Gympie on Monday

A Monday morning drive to the Sunshine Coast made for a pleasant start to the week.  First stop the office at 5am, then to Nambour and Gympie.  The spring weather was perfect.  It was warm, sunny and the countryside soo green.  For lunch I stopped into Emilia's, an Italian cafe on one of the main streets.  I liked the casual feel of the place and also the well preserved architectural features.  The pressed metal ceiling in amazing condition.  My prosciutto and avocado panini also delicious.

West End Community Gardens

I finally managed to buy a Bokashi starter kit this weekend.  It allows for the breakdown of organic kitchen scraps through an anaerobic fermentation process within an airtight odourless bin. It allows the highly nutritious moisture to be drained out for fertilising plants and the solid material to be added to soil for rapid decomposition and soil conditioning. I am probably going to give away the end mixture to a community garden as I suspect we just don't have enough capacity on our balcony to absorb all the material.  It at least allows for us as city apartment dwellers to make use of the organic material that would otherwise go into landfill not having the opportunity to have a garden with composting capacity.

I came across this community garden in West End last Sunday brimming with fresh produce and open to the public for anyone to wander through.  I love community gardens and find them very inspiring and motivating not least for the surprise of finding them always nestled in between under-utilised spaces within our urban landscape.  There is always a palpable sense of community spirit and endeavour.  I am hoping to eventually join one closer to the CBD and am on the hunt.  However, I must admit I am a bit apprehensive of discovering I may have a brown thumb after all!

Chocolate and Mahjong

Mahjong madness took over our apartment this weekend.  Both last night and the night before we took to the tiles.  While playing we enjoyed Asian treats and green tea.  Anton also brought us back this fancy dark chocolate from his recent trip to Switzerland.  Of course it didn't last long.

West End Courtyard

A courtyard garden in Brisbane's West End, also seen last weekend.  While I am not so keen on the architecture the courtyard garden is fantastic!  I'm sure these apartments would be great in Japan but for our hot humid summer I can't imagine they will get much breeze through those tiny windows...

Tropical Courtyard

While out and about last weekend we stopped in at Bowen Hills to look at the site for one of Helen's design projects.  We also took at peek at the courtyard garden of this architectural practice nearby.  The tropical garden makes the space, cushioning the occupants from a bitumen wasteland that surrounds the building.  I'm loving courtyard gardens at the moment and especially ones with plenty of bamboo.

Pride of Madeira

In keeping with the spirit of Spring here is another flower themed post.  A recent blog on absolutely beautiful things reminded me to post up this image of Echium candicans, otherwise known as Pride of Madeira.  We saw these at the end of the bridge leading into the botanic gardens in Melbourne and was captured by their vibrancy and form. I'm wondering if they might do well on a balcony...

Pink Blossoms

Yesterday we attended the Wishlist Foundation's Spring Carnival Gala at the Novotel Twin Waters Resort on the Sunshine Coast.  Our Director sponsored a table at the event and James and I were lucky enough to be invited along to mingle with our clients.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take the camera to photograph all the beautiful people in their racing attire  and millinery as well as the lovely event setting!  We were invited to take the flowers home at the end so I was happy to bring some of these pink blossoms back.  I'm not sure what they are called so if anyone knows, please enlighten!

The event raised $100,000.00 this year for the purpose of creating a separate paediatric emergency unit at Nambour Hospital.  Silent auctions of various indulgent items ensured much interest in bidding.  James managed to win a Mor cosmetics package for me which I'm looking forwards to indulging in. 

The special guest was former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins and believe it or not our Director won best dressed male and collected his gift on stage in front of 600 people, was asked to saunter down the catwalk with and received a kiss from Miss Hawkins!  However, in my opinion James was of course the best dressed male in his perfectly tailored Zegna suit.

Black & Gold

I love the combination of black and gold.  These images also from the current Lonny are of the interiors at Flair in New York.  I find them so appealing with piles of books and artwork everywhere, comfy armchairs to curl up in and lots of sea themed bits and pieces in a combination of glossy and matte textures. Very elegant.

Bar Style

Of course I can never resist a bar vignette.  Here is an image from the current issue of Lonny.  There's no excuse for stashing your beautiful bottles, stemware and glasses in some dusty cupboard, displaying it always makes for an inviting corner.

Orchid in Bloom

Spring is well and truly here and I have been so excited by the prospect of our orchid coming into bloom.  It would seem that even on a small city balcony anything is possible... well, at least I can say I don't totally have a brown thumb!  This plant was given to us by Geneve and Joe last year and has flourished to my surprise given the often times harsh conditions up on our floor.  These are the first lot of flowers we've had and it looks like there will be another six blooms counting the remaining buds that are yet to open.  They are so very lovely! 

Day One

A hectic day one at Hames Sharley.  After a few glitches setting up my computer it was full steam ahead on project work.  This was a five minute sketch I prepared for one of our newly commissioned projects.  No doubt I will tweak it over and over again in the coming days.

Painting Begins

Anton sent me this progress photo today of the body and front forks from Grandpa's bicycle.  He has just sprayed on the primer coat.  Once finished it will be très chic.

e1027

A couple years ago I sat in on a lecture discussing the life and work of Eileen Gray, an Irish architect (and famous furniture designer) who for many years was forgotten by the design community.  e1027 was a house built by Gray on the French Riviera in 1929.  Inspired by Le Corbusier and the Modernist Movement, Gray's work is beautifully simple and contemporary.  For decades this house has been slowly decaying by the sea but thankfully the French Government stepped in and made it a French National Cultural Monument.  Restoration is expected to be complete in December.


Image sources:
http://e1027.org/
http://blog.ounodesign.com/2008/12/24/eileen-gray-e1027-house/

Kurt Elling is coming to town

I just heard that Kurt Elling is performing at the Brisbane Powerhouse in October!  If you ask me this is the must see jazz gig of the year.  I picked up his Nightmoves album last year.  Brilliant.  Thank you Anton, I cannot wait!


Image source:
http://eyeshotjazz.wordpress.com/2009/05/

A Fresh Start

Today marks the end of a chapter of my life which of course brings a new beginning.  After almost five years at S2F I have said my goodbyes and am now looking forward to working alongside Helen again. Come Monday, the fresh start becomes a reality.  I suppose MERF (pictured above) would have to be the most memorable and successful of the various projects that I helped deliver there.  I produced this rendering in 2006 as part of a university assignment.

Stir-fried Gai Lan

Sometimes nothing will do except for a nice big plate of asian greens.  Especially when you've been eating a lot of cupcakes...  or cookies...  Last night we whipped up stir-fried Gai Lan (chinese broccoli) and it's always so refreshing in this Cantonese style with garlic.  Simple and tasty.

Yummy Choc Chip Cookies

After three years of promising to make Helen chocolate chip cookies I have finally delivered.  As chef du jour I get to taste test, and yes they are yummy!

Daffodil Day

Yesterday was Daffodil Day for the Cancer Council.  It's an annual fundraising event for cancer research and support services.  Walking to work through the inner city every major intersection was set up with beautiful flower stalls abundant with tubs of these bright sunny blooms.  I picked up my bunch and had them at my desk all of yesterday before bringing them home.  It is such a wonderful, simple idea for a worthy cause and it just lifted my spirits to cross paths with the myriad of black and grey clad city workers carrying their bunch of these happy flowers.

Modern Delftware

I came across Marcel Wanders Delft Blue vases for moooi at Space and being a lover of all things blue & white I was immediately intrigued by this modern interpretation of classic Dutch Delftware.  Of course with all things Marcel Wanders there is always a wittiness in the interpretation with new shapes and forms.  I also loved the moooi marketing for the collection in the style of still life paintings by 17th century Dutch masters.

Swan Lake

We attended a Saturday evening performance of Swan Lake by the Queensland Ballet on a recent weekend.  We invited Dad and Leonie to join us for our first ballet experience.  Last year I read Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin and was inspired to see a production.  I was also very keen to see this ballet classic set famously to Tchaikovsky's music.  A number of the dancers were especially charismatic and very enjoyable to watch.  We are now looking forward to seeing The Nutcracker at Christmas.

Aalto Vases

I love this vase designed by Alvar Aalto for it's beautiful fluid shape and I especially covet it in the turquoise and blue colourways.  It's a Scandinavian design classic and fits in well with almost any interior and a piece of art in itself.  They were clustered together on display at the Space showroom for Saturday in Design.  I am contemplating starting a collection.  Now if I can just get to the first one...

Urban Melbourne

More photos from our visit to Melbourne two weeks ago.  I maintain that I have never been in Melbourne for such picture perfect weather.  Sure it was chilly but that just emphasised the winter feel.  Back in Brisbane and this weekend has been equally stunning, cool but sunny.  We're off to a barbeque soon to soak up the last of the day's rays.

Funk This

Some funky music for August.  A couple years back Tom pointed me to a very cool clip of Chaka Khan performing with Rufus in 1974.  Way into this.

Sweet Acland Street

Last weekend we were in Melbourne attending Saturday InDesign.  On Sunday we took advantage of the sunny weather by exploring St Kilda.  Acland Street is renowned for the many cake shops and cafes dotted along the entire stretch.  There were many tempting treats beckoning from every window however we were on the hunt for breakfast and managed to resist eating dessert first.  The cupcake tower in one particular display inspired my fundraising efforts.

RSPCA Cupcake Day

Yesterday we held our first RSPCA Cupcake Party to fundraise for animal welfare and I am happy to say that it was a resounding success!  We served Mocha, Sticky Date Pudding and Coffee Walnut cupcakes.  I think I made 75 all up.  Thanks to the generosity of our friends and family I can claim to be in the current top 10 individual fundraisers. Probably not for too long as RSPCA Cupcake Day is officially today so we'll see.  Thanks to everyone who kindly donated and to those who came for afternoon tea.  Geneve and Joe popped in with baby Jack as did Ron, Leonie and Oi Lai.  Angela, Caroline and I finally caught up together after many years.

For those who are interested in donating please visit the fundraising link below. Thanks!
http://www.fundraise.rspcacupcakeday.com.au/helen_ma

RSPCA Cupcake Party Invite

Today we sent out invites for our upcoming cupcake charity event.  Helen decided that with all the cupcakes that she bakes they might as well go to a good cause.  I can't wait to sample the menu!  We hope to raise a healthy amount for the animals.