Perfect to help unwind after a stressful week - have a nice cup of tea:- Full of vintage charm these cheerful tea pot tea-towels will have you putting the dishwasher to one side. Available through SITE.
- A little birdie once told me someone very senior at the BBC kept a piece of wood on his desk to be used for colour matching his cups of tea - I hope someone's got him one of these since. How do you take yours?
- I'm not so sure about the ants, I think they might get mixed up with the real ones around here. But Bailey Doesn't Bark has some beautiful hand decorated cups and saucers to choose from.
- On our recent visit to the Canberra markets we came across Glenbog Fine Teas. They have an amazing selection all very reasonably priced. Try the little tiny sample packs to start with - we loved the 'Daintree' and 'Aussie Bush Blend' teas. Or for something really different try 'Camp Fire' with its lovely smokey flavour. (ps. they post to Sydney)
- and 6. You can't beat a cup of tea made in a good old fashioned teapot served in a good old fashioned cup and saucer. Well, Nina In Vorm and Esther Coombs thought you could. So they took the old fashioned teapot and cup and saucer, and made new ones out of them! Fabulous!
Have you ever googled your name, see who comes up, what they do? Funnily with my name they're mostly artists, designers and illustrators. And look what I found today! A whole Jen-eration of artists. Maybe next time they'll make it Jen 12 (although I prefer Jenn)
I decided because I seem to spend so much time hunting for interesting things on the net I'd pick out my favourite find each week. Might be a photo, a place, an idea... anything.
So to kick it off what really caught my attention the past week was this fabulous Nautilus Light by New Zealand designer Rebecca Asquith. Prices start from NZ$460.00 and they ship worldwide.
Last week the lovely sfgirlbybay was kind enough to feature some of my photos on her blog along with other peoples shots from all over the world taken on that Sunday.
Well I didn't think I'd have anything to submit this weekend, Mardi Gras kept us out till late on Saturday night and the weather looked a pretty gloomy today. But we went for a little drive to check out some rock pools for a future photo shoot and I made sure I had my camera phone.
This shot is Mahon Pool in Maroubra. It started to pour with rain as soon as we got there and walking along the grassy cliff top, wind howling and totally drenched, I felt a bit like a character lost on the moors in a Jane Austin novel (although I doubt women wore fluro beach towels over their heads in those days). But, I managed to get a couple of shots and I've had a play around with them this afternoon. I think there are some good ideas for future work.
I love aerial views, photos or paintings. I think its the way it gives such a totally different perspective on an otherwise ordinary scene. Brodie Murray's work 'Urban complaxity, rural simplicity, innate automatism' are a bird's eye view on landscape. 
There was something about them that reminded me straight away of John Olsons paintings, in particular '5 Bells' at the Art Gallery of NSW. Olsen's paintings often implied an aerial view.
If you're in need of some inspiration then check out Earthsong by Bernhard Edmaier. It's full of stunning aerial photography. 
There are only a couple of weeks left to see Canberra's Degas - Master of French Art exhibition before it closes March 22nd.
As with every popular exhibition there were big crowds gathered around the most well-known works making it difficult to get a good look. And the lighting certainly didn't help much, it was one of the darkest exhibitions I've seen (or not seen) for some time. Some notable works were missing, there was certainly a lack of his famous 'bathing' works. But it is understandable, I doubt many galleries are keen to hand over some of their most popular paintings to the other side of the world.
I did enjoy it though, and it's certainly worth a look if your around Canberra. But what was with the frilly knickers in the gift shop?
Now I'm not usually one to complain about a gift shop after an exhibition, nothing wrong with a few postcards, and I confess I have the Mona Lisa as a fridge magnet. But there was something not quite right about this one. Maybe it was that there were more people rummaging through the fake pearl bracelets and frilly knickers than actually looking at the paintings? I think I just thought they could have done a lot better, there are far more interesting and less tacky things they could have come up with. I decided to have a quick hunt on the net for some better options:
- This lovely Dahlia flower clip by mamapatrice was inspired by Degas and would certainly top off any little ballerina's outfit.
- Gorgeous Degas buttons! Pretty up your hat, bag, jacket- anything. Only US$9.90 for 11 buttons from Buttonbistro7.
- These fabulous cushions from Bonjour Mon Coussin will bring some Parisian glamour to your home.
- Or add a touch of je ne se qua with this 8x8 inch Paris print from us - creative monsoon.
- Perfect for unleashing your inner ballerina, this beautiful feather headband from stylesmith is a steal at only US$25!
- Chasing Lightning Bugs in Canada has these amazing envelopes copied from an old 1909 Paris map. Much better than cheap frilly knickers and fake pearls!
More from Art Express: I was very interested in some of the materials Angus Hardwick used to construct his work - 'Traces: stains, processes, memories' . I've used perspex in the past for my own work. It's a tricky material to work with, especially if you need to drill it, it cracks so easily. I thought Angus had an interesting idea to cover the canvas with a delicate trasparent material and then sew into it. I can think of all sorts of interesting works to try this out on.
Don't forget Art Express runs at the Art Gallery of NSW until 9th April. Check it out if you can!
Summer might be over but there are still warm nights in Sydney. We're off tonight for some moonlight cinema and the other evening went to Luna Park where we took this ferris wheel pic. Prints are available on the creative monsoon site - which needs some serious updating. I've been so busy with buying a house I haven't had chance to work on the site, so there is STILL a 50% off jewelry sale! Get in quick before I get my act together :)
I thought I'd try this simple idea of painting a bird silhouette onto a material background to get back into some artwork. It's really easy to do, but pretty effective.
