Posts filed under 'exploration'
Ahhh, Sundays…
…what would we do without them!
I am attacking my 2010 resolution list and taking time out for AHHHHHH!
I can plainly see that if I am going to live the happily balanced life I crave, Sunday Slobbing is crucial. And completely obvious to the rest of the sane population that are not trying to squeeze every extra second out of every day to work.
The perfect Sunday brekkie has to be home made New York banana pancakes oozing with maple syrup and butter and served with slices of nectarine. These were made using a Domestic Goddess recipe… gotta love Nigella she is definitely the ‘go to gal’ for all things yum. They turned out just as I remembered; whisking me back to a freezing February morning spent exploring snowy Central Park and then stumbling on a cozy diner. I was very pregnant, completely ravenous and the pancakes were sublime. Needless to say, Mark and I weren’t the only ones to enjoy them, I felt fluttering bub kicks for a good 20 minutes afterward.
Eat these and then spend all morning and a good part of the afternoon in your pjs, perusing your favourite magazines and generally lounging about and I promise your soul will be restored and your belly, happily round. Hope your weekend was gorgeously decadent.
5 comments March 1, 2010
Playing in water
… is the only thing to do in the middle of an ultra steamy Australian summer. Especially when it’s like a never-ending sauna around here! Time to find a beautiful breezy seaside cottage me thinks, or maybe an underwater retreat in the middle of a swedish lake… hmmm!
On the drawing front, I’ve been going for a looser style than my usual in an effort to trick my control-freak perfectionist gene. So far so good, perfectionist gene has not noticed and seems to be completely preoccupied with the state of my shoes.
Hope your weekend is blissful!
8 comments February 19, 2010
Magic in the Air
Happy New Year !! Can you still say that in February?
I can’t believe February is in full swing, already! Shame on me! You must be so over that christmas ball pic… In fact, now that I think about it, I could be chatting away to ‘not-a-sausage’. Where did the better part of two months go?
…Oh, I needed to take a breath. I needed to take stock of the mean old year and get ready to throw myself into this shiny new one. And I needed to shop for school shoes and the box of tissues that went with their first outing. (All a big success I’m happy to say)
I hope you had a wonderful break too. I feel so excited about 2010. It feels promising, like there’s some real magic on it’s way. Fingers crossed!
These images are from the beautiful (n.b. daydream) beach holiday I am, apparently, still on. Thank you Flickr geniuses, such bliss!
Most of these images were captured with a Holga toy camera. It seems truer somehow than a regular camera. More like a memory of a moment, like a sensory postcard. Not every detail is important, but impressions and sensations are. And the Holga creates them in spades:
the flaring light that has me squinting and scrambling for my sunnies,
the pops of colour in cossies and beach umbrellas,
the undulating hum of cicadas,
the chill in the first wave that takes your breath away
… it’s all there, captured perfectly on film, all in an old fashioned click.
I am so inspired by beautiful photography and add to that the happy accidents of light leaks that come along with lomography and I’m in seventh heaven. I can’t wait to get my hands on one. I may even take the next Photography Adventure challenge run by this talented keen bean. Yep, 2010 is going to be magic!
Flickr Credits ~ My Red Bike, Duchamp ~ Surfers, Heather ~ 1933 Helene and Dory, Kathleenie ~ Eva and the Seagulls, Mildly Diverting ~ Sandpipers, Justin Gaynor ~ Water Patterns, Brande Jackson ~ Not Bare At All, Patreesya ~ 0686Cra-R1-E005, Tylerc083 ~ Botanical, Brande Jackson ~ Holga Splash, Jan Isaac ~ For the Sake of the Picture, Barely Legal.
(Please click on individual image titles to view larger and for licence details)
12 comments February 14, 2010
Twas the Day Before Christmas…
… and all through the flat…
‘Santa’was very quietly going nuts keeping small monsters amused whilst smuggling-in some last minute wrapping i.e. desperate snipping, rustling and mad taping in the bathroom, in the laundry, in the wardrobe… you get the picture.
Yes it is cloak and dagger, but the prize, if I pull it off, is a gorgeous Christmas Eve curled up on the couch next to a pile of waiting pressies with my Mr… and not a poppet stirring. Oh I can see it now; me, him, bubbles in hand and a satisfied smirk on my face. Well worth the dramatics!
Wishing you all a beautiful Christmas full of sparkle and laughter. Thank you so much for coming to read my little blog. I get such a thrill out of reading every lovely comment left here. I adore being part of the blogging community and have made some gorgeous friendships since I started that I’ll always be grateful for. I’m also really looking forward to the New Year. Can’t wait to attack my loooong list of resolutions, show you some new work and make some yummy blog changes.
Much love to you and yours. Hope you have a lovely, chilled break and see you full of va va voom in Jan.
x Alisa
10 comments December 24, 2009
Oh Constance!
The first time I laid eyes on ‘Constance’ it was love at first sight. What a babe!
It’s true, I’ve fallen for the whole vintage van story, hook line and sinker.
But I ask you, what red-blooded woman wouldn’t want to run away with their beau for a quirky, romantic escape. Letting the road take you wherever it will; stopping wherever you please.
Only I wouldn’t want to take ‘Constance’ anywhere. I’d want to tuck her at the bottom of my beautiful wild garden and have her all to myself. Sorry beau!
Just look at her, she’d make the perfect little retreat and a fab creative space. I’d be in fine company too; Roald Dahl had a ‘writers hut’ at the bottom of his garden, as did George Bernard Shaw.
I could see myself happily scribbling away at this table, my work bathed in light, hearing birds flit in and out of the foliage just outside my window and enjoying freshly brewed coffee and home made cookies from the sweet kitchenette.
A picnic blanket could be thrown onto the grass outside when the day sparkles and beckons, or when the poppets are home. And when fortune smiles, there is even a spot to have an indulgent cat nap.
There’d be so many lovely places to photograph that I’d be in blogger heaven. And even though I am a city slicker, a wild garden would help make believe ‘Constance’ and I were nestled in the country. But best of all, when I wanted a change of pace, I could be back in the bustle in an instant. Oh, where do I sign!!
‘Constance’ is a 1957 Sprite caravan, owned by the lovely Lucy and Steven Lord of Snail Trail Campervans. Sadly she doesn’t do the holiday scene anymore, but she can be hired for wonderful photo shoots. If you pine for the gorgeous retro holiday, Snail Trail have a family of shiny VW Campers in mint condition. Beautifully furnished with retro fabrics and accessories and with names like Betty, Pearl and Gracie what’s not to love!
Image Credits: ‘Mini tarts’ ~ QuintanaRoo and ‘Flowers and sunshine’ ~ Darin.
All other shots courtesy of snailtrail.co.uk campervan hire
(Blankets made by Helen Fisher)
11 comments November 4, 2009
In the jungle you must wait…
Not that I’m prone to exaggeration at all *cough* but as Mark and I sat slumped on the couch after another sleepless night with sick kids, I couldn’t help thinking that we were living in some kind of illness edition of Jumanji.
‘In the jungle you must wait, till the dice reads five or eight’
For the last couple of months it’s been one earth shattering stampede after another; asthma, influenza, misadventure, gastroenteritis… etc. etc. Each bug, in turn, has turned our lives upside down and left us sitting punch-drunk in the wreckage.
It’s true, two children projectile vomiting at the same time can be easily as challenging as rampaging monkeys!
These pulp fiction images capture the drama to perfection.
Having said all of that, the last roll of the dice must have been a good one;
the bugs have fled, our flat has been drowned in disinfectant and a huge health kick is underway. To say I’m relieved is the understatement of the entire millenium …
No exaggeration!
If you too have a penchant for melodrama and have your tongue firmly planted in your cheek, you’ll love the fantastic pulp fiction images in the Flickr streams of Micky the Pixel and Pop Kulture; two passionate collectors with wonderfully fat libraries.
And if you’re looking for more insight into the artists themselves try pulpartists.com. David Saunders, is the son of illustrator Norman Saunders, and knows the territory inside out. The images are as extraordinary as some of the action mag. buy lines, well worth a look and a chuckle. David has also written a wonderful book on Norman Saunders which is available in the shop.
Image Credits left to right: Tom Prox 198, Billy Jenkins 284, Tarzan 038 and
Tarzan 050 ~ Micky the Pixel. Tarzan by Roy G Krenkel ~ Pulpartists.com
All copyrights of the images are reserved by the publishers.
1 comment October 28, 2009
Of fairy tales and fashion
I admit it, I am a dreamer. I have a huge soft spot for fairy tales and all things fantastical. I mean, I settled on a career as an animator at ten, I collect children’s books and can’t stop and my ideal atelier would have to be a tree house hidden in an apple orchard. So naturally the fifties and sixties are my fashion nivarna.
It was my nana’s heyday. A time when war-weary ordinary women craved a little glamour for themselves. They wanted all the elegance and uniqueness of their favourite screen sirens, Marilyn, Audrey and Grace. In 1947 Christian Dior gave them a beautiful ‘New Look’ and for the first time, mass production placed it within reach. Suddenly everyone could be a movie star.
I’ve shared some fab times with my nana watching Bill Collins : ‘The Golden Years of Hollywood’ films; admiring all the sassy heroines with their teeny tiny waists and voluminous skirts. Watching them dance in winklepickers, gloves and flower pot hats. Loving the bubble lamps above their heads and marshmallow sofas on which they were perched. Adoring the mid-century fashion fairy tale.
The best news is I’ve discovered another place to indulge. These gorgeous images are just a fraction of the gems at My Vintage Vogue. Jessica’s wonderful collection spans the twenties through to the sixties, and includes vintage magazine covers, fashion illustrations and advertising. I can’t wait to show nana. Do take a look, it’s truly fab!
You can buy wonderful vintage images from Vogue, Glamour, Mademoiselle and Charm magazines. Check the Conde Nast store for availability.
And if you want to know more about this era, try here, here, here and here.
6 comments September 30, 2009
Breakfast on Mars
This morning we awoke to find our Sydney neighbourhood completely engulfed in what looked like a thick, blood-red fog. As it grew lighter, every window filtered in an unearthly glow so eerie that it was easy to imagine a whole foaming herd of apocalyptic horses.
I absolutely love these images captured by Tom Hide because they are so true to the intense colour and pea soup nature of the dust storm. It’s like the atmosphere of another world.
Hooray for cameras because it is only hours since and it has all blown away.
Even now, but for these shots, it could just be a tall tale or an urban myth.
I’d say it’s proof that truth truly is stranger than fiction.
Image credits: Sydney dust storm images from Tom Hind’s Flickr Photostream
(you can find more shots, taken all over Sydney, at The Red Sydney Project.)
The Mars image is from NASA’s Viking Orbiter Image Archive found on Wikipedia ~ It’s the atmosphere of Mars taken from low orbit. The Galle ‘Smiley’ Crater can be seen to the left.
6 comments September 23, 2009
Hello spring
I haven’t been around much this week. Instead of my usual blogland posting and visiting, I’ve been swept up in the realities of life. It’s been a tough week.
But, a tough week always makes for a great weekend. Time to reflect and dream a little. Changes are in the air.
I hope your weekend was truly beautiful and to every devoted Dad out there,
Happy Fathers Day, you are loved!
Image Credits: ’Spring sky’ by me, ‘Forget about the sunshine…’ by Xu, ‘Summer feet’ by Aussie Gall, ‘Magnolias soak up the sun’ by Craig Coultier.
Please click on the individual image title for licence details.
3 comments September 6, 2009
Lightness of being
My head has been in the clouds all week, I can hear my Dad chuckling as I write.
Yes, it’s true, I’ve been day dreaming about balloons. Big, bright, beautiful balloons.
Balloons have always seemed like such a contradiction to me. On one hand, they are wonderfully ethereal, drifting serenely through the clean air above earth’s cluttered and chaotic surface…
…On the other hand, their fragile skins are filled with raging blasts of heat and the fate of the journeys undertaken in them ultimately lie at the mercy of the elements.
They are a fusion of passion and whimsy, an entirely romantic invention that I find endlessly fascinating and when I look at these gorgeous images I know I’m not the only one who feels that way.
{Image credits: ‘Whimsical’ ~ Kari Elaine Sharp, ‘Balloon Fiesta 2007′ ~ Julian Robinson, ‘Red Balloons’ ~ Jacob Esben, ‘Balloons over our house’ ~ Laura of Moonjuice, ‘Top cap’ ~ Michael J. Slezak, 18th Century Balloon Engraving, ‘Blow away’ ~ Mallory Ryan. Please click on the credits for the original source, larger sizes and info including licensing.}
2 comments July 16, 2009
