches with copies of brain scans on the back and is by Victoria Lees. The pirate was impressed and even managed to not destroy it with the light saber.

and for information -the blocking went very well and I am a convert. It looks like the cardigan will even be wearable - you will probably have an idea of how much of a relief that is.