Karl Zahn

I love these beautiful dovetail animals

from designer Karl Zahn. 

Made from sustainably harvested new growth beech wood, 

they are available here from Nectar Imports.

Snippets

We had a rather lovely Christmas Day.

Ari rose at the crack of dawn to a stocking filled with toys.

His big gift from Santa was a set of Automoblox hot rod cars.

I love their designs, but I must say it was rather disappointing 

when the one of the wheels snapped off first play.  Dear me.

I think we shall be asking the elves to send us a replacement...

From Mama and Dada he received a Maxi Micro Scooter!

He outgrew his Mini Micro this year and we decided it was

time for an upgrade and it was love at the first sight! It's already 

taken a trip into town and it's bound to get a lot of loving over

the school holidays. It's beautifully warm here lately, Summer's

definitely reared her head, at last! I'm hoping we'll get down to 

the seaside and give our new swimsuits a bit of a whirl too.

Ah, lovely food, lots of sweets, family and friends...

I hope you had a lovely Christmas too and have something 

equally wonderful planned for New Year's Eve? xox

These are a few of my...

favourite things.

Luna Park entrance St. Kilda Esplanade, St. Kilda Beach here

Make Me Iconic, wooden toy tram here

Skipping Girl Vinegar sign, Victoria Street, Richmond here 

(print available here )

Things that make me happy.

Things that I love.

Things that I'd love to own.

Things that I do own.

Things that I enjoy.

Things that I enjoy doing.

Things that resonate with my sense of aesthetics. 

A post inspired by Melbourne icons.

I think it's about time for a favourite things post.  I might
try to get back into posting these every Friday. Some of

my favourites are already listed to the left of my blog and
many them are also listed on the pages under my header as
...shops, places to go, books,  mags, recipes and resources.

Most probably, they will all find a place in these posts and 

I hope that you'll enjoy sharing these lovely things with me.

Feel free to play along on your own blog if you'd like,

I'd love to know what your favourite things are too! xo

project bunny girl

Super cute PDF bunny pattern from 

the ever whimsical Lieschen Muller 

cut and play

It's really late here, but I just can't sleep!

I guess my mind won't stop ticking... thinking... 

about all sorts of things.

Yesterday's post got me thinking about this blog. 

Filled to the brim with wonderful vintage paper-cut outs. 

I'm sure you're going to love it too! xo

paper planes & memories

There is a giveaway for a rather cute book on Fine Little Day.

also available from Amazon

To enter you just need to leave a comment
about a favourite paper plane memory.

So, I asked Ari what we should say and he said 

"Well, all my paper plane memories are in the drawer!"

And indeed they are. Ari likes to keep all the projects we make

and probably spends just as much time playing with our paper and 

cardboard toy creations, as he does with the store bought ones.

So we pulled them out and took some photos of

'Ari's paper plane memories'.

He was so happy to see his creations up here,
on my blog, that it got me thinking perhaps... 

he should have a blog of his own?

It's something I've mulled over before but he always seemed
too little to understand the concept of having a web page. 

This year he turns seven though! Such a big boy ;)

Perhaps we'll build Ariel Gray an art blog for his birthday!

sew pretty.

Working away the wintery days in my studio.

The pretty colours remind me of spring flowers.

Toys of the Avant-Garde

I have had my eye on this fantastic book for a while...

My birthday is coming up in a couple of months

and it's at the top of my wish-list along with this.

I only wish that I could have visited the exhibition.

Images above found via this wonderful post on mondo 

shop love

How wonderful are these designs 

from teenytiny's new collection?

Swwoooon.  I'm in love!

These are a few of my...

favourite things.

Elisabeth Dunker

Lanapelana

Wink and Me

Sabine Timm

Things that make me happy.

Things that I love.

Things that I'd love to own.

Things that I do own.

Things that I enjoy.

Things that I enjoy doing.

Bellalulu

Things that resonate with my sense of aesthetics.

Well this Friday almost came and went without a 'favourite things' list.

Between getting ready for school, jam making and piles of laundry,

picking up an order of preserving jars (yes, we're still harvesting!) and 

getting caught in a traffic jam/ summer thunderstorm on the way back, 

picking Ari up from School and driving him to Circus Class in town, 

stopping off afterwards for pizza and a movie at a friends' house, then

coming home to a blackout...  Friday just about up and disappeared!

Now there's five minutes to Midnight and I've a cool drink in hand, my 

little one's nestled snuggly in his bed and I'm ready for Dreamland too.  

I just finished finding all the links for these lovelies and I do hope you 

like them. I'm listing my favourite things every Friday. I'd love to know
what your favourite things are, if you'd like to play along on your blog.

I hope everyone's enjoying a most wonderful weekend thus far.

We're hoping to fit in a picnic at the Botanical Gardens if the weather's

obliging and some time in our own garden planting late Summer seeds.

I'm hoping to spend most of next week making in the Studio...

I can't wait to share some images of what I've been madly working on!

xoxox

The Night Owl

It's a public holiday tomorrow (...err today)

There's no need to wake early or rush about anywhere. And

Ari's in holiday mode at the moment. He'll most probably sleep 

in for a bit.  So I've been burning the midnight oil once again.

Two large folksy owl cushions in need of some stitching

It is in the early morning hours, when all is at rest, that my head buzzes

with ideas. When finally, I have time to completely focus on my art and 

immerse myself in my work, the studio becomes quite a hive of activity.

I've been playing around with colours & patterns tonight/this morning.

I find that I am moving away from the gelati brights of the 60s and 70s 
and toward a more muted, off-beat palette. I've been looking at 30s and 
40s designs lately. Dada, Bauhaus, Art Deco, Depression Era, Wartime...

these eras are beginning to influence my craft making as well as my art.

This is the current view from a tidy corner of my worktable 

And I do love the way form, shapes and geometric pattern 

are used in the designs of those eras. So inspiring.

Later on today, whilst much of Australia celebrates 'Invasion Day', we 

plan to head on over to Artplay & try our hand at stop motion animation.

It sounds like it should be fun! Take a peek here.

The Littlest Elf

I put this cute little treasury together last week, 

just click on the images to go through to the shops.

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.