travel by tea towel

we have a few souvenir tea towels

one of my favourites is of orange crayfish and seashells on a blue background (similar to the tea towel on the left)

it says, 
Greetings from Hook Is Observatory

I had never heard of Hook Island - but I soon found out it is part of the Whitsundays and I immediately wanted to go there (there was a rudimentary resort there but it has been closed for the past few years)

It gave me the idea of visiting our tea towels- we bought our Bicheno tea towel (same design as on the left) while on pre-moon in Tasmania

The Queensland State Library has a souvenir tea towel collection  - (worth a visit next time we're there)

 

   

(I'm not above making some preemptive purchases (Yappoon pineapples, Iluka fish)
I would love a tea towel from kimba (the big galah) and parkes (the dish) and whale sharks at ningaoloo reef... hard to find doing Google image searches, but i'm sure they exist

I have to say, it makes me sad to see "re-purposed" tea towels.  It is true that using tea towels soon fades the textiles.  We use ours as curtains.

although, there is some lovely use of tea towels in art / craft,

for example, jo grant's tea towel works ... / jo grant website

I also read about an artist (Julie Paterson) who makes her own postcards when she visits a place ...

So my idea is .... what if I made my own tea towels after visiting a new town, city, suburb ...

some amusing tea towels i found in my travels
Everingham + Watson tea towels / Sunny boy tea towel / Kookaburras

wonderful designs from yellow studio freeo

 

pencil me in

ever since i was little i have been in love with stationery

(i can still remember visiting my dad's studio at work. we'd go to a special chest of drawers and he'd open up the pencil drawer - the smell of pencil wood would rise up and fill me with anticipation of drawings soon to emerge)

i'm still convinced it will help save my life

i am realising that i need to "draw" my demons out ...

exorcism by pencil & crayon perhaps

keeping tabs

i saw a painting at the gallery of nsw a while ago,
and thought, hey, that would be a great navigation menu design for a website
(with sincere apologies to the artist)
alas, no such thing as a new idea,
a few months later i saw the nature baby (nz) webiste,

at least it's a good product!

addendum (25/10/2012)
found here

counting day the days, ticking off the list

oh dear, obsession with stationery and calendars etc, means i have 3 diaries for 2011

and all i really needed was this canny idea!!

so ace

wring my bell

the more i decide to save $

the more i want to spend it

i could spend it here,

a frenchie design calender

or this bespoke wallpaper,

or this bespoke wallpaper,

or this bespoke wallpaper,

or this bespoke wallpaper,

crooked mountains

you're my boyfriend"

you're my boyfriend"

you're my boyfriend"

you're my boyfriend"

you're my boyfriend"

a polar bear poster "you made me a mixed tape, now you're my boyfriend"

watch this video by julie potts about first crushes

i'm glad i'm not the only one pining for stuff, or myself in other places

folk art

when i was growing up, we regularly received parcels from my grandparents in poland with folk figurines (it was the 70s!)

so i grew up with cute elves, pinecone people, coloured cutouts, woollen hangings

it made our house feel warm and for me, this is what "polish culture" meant - folk traditions

and i still love it

like these tin ornaments from mexico

german santa on reindeer

etsy handmade icy-pole christmas trees

paperchase felt folk cut-out christmas trees - a very nice variation on a paper theme

beautiful wooden blocks (not very xmassy except as an under-the-tree thing)

mexican christmas baubles

pretty urban landscapes

concrete pipes in surat, india

with coloured filters stuck on one end...

very pretty

canal in japan, via hello sandwich

and street tiles too

in search of nothingness

clear my mind
embrace the emptiness

gokula are running meditation classes for free on monday 8, 15 november
Two-Part Discover Meditation Course (Monday Evening)
No charge - please contact us to book your place.
November
Part 1- Monday 8th.. 6.30-8.00pm
Part 2- Monday 15th..6.30-8.00pm

440 Smith St (Entrance on Mater St), Collingwood VIC 3066Phone 03 9415 9651

gokula have hatha yoga classes $10 on tuesdays...
wikipedia says (among other things) that

The signs of success in hatha yoga are slenderness of the body, cheerful face, hearing mystical sound, bright eyes, sense of well-being, control over the bindu, increase in gastric fire and purification of the nadis.

now how could any of that be bad?

meditative creative spaces

paul barbera takes photos of people's studios - in a series called "where they create"
good images, good meditative creative spaces

Mama Kanoa ( CURACAO / SOUTH AMERICA 13.5.2010 )
She makes painting of her dreams, not for sale not really for show, she just paints and makes.. This was the local surf beach in the north of the island,

ruangsak anuwatwimon, bangkok