Ode to Downtown.

"Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city

Linger on the sidewalks were the neon signs are pretty

How can you lose? 

The lights are much brighter there 

You can forget all your troubles, 

Forget all your cares and go downtown."

Downtown - Petula Clark

I miss my old hood. The noise, the graffiti, the weirdos, the baked goods, the coffee, the japanese food, the list is endless.

Photos by Lella.

Dreaming.

Sinking boat.

Take this sinking boat and point it home, we've still got time.

Image via We Heart It

Hold on; I just have to walk my ponies.

Emma Watson + high fashion + shetland ponies = Perfection.

Art meets Skate.

Lella has a thing for skateboarding, me, I'm not that interested. What I am interested in is the awesome skateboard graphics that are out there. This morning I was flipping through Lella's book, 'New Skateboard Graphics' by J. Namdev Hardisty, and was blown away by the board designs. It seems that Skate and Art go hand-in-hand. Not only are skaters skating on art, they are creating their own. I had the pleasure of hearing Ed Templeton speak at the 2005 Semi-Permanent Conference in Sydney, and thought he was a cool guy with some cool design ideas, but didn't realise there are a whole stack of really talented skaters making their own art. Ed is just one of the many that are talented on the board and off it. His photos are gritty, real and pack a punch, and Toy Machine's board designs are sweet. I definitely respect the 'art' of skateboarding.

Photos: detail from 'New Skateboard Graphics'

Hogwarts School of Style and Flair.

Harry Potter star, Bonnie Wright,  is fast becoming the next style icon to sprout from the halls of Hogwarts - and we love her. We also dig her gorgeous red locks.

Birthday present gloat.

This morning I'm here to gloat. Zee (along with Anooke and Be - our other two sisters) bought me the best birthday present! Marc Johns' book "H is for Holy Crap". It is hilarious! I love love love his witty drawings and statements. He is pure genius. Thank you to my three dancing princesses for effortlessly lighting my life time after time.

Step up.

We love to make-believe. When we were little we would play 'That's Dancing' (inspired by a ballroom dancing TV show in the late 80s). I would be the boy and Lella would be the girl – because she was smaller and I could lift her. Twenty years later we are still pretending to be professional dancers. Along with Anooke, we talk for hours about the dance studio we are 'planning' to open, and this afternoon we put on our tights and fluro socks and played 'Step Up'. We all want Tyler to be our dance partner... and maybe a little more. Tonight we plan to make a trip to the 'streets' and watch 'Step Up 2'. Well wicked.

Happy birthday Lella.

Happy 22nd birthday Lella! You're just as stylin' now as you were in the late 80s. xx

Lella's pony.

Another Marc Johns gem.

I was just reading Marc Johns' blog and laughed when I saw this drawing. Here's what he had to say about it: 

Another drawing about identity. I've noticed a proliferation of t-shirts with boom boxes on them lately, and it's gotten to a point where any tiny bit of 'cred' one might hope to gain from wearing such a shirt is pretty much gone now. 

Be sure to visit his blog to be amused.

You.

You're the only thing I know like the back of my hand.

Image via We Heart it

Funny little house.

During one of our little drives in the country we saw this funny little house and I just had to take a photo! Something about it caught my attention - maybe the proportions (it looks like a house a child might draw), I'm not sure. It's not at all beautiful, but there's something I like about it... I just don't know what.

As deep as the sea.

My bounty is as boundless as the sea;

My love as deep: the more I give to thee

The more I have, for both are infinite.

William Shakespeare

Image via We Heart It

Pink.

Christian Dior's The Little Dictionary of Fashion says:

The sweetest of all the colours. Every woman should have something pink in her wardrobe. It is the colour of happiness and of femininity.

I like it for blouses and scarves; I like it for a young girl's frock; it can be charming for suits and coats; and it is wonderful for evening frocks.

I think I need to get something pink to wear...

The beautiful illustration is by Kate Wilson, via fffound.

Five: of my favourite Edwards.

5. Edward Scissor Hands, Edward Scissor Hands.

4. Mr Ed, the talking horse.

3. Edward Cullen, Twilight.

2. Edward Ferrars, Sense and Sensibility.

1. Edward Rochester, Jane Eyre.

Image: Toby Stephens as Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre.

Deborah Bowness.

I first saw Deborah Bowness' trompe l'oeil wallpaper collection in Inside Out magazine a little while ago, and just loved her designs. So when I came across her website in a list of my favourites, I just had to post an image of her 'wallpaper frocks', so you too could fall in love. I would like a few walls in my house papered in such wonderful designs!

Your plaits.

Five: winter lusts.

5. Tom Ford mens reading classes.

4. Some snow.

3. The Leica M8 camera.

2. Karen Walker "Believers" pea coat.

1. A never ending supply of freshly baked pretzels.

Photo by Chris Searl.

A white haven.

I just love these photos of photographer Paul Massey's beautiful home. It looks like it would be such a calm home to live in.

Images via concrete and honey

This is how I feel.

Images via fffound

The impossible.

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Lewis Carroll

Image via We Heart It

Strawberries and Cream.

We have just discovered the simple, yet totally delicious Bill Granger recipe for Strawberries and Chantilly Cream. It's so yummy that Lella declared that it's even better than mayonnaise (and if you know Lella this means a lot! She has mayonnaise on everything – sandwiches, toast, celery, salad...)

It is really easy to make, and only takes a few minutes. The perfect desert in a hurry!

250ml cream

2 tablespoons caster sugar

1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract

500g (2 punnets) perfect strawberries, halved

Whisk together the cream, caster sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Do not over-whisk. Pile strawberries into serving dishes, sift with a little icing sugar over them and top with chantilly cream. Serves 4.

Recipe from Bill Granger's 'Simply Bill'. Image via We Heart It.

Rain rain go away...

It's cold and cloudy here. The branches are scraping on the windows and the sheets are blowing wildly on the clothes line.

Painting from One Day.

Emma Watson for Burberry.

I am absolutely loving Emma Watson's campaign for Burberry. 

Through these veins.

We all know how much I love beards and this painting by Mike Maxwell is no exception. This amazing painting was part of Mike and Paul Chatem's installation show Until The Whistle Blows at SF Gallery in San Francisco. I wish I could have gone. See more of the art work by Mike and Paul here.

Painting: "Through these veins, runs the blood of my past" by Mike Maxwell

Black.

I wear a lot of black. If you open my wardrobe you will pretty much see black and more black. It is such a comfortable colour to wear, and always looks neat and timeless. Here's what Christian Dior wrote about black in 'The Little Dictionary of Fashion':

The most popular and the most convenient and the most elegant of all colours. And I say colour on purpose, because black may be sometimes just as striking as a colour.

It is the most slimming of all colours and, unless you have a bad complexion, it is one of the most flattering.

You can wear black at any time. You can wear it at any age. You may wear it for almost any occasion. A 'little black frock' is essential to a woman's wardrobe.

I could write a book about black...

Three Potato Four.

Lella and I just love Three Potato Four! The online shop is the baby of Janet Morales and Stu Eli, who started Three Potato Four because of their love of collections. 

The shop is filled with all sorts of great bits and pieces – some vintage, some new, but all wonderful.

I just love the Brooklyn print by Jim Datz and think it would look totally awesome on my Son's bedroom wall... Ah the joy of shopping without even leaving home.

Be sure to have a look for yourself, I'm sure you'll find something you just have to have.

You stole my heart and I never want it back.

Image: Lella & Zee

A new look.

I want to redecorate my living room so I've been searching for inspiration. I'm not really sure what I want to do yet, but saw these photos and loved them.

Images via Pitch Design Union

Monochromatic beauty.

It's been a while since I've visited Pitch Design Union, so today I was reminded why it's one of my favourite blogs. Page after page is  filled with beautiful design and inspiration! I just love these monochromatic photography installations by Helga Steppan – they are so full and messy, but the use of colour makes them neat and calm somehow...

Five: Guilty pleasures.

5. Reading in the middle of the day.

How good is it when you can just sit and read? I love it. Forget the house work...

4. Curling up under my Son's mink blanket.

I know it's his, but it's so soft and warm. I'm sure if he knew he wouldn't mind.

3. Expensive make-up brushes.

Lella assures me they will last a life-time. That's how I justify buying one brush instead of a pair of shoes. It's totally worth it.

2. Donuts. 

Iced or cinnamon, hot or cold - I don't mind. Yum.

1. One Tree Hill. 

I  just love watching One Tree Hill with my Mum and Sisters. What juicy teen drama! I can't wait to get season six on DVD.

Image via We Heart It

Acting.

I love acting. It is so much more real than life.

Oscar Wilde

Image via Flickr

Chenchow Little Architects.

I love modern architecture. My dream home is a concrete box full off huge glass windows and clean lines. 

I think the designs of Sydney architects Chenchow Little are beautiful. They are clever and complex, yet manage to look simple and stunning. They are just perfection.  

Singing bird.

I came across this gorgeous piece after This is Glamorous posted a similar artwork. I just love the typography. I wish I had a green tree in my heart...

Visit Rockett St George to see more beautiful artworks just like this.