Le Jeu de L'Oie

Hi everyone - I hope you have all been having a great week, here in Australia our week has drawn to a close with the Easter School Holidays just begun. Lots of families are heading off for a wonderful Autumn break dashing out of Sydney on a Friday night to beat the rush and making their way out of town for some down time with the family.

I myself am preparing for the Art and Design market in Wollongong which takes place next Sunday 17th April in the Wollongong Art Gallery and run by the girls from Milk Thieves, so looking forward to a busy week of finalising some works.

In the meantime I wanted to blog about some fabulous images found on Flickr from France. The first up is a Childrens Book Cover from the 1930's.

Picture cards, this one featuring an owl.

Chocolate Box lids were a collectors item - here's one by Casino.

I love this illustration of the History of Aviation depicting early hot air balloons, zeppelins, and mans first flying machines.

You may not have heard the game a Million Faces.

Letter cards...

Just love the style of these game cards from a picture matching game.

 A box lid for Le Jeu de L'Oie.

Love the subtle colours in this picture. 

This fabulous jigsaw puzzle of France pieces are the provinces. 

I find this adorable - an illustration of an old electricity metre!

Have a great weekend and pop on over here for more collections of ephemera from France.

Red Letter Day - its a sign of the times

Hi to all you today on this first Tuesday in April. 

I'm calling today a Red Letter Day in honour of the following photographs. 

The first one's courtesy of Cape Race Cultural Adventures with their kindly advice to tread carefully. It's been on my doing list, but the one where I have just not yet got round to doing.. that is paint the risers on the staircase and stencil them.

Next up is an interior by Rachel Reider Interiors. The salvage yards would be a good place to start if you want to find store, train, restaurant architectural features.

Decor Modern have incorporated an "F" from TGIFridays and housed in a lounge where large doesn't look out of place.

Retro chairs, mannequin and custom made bookshelves set this scene where French grocery store signage takes our eye to ceiling level. Nice.

I admire an aesthetic where a cot and nursery don't send parents into a tiz of pink and blue. This antique signage says St. Honore after the saint Honorius of Amiens. It's the part of Paris that houses the Louvre and Rue Fauberg, an exceptionally fashionable part of Paris too. Lucky baby. Image from SB Architects.

The Lettered Cottage asks whether this lovely wooden handpainted sign belonged to an Inn up a mountain or a Pub (Saloon Bar) on the edge of town..

Old world charm comes alive here from Jonathan Adler who did the designing of the lobby at the Parker Palm Springs adding quirky charm with this old drugstore hanging sign. 

I've featured pictures in my blog before from Life in the Fun Lane and below show a storage trunk stencilled romantically with "Supplies".  

Most brits know this is so true, the loos in France are pretty dodgy at the best of times. It is lovely that they are now warning us. Picture from Lucid Interior Designs.

Guest in this household are well advised with this lovely touch reminiscent of the 1930's where all offices in corporate buildings had signage written on glass whether clear or frosted.

Australians real love this word, I've seen it a lot in peoples houses - we're such a hedonistic race! Credit to Sweet As A Candy. 

Designers Bosworth Hoedemaker present a therapeutic answer to their design dilemma.

Buckets of Burlap in a cosy country kitchen where recycled coffee bags make an amusing cafe curtain.

I think this design art is from Sugarboo. I love the way the stencils are worked right up against the left handside of the plaques.

Michele Hinckley's bathroom renovation is part of a larger diy project the entire tract home that she's turned extra trendy. She featured my bus roll prints with her children's initials above the loo. This little reminder framed in yellow is super.

So next time you're lucky enough to walk a highstreet that's filled with independent retailers that aren't part of a chain, spare a thought for the signmaker whose work stands the test of time and may one day end up in your home.

An Englishman's home is his castle

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. After my entries yesterday and the knowledge of it being Mothers day in the UK I've added a couple of images of England.

An Englishman always likes to share a little knowledge of their heritage and the UK has a wonderful organisation that preserves buildings of historic and national interest, it's called the National Trust.

My mother lives in the UK while I live in Australia, mum is a volunteer for the National Trust and works here:

Dunster Castle is in Somerset and is only open in the Spring and Summer and closes for late Autumn and Winter. Spanning a 1000 years of history this castle has seen siege and was a stately home. Serving as a frontier fortress against Celt and Viking raiders, it was mentioned in the Doomsday book as being owned in 1066 by the Saxon Aelfric. It's halls and dungeons still house a few ghosts..

Mum knows the history of the place very well and is a font of information. She spellbound myself, and Finley with her talks of battles, beseigements and renewal.

Every castle has its armaments and this is no exception as there are cannons angled ready to defend the buttressed walls against attack.

The chapel stands a few hundred metres away from the main castle buildings across a well manicured lawn.

A wonderful vista of Devonshire coast from atop Linton.

Finley searched this Jurassic beach and found what he was looking for at Kilton.

So if you're ever thinking of heading to the UK for a holiday give Somerset and Devon a visit as there's some incredible coastline and places of historic interest to see.

Enjoy your day.

Silhouette of a man - scaramouche

Good day to you all on this special day, where we in Australia get gifted an extra hour for us to sleep in this morning as our clocks have gone back. So what did you do with your extra hour?

As we in the Southern hemisphere go back an hour to reflect Eastern time you in the Northern hemisphere have already gone forward. 

Enough of the time warp stuff, speaking of which Finley our son came up with a fab book the other day on Time travel. Inside the thick front cover is a beautiful steampunk pocket watch.

To our amazement the clock hands rotate anti-clockwise giving the appearance of going back in time.  Of course, my little wise cracker kept repeating everything he was doing as an additional quip at going back in time and experiencing deja vu's. Very funny.

Today's images come to you courtesy of Jamie of TwoArtDirectors these are pictures of her and her husband's home. I love the quirky mix of mock hunting trophies, industrial letters, vintage targets and black and white photography cos you know black and white is my thing. These interiors hold special interest for me as they include the polished and the well worn.

Loving the stark contrasts and that cute little dachshund across two pillows. I'm on the verge now of repainting a whole host of worn, off-white furniture black, as I too have many white walls in my establishment and am very drawn to the impressive effect that can be achieved.

The sepia photographs and gilt frames work so well with the black night stands and grey panel headboard. Just adore the whole look.

I'm keen to say a big thank you to Sarah at Fluid Magazine Brisbane for featuring my number pennant in her online zine. This is a great source of fashion and design in Australia and Sarah has been giving a lot of support to  The Wesley Hospital Think Pink Kim Walters Choices Program along with members in the community.

Brooke over at 20somethingdesign featured my technical yacht print too, so a huge thank you also. Brooke's quite a whizz at makeovers on a weekend, so have a look at her diy wizardry as she keeps a log of her before and afters.

And so to end tonights blog I'd like to say a huge thank you to all the mums out there, specially mums in the UK "Happy Mothers Day" - I hope you all get treated to some love and affection on this special Mothering Sunday, because we know you all deserve it. Love you Mum, you're the best:)

Good evening to you all on line today. Wow it's been a great April Fools day in Sydney - jokes from morning till night. 

My son got into the swing of things early by spooking me first up this morning, jumping out of his cupboard. Then the evening was taken up by the two of us spooking the neighbours with a mini remote UFO complete with rotating lights - in the darkness of the night sky, this little spooky whizzing flying object looked awesome.

I wanted to add some more reverie from my previous trip to Doug's up on Bourke street. They are great to let you take a bundle of photos. The following are the so far unreleased images of that wondrous expedition.

Most people know that my International Code Flags have been created out of Sydney Harbour's inspiration - this map is of circular key, where all the ferries arrive laden full of passengers from all city suburbs including Manly to Parramatta.

This is such a darling spindly old bicycle which looks more like a pennyfarthing than anything else.

The Victorians loved their birds, this is an aviary for finches complete with entrance and exit.

And apparently pigs can fly too.

Oldwares corner where you can find milling devices and butter churns.

Time for a cuppa rosy (tea) and maybe a biscuit or two.

I wanted to take these fine vintage code flags home with me but they are for hire only.

I really am into ships just like the ketch pictured here. 

And on a final note, a ship of the desert (camel) they roam wild in our outback and are still widely used in the top end, mainly for tourism.

Did you have a great time playing practical jokes this April Fools?