two weeks

TWO WEEKS! TWO WEEKS???!!!!! A Fortnight! I can't believe that much time has slipped past since I was last here.

A lot can happen in two weeks...



You can head off on a road trip, visiting family, and stopping off in sweet little towns along the way. You can make it all the way to your Dad's place to help celebrate his 60th birthday with his family, and see your sister who has flown up from Sydney for the weekend. You can eat way too much, both at home and at some really lovely cafe's. Then you can make your way back, via more sweet little towns, art galleries, and more cafe's.





You can return home in one of those post holiday "I've forgotten about the computer, and would prefer to be outside in the garden" type of moods.

Then you can get engrossed in painting a new commission, and continue to forget all about the computer.

Then you remember the computer, your friends blogging away, and start to tend to the emails that have piled up... And finally you share photo's of your trip away and its wonderful cafe's and their amazing furniture...

big city art

I pretty much spent my whole time in Sydney visiting friends and seeing art. It was a busy but fulfilling schedule :)

In the town where I live there are lots of people that do art, but there are very few places for them to show it. So this time I hit the galleries and soaked in as much as I could...

Starting with a yummy brekkie at The Yellow House in Potts Point for sustenance:




Next door to the amazing Martin Browne Fine Art Gallery, with it's open roof and lilly pond, showing beautiful paintings of trees in eerie light and odd dreamy settings by Alexander McKenzie:




Onto the Art Gallery NSW, where there are two installations outside at the moment. Both fantastic and quite amusing:






Inside to revel in an exhibition I absolutely adored! Garden and Cosmos, Paintings from the royal courts of Jodhpur that flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries:



I loved it so much I wish I could go back RIGHT NOW!!!! Let me tell you why... Quirky concepts, bright colours, very fine detailed patterns, in cheerful compositions. This is work from 1739 and it's bright and pops, no murky brown dark candlelit scenes to be seen. I find it so validating to see art that is similar to this current illustration style we find ourselves immersed in, that is culturally and historically significant. Stuff that is considered art, and not pushed into an underground scene.




Still in the AGNSW, this time in the Dobell Prize for Drawing:




Another day, another gallery. The MCA:



"What's this" I hear you ask... Why it's my feet, swimming in corn of course.
A room of the gallery filled with corn where you were invited to remove your shoes, and walk through to look at photographs by Fiona Foley. The sensation was too great to miss, so I too off my shoes and swam on in.




And finally a bit of art in nature. I sat under the shade of this tree, people watching and admiring it's amazing bark:




So much art, so refilled with inspiration... and I haven't even started telling you about the Finders Keepers Markets yet!!!!!!

baby wolf quilt

The purpose of my trip to Sydney was to meet my friend's brand new baby! Their first.
And to deliver the quilt I made for him...



Cotton and linen, big squares and bright green edging...


Some of the fabric is recycled from the table runners I made for our wedding...


With a little pesonalised embroidery on the back...


Baby is so cute, only 4 weeks old, and trying very hard to focus his eyes. The quilt was well liked.

(News of the rest of my trip to follow shortly)

hiatus

Today I'm leaving for Sydney. Back to visit friends, meet a new baby, soak in the city, enjoy visiting the Finders Keepers Markets, absorbing lots of art and music if I can... And food absorption will be good too. Good food. Greek, Lebanese, Turkish, Portuguese... all the things we don't have here.

I did the same trip this time last year. A re-creation. A tradition. A boost of stimulation.

Back on Tuesday. See you then.

In the meantime, you may like to acquaint yourself with the diversity of Sydney via this great new site, 52 Suburbs. It's beautiful. Beautiful photo's, seen through a wonderful eye, to fulfill a great plan.

Enjoy!

and finally

The last of the honeymoon recap. Inahale... exhaaaallle... bask... aaahhhhh.

all in a day

If you've just tuned in, we're doing a honeymoon recap of Vanuatu here. :)

town life

colours of critters

our little bungalow

While I'm letting the pictures speak for themselves here, I am adding little descriptions for each pic on Flickr. Click through on the pics to see if you need more detail :)

clarity

I can't keep waiting for the photo's before I post... So chronology be damned, I'm going to start from the end and work backwards! Take that for rebellion! ;)

Here's our honeymoon... ahh, it was lovely. Perfectly honeymoony. I'll show a few pics each day this week (this is my pledge), so you can see for yourself. I don't think I'll need too many words. You'll get a good sense of it through pictures and wordless quietness.

So grab your sunglasses and a sarong, let me take you to Vanuatu. Enjoy...

blue mountains retreat

We have returned from our time at the eco wellness retreat, and it was lovely. Nestled deep in the Blue Mountains, the lodge was small, surrounded by bush and a long way from anywhere. We spent the first afternoon resting in our room. Mr You made use of being able to stretch out in the king sized bed, and caught up on some sleep. I sat in a chair in the sun and flipped aimlessly through magazines.

The caretaker made all the meals, healthy and hearty, and we ate on large tables shared with the other guests. The water we drank was from a nearby spring.



The next day we each had a wonderful massage, discovered lots of beauty (and a prayer) on a bushwalk, reached an escarpment over a giant valley and I let out a soul-satisfying "coo-eee" from the cliff-top (hehehehe, how long has it been since you've done that? It's so fun), then returned in time for me to enjoy the best facial I've ever had in my life.



We ventured to a nearby town for dinner by an open fireplace, and had an unforgettable hot chocolate. The last day we drove to the town where Mr You's Grandparents met and married, and explored the ruins of the old steel works.



The only thing that could have made it better would have been a big bathtub. But, I guess it is an eco retreat.

Saturday night and Sunday were back in Sydney, checking out the museum, lying in the sun in parks, catching up with friends, and taking photo's of my good friend's very first baby-bump. It was lovely. And I feel rested and ready for what comes next. :)

a misty mountain affair

The catalyst for us going on our trip initially was to go to our friend's wedding.

A whole weekend in the cool mist of the Blue Mountains, where we all stayed together in an old guesthouse, perusing the antique shops, and drinking tea (and a little champagne). We spent time with a bunch of friends preparing the house for the wedding, arranging the flowers, creating bouquets, and generally getting excited.

The day of the wedding was rainy, but inside was abuzz with activity. The rain stopped in time for the garden ceremony, and started again on cue at the end, giving everyone just enough time to rush inside undercover to start the party.

I took the photo's. I was a little rusty after not having done a wedding shoot for a few years now, and the lack of light was a little tricky, but there was lots to work with around the guest house, and I think/hope they'll be happy with them.

The couple looked fantastic. She wore a soft green gown and antique silver shoes, her hair filled with fresh white flowers. He wore a grey suit with a pinstriped peach and white shirt, swallow cufflinks, and black and white shoes. Both had their outfits made for them, including their shoes!

That was our first weekend in Sydney. It started with a bang. After that Mr You returned home and I stayed.
So there's more for me to tell...

a day to a week

A couple of weekends ago, I downed tools and took a Sunday away from my little studio room. My Mum and Stepdad drove north a few hours, Mr You and I drove south a few hours, and we met up at a little country town to spend a Winter's "exploring-Sunday" together.



It was so pretty, we jumped in one car and drove to lookouts and a waterfall. We perused the little shops in town, ogling the plentiful antiques, filling up at the old fashioned sweet shop, admiring the huge intricate wall mosaic and a lovely little gallery. We stopped for lunch at a gorgeous cafe, went for a walk in the sub-tropical rainforest, and took turns with the binoculars.

It felt so good to have a mini-holiday, filled with all the type of charm only a tiny country town can give.

Tomorrow we're heading on an actual holiday to Sydney to catch-up with friends and favourite haunts.

So I'll leave these images of the country to hold the fort, while I go and drench myself in a weeks worth of city!!!

See you in a week :)