Side By Side - Week 97

My job is a dull place these days with the many 'characters' shall we say moving on. I know you are there to work but a bit of fun never hurt anyone.
Anyway, Jane (or Jane-O/Janester as I call her) was my creative outlet in my otherwise dull day. She worked at reception and always happy to have a chat about some new idea or just bounce my artistic ideas off. She left last week and gave me the loveliest little gift to say thanks for supporting her and generally being crazy old me. With my wee pressie she picked a fresh poesy of spring (early) blossom and blue gum leaves. So great...THANK YOU JANE-O!!

Side by Side Catch up time...

Behind again...no real excuse....laziness I guess!

Week 96 - Fruits of my labour.

Well a couple of weeks ago I posted a pic of my Lemon tree and this week I thought I would post a pic of my efforts using the yummy lemons. So I cheated a little and used a shop bought pastry case, mainly because I didn't have quite the right tin. The rest is all home made! Yummers.

Week 95 - Melbourne Institution

Victoria Bitter or VB is quite the institution in Melbourne and of course Victoria! I am not a huge fan myself but I am a fan of this sign which I see when I drive to the city! Normally I am driving and its a very busy road so stopping somewhere to snap it is always hard. However, on a Sunday jaunt with Shane into the city - I managed to think fast and snap this out of the window of the car. Yes the car was moving and I took 1 and only 1 photo. The vintage feel was all natural too just a grey dull day = this pic and I love it.

Week 94 - You know the score!

Last week was EXCITING - for me anyway! I went to watch my football team Celtic who had come all the way from Scotland to play Melbourne's 'soccer' team The Victory! My wonderful team won 1-0...phew I am glad because I was talking them up BIG time! ;-) I took a heap of photos but I really liked this which shows a bit of the awesome AAMI stadium, the crowd and you can just see the rain in the top right corner! Yeah the rain...that was a shame!

Check out the side by side blog here http://sidebysideatoppositeendsoftheworld.blogspot.com/

Side By Side - week 93 - A squeeze of lemon?

After a quite a few years in Oz, I still get excited by having a lemon tree in my back garden! Winter is actually one of the biggest citrus growing seasons and luckily we have a very old established tree which just hangs with Lemons year round! Although, there is only so much you can do with lemons...its Lemon meringue pie this weekend I think ;-)

Side By Side - Week 92 A Double Pot of Gold Perhaps?

Ahhh...what a wonderful sight on your way to work....brings a smile to anyone's face I think. It really does sum up Melbourne's weather, sunny one minute, raining the next! In this case both at the same time! I didn't react to the wonderful sight like this guy though!

Check out the side by side project blog for my shot next to my friend Ross' photo!

Side By Side - Week 91

After a busy week of paper work for my other half and his business I had some time to sit down and do some creating of my own.

Well it has been a busy week or two, its the end of the tax year here and I have been taking care of some things here and there. When I wasn't doing that, I was mostly enjoying my newly renovated studio . Oh and I also bought a tonne of new books, of which these are a few which are waiting for some serious reading! This photo is really summing things up for me at the moment. Lost of ideas on the go - hopefully some that I will be sharing soon! ;-)

Side By Side Weeks 89 - 90

I have done a tad better than of late, as I have managed to only post 2 of my side by side photos this time.

Week 90 - 99 Brunswick Street

I'm cheating a little this week as this is from the previous week, BUT I love everything about it and I couldn't let it slip by unnoticed. Plus with my Mum visiting and overall rubbish weather I never got that chance to get out and take some pics. Anyway, it's a small section from Window 99 Brunswick Street in Fitzroy. Which is an installation space at you guessed it 99 Brunswick St. I love the liitle egg cup figure, the shoes in the picture, the cotton reels and also mostly loving the reflection of the building across the street in the glass of the window.

Week 89 - Hipster Crochet Bike

This was just some of the randomness that Melbourne is famous for. I was in the city over the weekend and we saw this random crochet covered bike in locked up against a lamp post. Not too sure what it was all about but they were doing a 12hr 'Knit In' in Federation Square so I can only presume it had something to do with that. Nonetheless super fun!

Check out the side by side blog here http://sidebysideatoppositeendsoftheworld.blogspot.com/

New space, new projects!

My Side by Side post mentioned the fact that I have been SUPER busy lately, and I have been neglecting my wee Little Letters blog as a result! So the reason for my absence is due to a small renovation that Shane( Mr Little Letters) and I have been working on.

Our house is situated on a sloping block of land and as a result, there is almost a basement like area downstairs from the main part of the house. Up until now it was mostly used for storage and a laundry area. A year or so ago the son of the old owner was in the area and stopped by to wish us well and let us know that he thought what we had done a great job with our renovation of his old home. He also told me that one of the basement rooms was actually his old photography darkroom. I was thrilled that this little room had been a creative haven for someone in the past and I decided it should be my creative haven for the future.

With this in mind,we launched into yet more renovations. This one was small compared to other projects we have tackled but time consuming nonetheless (WAY more than I thought). Our house was built in the mid-50's and the colour scheme and finishes are still evident here and there, we even have some crazy psychedelic wallpaper in our laundry that is so old its almost cool! Paint colour scheme is also questionable, lots of pastels, old fittings which don't match regular modern measurements....you get the idea. Refer to the photos below for a peek at the before.
 
Note the wonderful use of green lino tiles and they also included that in the bench! Coupled with the peach coloured walls...quite the colour combo. As you can see there is little natural light (bummer really but you take what you can get), so I had to try and brighten the space as much as I could. I also HAD to get rid of the work bench and the shocking floor.

Several weeks later my new creative space is finished. Taa-daaa!
 
I will be posting some details and more info on my plans soon! Check back soon.