7th October 2009
Another Wednesday, another rundown of what’s hot and what’s not at Chez McCluskey-Robbo. This week I’m trying something new. If you feel like doing your own What’s Hot + What’s Not, add your post’s url to the little widget at the bottom of this post so that we can all pop by and see what’s hot and what isn’t at your place. I hope it works!
What’s HOT
Being home again: After two weeks in the country it’s nice to be back in the ‘burbs. I spent a lot of time while we were away thinking about ways we could possibly move to an old farmhouse in the country, but coming home to our cosy house and a garden green and running rampant from the rain, I find myself feeling pleased and settled.
Holiday reading: Phil and I are off to Byron Bay next week for our long-planned *escape from reality* and these are the three books (above) I am packing… well… we are only going for four nights so I might have to choose just one, but I am excited about all three. The Time Traveler’s Wife was my favourite book from last year’s reading so Audrey Niffenegger’s new one
is exciting. I love Nick Hornby and I love the premise of Juliet, Naked: a novel
. I am still enjoying A Fraction of the Whole
in all its wandering craziness.
Light evenings: Summer’s a coming, and the time change is already making the evenings seem longer. The hour missing from the morning is a little harder to come to terms with.
One of my favourite clients ever has a gift/stationery company with a new online shop selling fabulous products – how CUTE are these pop-up activity place mats!?
Photos of homes on Dos Family and The Selby. A little like online Paumes books: lovely inspiration from the homes of real and interesting people.
Permablitz – “Eating the Suburbs, Once Backyard at a Time”: What a great idea – sign up to take part in overhauling backyards into permaculture paradises and after you have helped out in at least two other working-bees, you are eligible for a permablitz at your house. So good – Why have a water-sucking lawn when you can produce your own organic food?
Kirsty’s X Marks the Spot tutorial – and I just bought the kit.
What’s NOT
A virus from the country : Amelia, Lily and I are all sick sick sick. It’s a nasty virus which has meant we have had 3am trips to the country hospital to treat croup, a trip to the doctor to get antibiotics for ear infections and many sleepless nights. While I love little children, the one thing I am looking forward to about them growing a little older is the idea that we might not spend the months of March to October fighting off every single virus that comes our way.
Related: giving eye drops to a three year old. NOT hot at all. Takes two of us to do it and it’s awful.
Gourmet and Cookie Magazines closing down: Oh so sad! Am I choosing the worst time in recent history to be considering getting my freelance illustration business up and going again?
STUFF: We’ve got too much of it. Coming home to a house full of messy rooms; cheap plastic toys strewn about the place, piles of washing needing folding and sorting, and a studio full of out-of-control rubbish waiting to be turned into projects was a little depressing. While we were away the kids seemed to do just fine with very limited amounts of play-stuff. A box of old blocks, cotton reels and wooden pegs went a long way. I have been sulking around the house, crunching lost and forgotten items underfoot, saying “how much of this *crap* do we really need?”. Anyway, it’s got me thinking and I can feel one of those massive purge projects coming on. That might be followed by one of my evangelical “no spend” projects which may (or may not) coincide with Christmas. If it does coincide, that can only be a good thing, as I would say that 90% of the lost and forgotten and broken junk lying around comes from the stockings of Christmas Past.
What’s hot and not at your place?
5th March 2009
Mike’s week of favourite things continues! Today I have posted a picture of my favourite sideboard with some favourite objects. Yet again, the snap is a bit dark and taken months ago, but it’s RAINING here in Melbourne, so there’s no point trying for a better one. But I’m not complaining. Rain is my most favourite thing.
When you read articles in interior design magazines the journalist always manages to say “her/his house is decorate with unique mementos collected from overseas journeys through india/bali/asia/etc”. Unfortuantely I am not so well travelled (I’m saving that for my 50s). So my interior design blurb would read more like: “Claire came across her beautiful Tibetan sideboard in a tiny out of the way clearance store on one of her trips out to Chadstone Shopping Centre. The Balinese pinoccio was found in an import store in Camberwell, and her Lane Smith print (top left) was ordered over the internet. Her lovely Vietnamese rabbit was a gift from a good friend who found it in Brunswick Street, and the J Otto Seibold original came jetting across the ocean from Portland, Oregon (via Canada, thanks to the US postal system) after 21 emails to an online store. The quirky framed display of cultured pearls and their oyster shells was a hand-me-down from her grandmother, as is the beautiful jade green vase.”
3rd March 2009
Jumping on the meme train again this week. Pip is hosting “Mike’s Week of Favourite things“. So today I am posting a not very good macro shot of a detail of one of my favourite pillowcases. It’s white linen, and so soft and it has ties to tie it together at the opening, and it’s old. That’s my Great Grandmother Jean’s name, written in indelible pen and that’s the year, 1913.
I am not a big “bed making” person – I don’t have matching linen, or fabulous scatter cushions, or egyptian cotton. We have a mixed bag of things that come out of the cupboard, some pretty, some really ugly, some posh, some polyester. But I do like the odd pieces of vintage linen that I have been lucky enough to snaffle. And these are my favourites.
24th July 2008
Amber tagged me ages ago to take part in her Back to Basics Comic Meme:
“Draw a ten panel comic about what you were doing ten years ago. Put pen straight to paper – no pencil, no computer, no planning, no starting again if you make a mistake. Simply draw, scan, publish. Tag some people who you’d like to see do the meme too. Oh and if you want to do it even if you haven’t been tagged you are most welcome!”
Oh the agony! The hand cramp! But I did it… sorry, it’s sketchy to say the least. I drew it fast while listening to Lily’s sleepy breathing through the baby monitor. She woke up as I was working on the last two panels hence the hurried (crap) nature of the ending. I told this cake story to my sister-in- law while we were in Canada so it was fresh in my mind…
And I tag Lliam, Emily, Ward, Christina, Natascha and Keri who I know are all incredibly busy but you can always hope.
1st May 2008
Pip tagged me to write six unimportant things about me and (after getting really bored writing about what kind of tea I drink, and how much I love roast potatoes) I decided that I might give it a little twist (I hope that’s ok Pip) — and have turned it into six unimportant things about me that involve celebrities.
So, top of my list:
I met Johnny Depp in the late 80s, had his autograph and have lost it.
Not long ago, Amelia and I were walking through Chadstone singing “I LOVE you, I LOVE you” quite loudly to each other (as you do) and we walked straight by Anthony Callea who looked like he thought we were singing it to him. I hope that made his day because it made mine! I laughed a lot!
I saw Tobie Puttock (does he count?) down at the Camberwell Flea Market recently. His quite gorgeous friend saw me doing that “I think I know you… who are you?” expression and looked at me in a very scary “keep the f**k away” kind of way as if I might try to mob him.
I have only ever written one piece of fan mail and that was in high school to River Phoenix.
My current favourite celebrity is Michael C Hall. I think if I saw him my neck would spasm and my mouth would stop working and I would manage to say something like “fuh duh oh… garrggle”.
I met and had a pretty nice conversation with Anita Roddick back when I was designing at The Big Issue. She was a pretty amazing woman and told me that I should try dumpster-diving for a lark.
That’s it! I can’t believe I can’t think of any more. Maybe I will remember some at 4am as I usually do with this sort of thing. Oh, I once served Barry Humphries when I worked in a book shop… and I have stood next to / behind / in front of famous people in crowds and I even saw Karen Knowles the other day but it’s all a bit lame. I tag EVERYONE because I love celebrity sighting stories. Let me know in my comments if you blog it.
