Poiret exhibition

I'd give a body part ( perhaps not a truly essential one, like maybe a wisdom tooth) to see this Poiret exhibition at The Metroplitan Museum of Art in New York. I've always loved these Georges Barbier illustrations and would love to see some of these outrageously sumptuous garments in the flesh- not to mention some Barbier illustrations!

I've just finished re-reading The House of Eliot by Jean Marsh too, so I'm dreaming of beautiful clothes made with silks and velvets and glass beads and hats and gloves and proper sewing that won't fall apart after one wear. Sigh.

browsing

It's cool, rainy and thundery here today and I've spent a lovely morning browsing through some of my favourite blogs, and just clicking on links as I go. I could call it "research" or I could call it idling...both would be true.

I found this image via the Idler website and their myspace blog and it really appealed to me. I found a copy of their magazine/book in the library the other day and it made me smile.

I love that there are other people out there who feel as disinterested and unimpressed by the "Protestant Work Ethic" as I do...only invented in the 18th century to feed greed.

We all love to work, but on our own self-motivated creative work that is meaningful to us. Time is our only true wealth, so it would be nice to be freely able to decide how we spend it. Unbelievably some people don't actually want heaps of money above and beyond anything else...wasn't freeing us from tedious labour what all our technology was supposed to be for?

According to Brian Dean in "The Idler" Issue 35, p.41 " In 1965, a U.S. Senate subcommitttee predicted a 22 hour work week by 1985, 14 hours by 2000."

Hmmm....something went wrong there...what year is it again?

autumn dusk

Here is a photograph I am particularly pleased with, and my expatriate friends and family (yes you Lisa, Anna and Kerry-Ann) who may be missing some iconic Australiana may enjoy it as well.....it is "The Hill's Hoist", and ours is an ancient one too.

There is something quiet, deeply mysterious and enthralling to me about the light at dusk, not sunset which can be spectacular but flashy and a bit overwhelming, but the light just after sunset when it is practically dark....I love that.

flow

I did this last night and it was just one of those things that really happened by itself...

It is a nice organic looking thing...could be leaves, could be water...could be tear drops.

Just checked out terramia's blog .... wow-full of inspiration!

tao te ching

This collage was inspired by the Tao Te Ching;

In dwelling, live close to the ground.

In thinking, keep to the simple.

In conflict be fair and generous.

In governing, don't try to control.

In work, do what you enjoy.

In family life, be completely present.

Aqua and Pink Autumn

I did this before I went away and didn't like it, but now I really do like it... weird.

Mexican Metro

Thanks to my exceedingly clever sister who sent me a link http://www.metro.df.gob.mx/ I have been able to find some symbols from the Mexico City metro. Thanks Lisa!

See what I mean about natty design?

Spectacular Frida bag

I bought this in the markets in Oaxaca and although it 's meant to be just a shopping bag (like we use our pretty ugly green supermarket bags) I think it's very, very beautiful and I love it. Lots of shops advertise what they sell on the side of them with little drawings because a lot of people can't read, so this shows them what is for sale. The metro system (super efficient! and cheap as chips AND clean) in Mexico city is equally as sensible, with every station having a symbol as well as a name. I wish I could have bought something with all the symbols on them too- they were really well designed.

Form and function! Yay.

getting back into the groove...slowly

Here's some more lovely Mexican stuff:

I've found myself bubbling with creative ideas since I've been back but also- rather bizarrely for me, I've been very gung-ho with the domestic duties, and this has definitely delayed the creating.

Must have something to do with having been away from the domicile for so long- or maybe the absolute terror of being homeless that grips me sometimes when I read YET ANOTHER report on the massive shortage of rental housing we have in this country. It makes me feel like casting a cloak of invisibility over our house and hiding us away from people who like to "invest".

Anyhoo, on a more upbeat note, it's been raining and we've had lovely downfalls just at the right time. I feel very smug about getting my broccoli, broad beans,cabbages and garlic in just before the rain, they sure look perky now.

It's nice when people email me to say they've looked at my blog, but you know you can just leave a comment on here too! I'll take both!

I've half started several projects, and that pile of wool is sooo inviting, so I will post some more creations soon. (Check out feffakookan to see Mel's divine ceramics- she's intimidatingly good with a decal)

Final photos..well there are hundreds more but this'll do..

Tulum

Frida Kahlo's House

Photos Part 3

Doorways and Tiles in Campeche

Magnificent, awe-inspiring Palenque

Favourite photos Part 2

House of Tiles

Mexico city

This one is teeny tiny and amazing!

What do you think Bec? Next project?

Some random favourite photos...Part 1

Monte Alban ruins, The

Museum of Anthropology in

Mexico City and our hotel in

Oaxaca.

HOME!

Phew! After over 40 hours flying across the world we are finally home, and what a lovely place home is too. My bed seems spectacularly comfortable- perhaps the best bed in the whole world?

Who knew.

After our 24 hour bus trip back to Mexico City from Tulum via Villahermosa, we spent a week discovering bits we'd missed the first time round, like beautiful Frida Kahlo's house and San Angel, and then Easter hit and everything just closed up. Mexicans head out of town at Easter so town closes down, although it seemed like every hotel was booked up.. go figure? That's when we decided it might be time to come home, and changed our flights to return a few days early. As it turns out, this was a very good idea because my sister told me Mexico had a 6.3 earthquake yesterday morning just North of Acapulco which knocked out electricity in Mexico City! So far no casualties thank goodness.

So now we're home and unpacking and sorting and just generally recovering.

I'll start putting up my favourite photos over the next few weeks but here's one to start which was taken as we were coming in to land at Mexico City ..a very familiar view to me now, I can tell you.

Thanks to the lovely people who left messages, they were so nice to see when I was finally able to find a computer to check them from!

Tulum

Hola! Well here we are in Tulum on the Caribbean coast down the road from Cancun. We are swimming every day in ridiculously aqua waters (with even a teeny bit of surf occasionally) right next to Mayan ruins. Ben likes to say to me when we´re bobbing in the water- ¨hey look over there, aren´t they Mayan ruins?¨What a comic genius he is.
Palenque was absolutely spectacular too, and we stayed in a thatched cabana in the forest and were able to lie in bed and listen to howler monkeys in the trees nearby. That was pretty fine- plus we could sit outside and watch humming birds visit the banana flowers in the afternoon.
After the jungle we headed North to the large flat peninsula of the Yucatan and stayed at Campeche, a multi-coloured walled town thats history is dominated by pirate attacks, then went on to Merida. That´s where we took our very first (and LAST) tour to the ruins at Chichen Itza. Wow what a circus that was, and there were many, many Americans...many. The ruins were amazing but you felt a lot more distance from them than at Palenque- more like a theme park I guess.
We decided to give ourselves a little beach holiday after that and came here to Tulum. It´s been lovely but we´re off on a huge trip back to Mexico City tomorrow. We thought it best to be back there before Easter in case travel gets harder over that time.
So..only a couple more weeks till we come home!
Adios amigos and amigas!