The Museum of Old and New or really a place full of crazy old stuff and even crazier new stuff.
One of my must do things whilst in Tasmania for Christmas was to go to MONA, sadly I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to on my visit to MONA but still I did see a fair bit.
It confirmed me that the detail in barkcloth is amazing, Sidney Nolan was nuts, you really can just take anything and call it art.
Such as this.
Queen (A Portrait of Madonna) by Candice Breitz (2005)
Well I must say I hadn’t planned on it to be over two months between posts but such it is.
In that time uni has been well uni. It’s my last semester and and the two subjects I’m doing are ones that require a lot of brain wrangling.
I had a birthday. I’m now 27. Gosh, it’s hard to think that this time ten years ago  I was busy decorating my formal dress, having fun and looking forward the two and a half months I was having going round the world instead of going to schoolies.
The girls at work made my desk into a “winter wonderland” aka filling my drawers and covering my desk with very finely shredded paper and then wrapping it all up in bubble wrap and presenting the above tim-tam wrapped berry and cream pikelet stack to me as my cake.
Mum sent me a bunch of flowers to work which was very nice.
My birthday presents to myself was a tablet (Google Nexus 7) which I love and would be more handy that I imagined in the past few weeks, a pair of new shoes and nose surgery.
For the last couple of years I’ve pumped drugs up nose on and off in a bid to clear it. I’ve not really smelt or tasted things very well. One reason, why I’m always slightly paranoid about people’s response to the food that I make; does it taste ok? That all came to head earlier this year when I got sinus pain whilst flying. A change of nose drugs didn’t really do much so it was time to consider other options. I had a septoplasty and turbinectomy at the start of the uni mid-semester break.
Gosh, I’m still in recovery and if it wasn’t for those who I’ve spoken to who’ve had the the surgery previously I would seriously be questioning why I undertook it. Imagine a tap on your nose that you can’t turn off and splurts out rubbish down your nasal passage and your throat all day long.  I work in the medical field, I’ve seen, read and heard enough gory surgical tales that 99.9% of it is water off my back. Facial surgery though is that .1% that makes me go argh. I do though get a kick out of the fact though that I can now say I’ve legally used cocaine.  Yep, it’s commonly used during nasal surgery as a local anesthetic.
Work sent me these lovely pink roses (I can sort of smell them) and no, they didn’t see the irony in sending me roses as they came from head office and not my office. We got a laugh out of it though. I also finally picked up the Figgjo Flint Lotte water jug that I’ve had my eye on for some time.
Now it’s time to have a little nap before I venture off to uni this afternoon. I’m not using four pillows anymore but am down to two pillows. The blanket came from the farm, the pillow and sæng cover are from Ikea, love those dots.
And here is another photo from the garden to sign off with. I’m so happy it’s finally raining! Not only to settle the dust so it doesn’t irritate my nose but to water the garden and to give the tank a good fill. Not sure about you but my water tank has been empty for almost two months. A Pale-headed Rosella (Platycercus adscitus) enjoying the Grevillea.
Last Sunday, I joined in the company of about 40 people in a Modernteering adventure (a word to describe an “orienteering” adventure where the control points are examples of modernist architecture) across Brisbane.
The starting point was a house in Aspley. When I heard the adventure was starting in Aspley I knew it would be a good day. There are so many nice houses in Aspley and every time I drive through Aspley I go down another street looking for those perfect modernist houses or design elements that are scattered over Aspley. This house was one of them and and the owners have spent the last couple of years working on the inside and are about to start working on the exterior. My favourite feature of this house was of course the balustrade but I did love the soaring sloped ceilings and the delightful lounge area below the corner window.
The next house was in Ashgrove and was an example of a  extension/conversion of a classic Ashgrovian post war timber house with a slightly modernist bent. The wall storage system was just gorgeous.Â
Next up was Tarragindi to a house that I would cross the river for. Yep, I would become a southsider for this house. It is a house that was perfectly designed for the site it sits on. Perfectly sub-tropical and modern and Brisbane. It had lines, Â more lines and more lines so much so that I Â just kept getting lost in my admiration of the lines of the house. I would stand outside the house or in a corner of the room just absorbing all those lines.
The house was designed by an architect as his family home and was built in two stages as money allowed completion of the build. The current owners bought it from the architect about a year ago and one of the best things about the house tour was that the architect was actually there to talk about the house, the design and anything else you wanted to ask. I spent a lot of time pouring over the plans trying to soak up as much of the house as I could.
The last house of the tour was in Carina for a house designed by Donald Spencer and the current occupants are the third to own it, the house is quite “Palm Springs Modern” in style and when you look at the other houses in the street it would have been something really quite out there and I’m sure that the residents of the street at that time would have looked through their net curtains and wondered what that house was. I can almost here them whispering “It has now dining room!”, “The kitchen is just two tiny strips of bench behind a three quarter height wall that backs onto the living room”, “They have to eat outside!”
It really is a house and a half and it seems quite fitting that one of the current owners is a Tiki Carver! I adored, all the glass walls which brought so much light into the house and the way in which the house just flowed from one room to the other and from outdoors to indoors.
The last point was lunch, where we enjoyed delightfully kitsch sandwiches with fillings such as chicken and pecan, salmon (tinned of course) and two others that I can’t remember now. All on white bread of course!
The tour was run by Chris at Australian Modern and it was a fantastic morning out not only to explore delights of Brisbane but also the chance to catch up with other Brisbane bloggers (Brismod and Carmel of the now hibernated Make Mine Mid-Century) and to meet a whole bunch of new people who all have a place in their heart for Modernist architecture and design in many forms.
I’m very much looking forward to the next MAD (Modernist Architecture + Design) house tour when ever it happens 🙂
because then my breakfast would be entirely home made.
This was my breakfast this morning. Home made bread and home made apricot jam with a cup of tea and the magazine from the weekend Australian.
This is the Helen size loaf of bread before I cut into it
Oh it is so very nice and I achieved a very nice translucent crumb which is the goal with slow rise breads.
Did you see the table?
It started off life with me looking like this.
A thorough sanding, a dose of deck clean, some garden furniture oil, another sand then then two more coats of garden furniture oil and it looks like this now. Yes, those are casalas, I searched high and low for outdoor chairs I liked but in the end casalas won me over. Oh so comfy
One day I’ll get round to stripping and painting the legs but that doesn’t need doing just yet.
Also I went to my first auction on Tuesday night and I bid on one item all night and I won it, it was a touch scary. When I arrived I did a quick case of what else was on show then had a quick look at the Countess before sitting down in a position where I could see if anyone else was looking at it … The bidding was between me and one other lady. Oh hello Royal Doulton Countess, I do love  you so. I finally have bowls (and cups and more plates). I’m really quite happy about this win because I got it for a very good price and it means I don’t have to find a seller on UK Ebay who is happy to send bowls internationally.  I may be known for my love of Figgjo Flint Lotte but I share that love equally with Royal Doulton Countess.
Now though, I must fold the washing and get ready for a short work week since Karl and Kata arrive early Thursday morning 😀
or whatever you wish to call January 6. Le Sigh. Yesterday was all of those so the house was de-Christmased. The living room looks quite bare now.
This little chap has been packed away for another Christmas. Yep we run an Icelandic Christmas straight out of the late 70s here.  Love his little elfish face.
As have these trees (the one on the left was made by Grandmum and the one on the right was made by me with  assistance from Grandmum, it’s made of polystyrene meat trays!) The photo of Grandad stays of course, as does the duck (also made by  my Grandmum.
This tree is packed up as well, oh well only something like 350 days till it can be put up again …
The reverse Advent calendar was packed up as well. I picked it up from a Danish seller on the most glorious marketplace of all. Each day, an ornament was added, Some days though “Santa/Christmas Angel/Christmas someone” would beat me to it and there would be angel hanging on the calendar (see days 15 and 21).
The Royal Doulton Countess has been packed away, waiting for another special meal (If you ever come across Royal Doulton Countess in the green pattern, let me know quick smart, I’m always on the look out for more pieces).
We had a new candle set this year, I picked up the Advent candle holder from a Swede on the above mentioned glorious marketplace. I filled it with spruce twigs, added some walnuts that I painted gold, drop in four candles and hey presto!
Yes, those are peas in a sweets dish. They may look pretty but are a pain to serve from … peas like to escape…
The other way to know that Christmas is over is by this. Yep, holly wreath not so green any more.
The lights are no longer up either, the house looks decidingly less bright.
And that is Christmas 2011/2012. I hope it was well to you all.
This photo makes me quite sad. I know it would have been quite a feat for these men to chop down this tree but look at the girth of it. That tree had seen so many years pass as it grew and grew and grew in the forest and then it was felled and turned into various wooden products. Can you imagine seeing a tree that had a trunk that large???
Almedahls made a Figgjo Lotte tablecloth and place mats back in the day. I’ve seen one set of place mats and two tablecloths come up for auction on ebay recently and they all alluded me by a whisper. In my search for more infomation I came across this lovely blog post, unfortunately I’m yet to figure out to enter captcha when it is in Japanese so I’ve not been able to comment.
Are these not the loveliest street shoes you’ve seen? There are some other shoes in the Nike Liberty collection but the above are by far the prettiest. le Sigh, they no longer have my size.
now onto houses.
Here we have a house that is so very Queensland built in the late 70s nearing the end of the Modern design. The listing is here and it’s in Pinjarra Hills if you’re looking for a new house.. That magnificent double height living area with all that glass…
now we step back a few decades and land ourselves in Bundaberg or Bundy as you may prefer to call the town.
When I first came across this listing, oh my heart jumped. Those curves, those windows, that price, the arches, the kitchen cabinetry, the ceiling panels, the mirror above the fireplace, the curve feature stairs. Oh, I could go on and on and on and on. $235k, that’s what they are asking. Gosh, if only I didn’t already have a mortgage. Some one please buy it now and sell it to me in a handful of years please?
I mean look at that house, all it needs is an update to the bathroom and some accent paint on the external features and oh, it would be so lovely. I tell you, you live in that house and you wouldn’t even think you were living in Bundy! In fact that house doesn’t even look it belongs in Bundy!
